Maximum PC contest RSS Feed

iBuyPower Turns 10, Giving Away a System to Celebrate

Paul Lilly — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:30:37 -0600

To kick off it's tenth anniversary, boutique system build iBuyPower has launched its second-gen Chimera 2 gaming system. Like the original, the follow-up act sizzles on stage with a fiery exterior, but with a "completely redesigned signature Chimera Inferno II Chassis."

The color scheme now wraps around the entire chassis, with the chimera flame design covering 4 exterior surfaces (front, right, left, and top panels). Underneath it all sits either a Phenom II X3/X4 or Core i5/i7 foundation, depending on which base configuration you start out with. The Core i5 base comes standard with a Core i5 750 processor, Asus P7P55D LE motherboard, 4GB of DDR3-1333 memory, an ATI HD 5750 videocard, 750GB hard drive, 700W PSU, 22X DVD burner, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Surprising affordable, pricing starts at $1,100 (or $999 if building around AMD).

Don't feel like buying one? To celebrate its 10th birthday, iBuyPower said it's giving away a Chimera 2 system with a Killer Xeno Pro Gaming card.

"We are excited to be celebrating our tenth anniversary and wanted to thank all our customers that helped make it happen with a giveaway and hot new system," said Darren Su, VP of iBuyPower. "The Chimera 2 gaming systems are fully loaded and feature a new aggressive design sure to impress."

To enter, ~~follow iBuyPower on Twitter and/or Facebook~~ became a Fan of iBuyPower on Facebook or follow them on Twitter, and then fill out the contest entry form here. Good luck!

Image Credit: iBuyPower

Winner of Ion Case Mod Contest is Glowing Green Cube

Paul Lilly — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:30:34 -0600

Bill "Overkill Bill" Owen from Mnpctech walked away a winner in Nvidia's Ion case mod contest announced a few months back. The contest tasked 5 professional case modders with building a "revolutionary Ion-based PC" out of an Zotac Ion ITX 330 motherboard containing an Nvidia Ion GPU and an Intel Atom dual-core CPU, along with $500 for any additional PC parts.

Owen's winning entry came in the form of a wild looking green cube consisting of hundreds of hours of labor and a whole lot of CNC milled sheets of aluminum and laser-cut acrylic.

Full system specs can be found here, but it's the worklog and plethora of pictures that are the real treat, and you can view it all right here.

Image Credit: Mnpctech

Reminder! We're Giving Away a Lynnfield Core i7 Gaming PC! Contest Ends this Friday!

The Maximum PC Staff — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:15:50 -0500

To celebrate the launch of the new Lynnfield Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, we've partnered with Intel to give away a CyberPower gaming PC. Between 12:01AM PST on Friday, September 11th and 11:59PM on Friday, September 25th, you can enter the raffle for the prize by joining our Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/maximumpc). It's really that simple -- no essays, photos, or craft projects required. We'll draw a random entry after the contest deadline and one lucky winner will walk away with a new Lynnfield-powered PC!

Intel is excited about our new Lynnfield line of processors—Core i5 and Core i7. To show how excited we are we are giving away over a dozen CyberPower and Ibuypower systems to the readers of the tech reviewers who put the products through their paces daily! “Core i for the mainstream guy (and gal) is what we affectionately call it, bringing the Nehalem architecture to mainstream PC pricepoints everywhere. Our awesome etail partners below helped make this happen, hit them up when you go shopping for a system. And special thanks to CyberPower and Ibuypower for delivering the goods yet again.

System specifications for the prize:

CyberPower PC Gamer Extreme 5000

-Intel® Core™ i7 870 @ 2.93 GHz LGA 1156 45nm 8MB L3 Cache
-Intel P55 Chipset Mainboard
        - 3x PCI-e 16x
        - 4x DIMM DDR3 Memory Slots
            - 2x PCI-e 1x
        - 2x PCI
        - 10 USB (8 x rear, 2 x front)
        - GB LAN
- 6x SATA, 2x IDE
- I/O: 2x PS2, 8x USB, 1x IEEE1394a, Optical S/PDIF Out Port, Coaxial S/PDIF
          Out Port,,2x RJ-45, Audio
-8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 1333 Memory(Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)[+0]More Brand...
-1TB SATA-II 3.0 Gb/s 7200RPM HDD
-Nvidia Geforce GTX285 1024MB PCI Express Video Card
-Blu-Ray Player Drive
-22x DVD±R/±RW DUAL LAYER DRIVE
-Xtreme Gear USB Keyboard
-Xtreme Gear USB Mouse
-Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-Bit
(With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon)
-NZXT Beta Gaming Case With Side Window and 800W Power Supply
-Shipping weight : 42Lbs.
-Shipping Dimension : 28 ¼” (L) x 21 5/8” (W) x 11 7/8” (H)
-1 Year Warranty and Lifetime Toll Free Tech Support Services

