Hey guys sorry for the radio silence yesterday but I will give you guys a quick recap. We will be updating this post with our day to day coverage and also with links to other related coverage. Of course that is only if we come back. Gaming with 600+ people at one of the most epic events even could easily kill us, or cause us to go crazy. The good part is ether way it should be entertaining for you, the reader. Please post up and let us know what you think and even what you would like to see. If you do it soon enough we might even be able to help you out.
Here are related links to our GeforceLAN coverage on top of our day to day coverage in this post.
Thursday night the three of us made the trek down to Dayton to be close for our 6:30 AM flight. We managed to get a few hours of sleep before getting up at 3:30 to get cleaned up and make the drive to the airport. Some of you may know that even though I have to fly sometimes, I am never a good flyer. Surprisingly our first 3:10 flight from Dayton to Denver went really well. I managed to get a little sleep off and on and Adam spent his entire flight playing Robo Defense on his phone. Alex on the other hand was all the way up front in premium seating watching tv the entire time…
We had a 4:30 hour layover in Denver so we setup base camp and got a little work done and we grabbed lunch.
Our second flight wasn’t nearly as smooth as the first. By the time we landed in Oakland we were already very tired. 1:45 there time but 4:45 our time, it was still early in the day. Nvidia picked us up in a limo and took us to the Waterfront Hotel were we got our rooms. We unpacked and cleaned up and went down to wait for the press shuttle where we chatted with Chris from Maingear and Ryan from Anandtech.
By the time we were dropped off at the USS Hornet it was past 4PM there time.
Registration went quickly as we were one of the last to get in. We dragged our equipment up the stairs and across the ramps to get on the ship. Trust me for anyone with big heavy equipment; this is almost reason enough to consider a gaming laptop or a SFF build.
On a funny note someone setup at our table before us taking our spots. When we got there they mentioned a few of our ticket winners had already stopped by to thank us!
Once in we ran to our tables and setup our PC’s. Adam and I brought our gaming laptops but for Alex Cyberpower put together a build just for her to play on for the entire event. A special thanks to them and MSI for their support (MSI provided the video cards).
We had a few minutes to run around the vender area and say hi before Nvidia and Dice started their presentation. We will have more coverage on the presentations in other articles.
After that it’s all a little bit of a blur. The lack of sleep, food, or drinks pushed us into a state of madness. We did manage to play a round of HoN later before heading back to the hotel at 10PM or 1AM our time. At the hotel we ordered Domino’s Pizza and made sleep deprived jokes about our “akimbo” toilet paper dispensers in the bathroom.
Similar to the movie Hangover we woke up the next morning with a horrible headache not remembering what happened the night before.
*Edit after writing this up, while going through our photos I did find pictures take from the flight deck. I completely forgot lol.
Swag Bag
The swag bags provided to everyone in the BYOC here at GeforceLAN 6 are very impressive. Here is a peek inside.
The event shirt doesn’t ignore the elephant in the room with all of the possible Lonely Island jokes. They went ahead and dropped the I’m on a boat joke right on the front of the shirt. With an epic 8 bit USS Hornet along with it.
Because most of you know what happens with 600+ gamers gaming for 3 days. They also included a pack of items to help you survive and hopefully smell a little better.
Videos
An idea of what it takes to get on and off of the boat here at the LAN. Even more importantly, PIZZA
A so so video of MSI's presentation at the LAN
Day Two
As I mentioned yesterday we woke up on day two of GeforceLAN 6 without a clue as to what happened the night before. When Alex and I got cleaned up and meet up with Adam outside of the hotel, Adam and I reflected on our LAN hangover and then headed for the shuttle to the LAN with a quick stop at the hotel counter for aspirin. An especially bumpy ride to the LAN later we were back at the USS Hornet and ready to game.
Before we got on the ship we did get a chance to see the level of security at the event. NVidia actually brought security from their own campus along with help from the USS Hornet Museum and volunteers. We chatted with the NVidia security officer before heading in.
It was also nice to see a food truck parked right on the dock for everyone to be able to buy breakfast.
