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Well. I figured I could expand the budget a bit - this should be the last time I'll have to upgrade for a while, I hope.

As for RAM... I'm more curious as to whether I should or not, really. I wouldn't want to upgrade, only to get bottlenecked down to where I am now by having too little RAM.

All right. Beginning to look at parts, now...

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130239

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115215

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145263

How does that look? Should I pick up an extra 2 GB of RAM, or leave it at 4 for now?

I apologize for all the obvious questions, thus far. I really appreciate all the help. I don't know that I'm quite comfortable enough with building to trust my own judgement on part selection.

I use Fraps now, actually. It's just that doing so tends to cause my framerate to plummet no matter whether I'm recording full-size or half-size - depending on the game. Machinama has always been an interest of mine - but I'd havet o be able to record smooth, quality footage first.

Edit: Last edit, honest! Champions Online is the main 'play' reason I'm looking to beef up the CPU. The video capture for both CoH and other games that I play is the 'main' reason. I like both games enough to keep an active subscription for both; and I'd like to be able to make videos with both, but there's just something not quite powerful enough on this rig to enable me to record footage at any reasonable framerate: even with a second HD dedicated to the raw film output.

Hmh. Well, Keyboard adn mouse are already pretty swell.. Dad Keyboard Professional and a Logitech MX518 (Could upgrade the mouse, but I don't see much need to at the moment.)

Monitor... I don't know, really. 22" seems like plenty enough for me.

The CPU.. The main reason I'm looking to upgrade this is for another game, actually, which is touted as 'very CPU intensive' because a lot of GPU functions are apparently off-loaded to the CPU instead. My reasoning was that if a fairly new-ish game is going to eat up that much CPU, then I might want to upgrade in preparation for CoX's graphical update with Going Rogue, as well.

Now, I can spend a bit more than $300.. I'm just trying not to spend another thousand just to upgrade a couple of parts in a machine that otherwise handles everything I can throw at it.

Edit: Also, that's one set of 2 Gig sticks, and one set of 1 Gig sticks. So, 2 x 2 gig and 2 x 1 gig.

But, then, this is why I ask these things here. I'll take whatever advice I'm offered, and start looking into the options mentioned above.

So, it's really just a 'small' upgrade.. compared to what I've already done to the thing, anyhow. My current setup goes as follows:

Nevermind. I'm a dum-dum.

All right. This is an odd one. Several months ago, CoX worked just fine using the Windows 7 RC. Seemingly out of the blue, however, it's stopped working properly. Now, I hadn't loaded the game in months - so there's no telling what, exactly, has changed... but now when I click 'I agree' on the launcher, I get this in response: "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application."

This is, so far, the only time I've seen this error. Compatability modes havn't helped; neither has uninstalling and re-installing the game. Nor have any of the methods found on Google when researching this error.

Anyone have any clues? I'd quite like to be able to return to the game now that I've resubbed - not cancel it the same night because it no longer runs with my setup.

Hmnh. I may have to play with some monitor settings, then. SOme of that comes out as indistinguishable from black; but any more brightness and the brights become far too bright.

Update: I've taken a second look at a lot of these suggestions; and as a result, I've stepped back for a moment to re-evaluate the concept and take another approach from the basics on up.



This is what I'm tinkering with now.

Edit: Fixed.


Well, if it makes you feel any better; the versions I posted were only a couple of a few dozen. I did have some that used less colors, but wound up feeling too.. bright.. to me.









As examples.

As a whole, I'm pretty happy with the outfit. I suppose one person's definition of 'busy' is going to vary from another's... personally, this feels as if it's 'weighted' right, to me. It isn't 'too bare' - a dress with nothing over it (Which I am happy to use for alternate slots, but not for this particular design) - but yet it's not too 'loaded', either - like the old Bolero was pushing. I still feel as though there's something missing with the shoulders, however.

At this point, I'm quite ready to simply pin it on the lack of options we have in the 'natural' department that actually look halfway decent. It's becoming clear that I'm not going to be able to create the effect I want.

Also, the main reason I don't use the bridal skirt with the bridal top? You can color the bridal skirt's design - but not the bridal top. Even if I were to go with one solid color for both, that still bugs me to the point that using them together feels like a wasted opportunity.

P.S: I really like The Pulveriser's design. He really is 'pretty'.

P.P.S: I don't know. Maybe after almost four years, I've just run myself completely dry on 'natural' outfit ideas. I seem to have all sorts of dresses and suits and shirt/pants pairings in all sorts of combinations already; some of which have begun to resemble one another in all ways but colour. Maybe I should throw some of those out for ideas? I really do appreciate all the help, here, too. I'm just not really being 'struck' yet by anything in particular I suppose.

How's this for an alternate direction? http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/504...0090828091.png

Something still feels... off. I can't quite put my finger on what, however.

I just went with black, in the end. There really aren't too many 'natural' pieces that can be blended together, I've found. Not many that I like, anyway.

I had tried red, and didn't much care for it... pink, though... Something like this?http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/4...0090828082.png


I think that's getting somewhere, at least.

I'm usually fairly decent with color combinations; but this new venture is throwing me for a loop, here. Purple and orange is a combination that I would associate with the setting sun... but what color would you put with it other than black (which is a shade, anywho)? I'm finding this one a toughie to answer. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Bah. Wish I'd seen that a bit earlier. Order placed, foiks - I'm thankful for all of your input with this. We'll see how this puppy works out in a few days. (Good, I'm hoping.)

All right, so here's what I'm looking at now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145176
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119129 OR http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811103011
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130493

Do we see anything unnecessary or questionable? This fits just below budget; I'm wondering if I'll see much of an increase coming up from an 8800 GT in CoX - though I also use this PC for Fallout 3, Team Fortress 2; and, soon, Champions Online. So any increases there would be stellar. It's awfully pricey.. but if it's worth the bite...

Actually, it's 3x 1 Gig. As far as the case goes, I've seen people complain about the size of the graphics card. So I thought I might need more space.

All right. I'll have a bit of spare money soon, and I'm considering investing some of this in an upgrade to my PC. I'll have around $600 or so to work with.

Currently, I'm running on the following setup:
Rosewill R230 Mid-tower Case (Considering upgrading this to Full Tower)
Nvidia NForce 6501 Ultra ATX Motherboard (May have to upgrade this.)
Coolmax M-500 500W ATX 12V Power Supply (Happy with this. May need more)
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHZ Processor (I might leave this as is for now.)
Western Digital Vaviar 160GB 7200 RPM SATA HD (Pretty happy with this.)
3GB Kingston 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM (Happy with this.)
Nvidia 8800GT 1791MB PCI-E Video Card (This is the main point of the upgrade.)

I'm thinking about moving up to a Full-size tower... considering this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811103011

I'm also looking at upgrading the video card. This is the main thing I want to upgrade.. but, somehow, I'm fairly certain I'll need more than just the card itself in order to use it properly. I'm looking at this one here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130493

Any suggestions? The main thing I'm trying to do is upgrade to a substantially better gaming setup while striking a balance between a performance upgrade (I don't want to go too much more beefy than what I'll need) and the cost (I am only working with about $600, after all; and I'd prefer not to spend all of that if at all possible.)

Thanks for your input!

My only advice, really, is to just keep an eye out. I spent the past month checking the thing nightly - and then scrolled down to see that Raura had been posted the other day, rather out of the blue. I'm sure the others are soon to follow. The whole process wasn't quite as involving as I like.. but I really can't complain too much about the results. Especially for the price tag.

I couldn't have asked for a better representation of a namesake dating far behind my time in City of Heroes. Thanks, John!

Hopefully it's alright that I've tweaked it a little.