We've been seeing such discussions raging across enthusiast forums for a while now. Plenty of people try to assert that overclocking takes no skill, and that anyone with the right hardware can get the score. On the flip side, I very frequently see analogies to F1 racing being drawn.
However, I think both extremes are flawed. For starters, it's inherently wrong to compare it to F1, since one's physical strength, motor skills and reflexes aren't a factor. In fact, for this reason you can't really properly compare it to online gaming either. At the end of the day, it is just the electrical signals generating the score. It should be easy for everyone to agree that running 10 miles a day, lifting weights and going to a shooting range daily won't improve your benchmark scores.
So where does that leave us? Is it just the hardware producing the scores? If you put a blu-ray disc into a player, and someone else puts the same disc into the same player, you get the same movie each time. In theory, the same should be true with computer hardware. You give two people identical hardware and tell them to produce the highest score in your favorite benchmark, aided with unlimited cooling of their choice, and give them 6 hours to do so. Will the resulting scores be identical?
People will no doubt argue over how much of a difference they'd expect there to be between the two scores, or if there would even be one, and also argue over what the causes for the difference are. At the least, assuming all other factors are removed, it is a level of human interaction that causes the difference. The two individuals do certain things differently, even though the hardware is the same.
Let's suppose that one of the individuals is someone who only has a basic knowledge of how to put a computer together, and that the other individual is one of the known legendary experts in this particular benchmark, and has held the WR multiple times over the course of many years. In this scenario, it should be easy to agree that the seasoned bencher will produce the higher score.
The expected outcome would be much less clear if we were to take one known legendary bencher from country A, and another from country B. Both benchers have been in the game for years, and both of them have held the WR many times.
Who would come back with the higher score? And what will the margin of the difference be? And why would the higher scorer be the higher scorer?
Making things a bit more interesting, revisit the first scenario, except give both the seasoned bencher and the newbie unlimited time. Also assume that their hardware is unbreakable and won't degrade. (We can dream) The newbie could sit there for a decade trying to produce the highest score possible if they desired, however the amount of time they spend is up to them, and even though the hardware is magical, they're only human, with all implications. In this case, is it clear who the victor would be?
What if the newbie had the magical unbreakable hardware along with a full month, but the seasoned overclocker still had only 6 hours, and the hardware was normal and mortal? Who would produce the higher score, and what would the outcome show? Would the winner be the most "skilled"?
What period of time would the newbie need to match the legend's score? Would a month be far too little, or far too much? Would they need years, or only hours? Or would it vary person to person?
What if two newbies were given unlimited time and unbreakable hardware? Would they each produce similar scores, or would you expect that one would end up higher by a significant margin than the other? Would you consider the one producing the highest score more "skilled"? What if they were each given only an hour?
And finally, would the answers change based on the benchmark and hardware in question?
I can say one thing for sure. More likely than not, everyone reading this thread will have their own unique answers to each of the questions above. Not only that, everyone likely has unique scenarios in mind with regards to the benchmark and hardware. I was originally planning to write more in this post, but I think I will hold off and wait for responses. This was my basic thought process in asking myself how overclocking can be competitive, if at all. For the time being, I wish to only present this with as little of my own personal prejudices as possible.
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) For one thing, would the beginner have internet access? If so they can learn most anything they need to know in a month on a place like XS. 
Originally Posted by Hondacity
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