Need Good PC Building/Overclocking Analogies! Help :D

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elevashun

Weaksauce
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Jul 4, 2004
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Hopefully this is the right forum for this... hehe

Tomorrow I will be visiting a school to speak to a group of parents and students in a beginning engineering course about computer building, and more specifically, "overclocking". They will probably have little to no knowledge of overclocking so I was hoping some of you here could help me come up with analogies that could help explain the concept. I could use any ideas and help, so I won't end up droning on to the students with complex terms and actually make my speech interesting.

One example I remember was someone here comparing RAM bandwidth to the amount of highway lanes and traffic.

Or overclocking is like turboing a car... etc etc.

Come on overclocking gurus, help brainstorm! LOL. English class meets overclocking!

Thanks in advance!
 
overclocking hmm

making the processor faster then what the factory sold it as.

you up the FSB (front side bus) or the cpu multipler to overclock the cpu.

90% of the time your going to rais the FSB.

overclocking can kill the cpu if you dont know what your doing.

when the cpu becomes unstable with the up'ed fsb you incress the vcore (voltage going to the core or cpu aka processor).

there are some ideas ill edit later when i think of more things. how old are this kids going to be?
 
PC = human body

Case=skin
CPU=brain
PSU=heart
Mobo=nervous/circulatory system
RAM=memory, short term
HDD=memory, long term
Optical=stubborn memory (does disabling services affect performance? :D)
GPU=hmmm, no real analogy. reverse of the eyes
sound card=vocal cords, tongue etc.
external I/O=sensory apparatus
rice (UV reactive, lights etc.)=penis size complex! :p

Overclocking=results of working out/studying etc. Sort of. Heart attacks are possible.
 
Good ideas guys.. Keep em comin'! They will most likely be high school students, teachers, and parents.

Damn, that analogy for memory is perfect, and same with the sound card.. Never would have thought of that. :D
 
The limit of current processing power (GHz) has been reached and the wall is heat. While the major players (Intel and AMD) deliver processors that are capable of speeds greater than what is listed (overclocking) it is still heat that is the obsticle that needs to be surpassed in order to break into the future.

Overclocking is changing a CPUs speed (thus increasing its heat) to the point that it almost touches that wall of heat but not surpass it.

Its much like a go-kart being shipped with a speed governer. The go-kart is capable of greater speeds but its not safe to ship them to customers like that. Overclocking is removing that governor and accelerating the kart (CPU) to the top speed that is safe. Only crashing the kart in the overclocking realm doesn't result in you loosing your face, just your data.
 
The difference between RAM and a HDD
(NOTE: This is really basic, and should be told to only those who are completely computer illiterate)

The relationship between the RAM and Hard Drive... is much like the human memory system.

RAM is like the short term memory and the HDD is like the long term memory. The short term memory functions rapidly, and is always processing what is going on around you. It is what makes us understand what is going on. We have to remember everything, even for a short time, or we would not have a clue what is going on. If we were walking down the street and didn't rapidly remember that we were in fact walking down the street we might just fall on our faces.
The Hard drive is our memories. Everything we used to know, or everything that we want to remember or recall has to be pulled from the long term memory into the short term memory to bring it to our consciousness.
In a computer the RAM acts to always bring forth to the screen what is currently relevant, be it a browser or a map in a video game. The hard drive is everything that is accessible but has to be brought forward to the RAM for viewing.

//sidebar//

De ja vu.... is when your mind hiccups (some believe) and your short term memory (everything your absorbing currently) gets thrown off and everything your currently experiencing gets put into and pulled from your long term memory. That’s why we think we have been in the situation before. Because we are pulling it from our long term memory, even though we are currently experiencing it.
 
Interesting ideas.. Will definitely use many of them. You studying psychology ninethreeeleven? :p
 
You should also explain the differances between overclocking by moving the heat wall, ie by improving your cooling you can move the heat/wall barrier back a bit and get more out of a processor that was already at its limit with the existing cooling

and

being able to safely overclock a cpu on existing cooling because the CPU has been badged and set at a lower speed purely because of the economics of supply and demand, ie cost price is the same for any speed CPU so economically it can be advantageous for the manufacturers to use higher rated CPU's to meet the shortfall in supply of a lower speed CPU by simply rebadging and underclocking them.
 
Hmmm... how about

Overclocking is like changing the gears on a bike, its still the same bike, you just move more with each rotation of the pedals. Or rather you move faster...

it made more sense in my head... :eek:
 
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