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Pkmastachaos

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Posts posted by Pkmastachaos

  1. First day of my two weeks paid vacation. I haven't had much time to myself as of late due to the busy season at work (10-13/h days, 5 or 6 days/week), so I'll have finally some time to get things in order. Started the day off by sleeping in a few extra hours, so simple yet so good haha. I'll then get around to booking some checkups (doctor/dentist), make an appointment for upgrading my license, watch a movie or two and go spend some money on upgrading my wardrobe.

  2. Not really looking for any specific dating advice at the moment, but feel free to give me your .02¢. I've never had much luck with women, unfortunately I always find myself falling into the friend zone at one point or another, and never seem to be anything more then that to the ladies. I'm tired of it, and I want to change that; although I'm not exactly sure of how to do so, especially after my last 'failure'. (See below)

     

    There's this new girl at my work. I notice she's having a hard time adjusting to the new job so I decide to introduce myself, which is something I wouldn't normally do right away but rather wait until we bump into one another. After a quick introduction, we make some small talk, I give her a few tips, crack a joke or two, and soon after I take off and left her be. After breaking the ice, I felt like there's was a connection between us, like I had a great opportunity at hand and so I decided to pursue a little further. Fast forward a little bit, over the next two weeks I get to know her pretty well, learn some of her interests, find we have some things in common, all that good stuff. Eventually I decided to man up and ask for her phone number, and add her on Facebook so we could talk outside of work. She gladly gives me her number and accepts my friend request. Great! Felt like nothing could hold me back at that point. One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind hahaha..

     

    Yeah, just as things are looking up, here it comes; the downward spiral. Naturally with my luck things aren't destined to go all that well for very long, and sure enough I find myself learning things about her I wish I hadn't. She's a few years younger then I am, but with a very different lifestyle and a lot of baggage. I'm a pretty laid back, down to earth guy while she is the wild party girl that is trying to recover from her past mistakes. I decided to look past most of the things she said, after all nobodies perfect, and offered some advice to get her life back on track. Looking back these were probably the biggest mistakes I made: not running (partially joking), taking a bit too much interest and probably coming across like a condescending parent.. But anyway, two weeks into the job she's settled in pretty well and after a long week I think we could both deserve a break. Friday after work I send her a text asking if she is interesting in a round of drinks, my treat of course. She declines, as I said she is trying to change her lifestyle, and has made plans anyway.

     

    Not a big deal, I reply back with a smug joke and tell her to have a good weekend. Realizing I may have said something offensive I eventually catch up with her on Facebook and apologize saying the offer still stands if she was ever interested. A minute or two passes and then she drops the bombshell, "I don't want you getting the wrong idea, I just want to be friends." Boom, head shot. There it is again, 0-3. Being rejected before I'm not too sad about it, in fact looking back even though I didn't get the girl this experience has probably made me a better man, and person overall. I've got a better idea what to do and what not to do when the next girl comes along. So some good definitely came out of all of this but it still kind of sucks. It might make me sound like a selfish ass but I am sick of just being a friend, I think I'll be avoiding her so I don't get any more attached then I already am. Maybe we were too different, maybe she wasn't ready, maybe I made myself too available, even now I'm not 100% sure. Ah well, live and learn.

     

    Come Monday I imagine there's going to be some awkward moments, maybe that's why people don't date coworkers. I'm kind of rambling here now so I'm just going to end it here and go to sleep, got some thinking to do.

  3. Caucasian, heterosexual, and agnostic (other in this case).

     

    The chart is a nice idea. Although the votes aren't surprising, you tend to figure out where people stand pretty quickly around here.

  4. Not too far into the 'A song of Ice and Fire', but I am really enjoy it so far. Normally I have a pretty easy time remembering characters, but with so many being introduced, and with their nicknames its troublesome to keep track without a list of some sort. Small gripe aside though, I finished watching the first episode last night and was impressed. Can't wait to get further into the book / tv series.

  5. I just jumped onto the PS3 bandwagon, so hopefully no news of a new console from Sony for at least a few years... On the other hand, I'm not looking forward to anything too much this E3, news on Diablo III would be the only thing that springs to mind.

  6. [hide=Questions]1) On average, how many hours do you spend playing games per week?

