While at MegaCon this year (2025), I happened across a booth from Intel and NewEgg where they were hosting a speed PC building competition. I’d never seen anything like it, so OF COURSE I decided to enter!
The premise was quite interesting, as they had some components out on a table, and the goal was to get them all assembled into a functional system as quickly as you could! For extra pressure, they were running people 2 at a time, side by side.
The components provided were:
- Motherboard (with CPU and cooler mounted, but the fan not plugged in)
- Power Supply (non-modular)
- System case with preinstalled fans
- 2 sticks of RAM
- 1 Graphics Card
- Plenty of screws to mount everything, and 2 screwdrivers
You’ve got to get everything assembled into a working system, and make sure all screws are in place, and all cables plugged in, including motherboard power, CPU power, graphics card power, case fans, CPU fan, USB 3.0, USB C, Front panel connector, and Audio header. Then you close the case and call time.
The gentleman ahead of me on the first day set the fastest time thus far as just over 7 minutes. Yes, that is EXTREMELY fast! It was so fast that unfortunately I did not have my system built in those 7 minutes, so I was not allowed to finish to see my time. Bummer! But I had another day I could enter, and I had learned some things to overcome the obstacles I had encountered.
On my last day, I showed up and gave it another shot, earlier in the day, so I would have a better chance of getting to complete my build. Thankfully when I got to the table, there was still a 15 minute time limit, so I had plenty of time to work. I set a blistering pace to start, but I had to re-screw a couple of screws, struggled a little with the front panel connector, and had a LOT of struggle with the PCIE power for the graphics card, because the extra 2 plugs that dangle off the side of the connector did NOT want to get into place. All those pitfalls cost me probably a minute and a half, but I still beat the person next to me and locked in a time around 8.5 minutes. I did win some great Intel and NewEgg swag for my entry, but my time did not survive the day, and someone else took home the daily grand prize.
Regardless, I thought it was a fun experience, and since I’ve never even THOUGHT of building a system for speed, I didn’t think I was going to be winning any big prizes. Life is full of fun and interesting challenges and opportunities to learn and test new skills. Maybe I’ll see them again next year!