Round 1 of the Old School is Best School contest gets underway today. Let's take a look at the entirety of Season 4, plus the hardware and benchmarks that we can look forward to.

Today we are pleased to announce the return of the Old School is Best School contest on OC-ESPORTS, a team overclocking contest created specifically for overclockers that enjoy revisiting very old, classic hardware and benchmarks. Each month-long round features three to four stages that will have you raiding your lofts, man caves and cellars in search of CPUs, boards and memory from a bygone age. Let’s have a look at what we have in store for you in Season 4, which kicks with Round 1 and a challenge centered on the classic Socket 7 which actually hails from a time before many of our Rookie members were born.

Round 1: Socket 7 (1997) - February 15th - March 15th

Round 1 of the Old School is Best School contest is all about the classic Socket 7 which harks back to 1997. This means benching with Intel P5 Pentium MMX and AMD K6 architecture processors. All CPUs however must be manufactured using the 0.35 micron fabrication process. Benchmarks include CPU-Z - Max CPU in Stage 1, SuperPi 1M in Stage 2 and CPU-Z - Percentage OC for Stage 3. Verification screenshots and system pictures are required for each stage.

A shot of a Socket 7-compatible Intel Pentium P54C processor.

Find the Old School is Best School, Round 1 contest page here.

Round 2: Socket 370 (1998)

In Round 2 of the Old School is Best School contest overclockers are invited to revisit Socket 370 from 1999 using only Mendocino core CPUs. Motherboards are restricted to non-Intel chipset boards. Benchmarks include CPU-Z Validation - Max CPU in Stage 1, SuperPI 1M in Stage 2 and Wprime 32M in Stage 3. Verification screenshots and system pictures are required for each stage.

An MSI MS-6337 Socket 370 motherboard.

Round 3: Slot A (1999)

In Round 3 of the Old School is Best School contest we find a chance to revisit 1999’s Slot A armed with only Argon and Pluto core processors. Only NVIDIA GeForce 256 GPUs are allowed. In Stage 1 of Round 3 it’s all about CPU-Z Reference Clock, while in Stage 2 overclockers are tasked with benching on SuperPi 1M. Stage 3 involves benching the classic 3DMark 2001. Verification screenshots and system pictures are required for each stage.

An ASUS K7M Slot A motherboard.

Round 4: Socket 423 (2000)

In Round 4 of the Old School is Best School contest we have an opportunity to go back in time and bench on the classic Socket 423 (no adapters allowed). Only NVIDIA GeForce 3 series VGA cards are allowed. Stage 1 is all about SuperPi 1M while Stage 2 involves wPrime 32M. Stage 3 takes us back in time to Aida64 Memory Read while Stage 4 is focused on 3DMark 2001. Verification screenshots and system pictures are required for each stage. Note: No adapters allowed.

A WinFast GeForce3 Ti 500 card from Leadtek in November 2001.

Round 5: Socket 754 (2003)

Round 5 of the Old School is Best School contest revisits CPUs from the Socket 754 era in 2003 with specific NVIDIA and ATI GPU limitations. Stage 1 focuses on SuperPi 1M while Stage 2 is is focused on HWBOT X265 1080P. Stage 3 involves 3DMark2003 using any NVIDIA 6 Series card or below. Stage 4 involves the more modern 3DMark Cloudgate benchmark using any ATI AGP series graphics card. Verification screenshots and system pictures are required for each stage. Note: No adapters allowed.

An ASUS K8V-MX-S-Socket-754-compatible motherboard.

Last year, with four wins out of five rounds, the HwBox Hellas O/C Team were crowned Old School is Best School champions of the 2017 season. With Old Timers Stelaras and zafiropoIf at the helm, HwBox Hellas O/C were in fact OSiBS champions for the second year running. Once again in 2018, you can expect them to be competitive. Other teams to watch out for include Warp9-systems, Overclock.net, XtremeOverdrive OC team Italy and Alza OC. If you belong to a team interested in some thoroughly ‘old school’ overclocking, go ahead and get involved in Round 1 of the Old School is Best School contest.