Reality Check Minneapolis

skou said:

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!

We might be wierd, but we're friendly.

steve

Click to expand...

I think I just might like this place!

Really stupid question...

All of this about the floppy cable..the idea is to get this rig up and running in the shortest amount of time, right??

Why not boot from CD?? Bypass the floppy altogether?? What OS are they using?

B.

PontifexMaximus said:

I think I just might like this place!

Click to expand...

I am sure you will.

It is good to see yet another Minnesota overclocker!

BTW, that dude that won the $2,500 posted about it as well...
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=77909774&m=6010977935

Mr B said:

Really stupid question...

All of this about the floppy cable..the idea is to get this rig up and running in the shortest amount of time, right??

Why not boot from CD?? Bypass the floppy altogether?? What OS are they using?

B.

Click to expand...

The OS was Win XP Pro. They just were testing how fast you could build the computer correctly. Of course, it is silly because the floppy cable is just plain unpredictable. Maybe I would have just not plugged it in...

so theres no way of knowing which way the floppy cable goes in? why would computer manufacturers make them like that?

BinarySuperman said:

so theres no way of knowing which way the floppy cable goes in? why would computer manufacturers make them like that?

Click to expand...

Some of the floppy drives are keyed, that is, they only have one way to plug. However, most don't, at least in my experience.

PontifexMaximus- Welcome to the forums! We could always use some more Minnesotans.

Congrats on getting to the battle of the boxes. Sounds like you made an impressive haul, even without winning that extra 2 grand (although I'm sure it would have been nice).

One little questuion: am I the only one who thought those AMD breath mints were pertty bad? I don't even know what they're supposed to taste like and I've been eating them for the last hour...

There's a picture with me in it on one of the pages linked to in the Ars Technica thread: http://teamj.no-ip.org/tdog/images/DSCN0173_JPG.jpg I'm the one in the foreground with the hat on, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Gravity Man said:

One little questuion: am I the only one who thought those AMD breath mints were pertty bad? I don't even know what they're supposed to taste like and I've been eating them for the last hour...

There's a picture with me in it on one of the pages linked to in the Ars Technica thread: http://teamj.no-ip.org/tdog/images/DSCN0173_JPG.jpg I'm the one in the foreground with the hat on, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Click to expand...

I think those mints are pretty tasty...a friend of Demont has some extras, I hear...

Yep, that is you, looking intently at the stage...

I cannot appear in photographs for, well, good reason...

W00r!!!!

from the arstechnica thread
i started filling out battle of the boxes forms once everyone was let in...after i had filled out around 15-20 of them (and placed them in the box), i overheard the AMD rep manning the signup booth say you were only allowed to fill out one. well... what's done was done. so i stopped, being a good ethical fellow. or something to that effect.

Click to expand...

ummmm WTF???

[edit] check battle of the boxes rules, i think its pretty clear...
http://www.amdrealitycheck.com/legal.html [/edit]

Demont said:

ummmm WTF???

[edit] check battle of the boxes rules, i think its pretty clear...
http://www.amdrealitycheck.com/legal.html [/edit]

Click to expand...

I noticed that earlier, but I didn't want to start any ill-will...

im always up for some ill will, especially when it means you or i could have been the ones on stage if he didnt cheat like a madman.... :|

[edit] what was his full name? [/edit]

I could let it slide if it were just 2 or 3 forms, but 15-20 is just wrong. I'm not about to stir up trouble in another forum, but I'm not above an email or two to the appropriate people at AMD.

Gravity Man said:

I could let it slide if it were just 2 or 3 forms, but 15-20 is just wrong. I'm not about to stir up trouble in another forum, but I'm not above an email or two to the appropriate people at AMD.

Click to expand...

my thoughts exactly, i will do some sleuthing tomorrow.

Yeah, I'd be behind emailing AMD.... that nerd punk doesn't need $2500 to back up his claims to be king of the nerds.... lol. I filled out **one** form like all the other honest people.

And next time I want to know how to get a VIP.... apparently being a QA Engineer in the Software Solutions Group of the market leader in CAD design software and the industry's premier PLM suite doesn't count for much....

Ok I'll quit tooting PTC's horn now... lol.

Oh and BTW....

Flounder - I wanted soooo badly to get called up to the stage so I could tell them what I was running in my main rig (like you mentioned)...

"Wait, Duron's can't run in SMP... pay no attention to the boy in the Blue Fox sweatshirt" as I'm hauled off by the AMD Gestapo.... lol....

SickBoy said:

Oh and BTW....

Flounder - I wanted soooo badly to get called up to the stage so I could tell them what I was running in my main rig (like you mentioned)...

"Wait, Duron's can't run in SMP... pay no attention to the boy in the Blue Fox sweatshirt" as I'm hauled off by the AMD Gestapo.... lol....

Click to expand...

LOL, that cracks me up...

Thanks flounder for the link to the other guy's posts. That's too bad the guy got away with 15+ entry forms. I just keep thinking that if I had my trusty magnetic screwdriver....it would have been much easier plugging in that motherboard. The Philips screwdriver they gave me was slightly too big for the screw's notch on top so it constantly kept slipping out. It was extremely difficult to tighten the screws let alone inside the case. That part flustered the hell out of me and I almost lost it for the rest of the way.

My floppy connector had no tabs....believe me I checked. And unfortunately the floppy drive had to be connected properly to pass the checklist....just like all the mobo screws had to all be screwed in.

I realize now that I goofed in not picking up an extra stick of memory....it didn't even dawn on me at the time that I could pick up an extra stick of memory with my extra cash on the list....just a stupid mistake. So I'm sure I would have lost in the benchmarks even if the floppy was connected properly. Let alone I'm slow and meticulous whenever I do anything, so even with my trusty screwdriver, I'm sure I would have lost on time.

I'm still elated with how the night went. It was a bit surreal being on the stage....it's amazing some of the crap people yell at you too. I'm happy I won what I did fair and square.

imo, if i remember correctly i think the best way to go would be to get the video card upgrade the 128 stick and the 1800+. i think it was exactly 299. since all the benchmarks are games, i think the better video card would do it.

I didn't look at the prices, but since AMD is trying to sell processors, the benchmarks are probably highly CPU dependant. I would have gone with the 2000+, onboard video, and as much memory as possible. I don't think the difference between a GF4 MX440 and an onboard MX420 would be as much as the difference between an XP 1800+ and an XP 2000+, but I could be wrong.

Gravity Man said:

I didn't look at the prices, but since AMD is trying to sell processors, the benchmarks are probably highly CPU dependant. I would have gone with the 2000+, onboard video, and as much memory as possible. I don't think the difference between a GF4 MX440 and an onboard MX420 would be as much as the difference between an XP 1800+ and an XP 2000+, but I could be wrong.

Click to expand...

The onboard video was nForce1 onboard video, I think.... so more like GF2 MX-level....