Party Vibe

I hope though that lad is doing this in his University lab (or one he has built himself) and inside a Faraday cage; and that he is not in a flat in a tower block; otherwise no one in the whole street would be able to watch satellite TV or use some wi-fi equipment with that mobo on an open workbench running at such frequencies (there will be all sorts of harmonics of the core frequency as well as those of the RAM clocks etc being emitted into the airwaves).

Mind you I would suspect HKTA (Hong Kong Communications Ministry) would probably provide a suitable test lab for a brainy lad like that if he didn’t have one already – it is not unusual for the Chinese youth [both boys and girls] to have a home lab as well equipped as that of a UK University…

I’ve seen a few of them – a lad at work is into this stuff as he plays modern games.

I’ve only experimented with slightly overclocking a Raspberry PI – this does indeed work and it stays stable but also (unsurprisingly) increases the surrounding electromagnetic interference level especially if the board is in an open enclosure or a plastic case.

The interference is not dangerous or harmful to humans; but can be a nuisance. As the signal frequency of any digital electronics is a rectangular pulse/square wave the PCB will emit radio signals at the clock frequency and its od harmonics (although decreasing in strength with each harmonic).

The third harmonic of 7 GHz is 21 GHz – right in the middle of the satellite TV broadcast allocations. A desktop PC power supply and the motherboard should contain various components to send the bulk of this down the protective earth in the mains; as well as a PC usually being operated in a metal case that is also bonded to earth – but in countries where the earth and neutral are combined in the electricity network that can cause the service cables to act as antennas and transmit the interference along their distance!

In a worst case scenario of this computer being used at the top floor of a tower block with TN-C-S electric wiring, near the communal satellite reception dish and the lad not being particularly interested in watching TV there could be about 16 floors of people below saying “aiyaa!” and/or cursing at their TV-sets in Cantonese and other languages especially as the interference may be intermittent depending on how hard the computer is being run and on digital satellite TV it is not always obvious where it may be coming from (the signal is also easily upset by weather).

Having looked at the Hong Kong govt websites it appears that TN-C-S wiring schemes are discouraged or banned there or also locally earthed thus reducing these risks. Singapore has officially banned TN-C-S earthing and Malaysia no longer uses it for new installations (the UK unfortunately still installs it in many regions as its cheaper)

Given that many of the people doing this are Asian (and some others in mainland Northern Europe) suspect many of these experiments are part funded / encouraged by the chip / motherboard manufacturers themselves / the Universities the experimenters attend or their employers (who may allow them to use a spare space at work to test out equipment) – the results gathered are used to improve electronic design on a wider scale.

for one thing I doubt if it is possible for any young lad anywhere in the world to easily obtain supplies of pressurised compressed gases without explaining exactly what they want it for; and the Fire Brigade (not unreasonably) place restrictions on how and where it can be stored and used.

If he is doing this in a known environment where other factors like power consumption / electromagnetic interference can also be monitored (perhaps by remote devices like smart meters or those monitoring antennas nearly every Communications Ministry worldwide puts up on any convenient high roof) this data can also be gathered and utilised (there is no lack of Professors and armies of students willing to do hard maths for fun in countries like Hong Kong (although NL and DK are to some extent similar) 😉 )

I also found out that in Hong Kong even a standard electrician (who would work on the wiring in your house/flat or a small business or for China Light and Power) actually has to pass an exam as difficult as those given to University students in the UK (they also get taught right at the start about electromagnetic compatibility as well as the safety rules which are the same as in the EU but now more strictly enforced than in the UK…)