MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2011: Operation Las Vegas

The pre-selection for the contest was done using an online qualifier on HWBOT. Using specific contests, and of course MSI gear, teams were invited to the event. The teams are as follows:

• Hardcol – Colombia (E-Killer and Nestorky)
• Overclockers Anonymous – US (Brian y. and Chris)
• Team Overclockaholics – US (steponz and Kai-EL)
• Team Vaseline – US (Robert and ocgmj)
• Team XS – US (chew* and Zeneffect)
• I213 Xtreme – Brazil (Rbuass and Fugger)
• Team PURE – US (G H Z and Gautam)
• Over the Edge – US (Patch and Dentlord)
• OCAlliance – US (Splave and Romdominance)

Setup

The setup ran from 12:30 – 2:00 and allowed the competitors to assemble and tweak their gear before the competition got underway. Each competitor added their own twist to their gear to try and get the temperature just right for their performance.

Contestants were required to use the computer equipment provided by MSI. However, each competitor was allowed to bring their own overclocking gear. Using everything from hair dryers to coffee cups and paper towels to get their systems just right.

The computer equipment used for the competition provided by MSI and their event sponsors included:

Hardware:

• Mainboard – MSI Big Bang-XPower
• Graphics Card – MSI N580GTX  M2D15D5
• CPU – Intel Core i7-980X
• Memory – Patriot Sector 7 PC3-16000 (3*2G)
• HDD – WD VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS
• PSU – Antec CP-1000

Software:

• OS – Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
• BIOS – A7666IMS.148
• VGA Driver – Nvidia GeForce/ION 263.09WHQL

Scoring

The final score for the competition is a weighted total of the overclocking performance growth score using SuperPI 32M (40% Weighted) and 3DMark11 (60% Weighted). In the event of a tie, the 3DMark11 score is used as the tiebreaker. Once a score was achieved it was confirmed by a judge and then submitted in a screen shot.

Task 1

Task 1 was SuperPI 32M and Team Over The Edge jumped out to an early lead posting a score of 6m51.311s. Quickly after posting the first time of the day their score was improved again before anyone else got on the board, improving their time to 6m38.768s.

After posting their second score another team accidentally unplugged Over The Edge’s gear, but they quickly got back up and running, improving their score numerous times throughout task 1.

With all of the competitors attempting to reach the scores of Over The Edge it was time for the audience, MSI staff and media to start competing on the race track. There was defiantly some fierce competition on the track, it wasn’t uncommon to see the odd bump amongst racers as MSI put up cash prizes for the best lap times.

Along with the audience and media, the MSI Girls decided to get out on the racetrack and burn some rubber and look great in the racing gear!

Task 1 proved to be a 1 team race as everyone attempted to keep up with the dominance that was Over The Edge, but nobody could best their time as they finished in 1st for SuperPi 32M with a score dominate score of 6m26.257s (66.872%). Chasing them down in second place was OCAlliance with a score of 6m31.795s (66.556%) and in Third position, Team XS with a score of 6m33.651s (64.134%).

Task 2

With no break teams jumped into task 2, 3DMark11. The early leader, only minutes in was OCAlliance with score of 7977 (79.505%).  Team Pure ensured we were not going to see one team dominate in 3DMark11 by quickly jumping into first place with a score of 8726 (86.97%).

As the competition started to heat up, the LN2 started to cool everything down, building up ice on the equipment. Out comes the blowtorches to try to maintain a stable temperature.

Lead changes were fast and fierce in the later stages of the evening with OCAlliance ultimately coming out on top posting an amazing score of 9213 (91.8246), smashing the previous world record for 3DMark11. TeamPure nipping at their heals in second with a score of 8928 (89.083%) and I213 rounding out the top 3, posting a score of 8926 (88.963%). The top 3 scores all beat the previous world records for 3DMark11, taking the MSI Master Overclocking Arena to the next level of competition and proving that MSI’s products are highly tuned for the best performance possible.