|
|
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17345 |  Major Shtupping (153) Sep 13, 2007 - 02:50 pm
| If it helps you any, I just had a stick of my Dominator TWIN2X2048-9136C5D cause my machine to quit POSTing (and I don't even OC), and 1GB of RAM makes Vista very very angry.
I also use the monitor to watch all my TV on, so if you consider throwing in your TV budget, the monitor upgrade is worth it.
Well, I can't argue against using a high and midrange system for review because they could both be done simultaneously (until Bioshock's DRM takes over the industry) and not really cost the reviewer much more time.
The problem is practicality. There almost certainly is no FS Testing labs. When an article is assigned to a writer, it is probably also decided by what hardware he has access to test it on. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17345 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 13, 2007 - 02:49 pm
| I am a professional sys admin so some of the gear saves me time when work bleeds into my home life. The price then becomes worth it.
Is my system worth buying to game, especially online? Heck no, very little of it helps (but dude, ya gotta go widescreen. It does help.) I still get net lag, and all the detail is distracting when you need to focus on situational awareness in CS. But then again, while wandering through Cyrodiil or Rapture, I certainly was enjoying the scenery.
And also, MS Word runs at the same speed on both our machines. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17340 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 12, 2007 - 09:40 pm
| The big problem with Vista is that Microsoft shut down the upgrade treadmill for too long, and people are seeing little reason to get back on.
Unfortunately for MS, 2-3 years ago, people started realizing (especially businesses) that their hardware was "finally good enough". The slowest machine sold out of Best Buy today runs MS Word fast enough to do real-time spell check, so newer hardware upgrades don't really gain any productivity.
Now, what drives the high end market is gaming and video editing. Very few people actually video edit. That's why this site has tons of advertizers each wanting to charge extra for their special something.
Vista even tried to capitalize on it. Luckily Games for Windows was done apathetically (going console only really benefits MS in the end), most gamers like EAX (and see no reason to waste CPU power on audio), DX10 has been pretty pathetic so far (ironically possibly due to game companies not wanting to switch to it because porting back to consoles non-DX10 is trickier), and most importantly Windows Ultimate costs more than a year of WoW with nothing to show for it.
I am currently running Vista 64 but then I am a security freak (and its the only reason I do so). Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17345 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 12, 2007 - 09:15 pm
| I am playing the demo at 1920x1200 with my 8800GTX and QX6700 which is a good match at that res. It plays nice and fluidly at all times with everything cranked to 11 and 30 online opponents.
Since you want all testing to top out at 1280x1024, what would we learn by finding out that it runs at 245fps (I'm making the number up)?
Or, no insult to you, are you also suggesting that we stick to the $150 part price limit you set on your monitor? So the review system would top out at a Raptor, 1GB RAM (2GB if value RAM), ATI2600 or nVidia 8600 and an AMD X2 5600 or Intel E6600.
Well that review would tell me less about my system that this high end review tells you about yours.
If a high end machine plays it crappy, you are fuxxored. Unless you are willing to give it that special NES simulating DX7 loving. if it plays it decently you have a chance for it to play nice on yours because there is probably some settings that will work well.
Now me, on the other hand, reading a review on an average machine, well that tells me nothing about my system, because if it plays like crap, my machine could still run it very well, and if it plays well on the average system, it might still play like crap once you turn on all the graphic goodness (like just about every current DX10 game).
The benchmark is easier to reproduce if they crank everything to the max and see where it breaks.
If you do have a problem with this type of review, www.HardOCP.com might be more to your liking, as their reviews do it backwards, and report playable settings for decent frame rates as opposed to this method. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17342 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 11, 2007 - 10:18 pm
| I agree with you 100%. If I knew the game was good, I'd jump on the $149.
I refuse to play ANY game with a monthly fee, especially one you have to buy first.
But Hellgate might suck and I'd be out serious money. Luckily its set to be released Oct 31 so I'll have some time to decide. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17339 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 11, 2007 - 10:09 pm
| Yeah it SOUNDS good. But the problem is that for some reason, Valve wants to push their HL2 and HL2 Ep1 numbers at our expense.
Thanks to steam, they will know exactly how many people are willing to throw away money to rebuy games they already own.
I find owning 4 copies of the original star wars trilogy horrible and wasteful, I don't want to see game companies start that crap too.
Even though I would love to play TF2 and HL2 Ep2, I am going to wait for the black box price and try and vote with my $$$. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17328 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 10, 2007 - 09:05 pm
| Hey Doc, take it easy. It sounds like Jordan is on your side.
He said that prison guards are crazies who shouldn't enjoy tazering inmates.
Unless of course, you are angry because he said inmates shouldn't get tv? um... you lose your privileges in prison. tv isn't a right, it's a privilege. My parents used to revoke MY tv privileges for things far far less than anything that will get you incarcerated. That was called "good parenting". Or maybe I should go back and sue them for violating my civil rights?
