The ABIT Overclocking Competition

We all know that ABIT is in the business of overclocking and they have extended their support for the overclocking community by yet another mile with the overclocking competition held here in Singapore. The competition just concluded a couple of hours ago and we're back here in the office, working hard to bring you all the updates and pictures.

Overclocking = ABIT

Yes, we all know that ABIT is in the business of overclocking and they have extended their support for the overclocking community by yet another mile with the overclocking competition held here in Singapore. In fact, the competition just concluded a couple of hours ago and we're back here in the office, working hard to bring you all the updates and pictures, of course.

The competition was jointly organized by HardwareZone, ABIT, Convergent and Kingston (plus of course other sponsors like LG, who supplied the monitors, and APC who supplied all the UPS). ABIT supplied their latest motherboard, which is the yet to be released AN7 motherboard that's based on the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset. The board is of course decked with features like µGuru and other great overclocking options. We shall not bore you with all those details as we'll be reviewing that motherboard soon. Anyway, the memory modules were from Kingston (KHX4000K2/1G) and the graphics card were also supplied by ABIT (Siluro 5600 DT). Processor was an AMD Socket-A (obviously) and it's their latest and fastest XP 3200+ processor with the Barton (512KB L2 cache) core.

There were basically two categories, an open category where any form of cooling is allowed (but not sub-zero cooling) and an air-cooled category which the name implies, allows cooling by means of air convection. The contestants are allowed to use all kinds of cooling equipment and there's really no limit to how many fans they want to put on their system. For the open category, water cooling seems to be the only method allowed by the contest rules as other forms of cooling like Peltier, liquid nitrogen, dry ice or the likes were not allowed.

Anyway, to judge who's the best overclocker, we made every contestant run a predetermined set of benchmarks, so that the stability of the system is tested, as well as measuring the system's overall speed. The benchmarks chosen for this contest were :-

  • Super Pi
  • Futuremark 3DMark03 build 340
  • Aquamark3
  • Futuremark 3DMark 2001SE (build 330)
  • Prime95

Let's go over to the next few pages to look at the contestant's overclocking rig.

The Contestant's Rig - Part 1

First, let's start off with some of the rigs from the air-cooled category :-

Viper's rig was simple, fans, fans and fans everywhere. From the picture, you can see that his strategy is to cool the CPU, chipset, memory and the power MOSFETs.

Viper's rig was simple, fans, fans and fans everywhere. From the picture, you can see that his strategy is to cool the CPU, chipset, memory and the power MOSFETs.

Viper posing with his rig.

Viper posing with his rig.

This has to be one of the simplest setup of all. A couple of fans and that's just about it.

This has to be one of the simplest setup of all. A couple of fans and that's just about it.

The contestant, robotech, getting all ready to overclock his system.

The contestant, robotech, getting all ready to overclock his system.

Krado/rundymc's setup uses three large coolers, one for the CPU, a skived heatsink/fan for the chipset and a large cooler strapped to the graphics card. The ultimate cooler was the large blower fan placed right beside his setup.

Krado/rundymc's setup uses three large coolers, one for the CPU, a skived heatsink/fan for the chipset and a large cooler strapped to the graphics card. The ultimate cooler was the large blower fan placed right beside his setup.

Rundymc (left) and Krado (right) were seen tweaking the system minutes before the competition began.

Rundymc (left) and Krado (right) were seen tweaking the system minutes before the competition began.

Geosin's super large fan setup was constructed to cool only the CPU. As you can see in the picture above, this fan system consists of several fans stacked together.

Geosin's super large fan setup was constructed to cool only the CPU. As you can see in the picture above, this fan system consists of several fans stacked together.

Geosin and his ultra huge cooler.

Geosin and his ultra huge cooler.

The only air-cooled setup that's fixed inside a casing. Deathgame and VincentV's strategy was to cool the critical components with localized fans and top it up with a large box fan.

The only air-cooled setup that's fixed inside a casing. Deathgame and VincentV's strategy was to cool the critical components with localized fans and top it up with a large box fan.

This is how the setup looks like with the box fan used as one of the side cover.

This is how the setup looks like with the box fan used as one of the side cover.

VincentV (left) and Deathgame (right).

