Janke 1st MRB

Wireless mice tend to be finicky, and are usually not used for gaming. Though 2 of my last 4 mice were wireless, and they worked well most of the time, they eat batteries extremely quickly, and when they're on low battery, they may as well be on no battery, they become next to useless. For gaming, you'll want a wired mouse usually. However, try re-syncing it, try removing and re-replacing the batteries, a reboot, or even change the wireless receiver's USB port.

PSN: ljj119

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Got 7 installed, copying all 142GB of Steam over now. Had to download a bootloader to get back into Vista, haven't checked if it worked yet. Unfortunately I didn't get a video, and after getting the shit in there I didn't want a video, I was rather pathetic and unsure of myself during the upgrade process.

Good to hear.

Norton is a terrible anti-virus and a huge resource hog. I'd recommend AVG, Avira, or Malware-Bytes. What do you mean by "mouse lag?" Do you mean that when you move the mouse, it takes a while for the computer to register it, or that it's harder to move your view when in-game at higher resolutions?

Thankfully, it all works, and I'm now formatting the new hard drive for the Win7 installation.

The PSU and graphics card both barely fit, but I got all the parts in. Let's hope it at least turns on...

I've just finished testing my install disks for Ubuntu and Win7, going to finally open the computer now.

Well, ladies and gents, I've decided it's about time to upgrade. I haven't put anything more than RAM and a GFX card in my computer since I got it, and the card is starting to get a little dated (2 years). I figured, 4GB of RAM and a Q6600 quad are still decent specs, let's upgrade the rest. Now, I have a prebuilt that's been upgraded, so the motherboard isn't spectacular, and neither is the case, so I'm worried that I may need a new case later today as well, but I'll have the upgrades done by tonight (hopefully). Here are my current specs: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz 4GB DDR2 RAM 500GB HDD Zotac NVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB 360 watt shitty PSU As you can see, about time for an upgrade, considering the graphically intensive games I play. Here's what I bought today to upgrade with (Cell phone photos ahoy!): First, I was on the hunt for a graphics card. I knew it was going to be a GTX 400 series, and this EVGA NVidia GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB was the best price that a retail store had to offer. This set me back about $170, the price was cheaper than the $170 listed, and I haven't sent in the mail-in rebate that it says it comes with. I needed a PSU to go with this, as 360 watts won't pump out enough power for a GTX 460 SE, so I bought the Ultra X4 750 watt Modular PSU I figured I'd buy more than I need so when I upgrade the core components I'd have a bit of futureproofing insurance. The thing's a big bastard. This and the card are the 2 things that make me think I'll need a new case, my current 9600GT barely fits as is, but then again it's a slim and long one. I had some extra cash in my budget, so I figured I'd spoil myself and add Blu-Ray capabilities to my PC, to help me watch some of the ones I got for Christmas, so I don't take up the PS3 for hours. That's why I got the HP bd240i SATS Blu-Ray Combo Drive. I got this open-box for $67, so a fair bit cheaper than the official site. It reads BD-R, but unfortunately doesn't write them, that model was $100 more, and I wasn't about to spend that. Christ, this picture turned out shaky... A while ago, I took a chance with a newegg holiday sale and got myself one of the "Deathstar" 1TB Hard drives. I thankfully got one from after the bad 2009 batch, but I got a Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 7200RPM 32MB HDD. Set me back $65-ish, but I wanted a new hard drive, I've managed to waste almost 500GB of mine now, and I want to run a triple boot of Ubuntu-Win7-Vista, mostly because I don't want to format this 500GB, I need some data off it, and it's easier to transfer Steam over than re-download some 200GB of games and mods. I'm hoping to do a video like when I built that computer for my parents going about upgrading my computer, I got a new HD camera for Christmas and want to try it out. I'll post as more unfolds.

Regardless, plenty of guns legal in the States are banned in Canada, and we're much harsher on gun regulations and less open to gun use and carrying, the Alaskans wouldn't adjust properly, and a lot of them would likely be arrested.

Merry Fuckin' Christmas, everyone!

You're forgetting the Premiers of the individual provinces and province-specific laws and regulations, they're less pronounced than in America, but they still exist. And GMoney, that's kinda what the Frenchies want, to be treated special, but my rant about Quebec is for another day. As well, I think Alaska would protest becoming part of Canada, due to their mostly republican nature. Canada is too liberal for them, and they wouldn't be able to tolerate a bunch of our laws, specifically our gun and self-defence laws. Hell, I live in this damned country and I can barely tolerate them, I'm already trying to think of ways to get a prohibited firearms license, and I can't even get a regular possession and acquisition license (PAL, the firearms license for most long guns) yet.

I still laugh a little every time I see a smartcar, they're such a stupid idea for the American market.

I got to 50m by humping the ground, then there was a hurdle to jump, and I fell.

