For those of you who don’t know what overclocking is, it is the act of pushing a central processing unit (CPU) or any other computer component beyond the speed intended by the manufacturer. Many gamers do this to push the limits of their current rig, and if done correctly and with the right amount of money (usually to purchase multiple case fans and liquid cooling), it can be beautiful, and you can save some money for your next upgrade; do it incorrectly and be prepared for broken hardware and an even emptier wallet.
A group of professional overclockers, such as TeamRU members Smoke and 12, Hazzan (who previously took part in ROG’s Absolute Zero event), Piwor, and ROG professional hardware maestros Andre Yang and Shamino, visited ASUS headquarters in an effort to set all-new global benchmarking records. Using ROG Maximus V Extreme motherboards, Intel® Core™ i7-3770K processors, and ample liquid cooling, the team succeeded in breaking existing records in four categories. The program used to measure these records was SuperPi, which determines the stability of your CPU. These records included a 7.1843GHz CPU clock speed, 5.094 seconds in SuperPi 1M, 4 minutes 43 seconds in SuperPi 32M, and 10.16 seconds in PiFast.
The assemblage employed copious amounts of liquid helium and nitrogen in the endeavor, accomplishing a new CPU clock speed record of 7.1843GHz using Intel® Core™ i7-3770K. For SuperPi 1M, 5.094 seconds stands as the latest world record, while in the related SuperPi 32M a landmark 4 minutes 43 seconds was achieved. Finally, the attendant overclockers succeeded in breaking the previous PiFast record, netting a 10.16-second benchmark.
The motherboard used at the event was a ROG Maximus V Extreme Intel® LGA 1155/Z77 motherboard. It comes loaded for tuning duty with features such as OC Key hardware-level system overclocking, Subzero Sense cryogenic cooling temperature reading, and solder-free VGA Hotwire graphics card overvolting, also on the hardware level.
A video of the event can be viewed here.