Scourge

I have a logitech trackball I use with my laptop. Can't use it for fps games though . ...hmm... maybe I'll play with it a bit later on, lol.

-George

I've been slowly adding to this system since early Dec.

Tower,

Case: Antec Sonata II, 120mm tri speed exhaust fan, 120mm tri speed intake fan

Motherboard: MSI K8N-Neo Platinum, 80mm vantec fan rigged to cool the NB

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3400+(S754) running at stock 2.2ghz

Heatsink+FAN: XP-90 with a thermaltake 92mm fan

Video Card: BFG 6600GTOC (Clocked to 583mhz core and 1.15ghz memory)

Heatsink+FAN: ZALMAN VF700-AlCu

Memory: Generic 1gb + 512mb ddr400 running at 333 (2.5-3-3-8)

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 OEM

Floppy/Burner/DVD/CDROMs

Hard Drive: Maxtor SATA 250gb 16mb

Power Supply: Antec Smart Power 2.0 450W

Other Tools of the Trade,

Keyboard: Logitech G15

Mouse: Logitech MX510

Monitor: Samsung 930B 19" lcd

Headset: Logitech 350 USB

Speakers: Logitech X-530

Camera: Canon Rebel XT

Printer: Epson Photo Stylus R300

-George

lol holy crap geek, where did you get that pic?!? that is so sweet.

 

 

fluffy cute bunny?

 

awwwww.....

Came from the exorcist, here. http://www.angryalien.com/

Awsome movies!!!! lol

-George

You won't have to worry about me if I come. I'll be taking my car. If Tater salad wants to come, I'll drive him too, so that'll make things a lot easier for you, ,planning wise at least.

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Scourge, I'm doing this to make things cheaper for everyone &

to give those a ride that would not normally have one. Why should

everyone spend $150.00 in gas when 4-5 people can share that cost?

If your not willing to jump in with us, then why not offer to help us?

We'll count your vehicle to help out. Again thats if you come.

Heh ... I'm not offering up a ride for whomever right now because I don't know if I will be going. I don't want to offer a ride .... then not end up going, lol (that would really suck for someone). Also ... notice, someONE, lol. I kinda drive a REALLY small car. As in, you don't go anywhere with more then two ppl, lol. Two people and two computers .... with that, I will most likely have to take the stereo out to make it all fit, lol.

That said, If I do go, and Tater Salad doesn't, I will most definately have an open seat if anyone needs it.

-George (Oh, and bonus, my car gets around 43mpg on the highway )

Now it looks like Scourge & potato Salad want in. mmmmm potato salad.... <shakes head> Could be looking at well over 10 people. We also need to consider room for PC's as well. If there are enough people we'll have to rent a van to help

with that. My car will take 5 people, but will not take all 5 CPU's in my trunk!

Also If we all go in on the rooms together we can save there. If we can get

3 or 4 people to a room we can save pretty big! All in good time!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You won't have to worry about me if I come. I'll be taking my car. If Tater salad wants to come, I'll drive him too, so that'll make things a lot easier for you, ,planning wise at least.

-George

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/...sp?product=1192

 

 

or I was looking at this one

 

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos350d/page2.asp

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I'm a canon guy myself. I have the Rebel XT and couldn't be happier.

One thing to definately keep in mind if you buy a DSLR, you will need to do a lot of PP'in(post processing) yourself. The cameras don't do as much in camera editing as most point and shoots. A lot of people are a bit dissappointed when they first get a DSLR if they don't know what they're getting into. The colours don't "pop" quite as much, and the images don't seem as sharp. After a bit of tweaking they will be better then anything you could get out of a point and shoot though.

I spend twice as much time on the computer afterwards as i spend actually taking pictures.

Check out the forums on dpreview, tons and tons of great info.

HTH

-George

well this said bawls, it was a blue clear glass bottle, andis was a twist off. lame, lame...lame.

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Oh it was the blue bawls? That's definatley not supposed to be watery.

....... bwhahaha

-George

Alrighty .. here it goes.

