Live from Taipei - MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2010
Join us as we report live from MSI's gathering of overclocking experts at its Master Overclocking Arena 2010 from the National Taiwan University Sports Centre.
Overclocking Wars
MSI’s Master Overclocking Arena (MOA) is back, and this time, we are back in Taipei, Taiwan where it all started.
For the past two years, the world's best overclockers gather at MSI's Master Overclocking Arena to pit their skills against each other.
Held on 11 September at the National Taiwan University Sports Centre, MSI has put a Star Wars spin on this year's MOA competition, and it promises to be bigger and better than last year’s in every possible way. As only the world’s top overclockers were invited to MOA, the preliminary rounds began as early as June. Beginning with popular overclocking forum HWBOT’s You’ve Got The Extreme Power! global online competition, finalists were also picked from Futuremark’s Lords of Overclocking 2010, and MSI had their very own European qualifiers in 
Paris, France. Eventually, over 40 finalists (or Padawans, if you like) forming teams of two were selected for the competition.
Amongst the finalists, defending Champions, Elmor and ME4ME from Sweden are back to defend their crown. Also appearing this time round is the famous Coolaler from Taiwan, world record holder for fastest clocked 6-core CPU and also the first person in the world to achieve a SuperPI 1M calculation in under 10 seconds. And representing Singapore, we have the dynamic duo of clon22 and NightRaven, well known overclockers in our own HWZ forums. The pair were also invited to last year’s MOA and will be gunning for a better showing this time.
The National Taiwan University Sports Centre will play host to 40 of the world's best overclockers in this year's MOA competition.
Contestants unloading their gear from the tour bus.
Naturally, contestants are feeling nervous and many are busy discussing their tactics as they enter the competition arena.
And here we are, at the competition arena proper! Note the Star Wars-inspired lightsaber light deco.
There’s an air of excitement in the air as we head over to the competition venue, with all the competitors feeling skittish and nervous about their prospects. But fear not, and in the wise words of Master Yoda, “Let the Force be with you”.
Competition Mechanics
The basic premise behind MOA 2010 is no different from that previous year’s MOA competition. 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.
Contestants will draw lots later to randomly determine which set of components they will be getting.
Judge for MOA 2010, Massimiliano Calandrini aka Giorgioprimo from Italy, briefing contestants on the rules.
Giorgioprimo and the contestants up on the stage for a group shot.
This year’s competition will be split into two phases. In Phase One, contestants will run Super PI, a popular CPU benchmarking tool that calculates the value of the mathematical constant Pi (π) up to 32 million digits and attempt to clock the shortest time possible. Contestants are given 2.5 hours for this phase and can submit as many scores as they like.
In the second phase, contestants will have to run 3DMark Vantage, a popular benchmarking that measures the potency of a system’s graphics performance. Scores from the Performance preset will be recorded and contestants are given 3.5 hours to try and achieve the highest score possible. As usual, there’s no limit on how many scores they can submit.
Of course, as in any overclocking endeavor, the hardware plays a crucial role and MSI has pulled out all the stops to ensure that the contestants get only the best. For example, the motherboard used in MOA 2010 is none other than their flagship XPower motherboard. As for graphics, contestants will be using the newly launched MSI N480GTX Lightning, a really high-end card not just for its GPU, but also because of the amount of features that MSI has given it, such as a whopping 16 phase PWM design, copper MOSFETs, independent memory power via 6-pin PCIe connector, Proadlizer 4 next-generation capacitors, and Triple Over Voltage for adjusting GPU core, memory and PLL voltage values.
To complement the high-end motherboard and graphics card combo, contestants will also be supplied with Kingston HyperX 2250MHz memory, 10,000rpm Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drive, and 1050W Enermax Revolution 85+ PSU.
These are the components contestants will be using.
MSI has just announced their latest card - the N480GTX Lightning. Boasting a long list of enhanced components and also the latest Twin Frozr III cooler, MSI is confident that this is the best graphics card money can buy right now.
This is the list of components that contestants will be using:
- Intel Core i7-980X
- MSI Big Bang-XPower
- MSI N480GTX Lightning
- Kingston KHX2250C9D3T1FK3/6GX
- WD VelociRaptor 600GB
- Enermax ERV 1050EWT
- Enermax Acrylux KB009
To add, all systems are running 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate and this is the list of BIOS, drivers, software and utilities provided:
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
- A7666IMS.138 Motherboard BIOS
- Forceware 258.96 WHQL
- Super PI/mod 1.5 XS
- 3DMark Vantage V1.0.2
- CPU-Z V1.55
- GPU-Z V0.4.4
- MSI Afterburner v2.0.0 Extreme
- CPU-Tweaker v:1.5
- MAXON CINEBENCH R11.5
- wPrime V2.03 / wPrime V1.55
- OCX SPI Tweaker V1.0.8
Co-sponsors NVIDIA showing off their 3D Vision Surround setup.
