The Twelve Days to Techgage's Contest

Rob Williams · 02-17-2010, 12:00 PM

Edit: Contest can be found here!

Hi everyone:

I can't believe it, but Techgage turns the big "5" next month. That's right! The site officially launched on March 1, 2005, alongside our first two pieces of content (Logitech's RumblePad 2 and Logisys' Janus Chassis). That was close to 850 pieces of content ago, so as you could imagine, sometimes it's really hard to recall all of the content we've published over the years. Even now I still stumble on content I forgot all about, to which I give myself a smack in the head, a la "I could have had a V8!".

In all seriousness, though, we've had an incredible five years, and I couldn't be more proud of where the site is today. We have a dedicated and very talented team, and I can assure you, the best is yet to come. I can't wait to see what the next five years holds, and I welcome you all to experience it with us!

To help us properly usher in our fifth year, we're going to be once again offering a grand prize of a sweet gaming PC. Like some other birthday contests we've had in the past, this PC will be fully custom-built by us, using brand-new components provided to us by our wonderful sponsors. These are components that we chose, and were not chosen for us, so the entire PC will scream quality and absolutely have our approval as being a kick-ass build.

As of today, our contest is 12 days away. It will launch on March 1, and run the entire span of the month. To help give a preview of what will be in the finished PC, we're going to post pictures of each component that will be used, along with peripherals we're going to include. Due to the amount of stuff we'll be packing in, some days will have more than one component, so I'm cheating a little, but oh well!

The contest is going to be open to only the USA and Canada (sans Quebec), as per the usual. To enter, a site survey will need to be filled out, in order for us to "gage" our strengths and also see where we need to improve. Also, while we won't show them in this thread, the PC will include a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Nero 9 Reloaded. Also, we'll be holding smaller contests throughout the month, for even more chances to win!

Feel free to discuss either the components or the upcoming contest in this thread!

Rob Williams · 02-17-2010, 12:00 PM

The first component we're revealing is the motherboard, which is none other than Gigabyte's high-end P55A-UD7! This board includes Intel's feature-rich P55 chipset, 10 vertically-mounted SATA ports, an incredible 24 phase power solution, a built-in waterblock, four PCI-E 16x-sized slots, and of course, support for S-ATA 6Gbit/s and USB 3.0.

I happen to be in the midst of reviewing the same board model, so here are more photos for those who are interested:

Photograph 1 (Same as above)
Photograph 2 (SATA port area)
Photograph 3 (DIMM slot area)
Photograph 4 (On-board power button)
Photograph 5 (PCI Slots area)
Photograph 6 (Waterblock view)
Photograph 7 (CPU socket / power phase area)
Photograph 8 (I/O panel)
Photograph 9 (Silent-Pipe Add-on View 1)
Photograph 10 (Silent-Pipe Add-on View 2)

Glider · 02-17-2010, 12:06 PM

Booo! Us Europeans are out by default...

Anyway, congratulations on the big 5, on to the next 5!

Rob Williams · 02-17-2010, 12:39 PM

Why is it that the first post in every contest thread calls out our inability to send a product to Europe? The other night, I priced up an estimate, to see what it would cost to send half of this shipment to Paris, France. It was $700. Techgage isn't handling the shipping charges for this contest, but even so, no company could justify spending $1,500 on just that.

In a perfect world, I'd have our contests open up to everyone, especially given that near 35% of our readers are European-based. Sorry folks.

Glider · 02-17-2010, 12:45 PM

Yeah, no worries about that... I sent a gift to Brett once, and shipping was more then the value of the gift... Damn you transport fees!

crowTrobot · 02-17-2010, 02:04 PM

Wow congrats on 5 years. That's like more than a decade in Tech-years! I just found this site this month so here's to 5 more years (at the very least)!

Sheesh that motherboard is too good. It looks like it even has a waterblock already in place for an IOH!

