Well another QuakeCon has passed – 2006

As with all QC events I have been to, they just are not long enough :). AmericanFreak and myself kept a little busy during the event and was not able to make as many updates as we wanted to, or attend as many of the shows/exhibits as we wanted. None the less we will be posting up some information on it. We have posted up what pictures we managed to take while at QC here.

 We arrived in Dallas on the 2nd, AmericanFreak and DT started in on preparing the Modders-Inc / CPU Radio Pack for display. I arrived several hours later and had to do a complete assembly of my mod. 

    I kind of took a gamble in more than one way taking my mod but wanted to have another rig there to showcase our work. I was lacking a PCI-E vid card and hadn’t tested any of the new hardware that was slated to be in my mod until I got there that night. AmericanFreak brought me the Sapphire X1600XT video card so that I would at the least have a complete setup to show. All in all the build at the hotel went pretty good. I choose not to format the pair of WD sata drives for the new hardware.

    With time and funding not being in my favor I actually had to check my rig on the flight, unfortunately this proved to do exactly what everyone that I had talked to said it would. For shipping the flight this way I decided to ship the case with as little in it as possible. Well that didn’t matter at all. The case was what took the damage, I had packed it in its original box thinking it would be the safest way to handle it. I added extra packing material and also packed the inside of the case with packing peanuts. Between the 4 flights the case was on every panel but the left side took damage, I can not believe the windowed side made it through the trip without getting busted, thought for sure that would have been the first to go. Thankfully all the damage is done to the chassis itself, I will be able to reuse the front panel and all the mods performed to the chassis without any problems. Its just a matter of getting another case here and swapping out the parts.

    For the event I was able to flex (seeing that the case was aluminum) the chassis back into shape. To those that wanted to win this rig, I wish I could have done that but I really would have not felt right giving it away in its current state, not to mention all the info I would have had to format away :). I know several commented on it, and I know AmericanFreak and I did discuss the possibilities of letting it go, had time not been an issue and it being damaged in the flight I probably would have said why not. 

    Quakecon has been the only LAN event that I have personally attended (this years being my second one). Its simply is one of the things in life that every computeruser needs to do at least once. Its always nice to meet people that you know online. I know I ran into numerous people that I have known for several years and had never had the opportunity to meet in person. Then of course theres the hooking up with your buddies and just having a good ol time. If your planning on going to Quakecon, I would suggest trying to work it out with a friend to either go together or meet at the event. It makes for some great entertainment for all. Even if you have to go solo, you can meet a lot of great people with the same interests as you have.

   The event itself was a bit scaled down this year compared to last year, it was still a blast. I know AmericanFreak and I missed out on a lot of the activities of the event, but at the time for us it seemed to be more important to be at the booth rather than hitting all the activities for ourselves. 

I want to thank all those involved in making Quakecon 2006 happen, without the volunteers, staff, sponsors, exhibitors, and attendees it would not have been what it is. To all of you that attended the event… Congrats on a job well done.