Scrapyard wars ideas?

[The Price is Rice]

Now that scrapyard wars is over (at least for floatplane subscribers), i thought it might be fun to just pool some ideas together for the next scrapyard wars. Maybe linus would even use some of these ideas for the next one. 

 

My thoughts for them are to go to completely unfamiliar high population high traffic city such as NYC, Chicago, LA etc. Some place that is confusing and difficult to navigate. The contestants are given an unlimited budget but the parts must be second hand. The contestants are obly allowed a single tank of gas, or a very limited budget for public transportation. Say maybe $50 ~ 75 or something like that. 

 

For every dollar spent above the competing teams PC, points will get subtracted from that teams final score. 

 

Im also think for comedic effect the PC should be ugly. Im talking hideously disgusting. So no amount of money spent for a high end case will help at all. They will have to get creative. Obviously which ever teams pc get judged to be the ugliest will be awarded extra points. 

 

What does everyone think about that? 

[Howitz]

I have an idea about making a pc with parts only dating from like 10-15 years ago (fixed limit) and it must run some games from back then

 

there the challenge would be finding those very old parts that some of them might have become extremely rare, basically make some antique PC

[The Price is Rice]

Lol that sounds awesome too

[IgorM]

I'd say an unfamiliar and a non English-speaking city such as São Paulo here in Brasil. 

[Streetguru]

9 minutes ago, Sneakyjap said:

 

They should be given an unlimited budget, but have to design every aspect of the PC from scratch.

[Shreyas1]

Scrapyard wars outside North America

 

Each team can pick any city outside North America and can only operate in that city

 

Budget - 5000 dollars EVERYTHING included

 

Might be expensive though

[IgorM]

1 minute ago, Shreyas1 said:

Scrapyard wars outside North America

 

Each team can pick any city outside North America and can only operate in that city

 

Budget - 5000 dollars EVERYTHING included

 

Might be expensive though

That would be a great ideia. Each team in one random city or country.

[IgorM]

16 minutes ago, Sneakyjap said:

Im also think for comedic effect the PC should be ugly. Im talking hideously disgusting. So no amount of money spent for a high end case will help at all. They will have to get creative. Obviously which ever teams pc get judged to be the ugliest will be awarded extra points. 

This plus unlimited money for the hardware inside would be nice. 

[Shreyas1]

1 minute ago, IgorM said:

That would be a great ideia. Each team in one random city or country.

The problem with a random country is that if one of them gets somewhere in South America and the other gets somewhere in Asia, one team has to spend much more in flight costs

[IgorM]

5 minutes ago, Shreyas1 said:

The problem with a random country is that if one of them gets somewhere in South America and the other gets somewhere in Asia, one team has to spend much more in flight costs

And it's definitely not very viable option but I totally agree that it should be outside North America. 

[The Price is Rice]

Agreed. Haggling on price via google translate or something similar would be hilarious. 

[The Price is Rice]

27 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

They should be given an unlimited budget, but have to design every aspect of the PC from scratch.

What do you mean design everything from scratch?

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, Sneakyjap said:

Now that scrapyard wars is over (at least for floatplane subscribers), i thought it might be fun to just pool some ideas together for the next scrapyard wars. Maybe linus would even use some of these ideas for the next one. 

 

My thoughts for them are to go to completely unfamiliar high population high traffic city such as NYC, Chicago, LA etc. Some place that is confusing and difficult to navigate. The contestants are given an unlimited budget but the parts must be second hand. The contestants are obly allowed a single tank of gas, or a very limited budget for public transportation. Say maybe $50 ~ 75 or something like that. 

 

For every dollar spent above the competing teams PC, points will get subtracted from that teams final score. 

 

Im also think for comedic effect the PC should be ugly. Im talking hideously disgusting. So no amount of money spent for a high end case will help at all. They will have to get creative. Obviously which ever teams pc get judged to be the ugliest will be awarded extra points. 

 

What does everyone think about that? 

That’s just the 1337 $ scrapyard wars... lol. 

30 minutes ago, Howitz said:

I have an idea about making a pc with parts only dating from like 10-15 years ago (fixed limit) and it must run some games from back then

 

there the challenge would be finding those very old parts that some of them might have become extremely rare, basically make some antique PC

Second. 

29 minutes ago, IgorM said:

I'd say an unfamiliar and a non English-speaking city such as São Paulo here in Brasil. 

Hah! 

Linus! Build a PC in North Korea, or the Islamic State! Lol

”is Kevlar part of the budget?” 

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, Sneakyjap said:

What do you mean design everything from scratch?

Can't use any previously designed/built hardware, they have to make new CPUs and GPUs.

[Guest]

*post farming *

 

in China you can build a phone because parts are sold on the streets. Maybe next scrapyard wars they can build a phone? 

Or laptop!!

xonstrocct by a form factor

[Guest]

Just now, Streetguru said:

Can't use any previously designed/built hardware, they have to make new CPUs and GPUs.

That’s... you know machines make processors right? 

[Clockwork_princess]

they alredy have to use used parts lol

[Clockwork_princess]

1 hour ago, Streetguru said:

Can't use any previously designed/built hardware, they have to make new CPUs and GPUs.

lol yeah make it believable 

[JerrBear]

1 hour ago, Sneakyjap said:

Agreed. Haggling on price via google translate or something similar would be hilarious. 

