Tek-Almighty

IMHO...consoles are a waste of time...I enjoyed them when they didn't try to compete with PCs but now that everyone focuses on them, I try to remind them of their limited upgradability and expansion... PCs give more controle, more upgradability and more mods... Thanks

Bah...try the SKS with a Dragonuv stock and 7.62 x 39 armour piercing rounds...in a 40 round clip. Back that up with a Glock 23 and 21 as sides... Much more ammo, much more fun...

Biding time and saving money for new hardware... Unreal 3 engine is going to rock. Differentiated vehicles are cool... I can't wait to kill and be killed by some of the best of you.

Gotta say that I am really anticipating UT2K7... I hope to have a rig that can run all that grandeur at a decent resolution... UT2K3 was the reason I built a new rig after 3 years...I imagine 2007 will be the same way... As I've understood it, the Unreal 3 engine is capable of 32,000,000 pixels per frame, but no hardware will run that.

Whu hut??? AMD 64 "barely outperforms Intel..." FTW are you reading.... AS far as game benchmarks go, AMD rules Intel in any type of benchmark you want to argue...if you ar talking video...(not game)...I believe most mags and websites I've read have the AMD 64's at the top of the pack.

The zen way is to embrace sacrifice and develop and grow from that point on...

For the most part, I recommend AMD cpu's. I have put together several rigs, and the Athlon 64's are great chips... It all depends on what you are using your rig for...I assume gaming? If that is true and you are not a power gamer (super high resolutions, obsessed with framrates all the time, etc...) you can get by with a lower end Athlon 64. The 3700+ and the 3500+ are great chips for around $200-250. But, if you are power user and multitasker I would recommend the Athlon 64 x2 4400+. It is gonna run you $450 or so, but it can be way-overclocked and it is really much cheaper than the 4800+ and the FX-60. You can overclock the 4400+ to the same specs as the 4800+ and save yourself $200. AMD 64 is really the way to go for gamers, as they consistently outperform Intel for a better price to boot. I would also take the time to build your own rig: tech support is free, you'll get more for your buck, and you can change out gear when you want. Dell rigs use proprietary components that (for the most part) cannot be replaced.

Got the new tool album today (albeit a few days later, for those of you always on top of release days). I have to say, it is a solid effort and I think worth listening to. Tool always has some good public life satire and commentary. I like the first track.

Congrats on the purchase, but a mustang? Hmmm... Never saw the allure there. I had a sweet-a** Impala SS that walked a lot of mustangs like they were standing still... Ahhhhh, good thing domesticity has rid me of that horrible car (ooo....look out, that was sarcasm).

i laught at the straightedge (i'm outliving all of you) choice My parents are in their declining 60's and they both have led clean lives...no smoke, no drink, exercise, good food, monogamy, etc... They are falling apart...bad joints, arthritis, colon problems, asthma, firbromyalgia, heart problems... To heck with all that... it is all genetics...so I figure I may be checking out early, so might as well have fun...

Bah...i switched to Asus from my old Abit board...that was right when SP2 came out, so I never got to experience that...I had a promise raid controller too. (back in '03 with two 37GB raptors runnin in raid 0)

Umm...yeah...good call on the sarcasm. Drama? Dont' know about that. From the threads I've read, I've seen a lot of sarcasm. That's not off limits on the boards is it? I don't threaten, call names, or curse, so...I pretty much thought I was under the radar. Killing a living things just to do it is wrong. Killing on a whim, out of fear or prejudice or malice...is wrong. Few reasons to kill: When your life or the lives of those you love or the lives of the innocent are at stake...that is about all. I've got a fairly good understanding of biology and I know few animals (especially snakes) that ever attack people or seek them out, unless they've been threatened themselves.

I would point to THIS again... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16824009078 Also Analog input, but better native resolution, dot-pitch, and contrast ratio (very high for 19" lcd). This is a better looking monitor... Plus, check the rebate...after that, this baby is only $179.

