Call of Duty Ghosts: DLC 2 - Devastation

With the impending release of the second Call of Duty: Ghosts DLC you are finally able to play maps from the first DLC in a rotation.  OH BOY!  We only had to way a month or so for this to become available.  Thanks, so much Activision!

The maps aren't bad.  They are the standard smallish CoD maps that you are used to.  Fog is an incredibly annoying "campsite" map.  There is a cave with a death fall and several building for the camping folk to hang out in.  You might get to hear some creepy Halloween music if you are lucky.  Containment is a decent map that gives you a large ditch full of excitement between two small parts of a town.  Lots of cover, but not a whole lot of areas for sniping, which keeps the games running pretty smoothly.  Bayview is a shopping center area with a cart that goes through the map.  The cart is somewhat of an annoyance, but not nearly as bad as the shops that walk in and greet you with a load DING.  Easily my least favorite of the new maps.  Ignition is pretty straight forward.  Some buildings to hide in and one well guarded camping area make it a camping paradise, but it isn't too bad.

The maps all resemble something you've played before in CoD or maybe another FPS on a smaller scale.  Nothing new or groundbreaking, but it adds a little flavor to the original maps.  The new DLC will hit the XBox first and will become available to other platforms later.  The new gun looks... interesting.  It is a hybrid weapon they are calling The Ripper.  You can switch between SMG and AR on the fly.  How useful this is remains to be seen, but it is kind of cool.  We won't be able to play any of these maps until closer to the next DLC most likely, so going over what is in store seems pointless.  The gun, however, will be available when the DLC comes out just like the Maverick was.

Call of Duty is incredibly generic, but the product is solid.  There are still some performance issues on the PC, but a lot of the problems have been addressed.  The way that they use their maps and game modes is incredibly dull, but it works.  People enjoy it and wish a solid product it is a lot easier to digest.  Their willingness to add co-op options into the games that are fun an interesting is also great.  The new Extinction story is actually really cool.  Sure, it seems like Left4Dead with aliens, but it isn't bad.

Obviously I will stick with this for a while.  I will update for the new maps... once they are available, that is.  I don't understand the rollout, but that isn't my job.  For now I'm going to attempt to kill people and at least be decent at it.  I really wish there were more active players and less cheaters, but nothing is perfect.  Since BF4 is a huge letdown, this is going to have to hold me over until another FPS comes along or the WoW expansion releases.

The Build Saga: Part Sixteen.

I am still waiting on pictures, sorry.

That being said, we are at completion.  We have moved past benchmarks and stability testing and are now giving it some mostly-daily abuse in real gaming.  I've been playing WoW, CoD and some D3 lately.  None of these games are really cutting edge, but it runs them like a dream.  It stands up to anything I put in its way.

The next step, now that we are all stable, is going to be overclocking.  I am going to be working out temps over the next week.  I live in a very hot and very humid state for a majority of the year.  It is the beginning of March and we hit 70 back in February, if that is any indication of how awful it is to live here.  Now that we are seeing consecutive 70+ degree days, it sucks.  The lows are dipping just barely into the 40s and it looks like it will just be getting warmer.  This means that we are going to be limited on the overlocks, due to our ambient temps.

This isn't a bad thing.  Once I get all of the extra people (my sister-in-law has lived with me for about 3 months and my father-in-law for over a year) out of my house, which I expect to happy by the end of April at the very latest, I will be moving my setup to a cooler part of the house.  I look forward to this greatly.  I will be on the first floor, instead of the second, and I will be in a room with a door, instead of in a corner where my two year-old can yank everything off my desk.  Once this happens I will probably do some further work with overclocking, I'm not going to press it too hard just yet.

For the CPU I want to get it to 4 GHz.  Going beyond is fine, but 600MHz is a pretty good increase in power.  I do not plan to try and take it to 4.6 or 4.8GHz, I am not that kind of enthusiast.  For my GPU I am looking for a 10% boost in performance.  With the new cards and the way that they basically overclock themselves... I'm not sure how this will work or if it will ultimately be all that beneficial.  It is worth a shot and I want to get as much performance as I can out of this thing.  I spent a lot of money on this rig and expect it to perform well.

