Winners of Our AMD Overclocking Contest!

After two months of intense overclocking, two champions have emerged victors of the AMD Virtual Overclocking Contest.

We set the battlegrounds in February, and today we have our chart topping overclocker of the AMD Phenom II X3 720. Congratulations Chris Morrel, AKA Gomeler, of Atlanta, Georgia!

Chris ran his three-core, 2.8 GHz CPU all the way up to 5.16 GHz using a 240 MHz bus speed and 21.5x multiplier. The cranked CPU sat on an MSI 790GX-G65 with two Corsair 2 GB 1866 Dominator GT modules. Powering the video was Palit Radeon HD 4870x2.

The cooling Chris used to achieve his scores is a two-stage cascade, R507/R1150, tuned on the fly with evaporation temperatures between -87 and -95 degrees Celcius.

In March we had our first winner -- Travis Jank, AKA V2-V3, of Dalton Gardens, Idaho who was able to take his AMD Phenom II X4 940 (3 GHz) to a chart-topping 5.6 GHz using a 275 MHz bus speed and 20.5x multiplier.

Travis ran his champion CPU on an Asus M4A79 Deluxe with a 2 GB kit from Corsair. For video, he paired his motherboard with the Asus EAH4350 Silent (512 MB ATI Radeon HD 4350). The most key part to his victory is his liquid nitrogen cooling choice in the Kingpin F1 Solid Copper CPU Evaporator POT. Travis went through three liquid nitrogen tanks before attaining his amazing overclock.

We’ll be flying both Chris and Travis out to Los Angeles for a weekend of meet and greets with AMD and Bestofmedia crew, plus some overclocking, of course. Both winners will get the chance to recreate their performances and members of Team Ironmods will also be present to do some overclocking of their own. Stay tuned for on-site reporting of this event as it happens the very first weekend in May.

One last thing – remember we said that non-competing entries will also be eligible for prize drawings? Pete from Braintree, Massachusetts, who describes himself as a computer repair technician by day and gamer by night, can now enjoy his nights a little bit more with his prize of Radeon HD 4870x2. Pete was previously using an X1900 XT and is excited about his new card. Games he plays frequently are CS:Source, Bioshock, Warhammer 40K and Starcraft. [Pete, you really need that 4870x2 for Starcraft? Haha--Ed.]

Thanks to everyone for their interest, and hopefully we’ll be able to do this again sometime very soon. Have a good Easter, everyone!