VincentV (left) and Deathgame (right).

Stratix and tUx's setup. Besides cooling the usual stuff, they have also stuck a fan on the southbridge.

Stratix and tUx's setup. Besides cooling the usual stuff, they have also stuck a fan on the southbridge.

Stratix (right) and tUx (left) were the youngest contestants in this competition.

Stratix (right) and tUx (left) were the youngest contestants in this competition.

The Contestant's Rig - Part 2

The entries from the open category were the attention stealers of the competition. Since the organizer disallowed sub-zero cooling, the contestants came up with some pretty elaborate water cooling rigs.

Shamino's rig had water cooling blocks placed on both the CPU and chipset. In the picture, you can see that the graphics card was left in its original state (except for some RAMsinks and a fan at the back of the GPU).

Shamino's rig had water cooling blocks placed on both the CPU and chipset. In the picture, you can see that the graphics card was left in its original state (except for some RAMsinks and a fan at the back of the GPU).

The cooling blocks draw its fluid from this large container. The coolant is cooled by two radiators placed on top of the container.

The cooling blocks draw its fluid from this large container. The coolant is cooled by two radiators placed on top of the container.

Shamino and his impressive setup.

Shamino and his impressive setup.

Ristar's setup had water cooling blocks installed for the CPU and graphics card. A G-clamp was used to hold the cooling block to the GPU.

Ristar's setup had water cooling blocks installed for the CPU and graphics card. A G-clamp was used to hold the cooling block to the GPU.

As you can see here, both Ristar and Shamino share the same coolant fluid. Now that's what we call recycling.

As you can see here, both Ristar and Shamino share the same coolant fluid. Now that's what we call recycling.

Shamino lends Ristar a helping hand when his setup had problems moments before the start of the competition. There's panic written all over his face though he hid it pretty well with that laughter.

Shamino lends Ristar a helping hand when his setup had problems moments before the start of the competition. There's panic written all over his face though he hid it pretty well with that laughter.

If there was an award for best effort, it would have gone to xtn32 and DriftDriver for their radical cooling rig. The coolant fluids were stored in three different containers and a large car radiator (not seen here) is used to keep the fluid system running cool. Check out that cool looking case-mod!

If there was an award for best effort, it would have gone to xtn32 and DriftDriver for their radical cooling rig. The coolant fluids were stored in three different containers and a large car radiator (not seen here) is used to keep the fluid system running cool. Check out that cool looking case-mod!

They used a special mix of fluid (some secret recipe) as the coolant.

They used a special mix of fluid (some secret recipe) as the coolant.

xtn32 and DriftDriver with their crowd-pulling overclocking rig.

xtn32 and DriftDriver with their crowd-pulling overclocking rig.

The Results

A total of five benchmarks were executed on the overclocked systems and the results from each of the benchmarks were collected and tabulated as below :-

Contestant
Super PI
3DMark 03
Aquamark 3
3DMark 2001SE
Prime95
xtn32 / DriftDriver
39
3614
24285
13401
2
Ristar
39
3398
23637
13714
3
Shamino
39
4075
31241
16141
3

 

Contestant
Super PI
3DMark 03
Aquamark 3
3DMark 2001SE
Prime95
Stratix / tUx
40
3630
24791
14608
1
Deathgame / VincentV
40
3671
27847
14642
1
Krado / rundymc
41
2857
25911
12486
2
geosin
40
4054
29656
16079
2
Viper
40
3954
26059
15476
2
robotech / cg
41
3883
30125
14088
3

The contestants were then awarded scores for each of the benchmark rounds based on ranking :-

  • Position #1: 10 points
  • Position #2: 7 points
  • Position #3: 5 points
  • Position #4: 4 points
  • Position #5: 3 points
  • Position #6: 2 points

The final scores were :-

Contestant
Score
xtn32 / DriftDriver
34
Ristar
37
Shamino
50

 

Contestant
Score
Stratix / tUx
22
Deathgame / VincentV
27
Krado / rundymc
17
geosin
44
Viper
35
robotech / cg
31

The Winners

The winner for the open category walked away with the following goodies :-

  • AMD Athlon XP3200+ processor
  • ABIT AN7 motherboard
  • Kingston KHX4000K2/1G memory module
  • ABIT Siluro 5600 DT graphics card
  • APC BackUPS BS500
The winner for the open category was Shamino (seen here posing with Maggie Lin - the Marketing Manager for ABIT). Shamino had a perfect score of 50.

