Preparation Day
Preparation Day
As mentioned in the introduction, the Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship 2009 was held in Taipei, but while last year the event was held across from Taipei 101, this year's event was held inside the towering 509.2 m / 1,670.60 ft skyscrapper.
It was somewhat fitting to see a Formula 1 car and world-class overclockers in the same area, since they are both focused on optimal performance at the razor's edge of stability and reliability. Too cliché, I know...
GIGABYTE had reserved an entire floor in Taipei 101, which largely served as a launching pad for the company's Computex 2009 festivities. For the preparation day, a boardroom was prepared for the competitors with plastic on the floors to protect the carpets from liquid nitrogen (LN2) cold burns...if there is such a thing. Although we were 'only' 35 floors up, the view was extremely impressive despite the cloudy conditions.
GIGABYTE once again stepped up to the plate when it comes to LN2, with more than enough on hand to supply the 6 teams during both days of preparation and competion.
The stars of the day, and the topic of discussion that was most prevalent during the days ahead of the preparation day, were the brand new engineering sample Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition 3.33Ghz processors. Were they highly binned cherry chips? Were they just regular E.S samples? Everyone was anxious to get their hands on the chips, and once the 30 CPUs were brought out everyone swarmed around them. Unlike last year's event, where Hicookie pre-tested all the processors to ensure a level playing field, this year the teams would receive
5 chips each and could do their own binning. Everyone agreed that this was a fantastic idea, and should absolutely be the norm from now on at all large-scale overclocking competitions.
The motherboard of choice for this event was the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5, which we had the
opportunity to review, and which is a very stable model with aggressive performance characteristics.
On the graphics card front, each team received two
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 260 216SP cards to run in SLI configuration. Although more powerful GTX 285 or GTX 295 cards could have been used, the chosen GTX 260's were a good choice simply because every competitor was very familiar with them and the SLI world record was easily within reach. The Enermax Revolution 85+ 1050W unit served as the power plant for these highly overclocked system, and frankly it's one of the very best 1000W+ power supplies on the market (expect a review soon).
The competitors were supplied with Kingston HyperX PC3-16000 3GB triple-channel memory kits, which to the best of our knowledge is manufactured with Samsung's highly regarded HCF0 ICs. There is no denying that the competitors were a little disappointed with this kit, since everyone logically would have preferred memory featuring the record-breaking Elpida Hyper memory chips. Would this kit be a bottleneck? We'll find out shortly.
Each team was given two Intel X25-M 80GB SSDs, one with Windows XP SP3 pre-installed for the SuperPI 32M round and one with Windows 7 RC pre-installed for the 3DMark Vantage round.
Having received all their components, the competitors started to unpack the 'tools of the trade' that they brought from home and nearly everyone had K|ngp|n's F1 and Tek-9 copper LN2 pots. As long as Kingpin keeps manufacturing mounting brackets for these pots, they will continue to be used (and dominate) on all upcoming platforms and graphics cards.
It really did not take long for teams to start ripping apart their hardware. Here we see x800pro applying nail polish to one of the GTX 260's, in order to help seal the small electrical components from condensation, while his partner Lok begins insulating the motherboard.
Here Deanzo of Team Australia is soldering voltage read points to be able to measure the motherboard's actual vCore.
Elmor of Team Sweden is verifying the motherboard's resistance prior to starting the voltage modification, while his partner SF3D removes the plastic shroud from the GTX 260.
Likewise, Sno.lcn of Team USA 2 is removing the plastic shroud and stock cooler to expose the impressively large heatspreader of the NVIDIA GT200 core. You may notice that the core is labeled G200-103-A2, which means that it is a 65nm part. The newer cores manufactured on the 55nm process are labeled G200-10
3-
B2.
Miahallen, also of Team USA 2, is applying kneaded rubber to the motherboard, which will serve as the primary means of insulation. Kneaded rubber was really only introduced to the overclocking community last year, and since then it has arguably become the de facto means of insulating for LN2 sessions, effectively replacing the foam + Vaseline combo that was overwhelmingly used for years and years. Once you get used to applying it there is simply no going back to previous methods, since kneaded rubber comes off quickly and leaves no mess on the motherboard.
Here we see Vapor of Team USA 1 affixing thermal probes to both GPU pots and the F1. There's really no need to repeat that accurate temperature measurements are a must when overclocking with LN2, especially when dealing with components with cold bugs.
One of the fantastic new features of the Core i7 platform is the ability to easily remove the retention module with a 3mm allen wrench. What this does is give sub-zero overclockers a much larger and cleaner area to work with when insulating the motherboard and the socket itself, and I was actually surprised that many teams actually did not take advantage of this quick & easy trick.
After removing the socket, here we see Fugger applying kneaded rubber to the motherboard. As you can see, it does a great job at isolating the processor and it can be worked to conform to the base of any LN2 pot.
Here x800pro uses tape to form another insulating layer on the graphics cards, while Lok installs the motherboard onto his trademark benching platform.
Continuing their work on the UD5, Team Sweden's SF3D checks the resistance prior to starting a voltage modification, while Sno.lcn prepares the wiring for his GPU modifications.
Here we see pt1t from Team Belgium cutting and installing insulation foam for the motherboard, which as you can clearly see is a much more labour intensive process than with kneaded rubber method.
Miahallen of Team USA 2 puts the finishing touches of his motherboard insulation job, which closely mirrors Team USA 1's method.
Due to a shortage of 110V electrical outlets, Sno.lcn of Team USA 2 was forced to improvise and valiantly sat on the floor in that corner for more than an hour while doing all the necessary soldering for the GPU modifications.
Here we see Dinos22 of Team Australia loosening the plastic push-pins in order to remove the motherboard's cooling system, there is really not much love for stock coolers among this group.
While Elmor begins soldering a GTX 260, Deanzo applies a sealing coat of nail polish to the area around the CPU socket.
Team China was lightning quick in every respect, not only did they have their first graphics card insulated and modded way before anyone else, but they were the first to start getting the LN2 flowing as well.
Due to the highly secretive nature of the Volterra VT1165 multi-phase voltage regulator that is found on GTX 260 216SP 65nm cards, a discussion broke out regarding what teams if any had the overcurrent protection (OCP) modification. It was subsequently decided that since one or two teams knew the mod that it would be shared (by Dinos22) with everyone, since it could provide the knowledgeable teams with a significant advantage. With this in mind, Hicookie wisely chose to give every team a third GTX 260 just in case they damaged one of the other two while attempting this new modification.
The second team to have their system LN2-ready was Team USA 1, and here we see Fugger filling up a thermos. From what I recall the first boot attempt was not a success, but removing and switching around the memory modules fixed the issue quickly.
Here we see Dinos22 who was having way too much fun applying vaseline to the motherboard, while Deanzo begins modifications on one of the GeForce cards.
