All Posts by CleffyII

It should get a better by November.  This Thursday they are adding a fourth race, Guild Wars, more content, a months worth of bug fixes, and helm graphics.  In November they are adding in more instances.  One thing that hasn't been mentioned much is the quality of the instances in this game.  Its definetly a step up from most mmos aside from the 1st instance.  Also the expediancy of the localization being 1~3 weeks behind depending on size.

Yes it will run on the games you specified.  They were made to run on nVidia 6xxx series cards or older so they should be fine.  Also ATI has the better low-end video cards, they are the only ones who actually continue making them better.

1. Quad processors are more for bragging rights.  Most games run on only 1 processor, and a few are just now running on 2.  However, since the XBox360 is using a triple core processor we may be seeing games ported from it to run on triple core as well.  Still right now for gaming your better off with a dual core mainly because of the issue of price.

2. Cache is really what makes Intel Processors perform better then AMD processors.  They take less cycles to process something.  FSB is important on Intel machines since they do not benefit from Hypertransport.  It determines the bandwidth your processor can achieve.

3. Dual video cards for the most part are bad.  They consume a large amount of memory and there is a large percentage of games that do not support dual GPUs.  In alot of cases where Dual GPUs are not supported, you take a performance hit and gameplay anomolies such as in the many Korean MMOs.  Also Dual GPU will only have a noticable benefit in 1 game if you are using a good video card, Crysis.  This is with a 30" monitor at Native Resolution.

4. If you can work with it, Vista 64-bit is the better way to go at this point.  There are alot of benefits to DX10, and you can do alot of cutting to the Vista OS to make it perform as well as an XP OS.  Also the Vista OS has been released for nearly 2 years so driver issues aren't much of an issue anymore.

5. HDD Speed and cache can be a bottle-neck, but it can be corrected with enough ram.  You feel the effects of this when you are loading but rarely if ever on actual gameplay.

6. Its not really hefty like an Intel doing the work of 2 AMD processors.  Its more around 10%~20%.  Although I am sure people here will give wilder numbers of differentiation.  The thing about AMD right now is that thier Dual Cores are simply not worth it.  Always opt for the Quad or Tri core.  With Intel though, going with thier Dual Core is plausible.

Get a full-tower with good airflow.  Its much easier to build and setup.  It also keeps your PC cooler and is good for bragging rights.  Like my Tower can probably get shot and the internal components would still be fine.

DX10 hasn't been successful due to poor transition to Windows Vista.  DX10 without a doubt is a better API then DX9.0c.  The thing is right now if you want PC gamers you have to use DX9.0c since there isn't really a market for DX10 exclusive.  If you make your game DX10 exclusive it will be capable of graphics rendering not seen on any platform before for gaming, and perform relatively well.  So I think we will see a DX10 exclusive game before we see DX11 take effect.  Although albiet 1 or 2 games will have a DX11 version when MS ships it.

I like the way Thermaltake has evolved over the years.  I am also using a Xaser III, but have been keeping up with what they are doing.  The Xaser VI, and Armor+(Full Tower) are simply a cut above the rest when it comes to laying it out.  They also provide good airflow and setting up a few things are easier.  Not to mention very stylish looking.

I'm gonna wait 6 months before giving this game a shot.  It has that recipe for a failure launch.

ASUS has a USB port thats just a PCI-e x16 express port.  With it you can install a higher end graphics card.  However, you are limited to USB2.0 Bandwidth which defeats the purpose of using it.  With USB3.0 the bandwidth will be enough.

It really depends on what you are familiar with.  As was mentioned above you have more people who don't know how to work with computers doing sound editing.  So they end up recommending Macs.  In reality the software/hardware is there to work on a PC.  There is actually alot better quality hardware for this on the PC.  There is also a fairly large following of people manipulating sound on the PC.  Particularly in games.

yes they will all give him a performance boost.  However, I would nix the 8500GT.  nVidia hasn't made a good mid-range card in some time.  Its good to note that WoW is far less graphically intensive as it is memory intensive.  Getting more Ram will probably have a greater impact then a new video card.

The best one in that range is the AMD HD4850.  It runs around $175 and outperforms all other cards under $250.

That won't happen unless we have a revolution, and thats unlikely unless we suffer severe economic hardship far worse then what we are having right now.

