NAG OC WORKSHOP @ rAge 2015
TURNING GAMERS INTO OVERCLOCKERS!
C
hange is ,as we are all
aware inevitable. In fact it is
mandated for all subjects of
the natural world. In our sporting
teams, traditional or otherwise. We
see new champions and the guard
constantly evolving allowing for new
competitors to enter the stage. This
is particularly true for all competitive
endeavours and overclocking is no
different. It is in light of this that, we
are great advocates for all things
related to amateur and novice
overclocking. From the hardware to
the live and online competitions. For
the seasoned competitor these may
not be interesting at all, but it is from
this talent pool where the next 8 Pack,
Dancop, XtremeAddict, der8auer,
Rbuass, steponz, etc. will come from.
For there was a time when none of
these individuals were taking part in
overclocking, at least at this level.
In light of this, it was decided that
we would embark on a series of
overclocking workshop and amateur
competitions going forward. These
would be live competitions sponsored
primarily by NAG Online, which is
former gaming and technology print
magazine. For roughly 18 years,
the publication served as one of the
few sources of cutting edge gaming
related and PC DIY technology news.
16 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015
Having made the transition to an
online only publication, 2015 saw
what we can only hope to be the first
of many overclocking workshops and
amateur overclocking competitions.
This year’s event took place in
Johannesburg, South Africa at the
largest gaming expo dubbed "rAge"
(really awesome gaming event). At
rage 2015, we – TheOverclocker
Magazine - had the opportunity to
work with of course NAG Online,
CORSAIR, G.SKILL and MSI to bring
the first NAG OC workshop. During
this three day event, those with
little to no experience overclocking
would have the opportunity to learn
about overclocking and compete for
prizes, provided of course by the
aforementioned sponsors. What made
this of particular interest is that, show
attendees were able to take part,
many for the first time in what they
had only read or heard about
elsewhere, but never tried for any
number of reasons.
Providing the platform however,
isn’t enough and as the name of the
event suggests. This was a workshop
and as such, expert advice from
at least two seasoned and elite
overclockers was a must. These
two competitors came in the form of
ViVi and dRweEz, which many elite
overclockers are familiar with. If only
because, these happen to be the best
overclockers that have ever emerged
from that corner of the globe. Yours
truly helped with some coaching,
along with local hardware enthusiast
Warren “Tweak” Kramer. Over the
three day event, entrants received a
20 to 30 minute coaching session, then
had the opportunity to compete over a
period of 90 minutes.
During the coaching session,
entrants were taught how to capture
valid HWBOT screenshots, introduced
to INTEL XTU and 3DMark FireStrike.
These two benchmarks proved
perfect for the workshop, highlighting
CPU frequency, memory tweaking,
overclocking and GPU clock tuning.
The three fundamental domains of
overclocking at every level. Since this
was an introduction to overclocking
and an amateur event, there was no
use of the Liquid Nitrogen or Dry Ice.
Competitors made use of the CORSAIR
Hydro Series H80i cooler, which
proved more than capable of handling
the INTEL Core i7 6700K CPU, well up
to 4.9GHz in some instances.
Power was delivered by the
CORSAIR RM650, GPU and
motherboard provided by MSI and
LCD displays by BenQ. The MSI
Z170 Gaming M7 served as the base