Advanced Overclocking Championship 2008

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The French Connection

The French started off in high gear with their excellent SuperPI 8M results. Unfortunately, they didn’t earn points on the 3D benchmarks (3DMark01 and Vantage) because of a poorly insulated GPU LN canister that caused heavy condensation on the GeForce GTX 280 PCB. The high Hong Kong humidity didn’t help any.

Then a potentiometer the team had soldered on to increase the GPU voltage proved to be defective. Another GeForce GTX 280 was toast. Dogged by that kind of bad luck, the team had no choice but to rebuild their setup during the time that was allocated for the 3D benchmarks, and didn’t have enough time left to rack up decent results. But their achievements with SuperPI 8M were enough to put them in seventh place in the overall rankings.

15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Andreas_Sweden
    It would be nice if you added the different team’s configurations. And what modifications the teams did. Then we might find some motherboards that are more stable than the rest.
    And ones again tomshardware has fallen a bit further from its old days of high quality, technical report. I agree with some of the earlier comments about the “$ per word/pages” (the latest motherboard article). Most of us are technical persons that want short articles with a very high fact value. Preferably a summarized table at the end with the facts.
    If you want to type a lot then do so on ONE page, I hate the clicking and load time for a new page just for seeing 4 rows of noting.
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    I find the current tomshardware style quite satisfactory.
    You need to entertain as well as inform. Dry information is like taking a ccna (so boring you will eventually suicide just to entertain yourself).
    Reply
  • gsteacy
    Andreas_SwedenIt would be nice if you added the different team’s configurations. And what modifications the teams did. Well they listed the configuration on page 3. Just not the modifications.
    Andreas_SwedenI agree with some of the earlier comments about the “$ per word/pages”That would be nice if it were true. I'll have to suggest it.
    Reply
  • Andreas_Sweden
    neiroatopelccI find the current tomshardware style quite satisfactory. You need to entertain as well as inform. Dry information is like taking a ccna (so boring you will eventually suicide just to entertain yourself).Well, then skip the # of pages,
    gsteacyWell they listed the configuration on page 3. Just not the modifications. Then how come one team used an E8500? An other mobo? Page 13... How many 280 are they using? On page 12 "3-way SLi"...
    http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=709&l4=0&model=2273&modelmenu=1
    Nope, dont think so...

    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    Andreas if you read the first part of the article carefully again, you'll notice that the first day is reserved for competing with the other teams on hardware provided by the event handlers, and the second day's intended for people to toy with whatever hardware they fancy in order to set world records. And the 3way sli event occurred on the second day as you might've read....

    But I see your point now. Too much text, and you seem likely to not read it, or forget/not-care about its meaning. A simple dull list of specs and numbers might be more up your street in that case.
    Reply
  • Condenser? I only thought you used that in the desert to get water? ;)
    Capacitors perhaps? =)
    Reply
  • nickchalk
    i'd love to be there.
    Reply
  • kitsilencer
    Figures please. The point of this competition was clearly to break some records, but you have nowhere in this article specific benchmarks, numbers, configurations, etc. Without these, you're basically posting a glorified photo album.
    Reply
  • martin0642
    neiroatopelccI find the current tomshardware style quite satisfactory. You need to entertain as well as inform. Dry information is like taking a ccna (so boring you will eventually suicide just to entertain yourself).
    WTH. This is not Entertainment Weekly. It's Tech FIRST, then if you've done a good job, add entertainment as a bonus. They are failing the first part, over and over. It's entertaining to a simpleton, but it's maddening to people who actually know what their talking about. The entertainment factor does not make up for the fact that the content providers do such a bad job in the actual meat of the articles.
    Reply
  • martin0642
    gsteacyWell they listed the configuration on page 3. Just not the modifications. That would be nice if it were true. I'll have to suggest it.
    It is true. Each page has ads on it, so even though the writer does not see the proceeds, money is generated by multi-page articles.
    Reply