MSI launches Masters of Overclocking Arena 2010

[Hondacity]

Component maker MSI has issued a call to the world's pluckiest liquid nitrogen pourers, volt-modders and clock fiddlers, in a bid to find the master overclocking champion.

 

The Masters of Overclocking Arena (MOA) contest apparently has a Star Wars theme this year, and will come to a climax at the grand final in Taiwan. However the contestants in the final will be decided via a number of heats, including a couple that can be entered online.

 

The megahertz race has just kicked off via the "You've got the Xtreme Power!" competition on overclocking-verification site HWBOT, which runs from now until the end of June. HWBOT is specifically looking for new records in the SuperPI 32M benchmarks, as well as 3DMark Vantage using the Performance settings.

 

This part of the competition is potentially open to any overclockers around the world, although your overclocking kit has to feature an MSI Big Bang XPower motherboard, as well as a costly six-core Core i7 980X CPU.

 

A number of prizes are offered for this heat, including cash, with the final winner getting $1,000. Perhaps more importantly, though, the top clocker also gets to compete in the grand final in Taipei.

 

Meanwhile, overclockers have another means of potential entry to the final via Futuremark's "Lords of overclocking 2010" competition. This runs from 21 June to 18 July, and will be split into European, Asian and American divisions. The top two winners from each division will then qualify for the final.

 

We don't know what Futuremark's competition will involve, but we'd imagine it will require a top score in one of Futuremark's 3DMark benchmarks. In last year's competition, the object was to achieve the highest 3DMark06 score, with no limits on the hardware you could use.

 

In addition to these heats, MSI also plans to host the MOA 2010 European tournament in Paris from 26-27 June. In this competition, teams from 13 countries (hopefully with travel expenses covered by MSI) will be given the task of competing on-site, and the top five teams will make it to the final.

 

As with the HWBOT competition, however, MSI's European on-site heats require a specific kit list, including an MSI Big Bang Xpower motherboard, a Core i7 980X CPU, an MSI GeForce GTX 480 graphics card, 2GHz Kingston memory and an Enermax PSU.

 

MSI says that teams at the Paris event will have two hours to assemble all their kit and make their adjustments, and they'll then have to start overclocking. According to MSI, there is no limit on hardware modifications, but entrants will have to perform all the mods themselves, as well as any thermal enhancement, soldering and so on, at the event.

 

If you think you have a crack team of overclockers capable of taking on the world's best, then check out MSI's MOA website for more information.

 

source: http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/6/2/msi-launches-masters-overclocking-arena-2010/

 

Qualifying Rounds:

 

--MOA EU(Paris): 5 EU TEAMS

--Lords of overclocking( 3dmark 2006) : 2 EU , 2 USA, 2 Asia

--You've got the Xtreme Power! 1 clocker

 

1. Those who not qualified in MOA EU, can they compete in Lords of Overclocking?

2. Those who did not qualify in MOA EU, can they compete in "you've got X power"?

3. In Finals, will it be teams against individuals?