On March 19, BlackThunder talked about a cheap gaming rig from NewEgg for around $300. Well my friends, I had purchased that same exact rig that very day. And let me tell you, it’s nothing to sling boogers at. This machine is fast, runs cool and with the proper video card, it will run some pretty high details in your games.

The default system comes as an AMD Athlon II X2 245 Processor at 2.90GHz. The mainboard is an ASUS M4A785-M that is fully expandable from a Sempron to a Phenom II CPU. The chipset is the 785G accompanied by the ATI Radeon 4200 GPU. It comes with a Cooler Master case with a 460 watt power supply. The 4GB of 6400C5C Corsair RAM (mainboard will take up to 16GB) allows plenty of snuff to run Windows 7 64-bit and games sufficiently. The Rosewill CPU cooler seems very efficient and isn’t even hot to the touch. Top this bad-boy off with a 750GB HDD and a DVD-RW and you got yerself one a’ them-there nifty doo-hickeys they’s call a com-poo-ter! I seen one of those city slickers using one once.

All joking aside, this system is great. It was easy to assemble and only took about 30 minutes.

Once I got it up and running, I immediately ran 3D Mark 6 and Ungine on the system to stress the GPU/CPU. Boy, does the onboard Radeon 4200 suck squirrel nuts! If you think for a second that the onboard video is tip-top, then prepare to run for the hills. Run somewhere, because you take this sucker to any LAN parties and you’re gonna get laughed right out of somebody’s mother’s basement. The onboard vid will never do. I originally purchased a Radeon 4650 from Best Buy because I thought the power supply was only 400 watts. I later realized that it is a 460 watt (DUH!). So another trip back to Best Buy was in order to return the 4650 in exchange for the better HD 5770. I told Best Buy the card “sucked squirrel nuts” as I mentioned above and I wanted a better card. I could have just told them it didn’t work, but I needed the challenge to see how they would handle this return. The service manager laughed and almost had his Pepsi come out his nose when I said “squirrel nuts”. That was my highlight of the evening.

So the 5770 is in the rig, I’m pumping out 30 to 58 FPS on my benchmarks from DX9, 10 and 11. I could only get 30 fps tops with the 4650. The 4200 was lucky to get 12 or less fps. The 3D Mark tests on the CPU were pretty tough on it, but I take those tests with a grain of salt. I’ve never seen any CPU test well on 3D Mark CPU testing. My overall 3D Mark rating at high detail for DX11 was 9010 and was comparable to a lot of other gaming rigs when I submitted my results online. I was getting 7924 with the Radeon 4650. So there is a big difference in video cards.

If you want to ask me what I overclocked my hardware to, go ahead. I’ll tell you there is no way this chicken little is doing any such thing. I’m pretty happy with the existing set-up and don’t feel the need to be all Tim Allen and supe it up using Binford tools for more power. The only thing I ever felt comfortable overclocking was a Nvidia 8400GS card because it sucked so bad. Believe me when I say that it didn’t help any. This is my first ATI card I have ever bought and I am now convinced that Nvidia’s engineers drink the same toilet water they urinate in. You know that saying – “Never eat where you sh–!” I have had enough of Nvidia. I am now playing for the red team. Staying off the green like a Tiger Woods.

So all in all, this system was a great deal. $309.00 for the complete DIY system and another $160.00 for the video card. Now I can finally start kicking some ass on Crysis or Gears of War. Come and get me you bastards!!

GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:59:16 — 27.3MB)

This podcast is all in the spirit of gaming as a community. We talk quite a bit about the Lan Party of last weekend. But there is quite a few other PC gaming related topics we touch on, such as:

• Lan Party Details
• I wanna be the Guy
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 Gaming
• People that where at the Lan
• Kommie and Brownies
• Just Cause 2
• The Lan Playlist
• Quad Crossfire… pros and cons
• Borderlands on Eyefinity
• Ruse
• Fermi, Nvidia and GTX480
• Metro 2033
• Great March Game Specials
• Even EA employees don’t like C&C4′s online requirements
• And more DRM woes
• Newegg Special Hardware Review
• Listener Mail
• Old school gaming (Dreamcast, Commodore64 and Amiga FTW)
• Global Agenda
• Starcraft 2 (HD)

Just some links of stuff we were talking about during the podcast to give you guys some more background on all that we said.

Microsoft discontinued gameport support in Vista (and the workaround apparently doesn’t work either)

NVIDIA Fermi – GTX 470 – GTX 480 – GTX 480 SLI Review (Metro 2033 used as a test)

EA Staffer Not Liking EA’s New Restrictive DRM

Why we will accept Ubisoft’s DRM

Bioware Auction

Ubisoft compensating PC gamers for DRM server outage

Global Agenda Free Trial

4A-Games has arrived. After all of the controversy over the game engine with former employees of GSC Game World, Metro 2033 has finally seen the light of day. Being a fan of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games I was very excited to hear that some of the former team members from that franchise were working on a new game. It was also nice to hear that it would also employ a post-apocalyptic setting based off of a Dmitry Glukhovsky novel by the same name.