I think it was Dennis Leary who said that we should get rid of the weight sets in prisons and give them all the cigs and fast food they want. I'd even throw in all the pot they wanted too... It would certainly end the prison riots. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Cluster Shout Box Link » /matrix/cluster.asp/28 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 07, 2007 - 02:58 pm » Edited on Sep 07, 2007 - 02:58 pm
| I think that MS went out of their way to make Vista more Mac OS like and hide what's under the hood. I really miss the Hardware Profiles where I could choose which sets of services I wanted to turn off at boot. Now it's all or nothing.
I'm pretty sure that they don't want you messing around with disabling services no matter how much you don't need them. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17258 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 07, 2007 - 07:42 am » Edited on Sep 07, 2007 - 07:43 am
| I guess I'm old school, but the idea of buying turnkey performance for a gaming rig seems similar to showing up a a drag strip with a stock car.
The dragster car owners will be polite to you, but they will pat you on the head and send you to get them coffee because you are just not getting it.
FS has for good reason only run a handful of reviews that I can remember. But I have read them, compared to ignoring the iPhone ones.
And as PCs have commoditized, there are less and less ways of speeding them up short of OCing, so turn key systems aren't a bad choice for rich gamers.
BUT I've always been of the opinion that the article writer is representing you, not the tech company. He is interviewing/reviewing to ask the questions that you would ask (whether the tech company would appreciate them or not). So when an article says:
"Think of buying a Blackbird 002 as an investment into HP Gaming and the development of the next-generation blackbird."
I ask why would I want to invest in HP Gaming (without stock options)? And I CERTAINLY don't want to be funding someone else's next-gen blackbird. But at least the writer made their allegiance clear, and it's not with the readers. And I just don't think its appropriate.
Qmak, apology accepted for calling me a dick. Being impolite to anyone online is about as useful as yelling at a cat.
I checked my email and my registration email is dated 4-19-03, but I know this site convinced me to buy a launch dreamcast/soul calibur which makes me a daily reader at least as far back as 9-99. I'm too lazy to check when D2 and AvP came out cause I remember reading reviews on here too (and purchasing accordingly). Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17259 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 07, 2007 - 07:09 am
| Usually I will try it the way the developers meant it to be seen. I didn't change the FOV for my widescreen.
Since I was playing in DX10 mode, and they made DX10 sharpen things like shadows (even though all other games hit your graphics card to add softer shadows), I decided that maybe the art direction wasn't so coherent.
The bloom effect in DX10 seemed to me to be really unrealistic (check especially on the neon signs in the medical pavillion). I kept turning post processing on after I cleared each level and went scrounging for supplies to see if I should turn it back on, but never liked it. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17258 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 06, 2007 - 11:44 am
| Well then I guess I COULD call you a noob... but I don't believe in insulting people.
This handle comes from when I joined up I was playing RtCW mp alot (a jewish handle seemed funny)... so that makes it around 2001 or 2002. But I had been reading it a long while before that. There was no reason (or ability) to comment way back when. I just don't think that every little thing I think is worth sharing, because, dude, no one including you is that interesting.
I read articles written by Thresh the day he put them up. I remember back when this site defined hardcore as "PC only" and certainly not phones or turn key systems or miscellaneous electronics like that review of the VGA screen grabber. Back when, they used to publish not only reviews of games, but walkthroughs and tweaks. (I remember reading an article on where to find all the secrets in RtCW)
And for a short while, right before Thresh left, they'd have an article every day, and for a while, more than 1.
I complain because I don't happen to agree with some new directions over the years, and assume I'm not alone. It's called giving feedback. If they don't know what I like, they can't provide it. And if I'm in the minority, then they won't.
You say I have no right to complain, well thank you for permission, no matter how impolite you are. I'm sure if we were in a room together, you'd be alot more pleasant.
Look... you can not reasonably tell me that an editorial article that spends a whole paragraph "selling" how cool the Blackbird name is, doesn't at best smack of fanboi-ism, and at worst payola.
Why then, didn't they talk about how cool the G-Force tv show was when nVidia came out with their g-force series of cards? Or how much they like the g-force of their cars when driving fast?
Finally I do apologize for having annoyed you, but since I have not ever said anything directly to you before this, grow a thicker skin, appreciate noobs (cause they are the future), be polite to your betters, and don't take things soooo seriously. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17259 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 06, 2007 - 07:48 am
| I run Bioshock at 1900x1200 so I don't get noticeable jaggies for the first time. Doom 3 and D3 engine games are a jaggie-fest even at their highest supported resolutions.
But I do totally agree with the post processing comments. It was the first time that I turned off a high end feature because it just made things look out-of-focus (and not in a useful way like motion-blur). If I wanted it to look like that, I'd play it without my glasses. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17258 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 06, 2007 - 07:39 am
| Well I think also that its the first maintenance free liquid cooled system (atleast that I have heard of). They say on pg 2 "HP insists that the liquid cooler is maintenance free"
The part that gets me is the very last paragraph:
"Nobody would argue, however, that the world is a much better place for having experienced these ultimate machines. So it shouldn’t matter what the Blackbird costs. Think of your friend’s faces when they see the Blackbird on your desk. Think of the Blackbird 002 as a street-legal hot rod. Think of buying a Blackbird 002 as an investment into HP Gaming and the development of the next-generation blackbird. Think of your support of the high-end gaming market as supporting engineers who dream about the ultimate overclock, just like you do. Think of getting your license to speed today."