Rob Williams · 02-18-2010, 01:00 PM

With Gigabyte's feature-rich P55A-UD7 motherboard acting as the backbone to our gaming PC, is it any surprise that we'd choose to fill it with 8GB of Corsair's super-fast DDR3-1600 CL8 Dominator memory? Oh, and just to make sure things never get toasty, the set of modules are accompanied by a Dominator airflow fan.

slugbug · 02-18-2010, 02:48 PM

Looks like that will be one sweet PC for one lucky winner

Congrats on 5 years of tech review goodness.

Altrus · 02-18-2010, 06:35 PM

Has a kinda blue and black theme going on so far....

Congratulations on Five years of greatness!!

MarcN5 · 02-18-2010, 08:45 PM

Five years! Congratulations on a great job. Keep up the quality articles.

BTW, someone is going to be very happy with that machine.

Rob Williams · 02-18-2010, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarcN5

BTW, someone is going to be very happy with that machine.

A truer thing has never been said!

Rob Williams · 02-19-2010, 01:00 PM

What good would the best PC in the world be without tons of storage space to fill up with all of your virtual goods (and junk)? Not that good, to say the least. It would be like driving a BMW Isetta equipped with a Ferrari engine! So, what better way to give our gaming PC some breathing room than by infusing some of Western Digital's legendary quality with the help of its top-end desktop drive, the 2TB Caviar Black?

slugbug · 02-19-2010, 01:15 PM

For the processor I'm thinking a core i7 860 or 870

02-19-2010, 01:24 PM

'Nuff said.

Optix · 02-19-2010, 01:25 PM

You think I'd have learned by now. Login first, then post.

Silly work computer. Remember me!

Congrats on 5 years, TechGage! You folks have always been one of the sites I go to find out if I should plunk down my hard earned cash.

I werk hard 4 da munies. So hard 4 da munies.

02-17-2010, 12:00 PM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	The Twelve Days to Techgage's Contest Edit: Contest can be found here! Hi everyone: I can't believe it, but Techgage turns the big "5" next month. That's right! The site officially launched on March 1, 2005, alongside our first two pieces of content (Logitech's RumblePad 2 and Logisys' Janus Chassis). That was close to 850 pieces of content ago, so as you could imagine, sometimes it's really hard to recall all of the content we've published over the years. Even now I still stumble on content I forgot all about, to which I give myself a smack in the head, a la "I could have had a V8!". In all seriousness, though, we've had an incredible five years, and I couldn't be more proud of where the site is today. We have a dedicated and very talented team, and I can assure you, the best is yet to come. I can't wait to see what the next five years holds, and I welcome you all to experience it with us! To help us properly usher in our fifth year, we're going to be once again offering a grand prize of a sweet gaming PC. Like some other birthday contests we've had in the past, this PC will be fully custom-built by us, using brand-new components provided to us by our wonderful sponsors. These are components that we chose, and were not chosen for us, so the entire PC will scream quality and absolutely have our approval as being a kick-ass build. As of today, our contest is 12 days away. It will launch on March 1, and run the entire span of the month. To help give a preview of what will be in the finished PC, we're going to post pictures of each component that will be used, along with peripherals we're going to include. Due to the amount of stuff we'll be packing in, some days will have more than one component, so I'm cheating a little, but oh well! The contest is going to be open to only the USA and Canada (sans Quebec), as per the usual. To enter, a site survey will need to be filled out, in order for us to "gage" our strengths and also see where we need to improve. Also, while we won't show them in this thread, the PC will include a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Nero 9 Reloaded. Also, we'll be holding smaller contests throughout the month, for even more chances to win! Feel free to discuss either the components or the upcoming contest in this thread! __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far. Last edited by Rob Williams; 03-01-2010 at 12:33 PM.

