Smallsasaurus

Here's Microsoft's attempt at explaining the benefits of the different versions, which looks to be just a bunch of fluff. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/default.aspx As for the bit versions, if your computer has more then 4 GB of RAM, I recommend using 64 bit OS, otherwise you won't get the full benefit of your RAM. If you only have 2 GB, still to the 32 bit OS.

Vista isn't rubbish by any means. XP is a great OS, but I wouldn't go out of my way to uninstall Vista just to get XP back. Vista had some problems for the first few months when it first came out with driver compatibility and RAM usage, both of which have been fixed, but the general public never forgave them. That's why Microsoft is giving up on Vista, not because it sucks, but because it realized it can't change the public's perception that Vista sucks. And like everyone else said, just go for whatever version of Vista comes free/is cheapest. The higher levels really don't provide much if any extra benefit. Home Basic is the cheapest I believe, but I think you can get Home premium for a few bucks more, which just has a few add-ons, but doesn't change much. I used the Home Premium version of Vista for about a year and had no qualms with it. Ran all my programs/games/hardware just fine. Only reason I stopped using it was I screwed up my partitions trying to dual boot Ubuntu and I had lost the Vista disk, so I just found my old XP disc and I'm back using that.

Yeah, for the OS, go with Vista 64 bit. It had a bad reputation for unstable drivers when it first came out, but it's 3 years and two SP's later and it's actually a very usable and stable OS. It might take a little bit of adjusting if you've only ever used XP, but its still Windows and Windows 7 which is coming out next year has a lot in common with Vista, so its worth adjusting to.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146047 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021 (also, I just noticed this case currently can be combo'ed with the AMD 9950 for a pretty good deal. Scratch that, an awesome deal. $200 for both the case and a better CPU then you had picked out for the price of just your previous case). The case you first thought of and both of these are solid cases for about $90 cheaper. Although the two I posted are Mid-towers, which isn't a bad thing, just smaller and a little tighter to maneuver in, but they both have good airflow. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471 Newer AMD CPU's, but to be honest I don't know much about AMD chips. It's about $90 dollars more for a 3.0 GHz Quad core, so the money you save from the case could go into this. Based on the motherboard you have picked out, you couldn't run SLI, which is only available on nVidia based motherboards, but you could run X-fire, which would involve linking multiple ATI cards together and also your MoBo only has one slot running at full PCI-e X16, so the link wouldn't entirely be worth it. And unless you have either a huge monitor (24" or larger) or are running multiple screens, there isn't much benefit. With one normal sized screen you are better off getting one good video card then buying two and running them in X-fire. I'm not entirely sure how flexible or crazy you are willing to go, but either the 4870 X2 or the GTX 295 are the top video cards out right now, but they'll cost you $400 and $500, respectively, so probably not worth it at the time being. The regular 4870 or a GTX 260 will run you a little over 200 and are comparable in stats are are definitely an upgrade from you 8800GTS, which I actually have right now and love, so I'm sorry you haven't been a fan of it. And here is one of the articles that first got me into Overclocking. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/overclock_your_pc It's a pretty good read and talks you through it in baby steps. Also, there is the potential for it to lessen your CPU's life, but that's usually only the case if you begin to play with the voltages. As long as you only go as far as the CPU will without messing with the voltages and you have sufficient cooling to keep it at normal temps, there is little risk. But don't let me convince you, because I would hate to talk you into it just to have your CPU crap out. I'd feel like a pretty big dick after that. One last thing: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130365 That's a GTX 280 for $300, plus if you include the $200 case/CPU combo that's $500, which is what your were going to spend for your Case, CPU, and Video card above. The case is a smaller/lower end Antec, but the trade off is you upgrade your CPU and Video card. As you can see, the GTX 280 is pretty bangin': http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/chart.html

I tried making the list public, but it hasn't gone through yet. If it does I'll edit this post with the link. In the mean time, here is the very jumbled text version of the computer. Wish List: Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price 1 MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card Item #: N82E16814127361 Return Policy: Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy -$10.00 Instant $40.00 Mail-in Rebate $269.99 $259.99 2 CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX Item #: N82E16820145176 Return Policy: Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy $30.00 Mail-in Rebate $180.00 1 Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound Item #: N82E16835100007 Return Policy: Consumable Items Return Policy $5.99 1 PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 GTX and below) CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 GTX and below) CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply Item #: N82E16817703009 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$120.00 Instant $40.00 Mail-in Rebate $249.99 $129.99 1 GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard Item #: N82E16813128359 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy $15.00 Mail-in Rebate $119.99 1 Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3500320NS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3500320NS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Item #: N82E16822148294 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy $89.99 1 Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card Item #: N82E16829102003 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $27.99 1 Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Item #: N82E16811129042 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy -$20.00 Instant $69.95 $49.95 1 SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F Item #: N82E16827151171 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy $25.99 1 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 Item #: N82E16819115017 Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy $189.99 1 ZALMAN 9500A 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler ZALMAN 9500A 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler Item #: N82E16835118223 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $59.99

