HEXUS' Directhex in VIA PC building competition

[Steve]

As you guys know already, we were at ABIT's hardware festival on Friday with VIA. One of the days events was a competition in which two people go up head to head and attempt to build a PC in the quickest time.

The PC's were VIA EPIA based with Windows XP preinstalled on the hard drives, the first to boot being the winner.

Our very own Jo (directhex) took on Spode of Spode's Abode. Below you can see Jo on the left and Spode on the right.



The crowd begins to gather as the contenders prepare themselves:



The race starts! Jo tears off the lid of the ITX case, discarding it behind him. Spode makes a similar start, although is a little more sedate in his approach.



Jo makes motherboard installation a priority, screwing it into the case in next to no time.



The mayhem on stage draws in quite a crowd, the HEXUS team at the front, keeping a close eye on the contenders' progress.



Focus then moves onto drive installation, requiring the contenders to be dextrous, coordinated and cunning, using a minimum of screws to secure the drives. At this point, Spode is lagging behind the speedier Jo.



Drama ensues as this point, as Spode desperately tries to make up ground. He attempts to install the drive cage, but unsuccessful and enraged, rams the cd drive half way through the front of the case!



At the same time Jo is coming to terms with the front panel connections for the case, wondering "where the hell do these go?"



Jo's motherboard doesn't have the header labelling that Spode has the luxury of. A rapid consultation of the manual is required.



Sadly, despite the most noble of attempts from Jo to recover from cabling setbacks, Spode is able to boot into Windows XP and take the title of "fastest PC builder."



Of course, Spode's PC construction techniques remain questionable and his unethical treatment of CD drives raised eyebrows amongst the HEXUS crew.

Congratulations to the both contestants, it was great fun to watch... would have been more fun if we'd won though

[directhex]

i lost

[r1zeek]

You were robbed Directhex, I smell a fix to me

[directhex]

they're really nice cases, though HUGE compared to what i expected.

[DR]

Was a good compo, impressed with it. VIA had a good call with it

[directhex]

of course, spode broke his :/

[directhex]

actually, was a right larf, losing aside. people should do this kind of thing more often

[DR]

I think the event was great - and both of you were good sports.

Spode is a good performer

[Spode]

Peforming is one of the only things I acutally HAVE qualifications in!

It was a laugh. Jo's was considerably better built, but I did buy him an ice cream to make up for it

I'm not sure if it was too much coffee, not enough coffee or just straight out adrenalin, but my hands where shaking so much I couldn't get the screw driver into the screws! I really struggled on that.

[Steve]

Hehe, I'm more concerned about the way you treat that drive cage!

[DR]

Peforming is one of the only things I acutally HAVE qualifications in!

It was a laugh. Jo's was considerably better built, but I did buy him an ice cream to make up for it

I'm not sure if it was too much coffee, not enough coffee or just straight out adrenalin, but my hands where shaking so much I couldn't get the screw driver into the screws! I really struggled on that.

I am sorry, I think it must have been the crowd of people.... maybe we should have given you a HEXUS TShirt to wear?

[Spode]

[DR]

[r1zeek]

Good to see the both of you were good sports though and it didn't in tears (or broken bones)

[ajbrun]

How fast did you build it?

and did you win anything (spode) unless it's already been said?

[iMc]

yeh what times did you finish in, looked manic to me would liked to have seen it!