Did anyone else win anything in Chicago?

[mbigna]

Because I sure didn't!

I came, I saw, I lost... Oh, well.

I still had an OK time. I'd say the crowd was a well-behaved bunch, but it was COLD! I estimate that there were about 1,000 people attending, +/- 200 or so. Considering that they gave away 200 CPU/Mobo combos, the odds were pretty good.

The AMD event staff did a good job of keeping everything on schedule. It seemed that everyone who wanted a ticket got there in time to get one. They cut it off right at 6:00 am, but I didn't see any last minute stragglers whining afterward asking for a ticket. They announced numbers starting at 6:15 and called 20-25 at a time so the people validating tickets and awarding prizes could keep up. In between each count they gave away t-shirts and computer tool kits. There was also the obligatory 'talent' contest at most every break for a chance to win a t-shirt. The highlight of the trip for me was the woman from Champaign, IL who burped her way through the entire alphabet (and she didn't even win). The last number was called shortly after 8:00 am.

I took a little video, and have attached a still photo from the DV cam. I took several others, but I didn't want to clog the board too much. If anyone cares to see any more, let me know.

[el]

Did you get her number? LMAO!

[Big_KiD]

I was there, I was the only one wearing a chicago Bears! stocking hat.. GO BEARS!!!! anyway I didn't walk away with anything but cold feet as well.. How about the two guys that joined there hands behind there backs and then brought them around to the front!!.. weird. stuff.. I asked the rep after if was over where the next one was and he said Minnenapolis?.. spelling?.. anyway too far for me to drive. Guess I will just have to bite the bullet and buy the 1.8XP.. sure would have been nice to take one home. at 219 that's plenty of cash to shell out.

[flounder43]

How early did you all get there? I know that they do a drawing, but how early did you need to get there to get a ticket?

thanks,
eric

[lemkepf]

Man! I really wish I could have gone! Too bad I had an early morning midterm exam. (I guess if you miss it you fail! :D )
What I would have done for a free 1800! (let's just say it would have been more than burping the alphabet!)

[mbigna]

How early did you all get there? I know that they do a drawing, but how early did you need to get there to get a ticket?

I got there at about 5:30 am. You could get a ticket as long as you got there by 6:00 am sharp. I took the pictures at about 5:45 am, but many had already gotten their tickets much earlier and went to McDonald's (which is out of view right of the frame), or to the grocery store (to the left of the frame) to get coffee and breakfast. By the time they started announcing numbers, the parking lot was full.

[Big_KiD]

got there around 4:00.. learn from my mistake. don't worry about getting there super early.. They give out the tickets to as many people that show up before 6:00.. I think the ones that arrived later were winning more .. They had 4 lines that everyone stood in. U stand in line freeze your butt off, then get your ticket and wait till 6:00.. no point in getting there early all people that showed up got a ticket. anyway at 6:00 one of the ladies got in the back of the truck and dumped the boxes of ticket stubs into one box.. THis is the key. if you can figure out which box will be the last box dumped you stand a better chance. At least I think you do.. I know that My lines box was on the bottom and only 1 guy one from my line won that i can remember. anyway it's pure luck well worth it.. It's a free chance at 1.8xp with mb and heatsink/fan. i don't see how you can go wrong. :eek:

[Zeke009]

Originally posted by Big_KiD
I asked the rep after if was over where the next one was and he said Minnenapolis?.. spelling

Spelling was close enough for me! Hmmm, I wonder where it will be in Minnesota. I have trouble getting out of bed for work... but I think I can get out of bed for this! ;)

[sendatooli]

not to be a party pooper, but i didnt even bother to go.
i actually figured a lot of people would show up at the brick yard.
geez they came from as far as 100 miles away!
now just figure if they held this in streeterville or lincoln park or even wicker park. haha. there would have been 10,000+ people!
but it wasnt worth my time to go to brick yard at 5: 00 am in the cold, to probably not to win. at first i told myself i was a pessimist to feal that way. now i see after the fact some of you also sorta feal that way. its easier to buy a power ball ticket and just loose. then go out of your way in the cold and stand there and watch some weird stuff. even though i am broke, i would just rather go buy my cpu.
well, at least the odds were pretty good now that i think about it 200 prizes to 1000 or so people. yeah, much better than power ball. hmm. maybe i shoulda went after all? ahh forgeddaboutit.
haha. i wondered why they picked a weird place like the brick yard. probably specifficly so 10,000+ people didnt show up and create a crowd problem.

well, now i can go buy mine! just tell me which one! "see my post: what would buy today?"

happy winnings!,
sendatooli.

