GIGABYTE Announces the Z170 March OC Madness Competition

As eSports around the world takes off in one way or another, OC eSports is in full swing at Hwbot. GIGABYTE has put together another overclocking competition in time for “March Madness” (for those that don’t care about sports, March Madness is another name for the premier NCAA College Basketball Tournament – It’s MADNESS!). Below are some details and links for the competition from GIGABYTE. Go get ’em!

Kicking off March 12^th, the GIGABYTE Z170 March OC Madness Competition will challenge overclockers to push their motherboards and 6^th Gen Intel^® processors to the limit, in a two category, three stage competition that’s absolutemadness. This competition is open to all skill levels, with Novice, Rookie, Enthusiast, Elite and Extreme category levels allowing anyone to participate.

There are a number of cash and hardware prizes up for grabs! The winner for each category will be awarded $500 USD. In addition, participants that submit a score in all stages of their respective categories are eligible to enter a lucky draw for one of three GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 motherboards as the grand prize.

Here’s a breakdown of the categories and stages:

Category 1: Enthusiast, Rookie and Novice Overclockers

Stage 1: XTU

• Submissions open March 12
• Submissions close on March 24
• CPU frequency must be set at 4.5GHz max

Stage 2: HWBOT x265 1080p

• Submissions open on March 24
• Submissions close on March 31
• No restrictions, such madness!

Stage 3: SPI 32M

• Submissions open March 31
• Submissions close on April 9
• CPU frequency must be set at 4GHz max

Category 2: Elite and Extreme Overclockers

Stage 1: XTU

• Submissions open March 12
• Submissions close on March 24
• CPU frequency must be set at 5GHz max

Stage 2: Maxxmem Read Bandwidth

• Submissions open on March 24
• Submissions close on March 31
• No restrictions, such madness!

Stage 3: Geekbench Single Core

• Submissions open March 31
• Submissions close on April 9
• No restrictions, such madness!

Contest Rules

• This competition is limited to GIGABYTE Z170 motherboards only.
• Every submission must include the competition background and a picture of the rig.
• To be eligible for the lucky draw, participants must submit in all stages of one category.
• A participant is eligible to win only once. If a participant is a category winner, he will not be eligible for the lucky draw.
• In case of a tie, the tie-breaker is the best score in Stage 3. If there’s still a tie, the best score in Stage 2, etc.

For more details, check out the Hwbot/OC eSports website for this event: March OC Madness Competition

– Joe Shields (Earthdog)