My intent was to publish this review earlier but I have been immersed in the claustrophobic tunnels that reside below the surface of Moscow. It is a world where nuclear war was a reality and the passengers of the metro system were the ‘lucky’ survivors. The game places you in the role of Artyom, a silent protagonist ah-la Gordon Freeman. You reside in a world where the surface is deadly, the only currency is pre-war bullets, and mankind is still trying to kill itself. There are a few factions that are warring with each other. The communists, the Nazis, and what seems like everyone else. If that wasn’t harsh enough, there are strange creatures that lurk within the old Moscow subway system, just waiting for some unlucky soul to cross their path. Since the game is heavily driven by its story I will try not to touch on it. It is something best experienced without any foreknowledge.

My first reaction to the game was how amazing it looked. I’m running a rather fit system and was able to crank most settings to their highest limit. I was blown away by the quality. Beautiful texture work, particle effects, environmental and lighting effects. I found it hard to play through the game on my first play-through because I wanted to take in every scene and really take my time. The problem there was the fact that the story tries to push you forward a little too quickly. I also noticed I spent a lot of time looking at the ground searching for pre-war bullets, though I didn’t end up spending many of them through the first run.

One aspect I really enjoyed was the very organic feel to the game. The standard HUD is very limited to a view of weapons that is only seen when you scroll through them and a graphical depiction of your ammunition count when needed. Other than that it is completely nonexistent. The health-bar is replaced by a screen distorting red blur and rapid increase in heart rate. When wearing the gas mask you have a wrist watch you can refer to for filter change notifications. Alternatively, you can rely on the labored sound of your breathing and the excessive fogging that occurs on your mask as well. Another thing I learned quickly was the fact that the gas mask can break if you are wounded too often while wearing it, requiring you to loot one in better condition off of a corpse. Medkits are replaced by scarce adrenaline shots which rapidly increase your heart rate and cause the screens brightness to actually fluctuate for a moment. It is a welcomed addition to an already innovative system. Your head lamp and night-vision goggles are both set on limited battery life and require you to pull out a device to replenish the charge. It’s an interesting interaction that requires some preparation so you are not left in the dark at the wrong time.

The environments are another big plus. The game is set in a rendered model of the Moscow Metro system. At times you can also venture to the surface, which is a frozen wasteland riddled with creatures. There are a few elements in the game that pay homage to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series such as the anomalies that are in the subway tunnels, or the fact that you find frozen stalkers on the surface at one point. The dark is another aspect that you can use to your advantage. Blowing out lamps, shooting out lights, and equipping a stealth suit can allow you to play a silent assassin, stalking the shadows and dropping foes with knives, allowing you to conserve ammunition.

The game is not without its flaws though. There are times when outside that I felt as though I should have been able to go places but was not able to due to invisible walls. The entire game heavily limits where you can go, but that is to be expected. Also, some of the weapons are not as effective as they should be. I should not have to spend six shotgun shells on a soldier that is standing in front of me. Balancing like that can be extremely frustrating.

Still, aside from little things like that, this game is quite an accomplishment. This is the kind of storytelling that Modern Warfare 2 could not accomplish; a compelling environment that truly instills a sense of desperation and panic into the player. One thing to remember though, play this game at night. Make sure to have the sound up as loud as your living situation allows, and try to lose yourself in the experience. Perhaps it will eat up as many hours in your life as it has in mine.

So 3 people should be playing Torchlight now. The winners randomly selected by me are:

• Tobli
• James
• Marco

Thanks for taking part and enjoy the game. Write us and let us know how you like Torchlight!

And… it… is… a…. wrap! Well almost anyway. Down to 5 people. Thanks to everyone who came, especially Tim and Andrew. Couple hundreds of miles travel spells Lan dedication!

OK, so here is the chance for 3 people to get Torchlight for free. You have till Sunday evening to comment on this post. Make sure the e-mail you use is your steam e-mail so we can mail you your prize (only admins can see the poster e-mail). Only one comment and as long as it is clean you can say what you want.

Should you already have the game tell others about it, share your love for the game. Should you be picked as a winner you have the choice to pass it on to a person of your choice or give it to someone else that made a post. So lets hear it!

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition – $9.99 on Impulse – http://www.impulsedriven.com/twee
Torchlight – $5.00 on Steam – http://store.steampowered.com/app/41500/

These are 2 GREAT games at awesome prices! Be sure to pick them up!

Ok, Just Cause 2 is awesome. And GoGamer.com has it for a great price, so if you are in the market, check it out.

Just Cause 2 at GoGamer.com

When people talk about retro-gaming, two things are referenced in one’s mind. They either think of arcade games (ie Pac-Man, Galaxian) that they spent their hard-earned allowances on as kids, or they think of the old console systems like the Atari 2600 or the NES.

But one console that I believe stands out from the rest of the pack is the Sega Dreamcast. You might ask, why I would consider the Dreamcast as a retro console? The simplest answer would be just to say because it isn’t in production anymore and leave it at that. A better answer would be to say it is an amazing system that has a great library of software but it never received the recognition it deserved during it’s short life span as the first 128-bit game console.