Intel's Lynnfield processors are now available at online retailers, including the following:

MAXIMUM PC CYBERPOWERPC GAMER CONTEST
OFFICIAL RULES

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.

1. SPONSOR: This promotion (the “Contest”) is sponsored by Maximum PC magazine and Future US, Inc. (“Sponsors”), subject to the following terms and conditions.

2. ELIGIBILITY: Contest open to legal residents of the United States (excluding residents of Rhode Island and Puerto Rico) and legal residents of Canada, excluding residents of Quebec. Void where prohibited by law. Entrants must be at least 18 years of age. Employees of Sponsors, their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, and agents, and foregoing employees’ household or immediate family members (defined as parent, spouse, child, sibling, or grandparent) are NOT eligible to enter Contest. By their submission of entry, participants warrant they are legally entitled and authorized to make such submission, either on their own behalf, or as to information submitted upon the express authorization of another on whose behalf the information is submitted.

3. TIMING: Contest begins at 12:01 a.m. PDT on September 11th, 2009 and continues until 11:59 p.m. PDT on September 25th, 2009. Incomplete or late entries will not be accepted.

HOW TO ENTER: Email us at contests@maximumpc.com, putting “CyberpowerPC Gamer Contest” in the subject line and including your complete name, address, daytime telephone number, city, state, and zip code in the body or join our Facebook page at http://facebook.com/maximumpc. There is a limit of one entry per eligible participant. Entries become the property of the Sponsors and will not be acknowledged or returned.

5. PRIZES AND ODDS: One Grand Prize will be awarded. The Grand Prize will be a CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme 5000 with Intel® Core™ i7-870 2.93 GHz 8M L2 Cache LGA1156 and a total retail value of $2,199.00

Odds of winning shall be determined by the number of eligible entries received.
Prizes are nontransferable and must be accepted as awarded. Winner will be responsible for all taxes (federal, state, and local) and all expenses not listed herein related to acceptance and use of any prize. Prize will be awarded if properly claimed. Limit one prize per household.

6. DRAWING: Winners will be selected by random drawing from all valid eligible entries received. Drawing will be held on or about September 28th, 2009. Drawing will be conducted by Sponsors, whose decisions on all matters related to the Contest shall be final and binding and within their sole discretion. Canadian entrants selected in any drawing will be required to correctly answer, without assistance of any kind, whether mechanical or otherwise, a time-limited mathematical skill-testing question to be administered by mail or by telephone. Winning is contingent upon compliance with all terms and conditions set forth in these official rules; any entry drawn or any potential winner identified thereby found at any time to fail to comply with these official rules will be held invalid and ineligible for award.

NOTIFICATION: Winner will be notified by phone or email within one week following the random drawing. Winner so notified must within ten (10) days of notice of award, complete, execute and return the provided Affidavit, Waiver, Release and Indemnity Agreement including, where lawful, a Publicity Release (plus any additional documents required at the discretion of Sponsors). Failure to comply with the requirements of this paragraph (or the return of any prize or prize notification as non-deliverable) may result in disqualification and in the forfeiture of any right to a prize, in which case prize will be awarded to an alternate by random drawing. A list of winners will be available for six months after the award of prizes by sending a self addressed envelope with sufficient prepaid postage to:

MAXIMUM PC
CYBERPOWERPC GAMER CONTEST
4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400
South San Francisco, CA 94080

Residents of the state of Vermont and Canada may omit return postage.

8. PRIVACY POLICY: Submissions are subject to standard privacy policy, the terms of which can be found at http://www.futureus.com/privacy.php, which terms and conditions entrants accept and agree to by submission of entries pursuant to these official rules.

9. RELEASE: by participating in the Contest and/or accepting a prize, a participant/winner agrees to defend, release and hold harmless the Sponsors and their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, divisions, advertising and promotion agencies, and the foregoing companies’ officers, directors, shareholders, employees, representatives and agents (collectively “Releasees”) from and against any actions, claims and/or liability for injury, loss or damage of any kind, (including the violation or infringement of any proprietary or personal right of any individual or entity) resulting in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from participation in the Contest, and/or the use, acceptance, or possession of a Contest prize, and/or participation in a Contest prize-related activity, including any action, claim or liability arising from the unauthorized submission of any information.

By participating in the Contest and/or accepting a prize, a participant/winner consents to and gives the Sponsors the right to use, publish, and display a winner’s (and where applicable a participant’s) name, city and state, and prize awarded, for the purpose of advertising, trade, publicity and promotional purposes in any media now known or hereafter discovered, worldwide, and on the Web, without review, notification or approval, all without additional consideration, unless prohibited by law.

10. CONDITIONS: Participants agree that by participating they release the Releasees from any liability in connection with: a) Entries that are ineligible as a result of being lost, late, illegible, damaged, incomplete, stolen, postage due, or misdirected: b) Any typographical or other human or technical errors in the offer or administration of the Contest, including but not limited to errors in advertising, these official rules, the selection and announcement of a winner(s), or the distribution/awarding of a prize(s); c) Any omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay, misdirection, damage, injury, technical malfunctions or traffic congestion on the Internet/telephone network, or at any website, or any combination thereof.

Sponsors reserve the right to modify these rules for clarification purposes without materially affecting the term and conditions of the Contest. In the event that the Contest is infected by a computer virus/worm, or is not capable of running or being executed as planned (as a result of but not limited to an error, omission, defect, delay, misdirection, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, action of entrants, or technical failure) or any other cause which in the sole opinion of Sponsors corrupts or affects the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the Contest, Sponsors reserve the right in their sole discretion to disqualify any suspect entry or entrant and to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest. In the event of such cancellation, termination, modification or suspension, notice thereof will be posted at the entry website(s) mentioned above, and winner(s) will be determined solely by Sponsors in a random drawing from among all eligible non-suspect and/or non-disqualified entries. In such event, Releasees shall have no liability to any participant who is disqualified due to such an action. Failure to enforce any term of these official rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.

11. LAW: This Contest is governed by the laws of the United States and is subject to all federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Void where prohibited or restricted. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation, and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of entrants or Sponsor in connection with any drawing or award, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of, the State of California, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any cause of action by you with respect to the offer (and/or any information, products or services related thereto) must be instituted within one (1) year after the cause of action arose or be forever waived and barred. All actions shall be subject to the limitations set forth in above. The language in these official rules shall be interpreted as in accordance with its fair meaning and not strictly for or against either party. All legal proceedings arising out of or in connection with the offer of these official rules shall be brought solely in San Mateo County, California. You expressly submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of said courts and consent to extraterritorial service of process.

Microsoft Announces Awful Winner of Bing Jingle Contest

Paul Lilly — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:30:59 -0500

Two weeks ago to the day, Microsoft kicked off a contest inviting participants to sing a jingle about Bing with the stipulation that videos could be no longer than 5 minutes long. It did not stipulate that videos couldn't suck, which doesn't matter anyway, unless the winning entry truly was the best submission Microsoft received.

Jonathan Mann, known on YouTube as "The Rock Cookie Bottom," will receive $500 for winning the Bing Jingle contest, and everyone who watches it gets to die a little inside.

"His concept from the beginning was to have fun and make it a bit silly," Microsoft wrote on its Bing Community blog. "He thought the idea of searching for "Learn how to dance like Jonathan" while dancing in the foreground would be pretty hilarious. And lucky for us it was both catchy and funny! Jonathan's Bing jingle was his 202nd song."

View the winning submission here, and if you like it, we suggest also watching this and this.

Help Maximum PC's Folding Team Win the Next Chimp Challenge!

