[Deanzo]

It's that time of year again when OCF goes off and shows other forums what we are made of.

If you would like to take part, post in this thread.
We are looking at putting in two full teams so theres lots of room for everyone.
You do not have to be one of our benching team members to take part, this is open to all OCF members.

All I ask is, if you sign up, you play.



If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please read the rules below and ask away. We are here to help.

So who whats to play ?

The Rules.

Winter Warz 2009 Rules

Changes... (since the last war)
Water and Air only for the A thru E teams (BIG ONE)
Benchs are 3d03,3d06,SuPi,Wpri,GB
QX restriction in "E class" lifted
i7 restricted to UX, A & B Teams only
Benching sessions will be shorter... a little
Contest will be shorter (4 weeks)
Overclock Bonus from SuperPI added
Power of three Award
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Spirit of the Games... This is very Important!
Tweaks are allowed, FSB, Multi, Htt, Memory,Voltage, VGA Bus & Mem... ect
Cheats are not, Ram drives, no on-the-fly affinity modifications, modifying drivers ect
Note... not all has been mentioned here, just keep in mind "The Spirit of the Games"
Penelties for violating this will be harsh.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Winter Warz Dates.....
Prelim/Stock Testing: Feb 6th - 20th (Hardware upgrade cut off is the 20th)
Picking Rosters/Teams: Feb 22nd
Go to War: Feb 23rd - March 6th

ALL DEADLINES are on 11:59 CST US & Mexico
Take Note: These are hard deadlines, there will be no excuses for missing them (None)

Bench's used for Winter Warz and their Score weighting
Geekbench (10x score)(32bit version only)
3D03 (true score)
3D06 (4x score)
Super PI (7 sec = 120000 score) (version 1.5)
wPrime 32 (5 sec = 120000 score) (version 1.55)
Overclock Bonus (1000 points for every 1% OC on Super Pi)
****** All benchmarks can be found at www.forumwars.us ******

***IMPORTANT***
LINKS TO YOUR SCORES ARE REQUIRED WHEN POSTING A SCORE.
ALL SCREENSHOTS REQUIRE (2) CPUz & A TIMESTAMP.
MAKE SURE YOUR SCORE IS SUBMITTED BY CHECKING THE WEBSITE.
WINTER WARZ 2009 CLASSES

Unlimited Xtreme Class (3 player teams)
No upgrade restrictions
No unreleased architecture ES chips
No cooling restrictions
Anything goes...

The "A" class (3 player teams)
Unlimited downgrades per team
No Unreleased ES chips
Air or Water cooling only
Quad SLI/CF OK

The "B" class (3 player teams)
Unlimited downgrades per team
No Unreleased ES chips
Air or Water cooling only
Quad SLI/CF OK

The "C" class (3 player teams)
Unlimited downgrades per team
No i7 or Unreleased ES chips
Air or Water cooling only
3 GPU Maximum (Can be a 3870X2/1(or 4870X2/1), 3x 3870, or tr-SLI)

The "D" class (3 player teams)
Unlimited downgrades per team
No i7 or Unreleased ES chips
Air or Water cooling only
2 GPU Maximum (Can be a X2/GX2 or SLI/CF)

The "E" class (3 player teams)
Unlimited downgrades per team
No i7 or Unreleased ES chips
Air or Water cooling only
1 GPU Maximum (no X2/GX2 or SLI/CF)

The Rules......
Two systems per player maximum, 1 is reccommended
Second systems can be added to fill out the rosters (only 1 system can be on the A Team)
The 2nd Rig must have a different CPU and Reduced VGA.
Reduced VGA means if you use SLI, you cannot use the same set up on your 2nd Rig, you can only use 1 card.
But if you have a lesser set of VGA cards... thats OK!
Standard HDD performance tuning (like RAID) on ATA, SATA, SATA II are ok. No limit on # of HDD's.
Ram or Virtual Drives are not allowed. SSD's are ok.
Acceptable Operating Systems: Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, 2008 or Vista and all variants of each (32-bit/64-bit, home/pro/ultimate, etc.)
Acceptable Drivers: ALL (No driver limitation)
Acceptable Hardware: All (except unreleased ES chips and similar)
NO UPGRADES after Prelim Deadline, None... Period! (RMA's & Downgrades are ok, subject to validation for lesser hardware).
Forum Police can deny any posted score if not properly submitted
The Forum Wars Judges will vote on All Questionable scores
The "Police Station" is where the forum police will post a poll and discuss scores and rule clarifications.
This forum will be password protected.
All Forum Police will be registered in our Database and all scores will be entered into the database
then transferred to our spreadsheet. Then tabulated and posted on the TRP website (usually twice a week).
***No Unreleased hardware may be used in Team Scoring...
Players in the UX class can swap hardware for each bench. Please Note: If the UX player is entering 2 machines he CANNOT use the same VGA setup or CPU (used in the A-E classes) in the UX Class Machine
Everything else (covered by the rules) is ok and can be used at the players discretion.
Ultra cooled is defined as: Phase, Peltier, Dry Ice, Liquid Nitrogen and Cascades
(you dont have to redo all your tests to post an updated Score)