     

    [ ] - 0-5 hours

    [ x ] - 6-10 hours

    [ ] - 11-15 hours

    [ ] - 16-20 hours

    [ ] - 21-25 hours

    [ ] - 26+ hours

     

    2) At one time, how long would you continuously play a game that you are enjoying for?

     

    [ ] - Less than an hour

    [ ] - 1-3 hours

    [ x ] - 4-6 hours

    [ ] - 7-9 hours

    [ ] - 10+ hours

     

    3) Which genre of game(s) takes up a majority of your gaming time?

     

    [ x ] - MMO

    [ ] - FPS

    [ ] - Strategy

    [ ] - Simulation

    [ ] - Action Adventure

    [ ] - Roleplaying

     

    4) In your opinion, which of these is the most important in creating a great gaming experience?

     

    [ x ] - Gripping, well told Story

    [ ] - New and inventive game play mechanics

    [ ] - Graphics

    [ ] - Soundtrack

    [ ] - Final reward (achievements, leaderboards etc..)

    [ ] - Social interaction (chat / play with friends etc..)

     

    5) Which platform do you play most of your games on?

     

    [ x ] - PC

    [ ] - Xbox 360

    [ ] - PlayStation 3

    [ ] - Nintendo Wii

    [ ] - Handhelds (PSP, DS, Gameboy)

    [ ] - Other (please specify)

     

    Please only answer the questions below if you feel comfortable in doing so.

     

    6) Gender?

    [ x ] - Male

    [ ] - Female

     

    7) Age?

    [ ] - 10-15

    [ x ] - 16-20

    [ ] - 21-25

    [ ] - 26-30

    [ ] - 30+[/hide]

  7. Is it possible to use a skill boost (either through familiars/hunter potions/Oo'glog spa) in order to catch Ingenous Jadinkos?

     

    I want to get some Juju potions for farming but lack the hunter level (currently 72, almost 73) but I really dislike training the skill. So if I can just boost temporarily to get marble vines I will. Is it possible, or do I just have to tough it out to 74?

     

    I have all the stuff growing in order to attract the Ingenous jadinko's if that matters.

  8. Got this for Christmas, such a good game.

    Would've been better if finding a match online didn't take forever.

     

    Bit harsh, don't you think? That's more so due to the ubisoft servers then the actual game. Aside from the occasional glitch there isn't really much gripes to be had.

     

    ----

    Just reached level 41 tonight, getting 1000+ point kills are so much fun.

  9. Purchased a ton of games off steam the last few days, just been busy with them. Also been playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood online; so much fun.

     

    So far, I've bought:

     

    Super Meat Boy (glad this went on sale again; missed the first time)

    Bioshock

    Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY

    Indie games: 2D Pack, Heavy Hitters pack, and the Fright pack.

     

    26 games for less then $50. Still another week of deals to go too. :thumbup:

  10. New headset (Corsair HS1)

     

    Don't they make power supplies?

     

    Cases, RAM, CPU Coolers and many other things too.

     

    Two new belts, five different movies on blu-ray, couple different boxes of chocolates, and a few giftcards from relatives this year. I didn't expect much, so I'm quite pleased.

  11. Didn't take too long to save you ~$400 did it? :smile:

     

    I agree with OldJoe and Pure_MageUK on the issues they brought up though. The motherboard I chose would be capable of running a 7.1 setup should you ever want it, not to mention with the low end speakers it just doesn't make any sense to have a sound card.

     

    Decided to still get a ($30) sound card because of potential issues with the mobo and gpu.

     

    A graphics card will have no say in how a sound card or your speakers will perform, and the motherboard is capable of going beyond what you currently desire. But, if you deem it necessary to have a soundcard; by all means.

     

    Something we all forgot to ask is how long would you anticipate holding onto this computer? While it seems you don't need a better graphics card/power supply/anything else right now, it might be a good idea to think about six months, or even a year or two from now. Especially since your dropping so much on that cpu.