Norman Chan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:03:20 -0500

Three years ago the MaximumPC Folding Team challenged the team ranked above us in the global folding ladder to a race. Each team picked a folding name and tried to get as many folders as possible to fold for it. The race was to a set amount of total folding points, and team Maximum PC won that first contest. In the contest’s second year, the number of points required to win went up and we lost to the third place team. But as winning points went up again last year, we rose to the challenge and won the Chimp race, as it is called today.

This year, 8 or 9 teams may enter, so the Maximum PC team faces some stiff competition. Each year the race stimulates new interest in teams across the world (Russia, Australia and England joined recently, for example). Two top teams from EVGA and overclock.net are loaded with new members and challenging our daily production total. In addition, the top ranked team right now, Horde, produces a million more points a day than any other team.

But we still have plenty of time to build our troops before the race begins in early May.

If you are familiar with folding and can help us attempt to make it three out of four, we would appreciate your help in joining our team! Of course, the folding you do will help Stanford's folding project continue to provide free research data into various diseases.

If you are not familiar with folding, stop by the folding section on the MaximumPC forums and the team will be happy to tell you all about it. The race will probably only last 5-10 days, and details are hashed out by all the teams a week or two before the start. If you’re interested at all, head over to our folding section and join the cause!

Win a HP Mini 1001 Netbook in Our Twitter Contest!

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:42:26 -0500

We’ve given out t-shirts, small toys, and even a personal beverage cooler in our weekly Twitter trivia contest (hosted by @willsmith), but this month, we’re raising the stakes by giving away one HP Mini 1001 netbook! Starting next week, our Illustrious Editor-in-Chief will challenge his Twitter followers with a series of three technology trivia questions. Correct answers will score you one entry in our random drawing, which we’ll conduct on Tuesday, March 24th. One lucky grand prize winner will score the netbook (Approximate value, $490 USD) and five first place winners will get a Left 4 Dead t-shirt, courtesy of Valve Software. We won’t be announcing the times of the trivia questions on the website, so subscribe to Will’s Twitter feed to make sure you don’t miss out!

MAXIMUM PC TWITTER TRIVIA CONTEST
OFFICIAL RULES

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.

1. SPONSOR: This promotion (the “Contest”) is sponsored by Maximum PC magazine and Future US, Inc. (“Sponsors”), subject to the following terms and conditions.

2. ELIGIBILITY: Contest open to legal residents of the United States (excluding residents of Rhode Island and Puerto Rico), and legal residents of Canada (excluding residents of Quebec). Void where prohibited by law. Entrants must be at least 18 years of age. Employees of Sponsors, their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, and agents, and foregoing employees’ household or immediate family members (defined as parent, spouse, child, sibling, or grandparent) are NOT eligible to enter Contest. By their submission of entry, participants warrant they are legally entitled and authorized to make such submission, either on their own behalf, or as to information submitted upon the express authorization of another on whose behalf the information is submitted.

3. TIMING: Contest begins at 12:01 a.m. PDT on 3/5/09 and continues until 11:59 p.m. PDT on 3/20/09. Incomplete or late entries will not be accepted.

HOW TO ENTER: Between 3/6/09 and 3/19/09 we will post three trivia questions concerning technology at http://www.twitter.com/willsmith. To enter, send your answer either using a Twitter reply using the format “@willsmith answer” or send an email to comments@maximumpc.com with “Maximum PC Twitter Trivia Contest” in the subject line. Entrants must respond to the trivia question within an hour of the post time. There is a limit of one entry per eligible participant per question. All entrants who answer the trivia question correctly will be entered into the random drawing. Entries become the property of the Sponsors and will not be acknowledged or returned.

5. PRIZES AND ODDS: One Grand Prize and five First Prizes will be awarded. The Grand Prize will be an HP Mini 1001xx netbook with a total retail value of $490. The five First Prizes will consist of Left4Dead T-shirts with a total retail value of $25 each.

6. DRAWING: Winners will be selected by random drawing from all valid eligible entries received. Drawing will be held on or about 3/24/09. Drawing will be conducted by Sponsors, whose decisions on all matters related to the Contest shall be final and binding and within their sole discretion. Canadian entrants selected in any drawing will be required to correctly answer, without assistance of any kind, whether mechanical or otherwise, a time-limited mathematical skill-testing question to be administered by mail or by telephone. Winning is contingent upon compliance with all terms and conditions set forth in these official rules; any entry drawn or any potential winner identified thereby found at any time to fail to comply with these official rules will be held invalid and ineligible for award.

