No Ones Care About Your Biz Opp. Click Here To Learn More.
 




Get Reviewed by this Blog for only $500
DealDotComTTZ MediaPerformancing Ads
Pepperjam NetworkBidvertiser
Text Link AdsKonterra

pcrace1.jpg

The Tiger Direct Build Your Own PC for Charity Race pits 30 of the world’s top technology media outlets in a race to see who is the fastest PC builder. While the event is for fun and all the PCs goes to charity, all the racers take this event very seriously. We’re racing for pride and bragging rights!

The event last for four hours but the race itself last only 30 minutes (the first 3.5 hours is all drinking, eating and partying). Most of the PC components are already installed. You just need to add the DVD drive, floppy drive, hard drive, video card, sound card, wireless card and the cables. The first one to put everything together and log into the network wins.

The prize for winning the race is $10,000 for first, $2,500 for second and $1,000 for third. The money doesn’t go to the racer. It is donated, along with the PC, to the charity of the winner’s choice. My PC will be donated to the BC Women’s Hospital. I’m sure all the doctors and nurses will be fighting over that 28″ monitor. The total value of each PC is $3,500. Tiger Direct has raised over $1 million for various charities since starting this event 11 years ago.

pcrace2.jpg

The above times are the unofficial results. Stephen Fung finished his PC ahead of everyone else. However, upon inspection it was discovered that he forgot to plug in the power to his DVD drive. That mistake moved him to second place and moved Will Smith of Maximum PC magazine to first place. Third place forgot to plug in the power to his floppy drive. That moved me to 3rd place. However, upon inspection of my PC, they discovered that I also forgot to hook power to my floppy drive, so I stay at 4th place.

Find out what I am doing right now by following me on Twitter! If you like this post then please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (12 votes, average: 3.17 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

Here's A Few More Related Posts

  • Just Checking In
  • 2007 CES - Partying Like It’s 1999
  • You Click A Button, He Donates A Dollar
  • Too Many Parties!
  • You Can’t Beat NASCAR

    RSS feed

    71 Comments

    Comment by Tyler Ingram
    2008-01-09 13:12:46
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Do people still use floppy drives? lol Nice job guys on building the PCs. Too bad Stephen can’t gloat about being First Place eh ;)

    Comment by Alan Johnson
    2008-01-09 13:28:08
    MyAvatars 0.2

    This is definitely a competition where everybody wins :)

    Some very impressive results, congratulations to all of the people who have taken part, a very nice gesture,

    Alan Johnson

     
    Comment by John Chow
    2008-01-09 15:05:02
    MyAvatars 0.2

    That was the same question I asked. I haven’t built a PC with a floppy in forever! I can be excused for not hooking up the power. However, how Stephen can forget to hook power to the DVD drive is beyond me!

    Comment by Shaun Carter
    2008-01-09 16:21:59
    MyAvatars 0.2

    That’s exactly what I was thinking when I read that. I haven’t used a floppy in a VERY long time! Next year they should use a different drive in place of it.

     
    Comment by Stephen
    2008-01-09 17:36:40
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Despite the smack talk that you gave me, I still beat you…even with a penalty :lol: ;)

    Comment by Online Freebies
    2008-01-09 17:57:51
    MyAvatars 0.2

    You guys should have had a side bet, right Stephen.

    (Comments wont nest below this level)
     
     
    Comment by Will
    2008-01-09 21:37:31
    MyAvatars 0.2

    When I first saw a laptop without a floppy drive I freaked! To me, it would be very pointless to even have a laptop if that were the case. Yea, I didn’t know about usb drives back then lol. :oops:

     
    Comment by David Chew
    2008-01-10 08:31:47
    MyAvatars 0.2

    So you were trying to say you could win first place in the event if you knew. :mrgreen:

     
    Comment by Stephen
    2008-01-10 10:23:28
    MyAvatars 0.2

    I actually didn’t forget, but that’s OK. My charity got a bunch of money and some new hardware :mrgreen:

     
     
    Comment by Chris Jacobson
    2008-01-09 19:14:25
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Will Smith…lol… nice.