In RAID0, the amount of storage space on the "drive" is increased, as it treats the various disks in the array as one unit, meaning 2 500GB hard drives in RAID0, register as a single 1TB volume. As well, there is a mixture of the two, RAID1+0, or RAID10, where a number of the drivers are combined, and the same number are used as combined data backup. Another benefit with modern SATA RAID arrays is the ability to "hot-swap" drives, this means unplugging drives while the computer is on. This is used mostly in large data storage servers in large RAID arrays to ensure that data is stored on multiple disks both connected, and not connected to the machine, by swapping the disks connected on a schedule. When a new drive or drive array is plugged into the array, say, in a RAID10 array, the data from the 1st array is then copied to the new array as extra storage. I have never tried this, this was a concept mentioned by a teacher of mine who used to run a programming business, and I would not recommend playing around with hot-swapping yourself unless you want to risk killing your computer. As well, the heatsink is NOT the "gunky stuff" on top of the CPU, that is the THERMAL PASTE. The HEATSINK is the metal thing with the fan on top of your CPU, and the thermal paste is a heat conducting compound that connects the two. Most factory default heatsinks that come with processors have thermal paste pre-applied, and it can last a long time. I have a CPU that is 7 years old, that has swapped heatsinks twice, and I have never needed to re-apply thermal paste. However, applying thermal paste is a delicate procedure if you get an aftermarket heatsink without it already applied. I have not had to apply it myself, but I've been told to use a dine-sized amount and spread it evenly across the bottom of the heatsink, the side that will sit overtop of the CPU.

I use a mousepad so old the picture of the mouse on it has 3 buttons. I used to use none at all, but then my desk got warped. I honestly can't believe people spend $60 on a mousepad, a think piece of paper works well enough. Mousepads aren't really that important IMO.

I have a 5Hv2, and I can say I've had some problems with it. I was going to get the more expensive Logitech G35, and now I can say I wish I had. I had to RMA the headset due to problems with the mic and some with the headphones. While there is less of a mic problem now, there's still apparently a "fax machine" tone problem. The audio quality is amazing though. I've also had some problems with software, sometimes it randomly pumps the headset volume up to 100% without showing it, and I have to turn it down to 0 and back to my preferred level to fix it. As well, I get a weird electronic tick in my left ear sometimes when playing some games, and the odd thing is launching the Black Ops Multiplayer fixes the tick. A friend of mine has the Logitech G35, and he loves it. If I were to buy a new headset, it would either be the G35, or the new wireless one, the G930. As for keyboard, I got the Logitech G15 due to the LCD screen in it, and I love it. Razer makes some good ones too, I know, and the Microsoft X9 seems decent too, but I would place the new Logitech G510 keyboard, an upgraded version of mine, on the top.

Most new games nowadays are quite taxing on all of graphics, processor, and RAM. Minimum requirements for a game to run mean "you can run this at maybe 30FPS on all low," and while some people say that graphics doesn't matter, it can make a huge difference in the overall experience. Many new games tax even my Quad-Core for graphics, though it's mainly the outdated graphics card. Having used a computer to game for 6 years, and being unable to run the EP2 engine above 7FPS on it, I can say that minimum requirements are often bullshit, and usually you need at least the recommended to get anywhere near decent framerates on low-medium, and also that I personally never want to go back to gaming at 7FPS on all low, it's a terrible experience and truly ruins most games. Quad-core nowadays, hell even 2 years ago when I got mine, is getting rather inexpensive and more and more necessary for gaming, and mandatory for physics and video rendering, which are both very processor-intensive. My entire quad-core computer was only $800, including video card, and to date you can get a better quad-core rig custom built for the same or a lower price. Quad is not just a thing to boost e-peen, it's vital for high-res gaming and leaving a lot of shit running in the background while gaming, which I tend to do for a number of reasons, one being laziness and another being convenience for when I alt-tab, which is another thing that tends to like to screw up of slower computers, alt-tabbing. On my old computer, I remember it taking up to 30 minutes to maximize a game after minimizing, and 10 to actually minimize. The problem here is he had a mid-range computer when it was new, even with upgrades he won't be able to run anything from after 2008 on higher than medium at 30FPS, if he's lucky. An upgrade will help for a year or two for general use, but it'll conk out of reliable gaming in around another 2 quarters. RAM, to an extent, is not just for e-peen. 4-6GB is justifiable, depending on if your computer supports dual or triple channel RAM, as games tend to use around 70% of my 4GB on average. Realistically, no computer should have less than 2GB if it's running Vista, the OS requires (realistically, and from mine and my friends' experience) 1GB to function properly, leaving gaming on 1GB out of the question. Hell, games even tell you to have at least 1.5GB on Vista, sometimes 2GB.I would recommend for gaming at least 3GB of RAM, though for optimization if you have a dual-channel supporting motherboard it would be better to go with 4GB. Though you are right, he did ask for a new processor to aid him, and I should have, while stating my opinion about the situation, also gone and accommodated his request. Checking Newegg.com, and referencing the FSB limitations of your motherboard, there are a number of processors available for you. I'd personally recommend this Pentium Dual-Core: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819116371 It's fairly quick, only $100, should be compliant with your motherboard, and should also come with a heatsink. There are a list of other processors using a 1066Mhz front side bus here and a number on the 800Mhz front side bus here, all of which are cheaper, but feature slower clock speeds and generally less cache.