Back in the event, we walked around to a few of the booths, starting with Toshiba.
I was especially excited to take a look at the new Qosmio laptops as that is what I use. The new models are considerably thinner and are only available in the 17 inch version as opposed to the 18.4 that I have. I’m guessing that they went back down in size after trying to find carrying bags for this monster. They did have a few contests setup to give away a few of the laptops. I wouldn’t be heartbroken if I ended up with an upgrade to my current laptop. The addition of Nvidia 3D Support is also a bonus.
The MSI booth has a few of their new GT780 laptops setup to play various games on. Alex spent a little time playing and admiring the built in Steel Series keyboard. I hope we can get one in at some point to cover, we heard good and bad things about the laptop from those who used it. We would love to find out where it stands, I know Adam was doing the math on how he could get one. MSI also had photo backdrop setup to get your picture taken in full war getup.
A small portion of the prizes MSI brought
I noticed a little smoking from the area around the EVGA booth and took a trip over to see what was going on. They have k|ngp|n overclocking a SR2 setup with four of their new GTX 580 Classifieds.
Next door Corsair had a wheel setup giving away chances to win tons of cool prizes and swag. They also setup PC’s in each of their cases for everyone to enjoy. They were also sporting peripherals from their new Vengeance line.
The Digital Storm guys brought a 30k dollar racing sim to the event with them. The lines were always long when we went by, so we didn’t get a chance to try it out. But it looked like a great time.
All throughout the event Nvidia could be found filming in full 3D with a whole film crew. I can’t wait to relive everything in 3D!
For those of you who don’t follow us on Facebook, I paired Adam up with the Razer crew for their full play through of Left 4 Dead 2. For those of you watching the stream they had up, he did a lot of carrying. But I think they all had an amazing time.
As a token of appreciation for their support I gave Cyberpower a LanOC hat for bringing Alex a PC to play on for the whole event. Here is a picture of Eddie sporting the hat.
MSI hosted a paper airplane contest to give away a ton of prizes including a few high end video cards and even a laptop!
I was dragged away down for a super-secret special tour of the ships engine room that turned into an even longer tour. Here are a few images.
When I came back up I spotted a pidgin walking around the hanger floor while everyone was gaming, even the birds were having a good time.
The BF3 tournament started in 2d but ended in 3D, it also brought in a hell of a crowd to watch the top teams play!
A second tour was organized and Alex and I went to partake. This time it was a press tour of the control tower and related areas. The view from part of the way up is amazing as you can see. Even scarier is the picture of Alex in the captain’s chair.
On my way down for lunch/dinner I saw an amazing view as the sun started to set and reflected off of a nearby ship.
Dominoes provided food and lots of it. Not to mention the buckets and buckets of soda and energy drinks piled up all over the place.
Volunteer Love
After stuffing my face I snuck back by to find k|ngp|n still overclocking that amazing rig.
Here is a partial overall shot of the event
We became good friends with the Yogscast guys while we were there. As it turns out Simon can’t be photographed.
Things piling up around my area, just like at home.
Day two was in the books, but not before Alex joined the Razer crew in boarderlands for a few hours. Here is a shot of them playing, only part of the way through there 24 hour charity session.
Day 3
Day three started a little late for us. Knowing we had a LOT of driving ahead of us that night we didn’t get to the boat until a noon. We also had to pack our bags and bring it all with us to the USS Hornet until we got our rental for the drive to LA. Adam had to leave early for work on Monday and had an early morning flight back to Ohio. Alex and I would be going it alone from here on out.
I started with a morning bacon cheeseburger from the food truck parked on the dock. I came in and spoke with the Yogacast fellows for a little while. Before jumping into and gaming I made a point to wonder over near the Razer crew and stretch and mention how great it is to get a good night’s sleep. At this point they were in hour 23 of their 24 hour marathon. After a few hisses I stepped around the mess of pizza boxes and energy drinks to head back to my seat before they beheaded me in a blind rage.