The winner for the open category was Shamino (seen here posing with Maggie Lin - the Marketing Manager for ABIT). Shamino had a perfect score of 50.

For the air-cooled category, the top three contestants walked away with :-

  • Winner - SGD$500, ABIT DigiDice and APC BackUPS BS500
  • 1st runner-up - SGD$400 and ABIT KV8-Max3 motherboard
  • 2nd runner-up - SGD$300 and ABIT AI7 motherboard
The winner for the air-cooled category was geosin with 44 points.

The winner for the air-cooled category was geosin with 44 points.

The first runner-up for the air-cooled category was Viper. He scored 35 points in total.

The first runner-up for the air-cooled category was Viper. He scored 35 points in total.

The second runner-up for the air-cooled category went to robotech/cg. He scored a total of 31 points.

The second runner-up for the air-cooled category went to robotech/cg. He scored a total of 31 points.

Some Candid Shots

As usual, we have a couple of candid shots - specially delivered to those who missed all the excitement today.

"Oh, please God, don't let it crash..... please, please pretty please."

"Oh, please God, don't let it crash..... please, please pretty please."

ABIT's µGuru mascot was there to grace the event. Seen here posing at the ABIT booth with a Convergent staff and... ermm.. candy floss?

ABIT's µGuru mascot was there to grace the event. Seen here posing at the ABIT booth with a Convergent staff and... ermm.. candy floss?

New overclocking technique discovered - an umbrella. Actually, it was raining so badly that the old roof at Sim Lim Square started to leak. Guys, please remember to bring an umbrella to the next overclocking competition.

New overclocking technique discovered - an umbrella. Actually, it was raining so badly that the old roof at Sim Lim Square started to leak. Guys, please remember to bring an umbrella to the next overclocking competition.


Final Words

Although this is Singapore's first overclocking event, we saw quite a number of good entries, particularly from the folks in the open category. While we wait for the excitement to die down, and before we sign off for now, let's all look at some of the clock speeds achieved by the various contestants.

CPU clock speed (MHz)
Graphics Core Speed (MHz)
Graphics Memory Speed (MHz)
xtn32 / DriftDriver
210 x 12.5 = 2625
406
825
Ristar
204 x 12.5 = 2550
410
725
Shamino
206 x 13 = 2678
486
877
Stratix / tUx
225 x 11 = 2475
405
850
Deathgame / VincentV
231 x 11 = 2541
422
851
Krado / rundymc
225 x 11 = 2475
390
790
geosin
220 x 11 = 2420
450
900
Viper
222 x 11.5 = 2553
470
850
robotech / cg
220 x 11.5 = 2530
470
840

As you can see, the Athlon XP 3200+ processor does have quite a bit of room left for overclocking, even if you're deciding to use conventional heatsinks. Of course, pure CPU clock speed would not be enough as the graphics card's core and memory speeds are also as equally important if you want to dominate in all of the gaming benchmarks. Besides that, you should also pay special attention to the memory timings and all the various tweaks you can use in the graphics driver to further accelerate the performance. Of course, at the end of the day, a lot of luck is needed too.

Well, that's it for now, folks. Stay tuned as HardwareZone, along with their sponsors and partners, bring you more of such events in the future. Until next time, continue to sharpen and hone your overclocking skills as you prepare for the next major overclocking event.

Oh, before we forget, HardwareZone would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The contestants posing with Mr. Michael Tan, the Business Development Manager of Convergent Systems (lower left) and Maggie Lin, Marketing Manager for ABIT (center).

The contestants posing with Mr. Michael Tan, the Business Development Manager of Convergent Systems (lower left) and Maggie Lin, Marketing Manager for ABIT (center).

This event was made possible by ABIT, Convergent Systems (S) Pte Ltd and Kingston. Special thanks goes to Michael Tan, Maggie Lin, VR-Zone, Floppy, Booest, Dr. Vijay and all the umpires.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.

Share this article