Nvidia launches Optimized PC Challenge

MUMBAI, INDIA: In a bit to further educate the channel about the concept of optimized PCs, Nvidia has launched the Optimized PC Challenge. In this contest partners will have to build an optimized PC within a budget of Rs 22,000, excluding the cost of the monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Partners must send their creations to any Digit Test Center at Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata or Cochin. If the PC withstands the tests, they can win exciting cash prizes. The first 100 entries will receive gift vouchers worth Rs 3,000 each, irrespective of the test results. The last date to send in entries is September 15, 2008.

The contest is in continuation to the workshops Nvidia held a few months back in which participants got the chance to build a PC and get paid for it. At the workshop, attendees were shown how creating such a machine could ensure that their customers have better performance at lower price.

A pilot event was held in Pune followed by Mumbai. The objective of the workshop was to educate systems assemblers about the possibilities of building PCs, where the CPU is not the be-all and end-all.

Partners were split up into groups. Each group was given an indicative price list of the various components that go within a PC and had to assemble a machine using these components with the range of Rs 30,000.

The non-optimized PCs use quad core and dual core processors. These machines were then benchmarked for performance.

Then the groups were given the Nvidia products to build an optimized PC using Pentium D processors and GeForce 9600GT graphics cards. A comparison was done between the non-optimized and the optimized PCs to see which one fared better across all benchmarking tests.

The teams that built the best performing machines under Rs 30,000 won a cash prize of Rs 30,000. The two runner-up teams got Rs 20,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively.