Human_Being
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Quote:You would be paying an extra $27.50 for an additional 15 mhz core clock speed (1.75%). Also if you really wanted that additional mhz, most manufacturers include software for you to manually adjust speeds on the card now; you could do it yourself.Originally Posted by Rylas
It's funny, I was just thinking that would be the case. That, and the prices would be way up there for a while.
I'm seriously considering this card, unless someone convinces me there's a better option.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150463
The Sapphire version is five dollars cheaper still, and it's the model Leandro got and was satisfied with. If you have borderline-acceptable heat concerns, you might want the non-"factory-overclocked" (
) shrouded cooler type for ten dollars more though (Sapphire brand has the same price for this type).
Happy comparison shopping! -
Quote:I'm certainly waiting...with popcorn ^_^. (Okay, that wasn't fairOriginally Posted by Rylas
Thanks for the input everyone. I'll be looking into a 5770 for the time being. The fact that the PSU wouldn't have to be replaced helps. Though, a small part of me wonders if I should bother waiting around for Fermi to see what happens there.
.)
When Fermi is introduced, it will be in the high-end of the market. It would be several months more at least until a mainstream model (competing with the 5750 and 5770) showed up. -
Quote:Must be one heck of a burner if it takes an extra 200 W o.0, but that does give you some room to grow and I can't speak to anything but 120 V AC regulation - I usually don't pay attention to the other graph traces in reviews. Thermaltake is a decent brand in any case. If you want to do some comparison shopping, I'd recommend looking into an Enermax Modu82+ of some wattage. I actually *do* know that it has good 240 V regulation and excellent build quality.Originally Posted by Dark Shade
One thing that constantly bugs me is that Newegg don't deliver internationally and that I was just in the USA and could have pick up all this stuff up for much less then it costs over here and included it in my luggage somewhere.
The motherboard has one PCIe/16 slot and 2 PCI slots.
2 Gig Ram - From Dell... that'll be A$100 plus delivery.
Video card: ATI HD5750 PCI-E 2.0 1GB from one different supplier - A$200
and then the power supply... 650W power supply ... A$180 plus delivery
... so I got some saving to do and some bargin hunting to do.
(650W is to allow for the burner I'll eventually add and better regulation of regional power)
Again, if it comes down to tight money, the extra RAM would be nice but isn't essential. You might consider whether that money would be better put towards another step up on the graphics card ladder. (An ATI 5770 would fit with a minimum 500 W power supply.)
EDIT: If you do get the RAM, I wouldn't buy it from Dell; you'll get over-priced and under-quality-ed. What you would be looking for is a 2 x 1 GB kit of 240 pin DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066. I checked Crucial's site just now and they have both of those certified-compatible for an Optiplex 360. You wouldn't need any fancy RAM with a heat-spreader either. -
Quote:The processor isn't spectacular, but it should suffice. Given that and assuming there is a PCIe x16 slot on the board (I would be very surprised if there's not) you would need:Originally Posted by Dark Shade
Having waded through the upteen pages here, I'm more confused then ever.
Here's my situation:
My old computer:
Windows XP3
AMD 64 Processor 3500+ running at 2.21GHz (Single Core)
2 GB Ram
nVida GeForce 8500 GT
However the power supply in the computer is in the process of dieing.
Hence I recently got the opportunity to get a Dell Optiplex 360 while over in USA and bring it back to Australia. These sell for about $1300 over here, and I got it much cheaper.
It was going to be my gaming computer, but came in a sealed box and I couldn't check the contents. When I got home, I found it contained:
Win 7 Professional
Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 with VT (2.93GHz Dual Core)
2 GB Ram
Integrated Video Intel GMA3100
255W Power Supply
So my question is this, In order to even play Going Rogue or CoH/V: Do I sell the Optiplex and try to save for a better computer, or do I upgrade it? If I upgrade it, what gets priority? I know the power supply will needs attention if I get a card.
A new power supply at US $80-$180 (depending on how fancy you want to get). Also a graphics card with price depending on your budget, but likely at least US $100.
Another 2 Gig of RAM (US $50) wouldn't hurt, but isn't strictly essential.
You need to figure out what graphics card you want/can-afford before you can know how much power supply you require. -
Quote:Eminently sensible. One of my father's hunting friends went bowhunting for wild boar without a side-arm and was torn to shreds for it.Originally Posted by Ironblade
Or as a back-up weapon. I know someone who hunts wild boar with a bow. The Desert Eagle is in case he misses.
The boar never touched him....it's just that the only tree close enough for him to climb was a Honey Locust.
As to why they made the Desert Eagle, it's for the same reason that they made a bolt-action, civilian version of the Barret 50 Cal Sniper Rifle. -
Quote:If it's being carried for professional reasons, yes. The professional is carrying the weapon at all because it is believed such recourse may be all that can protect their or someone else' life. In that situation, being seconds too slow matters. A lot.Originally Posted by docbuzzard
In that sense I suppose a car is more safe if you don't fuel it up, but it's not terribly useful for when you actually need it.
If you are carrying a gun for a reason, having it ready to go is rather important, and to be quite honest if something bad does happen, the gun is a hell of a lot less safe for you without a bullet in the chamber.
To my reading, all of the actual discussion of firing handguns in this thread has been in the context of collectors and enthusiasts (unless I missed it). For sporting, prevention of accidents while having fun is more important than being able to defend yourself at a moment's notice.
You explained your peeve. I explained my earlier statement. You gave context for your position. I've given some for mine. I suggest we drop it here. -
Quote:I say it is "inherently less safe" because it takes one less conscious action to proceed in discharging the weapon. To me it's in the same vein as "always treat a gun like it's loaded" and "never point a gun at something you don't want to shoot": don't make the weapon ready to fire unless you are about to shoot.Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen
Nothing personal, but I've got to jump on this one. It's one of my pet peeves. There is nothing that is inherently less safe about carrying a modern semi-automatic pistol with a round chambered as opposed to with an empty chamber, provided the operator is properly trained and follows proper safety procedures.
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Quote:If maximum number of rounds is important, one can also put the magazine in, chamber a round, then remove the magazine and put one more bullet into it before reinserting it. So you have a full magazine plus one in the chamber. (Note that this is inherently less safe than carrying the weapon without a live round in the firing chamber.)Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Automatic handguns remain half-self-loaded with the slide back, so that chambering a round is easier upon inserting the next clip. Instead of requiring a full draw on the slide, they just require that the slide be released forward, chambering a round and cocking the striker. Clever.
A handgun that can fire a whole lot of bullets and wasn't a commercial success? I give you the Calico M950. It's a "handgun" that attempts to straddle the line between "cool" and "ridiculous". The drum on top is a 100 round magazine for 9 mm bullets. The spent cartridges are actually expelled forwards and downwards, through the spot just in front of the trigger guard. Naturally it came in semi-automatic and fully-automatic versions.Quote:I'm still not sure what the heck a semi-automatic revolver is, but I know at least one exists. It may not be very important for real-life purposes, but ESPECIALLY for the sake of Dual Handguns weapon customization, it would be fairly important, specifically to satisfy BABs' requirement that the gun can shoot many bullets in rapid succession. This feels like the Pancor Jackhammer of handguns. Who cares if it's not a large-scale commercial success? 
The gun was a failure because firstly, you're holding the gun plus one hundred bullets. That gets heavy real quick. There was a half-length, fifty-round magazine, but that still didn't help enough. Secondly, you couldn't steady the gun by gripping it under the barrel with your other hand because it was very easy to get burned with the hot casings streaming out of the bottom of the gun. Thirdly, if you really need that much firepower it's kind of silly to try to cram it into the ergonomics of a pistol rather than just going to a sub-machinegun design.
Still, it looks neat and exotic, which earned it a prominent spot in a number of B-movies from the early 90s like I Come In Piece and Stone Cold. -
Quote:*whispers* Woolly Rupert.Originally Posted by Veritech
im down for this. bring on the miniature giant space hamsters!
er, i meant giant, radioactive bugs. really i did.
go for the eyes Boo! go for the eyes! -
Everyone else has covered most things, but I want to specifically point out that "hammer" (the lever on the back) does not necessarily equal "striker" (mechanism that mechanically activates the firing cap). That's the way it used to be, and still is on simple revolvers as seen with the pin jutting from the hammer here. On more modern handguns the hammer may be simply a convenient lever for both cocking and uncocking the weapon, and while mechanically associated with the firing-pin-release, is not the striker itself.
A "rotating bolt" in an automatic weapon is actually a derivative of the old Bolt Action that you looked up. There you had a lever arm that you rotated and "locked" into a slot in the housing to secure the bolt in place for firing. You rotated it back up so you could open the bolt and extract the spent round.
In the sense of a modern automatic, it means that when the spring sends the bolt back forward, it "rotates" slightly after meeting the back of the firing chamber and "locks" itself into it.
The point of this is to get more energy out of the explosion. If the bolt doesn't lock, then it is just the expansion of the brass cartridge casing that prevents it from traveling backwards immediately. This is actually why brass is still used for cartridges today: it will expand with the explosion and "seal" itself against the sides of the chamber, preventing any gas from escaping around it and sending all the energy into pushing the bullet out of the barrel. As soon as the pressure drops just a bit, the brass cartridge shrinks back down and unseals itself, allowing the expanding gas in the barrel to now push it backwards as well as the bullet forwards.
If the bolt locks itself into place, then how long the pressure is kept at a maximum isn't reliant on just the expansion of the brass. You can send the bullet farther forwards before part of the expanding gas (harnessed in dozens of ways depending on how the mechanism is built) mechanically forces the bolt to "unlock" and start pushing it backwards.
Most handguns *don't* use this kind of force-maximizing method because less of the initial recoil is absorbed by the action-spring and goes into the weapon itself. That's not such a big deal with a large-mass rifle that expends its recoil energy into your upper body-mass, secured by both your arms. It matters a lot more in a low-mass pistol-sized weapon wherein what force isn't expended in overcoming its smaller inertia goes entirely into your wrist =P. So for most handguns, "losing" energy by allowing it to be expended early into the slide-spring is just fine. The Desert Eagle Fifty-Cal is a special case and has too much machismo to be concerned with trivialities like carpal bones or joint cartilage... -
Quote:Anti Aliasing works on ATI cards currently, you just have to set it in the Driver menu rather than in-game.Originally Posted by Emberly
Yeah that post doesn't say what the issue is or whether turning off AA fixes it but thanks!
An ATI card should be fine and certainly will be fine after GR. A 5770 is a good choice. -
Quote:Pretty much the only "new technology" out is DX11, which is currently only supported by ATI's 5xxx series. Nvidia's Fermi is supposed to as well, but won't be out until at least March (if then), is likely to only be introduced in the enthusiast price range at that point, and may still have technical problems reducing its quality then.Originally Posted by Rodoan
The market's always tweaking things and coming out with the "latest and greatest", but are there any new advancements, things we've not seen that might be coming out by early 2nd quarter that would suggest one wait to get a vid card?
I'm toying with replacing my rig, too, and although I know legacy and business systems pretty well, I'm not so much up on bleeding edge gaming stuff. In addition to Going Rogue, I'm looking to tinker with several of the new MMO's and expansions on the horizon (Star Trek, DC Universe, Star Wars, etc.) so I'm wondering how the cards stack up to those games special needs as well (such as je-saist's comment "The GTX card isn't DX11 / OpenGL 3.2 compatible". that kind of info is quite helpful)
ATI's 5xxxs may get a "Version 2" release around the same period, adjusting anything they found to be a problem with the original models from August.
