Consumer Electronics Show 2004 Day 1: Motherboards at CES

My first major tradeshow ever was Comdex, in 1998 to be exact, and back then the shows were quite exciting.  Being a motherboard manufacturer didn't mean suffering financially back then, it meant that you had a ton of products that everyone wanted to see - myself included.  I remember wading through crowds just to get a glimpse of motherboards that wouldn't be available for another 4 months, and loving every minute of it.  Fast forward to the present day, and last year's Fall Comdex in Las Vegas was a total and utter disaster.  There was nothing to talk about and most of the manufacturers were actually confused as to why they were there.  To be honest, we were asking ourselves the same question over and over again in Vegas last November.

But it was at Comdex '03 that we made the decision that the vast majority of the AnandTech staff would make it out to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.  After having been to Vegas at least once a year for the past 6 years, having to make another trip within 2 months wasn't exactly on my list of things to do but after arriving here I'm definitely glad I made the trip.

The exhibition halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center were actually full of exhibitors; attendance was supposed to be over 100,000 - a welcome change from the 15,000 we were hearing for the disappointment that was Comdex '03.  CES was the show to be at and it honestly felt like the Comdexes of the good ol' days; it was exciting to be here and as tiring as crowd surfing to get to a meeting can be, it felt like home.

We've divvied up the coverage into a handful of sections, but today Kris, Wesley and I will be covering what you can expect in the short term from the CPU, chipset and motherboard guys.  We're here to answer questions about everything from Socket-939 to PCI-Express, so without further ado we bring you Day 1 of our coverage from CES in Las Vegas.