Unless you are absolutely sold on that case, I would recommend downgrading it and using the money you saved elsewhere. You can get great cases for $100 instead of $200 and use the extra $100 to get yourself a better CPU or a better Video Card, both which will actually be performance you'll feel. Stick with the Quad Core, as Quads will still be relevant in 2-3 years as more programs take advantage of multi-threading, where as Duo Cores will become increasing obsolete. Although, you can get fast Duos right now for cheap and always upgrade to a Quad in a year or two for a bargain price if you want, and use that extra cash now for a better video card. Also, for whatever reason right now, I'm not a fan of the 9 series video cards. I would either save $70 and get a 8800GT, spend about the same and get a ATI 4850, or spend $70 more and get the GTX 260. Also, OC'ing is really safe if you do it at low to moderate levels and its kind of silly not to do it. It's a free $50 upgrade.

Hey Paul, I built you one. See if you can view this: https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=14411027 It totals up to $1150 with $155 in mail in rebates (yeah a pain, I know), so around a thousand USD or a bit over $750 for you. CPU - Intel Q6600 - 2.4 GHz (you can upgrade this to a Q9550 to get to 2.83 for about $100 more, but you can easily overclock this somewhere between 2.8-3.0 for no extra cost) RAM - 4 x 2GB - Corsair Video Card - MSI GTX 260 (you can downgrade this to save a few bucks (around $70) and not lose much performance, maybe to the ATI 4850) Motherboard - Gigabyte - Intel Chipset P45 - solid board for good price, kind of tight on space, which might be a bit of a concern with the heatsink I picked out, but it should be fine, and it also only has one PCIe slot, so no dual video cards (which are very unnecessary for the most part anyway) Hard Drive - 500 GB Seagate Barracuda PSU - PC Power & Cooling - 750 Watt - in hindsight 750 is probably a bit overkill here, you can probably save a few bucks downgrading this into the 550-600 range. Also I packed in a sound card, a DVD burner, a nice looking case, a heatsink, and even included some silver compound. Much better computer for the price, and I'm sure you could tweak this setup to find an even cheaper/more optimal situation. I just picked these out quick. If I had to pick anything to upgrade, it would be the motherboard first. Oh and I didn't factor in Windows to the price, drat I always forget something. Well you can either drop $80 for a Vista disk, install an older copy you might have laying around, or go with Linux.

Honestly, if it's that bad. Go out, spend between 50-100 dollars, get yourself an external hard drive (as you should be backing up your important documents anyway. seriously, if you care that much at least back them up), put all your important everythings on the external and do a clean reinstall. If your computer is that bad it sounds like you just need a clean slate. Also, it helps cut down on clutter, as you only have to reinstall the programs you need again. It's a bit of a hassle, but a 2-3 hours and you can be back to brand new.

Right now, there is absolutely zero reason too. I just like messing around in Beta's and trying to break them, because oddly enough I enjoy fixing computer crashes. From what I hear though, the improvements in 7 will be a more stable and efficient underlying OS, improved security, newer and more integrated features, better device management and better networking. Vista managed to do some of that (better security, new integrated features), but screwed up the underlying OS so much and used way to many system resources that any gains were outweighed by the poor performance. So far 7 seems to be on the right track to fix that. Also, there seems to be a lot less bloatware involved with 7. I still have the obligatory games, paint, internet explorer and windows media player, but a majority of the other crap (MSN messenger and that whole suite of programs I never touch) don't seem to be included, which is nice. Even once 7 does come out later this year/early 2010, it's still probably worth holding off until the first SP comes out, just to make sure its really going to improve upon XP. That and Microsoft is going to stop offering any support for XP, so at some point, they are almost going to force the switch upon people, and 7 seems the better choice over Vista. Also, I found my first hiccup, that being when I attempted to update my soundcard driver, the installation freaked out and warned me this driver was only for XP or later installations. My card still works fine in XP, but now I'm stuck using on-board audio in Windows 7. At this point though, its sort of to be expected.