NOTIFICATION: Winner will be notified by phone or email within one week following the random drawing. Winner so notified must within ten (10) days of notice of award, complete, execute and return the provided Affidavit, Waiver, Release and Indemnity Agreement including, where lawful, a Publicity Release (plus any additional documents required at the discretion of Sponsors). Failure to comply with the requirements of this paragraph (or the return of any prize or prize notification as non-deliverable) may result in disqualification and in the forfeiture of any right to a prize, in which case prize will be awarded to an alternate by random drawing. A list of winners will be available for six months after the award of prizes by sending a self addressed envelope with sufficient prepaid postage to:

MAXIMUM PC
TWITTER TRIVIA CONTEST
4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400
South San Francisco, CA 94080

Residents of Canada and the state of Vermont may omit return postage.

Microsoft Tries to Energize Silverlight Game Development with New Contest

Paul Lilly — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:01:21 -0600

Microsoft received considerable buzz over its Silverlight web browser plugin during the Beijing Olympics, in which NBC opted to use Silverlight rather than Adobe's Flash to stream its Olympics coverage. But it didn't take long for NBC to run back to Flash once the Olympics were over, taking the spotlight off of the Silverlight platform.

Silverlight is back in the news, this time for a new contest Microsoft has launched at serverquestcontest.com. The contest is being aimed at Silverlight game developers age 16 or older and living in the U.S. To enter, eligible developers must create a user profile on the site, download the Software Development Kit, and then use it to create an online game.

Participants can submit up to three entries, each of which must follow a set of strict guidelines. These include a file download size not larger than 4MB and total file size of less than 10MB, resolution of 800x430 or less, the game cannot include any upload file aspects nor can it require or allow any external communication, it must be developed in Silverlight 2.0 and submitted in object/binary code format, and finally the game must clearly indicate to others that it is governed by the Creative Commons license. Phew!

The contest runs through April 30, 2009 (11:59 PM PST), with a voting period to take place between May 1 and May 14. Winners will be announced May 25, 2009.

Any budding developers planning to enter?

Image Credit: Microsoft

Does Your PC Have What it Takes to be the Rig of the Month?

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:45:18 -0600

Have you spent countless hours shedding blood, sweat, and tears into your Kick Ass mod? Does your mod have your friends and family drenching you in compliments? If so, have your rig shine alongside the elite crew of modders by submitting your rig to MaximumPC’s Rig of the Month contest! Every month, one talented modder and his rig will be featured in the magazine before the entire world to see, as well as rewarded with a $250 gift certificate! We know you’re interested, so read on for contest rules and details.

TO ENTER: Your submission packet must contain your name, street address, and daytime phone number; no fewer than three high-res JPEGs (minimum size 1024x768) of your modified PC; and a 300-word description of what your PC represents and how it was modified. Emailed submissions should be sent to rig@maximumpc.com. Snail mail submissions should be sent to Rig of the Month, c/o Maximum PC, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080.

The judges will be Maximum PC editors, and they will base their decision on the following criteria: creativity and craftsmanship.

ONE ENTRY PER HOUSEHOLD. Your contest entry will be valid until (1) six months after its submission or (2) the contest ends, whichever date is earlier. Each month a winner will be chosen from the existing pool of valid entries and featured in the Rig of the Month department of the magazine. Each of the judging criteria (creativity and craftsmanship) will be weighed equally at 50 percent. By entering this contest you agree that Future US, Inc. may use your name and your mod’s likeness for promotional purposes without further payment. All prizes will be awarded and no minimum number of entries is required. Prizes won by minors will be awarded to their parents or legal guardians. Future US, Inc. is not responsible for damages or expenses that the winners might incur as a result of the Contest or the receipt of a prize, and winners are responsible for income taxes based on the value of the prize received. A list of winners may also be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Future US, Inc. c/o Maximum PC Rig of the Month, 4000 Shoreline Ct, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. This contest is limited to residents of the United States. No purchase necessary; void in Arizona, Maryland, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and where prohibited by law