Atomic, cutting-edge tech, incredibly exclusive game access and plenty more!
The first Power to the PC Tour happened last night in Sydney, bringing together more Atomicans than could ever have fit in a single LAN event and more tech than you could poke with a metaphorical stick - and we've taken so many photos you'd almost swear you were at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) with us.
First and most importantly is a huge thanks to our sponsors across all the different components that made the night incredible fun for all involved, as well as the speakers who gave presentations and answered questions with enthusiasm.
MSI brought along their latest P55-based motherboards and a whole host of graphics cards to boot, and while the 5870 hadn't been officially released (it should be around on the internet around the time you read this!), they had their latest heatsinks and cooling solutions available on display. The Product Manager for Components Jerry Lee gave his talk about the tech powering MSI's gear, with plenty of info you can't get anywhere else.
Intel brought Technology Manager Graham Tucker to the Tour, guiding us through the latest in Intel CPUs as well as showing off just how tiny an Atom chip is - comparable in size to a grain of rice! He also brought along a 300mm wafer filled with Nehalem dies, worth an effective US$60,000 if it were ever sliced up for actual chips!
Samsung was represented by Emmanuele Silanesu, the National Product & Marketing Manager for the IT division. He showed off the latest LCD screens - the first available in Australia that run at the 120Hz needed to partner with NVIDIA's 3D Vision goggles. Gamers had a blast with Call of Duty 4 in 3D, the very first showing of 3D tech in Australia.
Kingston showed off their highest end memory kits, and we got a walkthrough from Marites Bairstow through both Kingston's history as well as their products. There's some exciting things happening in the SSD space, something that Kingston is keeping their eyes on - so watch that space closely.
2K Games gave us exclusive worldwide access to Borderlands on PC - the actual release date for the game is 20/10/09, but we nabbed code so fresh that even reviewers all over the world haven't got their hands on it yet. Atomicans were the first people to play the game outside 2K offices, and many commented on the great look of the cartoony graphics.
Speaking of which, Borderlands was also run on four Pioneer gaming laptops to show how the game can be run even on the go. Powered by a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo and a 9800GTX Mobile, these lappies had gorgeous widescreen LCDs at a huge resolution of 1920x1200 - basically a 24" desktop screen res. Even better, they ran the game on the highest settings, a remarkable feat for any laptop.
There's more going on here than can be described with just words, so head into the gallery of pics to check out the Sydney Power to the PC Tour - and make sure you head to the signup page to secure your place at the Melbourne event next week!
Update: Make sure you also check out the Melbourne Tour for even more photos!
Issue: 133 | February, 2012