Computex 2014 Wrap up and MSI MOA Americas Qualifier
It has been two months since the last Hardware Asylum Podcast and while we strive to have regular episodes posted for our listeners there are times when life gets in the way and schedules clash. Dennis and Darren had difficulty being in the same state over the past two months and sadly, the podcast suffered. Well, the duo is back and starts the podcast off with a brief introduction as to what has been happening.
We should also mention that two months can wreck havoc on remembering mundane details like the warranty length on the new Gigabyte Black Edition motherboards which is 5 years and not the 3 that was mentioned in the podcast.
Computex 2014 Wrap up
In this segment Dennis tells us about some of the stuff he saw at the Computex 2014 show including some new “next generation” motherboards that should dominate the performance charts this holiday season. While the hardware showing appeared to be lacking this year the number of overclocking events exploded!
First was the GSKill OC World Cup that allowed anyone lucky enough to qualify the opportunity to overclock on the GSKill OC World Stage for a chance to win $10,000 USD in prize money. The trick was you had to pay your way to Taiwan and the bulk of the prize money was for first place only.
The Second event was the Intel OC Challenge which was hosted in conjunction with the launch of Devils Canyon and the Pentium Anniversary Edition. Dennis calls the event a success but was more a press conference with overclocking booth guys than a real overclocking competition.
The Third event was the Kingston HyperX Overclocking Takeover. This was another invite only overclocking event that was a smaller part of the e-sports event they were hosting. As expected the overclocking show was cramped and placed off to the side but featured real prize money and was even broadcast live on Twitch.tv by Overclocking.tv
The Final overclocking event was the HWBOT Overclockers Gathering held over the weekend after Computex. This was another invite only event such that you needed to register to attend and if you wanted to overclock you had to pay for a spot. Overall the event was hugely successful in attendance and allowed overclockers attending Computex a way to hangout after the show.
Of course there were random overclocking events at Computex including the GSKill OC World Stage and some individual overclockers at some of the vendor booths. Dennis claims that Computex is not the same as it once was. Back in the early days there was a certain badge of honor in attending the show and having the ability to see hardware first hand. Sadly, these days manufactures do what they can to launch information early and by the time the trade show starts everyone knows everything already. In fact the hardware media sitting at home in their slippers often gets better coverage.
MSI MOA Americas Qualifier
During the month of July Dennis was busy overclocking for the MOA Americas Qualifier and actually did pretty good. Like in 2013 there were two overclocking classes, Class A and Class B. Class B is the “cheap chips” class using lower end hardware with the idea that more people can complete. Class A has more specific requirements like R9 video cards, Z97 motherboards and Core i7 4790k and 4770k processors.
Dennis competed in Class A and actually did quite good with a top 20 global Unigine Heaven score and finished 6th overall. Sadly only the top 4 got to go so, it is back to the drawing board for next year.
Episode 43 featured music:
Little People - Start Shootin' (http://www.littlepeoplemusic.com/)
Miami_Slice - Far East Persuasion (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Miami_Slice/Brooklyn_2_Brooklyn/B2_Miami_Slice_-_Far_East_Persuasion)