Andre hit it dead on the head. If you can't bend from the $90 budget at all, go for a 9600GT, but if you can scrape up an extra $25 bucks get the 8800GT. I have the 8800GTS, which is essentially the same thing, and it packs some serious punch. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133205

I finally got around to putting the beta on my computer today, and I have to say for a beta that's still almost a year out from publishing, it runs really smooth. My CPU and RAM are at normal levels (comparable to XP), even during start up, and its handled all the programs and drivers I've thrown at it so far, not even a hiccup. I even got CS:S up and running for it and my FPS are definitely better then what I had using Vista, but not quite as good as my current XP install. The task bar on the bottom of it is very OSX-ish and I love it. You can pin icons down there permanently, or less intrusive icons, not whole text items, appear as you open and run the programs. It really has a Vista 2.0 feel to it, but at the same time feels much more comfortable to use then Vista. Maybe its just because I used Vista before and the differences didn't strike me as so major anymore. Anyway, if you have your system well backed up or another computer you don't mind trying a beta OS on, I highly recommend it. If this beta is any sign of how good the final product will be, I'm skipping Vista and just going straight to 7.

Hahaha, that was the first one I noticed too. The Onion is awesome. I lived in Madison for a summer and got to met one of the guy on the staff and just remember he was the man. It might be my favorite publication.

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Microphone-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1230956705&sr=8-1 This is real cheap mic only and is what I use. I have a good pair of head phone and just clip this thing onto the headphone's wire. It picks up my voice pretty well, but it always picks up a fair amount of background sound, so if your computer is in a room with a TV or other people, you might want to look elsewhere.

Pandora, Yelp, Midomi, Facebook, Remote, AIM, and everything Google puts out.

This is the MoTD, which are the real rules that apply to the server, not the ones people make up. CT's are not allowed to shoot prisoners unless they attack or run away CT's must order the prisoners to do something and if they don't comply shoot them CT's are not allowed to plant guns on prisoners just to kill them for having a gun. T's are allowed to attack the guards at any time Respect Admins and other players or get banned No spamming No racism No advertising and do not evade mutes Admins can deem any spray they think unfit bannable That's it, that's all. Admins shouldn't be slaying CT's for killing a prisoner who has already killed a CT, because it's making up and enforcing a non-existent rule. The reason why those admins you played with earlier didn't claim it was a free-kill was because it wasn't and they correctly didn't do anything about it. And majority hardly rules. I could probably go off on this for a while, but just one quick example. Try explaining to a cop next time you get pulled over that everyone speeds and see how far that gets you. Just because something like 90% of the population speeds doesn't mean the speed limit is whatever people feels like doing.

This just seems like a moot point. It's perfectly fine the way it is now. If somebody complains about it, just ask them to copy and paste the rule from the MOTD for you that says you can't and I promise you they won't be able to do it. And most time, CT's will lose track of who stabbed who and with the mob of T's you can't find the right one to kill anyway, so stabbing somebody is a risk/reward you take. Seems perfectly fair and balanced to me.

I know I never got to know you that well, but thanks for everything you did to make this a great place. Take care and I'm sure we'll still be seeing you around.

Litkey, I hardly knew thee. Thanks for helping me out when things got crazy and good luck with everything else.

I know the contest is over and all, but here are my two very awesome pumpkins I wanted to show off. First is my Domo-kun and the second is for the new World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Yeah, I'm giving it around an 8/10. I've followed this game for about a year and a half and it didn't quite live up to my expectations, but is great none-the-less. If this game came out when I was back in high school, it probably would have been the highlight of my life, but now its just an amusing game that's fun to screw around in if you have an hour or so and are bored. As awesome as the creature creation is, there isn't a whole lot that is innovative to the game, besides the uploading of "DNA" to EA's servers for them to redistribute to other people playing. Think about it: Cell Stage = Fish eating game (there are dozens of them) Creature Stage = Simple Sandbox game, some sort of watered down version of GTA/WoW Tribal/Civilazation = Very simple RTS. Think of any custom battle from Red Alert 2 on easy. Space = The first somewhat unique part of the game, which I love. I could kidnap animals and carve planets into odd shapes for hours. Regardless, it's pulled me away from the half dozen other games I normally play and will probably continue to do so for a while, and that's usually the sign of a good game for me. That and the massiveness of the game combined with the fact that other users all over the world are randomly having my creature populate planets in their game is near mind-blowing.

Assuming you could go back in time the only stock that comes to my mind is Berkshire Hathaway - Warren Buffett's Stock. You could originally purchase it for $1, it currently trading for around $120,000. So some quick math means $9 then would have made you a millionaire today. Nuff said. Oh, and Google Chrome is sweet, but at least for now Firefox is still my number one browser. Give them a year though and Google will catch up/surpass them.

I have the Logitech G5 and love it. I don't think I could go back to a standard mouse for gaming anymore, but I have heard good things about the Explorer too, and its about $20 cheaper. I don't think you would regret getting either one. And wired ftw. No batteries, no lost/weak signals.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318 512MB 8800GT for $130. You really can't do any better. That's a steal.