VIA puts the spotlight on gaming performance and system design creativity with new competition at the DOOM 3 launch party

Grapevine, Texas and Taipei, Taiwan, 4 August 2004 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced Key Sponsorship of QuakeCon 2004, the ultimate gaming convention being held in Dallas, Texas, August 12-15, and the launch of an all-new annual case mod competition.

Heading up the impressive line-up of performance chipsets will be the VIA K8T800 Pro, combining stunning performance on the AMD64 platform with a blistering 1GHz Hyper-Transport chipset to processor interconnect with support for VIA Vinyl Audio, native Serial ATA, multi-configuration V-RAID, as well as superior overclocking features, fitting perfectly with the requirements of gamers who demand only the best.

The spotlight will also be turned on the inaugural VIA Master Modders Contest, an annual challenge to select the best case mods at the event. With judging by their peers for creative vision and ingenuity, this designated gallery of stunning case mods will vie for a top prize of US$2000. “Many gamers are noted for their showy system designs, so an annual case mod contest was a natural,” said Keith Kowal, Marketing Manager for the VIA High Definition Computing Group.

“Hardcore gamers who build their own systems for peak performance playing next generation games like DOOM 3 seek hardware that demonstrates the awesome power and flexibility they need,” said Richard Brown, Associate Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “With VIA’s Hi-Def chipsets, and especially the K8T800 Pro, they can be assured their systems are truly geared for gaming.”

"With the recent release of DOOM 3, and thousands of gaming fans pouring in from around the world, QuakeCon will be bigger and better than ever before," commented Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. "VIA will be adding considerable punch to the event and we expect the first annual cash prize for the case mod competition to be fiercely contested."

VIA will also showcase high end systems featuring popular performance mainboards from leading motherboard partners as well as its high-end audio controllers, innovative Mini-ITX designs and much more.