Ryan Petersen, COO of the Overclockerz Store, was kind enough to take a bit of time and answer a few questions. I may make a recommendation, but I am not selling the thing to you.

Why, who and what? Let's get to know the OCZ...

nV News: What made you decide to cater to the hardcore PC enthusiast?

Ryan: Well I am a hardcore PC enthusiast and We felt that there needed to be a high performance outlet that kept the prices reasonable while catering to the Hardcore PC Crowd.

nV News: On the sample Pro, OCZ included the Blue Orb and now RAM heatsinks. What other measures will we see to get more bang for the buck out of your cards?

Ryan: We decided to go with the tried and true reference design because it gives great performance and stability for the price. We will continue to use the highest quality parts and to extensively test our graphics cards and will take advantage of lower pricing due to market conditions. As the price of our parts go down we will pass it on to our customer.

On that note we plan on revising our cards to include even faster RAM as well as more overclocking and cooling options to give our customers an even better deal.

nV News: Software bundles? Will the "retail" version include a driver disk or reference all the way?

Ryan: We will not be adding any kind of software bundles at this time. One reason for this is the increase it would have in the cards overall price. We would rather offer our customers options that will actually add to the performance of their product, not just help fill up the box.

Our “Retail” version currently includes the latest reference NVIDIA Detonator Drivers. We also include a detailed manual and a copy of Win DVD.

nV News: TV-Out, did you feel it was important to include it and why?

Ryan: This was just a matter of giving the consumer as many options as we possibly could. While some users might not use or want the TV-Out option, it’s always there for them. This way we can reach a much broader range of consumers.

As we expand our Nvidia line we may offer models without TV-out.

nV News: You had mentioned in a press release that OCZ will carry the entire GeForce2 line. Do you see any issues with having too much competition in your own line?

Ryan: We are not too concerned with the competition because we can give the consumer options that others either won’t or can’t. OCZ will have the card you want.

nV News: What level of support will OCZ offer?

Ryan: We offer 24 hour e-mail support, We have a dedicated BBS for support issues. And we have a call back service that no other company provides.

Our customers can e-mail us their phone number and a good time to call, We call them back, at the requested time. Our AIM to free customers from the long wait typically associated with tech support calls.

nV News: What do you feel is the difference between remarking a CPU and selling pretested CPU's?

Ryan: Remarking CPU's is of course the action of unscrupulous vendors or individuals whose intententions are to take advantage of unknowing buyers. They target buyers who have no clue about overclocking . CPU remarkers also generally set the CPU price at near the price for the actual factory part.

Vendors who sell pretested CPU's are straightforward about the CPU being an overclocked item and guarantee the CPUs will perform at the overclocked speed. Pre-tested CPUs are generally marketed towards the hardcore PC enthusiast.

These individuals want to purchase a product, which they understand has been modified, and will gladly pay less for it than a factory original part that runs at the same speed. They are acquainted with the possible dangers of overclocking and are willing to take that risk. Vendors like OCZ put the prices of these pretested CPUs much closer to the default speed of the CPU.

nV News: Will you have card, cpu, mem, mobo bundles?

Ryan: Yes we will, We plan on releasing these in time for Christmas.

Note: Two Gamer's bundles featuring a GeForce2 MX with overclocked AMD processor, KT7 and 128MB of PC150 memory are already avalable here.

nV News: Favorite game?

Ryan: UT

nV News: Coolest OCZ Hardware?

Ryan: I think we have some of the most outrageous coolers on the market. Our new PC-170 SDRAM. Overclocked 1400 T-birds. I wish I could choose There are some things in development right now that are unbelievable. When they are ready you will be the first to know.

It think Ryan is one of us, only he turned his hobby into a career...

Lets get back to the review. The next order of business is installation of the card with overclocking results.

Next Page: Install and Overclock