I promise that pictures are coming!

Pre-purchase for Warlords of Draenor begins today.

Today Blizzard announced that you can pre-purchase Warlords of Draenor and go ahead and get your free boost to level 90 for a character.  Please notice that this is not the official pre-order notice, you are still unable to pre-order the game from various retailers.  This is pre-purchase, only.  Which is good, because unless you pay for it RIGHT NOW, you don't get that free boost. You can still purchase a boost for $60, if you'd like.  I like to have the physical copy of the game, thankfully I've got everyone to 90 that I want so far and I've got about 6 months until I will need to have the other couple of characters leveled and ready for another expansion.

They have release a relatively cheesy, but very Blizzard-like, video about this breaking news.  This is good news for people who hate to level, but really must hit cap right now.  I am hoping that this helps bring some players back to the game and since the pre-purchase is required and the game is still so far off, this is great for business.  A person who has been gone for some time will decide to come back and check the game out prior to WoD and still be on the hook to come back and play WoD.  I know quite a few people who left during Cata or WotLK and would not feel like leveling through a couple of expansions just to play... and I don't blame them.  I am quite sick of leveling, myself.

While I am not entirely excited, because I'll be pre-ordering, this is still great news.  GREAT NEWS!  This means that Blizzard has a fire under their ass to get it finished and tested and out the door.  We should see lots of testing during the summer and another September to November release date for the game.  This will give us all something to do over the Christmas break.  I look forward to moving forward again in WoW and I really hope to be able to dedicate some time to raiding in the next expansion.  Probably something super serious, but a couple of days a week for a few hours to really work on content.  Just gotta hang in there for a few... more... months.

The disappointment of Titanfall.

On first glance Titanfall looks like an incredible game.  It has the fast run-and-gun aspects that people love about Call of Duty.  It has the insane acrobatics that we all adored from Unreal Tournament games.  It has densely packed urban maps that remind of CounterStrike.  It has huge player-controlled mechs that we can use to wage war in paying homage to Mech Warrior.  The game looks like a lot of fun... until it isn't.

I really hate to be a buzzkill, but this game is not a savior for PC gaming.  I have no doubt that it may be a fun alternative, but any of the other games would be more rewarding and, probably, more fun.  This game is aimed squarely at the XBox One to show off Microsoft's next generation.  This is how they hope to bolster their early sales and build a fanbase for their console.  I sure hope it works for them, but this won't fly in the world of PC gaming.

I only got to spend a limited time playing the game, but it was long enough to become bored of it and decide that it was not worth the initial investment of $60+, nor was it worth the addition $25+ for the "get all of the DLC before you even know what it is" bundle.  I'd much rather play a free-to-play game that has an entrenched playerbase or invest in a new-ish, or upcoming, game with some promise.  After spending just a little while with it I just completely shut off my interest in the
game.

The controls will be hard to master, but easy to pick up if you've played an acrobatic FPS game before.  I played quite a bit of Unreal Tournament, so I was able to jump in and display my acrobatic skills during the tutorial.  The tutorial, by the way, is a series of "aha!" moments where you realize you are just replicating what you have done in other games.  Well, that and aimbotting at someone's face.  The overall feel of the game seems heavy and sluggish.  I know that there are speed boosts and double-jumps, but I didn't feel "agile".  At least not compared to some of the action FPS games that I've played in the past.  Once you get into the mech the feeling actually smoothed out a bit, but you still felt a little sluggish.

Once you figure out the jumping puzzles and how to use the abilities of your huge mech, you are ready to take on the battlefield!  This game would be better if it actually allowed you to kill players.  As it stands the servers and filled with bots.  There may be other human players, but you will see bots a majority of the time.  They exist to make the server feel full and to provided fodder to help you generate your Titan more quickly.  This is miserable for me because I'm missing out on THE PEOPLE.  We are losing people and replacing them with AI, AI that sucks!  These technical limitations wouldn't be so bad if you could find servers that didn't run bots, but you can't.  You see, you don't get to host servers.  There will be dedicated servers for matchmaking, but none that you can rent or purchase and then run the game off of.  You don't get to set a customer config or map rotation and have a great time representing your team, clan or website.  You get whatever group of people they decide is best for you and they toss you into a cloud server and let you battle it out... with the bots.