The Dreamcast was released in Japan, November 1998, in the U.S on 9/9/99 and in Europe, October 1999 and was loosely based off the Sega NAOMI system which were used in their arcade games. Taking a first glance at the console, it just looks like a little gray box. Nothing fancy or even appealing to the eye. And depending on if you are from the U.S./Japan or Europe, the swirl on the CD lid would either be reddish orange for the former or blue for the latter. The system came with one controller, a VMU (I will get into what the VMU is later) and a built in modem for online gaming. (continue reading…)

Way back then in 2005

Just a heads up to everyone that Podcast 14 will be a little late. Next weekend is all about enjoying each other at the Lan in my basement. Looks like between 25-30 people will show up and have a grand old time. I will see if I can update the site with a picture here or there, but no promisses.

Should you be in the Atlanta area it is not to late to join us for a night, two night or the weekend. Just call our voicemail line for more info. If you want a general idea where it is you can check here:

View Larger Map

Look no further than the Techreport System Guide.  There you will find setups ranging from the budget PC all the way up to the “Money is of little concern” type machines.

I had thought of doing something like this on my own, but these guys do such a great job at laying everything out, it feels redundant to do it myself.   Why re-invent the wheel?  :-)

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/18510

Audi 5,

The Wizzle

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:55:25 — 26.4MB)

Well rounded talk this week. We touched on some great gaming (yes I played the Just Cause 2 Demo 14 hours). Josh loves Metro 2033 and he tells us all about it.  Then also a revisit on hardware, last but not least the cheap gaming rig we recomended on the website. If you purchased it, let us know how it works out for you!

Here are the talking points:

• Just Cause 2 Benchmark
• Josh got the H50 Water-cooling
• Metro 2033
• Are game doing too much hand holding
• Why you can’t do DX11 with Nvidia as of right now
• FF13 (Yes… console)
• DRM news
• C&C4 bad news, bad reviews, bad design, bad “non” DRM
• Dumming down games
• Need for Speed World
• Motorcity Online
• Cheap Gaming Rig Post
• Havoc and ATI Physics
• AMD Gamer Manifesto
• Getting what you pay for (Hardware)
• ATI 3D
• 3D Displays, Gaming and Movies
• Josh likes food more than 3D gaming
• Game Demos
• More Just Cause 2 Demo talk
• Just Cause 2 Benchmark Results
• Battlefield Bad Company 2
• The joy of a new Video Card
• Nvidia new Video Cards
• ATI low power champ
• Power Supply talk

PLEASE DIGG THIS! 

Since we were talking about it on the podcast, I figured I’d post my Just Cause 2 Benchmark results.  Click the image to see the full sized screenshot.

Curlen

Karsten

Joe

Tim

Yep, another big pile of suck.   My brother came to the house and decided to bring half of his current stack of work with him.   I guess business is good….   LOL

Every now and then we have been asked about gaming computers. You heard us also talk about that a gaming PC does not have to cost much. Case in point is this special that NEWEGG is running right now. You got a complete computer for $309.98 (if you bother to send in the rebate) and the only thing you need to add is a video card and a OS.

• Cooler Master RC-310-OWR460:$69.99
• ASUS M4A785-M:$79.99
• AMD ADX245OCGQBOX:$60.99
• Corsair (XMS Series) TWIN2X4096-6400C5C:$99.99
• Seagate ST3750528AS:$79.99
• ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS:$23.99
• Rosewill RCX-Z940-SL:$19.99

————————————————-

Total with savings: $334.98

Need for Speed World announced yesterday that they will be conducting a second closed beta starting tomorrow, March 19 @ 4pm (GMT) that will run through March 22.  You must have an EA Master Account to apply for the beta but all you gear heads out there who like the NFS games might wanna look into it.

I know this is an EA game and right below this news is a hammer to the EA attempt at DRM, but I have played the NFS games from the start and can’t bring myself not to try this.  [I know the guys will get me for this...]

http://needforspeed.com/web/nfs/world

So, since Activision was fast on the way to overtake EA in bad news and publicity, EA couldn’t just resist and had to step it up a notch.

Not enough that you would change anything that could be fun or familiar in the C&C franchise, you had, of all things take from UBI’s playbook (REALLY?!) and totally muck up what little fan good will.

So yes, C&C4 will require you to be online at all time while playing the game, Single player, skirmish or other. I had to go and take a look at the box at our local best buy just to see how much warning they give you.

Click on the tumb nail and see for yourself. I know my IPhone doesn’t make the greatest of pictures but boy… it would be easy to miss if you didn’t really look.

So I won’t even go into what EA has done to mess up the game itself. That notice makes it an automatic NO BUY. If you love PC games stay away from it and move on to other things. Don’t support publishers that do that to games. There is many of your fellow game fans that either don’t have a reliable connection or can’t be online all the time. This is TOO MUCH!

Modern Warfare 2 Map Pack gets a price tag… wait for it…

15$ for 3 new Multiplayer maps and 2 recycled ones from the first Modern Warfare. Really Activision…. for real?

If you listened to our podcast you know our feelings about Activision, Infinity Ward and MW2… but this, man this takes the cake.  This has quick, let’s milk it before we lose control of MW2 written all over it.