  12. [hide]

    Wondering if you all have any suggestions for better/cheaper things for this build. I was originally aiming for under $1k USD but that didn't really work out. So now I'm just going for highest performance [general purpose use, some gaming/graphics editing] at lowest price. I've got to get peripherals and an OS, which adds like $300-400 unfortunately. I'm using http://www.newegg.com and http://www.amazon.com (only if it's cheaper than Newegg/Newegg doesn't carry it)

     

    Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan $54.99

     

    Mobo: ASUS Rampage III Formula LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $279.99

     

    CPU: Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950 $294.99

     

    Heatsink/Fan: CORSAIR CAFA70 120mm Dual-Fan CPU Cooler $47.99

     

    GPU: ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/768MD5 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $169.99

     

    PSU: Rosewill BRONZE series RBR1000-M 1000W Continuous@40°C, 80Plus Bronze Certified,Modular Cable Design,ATX12V v2.3/ EPS12V,SLI Ready,CrossFire Ready,Active PFC"Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply $134.99

     

    RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL $159.99

     

    Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card $79.99

     

    HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $79.99

     

    CD-ROM: LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM $16.99

     

    External Floppy: Sabrent SBT-UFDB USB External 3.5-Inch 1.44 MB 2x Floppy Disk Drive (Black) $19.99 (Amazon)

     

    Card Reader: Rosewill RCR-IC002 74-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port / Extra silver face plate $15.99

     

    Mouse: Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 - Loch Ness Gray $17.49 (Amazon)

     

    Keyboard: Logitech K120 Black USB Wired Standard Keyboard $14.99

     

    Monitor: Acer X203HCbd Black 20" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 DC 50000:1(1000:1) $119.99

     

    Speakers: Logitech S-220 17 Watts 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System - OEM $22.99

     

    OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $139.99

     

    Total: ~$1622

     

    Questions:

    Do I need a 1000W PSU?

    Can I get a cheaper motherboard or case that still fits my needs?

    For general use, could I get a cheaper graphics card?

    Would my onboard sound card be fine for general use as well?

    What's the difference between Win7 Pro OEM and Retail, besides the price?

    Is there anywhere I can get cheaper peripherals?

    What [paid] AV should I stick on here, Kaspersky or Norton? Or neither?

    [/hide]

     

    I'm no expert, but I'll try and answer some questions and give some advice.

     

    First thing I noticed is that your motherboard is supports triple channel RAM, and you chose dual channel. Probably won't work, so you'll have to find something else; something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225

     

    1000PSU probably won't be needed, seems overkill since your not going SLI/XFIRE: here's a good link to check http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html for future reference. 700W would be adequate.

     

    I personally wouldn't spend that much on a motherboard either, as long as you can find something that supports the socket for the i7 chip you'll have more then you need. That's extreme overkill for this build. "general purpose use, some gaming/graphics editing" something within the 100-200 dollar range would be satisfactory. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131665 something like that would offer expandability, and similar features for about $100 less.

     

    Onboard sound is usually ok for most people. With the speakers you chose I don't see any point putting $70+ towards a soundcard, invest in some different speakers instead, or save the money all together.

     

    OEM Windows from what I've read has limited support from Microsoft, should you have a problem the support lasts only for 90(?) days. Something about the licensing too. Not 100% sure about that one though.

    Also, if you require a floppy drive perhaps you might want an internal one rather then external? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821121001&cm_re=internal_floppy-_-21-121-001-_-Product

    If you don't intend to overclock either, the stock fan that comes with your intel chip should be satisfactory. Otherwise, if you want to save some money take a look at some AMD chips/motherboards, generally speaking they are geared towards people with a lower budget, but can still offer a sweet price/performance point. Especially if you don't care for overclocking/benchmarks.

     

    I personally don't used paid anti-virus software anymore, but from personal experience I avoid Norton's like the plague.

    Anyway, hopefully this helps some, all the best in your building experience, it's quite fun once you get all the parts sorted out.

  13. I was interested in trying something new from what I usually play, and after looking at some of the top games from people from this board I decided to give Trine a try. I'm glad I did, it's a really beautiful game, and the narrator rocks; wish others were HALF as good as he is. Although I'm only about an hour into it, I'm hooked already.

     

    Special thanks goes out to Nadril, Ultima and whomever else may have suggested it. :thumbup: :thumbup:

  14. I've been told that as part of my uni course, I will be reading 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. I know very little about the book having never read it before, though it seems a very interesting read. Has anyone read this, and what did you think of it?

     

     

    I've read this book, I can't say I enjoyed it too much though. Setting was brilliant, author was very descriptive as well; although I found myself waiting for it to get better but it never really did. It's a slow book to say the least, plot is lacking (my opinion), but it's an easy read overall. I read lots of hype surrounding the book like you might have but ultimately fell short of my expectations. Not a terrible read by any means, just try to keep an open mind when reading it.

     

    If I had to rate it.. 3/5 ish.

  15. Left 4 Dead Bundle off steam, I own both for the 360, but after building my new computer I've decided to say screw the 360. (Wasn't going to pay $5-10 for the microsoft points to purchase The Sacrifice DLC)

     

    Bought both for $10.19USD on sale, extremely cheap for such good games. I've never used steam for buying games, but now I may never buy a retail copy of a game again.

     

    <3 Valve.

  16. Quite a few replies since I was last here. Thanks for all the advice so far guys, as expected valid points were brought up I didn't even think about at the time or didn't even know about. :thumbup:

     

     

    [hide]

    Sequential is when the drive is "warmed up," per se, where a large volume of data is written in succession. To give an example, moving large files within the drive will make use of the fast sequential write times (taking videos, moving videos or large apps, etc). However, when you give a quick command to the OS the drive responds with a very fast random read/write (copying small files, cache/swap files, etc) because the data is written all over the drive. If you're just wanting an OS drive, then you for sure want a drive with fast random read/write times (well, emphasis more on the read times, as I'm assuming that you're keeping other files on the HDD). The reason manufacturers generally don't state random read/write times is because most consumers are not informed about the difference between the two, and sequential almost always ends up with the higher number.

     

    Here's a comparison of my G1 SSD and my prior 5,400 RPM HHD, if you're interested. It shows the difference between the sequential and random times.

     

    SNIP

     

    I know that my explanation probably leaves a little to be desired but I learned through experience with one of the JMicron controllers. If you're interested on a more in-depth clarification, take a look at this article. The SSD comparisons are dated to be sure, but it's good info.

    [/hide]

     

    Thanks for the heads up on SSD drives, the article you provided was pretty helpful along with a few others I found I think I have a better understanding of how they work. After looking through some other articles I can see although the Intel drive may lack in sequential it really does make up for in random read times. And from what I understand as long as if I'm not constantly queuing up downloads onto the SSD sequential doesn't really matter all that much. I intended to install the OS (Windows 7) and maybe some more popular applications I use onto the drive (as you rightly guessed) but that's about it. So random read/write speed would be a better route to go then.

     

    What are your thoughts on the initial Intel SSD I picked out; The Intel X25-V? I don't really want to spend more then ~$100 or so on the drive, so going the Intel X25-M route is out of the way for now.

     

    [hide]

    At that price I'd personally go for a core i7 950, but that may just be my inner fanboy speaking.

     

    This card has better specs for the same price, and has an easy overclocking tool should you decide to try it.

    EVGA Superclocked 460 1gb

     

    Id also go for two cards in SLI, they blow a 480 out of the water, and still cost less than $500. It would make far more of a difference in overall performance than a SSD, especially in gaming (Crysis at 40+ fps @ 1900x1200)

     

    Grab another RAM kit too, 4GB is low these days, especially for Photoshop.

    [/hide]

     

    Impressive GPU, although I'm not quite sure about using two of them just yet I'll definitely keep it in mind. I'll probably end up getting another couple sticks of ram, price seems alright. Although I'm not a heavy photoshop user it'll come in handy in the long run. I'll get around to updating my build list shortly.

     

     

    [hide]

    I'm no computer wiz but i'd recommend going for the combo deals. for about $1750 my build consists of:

     

    antect 1200 case

    1000w power supply

    27'' widescreen

    intel i7-860

    16gb of ram

    ddr5 1gb graphics

    1tb hdd

    blue ray drive

    [/hide]

     

    I was considering this, although I found myself either not needing certain parts or wanting more of something else (often the case); which is why I decided to go this route.

     

    ---

    One other question, does anyone have an estimate on shipping costs from Newegg? I have all these items in a wish list currently and don't have an idea if that shipping costs might push me over budget.

     

    Once again, many thanks T&C.

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