I can already imagine Linus making all kinds of strange hand gestures that the editor will surely make fun of...  

[kilgore_T]

I want to see

scrapyard wars - drunk and no internet

[Antistatic12]

 LTT vs TTL would be good.

[PianoPlayer88Key]

2 hours ago, Howitz said:

I have an idea about making a pc with parts only dating from like 10-15 years ago (fixed limit) and it must run some games from back then

 

there the challenge would be finding those very old parts that some of them might have become extremely rare, basically make some antique PC

I'd like to see something like this!  With a few extra challenges, for example...

 

They're not allowed to use any parts that are "plug and play" or automatically configured.  No PCI slots or newer, no IDE hard drives or newer, no USB devices, etc.

Motherboard expansion slots must be ISA or older, hard drives and floppy drives must be MFM / ST-506 interface or older (don't remember if any CD drives connected via that interface), peripherals would be connected via COM & LPT ports, with keyboard using the older 5-pin DIN connector, or older.

They'll need to manually configure cylinders, heads, sectors, etc. on hard drives, manually configure IRQ & other things on other connected devices, and so on.

 

OH!! Also, instead of Linus & Luke building the systems, they'd bring in guest builders to build and configure them.  The guest builders would not yet have even been born when PCI, IDE and USB had rendered ISA, MFM and Serial obsolete (or even when PCI Express or SATA came out).  Luke & Linus would be coaching the build, but from another room, without being able to see it.  (Kind-of like how the game "Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes" works.)

 

They should also include a variety of games & other software.  For 3D games, maybe Wolfenstein 3D and/or Doom 1, if it even runs.  Also, include at least a couple games where the game speed is tied to the CPU clock speed, for example Frogger.   (I think it's "normal speed" on like a slower 286, or an 8086.)

 

 

 

I've also had a couple other ideas, maybe some could be used for SYW, or maybe for other videos.

 

Take one of the really old computer cases (like the original IBM PC, or up to 286/386 era), and mod it and put a modern high-end gaming system in it, complete with SLI 1080 Tis, 8700K/1700X/7820X/1900X, etc.

 

Remembering SYW1 where @Slick built a "tin can" around an R9 290:  Build 2 systems, one with a very strong GPU and weak CPU, the other with a very strong CPU and weak GPU.  For example, One might have like an i7-8700K paired with one of the oldest lowest-end legacy PCI graphics cards ever made, the other would have a low-end LGA775 Celeron paired with a 1080 Ti.  Which bottlenecks worse....

 

SYW2, IIRC, had something where they fabricated their own watercooling.  For this idea, I'm thinking, fabricate their own passive / 0dB-silent cooling systems.  No air flow allowed, other than what the room (or outdoors) happens to naturally have.  (So no case fans, and if possible, no vent openings.)  They may use the case itself as a heatsink, but Linus's kids must be able to hold it with their bare hands when FurMark and Prime95 Small FFT or Aida64 FPU test are running.  Oh, and do the testing/benchmarking in an environment where the ambient temperature in shade is at least 45-50°C.

 

Maybe a series of videos ... start off by building a super high-end system where each part costs a ton, like, $10K each for a CPU, or GPU, or whatever.  Then, for each subsequent build in the video, the entire build should cost less than the single expensive part chosen, from the more expensive build.  For example, say you build a system that uses a $5K GPU.  The next system would need to cost < $5K for the entire thing, and maybe it uses a $2K GPU.  Third system would cost < $2K, and maybe it uses a $700 GPU.  Next system costs < $700, and maybe uses a $200 GPU.  Next system costs < $200, and maybe uses a $50 used GPU.  Next system, if possible (most likely with used parts) costs $50, and uses maybe a $15 GPU.  (Might need to take some lessons from RandomGamingInHD on parts shopping by the time you get to this level.)  Then, the $15 system might use a $3 GPU, and so on.

 

 

How about one too, where instead of buying the parts themselves, someone else buys a cluster of parts for both teams, with a few spares, then distributes them in plain boxes.  The teams don't know what parts they'll be building with until they open the boxes and start building, and in case of incompatibility / DOA, they'd have to "buy" / "trade" with the other team of the spare parts bin.   (For example I could almost imagine what it might be like if @LinusTech had started building with a TR4 motherboard that only has PCIe slots, only to find he had been assigned an ISA video card. )

 

[MadsMøller]

Maybe they could try to build something different than typical desktops, fx build a custom laptop using desktop, laptop, other generic components, maybe even using game console components.

[cluelessgenius]

4 hours ago, Streetguru said:

They should be given an unlimited budget, but have to design every aspect of the PC from scratch.

you expect them to design and build psu and mobo and freaking ssd's 

how long is that gonna take? scrapwars part 3054 - capacitors

4 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

The problem with a random country is that if one of them gets somewhere in South America and the other gets somewhere in Asia, one team has to spend much more in flight costs

but it would be interesting because the choice of country would also be an important part of strategy

 

they always try to hide who they are how about scrapyard wars where they are only allowed to use parts that were sold specifically by fans and then see who gets the better deals

 

or how about a lan rig but that thing has to be portable and shock resistant and water proof and then drop it off a table and it has to survive

[RumSwift]

Fly two fans in for team mates.