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Club Overclocker History:
1996:
Club Overclocker was originally founded by Scott Vanderford in the fall of 1996 while living in the Republic of South Korea. Scott has always been intrigued by computers, but had never realized their potential until he visited Seoul, South Korea. From the very first moment he laid eyes on the Computer Markets packed with thousands of people wanting to see the latest and greatest in computer hardware and software, Scott realized that this was his future. Over the next year Scott built up his knowledge of computer hardware and troubleshooting by visiting with the owners of numerous computer shops throughout Seoul. In September of 1996, the Club Overclocker website was born, but at that time it really had no name. Club Overclocker started out as a simple forums style website where people could register and discuss computer hardware. Tweaking computers became a popular topic and it didn't take long before Scott was tweaking motherboards and processors in order to make them operate faster. During those years "OVERCLOCKING" was born. Overclocking is a term hardware enthusiasts use to describe the act of speeding up the clock cycles of a computer processor. This was a highly risky process, but if done correctly could yield incredible results. An overclocked computer was much faster than anything a person could buy off the shelf. The only problem is Overclocking can and will burn up computer hardware due to the intense heat generated by faster frequencies.
1997:
In 1997 overclocking started to catch on with the introduction of the Pentium II and Celeron processors. However, Overclocking was still considered to be "hardware hacking" and was frowned upon by computer manufacturers. Hardware manufactures even attempted to shut down websites that supported overclocking, but had very little success. During this time Club Overclocker was known to the computer hardware community as "Club Celeron", named after the Celeron Processor. Club Celery had thousands of members and was an extremely popular hang out for computer enthusiasts. After spending a year in South Korea, Scott moved back to the United States and continued perusing his computer hobby.
In the Fall of 1997, Scott met up with Paul Breeding, Co Founder of Club Overclocker. With the help of Paul's modification talents, Club Overclocker turned a lot of heads by modifying computer cases. Club Overclocker was one of the very first, if not the first website to turn a bland looking computer into something that looked more like a street rod. These wild computer cases were the predecessors of the stylish cases you see on the market today. This giant leap in style probably would never have happened without Paul's creativity and imagination.
1998:
By the end of the 90's, Overclocking had become so popular that it created it's own market. People were demanding better computer hardware ranging from motherboards to custom heatsinks to better cool overclocked processors. Slowly hardware manufactures realized that there was a huge opportunity to be had and started working with Overclockers instead of working against them. During this time Scott began working with several major companies to help develop better hardware to be used in overclocking. Club Overclocker was born and moved from a tech support site to a computer hardware testing website filled full of guides and reviews.
1999:
In 1999, Club Overclocker became famous for publishing hardware reviews and guides written in such a way that even a person with limited or no computer hardware knowledge could easily understand.
Today:
Club Overclocker has continued to grow and is one of the most respected hardware review sites on the web. ClubOC's logo can even be found on numerous hardware manufacturer websites and on select hardware packaging. Over the years ClubOC has maintained its integrity by not selling out to corporate sponsors by conducting reviews for cash like many other review sites. The ClubOC staff has and always will remain loyal to the viewers by writing non-biased, honest reviews and guides that everyone can understand and follow. Even after 10 years, Club Overclocker is still operated by only a handful of close friends and is one of the most popular computer hardware review sites on the web averaging 1.5 million page views per month.
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