The_Overclocker

Jesus Christ. I go away for a few days and all hell breaks loose. What a load of misinformation and total rubbish has been spouted. And for HWBot to jump on the bandwagon is ridiculous. I never actually asked HWBot to do the competition engine. They just did it. I let them do it. Even though it was never ready. As such I said I still required people to email submissions... all that mattered is that people did a benchmark and posted a score somewhere I could see it before a deadline. The HWBot engine never worked from the beginning and I never told anyone ever that they had to use it. Idiots said I organised this to promote the magazine are wrong too. I've spent ages on this, for no gain to myself at all. I only did it because a load of key overclockers and manufacturers asked me too. I only ask for a bit of support. This constant bickering about changing rules... they never changed once. Not once. All people needed to do is submit a benchmark by the end of the month and that's what most competitors did. All this moaning is utterly ridiculous and comes predominantly from people who aren't even competing. All the 'I told You So' idiots might be rejoicing but we're only two rounds in FFS. I expected more from HWBot frankly - not joining the mob. The engine doesn't work. That's why it's not being used. That's what I told you offline from the beginning. Nothing is good enough for many people.

Not sure what's going on with XS. The main forum needs to move over here anyway eventually as the submission engine gets ironed out. Unbeleivable bitching. I quite like the soap opera side of it, but even I'm amazed at the abject viriol based around the simple fact that in round 2, 'The public weren't aware that scores should be emailed'. I know it's very fashionable and internet to slam any new idea. As far as I'm concerned we've had two fascinating roundsd of F1OC that have produced some amazing scores. That people are focusing on obscure rule clarifications (most of which have been clarified anyway) is surprising and a bit disapointing. What about the amazing performances that have been put in by the competitiors and manufacturers?? I know everyone likes a good moan, but really... Also, and I may have mentioned this several hundred times. This is a test season to iron out rules for season two. We're two rounds in to it and the rules haven't had to change one bit. Some ultra minor clarifications have been posted but that really is about it. Chill out. Seriously. The accusations flying around are ridiculous. Some invent rules that never existed and then complain to me about having them. Just send in a score and we'll post it. How hard can it be??

Hi, It's finally starting to look right now at http://httP://www.f1oc.org So who put in the best performance from round 1? Here's the shortlist for the top efforts. Who should win? k|ngp|n for coming first? Australia for a stunning 2nd? Indonesia for highest-performing, lowest-cost (Gigabyte) components? Biostar for highest-performing, lowest-cost components (which they bought themselves)? Bustah for owning Asus and EVGA mobos with MSI? Barron_Greenback for heroically submitting two scores knowing he'd get shafted? Tom's Hardware for competing with minimal support? Giorgioprimo for blowing up his 3x 295s but refusing to give up? NeoForce for submitting a second score knowing he'd get shafted?

Only to some extent. HWBot has become the most trusted and impartial source for overclockers in world. It's essential that it's involved with F1 OC to keep checks and balances. It's like the UN... but with power.

Quite a bit of shuffling of teams going on at the mo - won't have many solid answers until Monday when Manufacturer's wake up. Benchtec will almost certainly be Team MSI now which is good. Much more to follow.

Benchtec is actually proving the point exactly why this needs to be selective (for season one only). The amount of complaining is unreal... from a small minority. Tell me if I'm wrong... but at the UK GOOC qualifier, wasn't Benchtec the ONLY team to use LN2? That's how popular it is there. I've just communicated with a dissapointed giogioprimo. He's a friend of mine. He should be in this competition more than most. Hopefully, with Asus, Gigabyte, DFI or someone else - he still will be. Maybe with team MSI?? With such a limited field having Greece AND Italy was considered daft. He didn't throw his toys out of the pram on a forum he discussed it offlist. I've explained why the commercialisation is essential - otherwise general tech enthusiasts (who don't overclock) don't give a flying rats arse about overclocking competitions. Live or online. This is all about capturing the imagination of people who have never cared about overclocking before. I've been very clear on that. You've been offered a 'ride'. Is that enough or are you still going to bag everything incessantly?

Read my above post. It answers all of this.

Here's a bit more info for those who don't understand. In order to do this for maximum commercial impact we need... The manufacturers ALL onboard FROM THE START. The key manufacturers are almost all based in Taiwan. I know many/most/probably all of the top product managers personally. They tell me who their most important markets are. They tell me that Australia sells more high-end motherboards than China and is a test bed for products for the USA/Europe quite often. It's a hugely important market. Team Australia is always at global live overclocking finals too. Always - they are very well known in Asia and incredibly popular there. Also note that many marketing people DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT HWBOT is. At all. I'm serious. They DO know who the overclockers are that win their live events and keep showing up in their countries. These are more important TO THEM than any other competition. Many manufacturers look on overclockers simply as gamers. I know, I deal with them all the time face to face. I am not saying I agree with it, but that is the way it is. Like it or not... the UK is a very minor market for most motherboard makers. They don't sell as many high-end products their as you'd think. The Nordic markets are considered more important by many of them. This is what they tell me from head office. Consequently, we can't have some kind of super-fair qualifying contest because it won't capture the imagination of the industry and hence will not work. The first two people I went to were EVGA and Gigabyte - the two brands that care most about overclocking. To get their interest I had to say they were in it... not having to qualify against a load of teams that only overclockers had ever heard of. We needed every super star we could get... and I'm sorry, but being 5th on HWBot simply doesn't register with these people. At all. I'm not saying I agree with it. But it's completely true. They know who wins their live events though. As for saying, 'where are the other nationalities'... Japan is on a different planet for all manufacturers. I'd love to have them in it. But it's a totally different market to the rest of the world and the manufacturers universally agree on that. Hopefully now you're getting the idea as to why teams had to be invited rather than qualify FOR THIS SEASON ONLY. Tom's Hardware is in there because it wanted to be and is a major pusher of overclocking. There will be lots of coverage on this tournament purely because they are involved. We have already had requests from the likes of TweakTown (Cam is my very good friend), Atomic magazine and others but they will all have to wait. Tom's has put on major competitions around the world and deserves to be in season one. It also takes care of having German entrants. Remember, people look at the flags of the drivers rather than the manufacturers. Also note, that after all this 'discussion' Team MSI will now contain two out of 'Benchtec plus Deanzo' (NZ). They're in discussions now. I think we've got an excellent spread of nationalities now. I hope this helps clarify a few issues and explains why there is a lack of democracy here, but that it's essential to hit the ground running... and soon.

Germany will be part of Tom's Harware France is part of Team Biostar UK is probably now going to be all or part of Team MSI It's not about HWBot ranks, it's about being as commercial as possible and getting super star overclockers onboard that will capture the imagination of all tech enthusiasts and the industry alike. Otherwise, it's just another contest. There's a lot of toys flying out of prams here. As things stand there will be Union Jacks, German Flags, French Flags all on show - seeing as it's actually being discussed instead of people making assumptions. As it is, I think the main people objecting are the Brits (I'm English remember). And I think after discussing this should be ironed out. I fully expect season two will have a Team UK/Benchtec in it. Probably the same for Germany. As for The Overclocker selling out? The Magazine has always been about promoting overclocking and overclockers. As I've said before, We're not making any money out of this yet. If/When we do, so will the competitors.

I don't think we'll have a choice. It will be Formula 1 style rules on that though. We're trying to get in as many big names as possible at the mo.

Hi mate. Team UK was a heated source of discussion. The simple reason it wasn't included for the first season was because all teams needed to have a BIG following for season 1. This comp is for all tech enthusiasts, not just overclockers. The line had to be drawn somewhere and that was it.. we need full industry support for this. Having been at Computex it's clear which countries are being focussed on for overclocking. You know above all that extreme overclocking in the UK is not a patch on other countries - purely in terms of popularity. It's certainly not the case that The Overclocker alone has chosen this... much has been discussed at recent global tournaments. We're just leading the charge. We've certainly nothing against the UK - I'm English dangit! - however, I was talked out of having a UK team by the industry and they're the ones supporting this. I can't see any favouritism in who we've chosen. Can you? There has to be a limit. This is very very separate from existing HWBot competitions. It's designed to be much much MUCH more commercial in an effort to capture the general tech enthusiasts' imaginations - which hasn't nearly happened yet. You're fully welcome to join in season two. But for this to get off the ground, hard decisions had to be made and many good mates have been left out. We simply can't have loads of teams because it becomes inaccessible and tricky to follow. Remember, season 1 is only 5 months long and is a test ground. Season 2 will be much longer and should involve a lot of commercialisation - sponsorship, prize money etc. I hope you understand. EDIT>> Actually, Baz, I reckon using straight HWBot teams would seriously diminish the existing HWBot competitions. And that's the last thing anyone wants to do. Also, I know Miahallen was wanting to go for Team USA also. Perhaps you guys could go Team MSI??? Have a word with him. MSI is much more popular in Europe/UK than other territories.

