Astronomer

Hey Merlin, Been there - but you knew that. Keep the positive outlook and attitude. Those shine through in the interviews. Good luck on Friday!

My nVidia 550 is the low-end of the current generation, but I still get 90+ fps in COD-WAW. For future-proofing, go for the 560 and above, dual cards in SLI if it's in the budget. I've been an nVidia user for a few years, so my knowledge of ATI/AMD is limited.

Check out the ASUS audio cards - rated very highly as compared to the over-priced Sound Blaster cards: http://techreport.com/articles.x/19997 I recall some reviews in either Maximum PC or CPU magazine that gave ASUS top marks.

I have an ATI 9800 in my parts closet - you're welcome to it. I think I have another AGP card as well , come to think of it. My last AGP mobos died a few months ago, so you're welcome to them, no charge. Let me know your address via PM and I'll box them up and drop them in the mail. Cheers, - Astronomer

1Deerhunter think she will win Welcome aboard let the battle begin JoeMamasButt vs Jcsnipe007. LOL LOL! Welcome aboard JMB!!! ...and Jcsnipe2007!

Congratulations on another successful orbit around the Sun!

I was a 1.5 to 2 pack a day guy when I quit over 21 yers ago now. You CAN do it! I did it cold-turkey, no patches etc. I even gave up coffee at the same time (they went hand-in-hand). The trick is, if you really, deep down, and honestly want to quit, you can do it and you will do it. Unless you have the real desire to kick the habit, all the gimmicks in the world aren't worth a tinker's damn. You have the desire and the motivation, so one day at a time, you will do it! Good luck!

Nice work! Love the bannister slide...and so will the ladies! ;-)

Enjoy your Turkeys or ham or prime rib roasts today all my Canucky friends! It's hotter than heck here in Southern Ontario today. We'll get to give thanks on the back patio this evening.

Been there Merlin, Staying focused and positive will get you through it. It sucks - no question - but you will find something and the stress will pass. The worst part is the uncertainty. Being aware of it will calm the waters quite a bit.

The odds of it hitting anyone were 1 in 3500. Looks like it broke up over the Pacific. Some pieces may have fallen over an area streatching from Calgary to James Bay, though I think it unlikely. Dr. Peter Brown at UWO was tracking it (I got to know him last year when we were on a team looking for pieces of a meteor that broke up near Grimsby Ontario). I'll ping him to see if they can confirm where it broke up and if any pieces survived atmospheric re-entry. Last I heard from CNN etc was that NASA was uncertain as to exactly where it re-entered.

Check out this guy's blog/video site. He's entertaining, hilarious, and very informative. He's become popular enough that what started as a hobby has become a full-time job. http://www.eevblog.com/

He he he...Elmer Fudd...*snort!* ROFL! "Oooo! I'm gonna get me dat wascawally bunny-humpin'wabbit Dirk if it's the wast thing I evuh do!"

From Left to right: Astronomer, Belted, 1Deerhunter Good times, good food, lots of laughs; sort of camping with our wives, Belted's young son and one of our pups. Great friends!

hxtr looks like crap to me....... i dont want a touch screen for one and I do not like this applefication of my PC. Less Applefication and more iPadification... It does work well without a touch screen, though a touchscreen user will enjoy it (I recently acquired my first touchscreen devices, a HP TouchPad and an iPhone). On the plus side boot is pretty quick and you can still get to a familiar interface. I'm hoping that the final version will have an option to let you boot into the familiar desktop screen. Hitting the Windows key brings up the Metro interface, unfortunately.

Keep in mind the version that's been released to developers is an "Alpha" version. There will be changes before the Betas and final version are released. I'm playing with it on a virtual machine on my work laptop right now. The interface works fine with a mouse and keyboard, but having the desktop that we all know become just another app is jarring. The Start button as we know it is there in name only. It's interesting, to say the least. I'm not keen on the "Metro" interface apps running in full-screen only, though there is a side-by-side window mode. There is no over-lapping windows in the Metro interface, though it's there in the "Win-7" app. For the Win7-ish part, they've finally let the task bar span over to multiple monitors. I'll keep playing with it and look for updates. As I see/hear interesting things about it, I'll report in. I may put it on a spare PC and try running COD on it.

Thanks for sharing. The wife and I love our ribs. I'll try it out next weekend.

Funny!

I use it too. It does the job.

Just noticed that more than half of the folks on the server are showing pings of "999". Looks like there's a bigger underlying issue there.

Same issue this AM. Twice now I've crashed and can't log in due to the qport error. I had to get an admin to boot me the first time, and now I think I'll give up. The problem is that even when you wait 10 seconds, 2 miutes, 10 minutes, you still can't log back in. I didn't have Xfire on the first time it happened.

iFuerza - Problems Been loving WaW, but when ever i load the game up and play the first map, it laggs for a few secconds and then my screen flashes and then it comes back and plays fine. i would like to add a few things my system specs are below in my signature, i run on average about 100fps, all settings are maxed out,res is 1680x1050 because i dont wanna play on a laptop screen so i have a seccond monitor, my ATI (place gun in hand here) drivers are up todate (proceed killing my self). i have no idea wtf is wrong. i play other games, BFBC2 plays fine at max settings, Counter Strike <3 plays fine, Metro 2033 plays fine, Arma 2, Halo 2, BF2, WoW, they all play fine its just WaW im having shit with, any iders that will help me fix this will be appreciated. ALSO WAW IS ON STEAM. My WAW does the same thing: Come in, start game, lag, screen flash, then fine. I run an nViidia 550. My 8800 did the same thing. All drivers are up to date. Best thing to do is accept it as a common glitch, wait a half-minute before you jump into the game to let the screen do its thing, then enjoy the game.

bullwink OMG Bullwink has a son who's an xtreme idiot. Now when i call you that cplah it takes on a new meaning Congrats Son. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Bullwink! LOL!!!

Best card on a budget might be an nVidia 550. I just bought an EVGA GTX 550 TI Superclocked (1Gb VRAM), ~$130. it still had some headroom left for further overclocking. To see what you have for a power supply, open up your case and take a look at the label(s) on your PS. Good Luck! Keep the questions coming!