Event Report: GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championship 2008

Competition Day

As mentioned above, the Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship 2008 was held on September 25th, which was a particularly beautiful day in Taipei, Taiwan:



The exact location of the competition was the palacial Grand Hyatt Taipei hotel in the Xinyi District, which is located right next to the world's tallest completed skyscrapper, the soaring 509.2 m/1,670.60 ft Taipei 101.


Despite jet lag and 6:00AM wake-up calls, the competitors were in good spirits and on-time for the 7:30AM registration. This was actually the first time that everyone was in one spot together, since the prior night's Welcome Party had been slightly undermined by the numerous typhoon-related flight delays.


Here we see Deanzo from Team Australia signing the Great Wall of Overclockers, which I'm sure is now in a prime location at Gigabyte Headquarters...at least it should be! Also, we have a good picture of Ross & Maxi from Team USA 1 with dinos22 & Deanzo of the aforementioned Team Australia. Due to their unusual height many suspected the Aussie/Kiwi combo of using performance enhancing drugs...


The competitors had to pick a number out of a box to determine which table they would be assigned to, this eliminated any possibility that the hardware that was already placed on each work space had been handpicked for an individual team. Each team was also given their respective national flag and an accompanying sign.


Naturally, there were some strategically placed promotional banners for the new Ultra Durable 3 technology which was launched during this event, and which we will be reviewing shortly in the form of the EP45-UD3P. My initial impressions of this new model are positive, it has a promising layout, and I'm looking forward to putting it through its paces. At around 8:00AM the hall doors opened and the competitors were now allowed to go to their respective tables.


As the teams familiarized themselves with their new hardware, and unpacked their sizeable carrying cases, the media settled in on our side of the red velvet ropes. However, as you will see shortly, a 3-foot barrier couldn't stop me from bringing Hardware Canucks readers up-close & personal coverage.


Looking around the venue, GIGABYTE had a system up & running using the soon-to-be-released EP45-UD3P motherboard, which is part of the new Ultra Durable 3 series. There was also an interesting wall displaying the numerous innovations that the company has introduced to the motherboard market on the years, but the lighting conditions regrettably caused havok on any attempt for up-close photography.


However, before joining the competitors, something shiney caught my eye. These little beauties are what the teams were competing for...along with pride, bragging rights, and ridiculously oversized checks.