[Preface] Overclocking is when you alter computer settings to make processors run faster. At a basic level this can mean boosting a computer's performance for free. At an extreme level, this can mean using liquid nitrogen to obtain speeds that perform set tasks in world record times and doing this has become a globally-competitive 'sport'. Through establishing which components most-easily break in their quest to push performance boundaries, overclockers have helped make consumer-level computers become faster and more stable. These guys are the Formula 1 of computing. So when Intel formally launched a new processor last night, these guys with their push-to-the-limit benchmarking techniques, were the people to answer the question, "is it any good?"]

April must have been one of the toughest months for overclockers and enthusiasts to have had to go through! We all had to respect the NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) until early hours of 23rd April when it finally lifted. What an amazing new platform! Intel has finally given overclockers the jackpot! The new king is in town and geeks call it Ivy Bridge (Intel calls it the 3rd generation of Core processors) and it formally launched in Australia last night.

Overclocking used to be a dirty word in Intel's vocabulary during the dreaded Pentium 4 era. Pentium 4 CPUs were, simply put, mini nuclear reactors. Anyone using Intel instead of AMD at that time ran mini-Chernobyl's in their PCs. It was horribly hot, fans were spinning at rock concert decibels and AMD was king on the overclocking scene with their slick, cool, efficient architecture. Intel PR must have had a small department dedicated to avoiding any talk or suggestions of overclocking. It was avoided like plague. I remember, with fond memories, AMD's bold public challenges to Intel to have an overclocking bench off but it all fell on deaf ears for obvious reasons.

Oh how times have changed! When Intel came out with its Conroe architecture - essentially a mobile chip for desktops - it changed everything. Boy was it fast, it overclocked tremendously and performance efficiency was ground breaking. Being a mobile chip essentially made it extremely cool as well. The Conroe launch single-handedly wiped out AMD's enthusiast platform overnight which is still yet to recover. New overclockers rejoiced, Intel fanboys started pouring through the cracks like one of those apocalyptic zombie movies and all were singing words of praise. It was justified as Intel had come up with a great architecture and one which forms the roots of the current Ivy Bridge in all aspects (excitement included).

Fast forwarding from mid-90s to today, overclocking is the buzz word in town. Intel is selling K-SKU CPUs left, right and centre! Everyone is overclocking. Even your grandma can do it (Yes Intel made an extremely corny advertisement showing some kid's grandmother overclocking the PC and gaming like a villain hah!) Sandy Bridge, a predecessor to Ivy Bridge, was a nice platform which gave an opportunity to a lot of people to get their money's worth on air cooling but was a terrible subzero overclocker. Subzero overclocking involves using dry ice or liquid nitrogen to cool your CPU and reach maximum silicone frequencies. Ivy bridge fixed that also and increases clock for clock performance enough to warrant a 300MHz+ advantage over its predecessor.

AMD is unfortunately completely forgotten by overclockers and I have seen a continuous decline on the HWBOT overclocking website that paints a grim picture. It's great hope, 'Bulldozer' seems to be forgotten altogether other than some interesting frequency overclocks after launch. Yours truly pushed past the 8GHz barrier as well! Let's hope the next AMD architecture returns the glory-ridden Athlon days as competition is always good: it drives innovation and pricing. I can't see anyone complaining about that, other than some sales guy that's about to lose his bonus.

Ivy Bridge's launch marks the day when just about any overclocking world record you can imagine will get smashed and Australian extreme overclockers have already had a big say in that. One of the better known Australian overclockers, youngpro, has opened the overclocking floodgates for Australia by breaking numerous world records on the new platform and climbing up to 3rd overall global ranking at HWBOT. Let me tell you something, this is hard to do when you have another 30-40,000 equally determined overclockers worldwide trying to beat your scores!

I'm going to keep a close eye on how it all gels together and give an update once enough retail CPU have passed through the hands of our own OC elite but for now you can get the latest updates from their website.

Editor's note: No idea what overclocking is? Here's a segment on it from ABC's Good Game.

Dino Strkljevic is part of Team Australia's Overclocking Team, a former World Champion overclocker, and marketing manager for Gigabyte Australia