ASUS ROG Showdown at DreamHack Winter 2009 is a gathering of some of the finest overclockers in Europe battling for the victory, honor and computer hardware with the best of hardware around.
Round one of ASUS ROG Showdown was a nerve shattering story where Jon “elmor” Sandström finally walked off victorious. Competition was divided into two rounds where Jonas “Mean Machine” Klar took the lead in the first round and got the best score in 3DMark Vantage Performance. After a short break and switching systems the roles were reversed and Elmor could collect a strong result with the second system and the victory in the first quarter final. Mean Machine didn’t manage to get a result in the second round where he had to struggle with a stubborn and problematic system.
The quarter finals of ASUS ROG Showdown goes on for 2 x 45 minutes where they switch system in the middle and finally tally up the scores and the best total scores goes on to the next round. The score of the first quarter finals were as follows;
Elmor: 27189 points + 28544 points = 55733
Mean Machine: 27720 points + 0 points = 27720
The systems used were as follows:
– Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
– ASUS ROG Maximus III Formula
– ASUS EAH5870 (2 in CrossFireX)
– ASUS ROG Notebook for ROG Connect
– OCZ DDR3 w/ Elpida Hyper, OCZ Vertex Turbo 120GB
– OCZ Z Series 1000W Gold Certified Modular
– Intel core i7 870
We take the opportunity to congratulate Elmor and wish him good luck in the semifinals tomorrow.
There were three more quarter finals and we will be covering them on the following pages. We have one more Swede in the competition in the form of Henry “ME4ME” de Kruijf who went head to head with Finnish overclocker SF3D.
Elmor with his mascot
We were of course glad to get a Swede in the semifinals of ASUS ROG Showdown already and in the end it turned out to be Jon “elmor” Sandström who drew the longest straw. We had a quick chat with Elmor on the competition and him moving on to the next round. Among others we discussed the decision to use locked systems for a more fair competition where both participants will use the same system, while creativity is inhibited by disallowing any outside cooling or modifications of the hardware.
The text has been translated into English for your convenience. Ed
NH: What’s your take on the competition and the idea of switching systems in the middle of the contest?
Elmor: It’s fun to try something new and it minimizes chance. But at the same time it takes a long time for each round and it will only work with these small event with few participants. It will be fun to follow for those watching two people battling head to head.
NH: How did it feel to meet Jonas in the first quarterfinal, you have done a lot of overclocking together in the past?
Elmor: It was fun and sad at the same time, but this is a friendly competition. It was fun to meet but it’s a shame one of us had to go in the first round. All three Swedes are in the same bracket which means we won’t see an all Swedish final, which could have been fun.
NH: What are your chances in the competition, which of the other overclockers do you think can threaten in the finals?
Elmor: They are all good and there is a reason they are here. If I were to tip a winner beside myself I would say SF3D or Massman. But it would perhaps be a bit dumb to say SF3D since we will be meeting in the semifinal if he wins his quarterfinal. I’m not completely happy with the draw, but you have to make the most of you get. 🙂
We thank Elmor for his time and wish good luck in tomorrow’s Semifinal!
Elmor in action
Alas, from our patriotic point of view, it was Finnish overclocker SF3D that took home the the second quarterfinal of ASUS ROG Showdown. He met up with the third Swedish overclocker, Henry “ME4ME” de Kruijf who couldn’t quite keep up when Petri scored two very good results in both round. After a weak start Henry showed that he was well worth his place in the competition with a really good 3DMark Vantage result in the second half.
The final scores were as follows;
SF3D: 28109 points + 27943 points = 56052
ME4ME: 25081 points + 28238 points = 53319
This means we will having Sweden vs. Finland in the semifinal tomorrow. Between Elmor and SF3D where Elmor actually picked SF3D as one of the favorites for winning the tournament, next to himself of course. It will be an even struggle that we will be following tomorrow, but until then we have two more quarterfinals to talk you through.
The third quarterfinal of ASUS’ overclocking competition at DreamHack reached its end earlier today and in the battle between Germany and Italy it was Stummerwinter from Germany that came out on top. Giorgioprimo was beat in both rounds and will miss out on a seat in the semifinals.
Who Stummerwinter will meet will be decided in the last quarterfinal between Sampsa and Massman.
The final score from the third quarterfinal was as follows;
Stummerwinter: 28386 points + 28177 points = 56563
Giorgioprimo: 27073 points + 28320 points = 55393
Stummerwinter + Kinc
Giorgioprimo
The last quarterfinal of ASUS ROG Showdown ended just recently and once again it was Finland winning it. Sampsa from muropaketti took a comforting lead in the first round since Belgian competitor Massman from Madshrimps didn’t managed to get his system under control and only walked off with a result in the second period.
The struggle between Sampsa and Massman ended like this;
Sampsa: 28159 points + 27547 points = 55706
Massman: 0 points + 27763 points = 27763
Sampsa
Massman
As the first day of ASUS ROG Showdown comes to an end we have a hunch of what the participants can do with these systems, but also the systems themselves. Several experienced users have had problems with the LGA1156 platforms where specifically a stubborn coldbug made things very difficult for two participants that failed to get any results with that particular system.
The overall opinion of the overclockers is that LGA1156 platform is a bit tricker to get really high, like the speeds they have grown accustomed to with the LGA1366 platform. Despite the problems we have seen some really nice results and below we have summarized the total scores the individual users reached during each quarterfinal, two 3DMark Vantage Performance round have been summed up to a total score.
- Stummerwinter (Germany): 56563 points
- SF3D (Finland): 56052 points
- Elmor (Sweden): 55733 points
- Sampsa (Finland): 55706 points
- Giorgioprimo (Italy): 55393 points
- ME4ME (Sweden): 53319 points
- Massman (Belgium): 27763 points (one system)
- Mean Machine (Sweden): 27720 points (one system)
The four most fortunate overclockers are also those that we will be seeing the semifinals tomorrow where the first starts at kl 11.00 between Elmor and SF3D. The winner of this semifinal will get to meet Sampsa or Stummerwinter after they go head to head in the second semifinal at 14.00.
We will return with the conclusion and more information from DreamHack Winter 2009.
