Category : Interviews
Manufacturer :

Posted by: Major on 2001-05-17 23:56:53

Motive: In an effort to give you a better idea who the individual retailers/vendors in our Overclocking Equipment Pricelist are, we've decided to do interviews with all of them. There will be about one interview a week, so it'll take a little time to get through all of the (currently) 67 retailers. But we'll be sure to include both the well known and the not so well known in our coming interviews. Most of the questions will be the same in all the interviews, but if the retailers have anything specific, we will ask about that as well. This week the interview is with Overclockers Hideout. Here's the interview: How did you get into the overclocking/case modding market ? And when ?

In 1998 I purchased a Dell XPST450 Mhz system and decided it need to be overclocked. Having pulled the CPU apart I needed a new interface material to between the CPU and OEM heat sink so I developed a new copper compound to use. This worked much better than the stock thermal pad. I soon started supplying other overclocking enthusiasts on the now defunct AGN forums. Soon air-cooling was not enough to provide the overclocking temp ranges I desired, so I started making copper water blocks and cold plates. By 1999 we were running a full time business with 2 employees.

Overclockers Hideout prides itself on producing corrosion resistant, CNC machined parts at a price that people can afford. We have the knowledge and the means to create the innovative products that Overclockers from all walks of life can enjoy, without breaking the BANK!!

Our corporate offices are located in Carver, Massachusetts and consist of Overclockers Hideout a subsidiary of CPUfx Inc. Our customer base is world wide and from a variety of professions.

Our concept is very simple. Build innovative products that fill three main points. 1. Performance: All of our items must out perform our older products. 2. Price: Could we afford to buy these items as an enthusiast of overclocking? 3. Appearance: Does this appeal to us not only as the manufacturer but as a consumer.

We are the manufacturer for 95% percent of all items sold by retail and wholesale. We stock what cooling and overclocking enthusiasts need and request as well as the unique products we develop.

We have had no need to price match or compete for market share, as we are the oldest water-cooling PC specialists on the Internet. Most designs for shims and water blocks now being sold on the Internet were designed first by our in house design team. We follow a simple concept of design a good product and price it in fair to relationship to the complexity of design and build time.

We currently employ 7 full time employees in various positions from clerical to machine operations.

We have an extremely loyal customer and wholesale base. Many customers buy several times a month from us.

Most customers are generated through forums and we only advertise with selected sites such as Hexus.net in the UK and ClubOverclocker.com in the USA. We do however love to support other review sites with free products to review.

We are Mon-Fri 9-5 operation. On occasion we will work a Saturday or two to meet holiday demand or a sudden influx of customer demand to a new product. We do however believe that employees need to have their own freedom and family time. Mornings are spent filling the previous night orders or wholesale requests and placing kits in queue for build and completion. Afternoons consist of Shipping and labeling VIA UPS systems and we also have an online order and track status for customers to check on orders. When an order is completed or ships an email is sent to let the customer know they can login to our store to track and follow their shipment. This also was first for stores in our field. Management will spend the better part of the day addressing billing and customer needs.

We support Customers primarily through our 1-800 number of which we were one of the first to implement in the overclocking market. We do however provide e-mail and ICQ support.

We believe competition is healthy for keeping business like ours, HONEST. The tight market place also creates a very competitive market for the consumer.

We are very pleased with our current level of business, however we have plans to develop new ideas and products that will force us to expand greatly over the next year or two.

I have a P4 1.4 @ 1.7 water cooled with the Blizzard and reactor water block. Work machine is an Axia 1.3 @ 1.6 with a Blizzard water cooler. We also have a few dual systems like the VP6 and the BP6... We have several fully automated CNC machines and related tools in our shop as well as a fairly large inventory of overclocking and related cooling items. Combined Floor space is approximately over 3,700 square feet.

Overclockers Hideout is a sub chapter of CPUfx Inc. CPUfx Inc, was developed to provide direct support for retailers wanting to sell and or carry high-end water and air-cooling solutions. We felt that having 2 separate divisions would in the long run serve our business partners better.

Our most extreme project at the moment involves a 7.5 Cubic ft freezer and several systems to be cooled at the same time. We have no idea yet what speeds to expect. The heat load from several systems will be quite great so I cannot even speculate at this time. Like many experiments the results might be great or over time the heat load generated may be too much.