I got it pretty much put together this weekend. I still have a lot to do in terms of adding games for people to demo and making sure that 3D Vision is working correctly & all that noise. It should be a very fast demo PC with the centerpiece being a GeForce GTX 275. Everything is working great even though I used some open box hardware in order to avoid opening up new stuff for demo purposes.

The Raven is actually not bad to build in at all. It’s not my favorite case from a cable management standpoint, but it’s well thought out, and I think it looks really cool in person even though it doesn’t really photograph well.

Well I think it’s safe to call the event a success. Everyone had a really good time, and despite the fact that it made me tired, we managed to get the PCs built, got Windows installed, and we even found time to eat the pizza. Here are some pics from the event. We’ve got another tentatively planned for August 8th (and moving forward we’ll have a schedule of the second Saturday of each month).

Wow. Three video posts in a row here! We’ve been very busy with these GPU launches, and we’re very proud of the results (except for maybe Monitor Man… You’ll have to watch the video to see what I’m talking about :p).

Check it out!

Another Tech Tips already! We actually shot these both on the same day (you can kinda tell from the fact that the horrible zit is still on my chin… I refuse to wear make-up for this) and that’s been part of what’s made this such a busy launch.

A lot goes into a product launch besides fun things like YouTube videos, so I’m glad we still had time to get these out the door. I hope you enjoy part II of our January 8th launch videos.

We just released a new NCIX Tech Tips about the Phenom II & AMD Dragon platform.

I failed and got the required chipset wrong (should be 790GX, not 790FX), but other than that, I’m very happy with the results. Hopefully you enjoy the video!

Well a new Tech Tips is finally here. It’s not what we wanted to release (frankly) and we have some very exciting other stuff coming up soon, but we saw the weather outside, and it’s something I’ve toyed with a few times, so we thought “What the hey” and packed our junk outside.

Look for the Domino ALC to show up at an NCIX near you in the coming weeks!

Well day one of Fragapalooza is coming to a close…. Well the night is just starting, but yeah. I’ve made an NCIX corner in the Intel booth and so far the event has been great. We’ve had lots of people come up to check out this system I did up for Corsair.

It arrived safely via UPS and so did all of my other gear. The one thing that didn’t show up was my NCIX banner… Fortunately I have lots of NCIX enviro bags, so there should be plenty of NCIX representation around the show.

The venue is huge. I can’t even capture it properly with my G7, but this LAN is unlike anything I’ve seen before in Vancouver.

Here’s on of the Corsair guys gaming it up (with coaching from one of the kind LAN-goers) with Crysis on this crazy quad SLI system.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this. A Mac at a LAN party? It’s one of two that are here and the other is a notebook.

Here’s me with “FPS Doug” from Pure Pwnage. He was giving out signed posters. I got one that reads “Boom! Headshot!”. It’s awesome.

Well it looks like I’ll be attending Fragapalooza as an NCIX representative. I’m going to bring along the Tech Tips camera so if you’re wanting to make a guest appearance to show off a talent on Tech Tips and you’re going to be at Fragapalooza, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

As many of you know, I’m the water cooling product manager at NCIX, and besides being willing to bring in almost anything a customer asks for, speedy shipping times, and great customer service, (/obvious NCIX plug, hehe) I realize that there isn’t much that differentiates us from other water cooling shops. Then it hit me. We are different from other water cooling shops in that we carry an incredible amount of other PC hardware.

My next thought actually came into my head because of a conversation I had had with a customer who was not terribly confident installing a full cover water block. Full cover blocks are (for good reason) designed for a short life cycle, so things like detailed instruction manuals and accessories can be skimped on sometimes. He was worried that he would mess up his card and I said to him, “I’d love to do it for you, but we don’t offer a service like that”. Well, it’s about to start.

This week or next week NCIX will be launching a “custom water cooled video cards” page, which will allow you to choose your video card, choose a water block, choose your tubing size and add an assembly fee. The assembly fee is set right now to be at $100 to cover the time of an experienced water cooling tech (me in all likelihood for the first while) to install, double check, pressure test the block on your card, then pack it for shipping, as well as the extra risk that NCIX takes by offering water cooled video cards directly to customers.

Right now these water cooled video cards will be available on select eVGA and XFX cards only because they do not void the warranty for using aftermarket coolers. We will also include your stock cooler in case you need to send the card back to the manufacturer. This leaves you with a VERY unique solution. Right now you can buy water cooled video cards, but the cost is prohibitive, you rarely get the water block you want, and you’re stuck with the water block if you want to sell the card or move it into an air cooled secondary/girlfriend’s/kid’s/parents’ machine.

This way you pay less than a pre-water cooled card, you get to pick a high quality copper block from one of our suppliers, and you can go back to air cooling on the card if you want to. Oh yeah, and you aren’t stuck with a particular video card either. You can pick a stock card, an overclocked one, or whatever your heart desires. It’s about consumer choice and value. I’m confident that with our custom water cooled video card builder you’ll find the best choice and value for a water cooled video card.

Here’s a glam shot of the card we’ll be using in some of the ads. It’s an older 8800GTS 320 with an EK Water Blocks nickel plated full cover water block on it. Initially product offerings will be limited to 8800GT and 8800GTS 512MB card, but we’ll be expanding the program to cover 9800GTX cards shortly if all goes well.