mkreku

Passive cooling is good, but it will never be completely silent. You always need at least ONE fan to keep airflow high enough inside a case full of passively cooled gear. Watercooling is also pretty silent but not dead silent. You need a small pump to make the water flow through the system. I also happen to think watercooling is more of a hassle than anything. Antec makes some very good silent cases, mainly because they allow you to hang your harddrives on rubber thingies. They also have soft rubber feet to stand on so they don't transport sound as much as some other cases. I've tried the P180 and Sonata 3 cases and they are both very good. Both Nvidia and ATI have passively cooled GPU's. Both get very hot but Nvidia's version (of their fastest passively cooled card) breaks the 100 degrees Celsius barrier and that is just insane. I'd aim for a Sapphire HD3870 Ultimate: http://www.sapphiretech.com/sn/products/pr...ew.php?gpid=217 Harddrives are usually louder than one thinks. If you're really interested in a silent computer, you need to invest in a SSD. I'd wait for Samsung's newest SSD's to hit the market. It's 256 GB and supposed to be cheaper than the current SSD's: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/05...acbook_air.html The CPU cooler can easily be passive if you go for one of the midrange Core 2 Duo CPU's. Or you can throw money in the lake by buying a top-end CPU and underclock it to get the temperature down.. Anyhow, the Thermaltake HR-01 Plus has been getting great reviews and it's completely fanless: http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/pro...W50aHVzaWFzdA== The last thing that makes sound in your case is the PSU. I'd probably recommend the Antec Phantom here, but that's getting old.. I'm sure there are newer, better models now, but I must say I have lost track of it all. Someone else shuold be able to help you there.

I'm hoping the 4870 is at least comparable to the Nvidia equivalents this time around because I am very reluctant to switching drivers again. If the 4870 can't compete, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go back to Nvidia. I am still running games on my old X1950XTX! Of course, it hasn't buckled yet (except for Crysis), but I would love to be able to play all new games on my 1080p TV..

1. Pixellated boobs. 2. ... I got nothing.

I have a surprisingly high 65% chance of surviving a zombie onslaught, but I can only take on 24 five year olds.. Probably because I have a hard time picturing myself holding a five year old in the legs and using him/her as a club on other five year olds.

Oh. I guess it's something you'd only know if you've read some D&D bible, or did I miss something?

I like the name.. but wouldn't it have sounded better with "Storm Over Zehir" instead? I always wonder how these names are born..

Just say it. It's not like it's some well-kept secret. Or just call it "streamlined" if you want to be annoyingly PK.

I found out today that the captain of one of the most popular ice hockey teams here in Sweden (Leksand) has been having a bit too much fun in his spare time. Two movies are spreading like wild-fire in Sweden right now, one with a guy sucking on a white **** and another with the same guy putting said **** in a hole that for most guys spells "exit only".. his own such hole. I'm seriously worried about the guy. Ice hockey may very well be the most homophobic sport of them all, and him being the captain of such a popular team.. I hope he pulls through but.. I can almost feel a suicide in the air. No matter what happens, I don't think he will ever play hockey on a professional level again. Sad as hell but true.

So all of you went out and bought it despite the DRM-outcry?! Yeah, great boycott guys! Well done

Don't laugh. It's not like Sony can't afford to buy a time-limited exclusivity if they consider Alpha Protocol promising enough. Probably unlikely, but the option is real.

I actually like Facebook. It's excellent for organizing little get-togethers (especially when our little group of friends doesn't take the same courses..) and parties and such. Also, it's quite fun because after a party (or whatever), there's always someone putting up pictures of the whole thing. Sometimes there's several people who put up pictures of the same thing and you can sit and compare how different the same party is for two different people. Hmm.. Maybe I should become a "fan" of this group after all. I don't like the term fan though. It's a little too demeaning for me.

No, it's not

Fantastic game by the Spanish! I am now on my way to a pub to watch Sweden enter the tournament on a huge screen + beer! GO SWEDEN!

You have clearly not played the original Gothic then.

I have NHL playoff withdrawal symptoms I keep waking up at night at the same time the games used to start! It's annoying.

Haha, I called it! Ok, so it wasn't exactly a tough call to make, but still GO ZETTERBERG!

Red wings have done it!! Go Lidstr

The first period has been exactly like all the periods in exactly every game between Wings - Penguins so far: Detroit holding the puck and seemingly dominating the game, but the scoreboard says it's a one goal game. And last game proved that it's possible to win against the Wings despite being horribly outshot, outmuscled and outsmarted. Bring on the second period!

I thought about adding you (Obsidian), but then I realized that there are 90+ pictures available of me in more or less embarrassing situations for those who are friends with me on Facebook I think I'll pass.

And why am I not a good candidate to become an accountant? I'm a terribly reclusive and embittered man who is likely to be married to his job. I'm the perfect person to be an accountant. Or a mass murderer.

Good read! I actually remember playing Hacker.. but I was like.. 12 at the time and the game was way too difficult for me. But I grew up loving games like Guild of Thieves, Zork and the original King's Quest. Those games actually demanded that you type in the right thing to solve problems. I was a kid at the time and knew almost no English. But just to be able to play those games I learned English and by the time I got to the University, it was a breeze for me. I like this quote: If only someone dared to make the assumption that not everyone playing their games are idiots.. *nudgenudge*

Hmm. Are you also proponents of the "every player should get to the end" school of design? And Valve's "there's no point in designing stuff that are outside the scope of the average player (thus removing all incentive to go exploring because you always know that exactly everything Valve put into the game is lying on the main path)"? I don't know. I like to think about ammo managing and even inventory Tetris when I am playing a game that's supposedly somewhat realistic. I don't care that I can carry more crap than a ten ton truck in Gothic since it pales in comparison to fighting trolls and flinging magic spells around. In a game using real weapons, I want real ammo. And I don't want to be able to carry fifteen different rifles at once. If I play a spy, I want the limitations that comes with being human and a spy, as well as the benefits (gadgets, training, etc.). Having unlimited ammo is almost like introducing magic into a world that I'm supposed to believe in, while still letting me toy around with an AK-47. I'm glad you're confident about your decision. I bet Harvey Smith was too when he sent the gold master for printing.

It's probably a sign something broken in my head, but I have to agree with numb.. er.. noob here. I have a really difficult time wrapping my mind around the concept of having unlimited ammo and still care about my weapons. Instinctively it just doesn't compute. I hope they prove my head wrong and that this game turns out much cooler than it seems to me right now.

That's a really weak comparison. You are never in direct control of a weapon in the KotOR games. It makes a whole lot of difference if you're firing every shot yourself by the press of a button as opposed to seeing your dress-up dolls jump around awkwardly on screen shooting whenever it is their turn. Ammo is directly related to that game mechanic.

According to the Firefox spell checker there is.