Enermax showing off their colorful cooling fans and PSUs.
Kingston showing off their range of memory solutions.
Race to 32 Million - MSI MOA 2010 Begins!
Posted at 1:30pm
The first phase of MSI MOA 2010 has just began and contestants are now busy prepping their systems to run Super PI. The objective of this phase is to try and clock the possible fastest time in calculating the famous mathematical constant Pi (π) to 32 million digits.
Contestants wasted no time in ripping out the components' stock coolers and replacing them with their own customized ones. Here is NightRaven from Singapore making modifications to the MSI N480GTX Lightning graphics card.
Since Super PI is a CPU intensive benchmark, some teams opted to leave the graphics card untouched and work on the CPU instead.
As sure as the sun rises in the East, no overclocking competition will be complete with super-cool liquid nitrogen (LN2).
The competition hall is a flurry of mad activity as contestants race against the clock in attempts to post their best time.
Coolaler doesn't seem too pleased with his results.
A successful run!
Team XFastest.com comprising of Nick Shih and Tin Tin raced to an early lead with a time of 6 mins 28.23 seconds.
Grand Opening
Posted at 3:05pm
The competition halls has just opened to public and throngs of visitors are now entering the hall.
As befits the Star Wars theme, visitors have the opportunity to have their photographs taken with the Taiwan Garrison of the 501st Legion. There's also an ongoing competition Princess Leia voting competition, where voters stand the chance to win up to NT$100,000 worth of prizes and also the chance to have dinner with the winning Princess Leia.
Product and Marketing mangers from sponsors MSI, NVIDIA, Enermax, Kingston and Western Digital take the stage to address contestants and visitors.
And I declare MSI MOA 2010... Open!
The Taiwan Garrison of the 501st Legion puts on a show. Darth Vader is not amused at his dancing troops.
The two finalists of the Princess Leia voting competition, Wong Tzu-Chi and Ke Nian-Shuan.
Darth Vader and the two Princess Leias pose for the camera.
Visitors can try their hand at predicting the winner and stand to win attractive prizes.
Turn the page for the latest happenings from Phase Two of the competition.
Seeking Vantage Points
Posted at 3:26pm
With Phase One gone, contestants are now embarking on the second part of the competition, where contestants have to achieve the highest score on the Performance preset of 3DMark Vantage.
Liquid nitrogen is so cold that even the kettle that they are kept in have froze up.
Looks like a witch's brew.
Mink from Team Laddergoat adding liquid nitrogen while Mean Machine looks on in hopeful anticipation.
Here is Nightraven from Team Ice Cold Beer of Singapore making modifications to the board.
Posted at 5:30pm
Star Wars favorite R2D2 makes an appearance!
Princess Leia finalist, Wong Tzu-Chi, plays the Star Wars theme with an erhu.
With over half an hour to go, it was frantic activity all round as contestants attempt to put in a good score.
Setting up Vantage and hoping for a successful run.
Great success! And a respectable 31858 3DMarks.
With 47 minutes to go, ryba and BORKO are currently leading the Second Phase of the competition with 34640 3DMarks.
Check back soon as we unveil the winner of the Princess Leia competition as well as the overall champion of MOA 2010.
Winners Announced & Closing Ceremony
Posted at 5:45pm
It’s been more than eight hours since this morning when the contestants began their overclocking adventures, and with just less than half an hour to go, the air is filled with tension and electricity as many are frenziedly trying to make a final push for that one last run that could make all the difference.
The winner of the Princess Leia voting competition, Wong Tzu-Chi, posing with Jason Lee, Director of the Component Department MSI, and Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith.
With mere minutes left, last year's winners Elmor and ME4ME are once again leading the standings. But will they emerge victorious again?
Stay tuned as we unveil the Champion of this year's MSI MOA 2010.
Posted at 7:00pm
Overall judge for the event Giorgioprimo and officials from MSI congregate to finalize scores.
And in third place is Team ASD crew from Poland. They get to walk away with US$1000.
In second place is Team XtremeLabs.org from Ukraine. They get to walk away with US$2000.
And the winner of MSI MOA 2010 is defending champions Team Expandables from Sweden. Congratulations to them for successfully defending their title.
Contestants pose for one final group shot.
As all good things must come to an end, we have come to an end here at MOA 2010. In all, the event has been, in the words of Borat, a great success. Though thoroughly exhausted, the overclockers seemed to have enjoyed themselves today; and judging from the beaming faces of visitors, we bet they had a ball of a time too.
MSI confirms that they are committed to the overclocking cause so you can be sure that MOA will be back next year even bigger and better. It’s been a long but great day for us, so until next year, this is Hardware Zone from Taipei signing off.
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.