02-17-2010, 12:00 PM	#2
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	The first component we're revealing is the motherboard, which is none other than Gigabyte's high-end P55A-UD7! This board includes Intel's feature-rich P55 chipset, 10 vertically-mounted SATA ports, an incredible 24 phase power solution, a built-in waterblock, four PCI-E 16x-sized slots, and of course, support for S-ATA 6Gbit/s and USB 3.0. I happen to be in the midst of reviewing the same board model, so here are more photos for those who are interested: Photograph 1 (Same as above) Photograph 2 (SATA port area) Photograph 3 (DIMM slot area) Photograph 4 (On-board power button) Photograph 5 (PCI Slots area) Photograph 6 (Waterblock view) Photograph 7 (CPU socket / power phase area) Photograph 8 (I/O panel) Photograph 9 (Silent-Pipe Add-on View 1) Photograph 10 (Silent-Pipe Add-on View 2) __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

02-17-2010, 12:06 PM	#3
Glider Coastermaker Join Date: May 2009 Location: Belgium Posts: 139	Booo! Us Europeans are out by default... Anyway, congratulations on the big 5, on to the next 5! __________________ There Are 10 Types Of People, Those Who Know Binary and Those Who Don't

02-17-2010, 12:39 PM	#4
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	Why is it that the first post in every contest thread calls out our inability to send a product to Europe? The other night, I priced up an estimate, to see what it would cost to send half of this shipment to Paris, France. It was $700. Techgage isn't handling the shipping charges for this contest, but even so, no company could justify spending $1,500 on just that. In a perfect world, I'd have our contests open up to everyone, especially given that near 35% of our readers are European-based. Sorry folks. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

02-17-2010, 12:45 PM	#5
Glider Coastermaker Join Date: May 2009 Location: Belgium Posts: 139	Yeah, no worries about that... I sent a gift to Brett once, and shipping was more then the value of the gift... Damn you transport fees! __________________ There Are 10 Types Of People, Those Who Know Binary and Those Who Don't

02-17-2010, 02:04 PM	#6
crowTrobot E.M.I. Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 99	Wow congrats on 5 years. That's like more than a decade in Tech-years! I just found this site this month so here's to 5 more years (at the very least)! Sheesh that motherboard is too good. It looks like it even has a waterblock already in place for an IOH! Last edited by crowTrobot; 02-17-2010 at 02:05 PM. Reason: typo

02-18-2010, 01:00 PM	#7
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	With Gigabyte's feature-rich P55A-UD7 motherboard acting as the backbone to our gaming PC, is it any surprise that we'd choose to fill it with 8GB of Corsair's super-fast DDR3-1600 CL8 Dominator memory? Oh, and just to make sure things never get toasty, the set of modules are accompanied by a Dominator airflow fan. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

02-18-2010, 02:48 PM	#8
slugbug Partition Master Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 334	Looks like that will be one sweet PC for one lucky winner Congrats on 5 years of tech review goodness. __________________ Going broke saving money.

02-18-2010, 06:35 PM	#9
Altrus Coastermaker Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 154	Has a kinda blue and black theme going on so far.... Congratulations on Five years of greatness!!

02-18-2010, 08:45 PM	#10
MarcN5 Obliviot Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 19	Five years! Congratulations on a great job. Keep up the quality articles. BTW, someone is going to be very happy with that machine.

02-19-2010, 01:00 PM	#12
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	What good would the best PC in the world be without tons of storage space to fill up with all of your virtual goods (and junk)? Not that good, to say the least. It would be like driving a BMW Isetta equipped with a Ferrari engine! So, what better way to give our gaming PC some breathing room than by infusing some of Western Digital's legendary quality with the help of its top-end desktop drive, the 2TB Caviar Black? __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

02-19-2010, 01:15 PM	#13
slugbug Partition Master Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 334	For the processor I'm thinking a core i7 860 or 870 __________________ Going broke saving money.

02-19-2010, 01:24 PM	#14
Unregistered Guest Poster Posts: n/a	'Nuff said.

02-19-2010, 01:25 PM	#15
Optix Basket Chassis Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 1,647	You think I'd have learned by now. Login first, then post. Silly work computer. Remember me! Congrats on 5 years, TechGage! You folks have always been one of the sites I go to find out if I should plunk down my hard earned cash. I werk hard 4 da munies. So hard 4 da munies.

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