The short answer is there's nothing killer you'd be missing if you bought a card now rather than in four months. -
Quote:Actually, word on the grapevine is that Fermi does run overly hot; to the point where Nvidia has had to reduce the clock speed from what they intended, reducing performance, to allow it to run at all. Furthermore, there have been and are now tri and quad graphics card setups, including with the new ATI 5xxxs, and they don't require a specialized case. Finally, the Element V cases are Thermaltake's second-from-the-top cooling solution, with only the $850 Level 10 above it. And while the 230 mm and 200 mm fans in the Element V may not be "new technology", requiring them over regular 120 mms is "rather unusual". If you read the bottom of that flier, they state that the case is still being certified for this application...meaning all of that plus their "new graphics card ducting" just for Fermi might not be enough.Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
I call FUD.
If you actually read the article and the attached image, it states that the case is optimized for systems sporting Triple and Quad SLI setups (which are already notably warm-running). This means they're ridiculously overkill for single-card solutions.
And the use of 200mm and 230mm fans in cases isn't exactly new technology here. And please note the second link especially. It shows that the case you linked to is little more than a branded rework of a pre-existing chassis.
With this in mind, the way you've portrayed it is inappropriate.
Fermi is increasingly looking like a boondoggle, but we should know more next weekend during CES. -
Quote:ATI has been twisting the knife in them on manufacturing costs since they released the 4xxx series with 30%-50% lower production price per board. Nvidia chose to "buy market share" by losing money on the GTX cards until Fermi was due in Fall of this year. When it became evident Fermi wouldn't show up until early-middle 2010, that calculation changed and Nvidia decided to stop bleeding money when they had no way to answer ATI's newer 5xxx series.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
See, that's the thing. Just how much money are they making now with nothing in stock? The demand is there, or was - I have to wonder just how much they'll have lost (versus some from manufacturing) from people jumping ship to, or just seeing their only choice as, ATI in new systems, new games from the holidays, etc.
Ermm, that's kind of a reality for them right now; "full on retreat". You can only say you're winning by heroically pummeling your enemy about the soles of his feet with your face for so long before it becomes obvious what's going on. There's a lengthy discussion on this in the early part of the "Ultra Mode Shopping Guide" thread. Basically Nvidia isn't in financial trouble, but they are in market trouble and need Fermi to be a real Wondermaker. If it's not, they don't have anything else to fall back on and would need another several billion during a recession to start development of a new chip.Quote:Not to mention the perception of "full on retreat." They're not (IIRC) making mainboard chipsets now, their video cards are nowhere to be found and the new ones are basically being pushed as "extra processing" as opposed to - well, gaming, workstation graphics and the like.
EDIT: It is officially now the "new year" since I've made that January Mistake. I meant last year. -
Quote:I'm not sure here if you meant the entire quad-core computer plus new graphics card was $90 or just the graphics card. However, if it was $90 for the card are you sure you didn't mean a GT 240? That's the Nvidia offering at that price point currently.Originally Posted by Oxmyx
When it comes to technical computer stuff I know just enough to be dangerous. I recently purchased a new computer, a quad-core Asus 5270 and had installed in it a BFG Nvidia GT220 graphics card. I know it's after the fact but is that a decent card? I got the whole thing at Best Buy on sale for $90.
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Quote:Aside from Fermi's absence, you're not going to see the GTX 2xx series come back into stock either. The entire line has been removed from production by Nvidia. They were losing money on each chip sold due to manufacturing costs.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
No, you're not. You can't pay for something that's *not in stock.*
Well, you *can,* I suppose, but I for one would feel rather silly doing so.
Honestly, with my in progress system build, one thing made me finally go and put an ATI card on the list - as I had a *really* bad experience with them that put me off their products for some time (since the Radeon 7000 days) - not performance, though I'm not seeing a hit there it looks like. The fact that, for nVidia, everything in the range I want was sold out *continually.* A shipment came in for one I initially had in the build, ("due 12/20," I think) and was gone almost instantly.
Fermi initially was "due at the end of 2009," then they had chip problems (not an issue, as it was still in development at the time,) then production problems (and don't forget that wonderful sawed off circuit board on the "This is the real card I'm holding!" presentation. Just irks me.) If it's a killer card, I can wait for the .1 or .2 version to come out and upgrade in a year. If it doesn't outperform what I put in - the upgrade gets put off.
