Live from Beijing - Master Overclocking Arena 2009
Master Overclocking Arena 2009 is underway, and we are reporting live from the Shangri-La Hotel, Beijing. An overclocking event not to be missed, stay tuned for the latest up to the minute updates as we cover all the action and more.
Overclockers Olympics
MSI's Master Overclocking Arena (MOA) is back again, and this time, we are in Bejing, China. It is apt we are in Beijing, because MSI has put an Olympic spin to the event and Beijing was none other than the host city for 2008's Summer Olympic Games.
MSI's Mater Overclocking Arena 2009 is back and this time round we are in Beijing, China.
Held on the 29th of August at the Shangri-La Beijing, this year's MOA is noticeably bigger than last year's inaugural attempt, with participants from over 60 countries taking part in the regional preliminaries, which started as early as three months ago. Only the top three from each region progresses, and the finals today sees 20 of the best teams competing for the right to be crowned champions.
This is really a gathering of some of the world's top overclocking talents. In the European selection rounds, Cyba and Chaos of Poland broke the world 3DMark03 record. Not to be outdone, Taiwan's duo of Nick and Kevin also broke the world 3DMark06 record during Futuremark's own Lords of Overclocking online competition. To spice things up, last year's MOA Champion Ekky is back to defend his crown. And last but not least, Singapore has reason to be proud, because we are represented by our very own Jeremiah Ong aka Nightraven, a well-known overclocker in the region. Certainly then, it is not superflous to say that MOA 2009 is a collection of the best of the best overclockers.
To ensure all components were randomly picked, contestants are now drawing lots to determine which set of components they will be assigned.
Judge for the event, renown overclocker Stoolman, was reponsible drawing lots and he has just drew Singapore!
There's a sense of tension and electricity in the air as contestants make their way to the arena.
And here we are at the competition arena!
Calm before the Storm - Competition Mechanics
The basic premise behind MOA 2009 is no different from that of other overclocking competitions. The key here is to achieve the maximum amount of performance gain by overclocking the components. Judges from MSI will run the benchmarks using the same equipment as the contestants without any overclocking done to obtain a baseline score. This will then be compared to these scores obtained from the contestant's overclocked system - largest gain wins, of course.
This is it for the contestants. After months and weeks of preparation, this is their time of reckoning. Who will emerge victorious?
The competition will be split into two phases. Phase One will involve wPrime, a popular benchmarking tool which involves calculating the square root of obscenely large numbers - up to 32 billion. This is a CPU-intensive test. Two hours will be given to the contestants to tweak and to obtain a result. Once they are satisfied, the results can be submitted. Within the two hours, contestants can re-run and re-submit as many results as they like.
Phase Two involves 3DMark Vantage and this time, the GPU will be called into play. Here, contestants will be given three hours to tweak and complete a successful run, after which scores can be submitted. Again, contestants have the full three hours to fiddle with their systems and submit as many scores they want.
Remember our P55-GD80 preview? It is on show here, coupled with other components from Intel , OCZ, Western Digital, and Antec - all sponsors of the event.
The MSI Eclipse SLI you see here is the very same one that is being used at the competition.
Sponsor Antec has the unique and funky Skeleton chassis on show. Also on display are a variety of other casings and PSUs.
NVIDIA has a booth showcasing their GeForce 3D Vision set.
To aid the contestant in their endeavors, only the top of the line equipment were used. This is the list of components used for MOA 2009:
- Intel Core i7 Extreme 975
- MSI Eclipse SLI
- OCZ Blade DDR3-2133 Triple Channel Memory Kit
- MSI N275GTX Lightning
- Western Digital RE3 750GB
- Antec CP-1000
- LG W2254TQ
The systems were all running on 64-bit Window Vista SP2 and the contestants were provided with the following BIOS, drivers and utilities:
- MOA Special Edition BIOS
- NVIDIA ForceWare 190.38
- wPrime v2.00
- 3DMark Vantage v.1.0.1
- SetFSB 2.2.125.92
- CPU-Z 1.52
- GPU-Z 0.3.4
- RivaTuner beta
version - MemSet 4.0
- MSI Lightning Afterburner
- MSI Overclocking Center
The stage is set and the battle is about to begin. This is it. For the contestants there's no turning back. Let the battle begin.
Live from Beijing: MOA 2009 Begins!
Posted at 11:30am
The competition begins proper and it is frantic action all around as contestants are given two hours to setup their systems. Components can be exchanged if they are found faulty, and contestants are given free reign to make physical modifications as they see fit.
It is a tale of two cities as one of the Chinese teams was diligently setting their system up, while the other was having an animate discussion about the strategy of attack.
Andy and Jeremiah from Team Singapore seem to be having an easier time.