    Do they check to make sure the PCs are put together neatly inside? I wouldn’t want something with wires going every which direction and looking all sloppy.

     
     
    Comment by Seopher
    2008-01-09 13:14:37
    MyAvatars 0.2

    I recon I could do it faster… :twisted:

    Stephen must be quite quick to have such a lead over everyone else - I bet this was fun. Most of CES looks fun.

    Comment by Stephen
    2008-01-09 17:47:43
    MyAvatars 0.2

    I am actually certain I could have broken 8 minutes, but I had too much coffee beforehand and started to have the caffeine jitters. I dropped my screws on the floor twice and lost one in the case and had to shake it out.

    I would have really enjoyed a full build from beginning to end. Unfortunately, some of the people would have taken longer than the length of the event to finish. The last guy took over 40 minutes.

    Comment by David Chew
    2008-01-10 08:24:07
    MyAvatars 0.2

    You were pretty fast. :grin:

     
     
     
    Comment by Joy
    2008-01-09 13:16:26
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Congrats! What a great event to be a part of. It was fun watching the video. How distracting was that music when you were building your PC?

     
    Comment by WannaSmile
    2008-01-09 13:17:53
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Very cool idea…now, if only I could build ma’ own pc….
    http://www.wannasmile.com

     
    2008-01-09 13:18:21
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Maybe you could get one of those 28″ monitors as a giveaway on the blog here. Now that would be cool!

    Comment by David Chew
    2008-01-10 08:25:51
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Is that really a 28 inch monitor, it doesn’t look like, looks more like a normal 19 inch monitor.

     
     
    Comment by MoneyNing
    2008-01-09 13:22:03
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Wow those are fast times. I remember my friend told me people at factories build 8 machines PER DAY :)

    Comment by Online Freebies
    2008-01-09 15:15:14
    MyAvatars 0.2

    These guys had most of the work done for them already. :mrgreen:

     
     
    Comment by Web Cosmo
    2008-01-09 13:22:04
    MyAvatars 0.2

    You got good speed! Third isn’t bad, better luck next time.

     
    Comment by MoneyNing
    2008-01-09 13:23:19
    MyAvatars 0.2

    We should make Stephen cough up the $2500 winnings and donate it to charity though! :)

    Comment by John Chow
    2008-01-09 15:06:05
    MyAvatars 0.2

    The prize money, along with the PC, is donated to charity.

     
    Comment by Nicholas James
    2008-01-09 15:37:26
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Its all donated to charity :wink:

     
    Comment by Stephen
    2008-01-09 17:38:19
    MyAvatars 0.2

    John should match my $2500 and give it to the same charity ;)

     
     
    2008-01-09 13:45:27
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Cool contest but kinda odd for a “Build Your Own PC” that half of the components are already installed :razz:

     
    Comment by Josh Buckley
    2008-01-09 13:48:48
    MyAvatars 0.2

    ooh! Will smith came second!

     
    Comment by Youfoundjake
    2008-01-09 14:06:02
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Yeah, I agree, half the components already installed?
    I think next year they should include the placing of the motherboard and setting jumpers and stuff to the task list. That should bump me to about 15 mins. :cool:

     
    Comment by Invest with Dax
    2008-01-09 14:14:02
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Sometimes you gotta slow down to speed up.

     
    2008-01-09 14:23:42
    MyAvatars 0.2

    That looks fun! Congratulations on 4th place John. :wink: Remember to plug the power into the floppy drive next time!

     
    Comment by Mike Huang
    2008-01-09 14:31:06
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Will Smith huh…great name for that guy :)

    And congrats to all the winners :)

    -Mike

     
    Comment by
    2008-01-09 14:33:07
    MyAvatars 0.2

    John :
    http://www.stephenfung.net/ (.net)
    not .com

    Comment by Online Freebies
    2008-01-09 15:13:26
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Cut him some slack, he is probably drunk at CES.

    Comment by Stephen
    2008-01-09 17:39:05
    MyAvatars 0.2

    This is true :grin:

    Comment by Online Freebies
    2008-01-09 18:03:57
    MyAvatars 0.2

    And Stephen is too drunk to notice too.

