MSI European Overclocking Challenge 2008 Coverage
The Event
Published: 29th August 2008 | Source: Overclock3D |
The Event
The weekend comprised of four days, from Friday the 22nd until Monday the 25th of August. The two days either side the weekend itself was set aside for travel and such and the Saturday and Sunday for the event to be conducted.
The majority of the attendees had arrived by 6pm Amsterdam time, and were then whisked off to the opening dinner, for which MSI had booked out an entire restaurant. Here they introduced the representatives, a few details were given and some ground rules were laid down (no 'coffee shops'). After dinner it was back to the hotel for a good nights sleep to prepare for the next days challenge.
The weekend comprised of four days, from Friday the 22nd until Monday the 25th of August. The two days either side the weekend itself was set aside for travel and such and the Saturday and Sunday for the event to be conducted.
The majority of the attendees had arrived by 6pm Amsterdam time, and were then whisked off to the opening dinner, for which MSI had booked out an entire restaurant. Here they introduced the representatives, a few details were given and some ground rules were laid down (no 'coffee shops'). After dinner it was back to the hotel for a good nights sleep to prepare for the next days challenge.
The next morning the group was ferried from the hotel to the old factory building that MSI had rented out to hold the event in. The Venue wasn't too far from the hotel, so everyone quickly gathered and waited to be let inside.
Upon entering the venue, it was clear MSI had put a lot of effort into making it as an enjoyable atmosphere as anyone could have hoped. At the near end of the hall there were stands showing off MSI's and OCZs hardware, A few MSI notebooks were laid out ready to be fiddled with, as well as two demo stands showing off a tri-SLI 260 GTX and Crossfire 4870 setup's.
The middle of the hall housed the tables prepped with hardware for the overclockers to torture.
The far end of the hall housed the stage where the speeches were given and at the end the event the results were announced. Along with the bar area and raised above the floor was the DJ stand. After a few opening speeches from the Rep's, the teams set to work. They broke out the hardware that they had been prepping prior to the event and got to work. Lots of the teams set about volt-modding the motherboards and graphics cards that they had been given, and some got to work finding the limits of the chips on air while others jumped straight in and got to work insulating the boards ready for the liquid Nitrogen and dry ice.
With in a few hours the LN2 was flowing and clocks were being ranked up. The day was spent tweaking and refining the settings to achieve the best possible clocks on the hardware available. 5pm came around far too quickly and the days clocking ended. Most of the teams achieving 5Ghz and higher on the E8400s which meant benching the next day was going to yield some impressive results.
The evening of the Saturday was spent in downtown Amsterdam at a show. Rising on Sunday for the second day, everyone once again met in the hotel lobby and were shifted back to the venue. With a few hours left the teams pushed their hardware to the limits and started cranking out their benchmark results form the three programs that the challenge had been set around.
By 3pm the results were gathered in and the teams gathered at the stage end of the hall. The Grand Jury went around and collected the hard drives from each team's table, and took the results to be collated. Once all the drives had been collected, the contestants returned to the tables for the big tidy up.
To finish the main event, there was a ceremony where each team was called up in the order that they had been ranked from 20 to 1. Each team made their way to the stage for a photo opportunity with the various Rep's and MSI staff.
After the winners had been crowned and the prizes awarded. MSI made the announcement that the top 3 teams were invited to the world event that they are planning for the future in Taiwan.
The weekend was finished with a dinner at the restaurant that had been booked for the first night. With closing speeches and the results from each team being read out. Then it was back to the hotel for the last nights kip, before being carried off to the airport and home again on the Monday.
Most Recent Comments
Damn that place looked so much fun! 
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QuoteThanks must go out to Jim for hosting the qualifiers and Graham [Ham] for covering the event and helping us when needed. awesome coverage Graham.
It was a great weekend, Im ready to do it again.
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It was a great weekend, Im ready to do it again.
QuoteGreat coverage, great article.
Some excellent results in that table, gotta be semi-awkward when ur not in ur "home" setup with the usual stuff at hand. That aside, 6th is tremendous looking at the competitions` results also.
Good read.Quote
Some excellent results in that table, gotta be semi-awkward when ur not in ur "home" setup with the usual stuff at hand. That aside, 6th is tremendous looking at the competitions` results also.
Good read.Quote
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Originally Posted by name='Ham'
Cheers for the feedback guys.
Really was an awesome weekend. Can't wait for the next one!  |
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