A Proud Moment For Futurelooks at COMPUTEX 2008

Probably one of my proudest moments at COMPUTEX this year was seeing Futurelooks recognized as a site that matters. While perusing the FOXCONN booth, I noticed what appeared to be a Futurelooks award logo featured on one of the large walls of the booth.

As I neared the booth, I could make out a Futurelooks’ Editors Choice award. We gave this award to their 9800GTX Video Card earlier this year and thought it was a very solid performer. However, I never expected our award to be important enough to earn a space on a large prominently featured display wall at an international trade show. I was so proud! However, this recognition would not have been possible without the hardwork of Futurelooks Hardware Editor, Jason Landals. I’d like to thank him for producing such an outstanding review that got the attention of one of the largest OEM component manufacturers in the world. It was his review of this card that got us this recognition. Jason couldn’t make it out to COMPUTEX this year, but next year, I’ll make every effort to ensure that he’s on the plane and in Taipei for the only computer show that matters.

Why is this show so important? If you think about it, all the engineering and development of potential products is done in Taiwan and many proofs of concept are shown there. Based on the interest or the number of orders they get on a product, a manufacturer can decide whether or not a product even goes to production. If you’re here, you get to see things that won’t be reality until CES or even CeBit. Although I love CES, by the time you get there you’re already looking at old stuff, at least on the computer hardware side. That show really is about new consumer electronics, not so much about new computer hardware.

For any site that covers computer hardware, being at COMPUTEX is important. It means that you’re serious and that you want to be on the cutting edge. Most importantly, it means you matter and the fact manufacturers feel the same way too by proudly displaying your award logo means that your opinions and feedback are important to the development of future products. It’s funny, but I noticed a couple sites trying to get in on the action without being there by trying to “Regurgitate” press kits. How can you form a real opinion of a product on a press kit? Also, much of the information on early product is not included in those kits. For example, during my meeting with Thermaltake, they showed me something that won’t see the light of day till CES 2009, but more likely, CeBit 2009. It was so secret, proof of concept stage, that I had to convince the CEO of the company to show it to me. It was a great scoop and you can only find out this stuff if you’re there.

Even though it’s only been a few days after the show, I’m already starting to see the impact of our presence there. I’m starting to get requests to take product reviews, straight from Taiwan, bypassing the North American wait. I also spoke directly to the people that sign the checks when it comes to advertising dollars and where to spend it. You can bug your local reps all you want, but it always pays to talk to the boss and build that relationship directly because at the end of the day, where does the money come from?

So I have to ask, knowing that webmasters from other sites occasionally stroll by here, what is stopping you from coming to the only show that matters for the latest Computer Hardware? If your only answer is cost, then my friends, I have to tell you, it’s costing you more to stay on the sidelines.

COMPUTEX 2008 Booth Babes Anyone?

While I figure out how to reset my internal clock to Vancouver time and dig through all these videos and pictures, I’ll keep you folks occupied with the Futurelooks COMPUTEX 2008 Booth Babe Gallery. This gallery contains over 168 photos for your viewing pleasure. If you want to know who we thought were the best, you can check out the top ten right here.

Just in case you’ve missed it, the Futurelooks crew has been busting out article after article on the latest techie goodness. Check out all the stuff that a geek should care about right here.

Techie Toys I’m Currently Playing With

I thought I’d give you guys a look at what I’m currently torturing. Sometimes I forget what I’m playing with too so it’s good to write it down somewhere.

More Terabytes Of Goodness

A couple weeks ago, Seagate sent me four one terabyte drives that I needed for an upcoming review. Unfortunately, they sent me the wrong ones. Instead of sending me Serial ATA ones, they sent me Serial Attached SCSI drives! Serial Attached SCSI or SAS drives typically end up in servers or high end workstations. None of my systems supported that interface. Seagate apologized, asked me to hang on to them while they got me a SAS adapter so I could play with them. In the meantime, they sent me four more one terabyte drives.

Today I got four more drives with the SATA interface. I’ll definitely be putting these into use shortly. The SAS adapter also showed up. Since the adapter supports both SAS and SATA drives, I can use it with both sets of drives. I can’t wait to see just what the big deal is about SAS when I finally get everything setup. Because SAS is backwards compatible with SATA, I can definitely see boards coming out with this interface standard in the future.

Cool Those 8800 Ultras…

Canada’s very own CoolIT Systems sent along their latest MTEC powered 8800 GTX/ULTRA coolers. I’ve had my eVGA 8800 Ultras for quite some time now and my biggest annoyance with them is how hot they get and how un-overclockable they seem to be. In fact, they get so hot that the pair of them heat warped the VGA channel in the back of my CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000 case. I was also unable to run them with the case closed as they would start to crash after reaching over 90+ degrees celsius. Case open was the only option.

I was able to install them today, and currently, they are on their sixth hour of torture running the 3DMark06 Demo. I was never able to run them for this long without crashing or flakiness, especially with the case closed. Hopefully, they’ll be fully cooked and ready for some temperature readings and overclocking in a couple days.

Surviving Hot, Cold and becoming Roadkill…

Corsair dropped off one fo their Survivor USB Flash Drives, a tougher version of their Voyager series of flash drives. The drive features 32GB’s of flash storage sealed inside a durable machined aluminum chassis. A rubber seal keeps the elements out and screws shut to create a waterproof seal up to 200 meters. To test it, I froze it, boiled it out of its icy grave, and then I drove over it with my car. Did it survive? You’ll have to stay tuned for the review.

