Day1: Meeting all contestants

After we all got up and had breakfast, it was time to go to the Westergasfabriek and start our engines. Here are a few pictures of the introduction.


Angelique (event coordinator) giving an introduction




A taiwanese engineer explaining the key features of the MSI P45 motherboard


Stoolman, member of the grand jury, explaining the rules


Countdown to the start of the competition


A little low-quality video of the location

Day1: Testing the hardware

After the introduction, all overclockers were allowed to take place at their table and start testing the hardware. As Sampsa had some problems with air traffic and could not make it to the event, I teamed up with SF3D to keep him company. So ... I was benching against the Belgian team.


Source: Tweakers.net

The first day was quite frustrating, as 600FSB was really difficult to reach even for the Superpi 1M benchmark. Cinebench and 3DMark05 were even harder to get 100% stable, resulting in a very bad 550FSB maximum. Elmor helped us out with the correct settings for 550FSB and those settings helped us to figure out how to bench the second day, more about that on the following page.

In the meantime, the Belgian team was making us feel even more uncomfortable as they told us they were pushing their system past 600Mhz FSB in Cinebench. Unfortunately, their motherboard died at the end of the day in an attempt to complete a 3DMark05 run at 600FSB, as the benchmark crashed in the last of three tests. Motherboard gone and a new one prepped for Sunday, the day of the finals.


970 liters of liquid nitrogen on stand-by


The Spanish team trying to figure out what to begin with


Hey and Tosunermc preparing their system, not knowing that these preparations will lead them to second place


Team Finland even had some supporters to cheer them on!


Nosferatu doing the voltmods on the motherboard


Well ... everyone needed to be identified as a genuine MSI P45 overclocker


The French team preparing their LN² containers


This is ... innovative. Hopefully, we'll be able to review this board.


Team Hungary knows where the main priority lies

Day1: Cooling down after the tests

When the first day was over, the group of overclockers, editors and a big part of the MSI crew went to a show called "Boom Chicago". We had a delicious dinner and enjoyed a comedy evening full of stand-up comedy and improvisation acts in which MSI got the necessary exposure as well. Have a look at this youtube video and you'll understand:


MSI is ready to have dinner



Afterwards, we went for a few drinks in a local bar, enjoying the Amsterdam night scene.


Sitting in a bar, telling each other interesting stories


Elmor and SF3D


Nosferatu and Trouffman