Pittsburgh LAN Coalition

Contestants invited to “Beat Me If You Dare” and submit their overclocking scores for a total of $9,000USD in cash and prizes

Taipei, Taiwan, 30th September, 2009 – GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announces a world record P16877 3DMark Vantage score and an incredible GPU score of 15297 for the global launch of the GPU overclocking competition, Beat Me If You Dare. GIGABYTE’s in-house overclocking team presents an unrivaled GPU clock of 1100 MHz and memory clock of 1400 MHz. The scores have been posted on the Beat Me if You Dare event website and contestants around the world are invited to challenge GIGABYTE’s scores for cash and prizes.

The champion of each round will receive $1,500USD cash. As an added bonus, any contestant that beats the benchmark set by the GIGABYTE team will double his or her prize. Round 1 for the Beat Me If You Dare competition will start on Oct 1^st.

Beat Me If You Dare Round 1 details:

1. (contestant’s 3DMark Vantage Performance GPU score – 9000) / 9000 = X₁ %

2. (contestant’s game benchmark fps score – 100) / 100 = X₂ %

3. X₁ *80% + X₂ *20% = final score

Contestants may use any brand of GTX 260 Graphics Card and no hardware limitation for participation.

For further details about the GIGABYTE Beat Me If You Dare competition please visit: http://event.gigabyte.com.tw/BeatMeIfYouDare/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GIGABYTE-VGA/138376338834?ref=nf

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GIGABYTE_VGA

About GIGABYTE Upgrade Your Life

GIGABYTE, headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, is known as a global leading brand in the IT industry, with employees and business channels in almost every country. Founded in 1986, GIGABYTE started as a research and development team and has since taken the lead in the world’s motherboard market. On top of motherboards and graphics accelerators, GIGABYTE further expanded its product portfolio to include notebook and desktop PCs, digital home entertainment appliances, networking servers, communications, mobile and handheld devices, servicing every facet of people’s lives at home or business. Everyday GIGABYTE aims to “Upgrade Your Life” with the most innovative designs and impeccable quality and services. Visit www.gigabyte.com.tw for more information.

Wanna win a high-end graphics for FREE? Come and join a lottery!

Taipei, Taiwan, 28^th August, 2009 – GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, is pleased to announce CHANCE TO WIN FREE GIGABYTE NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX275 online event.

Event from August 17th to September 7th.  GIGABYTE will be giving away 1 GTX275 graphics card per week! Simple, easy, go on event page RIGHT NOW to win GTX275!

How to Win:

• Post an honest review of your GIGABYTE Graphic Card at www.newegg.com .
• Send a link to the review to vga@gigabyte-usa.com along with your username and you will be entered into the weekly drawing for a free GIGABYTE NVIDIATM GEFORCETM GTX 275

Requirements:

• Contestants must have purchased a GIGABYTE Graphics Card from newegg.com, with an invoice dated on or after June 1^st 2009.
• Only reviews submitted for GIGABYTE Graphics Cards are eligible for the drawing.
• Reviews posted after August 10th, 2009 are eligible for entry.
• Only valid for GIGABYTE Graphics Card.
• Only one winner per household.
• GIGABYTE will announce 1 weekly winner at www.gigabyte.us
• Contest ends on 7th of September, 2009.
• For any inquiries, please contact us at:vga@gigabyte-usa.com

Enter Now at http://event.gigabyte.com.tw/EVENT0810/Login.aspx

About GIGABYTE Upgrade Your Life

GIGABYTE, headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, is known as a global leading brand in the IT industry, with employees and business channels in almost every country. Founded in 1986, GIGABYTE started as a research and development team and has since taken the lead in the world’s motherboard market. On top of motherboards and graphics accelerators, GIGABYTE further expanded its product portfolio to include notebook and desktop PCs, digital home entertainment appliances, networking servers, communications, mobile and handheld devices, servicing every facet of people’s lives at home or business. Everyday GIGABYTE aims to “Upgrade Your Life” with the most innovative designs and impeccable quality and services. Visit www.gigabyte.com.tw for more information.

Taipei, Taiwan, 28^th August, 2009 – GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, announces a powerful new addition to its product lineup: The Super Overclock Series. All of the GPUs in this new range of high-end graphics cards have been cherry-picked for top performance, efficiency and reliability. Utilizing GIGABYTE’s innovative GPU Gauntlet™ Sorting process ensures that only premium GPU processors are used in these graphics cards. Coupled with Ultra Durable VGA boards, users can rest assured that the Super Overclock Series graphics cards won’t let them down when they step onto the digital battleground.