Q. So as you go up the line from F1 up to F22 the opening that allows light to go through gets smaller, correct?

A. Correct

Q. If I'm shooting in F5.6 and some says you should step up an F-stop, should I be moving to F4 or F8?

A. Stopping Up would be opening the apeture up larger, so F4.

Here's my confusion, the way aperature is recorded/viewed on the camera lenses, in my head stepping up would be going from F5.6 to F8. But, if you think about it in terms of diameter of opening, stepping up would be going to F4 because the diameter of the lens is getting bigger.

 

Which rationale is "correct" in the photography world. It always confuses me.

Yeah, It took me a while to get my head around it too.

So, then from my reading it tells me that going 1 F-stop larger gives you twice as much light.

Now this is a tricky one. Yes, one stop higher will double the light.

BUT going from say f5.6 to f5 is not one stop as one might guess. The stops go F1.4, F2, F2.8, F4, F5.6, F8, F11, F11, F16, F22. Moving from one to another will double/halve the anout of light depending on which direction you are going. Now you're wondering "but my camera has more numbers in between those" lol, yeah, confusing eh? Most lenses will go in 1/3 stops. A 1/3 of a stop difference in exposure can greatly effect a picture. (Most camera's will have an exposure control in auto mode that will let you make 1/3 stop adjustments .... ).

And while I'm here and talking about stops and 1/3rd stops. Shutter speed stops. 1 second, 1/2 sec. 1/4 sec, 1/8 sec, 1/15 sec, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000. These are all the main stops. One stop between one and the next.

Shoot away if you have any more questions.

HTH

-George

I find the eastiest way to understand that stuff is to know whats going on.

First, the general. Iso is how sensitive the film (or digital sensor) is to light.

When you take a pic there are three main factors to affect the outcome. Your shutter speed, apeture, and Iso.

Shutter speed: It's how long the camera lets the film(sensor) see light. The longer the shutter speed, the more light you get. The general rule of thumb for shutter speed is no longer(slower) then 1/focal length. For example, if you are shooting with a 50mm lens, don't go lower the 1/50th of a second.(This will, of course, differ greatly from person to person depending on how steady you are). Personally, i never go lower then 1/60th while shooting freehand. This formula is a little more important when using longer telephoto lenses. If you are using a 200mm lens any shake is going to be more obvious since everything is magnified, so you would want to shoot at 1/200th of a second or faster. Also, if you are shooting an action scene you will want a faster shutter speed to "freeze" the action. Too slow a shutter speed and eveything will blur.

Apeture: The apeture, or F-stop, is the size of the hole the light comes through in the lens. Bigger hole = more light. Apeture size is also measued as a fraction, F2.8 is actually 1/2.8. So F5.6 is a smaller hole then F2.8. It also affects what is called the depth of field. Basically, DOF(depth of field) is how much of the picture is in focus at once. Example: You focus on a person's face 2 feet in front of you. With a wide apeture, say 2.8, you may not be able you get the whole face in focus at once. The eyes are in focus, but the nose ia a little fuzzy. This would be because the depth of field is only a few inches(so anything more then a couple inches in front of, or behind the focus point will be out of focus). If you were to close the apeture a bit, down to F8 or so, suddenly the whole face can be in focus at once because the DOF would increase from a few inches to 6 or maybe 8. So you have to decide ... do you need DOF, or more light?

ISO: Like I said, that is how sensitive the film(sensor) is to light. The higher the number (800) the more sensitive the film. The common speeds range from 100-1600 ISO. The sacrifice for having a more sensitive film is a loss of quality(although sometimes that may be the effect you're looking for). The guality loss manifests itself in the form of "grain". Just like it's name, think of rice. Best example, take a point and shoot digital camera(something nice and compact) set it on a table in a dimly lit room in full auto mode(but turn the flash off) and take a picture(I say set it on the table so you don't get any blur). You'll see how the picture quality is somewhat lackluster(unless you have a really really good camera, lol). Grain is most evident in darker parts of the picture.

