QuakeCon 2005

Alienware was on hand to showcase their infamous desktops and notebooks. In addition to having a unique aesthetic, the systems pack some potent performance. Alienware aimed to drive this point home by holding a contest to see whose system could match their own flagship ALX desktop 3DMark05 and Doom3 scores. Overall, there were some impressive results turned in by the audience although no scores managed to best the Alienware systems.

Kingston was displaying a robust line of memory products ranging from some cutting-edge DDR2 modules to some insanely large flash memory cards. Memory is often overlooked as one of the most critical components when overclocking systems. The gang here at HotHardware have used Kingston memory considerably and can attest that they are some of the highest quality modules money can buy.

Ageia was on hand to demonstrate its new PhysX discrete physics processor. There were several impressive demos showing the sheer magnitude of manipulative objects that could be seen in applications when using their new hardware. Although it is unclear when technology like this will be implemented, seeing this hardware in action certainly makes it seem certain that it will be coming in the near future as the results speak for themselves.

Armed with their latest family of robust power supplies, Enermax was on hand to fuel the show. With SLI and processors requiring massive amounts of power, it was no surprise to see some immense PSU's sitting on the table ready to handle the most power-hungry systems.

In typical Intel fashion, there was a large display area complete with dozens of systems for the audience to use. From the latest desktop hardware to the most convenient notebooks, there was something for nearly anyone's needs. Still, it was a bit odd to see Intel at such a large gaming convention such as QuakeCon given the profound performance advantage AMD has these days with the latest titles.

Lastly, we saw Linksys and their latest group of networking components including the heralded SRX series of MIMO devices. Gamers looking for networking hardware should remember that Linksys has been a longtime supporter of QuakeCon and is always willing to help gamers out with any issues they might have at home, regardless of whose hardware they're using.