Continue reading ‘Premium Graphics Card with GPU Gauntlet™ Sorting and Ultra Durable VGA’ »

Greetings,

We have tried as hard as possible to find any way that we can hold Iron Storm XI next Sat-Sun. Alas, it was not to be. We are now in the process of finding a better date where we’ll be able to have an event worthy of Pittco!

To those who already paid:
Thank you for your valiant effort in drumming up other payments and in finding friends. We will be refunding your payments by the end of the week. If there is any complication in that, contact Bob (bkelley@pittco.org).

To those who contacted us as walk-ins:
We did count you in our attempt to reach a feasible number. Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Finally to everyone else who was unable to come:
We heard your silence, and we’re going to do our best to figure out what factors made for this. If you would fill out this itty bitty survey so we know why you were unable to come, it would help us immensely as we’re still working on our fortune telling techniques! http://is.gd/1RJXq

All in all, let us not look at this as a disappointment, but as an opportunity to better understand the ever-changing climate that is gaming. Keep sharp, we’re not done by any stretch of the imagination.

We’ll be in contact with the rescheduled date for Iron Storm XI!

–
Bob Kelley
Treasurer, Board of Directors

PITTSBURGH LAN COALITION, INC.
http://www.pittco.org

Friends and gamers,

Pittsburgh LAN Coalition is in a predicament. Iron Storm XI is in jeopardy of being canceled because not enough people have prepaid. We have more than 100 registrants, but only 26 have paid. We earnestly thank the six who have paid in the last 24 hours since an email was sent to ALP accounts.

We’re not sure of the reasons behind the low turnout, but we believe it may be a result of the economic recession, an unknown weekend event, or that Iron Storm XI is one week earlier than Iron Storm 9 was last year and is colliding with our attendees’ summer recreation/vacation schedules. Our summer events have traditionally been smaller, but this is the first time we’ve been in this situation.

In order for Iron Storm XI to happen, we need to have at least 77 paid registrations as of Wednesday, July 29 at 11:59 p.m. We need this many registrations to cover the costs of the venue and the food which we provide for free. Pittco is a non-profit corporation–we rely on income from our events and require that we make ends meet in order to hold an event.

So, we ask you this: If you are planning to attend Iron Storm XI on August 8 and 9 at the Castle Shannon Fire Hall in Pittsburgh, PA, you must prepay by Wednesday, July 29 at 11:59 p.m. If we do not have 77 paid registrations by 12:00 a.m. Thursday, July 30, we will have to cancel the event.

Register and pay here: http://www.pittco.org/alp/payment.php

Prepaying saves you $10–$25 prepay, $35 walk-in. If you plan to pay as a walk-in, please email Colin Dean at cdean@pittco.org. This will help us account for potential walk-ins and we might be able to reduce that 77 person requirement by a few.

In the event that Iron Storm XI is canceled, don’t worry–all payments will be fully refunded as quickly as possible following our decision to cancel the event. In either case, Pittco will continue to plan for its traditionally huge spring event (Iron Storm X had more than 170 people!).

Again, we beseech you: If you plan to attend Iron Storm XI, prepay by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday July 29.

Thanks, and we hope to see you at Iron Storm XI.

Register and pay here: http://www.pittco.org/alp/payment.php
–
Colin Dean
Secretary, Board of Directors

PITTSBURGH LAN COALITION, INC.

http://www.pittco.org

Iron Storm 11 is only a few weeks away, have you registered and paid for the LAN?

The infamous Prize List has been created. Please make sure to check out our sponsors below and their websites with all the nice prizes they’ll be supplying us with for Iron Storm 11.

A lot of the items haven’t been received yet, but once we receive them we’ll post them here, so be sure to check back regularly for updated prizes!

Cooler Master

• 5 x CM 690 Mid Tower Chassis
• eXtreme Power Plus 460W Power Supply
• eXtreme Power Plus 500w Power Supply
• eXtreme Power Plus 550W Power Supply
  
• 4 x Cooler Master Backpacks

Gigabyte

• GA-EP43-UD3L Motherboard
• GA-EP45-DS4P Motherboard
• GV-N250ZL-1GI GTS 250 Video Card
• Swag

BFG

• GX-550 Power Supply
• GTS 250 (Possibly)

Lian-Li

• Swag
• Possibly some prizes

Vizo

• Ninja HS (w/ USB Hub)
• Luxon Advanced ED
• Master Panel II
• Mirror Box CR
• UV LED Fan
• 2 x UV SATA Cable
• 2 x UV USB Cable
• 2 x Cold Cathode

JINX

• Gamer T-shirt
• The cake is a lie T-shirt
• MegaPack Sticker Pack (50 8×2 Stickers)

Computer Connections Inc.

• EVGA GeForce GTS 250 Graphics Card
• Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard

Patriot Memory

• LAN Package (TBD)

eDimensional

• 4 x $25 Gift Cards

MotherboardPro.com

• 3 x DFI LanParty hats
• 1 x DFI LanParty PC Transpot
• 3 x DFI desk clocks gifts
• 1 x DFI Chinese pot

Alienware

• Alienware Swag

In Win

• Probably Cases (TBD)

Crucial

• Probably Memory, Swag (TBD)

Velocity Micro

• Swag Bag

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Intel® Core™ i7-920
ATI™ Radeon™ HD 3450
3 GB Premium DDR3 RAM
500 GB Hard Drive

Free upgrade to Windows® 7

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Take yours home today and get a FREE upgrade to Windows 7 in October!

Hooray!

Pittco has secured a group rate for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of Video Games Live on July 11 at 8:30 p.m. and July 12 at 2:30 p.m. at Heinz Hall in downtown Pittsburgh.

There are several pricing levels; you can sit wherever you would like:

1. $80.50
2. $48.50
3. $40.50
4. $32.50
5. $24.50

There are also student tickets available for $15 in the Gallery and $25 in the back of the Orchestra. Check out the seating map for more information. It seems that those who spoke up first will be in the student sections or in the level 4 and 5 seating.

To order tickets, call the PSO at 412-392-4900 and tell them that you are with Pittco. They’ll confirm the group rate and take your payment information.

If you are going, you should post something in the forum thread—some folks might organize a group dinner somewhere around Heinz Hall before or after the show.

If you have any questions, please contact Colin Dean at cdean@pittco.org or (724) 216-6371. Please note that we are not chaperoning this event—children under 18 should probably be accompanied by a sibling or parent. Pittco won’t be responsible for minors.

Here’s a blurb about the show, in case you missed the first email:

Video Games Live™ is an immersive concert event featuring music
from the most popular video games of all time. Your Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh perform
along with exclusive video footage, synchronized lighting, solo
performers, electronic percussionists, live action and unique
audience-interactive segments to create an explosive entertainment
experience!

Video Games Live™ bridges a gap for entertainment by exposing new
generations of music lovers and fans to the symphonic orchestral
experience while also providing a completely new and unique
experience for families and/or non-gamers. The show is heralded and
enjoyed by the entire family. It’s the power & emotion of a symphony
orchestra mixed with the excitement and energy of a rock concert and
the technology and interactivity of a video game all completely
synchronized to amazing cutting edge video screen visuals,
state-of-the-art lighting and special on-stage interactive segments
with the audience.

Created and produced by industry veterans and world famous video game
composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, Video Games Live™ features
the best music and exclusive synchronized video clips from the most
popular games from the beginning of video gaming to the present.
Games include: Mario™, Zelda®, Halo®, Final Fantasy®,
Warcraft®, StarCraft® II, Sonic™, Metal Gear Solid®,
Kingdom Hearts, Chrono Cross™, Myst®, Tron, Castlevania®,
Metroid®, Interactive Frogger, Interactive Space Invaders,
Interactive Guitar Hero™, Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix™, Civilization IV, Tomb Raider®, Medal of Honor™,
and more!

Okay, so the “bring the rain” reference has nothing to do with ISXI per say, but i did happen to see Transformers 2 over the weekend and that line is pretty epic…

So, if you haven’t noticed it’s getting close to crunch time. If you haven’t already registered , do so. And for all you console players out there when you register make sure you choose a seat, it makes it a lot easier for the staff to plan out the seating arrangements.

Just a few notes for this upcoming LAN: Burgh.net, a server/co-location company right here in the heart of SWPA, has stepped up to offer us some of the finest latency-free PC gaming. This time around you’ll have more public servers than your little eyes can stare at. Also, expect this LAN to have the largest console gaming section in LAN in Pittsburgh. Since we’ve started to focus on console gaming, this section of our LAN has grown 10 fold. ISX sported over 75 console gamers alone… i expect to see more!

Remember everyone, it’s cheaper to pre-register than to register at the door. there’s no sense in paying $10 more than you have too. Also for you console teams out there that dominated at the last LAN and half price admission was part of your prize, send a PM to saberwolf of BobK in the forums and we’ll get you set up with the right payment.

Console Gaming / PC Gaming / Jackass Tournaments / Great Prizes / Fun With Friends … what else could you ask for?

This is Pittsburgh’s Biggest LAN Party… and we plan on holding that title for years to come!