But for now, if stock's not there, I can't buy it, and that's all it boils down to. -
Quote:Actually that's the official price point from ATI now. They bumped it up to $300 when multiple review sites reported the same thing: that they could repeatably and reliably overclock a 5850 to 5870 performance levels. With the 5870 at $400, there was no reason to buy it over the 5850. So they raised the price.Originally Posted by je_saist
However, nobody is selling the HD 5850 at it's $260 price point. Prices start at $310.
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Quote:To add to this, the new AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5770 (~$175) is likely to run off of your existing 500 W power supply, unless it's a really weakly built one.Originally Posted by je_saist
If you are buying right now, buy AMD. Buy any of the RadeonHD 5x00 series cards shipping. They are the only DirectX 11 / OpenGL 3.2 cards on the market.
The RadeonHD 5750 and 5770 cards are generally in stock and under $200.
The RadeonHD 5850, 5870, and 5890 cards are now being stocked as shipments are up, and most will start in the $300+ bracket.
The best new performance bang for your buck is RadeonHD 5750 in Crossfire mode: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...rossfirex.html
Don't look for a price drop on the RadeonHD 5x00 series anytime soon. They have no competition.
The best old performance bang for your buck is the RadeonHD 4850 in Crossfire. They start under $130: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150351 -
Quote:If you come back here at that point, people can advise you on getting only as much power supply as you need while keeping quality up, and what graphics card will best fit in your budget.Originally Posted by DeathSentry
Thanks Human, and you are right, I was checking prices again on the cards, they just keep going up.. I read somewhere that NVidia is supposed to come out with new cards in Feb/March, hopefully that will put some pressure on ATI to reduce theirs a bit but then again, with so much function coming out with them, they can keep the supply low knowing the games demand them so we will pay :-( Once my box comes in I'm going to go for the power supply and then, maybe after my tax return comes in... dig deeper and get the card :-( .. and I'll keep up with Toms hardware lol
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Quote:To assist here, a practical example: In late Issue 12 Beta (introducing Cimerora and a round of powerset-proliferation) I was running around with a Dark Melee/Super Reflexes Brute; trying to find the limits of the new-for-Brutes protective powerset. The character was lv50, but *not* soft-capped for Defense - having around 40% to all positions (or roughly a 1-in-10 chance to be struck before Accuracy).Originally Posted by Dispari
Defense by your own definition is to "protect from enemy attacks," which is satisfied by making enemies less capable of attacking you.
By your arbitrary and vague definition that requires you don't interact with your opponent, building a wall to keep out attackers isn't a defensive maneuver because it actively slows down the enemy rather than affecting yourself.
Very bad analogy. We're not trying to claim that hot dog = donut or offense = defense. We're trying to explain that an offensive maneuver can = defense if the net result is that it "protects from enemy attacks." Which is YOUR definition. As Arc explained, there's an offensive and defensive benefit to frontloading your damage so that you can more quickly dispatch enemies.
You even said yourself, "I agree that deader enemies results in greater survivability than not-as-dead enemies," meaning you acknowledge that the net result means you survive better and mitigate damage better. Meaning you admit that you actively reduce incoming damage, but it's still not defensive. IE, you protect from enemy attacks, but it's not defensive (for no clear reason). The only person claiming defense is not defense is you.
During the Beta in Cimerora, there were a bunch of geometry holes that let you get below the map and work your way to the other side of the Fortress walls. I decided to slip under the walls and throw the Brute at the lv50 100-mob spawns on top of the Fortress. Essentially, you are permanently at the aggro cap until such time as you work your way through four-fifths of the mobs up there. It was a tough fight, but I managed to do it. (In vain did I search for SR's supposed "weakness" as a protective set when not soft-capped =P.)