Participating Forums......
Each Forum must provide their own Forum Police (2 to 5 is preferred)
All cops will have access to "Forum Wars Police Station and the Courthouse" and the Database for Score entries
If a Forum has no forum cops players will be REQUIRED to post at The Raptor Pit on the Scoring thread.
Participating Forums need to create 3 threads
A discussions thread that I can link to from the main site for checking each other out and taunting
A closed "WINTER WARZ 2009 SCORING" thread (not hidden) (where all scores will be posted)
An "Forum player entry thread" to Recruit your Players and Cops
And of coarse... a passworded private forum for your players only.
Forums that wish NOT to Field an A Team will be required to have AT LEAST a B team

Teams and Catagories......
Unlimited Xtreme, A thru E Teams...3 players per team (1 team in each class counts toward the Overall)
No limit on Quad placement (but higher team placement is reccomended)(i7 are restricted to the UX, A & B Classes
Ultra cooled Rigs will ONLY be allowed in the Unlimited Xtreme Class
The Slacker class wil be used for all the late entries and do not count toward the overall
The Slacker class is unlimited... Anything Goes!!!
The Preferred Roster is to have your best players on the "A Team", second best on the "B Team" and so forth.
Ultimately you can build your rosters as you wish. (see bonus points)

Class Winners......
This Award goes to the winners of each class... A forum's best three scores combined to win the class entered

Power of three Award......
This is a new Award that goes to the winner of each forums best three scores combined (in any class... your best against their best)

Overall Scoring Award......
Forum final rankings from Unlimited Xtreme thru E teams are added up and the lowest total wins the overall Contest (Ultimate Win)
Tiebreakers are: fewest # of i7's then quads then SLI/CF rigs then coinflip
If multiple Teams from the same forum exist in each class, only the highest scoring team's ranking goes toward the "Overall" and "Bonus Points"

Bonus Points.......
When a forums A Team scores higher than their B Team, they will recieve 1 ranking point
When their B team scores higher than their C Team, they get another ranking point
When their C team scores higher than their D Team, they get 1 last ranking point. (3 bonus points Max)
This will only effect forums with a full or mostly full complement of players (18)
The bonus ranking points are totaled then deducted from the forums overall score ranking.
The lowest ranking wins the overall and 2 or 3 deductions can mean alot.
So most of the larger forums will comply by putting their best players on the A, hopefully their second best on B and maybe
play around with the rest of their players for best position with in the remaining teams. or stick it out and make their C
team their third best either by design or by accident....
Teams that wish NOT to Field an "A Team" will be required to have a "B Team" and are NOT eligable for the Ranking
bonuses.....

The Judges:
Coolcase (ASUS Independent)
Meltdown (Xtreme CPU)
Deanzo (OC Forums)
Intel Guy (PC Pitstop)
Luis GT (The Raptor Pit)
Jammin (OverClockers Club)
Hokiealumnus (The Raptor Pit)

FWs09 judges can participate as a player like anyone else in their forum, but if there is an issue involving them personally or a member of their forum, they are not allowed to vote as a judge. Forum Police & Judges can verify any score in any participating forum (they are global). Judges & Police cannot verify their own scores (submitting them at TRP is the quickest solution)
These rules will not be modified in any form. Any concern about the wording on specific issues will be voted on by the Forum Warz Judges. The polling outcome will be final and not be disputed. Any additions or clarifications approved by the administration will be added separately to the rules as ammendments, with no alteration to the original wording of these rules. The term "Awards" are for bragging rights (no gifts are given) The Gifts are given thru a random drawing at the end of the war.
*** Disclaimer***
TRP (The Raptor Pit) will not be responsable for any damaged, broken, bent or burned hardware as a result of Overclocking a Personal Computer. Any Player that Overclocks his/her PC... does so at their own risk and will not hold (TRP) responsable... If you enter (by posting a score) then you accept this agreement.