I played a few rounds of TF2 before deciding to wonder around the LAN to get footage and to get my raffle tickets. While I was wondering I went around to the vender booths to see how things were going. We tried to wait in line for the racing simulator but with a 45 min or more wait ahead of us we decided to forget it all together. It was a little frustrating watching people for their 20th time while we waited just to try it once. We opted to finish up visiting everyone and get ready for the raffle and final ceremonies.
We did make it back and time to see a very tired Razer group finishing up and packing up. Before they left I did take a minute to spend time with their upcoming gaming laptop the Blade. It is as thin as it looks and its damn sext to boot. With them all being so tired I told them by and tried to walk away with it, but I was unsuccessful. I think next time I may have to wait until they finish gaming for 48 hours if I plan on pulling it off. After 24 hours of gaming the mess around them was fairly impressive in itself.
Alex with Alex from MSI
We finally got around to getting Alex’s picture taken in 3D with the Nvidia models just before the final ceremonies started.
Here is a picture of PART of the things they gave away. This doesn’t count everything else given away previous to the final ceremonies or the 6 or 7 pc’s they gave away also.
Between the 5 dollars per BYOC ticket sold, the charity PC builds raffles, and what NVIDIA matched. They raised a total of $20,186 that they game to Child’s Play. Very impressive and to a great cause!
Here is one of the winners of the charity builds. He was VERY excited!
Nvidia went through thanking the USS Hornet Crew, the Sponsors, Johan Andersson from Dice, Matt Conwell and the PDX crew, and all of the sponsors.
They invited an attendee up on stage that actually got an Nvidia tattoo while at the LAN. They showed it off and then went ahead and gave him two GTX 580’s to upgrade his build and then a full PC from SystemMax to share with his clan.
Before finishing up and giving away all of the prizes they also announced the winners or the BF3 tournament and the case mod contest. Brian Carters “tron” case mod won.
After that, sadly, teardown started as we watched this amazing event turn back into an empty hanger. Big thanks to Nvidia for having us. We had an amazing time. After packing up and watching tear down we were ready to start our quest to LA to visit with even more companies.
ZOTAC at Geforce LAN 6
ZOTAC and V3 Gaming were sharing booth space at GeforceLAN 6. We had to pay them a visit as we did work with them on the 10 ticket giveaway. There booth’s had three parts. On the left there is a desk area where you can get a ZOTAC tattoo and a ticket for one of their daily8 giveaways. Considering the video cards and mini PC giveaways its well worth the trouble!
Next to the table area they have two PC’s hooked up to televisions with Playseat Evolution seats racing F1 2011. The best time each day wins a PC from v3 computers! Alex did jump in and play a little bit also.
The third part of the booth V3 gaming has a whole collection of their PC’s setup on display with each setup to play a different game. It’s nice to be able to get a look at what they have to offer while also giving the general attendees a chance to game without having a BYOC seat.
After the LAN we did make it to the ZOTAC office in City of industry. Look for an interview with Sean Tang the President of ZOTAC USA to be published very soon.
The Razer Blade
We did spy the Razer Blade out in the wild while we were at Geforce LAN. Here are the pictures I was able to snap. You may notice that one of the keys is broken. Being an engineering sample I’m not shocked.
EVGA Z79 Classified
EVGA was showing off a sneak peak at one of their Z79 offerings. Sporting the Classified colors this is sure to be the new z79 Classifield. Intel’s newest CPU isn’t even out yet and I’m already excited!
Our drive
After picking up our rental car we hit the road. We went across the bay bridge on our way into San Francisco hoping to see the Golden Gate and Lombart Street. It was a little culture shock at first driving around as our Rental seemed huge compared to all of the small cars on the road. Even most of the cabs were Prius’s . We ended up getting a little lost at first but did find our way to Lombart Street. Realizing there was no way we would find a parking spot we took a quick look at the twisty road and went on our way.
We had actually planned on driving Highway 1 down the entire way. But by the time we got out of the city and got dinner it was already dark outside. I figured there wasn’t any point to trying to drive the scenic route in the dark we hit the 101 all the way to our hotel south of Santa Barbara.
