LadyCrimson

Based on this thread, I had to check out VLC. It seems ok (for general all purpose playback anyway) but I like my Nero+winamp combo better for playing DVD's & music. I do have one question...where's the "repeat constant/loop" option for playback on VLC? I can't find it.

Yeah...I was just curious about the new PC itself, not the total of everything I use. With the articles talking about peak power of the newer GPU's etc I was expecting more average consumption. Since I often have 2 pc's going+monitor+my speakers(nothing fancy, but they still suck a bit of power), I'd guess at idle or casual use I'm up around 250w average. Which doesn't sound too awful until I start counting how many hours per day they're on. Interestingly, this Asus mobo has a software feature ala hibernate/sleep to turn pc "off" w/out disturbing your work...when I use it, the volmeter drops not at all, maybe 1-3w at the most...making me think such "power saving" features don't really make much of a difference. Not sure tho.

I keep buying DVD-RW drives but then find I rarely burn any discs. Used to be I'd burn backups, but these days it's easier and better to use external HD's (or whatever) instead. But I still like having one in case I do want it, and for me there's no point in having two drives. The cheaper stuff sometimes works fine for years, btw. We have lots of such and they still work. But it is a crapshoot, yes. Then again, w/quality control these days, everything is, to a degree.

My impression is that it isn't like (or supposed to be like) Fallout in terms of gameplay...people seem to be making the comparison simply because of the post-apocalyptic "look and feel" to the game graphics, vs fantasy/magic. Maybe. From what I can tell via articles/videos, it's a combo of hack n slash RPG with shooter. Some aspects of it remind me just a little bit of Hellgate:London.

This is because of the way the credit scoring works debt ratios. If you have 4 cards with 5000 limits for a total of 20k, and your total debt on all of them is 5000, that means you're using 25% of your total credit limit. If you then drop/close 2 of those cards and consolidate, you now only have 10k of credit, meaning that 5000 debt = 50%, which looks worse and consequently your score drops. At least, that's how I understand it. There's also many other (more silly) ways your score takes temporary, small hits...it's all kinda wonky. I currently have 2 credit cards. One I use only for a few monthly-charge internet things (webservers, gaming) and it gets paid off. The other I use for occasional bigger purchases (big household bills or 'toys" like my computer) and pay them off over 4-6 months, while not using them for anything else. So instead of using the card every month and paying it in full, I use it twice a year for something bigger and then pay it off slowly. Costs me a little more in interest but eh, not much... If for some reason one is talking about very big purchases, debit cards often won't work then because they have a daily purchase limit (dependent on your account/bank etc). Lastly, I used to have an American Express, but once I started using debit cards for most "everyday" expenses, and since I doubt I'll ever be able to pay off, say, a brand new car in one month, I found I didn't need the AmEx and canceled it.

Dungeon Keeper 2, just because it was a fast install. I can now have 60 vampires all summoning skeletons for an hour (constant hero-invasion) and it doesn't lag my computer to death. From the sound of the reviews I read, I guess I'll try Risen this weekend.

Self-question of the day: "I can't be the only one who compulsively bookmarks almost everything, can I?" ...I import them every time I reformat, and thus I have 5 years worth. Clean out dead links now and then, but my bookmark file is still huge. Subcategories have subcategories...

Just wanted to report that the new i7 rig, using the volt meter, suggests that I'm only using about 130w when at idle/web surfing. When I put in a simpler game (ie, not graphic hogging etc) and play, it's about 180-200w. Actually not as bad as I was envisioning...tho I'm sure something like Crysis maxed out would up that another 100w.

Yup. Everything breaks, and sometimes you just get a faulty one that breaks earlier than most. If you don't mind OEM (not in a box) especially, you can a DVD drive for $30. I've had a lot of fail-drives off and on, until I bought this Sony. I now like Sony.

Now that I have a new fancy (tho not-quite-uber) rig, I need some new games to play on it. Problem is, while I do like action/combat "rpgs", I don't like shooters. ....I guess I could see how "awesome" NWN2, KOTOR, and a few others might run now but... Anyone tried Risen or Dawn of Discovery?

I just heard about this game. If the singleplayer component is ok (like Diablo2's was), then I might like it. Certainly looks amusing.

Spent the night reading up on tech stuff and wincing at the power consumption of my new pc rig. So ridiculous. Currently waiting for the techie store to open, because apparently they think all nerds/geeks sleep until 10am on weekends.

Agreed. At the cliffhanger ending, I turned to my husband and made the obligatory Star Trek joke. He forgave me.

I dunno...I understand what you're saying, but I've started some seasons of 24 in the middle, and it bothered me not much. If something about a show grabs me, I'll at least feel the urge to go find out more, watch the earlier episodes, etc. Didn't happen here. *shrug* I can see the appeal, tho...just not for me I guess.

Everything is structurally sound, as far as I know. It would be all new appliances, paint, flooring, etc. Then like I said...sure, why not. Heck, even a brand new house, people often change out the flooring, paint and appliances etc. to suit their personal tastes. If those simple things make it livable for you, you can then move in and worry about/consider any major work/changes one at a time, at a later date.

I saw an article about that little guy a few days ago....I love jumping spiders....soooo cute! ...plus the fact they developed to eat mostly plant matter is extremely interesting. "Frodo, the pipeweed fields are in danger!!"

