Event Coverage

HardwareZone Iron Tech 2008: Philippines Semi-Finals Round

By Vijay Anand - 18 Sep 2008

The Rigging Challenge - Phase 1

The Rigging Challenge - Phase 1

 The semi-finalists here being briefed on the mechanics and rules one last time prior to the start of the competition.

 Briefing the contestants and playing the role as MC for the competition is none other than HWM Philippines' Editor and Manager, Paolo Sotto Manzano.

 HardwareZone's very own Vijay Anand flew in from Singapore to grace the Philippines leg of Iron Tech 2008. Here, he addressed the participants and the crowd, formally opening the event.

 The competition was overseen by this team of vigilant marshals, led by Vijay Anand (fourth from left) as head judge and Paolo Manzano (third from left) as competition manager.

The main competition was divided into three main stages. The first phase was a showcase of the semi-finalists' speed and efficiency in building a working PC using this uniform set of supplied components as stated below. The fastest would be rewarded with 3 bonus points, first runner-up with 2 points and the second runner-up with 1 point. The rest will receive no extra points.

  • MSI P45 Platinum Motherboard
  • MSI N9800GT-T2D512 Graphics Card
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Processor
  • Kingston HyperX KHX8500D2K2/2G Memory
  • Western Digital Caviar WD1600ABS Hard Disk Drive
  • Lite-On 20X DVD Writer
  • AcBel iPower660 Power Supply Unit
  • Hanns G HX191 Monitor
  • Antec 120mm Blue LED Casing Fan and accessories
  • Logitech Keyboard and Mouse

 The stack of PC parts that each Iron Tech semi-finalist had in his arsenal.

Quick reflexes, steady hands, strategic placement - that's the game for the first phase of the competition. The Iron Tech 2008 Philippine semi-finalists shifted into high gear as soon as the go signal was given:-

 Here's Alvin Telan busy plugging in the right cables.

 Gil Navarro caught in action as he mounts his CPU cooler.

 Here's Jomar Marfil much earlier in the competition as he was ripping through the packaging of the components. Seen in the background is our Timer application putting the pressure on the contestants.

 Paul Neri decks his board with memory first.

 Ronaldo Bejarin seen speeding through as he mounts the CPU on his motherboard.

 Michelle Patelo caught on photo as he carefully assembled his system.

Ronaldo Bejarin lorded over the rest of the participants in this round, finishing his task in a mere 5 minutes and 39 seconds to build his PC from scratch and get it to POST successfully without issues. He was followed by Gil Navarro with a time of 7:40 and Paul Neri clocking in at 11:28.

 And here are our top three for round one! Top rigger Ronaldo Bejarin did an awesome job, building his system in under 6 minutes!

 First runner-up for the rigging segment, Gil Navarro.

 Second runner-up for the rigging segment, Paul Neri.

 

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