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General Discussion / Rebuilding My Computer (at last)

« on: November 01, 2016, 06:04:56 pm »

Ok folks, I need to rebuild my gaming system because as it is right now, it doesn't game without Blue Screening which doesn't really allow gaming.  And I haven't exactly kept up on processors, motherboards, etc. since I built the dying beast 5 years ago or so.

To save money, I can't just build a new system from scratch (as much as I would love to), so I could use recommendation s on:

• Processor
• Motherboard
• Memory (unless the motherboard can support DDR3)

I'd like to keep the cost below $500 all told, including the cost of Windoze since I probably should move out of Win7 at last.  In troubleshootin g my current system, I've upgraded the video card (GTX 750Ti) and replaced the memory (still DDR3 though) and threw in yet another harddrive (thought the drive that I had the pagefile on was going out and causing the BSODs), so I'm in good shape to keep using what I have in that regards.  And I've got a 750W power supply, so I don't anticipate needing to replace/upgrade that either in the process of getting this computer running.

As for what I'm using currently, it's a AMD Phenom II X4 965 with a Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H motherboard, running with 2x4Mb DDR3 ram.  A bit dated but until I started having the BSODs, it could handle almost everything I threw at it.

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Flotsam and Jetsam / The State of Gaming Today?

« on: September 29, 2014, 03:58:04 pm »

Saw this and it was just like, yeah...that's the state of gaming these days.

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General Discussion / Adult Women Largest Gaming Demographic

« on: August 27, 2014, 06:50:40 pm »

This study has been making some waves in the last few hours.  Pretty much turning a lot of preconceived notions on their heads and of course that's not going over easily.

http://www.dailydot.com/geek/adult-women-largest-gaming-demographic/

The study can be found here for those who don't want to read a newsies take on it:

http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2014.pdf

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Flotsam and Jetsam / Comet ISON on approach to the Sun

« on: November 28, 2013, 06:21:43 am »

Since the big news tomorrow, besides it being Thanksgiving and Hanukkah is that Comet ISON is making it's close approach to the Sun.

It's only going to be really visible from the various Sun watching satellites since the comet is too close to the Sun for us to see from Earth (at least safely).

So here's a few links for those, like me, who want to watch this.

SOHO

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/realtime-update.html  Static pictures posted nearly as fast as they come off the satellite.  Basically new photos every 15 minutes, give or take a half hour.  You can see ISON in the C3 camera at the time of this post.

http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater  You can set up a movie of the last X images.  Very nifty way of seeing how the comet is moving closer to the Sun.  At the time of this post, if you select LASCO C3 as the camera the last 80 images show the comet entering the frame and moving towards the Sun.

STEREO

Stereo is actually 2 satellites, one ahead of the Earth and one Behind.  They're a bit further than on opposite sides of the Sun currently but they give us a good view of what's out of the field of view of SOHO, SDO and the other satellites that watch near the Earth.

http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/beacon/  A collection of the latest images from both STEREO A and STEREO B. 

Both can see the comet though A has been watching it the longest as it approaches and B will have the best view when it leaves the Sun.  More details on what STEREO expects to see is here for those who like the nuts and bolts of how things work: http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/comet_ison/

SDO

Another source to watch is the Solar Dynamics Observatory.  They plan on pointing the satellite at the comet (normally it's focused only on the Sun) at various times during the comets approach to the Sun.  The data dump is expected to begin between 12:45pm and 1:00pm EST (9:45am and 10am PST).

http://cometison.gsfc.nasa.gov/

And I also believe NASA TV will be covering this, and I also heard of at least two different Google+ hangouts dedicated to watching this as well.  There's undoubtedly more places to watch and learn from than I've been following.

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General Discussion / LFG Presents: This Is War

« on: August 12, 2013, 06:13:53 pm »

The good folks at Blind Ferret have finally released LFG's 'This Is War' music video.  

http://youtu.be/d-UkXAFbYZU

Totally typical of Looking For Group, so if you're familiar with the webcomic, I'm sure you'll find it quite the laugh like I did.

If you aren't familiar with the comic, you should check it out.  http://www.lfgcomic.com/

Of if you don't have time to read all 695 pages, you can read the summary here: http://internal.lfgcomic.com/splash/



For Pony!