[cowanrg]

i came, i saw, i conquered :-)

had my dad go for me actually, and it looks GOOD.

asked him to tell me about the chip, and its a AGKGA with Y stepping. and get this... i asked him to find the L1 dots. he found em... then i told him to close his eyes, and run his fingernails across the dots, in between, etc... "what am i feeling for?" i told him, and he got it under a magnifying glass and said its all perfectly smooth between the bridges. the whole packaging is flat and glass smooth... so it appears like i have NO pits! (he is pretty reliable, if they had pits, he would be able to tell).

so, looks like i got a GOOD chip!

[Zeke009]

Lucky dog! :D

[mbigna]

Originally posted by sendatooli
i wondered why they picked a weird place like the brick yard. probably specifficly so 10,000+ people didnt show up and create a crowd problem.

I believe that AMD chooses locations based on availability and extent where other business will or won't be affected. The Brickyard mall has a large parking lot and the south side of the strip mall was empty (not leased to any store). So they set up on the south side of the lot. Even so, the parking lot eventually filled up completely, and customers were having a hard time finding a spot. This is probably one of the reasons they put on these events so early.

AMD managed to keep the size of the events lower by not only by choosing to have the shows early on weekdays, but by announcing them only the day before the event is scheduled. This pretty much ensures that only the hard core enthusiasts show up. However, I'm not sure if this is the demographic (audience) that they need to 'exite.' Enthusiasts (like us here) already know all the benefits of using AMD processors. AMD needs to reach business people and the average technology challenged (PC for computer illiterate) home user looking to buy a new computer. These giveaways attract younger audiences, i.e., single students that probably don't have well paying jobs and can afford to blow a weekday morning. These people would likely buy AMD anyway--especially due to the cost effectiveness of their products. Unfortunately, the target audience, middle class families and business decision makers probably can't make these events because they have kids to take to school and jobs to get to on time. There are exceptions, of course, like me (when you own your own business, you get to make your own schedule) and cowanrg's dad (congrats, cowanrg!) who happened to be in right place at the right time.

Someone here (at Overclockers.com forums) calculated the estimated total cost of these giveaways to be several (2-4) million dollars. Really, this a small drop in the bucket as far as advertising is concerned. I think that AMD should spend more money on TV advertising. I liked the TV (game show type) ad where the doofus picked Intel over AMD and the train ran into his office. AMD needs to be exposed more to the average doofus and, unfortunately, that requires a branding campaign that requires TV time and therefore, requires 100's of millions of dollars. (Intel spent about a quarter [B]BILLION dollars on their 'Intel Inside' campaign (which includes some ridiculous amount they paid some firm for that annoying little 4-note jingle).

Disclaimer: I am not, nor ever have been, an employee, supplier, or contractor for AMD. I receive no monetary or other benefit from AMD or its affiliates in exchange for positive reviews of their products. I do believe in strong competition in the marketplace and I'm the kind of guy who always likes to root for the underdog--especially when they have better, albeit underadvertised, products (sigh...OS/2). I still own (and still use) a Cyrix based machine. However, if anyone at AMD is reading (and appreciating) my messages, feel free to send me any promotional material, pre-release CPU's, and reference boards that you wish.

[mbigna]

Originally posted by cowanrg
i came, i saw, i conquered :-)

had my dad go for me actually, and it looks GOOD.

asked him to tell me about the chip, and its a AGKGA with Y stepping. and get this... i asked him to find the L1 dots. he found em... then i told him to close his eyes, and run his fingernails across the dots, in between, etc... "what am i feeling for?" i told him, and he got it under a magnifying glass and said its all perfectly smooth between the bridges. the whole packaging is flat and glass smooth... so it appears like i have NO pits! (he is pretty reliable, if they had pits, he would be able to tell).

so, looks like i got a GOOD chip!