    (Comments wont nest below this level)
     
     
     
     
    Comment by Mike Huang
    2008-01-09 14:38:10
    MyAvatars 0.2

    BTW…Us Asians already look bad with mustaches, but adding a beard? Mr. Fung needs to start shaving :)

    -Mike

    Comment by Stephen
    2008-01-09 17:41:50
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Asians can’t grow bears….but I can :mrgreen:

    Comment by Stephen
    2008-01-09 17:42:39
    MyAvatars 0.2

    err…beards…

    Comment by Online Freebies
    2008-01-09 18:05:35
    MyAvatars 0.2

    And I was right above about Stephen being drunk :mrgreen:

    (Comments wont nest below this level)
     
     
     
     
    Comment by ATV Style
    2008-01-09 14:46:27
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Forgetting to power up a floppy drive is a good thing in my book. Does anyone even use them anymore? lol. Great stuff John.

     
    Comment by Online Freebies
    2008-01-09 15:12:39
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Remind me never to have you guys work on a PC for me :mrgreen:

     
    Comment by Amy
    2008-01-09 15:37:13
    MyAvatars 0.2

    What a really cool concept :) It sure looks like a lot of fun too!

     
    Comment by Nicholas James
    2008-01-09 15:38:47
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Congrats, still a fast speed! :grin:
    Its the sort of thing that’s a win-win for everyone.

     
    Comment by
    2008-01-09 15:40:32
    MyAvatars 0.2

    looked like a lot of fun, and for a good cause.

     
    2008-01-09 15:46:31
    MyAvatars 0.2

    You built a PC in 11:32? I doubt if I could open mine that fast. Big deal if you forgot to plug something in, somebody would have figured it out.

     
    Comment by Recruitnik
    2008-01-09 16:40:12
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Well done! It would have take me at least 15 hours and it would be made of Legos!
    Cheers,
    Recruitnik
    http://recruitnik.net

     
    Comment by Rob Leslie
    2008-01-09 17:24:33
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Me and a former co-worker had a major school order that required 80 or so pc’s to have there hard drives swapped. Standin at the table..it eventually turned into a race. It was a lot of fun.

    Lesliemedia.com

     
    Comment by Youfoundjake
    2008-01-09 17:26:59
    MyAvatars 0.2

    John, do you have any 468×60 banner ads?

    Free ads (with nofollow) to the first 97 people that contact me. 468×60 banner ad only at this time.
    Why is it free? Low impression site, heeh.
    The other 3 are reserved for John, Shoe, and Aaron.
    No fancy gimmicks, just documenting the process for a later post :)

    Comment by Online Freebies
    2008-01-09 18:06:58
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Can I get one?

     
     
    2008-01-09 17:41:29
    MyAvatars 0.2

    I noticed someone questioning floppy drive usefulness. They’re extremely helpful for creating a boot disk when installing Ubuntu Linux. :wink: Beyond pointing out this obvious use I can not image they’re employed beyond booting; their days are numbered.

    Comment by Online Freebies
    2008-01-10 05:56:36
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Useful for Linux, but Microsoft has rendered them obsolete.

     
     
    Comment by Simon Lau
    2008-01-09 18:11:40
    MyAvatars 0.2

    A floppy? Just remembering where the heck that old piece of hardware goes would add seconds to your time :P
    Great event and for a great cause

     
    2008-01-09 18:30:27
    MyAvatars 0.2

    So you didn’t get anything for 4th place? Bummer…

     
    Comment by Benny Ong
    2008-01-09 18:41:21
    MyAvatars 0.2

    That was freaking close and shows how competitive you are. Well done! The doctors will be so happy to get a new computer. :smile:

    Comment by David Chew
    2008-01-10 08:29:32
    MyAvatars 0.2

    A free new pc, everyone is happy. :grin:

     
     
    Comment by David
    2008-01-09 19:05:58
    MyAvatars 0.2

    Looks like that must have been fun.

     
    Comment by Shy guy
    2008-01-09 19:31:28