I started talking about this with someone else who was in Cimerora at the same time, told him about the geometry holes, and he said "Oh cool, let me get my Stone Tank and do that". He brought in an IO-ed and Accoladed Stoner and threw himself at the same situation.
He failed. He failed miserably. I don't think he got half of them down though he tried multiple times. He had *soft-capped Defense, large Resistances, and a heap-ton more HP than the Brute did. But the reduction in damage and attack rate meant that he didn't kill the enemies fast enough for all that extra protection to matter. The Brute's higher damage and faster attack rate meant it had *much* higher survivability than the "king of Tank primaries" (whatever that means =P) in that situation.
EDIT* =P -
Quote:I can't think of anything of theirs for this specific application, but if you're looking at Within Temptation and Epica you should also look at Nightwish.Originally Posted by Knight_Marshal
You might want to Look into some of the songs by Epica. Same style of music, but better IMO AND most of their songs would last the entire 10 minutes or so you plan for the video. If you could get their permission, it would rock.
(Oh, and if you don't recognize the contents of Wishmaster, your husband certainly will; and reading the lyrics out of the side-bar first is cheating.)
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Quote:If worst came to worst, your "problem" would be for mounting the new power supply in the case. The actual electrical connectors are going to be the same regardless. So if the screw-holes are in the wrong place to mount a new power suppy or such, that can be remedied with someone's dremel tool.Originally Posted by DeathSentry
Well, I just hit the submit button on my computer...fingers crossed..hope I can change the power supply later...
As discussed further up the thread, you probably shouldn't hold your breath for either ATI or Nvidia to reduce their prices in the next few months. Hopefully supply will loosen up a bit though.Quote:I figure with the 4350 I can at least make the current game play a little better vs. my geforce card from 6 years ago (smile); but will wait for the 5850's to come down (hopefully) in price for GR.
EDIT: Oh yeah, and those system specs do look solid save for the graphics card. That should be fine. -
Quote:I liked how she touched on the original material in the first minute, and then completely departed from it for CoX-specific references. The video is very close to the original framing in the first minute, with mostly white-background, still, frontal shots. Then at 1:06 it takes off with the pan (framed perfectly against P-D's light show), snaps from there into a de facto zoom-out (allowing for the eye to follow because it starts from the same place), and proceeds into poking fun at itself - which is exactly the tone the original song requires. And it just doesn't let up from there.Originally Posted by Fire Lilly
I just took the time to watch the official music video for that song, Avatar.
Something that I thought was really smart was how well you followed the original video. Certain points when they're acting out certain emotes, you took the time to have Blake recreate them at the same point in time as the song. It a salute to the original work and I thought it was done really well.
The specific choices of emote are just excellent as well. Take the rap section: note Castle's face turned toward the camera right at "Who the heck's more heroic?" and Hero 1's nod right at "I'm ready for love". -
Quote:*Hunts up Youtube copy*Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
Do you mean which song did I want to use for the Rikti War video? I had originally hoped to use "The Howling" by Within Temptation (it is just too perfect), but they declined permission, even to license it for a fee. However, they said no. I plan to try again, but I doubt they'll say yes.
Awww, dang. Yeah, that is spot on. I can see the saucer showing up, initial assault with civilians in the streets, bombing runs, Alpha-Omega in the instrumental, looking over the wreckage of the city (Boomtown), the "Surviving Eight", Statesman holding Hero-1's cape, starting rebuilding, and maybe a close-up "Honoree" stepping out of another portal in the last seconds - just from listening to it.
They wouldn't even consider it for a price? -
Quote:One of these two.Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
Well, of my current list, here are your choices:
- The Dying of the Light - a full-out music video of the first Rikti War, from the initial invasion to the Alpha/Omega gambit.
- The Freedom Phalanx Genesis series - a number of videos I've begun storyboarding that tell the stories of the current members of the Phalanx (Synapse, Positron, Statesman, Psyche, Manticore, Numina, BAB, and Citadel) - the one for Synapse, I got permission from the band in question to use their song, and no, I'm not telling you what it is - I'm working on getting permission to use the songs for the others.