I tried to watch it tonight. Bored me to tears, although there was nothing particularly unlikable about it. I didn't see the first episodes, so that's undoubtedly part of it...but I still think I wouldn't find it interesting, beyond the on-paper premise. But I don't like Lost or Fringe either. Again, don't dislike...they're just "meh".

Was that a short sale? The issue with those is that the selling owner & agent has absolutely no control over anything. The agent can be as positive as he wants, but he has no clue. They send your offer to the bank, and the bank looks at the numbers, the neighborhood comparables, and whether they think they'd be better off trying to work with the original owner, etc. before ever getting back to you. How long the bank takes to get back to you is up in the air. Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it's....not.

If you find a house that mostly needs cosmetic work to make it liveable/what you'd personally be happy to live in - no plumbing, no major electrical, no square footage additions, the foundation is solid, etc...just paint, furniture, new appliances, carpet/flooring, new toilet/sink you install over the pipe, that sort of thing, that's not so bad, and I'd say go for it. If you are talking about sq. footage additions, adding bathrooms, re-routing plumbing/electrical and so on, I'm in the same camp as the others...not worth the time and effort and setbacks, and too costly if you can't do at least 80-90% of the work yourself. You also, of course, have to research and abide by all the local building codes/get permits, which can be a real pain in the arse sometimes. In terms of cost...it's very difficult to say without seeing the house and/or knowing what plans you'd have and what materials you would be satisfied with. For example, where I live at least, if you did all the work yourself, you might be able to renovate a badly outdated small kitchen for $5k-$10k...or, of course, tons more. It just depends. Look at the prices in your area for various materials and then add time, labor, and the "everything that can go wrong will" factor on top of it.

@mkreku -- Yeah, it's an ASUS P6T X58 motherboard. Using the magical power of Google, I see extensions for that type of cable are 3-6 bucks. 2 feet oughta be enough. The rest of the wires...yup, need to organize those better, but figured I'd wait until I get the rest of the hardware. @Humanoid -- More great vid card analysis, thank you very much. It's sounding like for me, the GTX285 might be the one. It's a little pricey but I do so prefer nvidia...since we built the rig, I'll be running XP on this thing for a bit yet, so having no DX11 won't bother me for another year or so & by then...who knows. The power supply is just the cheap piece of crud that came with the case, lol. Since I wasn't buying the video card yet, I just figured I'd wait to buy the PS, DVD drive, soundcard, new monitor switchbox etc. when I went back to grab a card. The cables on the PS, however, seem to be fairly standard length, from what I saw on the various models in the stores. That one cable is probably about 15-17 inches long...unfortunately w/the configuration it's not long enough.

I don't even know what half of all these new wires that stick out of everything are for. There were far fewer of them once..at least, it seemed that way. That''s why I asked some of my original questions. I don't know if a Crossfire/3-way SLI Asus board is going to work for nvidia. But maybe it doesn't matter now.. Couldn't make up my mind about all the vid card stuff today. Good thing I didn't, since you guys gave me more good thoughts to consider while I was gone. Tossed in an old PCI-E ATI 2600XT to test things while thinking about choices. Yes I know, I build an i7-920 rig and stick a clunky card in it, heh. Don't worry, it's temporary, along w/a couple other things I didn't get yet either. Question...I bought a new 'tower' case, mostly because it came with 6 fans. I'm pleased it's not very noisy & I *think* a 10.5-11 inch vid card will squeeze into it. But 2 of the fans are in the top of the case, so the power supply is located in the bottom, which we've never dealt with before. No big deal until we tried to hook up the "8-pin ATX power connector" wire from power supply to corner of motherboard. The wire (barely) reached, but crosses very tightly over the plugin cards area, touching the actual side of vid card (yellow wire in pic). Seriously, it's a tight stretch, no wiggle room in the wire. Obviously this could become annoying when changing cards or maybe impossible if you had multiple cards. Is the power supply on the bottom a sucky stupid thing...should I get a different case (a pain since we already put everything in)...maybe extensions?

That helps clear up some of the points for me, thanks Spider. Not that it helps me make up my actual mind on ATi vs Nvidia. Price is always a concern, but it's not a strictly limited budget issue, especially if I only need 1 card (vs. 3). Hubby convinced me (again...) to build it ourselves (there's several reasons, not just price) so we're off the buy at least the core components (i7/920, motherboard, RAM). Armed w/my newly gained info, I'll take a gander at the video cards while there...we shall see. Thanks again.

Meh...I think advertisers just aren't putting the X2 on anything for some reason...never mind on that one. The GTX 295 is still $400, while the 4870 is often $200. I can see why people buy the ATI's...

Ok, I understood most of that I think...and they don't use Crossfire either, good to know I guess...but you're saying the recently released 5870 is not an X2 double processor version? None of the shopping ads I see for it have X2 in the model number. Should I just get one of those older models you mentioned to begin with then, and wait on the newer stuff?

Um...ok...so this card and the upcoming Nvidia one are making the separate-card SLI obsolete, so to speak? I'd certainly prefer to buy one $400 card than 3 $200+ cards...any idea if you go with the 5870, then do you not need a 3-way SLI motherboard? All so confusing... I've always preferred Nvidia cards..never had good luck with ATI (or hubby's ATI's) so I'm fairly dubious. I know rationally they make fine cards, but my luck seems to be terrible w/them. However...having to wait another 4 months or something, yet again, is not what I want, either. My go with that, then.