So when looking at ISO, generally, you want the lowest number and least sensitive you can use because it will give the best pictures.

Now, all three of these things combine to balance the lighting in your picture. When I shoot, I choose what F-stop I want to use first, then I start at 100 iso. If the shutter speed is too low, I go up to 200, 400 and so on. Now obviously that's a little hard to do on a 35mm(I usually shoot digital) so you will have to anticipate what conditionss you will be in. For vegas outside daytime shooting, 100 or 200 iso will be great. 400 if you're shooting some really fast action. If you are going to be indoors, you'll want 400 or 800, although depending on lighting that may still not be enough(you'd still be able to take a pic, you'd just have to get so slow on the shutter speed that it will blur unless you have something to hold the camera, ei. tripod).

Lol .... that turned into a really long post .... ah well. I hope this is understandable. I did repeat some of the stuff BGB said ....

HTH

-George

don't diss the rpg's, lol.

This games's pretty good, although a little confusing ... I like it! lol

-George

Wow .... well that makes me feel better.

Thanks guys!!

-george

Hey guys,

I've got a BFG 6600gt oc. I just got a better cpu/mobo and whatnot. My gpu is now running quite a bit hotter. It's hitting 75*C and possibly higher. How hot can it get before I should start to worry?

I'm probably going to grab another cooler for it, just don't know when. (most likely one of the big zalman units)

Thanks

-George

3400+ s754

I got mine through & back no prob last year. I don't ususally

get stopped at the border mind you. I really don't think they have

computer experts on hand ready to take yours apart, though

stranger things have happened. Just make sure your computer

is clean (content wise) & you should be ok.

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Awww, but then how will I share all those midget vids with you guys?? lol

How clean are we talking .... cuz ... uuhhh ..... not all of my programs are exactly mine My brother loaned them to me .... yeah, that's it, my brother ......

-George

I do really want to go ... But I don't know if the funding will be there. I've got two weekends away planned only a month before FF.

I'm going to try to make it, but I honestly won't know until a few weeks before. If I do go, I have my own car so no worries there.

Anybody ever have any issues with taking thier computer across the border? I've seen first hand what kind of jerks they can be at customs .... it makes me nervous.

-George

I'm in .... good to get some motivation. I don't exercise .... lol, at least I haven't been for a couple months.

I'm not going to weigh in on the weekends. I'll be using the shipping scale at work, haha.

Day 1: 186lbs. (January 24)

Day 2:186.5

Day 3:187

Day 4:Forgot

Day 5:Weekend

Day 6:Weekend

Day 7: 185.5(January 30)

Day 8:185.5

Day 9:185

Day 10:185.5(lol, I'm not making much progress)

Day 11:-

Day 12:-

Day 13:-

Day 14:- (February 6)

Day 15:-

Day 16:-

Day 17:-

Day 18:-

Day 19:-

Day 20: -

Day 21:182 (February 13)

Day 22:(February 14 )

Day 23:

Day 24:

Day 25:

Day 26:

Day 27:

Day 28: (February 20 ) 1/2 WAY POINT!

Day 28:

Day 29:

Day 30:

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Day 32:

Day 33:

Day 34:

Day 35: (February 28 )

Day 36:

Day 37:

Day 38:

Day 39:

Day 40:

Day 41:

Day 42: (March 7) TWO MORE WEEKS!

Day 43:

Day 44:

Day 45:

Day 46:

Day 47:

Day 48:

Day 49: (March 14) 7 DAYS LEFT!

Day 50:

Day 51:

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Day 55:

Day 56: (March 21) 179 ....made it down 7lbs ..without exercising, lol.

Woah .... that's wierd .... I have the same problem with a laptop at work. And just found Hijackthis on it today, lol. Never heard of it before today.

The one at work has the same issues, but it also has issues with iexplore randomly crashing .... when internet explorer isn't running. I had to purge the comp of a fair bit of spyware when i got started too. I've run norton(some corporate edition), spybot, and adaware. It's clean, but something still ins't right.