Not necessarily, but since he'd probably have to replace the RAM as well, replacing the core components of a rig is pretty much buying a new rig. That, and Dell has been known to have stupid custom motherboard form factors, and a new motherboard may not fit in the XPS case, meaning the purchase of a new case as well. With how much needs to be replaced, the only few things that can realistically be transfered from that old thing and be useful on the new one are the hard drive, GPU, optical drive, and maybe the power supply, and that depends on if the hard drive is IDE or SATA, if the ODD is IDE or SATA, and if both are how many IDE ports are on the new motherboard. I know I actually have none on my current computer, meaning I have virtually no legacy support for older hardware.

With the age of the motherboard, the Front Side Bus from the board can't support those processors, it's too old and slow. Just because it's the same socket, doesn't mean it supports all of the processors, as time goes by technology evolves, and sometimes they keep a same design, but improve the speeds for it. I'm fair certain his motherboard has, at most, and 800Mhz front side bus, and I'm also fairly certain that all quad-cores require a 1333Mhz front side bus. This is why I say buy a new rig, with the age there, he may be able to get up to an old Core2Duo at 2.8Ghz, or an old Pentium D at 3.6, but that was when dual-core architecture was in its infancy and not nearly as efficient, that, and those old processors aren't usually available in retail anymore. There's a lot more involved in the CPU and motherboard interaction than just the socket, and if you take a look at some motherboards for the LGA775, they even say it doesn't support old Core2Duos, or the Core2Quad/Core2Extreme series. Fore example, this motherboard lists the Core2Quad, Core2Duo, and Core2Extreme as it's only compatible processors, due to its 1066/1333Mhz front side bus, which doesn't support older Pentium D or Pentium 4 models, running an 800Mhz or 667Mhz Front Side Bus. Checking this XPS410 documentation it says it has an 800/1066Mhz FSB, which I cannot find a Core2Quad processor for on Newegg.ca. The fastest clock I can find is an old Pentium D clocked at 3.2Ghz, but only having 3MB of cache, in comparison to the Core2Quad Q6600 I have with 8MB cache, but only a 2.4Ghz clock. Cache is a fast type of RAM kept on the processor, used to hold data on the CPU before it is processed, or to hold frequently processed data to shorten communication times between the CPU and RAM. Having more cache is quite beneficial, and while my CPU may have a slower clock, it has more cores on which to process. I suggest a new rig because I've considered the other options, and they don't seem as beneficial.

Looking up the XPS410 I find that it was an early LGA775 socket that supported early Core2Duo models, the early Pentium D, and late Pentium 4, meaning processors dated by ~4 years. At this point, it's nearing the end of the useful life of the computer (~5-6 years), and is overdue of the useful gaming life of a midrange computer (~2 years). Upgrading may allow it another year, or if you're lucky 2, but by this point it's time to upgrade.

Jasko? I see no Jasko in this thread... And no, Gooderham, you know how it downloaded the Windows Live Marketplace tool in order to download it? It shows up there, when you click on the game in "Downloads" it should have a highlighted/underlined text that says, "View Game Keys." If you click that, it should say "Retrieving Keys" at first, and then either give you a key, or say "No Key Available". I got a key this afternoon, and I'm playing it right now. It works, and was some of the best ten cents I've ever spent. And Collins, I have no idea, just go to the main page for the Games for Windows Live Marketplace (Canadian http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-CA/ ), and it'll say the DEAL OF THE WEEK. The one today is BioShock 2 for $10. God, I sound like an ad bot or some shit. I'll get on Steam now if anyone needs help with this, been off all day and I don't know why...

I just got my install key now, they ran out of them last night because of the popularity of the sale. It's from Windows Live, and they're selling something different every day to promote the launch of their new Games for Windows Live store. The day before BioShock was $1.50, and today BioShock2 is $9.99. If you still don't have your install key, just wait a bit, it'll show up when they have it generated.

THAT'S RIGHT, TEN CENTS!!! (Canadian Link Following): http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-CA/Games/AgeofEmpiresIII/ They're currently our of install keys due to how successful this sale has been, but they say that within a week you'll get one, and for the price of TEN CENTS I'm willing to wait a bit. I don't know how much longer this sale will be going on until, but you can get the COMPLETE EDITION of Age of Empires 3 for only $0.10, when it's regularly $40!