Personally, I love the idea of increasing State powers and severely cutting federal powers.  There is a beauty in it that our founding fathers understood but many people forget.  We are not all the same and usually people of a region have a similiar demeanor.  If you don't like how your state is run you can up and move to a different state with far less cost and hastle then switching countries.

Also what affects our lives the most are state legislation not federal ones.  I would rather the majority of my taxes goes to the state instead.

Ohh forgot an important question.  Is it a slim-case?  The Inspiron has 1 slim-case in its lineup.  If so you are really screwed on video card.

I cannot ethically recommend best buy.  You are paying $90 for a $30 graphics card thats over a year old, particularly the HD2400.  Its an entry level card for its generation and will have trouble supporting even medium range 3D.  If you order from Newegg and Dell at the same time, you will get the graphics card before the Dell Machine arrives.  In this situation I don't think you should sacrafice quality for convinience since the quality difference is so huge.

If you want to know a store to shop at instead of ordering online, you might wanna try Fry's Electronics or CompUSA since you will get a better quality video card for the money.  Here is a small list of where video cards rank and what you should be looking for from top to bottom.  I don't recommend buying a video card off this list if you want a "good" video card.  Also you will most likely need a new power supply since the one on the Inspiron won't be able to power any card better then what is listed as choices.

1. AMD HD4870x2 ~$525
2. nVidia GTX 280 ~$475
3. AMD HD4870 ~$275
4. nVidia GTX 260 ~$325
5. AMD HD4850 ~$175
6. nVidia 9800 GTX+ ~$200
7. nVidia 9800 GTX ~$175
8. nVidia 8800 Ultra /GTX /GT ~$150
9. AMD HD3870 ~$100
10. nVidia 9600 GT ~$100
11. AMD HD3850  ~$75

I like AMD, but the HD3870 only performs marginally better then the 9600GT. 

Intel Chipsets perform slightly better on AMD video cards.  Also AMD video cards are the best value right now.

Actually you are in luck due to the rescent price wars between GPU manufacturers and the heated competition.  Yes a dell HD2400 is crap, also chances are the  Power Supply won't be sufficient to support a good video card.  Make sure in the pre-select you choose a power supply with atleast 500w of power.

If you want a descent videocard under $100 you won't find it at best buy unless they are having a clearance sale on good video card.  Unfortunetly they don't.  So I dug around at Newegg for the best one for under $100.  Here are some suggestions.  Also these are Open Box items, so you will have to download the drivers from nVidia or ATI which is what you want to do anyway.

Open Box MSI 9600GT OC $87.62

Open Box Sapphire HD3870 $86.27

After more reading.  Dell is shit.  You should pick a better manufacturer if you don't know how to build yourself.  You should pick one that atleast lets you pick your power supply since for a video card it will be important.  Like getting one of the premades off newegg or tigersdirect.com

HP Desktop a6120n, thats all I need to know.

It does have a PCI-e x16 slot, so it can support the latest graphics cards.  It also has 3 more card slots.

Installing one of these cards is actually incredibly simple and there is a section in your manual that explains it.

One thing I am excited about is that they can continue bug-fixing.  They are only a week behind the Korean Servers on small fixes, so when a big update comes they have to delay the small fixes until after the big update is on the server since those small fixes might cause bugs without the update.  I am also excited to finally have some upper tier content.  Now I can hit the level cap. 

Also its cool that the helms appear.  Usually helms in mmos look hideous, but so far the helms look pretty cool and stylish in Requiem.  Its more like a fashion statement then functionality.  Also they are much more creative with thier helms instead of replicating something from the middle ages.

Wah Wah Tunnels.  Sweet haven't seen that in a city builder for some time.  I am getting this despite it being a mmo.  I hated the lack of terrain editing tools in SimCity Societies.  It was more like decorate this tile then an actual SimCity game.  Also the terrain generator looks pretty good.  Hopefully, you are upstream or on the coast so no one can cut-off your sea trade network with dames.

I also have unfavorable opinion of Monte Cristo, but its hard to drop support on a project when its an mmo.  If they can add modules like I don't know... a racing simulation, it would put this game over the top.

We have had a shift in weather patterns these last few years so its all possible they are coming out earlier then normal as a result.