I'm out of ideas.

-George

24-70 f/2.8 L

70-200 IS f/2.8 L

Those suckers get a little heavy eh? I had a 16-35 2.8 and a 24-70 2.8 rented for the new years weekend to shoot my first wedding. Really really nice glass, and massively huge compared to what I'm used to.

I also shoot with a Rebel XT. Although my lens selection is rather unsubstantial, lol.

Canon 18-55mm F3.5-5.6.

Canon 35-135mm F4-5.6.

Canon 50mm F1.8 prime(best cheap lens out there).

I use a Sigma 500 super flash and I have 2 1gb cf cards(generic scandisk and a fotosource 45x) and 1 512mb card(fotosource 45x).

-George

If you must know, I ended up only taking around 50 or 60 actual shots of the game.  I probably took about 20-30 before the game even started trying to figure out the proper balance of ISO, Aperature, White Balance, and shutter speed.  Lighting in the arena isn't what you call perfect for taking pictures.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

C'mon, wb? that's what RAW is for!! lol

Pretty decent shots though, really a shame that the mesh was in the way. Could've been some GREAT shots. I'd take a puck in the face if it meant I got that perfect shot right before, haha.

I really need to get out and try some sports photog. Got to do one race last year though, that was fun(autocross event in Cincinatti last june).

-George -Rebel XT User

if that link worked i could tell more but you got ripped.  canada computers has a 3ms monitor with same contrast ratio from viewsonic for 459...

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Even my 8ms 700:1 Samsung(930B if you care) was only 429 on sale at staples. If it's not too late, I'd say return it, you can get much better for the same price.

19" is pretty huge though, eh? When I first got it I was running out of breath trying to get the cursor from one side of the screen to the other, lol.

-George

it's not even about overclocking.  it's about quality and efficiency for me.  plus if you're into sli it's the better choice.  the price difference where i work is like 40 bucks cad.

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Awsome, thanks for all the info, everyone.

For the $40, I'd just buy the better one, lol.

Where is it that you work Cujo? I had my loyalties to one computer shop, but they've let me down, so I'm all over the place now.'

Thanks again,

-George

third one, no question.  true dual pcie x16 and 8 phase power.  runs cooler, quieter, and more stable.

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What do other boards have for pci-e then? and what's 8 phase power??

thanks

-George

Hey

I'm still learning when it comes to motherboards. Not always sure what to look for.

When I upgrade, I've got it narrowed to three boards so far.

Asus A8N-SLI Premium

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2...539&modelmenu=1

Asus A8N-SLI DeLuxe

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2...375&modelmenu=1

And then the all out mobo

Asus A8N32-SLI DeLuxe

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2...744&modelmenu=1

Now the questions. First, what's the difference between the first two? Specs look the same to me. They're about $15 apart at the store I go to. Second, what make's the 32 "all that"? Is it worth the extra $60 or so?

I've always bought cheap motherboards in the past, and I'm suffering with a cheap one now .... never again, lol. I'm getting a good one this time around .... real good.

For reference, I'm looking at getting a BFG 7800GT OC and a 3700+ to go with the mobo.

Thanks

-George

can show my face around here anymore without having various fruits and vegetables thrown at it 

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Umm... no guarentees

-George

Scourge i see you must have bought a Banshee scirocco in the past, my freind built one up, he loves it! Got my two babies in the room with me b/c im off to college in a couple, gunna be to cold to ride (and im lazy).

Haha. Actually I'm obsessed with Scirocco's (The volkswagen though). I've owned many, and will own many more.

As for bikes. I ride a Brodie ... or rather I used to ride a brodie. I still have it but I've not had much interest in riding for the past couple years. They destroyed all the good trails in my city in favour of an expressway. You'll still find something mtb related in almost every room in the house though, lol.

-George

(My fav frame will always be the Le Toy from 24. A friend had the first demo model that came to North America .... it was SOOOOOO chunky, lol)