[MIAHALLEN]

For all of you considering this, it is a great event. The last three Warz (2007, Winter 2008, and Summer 2008) OFC has taken the competition hands down.

It is a lot of fun, and was the first competition (Winter 2008) I ever took part in. I learned so much through the event, and winning was icing on the cake.

Everone who enters has a chance to win a prize, as all prizes are awarded on a random basis...and the sponsors/prizes for this War are awesome!

Don't be shy, jump in and take part. It doesn't matter if you don't feel your system specs are up for the task, we will place you in a class where you can be most effective!

Like Deanzo said, feel free to ask questions here, we're here to help!

[Brolloks]

I can only echo what Miahallen has said...it is great fun and you really get to know your hardware's capabilities in many ways in a short timespan. Feel free to ask for tips or help to maximise your OC

Go get 'em guys.

[Archer0915]

HMMMM???? just ordered new cpu and cooler sounds interesting.

Does it matter how cool the air-water is?

[MIAHALLEN]

No, if you're using air cooling and you want to take your computer outside (and it's -20C)...you'll have a better shot at winning, and it's not cheating.

Many people using water cooling chill their water for max OC's.

[Deanzo]

Oh, talking about winning a prize.


CPU Mag is onboard again for 10 one year subscriptions
TRP will donate (CHOICE) either an Intel i7 920 or a Phenom II 940 CPU
AMD/ATI are interested and have us down for a Phenom 920 CPU, but not confirmed yet..
XCPU's will be donating a Coolermaster CM Storm Sniper Case
NZXT will be donating a Whisper Case, a Gaming Precision Mouse and an NZXT Sword (yes, a real sword)

And as posted above, all prizes are awarded on a random basis.
You just have to take part to have a shot at one of the above.

I want the Sword!, though another i7 would also be nice.

[MIAHALLEN]

I'd really like the PII 940

[mxthunder]

Whats the goal? What are we trying to accomplish? The highest 3dmark score?

[Particle]

"Cheats are not, Ram drives, no on-the-fly affinity modifications, modifying drivers ect"

How is any of that cheating if it genuinely gets the work done and faster? Cheating would be slowing down the system clock or something like that.

[Deanzo]

Originally Posted by mxthunder

Whats the goal? What are we trying to accomplish? The highest 3dmark score?

Best over all scores in GB, SPI, wPrime, 3D03 and 3D06.

Originally Posted by Particle

How is any of that cheating if it genuinely gets the work done and faster? Cheating would be slowing down the system clock or something like that.

There are ways to make benchtests think they are runing faster than they are, and known "bugs" for lack of a better word. That if you do X or change Y the score is higher than it should be.
There are also other things we just don't want used.

If you were into car racing, you could change the fuel (out side of the rules) to make it goo faster. But as it is outside of the rules, it would be cheating. Even though you may be able to make the lap time faster.

[sno.lcn]

A sword is a pretty damn sweet (and unique) prize

[Dolk]

Hmm If the weather permits, put me down for some CPU crunching with my PII 940. What do I do from here besides making time for crunching

[Deanzo]

In a little over a week, you'll need to post stock scores in all the benchmarks listed in the rules.
(I'll make a thread for that, and post a link in this thread so its easy to find)

Two weeks (or there abouts) you will need to post your overclocked scores in each of the benchmarks.

At the top of the score thread I'll post a "how to" of how to post your scores and what needs to been shown.

[Dolk]

Alright cool... Now this is really making want to go out and by a 4870x2

[Deanzo]

Well I think you should

[Dolk]

You got a spare $500 bill laying around

[liftedcj7on44s]

count me in. Ill have my 2 gtx295's tomorrow!!!

[Deanzo]

Originally Posted by liftedcj7on44s

count me in. Ill have my 2 gtx295's tomorrow!!!

Cool, wish mine were tomorrow

But I'll be keeping an eye out for your thread.

[liftedcj7on44s]

lol. dude i am grinning from ear to ear right now. I have never been so happy to see 1700 dollars go away from my bank account.

[Deanzo]

With that kind of thinking, you'll fit right in down here! LOL