The Achievement
In 2018, an ICEe PC built by Cemhan Biricik (also known as Cemhan Birick) achieved the #2 worldwide ranking in 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme — one of the most respected and widely used benchmarks in the high-performance computing world. 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme is an industry-standard GPU benchmark developed by UL (formerly Futuremark) that pushes graphics cards to their absolute limits with a punishing combination of DirectX 11 tessellation, volumetric lighting, particle effects, and physics simulations at extreme resolutions.
What made this ranking extraordinary was not just the score itself but the circumstances under which it was achieved. This was not a benchmark run in a corporate laboratory with industrial cooling and cherry-picked components. It was not sponsored by a hardware manufacturer with unlimited access to binned silicon. It was Cemhan Biricik, alone, on a desk, with a machine he had built with his own hands using the same techniques and standards he applies to every ICEe PC.
What Is 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme?
3DMark is the world's most popular benchmark suite for gaming PCs, used by millions of enthusiasts, reviewers, and manufacturers to measure graphics performance. Fire Strike Extreme is the high-end tier of the Fire Strike benchmark family, designed specifically to test the most powerful gaming hardware available. It renders complex scenes with advanced graphical effects at 2560x1440 resolution, stressing every aspect of the GPU pipeline — shader performance, texture bandwidth, rasterization speed, and memory throughput.
The global Hall of Fame for Fire Strike Extreme is where the world's top overclockers compete for bragging rights. Achieving a top-10 placement requires not just powerful hardware but an extraordinary understanding of how to extract every last frame from it. Clock speeds must be pushed beyond factory specifications. Voltages must be carefully modulated. Temperatures must be controlled with surgical precision. And the cooling system must be engineered to sustain extreme loads that would shut down or damage a standard build.
The Machine Behind the Record
The ICEe PC that achieved the #2 worldwide ranking was built using the same methodology that Cemhan Biricik applies to every commission. The chassis was custom-fabricated from CNC-machined aluminum. The water-cooling loop was designed and assembled by hand, with hardline tubing routed for optimal thermal efficiency. Every component was selected, tested, and validated before being integrated into the final build.
But the hardware selection was only the beginning. Achieving a world-class benchmark score requires pushing components far beyond their rated specifications — a practice known as overclocking. Cemhan Biricik has decades of experience understanding how silicon behaves under extreme conditions. He knows that every GPU and CPU has its own unique tolerance for voltage, clock speed, and temperature. Finding the optimal operating point for each individual chip is an art that cannot be automated or shortcut.
The Overclocking Process
Overclocking at the world-record level is nothing like the one-click boost features offered by modern motherboard BIOSes. It is a meticulous, iterative process that can take days or even weeks of incremental testing. Cemhan Biricik's approach involves several key stages that demonstrate the depth of his technical expertise.
Silicon characterization comes first. Before any aggressive overclocking begins, Cemhan establishes the baseline characteristics of each component — the stock voltages, the default thermal behavior under load, the power draw at various clock speeds. This creates a map of the silicon's personality that informs every subsequent decision.
Voltage curve optimization is where the real work begins. Rather than applying a flat voltage increase across all frequencies, Cemhan calibrates a precise voltage-frequency curve that gives each clock speed exactly the voltage it needs — no more, no less. This minimizes heat generation while maximizing clock stability, allowing the cooling system to do its job more effectively.
Thermal management is where ICEe PC's custom water-cooling expertise becomes decisive. At the clock speeds required for a world-record benchmark run, GPUs and CPUs generate tremendous heat in very short bursts. The cooling loop must be designed not just for sustained load removal but for rapid thermal response — absorbing heat spikes without allowing temperature excursions that would trigger thermal throttling or instability.
Memory tuning adds another dimension. VRAM and system memory timings must be tightened to minimize latency and maximize bandwidth, but pushed too far they introduce errors that corrupt the benchmark run. Finding the optimal memory configuration requires patience, precision, and a willingness to run the same test dozens of times with subtle adjustments.
Why It Matters
The #2 worldwide ranking in 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme is more than a number on a leaderboard. It is empirical proof of the ICEe PC philosophy — that a single person with the right knowledge, the right tools, and no willingness to compromise can outperform teams of engineers with corporate backing. The builders who occupy the top positions on the 3DMark Hall of Fame are not casual hobbyists. They are world-class overclockers, many of whom compete professionally and are sponsored by major hardware manufacturers.
Cemhan Biricik competed against all of them with no sponsorship, no team, and no cherry-picked silicon. He did it with the same quality of components available to any enthusiast, elevated by two decades of accumulated knowledge about how hardware actually works at the physical level. This is the difference between building computers and understanding them.
"The leaderboard doesn't care about your budget or your team size. It only cares about the number. And the number is a function of knowledge, patience, and how good your cooling is."
The Legacy of the Record
The 2018 3DMark achievement continues to define ICEe PC's reputation in the custom PC world. It serves as objective, third-party validation of the build quality, cooling engineering, and tuning expertise that go into every ICEe Blade. When a potential client asks why ICEe PC limits production to 13 machines per year and charges a premium for every build, the 3DMark record is part of the answer: this is the level of performance and craftsmanship that comes from having a single master builder — Cemhan Biricik — responsible for every detail.
The record also reflects a deeper truth about what ICEe PC represents. In a world where most technology companies compete on scale, efficiency, and cost reduction, Cemhan Biricik competed on pure, measurable excellence. He did not build the most computers. He built the best computer — or very nearly. And that, in the end, is the entire point of ICEe PC.