Take Pictures and Save The Planet…Polar Bears Too…

LowePro fired over one of their new Primus AW camera bags for me to torture. It was originally supposed to get here in time for the Telus Whistler Ski and Snowboard Festival, but it didn’t make it in time. LowePro designed this bag for their 40th anniversary and it embodies all of their latest technologies including their new eco friendly recyclable materials, new slide lock tripod system and a new design. The bag’s recycled material is equivalent to 21 water bottles and a portion of the sales of this bag will go to save the Polar Bears. I’m sure Al Gore has one and I’m eager to see how well this recycled material stands up to abuse.

Well, that’s all for today. Look for all these product reviews coming up soon at Futurelooks!

Racing For The Kids At The 2008 Tiger Direct Charity PC Race

At last year’s CES, I was invited for the first time to participate in the Tiger Direct Charity PC Race. Since it was my first year, I had no expectations and went in to just not finish last. John Chow pelted me with smack talk saying that he would take me down like a n00b. Of course, as a veteran of this event, I would expect him to do much better than me. Afterall, it would be pretty embarrassing if he lost to this…n00b. 

As history would record though, I ended up with fourth place and a time of 7 minutes and 47 seconds.  John was nowhere to be seen and even Bob Buskirk who was also competing was nowhere to be seen. I know that the term “Beginner’s Luck” could easily be used to describe the upset, so this year, I was out to prove that it wasn’t a fluke and I was out to take home the big prize for my favourite charity, the BC Childrens Hospital.

 

This year, the competitors were cheered along by the beautiful girls from the UNLV Cheerleading Squad. Their presence along with their dancing, booty shaking and cheering was a welcome diversion.

Like last year’s event, the systems were tested and then disassembled identically so that everyone started from the same point. The only things that were left in the system were the power supplies, motherboards, and CPU’s. Everything else was pulled out and laid out neatly on each table. The organizers provided a list of what was disassembled. The first person to complete the assembly and boot the machine wins.

Since building a PC as fast as possible is hard work, the organizers provided a great spread of food for us so we could load up on energy. They also provided an open bar, but smart racers try not to hit it too hard.

 

After we had a chance to gobble as much food as we could, it was time to get ready to race. Every racer had a chance to run across the stage and wave to the audience and receive applause from their fans. As an added incentive, each attendee was given a racer to cheer for. If that racer won, the attendees would win a prize too!

The race started off fast and furious. Steve Bass of PC World (the white haired gentleman behind me) even cut himself and let a few drops of blood spill for his favourite charity. This years race was a tough one as the easy assembly features of the case proved to be more of a detriment than a benefit. Last year, we screwed everything down and that was way easier than trying to monkey with some weird quick release system on the Thermaltake cases that were provided.

At 10:10, I was the first one finished. Unfortunately, after inspecting the assembly, the organizers found that the power cable to the DVD-ROM drive was not attached and levied a 60 second penalty, pushing my time to 11:10. This would also push Will Smith (not the Fresh Prince, pictured below), Editor in Chief of MaximumPC Magazine ahead of me with a time of 10:50. I was actually shocked that I made this mistake because I was certain that it was one of the first things that I did. The only explanation that I have is that the CPU wind tunnel piece pushed the cable out when I was assembling the door and locking it down.

Will took the $10,000 grand prize for his favourite charity Child’s Play that helps Childrens Hospitals throughout the world by donating toys, books, games and cash to sick kids. He also gets to donate the $3500 gaming rig that he built to the same charity. 

Although I was disappointed that something small like the disconnected DVD-ROM power cable took me down, I coudn’t be more thrilled to be able to bring home a check for $2500 and over $3500 worth of computer hardware to my favourite charity, the BC Childrens Hospital.

After an undefeated winning streak, Charlie Demerjian of The Inquirer was finally taken down, but still managed a solid third place finish. Despite all his smack talking, John Chow finished fourth…and yes…lost to me again. However, quietly, I had hoped that he would get a podium placing and allow us to really make mother Canada proud. John posted a video of the event. I love how he cut it off at where the MC announced me as the official winner. Hopefully next year we’ll be one and two. Tiger Direct has a full video of the event if you want to sit through it. It’s about 30 minutes long.

In the end, everyone won as each participant will have the opportunity to donate the PC they built to their favourite charity. I’d like to thank Tiger Direct for inviting me to the event and for giving me a chance to do something great for charity. For more pictures from the event, check out my gallery with over 200 pictures including more shots of the pretty cheerleaders. Till next year!

Kicking Off CES 2008 In Style!

Sorry about the lack of updates. I’ve been keeping pretty busy in Las Vegas. There has been lots to do including parties, drinking, and poker into the wee hours of the night.

 

This year at CES 2008, Futurelooks once again stepped up to sponsor the CES 2008 Kick Off Party (formerly known as the “Night Before CES Party”). Last year, the party was at the swank MGM Skylofts inside the MGM Grand Hotel. Unfortunately, we got kicked out of the MGM Grand so this year we had to find a new home at the Caesars Palace inside one of their uber cool Absolut Vodka Suites.

 

Along with John Chow from TTZ , Bob Buskirk from ThinkComputers and our sponsors FlickIM, NZXT and TAGAN, we threw one seriously bad ass party. In fact, we were told that we stole thunder from a few other parties that were happening the same night including the one thrown by ASUS. Whoops! ASUS actually stole our previous party name (”The Night Before CES”) and tried to capitalize on our success, but failed as people turned around and headed straight here. We’re obviously much cooler.

I’ve posted a CES 2008 Photogallery at Futurelooks with over 147 pictures from our event. I’d like once again thank all the sponsors and the staff that made this party the huge success that it will continue to be. The casual nature and fun crowd that shows up really sets us apart from the other events at CES. Enjoy the pictures!