Hehehe...you and your crazy 300gb of drive space. This particular customer was like "I want speed, reliability, and redundancy." To which I responded "You are going to pay out the *expletive* for that." "Yeah I know, money is no object," was his reply. I swear to God I think dollar signs probably lit up in my eyes. I really wonder why he would need this setup for a business desktop!? Ok, is he doing CAD, video edit/anim, etc...? I cannot for the life of me think why you need triple digit burst reads, super-fast access times, and RAID 1 for buisness apps. Sad really. Here there are plenty of gamers out there still using crappy 80gb Parallel IDE drives from 3 years ago. That said...I run the last gen raptor 75 gb and it rocks. The difference between that an old IDE is astounding, especially when loading XP and running large apps (no to mention gaming!) To imagine...the Raptor 150 has NCQ, faster times, larger capacity, and 100% increase in buffer size (to 16mb) over the 75gb model. Aiiiieeee!

Wow...what an amazing understanding of ecology you have. I am sure that snake was a mortal threat to your home and family. Nice going. You show those evil, treacherous, threatening snakes who the man is...Those predators. Seaking out your home and yard to do their evil. Thank god that in 150,000 years of evolution we've gotten to this epiphany of elightenment we call modern humanity.

Mmmm...doom The best doom ever is probably YOB. Try their last album "The Unreal Never Lived"

I used a trackball for like 4 years. I just started mousing 2-3 years ago... I can honestly say that I was probably more accurate with a trackball, but I don't like using it as much for desktop work. Since I only wanted one mouse on desk i chose wireless logitech mouse. Logitech makes several wheel track balls too, check those out. My advice is to find a game you really like and can play non-competitively for a while to get your track ball chops. But, once you learn it's like riding a bike.

Mmmm...Meshuggah...saw them in Iowa last year...great band.. They have some good vids on google video if you get to check it out. BTW, Lex, where the heck you been on the UT server lately??? Look foreward to getting fragged by you...

Ok, Ok...I'll make the sacrifice and go... while I'm there, I will check out some lottery numbers and who wins the world series... That way, I can bet the $$$ I have saved up and we can all go home with new PC's on our desktops to play UT2007.

Mmmm...sporty fungi... The same could be said of almost any "group" of organisms that humans eat... There are delicious ones and nasty ones. You like shrimp? Lobster? Crab? You should taste some of their relatives.

Yo, I lived in the Dirty for a while, and we never called 'em that...those are definitely centipedes. Silverfish, look nothing like that, yo! Anyway, just poking some fun... We have only predatory bugs in my house. I have the house centipedes and mucho spiders. However, I have NO, Absolutely NO, problems with pest species. No roaches, no ants, no moths, no termites. Those predators (spiders and centipedes) are great for keeping all else at bay. Keep em!

You know, I have to say... I got started with Quake and UT originally (1998-99) or so... I did not like UT2004 when it came out, b/c all I played was UT99. After playing, for some time, however, I've come to respect and love the game. Essentially, it is all I play in the online world. (yes...that means no BF2, COD, or CSS). I've tried all those online, but for me, UT2004 holds more intrique, less scripting, more fun, more diverse maps, more mods, etc... Give it a shot, for a while, and let us know!

I'm a biologist by profession and an Illinois Master Naturalist by training...so...I did my research. However, there are people that make mistakes....every year. Actually truffles taste nothing like chicken...I suppose unless cooked incorrectly...with some, uh...chicken. Truffles are worth tons of money, but the good ones don't grow in the states. If you like mushrooms, they are very good. You have to check which species tho', because some are not edible. The common white puffball is, but you have to get it early in the season, before it forms spores. Like I said, a little butter, etc...and they are great. Good by themselves or great with pasta or on grill.

Any of you ever hunt mushrooms? I just got started a couple of years ago. I have some friends that have some land here in the middle of Illinois. I found about 1 lb of morels today, and got soaked during the rain for my efforts. They are great. Last year, because of drought, it was bad...only found like 6 or 7 the entire season. However, in the fall it is a good time for puffballs...I found about 5 lbs of them, they are great. A pat of butter, some freshly minced garlic, some kosher salt... sautee for 3 min... Ahhhhh....

Boom! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16824009078