We didn’t get to the hotel until past 1:30AM but they were nice enough to leave the lights on and our key hidden for us. Alex jumped right into bed looking contempt but I snuck outside to snap a few over exposed pictures on the ocean. That’s the moon in the sky shot!
The view when we got up in the morning (after only a few hours of sleep) was amazing! In the Eagles song Hotel California, THIS is the hotel I imagine. The room was nothing special, but there is nothing at all that compares to the view. We enjoyed an amazing breakfast complements of the hotel and we sadly had to hit the road again. We had a lunch meeting with Sapphire on the south side of LA planned and a lot of driving to go to get there.
The rest of our trip we did drive the Pacific Coast Highway or Highway 1. The view was amazing as you can see from when we stopped to snap a few pictures.
We did eventually drive into Malibu through the morning fog to see some of the amazing homes!
And success, we made it to LA!
Kingston Factory Tour
Kingston invited us out to tour their facilities. Little did we know they are one of very few companies who actually have full manufacturing ability’s here in the states. Photography isn’t allowed at all normally but they did let us bring our camera in and snap a few pictures here and there.
First they showed off all of their locations around the world.
In their design office we were able to see what ram, SD cards, and USB drives look like mid manufacture.
We couldn’t show you the PC’s showing their PCB layouts but in the same room they have this dry erase board that looks like 50 kids went crazy on it. Believe it or not, their engineering team can understand everything that is going on there.
We couldn’t take any photos in any of their multiple testing areas but it’s clear that they take testing very seriously both during the design phase and after manufacturing.
They did let us get a couple shots from above one of their main manufacturing and packaging areas.
Next they took us into an SMT assembly line and explained how each machine worked. Unfortunately for us, they didn’t have anything being produced at the time of our tour. But we did get a couple overall shots of the entire line. They start with nothing and by the end of the line they can produce any ram or USB drive in their product line.
Preventing RMA’s is a big focus for Kingston, so much so that they actually have multiple patents on machines like the one pictures below to be able to burn in and test every single stick of ram that they manufacture. Not only does preventing an RMA save them a lot of money, but it also helps build the reputation that people expect from Kingston and there dependability.
Before we left we had to sneak out and take a picture with that gigantic red head out front. To top it off you get to see us in our factory smocks. As you can see with mine they don’t normally have fat guys around ;).
The most impressive part is we only got to see 1 ½ of their 5 buildings on this campus. This is considerably larger than any other manufacture we visited while in town.
Thermaltake
We dropped in on Thermaltake while we were in the area and they gave us a full tour of their facility’s. Their warehouse was amazing. They literally had STACKS of cases from the floor to the ceiling in rows divided up by each model.
After our tour they took us back and gave us a few sneak peeks into what to expect in the upcoming year. First thing I have to say, I can’t wait to show you guys what they will be announcing at CES this year. We also had a chance to try out and listen to a product they are planning for 2012 in the audio market. I am lucky enough to even be able to show you here. They want to enter the audio headphones market. The prototypes they showed us are designed in crazy off the wall colors. I wouldn’t expect to see these colors or anything like it when the headset is introduced. Because of that you shouldn’t judge them based on the colors below, lol. We had a chance to listen to them, trust me when I tell you. These sound amazing!
***Exclusive first look!***
Other visits
Our two days in LA were packed with meetings, dinners, and lunches with our friends at different companies. We did manage to try a four by four from In ‘n Out and even a few things from Carl’s Jr. Things were so busy we did get a limited amount of photographs.
On our last night our good friend from Trendnet picked us from our hotel and took us out on the town. Here are a couple photographs from the night. It ended in an amazing dinner with him and his wife and Alex and I at an amazingly fancy restaurant in Vinice. We had the chance to try wine for the first time and had a wonderful dinner. Even better was the conversation. Seriously, not only has Trendnet been great to us for their support of our LAN’s. But their tour and dinner were above and beyond!
A special thanks to all of the people whom we visited. We can’t wait to make it back out to the LA/SF area!
