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Computex 2007 – FiringSquad Invitational

written by John Chow on June 13th, 2007

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In its fourth year at Computex Taipei, the FiringSquad Invitational brings hardware manufacturers together in a friendly game of Command & Conquer. In addition to gaming, members of the technology media help select the best systems from a bunch of categories. The competing manufacturers pull out all the stops for the Invitational by bringing the most powerful system they can create.

While this is a competition, the Invitational is also a great networking opportunity – I’m face to face with the manufacturers that I deal with on a daily basis. It’s really more of a party than any serious competition – no on really cares who win or lose. The event took place on the 33rd floor of the Taipei World Trade Center. Not only is this a great local for the event, but the building offers a great view of the city.

After the Invitational, the competing manufacturers took the attending media out for a night on the town at one of the hottest clubs in Taipei. And wouldn’t you know, it was a lady’s night. Gee, I wonder if they planned that? For those who don’t know Asian clubs, lady’s night doesn’t mean ladies only. It means the girls get in first and drinks are free for them. After 9PM, when the girls are good and drunk, they let the guys in. Pretty evil, huh?

You Think The Display Is Big Enough?

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While not the most visually impressive, NVIDIA had the most powerful system at the Invitational. The center piece of the monster gaming rig is a 30″ Apple cinema display. You can literally see the entire battle field with it. Graphics is provided by two NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX in SLI mode.

NIVIDA should have walked away with the 3D Mark award but they forgot to optimize the system and lost to PowerColor’s less powerful ATI CrossFire setup. Just because you have the meanest system doesn’t mean you can win. You still need to tweak.

Playing Against The World’s Best Gamer

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Ryan Peterson, President & CEO of OCZ Technology, takes on Fatal1ty in a one-one-one match of Quake 4. Ryan is great at making RAM, but his Quake skills need work. The final score was too embarrassing to print. Then again, other players who went up against Fatal1ty didn’t do any better.

Gaming On A Palm Top

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Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel demos Quake 3 on a palm sized computer. He ran a timedemo on it and the little hand held put down a respectable 30 frames per second.

Winning Free Stuff

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Jessica Luken looks like she just won a 4GB OCZ Rally flash drive, but she is the marketing manager for OCZ and is really giving it away. Guess who won? :twisted:

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  1. ” 30″ Apple cinema display. ”

    God I wish I was there… 30″ is huge! Sounds like you had a great time John.

  2. Dude, John, don’t tell me you won again.

    By the way about lady’s night, does the guys get free drinks after they go in?

  3. Again John? Just give it to me… :)
    I’ve never even heard of Quake 4, but it looks like the party was a lot of fun.

  4. Looks like fun! My brother would love it there!

    Kelly

  5. Not again!!
    John you won 4GB OCZ Rally flash drive!?

  6. Dang….thats a crazy set up they have on there.

  7. Did I really just spend part of my day reading about a gaming convention…? (banging head on keyboard). NO GOD NO!
    Although … my son thought it all very cool.
    Catherine

  8. Lol seriously how the hell do you always win at these things lol. I never win at anything haha :cry:

  9. looks like alot of fun, the palm sized computer is an OQO model 2

  10. How do I get invited to these things? Or is it open to walk ins? :lol:

  11. John seriously, how do you win everything?

    FT

  12. Hey, enough with how you won every time they drew a prize out…. :roll:

    Isn’t it funny how you can win drawings like that and then never win a dime in the lottery.

  13. That monitor looks sweet. I feel inferior.

  14. yup ladies nite is awesome in taiwan. The clubs there are great. too bad this time im going there with my gf :???:

  15. Ladies night in tawain clubs r great. been there a lot in my college days. Going there in september too bad my gf is coming this time =(

  16. OK, this might be a silly question. Was the only thing from Apple at this show a monitor? Please tell me there was a gaming Mac somewhere in a dark corner or something.

    Looks like it was a fun show!

    • Mac? What’s that? Apple don’t do Computex.

    • Even though the Mac doesn’t do the whole gaming thing too much, you’d think they’d have some sort of presence…or is that part of the trick?

      “Hey, everyone is here…except Apple. Apple isn’t here, isn’t that weird? Apple never comes to these things. Why doesn’t Apple ever come to these things? Because Apple is a different kind of company. Ahh, so basically they’d rather be mysterious than fail miserably in front of millions? Yes.”

      (actual conversation overheard at Computex!)

  17. How old is Fatal1ty? :p

  18. what kind of witchcraft are you using john? :evil:

  19. I think you are having a great time at the show.
    By the way You are in my top alexa ranking list.

    Cheers

  20. Man those stuff is cool, i wonder if i had one of that cool cases.

  21. ohh.. they have a really beautiful marketing manager :)

  22. Wow!

    That nvidia is really nice. Perhaps i will be rich enough one day :D

  23. pretty sweet looking rigs in that room, but I wonder how hot it was in there.

  24. Richard Miller

    some people never get too old for a nice C&C deadmatch

Trackbacks

  1. propstm.net » Blog Archive » oqo model 2 much money! - June 14, 2007 at 1:30 pm
  2. Want To Play A Game? | John Chow dot Com - June 26, 2007 at 10:17 pm