After a christmas break, we are back with more interviews from overclockers around the world. This week Roman Hartung is our guest! :D we know him under nickname “der8auer” at Hwbot.org.
My name is Roman Hartung and I’m 23 years young. I live in a quite small town in the south part of Germany near Stuttgart. I’m a mechatronics student in the 4th semester and hope to get a job in the computer industry afterwards. I’m the team captain of the German HWBot team PC Games Hardware and you can find me everywhere using the nickname “der8auer” which is pronounced “der8auer” which means “theFarmer”.
I started quite young as a typical online gamer and I always wanted to have the latest hardware even though I didn’t have the money for it as a young student. So I was stuck long time with a cheap Athlon XP and GeForce 4 system until I had the money to afford my first high end system at the age of 16 using an AMD 64 4600+ and two 7800 GTX.
How did you discover the Overclocking?
The first time I heard about it was in a German computer magazine about an overclocked Athlon XP 1700+.
Since how many years are you playing with Overclocking?
About 8 years.
My original plan was to play Battlefied 2 on my new system but then I came across the 3DMark2005. First I just installed it to see the amazing graphics but I became addicted raising the Marks (3dmark point system). So I ended up overclocking my hardware to achieve a higher 3DMark score and also to have more FPS in Battlefield 2 when it came out.
What kind of computer do you use every day ?
I stopped gaming few years ago so I’m using a silent system with a passive cooled Intel i3-2100T and a underclocked GTX275 Lightning as 24/7 rig.
What kind of overclocking do you prefer (air, water, Xtrem) and explain us why ?
Air and water overclocking are very usefull for the daily system but I prefer extreme-OC as this is the most challenging kind of overclocking.
For extreme overclocking you need all kind of skills. It starts with the basics like setting up the correct operating system, finding the best drivers and tweak the setup for the highest performance. Also the hardware needs some special treatment to keep it running below zero. Insulation is important and also soldering skills are required for some hardware to apply voltmods or disable an OCP. Using liquid nitrogen you can push the hardware to the absolute limit and that’s why I enjoy Extreme-OC.
Can you share us some cool stories about overclocking?
Yes. I’ve been doing extreme overclocking for about 5-6 years now and I had a lot of very cool moments within this time. Even though the 2nd AOCM in 2008 was one of my most favorite moments – meeting the big overclockers and participating in the competitions.
Besides the overclocking I created my own LN2/DICE containers as there were no cheap pots available in Germany back in 2007/2008. By now I’m selling my pots all over the world under the brand der8auer ECC.
What are you doing in your real life when you are not overclocking?
I’m spending a lot of time with my girlfriend and I enjoy doing a different kind of sports like volleyball and hanging around in the gym.
What kind of music do you like to listen to when overclocking ? Is that different from the day you are not overclocking?
Usually I don’t listen to music while overclocking but just because I don’t have any radio nearby. My favorite kinds of music are DnB, Trance, Hardstyle and Rock music.
What is your favorite brand ?
Actually I don’t have a favorite brand as there are a lot of vendors and I use whatever gives the best performance and power. Currently I’m using GIGABYTE boards, MSI Lightning cards and G.Skill memory.
What would be the brand to monitor in next few months / years and why ?
I’m looking forward to Intel’s Haswell CPUs and the upcoming socket 1150 mainboards. I hope that they will be similar to Ivy bridge and scale with more voltage and deep temperatures. Even though I hope they have a coldbug as this is more challenging for me. Another interesting point will be Nvidias policy regarding the overclocking. I hope that they will allow free voltage control and overclocking like they have been doing in the past.
What is your best overclocking souvenir?
The EVGA EPower board.It’s perfect to revive cards with dead VRMs and you can push older cards with bad VRMs like a 8800 GT to the maximum.
All OCers have their own way to bench, how does your favorite sub-zero benching rig looks like?
A LN2 cooled 2-way SLI rig with 3 pots in total including the CPU.
What do you think about Overclocking events?
I love overclocking events. In the past we had some very nice OC-events here in Germany like the AOCM hosted by No_Name from Awardfabrik.
I also host the PCGH-EOS “Extreme Overclocking Session” once a year. In 2012 we also had some international guests like Turrican from Austria and Massman and Leeghoofd from Belgium. It’s always nice to meet the people face to face you have been talking to on several forums for years. I’d love to host a bigger event and to welcome more international guests. Maybe it will be possible in 2013 if I can find some more sponsors.
Could you share us the story of overclocking in your country?
Overclocking is pretty popular in Germany. We have a lot of enthusiasts who like their high end systems and do daily overclocking. Additionally we have several extreme-oc forums with HWBot teams like PC Games Hardware, Awardfabrik or HardwareLuxx which have their top overclockers like the BenchBros or Stummerwinter.
How expensive is it to do overclocking in your country?
Normal overclocking is always possible as the price for hardware is okay and affordable. You can enter extreme overclocking by using DICE which is easy to get but LN2 is mostly the problem…
Can you explain your problems about extreme overclocking ?
…It depends on the location but the costs per liter (LN2) start at about 2 EUR and reach up to 5 EUR. Therefor you can’t find a lot of overclockers using LN2 regularly. 90% of the high-end hardware has a good availability here even though I’m missing some special Hardware like the Zotac Extreme editions or special Galaxy graphics cards. Also the contact and support of the most common vendors is pretty good so there is not much to complain about.
How are computer enthousiasts and overclockers like you are seen in your country?
Normal gamers and overclockers are often seen as nerds so I’m not sure what they think about the extreme overclockers.
If you had to give an advice to a newby in OC, what would it be?
Simply to always try to improve yourself and never give up. Overclocking often seems to be so easy if you’re watching the results of others out there but it’s not as easy as it seems. Sometimes I’m benching for days without any result but that’s part of the game.
Anything else you wish to share with us today?
I hope that more enthusiasts will go extreme in 2013 and that the extreme-oc community will grow. Stick together to keep our wonderful hobby alive!
Thank you Roman for this interview.
Check out der8auer pots and news : www.der8auer.de
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