You WILL, of course, let us know here if you really have an UNLOCKED XP when you set up your new system, right? [GREEN with ENVY]

[cowanrg]

you guys will be the FIRST to know!

my dad and i are really cool. ever since i left for college, we got along MUCH better. (been living on own for about 3 years now).

he is shipping it 2nd day air. so i MIGHT have it by this weekend. if i dont, ill have it monday or tuesday for sure. im not going to mess with it until a weekend (i work all week, and am pretty tired, and dont like to mess with comp then). but i will open it up, and scan some pics of it in for you all... i really havent seen many people show pics of their acutal chips on here. if there are pits, i will make a divx movie of how to close them, etc. ;-) technology rocks!

[Zeke009]

FYI: The map has been updated on the AMD XP promo site. The map goes kinda fast so some of the cities are hard to make out.

[silent bob]

Originally posted by flounder43
How early did you all get there? I know that they do a drawing, but how early did you need to get there to get a ticket?

thanks,
eric
me and robjustice got there at 3:00am it would have been sooner but I could NOT get out of bed , robjustice got one ,I got this lousy T-shirt that says
AMD
www.xppccentral.com
and the back was the map of the cities they went to

[el Did you get her number? LMAO!
dude she was not good looking, you dont want it

[robjustice]

I did win a mobo/cpu and steve got a TeeShirt. We had planned on getting there about 2:00am, but when I got to SilentBobs, I could not get to wake up...We ended up getting there about 2:50 or 3:00 and meet some guys from St Louis, and had a pretty good time. Up until about 5:20 there was maybe 75 people, but shortly after, cars started pouring in. We hung out with the guys from St Louis and where kinda bummed that some people were getting 2 tickets.(They mark your hand when you get a ticket, but they would clean it off and then get back in line..They suck..) I think I won in the second to the last batch of 25. One of the guys(4)from St Louis won. All in All it was pretty good. Anytime you have a giveaway that attracts alot of people, there will be people that are stupid/do stupid things. I dont think it is AMD's fault, they tried to keep it moving and gave away alot of stuff.

[mbigna]

Originally posted by robjustice
I did win a mobo/cpu...Did your CPU come UN-Locked/UN-Pitted (like cowanrg's)? If so, could you post the stepping codes?

[robjustice]

Originally posted by mbigna
Did your CPU come UN-Locked/UN-Pitted (like cowanrg's)? If so, could you post the stepping codes?

Mine is pitted at the L1's, L3's,L5's-repeat mine IS pitted. The stepping is: AGKGA0139SPKW
Y6943420464

[sendatooli]

actually, it was cool that they held it at the brick yard(the middle of nowhere?). if they held it in say, stretterville it would have attracted the "target" audience, since bussiness men are swarming that area in the morning just footsteps from their offices. lawyers, lots of doctors, dentists etc. plus many people actually live there. hundreds. but, again i am glad they dont do that. it would make the odds of winning stink. well i wonder if they put the contest right under most bussiness mens nose' if they would even participate. just the very nature of this type of contest attracts mostly the single starved student/artist.


so maybe amd knows who their target audience is indeed?
ahhh, why am i rambling on? i didnt even go!


sendatooli.

p.s. i think i will probably order my xp 1500 or 1700 this afternoon. depends on what prices i find today.

[Optimus2575]

didn't win jack (here in Houston). man it was cold! all i got was a runny nose. there was about 1500+. i got there at 5:40. my hopes were really high, finally i was gonna replace my 200mhz comp :D but they called out 408, then 412. my number was 410 :(

[Big_KiD]

check this site out for the best pricing on new processors..


http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/weekly_cpu/

[lemkepf]

Another great website is....

www.pricewatch.com

[Rack]

I went to Chicago. My friend won (the ticket after mine!).
his was an AGKGA-Y, week 39 as well, but it was locked. :(
It still clocked up to around 1650 or so, didn't really test
it all that much.