Time to put this 'out there'. We intend to start this soon. Here's what we have so far. What do you think? F1OC Proposal It has become apparent that there is a new generation of elite overclockers who now have early access to cutting-edge hardware that has lifted them beyond the realms of traditional overclocking competition. This idea has been discussed over the past several months but is now in a position to go ahead. It will be in addition to existing competitions and completely separate from them. We have been speaking to the industry over the past few months already but at Computex I visited virtually every manufacture who would be directly involved and got overwhelming support for it. The Overclocker intends to create a Formula One style overclocking competition. The purpose of this competition would be to drive computer technology forward by pushing its limits through overclocking. It will also naturally promote overclockers. It should also capture the imagination of all tech enthusiasts (not just overclockers) who will clearly benefit from seeing which hardware provides the very best performance. The manufacturers we have spoken to have all instantly recognised the halo effect of this: the manufacturer of the best products will sell more lower-end products too. This has been true to automotive racing for years. We can discuss it to death if we’re not careful so hopefully the following will be clear, concise and not require major tweaking. This competition should start at the beginning of August. 1) For season one, there will be no limits whatsoever. Any limits that need implementing in future seasons will be reactionary to problems that may have occurred in previous seasons. One such example would be if the field finished in the exact order of processor power... we’d need to limit GHz the following season. 2) There will be two groups of teams: manufacturers and guest teams. For season 1 all teams will be invitational only. Manufacturer’s teams will be safe from relegation. However, the three, lowest-performing guest teams will be relegated. They will be replaced by the best three teams in an open qualifying competition. The relegated teams can compete in this. 3) At the beginning of each month an overclocking task will be set. Overclocking scores (with the usual validations) must be submitted by the end of the month according to the International Date Line. HWBot will hopefully manage this. We’re discussing the details. 4) The overclocking tasks used will be highly varied in order to cover as much hardware as possible and test the all-round skill of the overclockers. 5) The initial guest teams selected are done so according to perceived skill and influence on global overclocking. We naturally can’t include everyone and top overclockers will naturally be left out. The intention is that after three seasons we have a highly-competitive field which genuinely reflects the best of the best in terms of hardware and overclockers. 6) All kit used must be on sale by the beginning of the month of the task. If another team wants to buy it, it must be available. We do not want specially-manufactured components which have been built purely to win a race... unless it’s fully available to the public. 7) The first season will run for five months (with five tasks) and will start at the beginning of August. Benchmarks The first five benchmarks will be... SuperPi 32M SuperPi 8M (on an AMD platform) 3DMark Vantage 3DMark 06 on motherboard integrated graphics Highest FSB Season 1 Teams Most of these have been agreed already. The limit is 14 teams to avoid lists getting too unwieldy. There are obviously going to be good people left out – contact The Overclocker or a team leader to claim an empty spot at one of the teams if you’re interested. This is purely invitational to avoid griping about who should be involved. Everyone can be involved down the line. Just not yet. If you want to fill vacancies in any of the below teams let us know quick! Manufacturer Teams Team Asus – Kinc – TBC Team Gigabyte – Hicookie – TBC Team EVGA – k|ngp|n – Shamino Team Biostar – pt1t – Bobelmagnifique Team DFI – Andre Yang – TBC Team MSI – Miahallen – TBC Guest Teams Team Australia – dinos22 – Youngpro Team USA – TBC – TBC Team Greece – hipro5 – TBC Team Finland – Sampsa – SF3D Team Tom’s Hardware – Kabauterman – loopy83 Team China – TBC – TBC Team Indonesia – Benny – Ekky Team Russia – NeoForce - DeDal Sponsorship Each team is free to organise its own sponsorship. At present Corsair and Kingston are prepared to supply top-quality RAM to anyone that needs it. Power Supplies have also been promised by Antec, Corsair and Cooler Master. Galaxy is happy to supply graphics cards. All motherboard makers who make graphics cards should also help out. Contact Nick at the overclocker if you want to be put in touch with these people. We actively encourage competitors to get money for sponsoring their teams. For season two we should be able to provide agents for helping with this.