This just makes it read like a puff piece marketing department written press release. The one-page fan written lead-in didn't help either.
Dang even glosses over obvious problems:
"The carriers are a little flimsy, but they are designed that way to allow you to “pop” the drive into the carrier. Hot-swappability is not supported because of motherboard limitations." -- flimsy for much $$$ is bad, but why no hot-swap? The mobo they mention (Asus Striker Extreme) DOES support it (I'm using one right now.) for both internal and external SATA.
If they want to post bunches of articles about the iPhone that can't even run games, on a gaming site, that's their business. I just skip them. But this article really stretches my trust for unbiased reviews.
I'm sure that they will say "Well we DID call it a preview so it wasn't meant to be a review with our usual journalistic review criteria", but hey, your average reader isn't going to notice that, and more importantly:
WHY ARE YOU PREVIEWING A PRE-BUILT SYSTEM? Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4364 | Major Shtupping (153) Sep 05, 2007 - 08:28 pm
| OK... let me use some facts for you. Between 1980 and 2005 the percent of people with diabetes between 0 and 44 years old went from 0.6% to 1.4% Percentage of total population with diabetes went from 2.5% to 5.5% so the majority of the increase in diabetes was in people OVER 44 years old.
As I said... that 200 pound 10 year old does become a diabetic... but not at 10, and apparently not even at 20 or 30. They could help themselves, but a childhood of poor nutrition and nutritional facts makes it extremely unlikely.
Diabetic children CAN NOT BET MADE. The increases seen in diabetic prevalence are due to people living longer (apparently pancreases just wear out when you get old), and many more female diabetics being able to have successful childbirth (It was really dangerous for the longest time).
You have to use a critical eye when listening to any "news" nowadays. TV has been even known to sensationalize things for ratings. ;)
BTW you can check my facts with the CDC if you think I am fudging anything.
The CDC's National Diabetes Surveillance System:
http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/prev/national/tprevage.htm
I wish it really WAS a health crisis because then maybe they'd really get to work on a cure. As it is, in 2004 it was the 5th worst killer in America behind:
Heart disease
Cancer
Stroke
Chronic lower respiratory diseases Accidents
The problem is that anybody can get the top 5 and only 5.2% of the population could die from #6 Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4364 | Major Shtupping (153) Aug 31, 2007 - 04:08 pm
| as someone who was diabetic at 8, I disagree with your remark.
If you get diabetes at 8, your weight doesn't have anything to do with it, it's genetics. I was a normal sized kid.
This overweight stuff leads to adult-onset diabetes, later in life (notice the word adult?).
The increase in child age diabetes is not that great and can be explained by the better healthcare diabetics now have, so we live longer and can have kids (or more kids). The more parents with genetic disposition for Type 1 diabetes leads to more kids developing type 1. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17169 | Major Shtupping (153) Aug 29, 2007 - 06:07 pm
| for lefties I've still not found anything better than the Razer Copperhead. True ambidextrous design, and with the onboard EPRAM, swapping buttons appears to everything else to be done at the hardware level.
Besides I can say my mouse has as much RAM as a C64 FTW Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=17040 | Major Shtupping (153) Aug 21, 2007 - 08:44 am
| Good for them. MMOs aren't my cup of tea, but I'm always rooting for Guild Wars. My big problem with the rest of them is their pricing model.
If it's a monthly fee, it's not for me. To add insult to injury, they figured out how to get people to buy it and then pay a monthly fee... At least if you have to keep paying, have the decency to give the game away. Even AOL, Compuserve, and MSN figured that crap out. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4351 | Major Shtupping (153) Aug 18, 2007 - 10:43 am
| The name on the article is misleading, though I can see how they got confused.
The product is called "diabetes test strips" but they are used by diabetics to decide how much medication/food/activity to take. Not by people to find out if they have diabetes (as you would think from the name.)
Diabetes tests have been around the last 5 years or so (thanks to all the bioelectronic advances), but that is not what this product is meant to do.
The reason that this is a SERIOUS problem is that if it were just counterfeit diabetes tests, people would think they had diabetes for a while until their doctors ran conclusive tests.
THESE counterfeit products would cause current diabetics to constantly mis-medicate themselves possibly causing blindness/amputations/coma and/or death. It's a big difference. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=16790 | Major Shtupping (153) Aug 03, 2007 - 11:35 am
| "he loves to make the Nazis look like bad guys"
I do believe you meant to say "German people look like bad guys"
The Nazis didn't need Spielberg's help to look bad. Genocide with a little world domination thrown in, makes MOST rational people stop and say hmmm... Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=16716 | Major Shtupping (153) Jul 30, 2007 - 02:02 pm
| Not only Halo 2, but it says that after WoW, the most popular PC game currently being played is Halo 1...
I did a quick survey of gamers I know, and I can't find anyone admitting to EVER having played Halo 1 for the PC. Never mind currently playing it.
I guess they are getting/courting Microsoft for $$$ for their service. Flag this | Edit this post |
|