... and they weren't left untouched for long.
Team Philippines soon got into the "cool" groove too.
Following the principle of cool air sinks, Team USA 2 has placed their system into a deep tray, engulfing their system in nothing but hyper cool liquid nitrogren.
Others got into modding other components. Here, Team Brazil, consisting of the husband and wife duo of Ronaldo and Fabiola, has ripped out the MSI N275 GTX Lightning's fancy cooler for their own custom cooling solution.
Dean from Australia busying making modifications to the MSI N275 GTX Lightning graphics card.
This is Taiwanese duo Nick and Kevin's setup. They broke the 3DMark06 world record during FutureMark's Lord of Overclocking online competition.
As we come to the end of the two hours, most contestants seem pleased with their systems and are now busy doing some trial runs.
The competition is about to start proper, so be sure to check back shortly for updates as we bring you the action at every stage. You can also head to the MOA 2009 Scoreboard.
Prime Time
Posted at 1:45pm
The first phase gets underway and teams wasted no time in benching their systems.
Phase One begins and contestants are given two hours to post a successful run. They can submit results as many times as they like, but only the latest submitted score will be taken into consideration.
Anders and John from Team Denmark look on longingly hoping their system will pull through for that one successful run.
It's smoking hot as team Chinese Taipei do some soldering.
Team USA 1 takes the early lead with 140.072 seconds.
The unlucky Brazilians found themselves with a faulty motherboard and had to replace their set, wasting precious minutes in the process.
As the clock winds down, contestants are getting more frantic. With some attempting wild attempts at coaxing their system to complete a run.
Remember Sir Alex Ferguson's hair-dryer treatment? The Swedes have caught on to it and are putting it to good use.
Team Indonesia don't look too pleased.
Looking for something, Team USA 1?
Red Bull, Banana and Water provide sustenance for our dogged overclockers.
Halfway through, Sweden takes the lead with 139.791.
Phase One ends and the top three teams are Sweden, Team USA 1 and Team Australia/New Zealand.
Owning to their earlier hardware failure, Team Brazil is now desperately trying to submit a good time.
Phase One ends, and Sweden is on top. Looks like the hairdryer treatment works.
Vantage Point
Posted at 4:00pm
Phase Two has begun, and for this part of the competition, contestants have three hours to tweak and complete a successful run of 3DMark Vantage at the performance setting. Similar to Phase One, participating overclockers can submit scores as many times as they like but only the latest will count.
Wasting no time, contestants quickly started conducting runs on their system.
The Greeks have made themselves elaborate custom coolers and here they are feeding more liquid nitrogen into the system.
Despite it being a competition, there's evidently genuine camaraderie amongst overclockers as Ronaldo from Team Brazil helps Team China 1 mod their graphics card.
At the same time, the hosts conducted lucky draws, games and performances to keep visitors entertained.
At this point, guests begin pouring in and the arena becomes a hive of activity.
Guests stand to win attractive prizes for guessing the correct winners.
Who's going to be our lucky winner?
MSI also took the chance to parade some of their latest products.
Borrowing from the Stomp, performers here are performing a piece using computer hardware such as motherboards and casings.
Chinese orchestral with a pop twist.
Back to the overclockers, many have successfully conducted runs and team Futuremark has stormed to an early lead.
Scores starting pouring...
... and more scores.
Elsewhere, teams are drenching their systems in liquid nitrogen in the hopes that they'll complete a successful run.
All this liquid nitrogen makes it look like a witch's brew, doesn't it? This is Team Korea.
There's still over an hour to go, stay tuned as we update with the latest results from Phase 2.
Judgement Comes - Winners Announced!
Posted at 6:30pm
These overclockers began their work at around eight this morning, and now, some nine hours later, it is all done and the winning team has been determined.
The clock winds down...
A final look at the scoreboard indicates that Team Greece is the top team for the round of 3DMark Vantage. But who will be the ultimate winners?
Time is over and all contestants were ordered to step away from their computers.
One last performance by the brilliant girls in red. The lady in the middle was quite phenomenal, stealing the show with a superb display of solo drumming.
Now it's time to find out who our winners are...
In closing, MSI's Master Overclocking Arena 2009 can only be described as a rousing success. Everything went down in a nice and orderly fashion, and the overclockers seemed to have enjoyed themselves in the process, pushing the limits of the hardware. Visitors to the competition were also enthusiastic and they too seemed to have enjoyed themselves as much as, if not more than the overclockers.
As we know, MSI plans to continue this competition and even has plans to expand it to more regions and have more teams take part. So you can definitely count on MOA on being back. It has been great for us, until next year, this is Hardware Zone from Beijing signing off.
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