After spending a few days blasting away I just could not be bothered to remain interested.  I would rather play another game.  PlanetSide did something on a much larger scale with even bigger mechs almost a decade ago.  That game is still running and allows you a free trial period before you have to invest anything into it.  I would rather play just about any of those original games that have small bits that contribute to the overall concept of Titanfall.  Considering that CoD is offering GHOSTS, CounterStrike is represented by CSGO and there is a new Unreal game on the way... You will be hard-pressed to find a lot of fan support for Titanfall on the PC.  If you REALLY want to be successful on the PC, you will need to look to PC games and see what it is that they truly want.  I can tell you right now, it currently isn't this game... at least not in the shape it is in right now.

CoolerMaster CM Storm QuickFire Pro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

I almost got exhausted typing the entire name.  Wow.

I don't really do "reviews", so I am not sure where to actually start.  I am going to break it down into a couple of parts that make sense to me when talking about the keyboard and go from there.  I'll do a scale of 10 to make it easy on me.

Layout and feel  (8/10)
The keyboard has a standard layout of most 104-key keyboards these days.  The Shift key is a little awkard to get to and the Windows key doesn't have a logo, instead it says "Win".  All gaming keyboards should have a key that says WIN, especially when it will potentially tab you out of a game...  OH WAIT!  There is actually a feature that stops that, but more on that later.  Everything seems to be in the right place and it didn't take very long to adjust to this keyboard.  It took me longer to adjust from the old cheap-o Logitech keyboard to my previous Thermaltake MEKA G1.  Maybe it is the practice.


Aside from being laid out well, it has a great feel.  The keys are well spaced and raised.  The Cherry MX Brown switches are awesome.  I am used to Blacks, but these things feel great.  They keys are a little easy to jar.  I've actually knocked a couple of them off without meaning to by bumping into it a little too hard.  The Browns have a great clickiness to them and really lets you know that it is mechanical.  They say that they are supposed to be quieter, but I don't really hear it so much.  They sound great and the keys have a great feel to them, it appears the letters are lasered, and yes, it makes all the difference in the world!

I would love to see an adjustable lift in the back and the inclusion of a wrist mount.  I feel like if I buy a "Pro" model, it should have some pretty nice features... right?  I could have stepped up to an Ultimate, but it doesn't seem to have these things either.  A lot of other keyboards include things like this, it would be a nice touch.  However, none of this really changes the fact that the keyboard feels great.  It would feel much better if my hands were going numb from this angle, though....


Features (8/10)
I have only ever had one other mechanical keyboard of this caliber, so it will be hard to compare to a wide variety of them.  The features on this board aren't really noteworthy, but they sure to assist in the quality of life aspect.  That, like SSDs, I can really appreciate.

The FN-Lock key is a life saver.  This is the key that makes your WIN button not lose.  This is how you will adjust settings on the keyboard.  Everything from polling to backlight brightness, to what keys even get lit up.  The FN-Lock key really gets it done.  This key doesn't make up for the lack of macros, though.  Not that I need macros, because I don't, but they are pretty standard in the gaming keyboard world.  I stepped up from an older mechanical keyboard that didn't have them, so I haven't spoiled myself, but others may be disappointed.  How would they integrate it?  Don't ask me.  I'm not a design engineer.

The backlight leaves something to be desired.  I understood when getting it that the entire keyboard would not light up.  I was okay with that.  It highlights my most important keys... now, really.  The backlight does not show fully on all keys that it supports.  There is a logo that isn't full lit up and there are several keys that just don't full illuminate.  Then, there are keys that look perfect.  The ESC key and the arrow keys look excellent.  The FN-Lock and the Spacebar look far less attractive.


Price and availability (9/10)
This thing is a steal.  For about $80 you can get your hands on one of these and be very happy with the quality and design of the unit.  That being said, for a few bucks more you can get more out of your keyboard.  What this keyboard does, it does well for the price.

It wasn't hard to find.  I could pick it up just about anywhere.  Newegg, Amazon, Superbiiz, NCIX, even at MechanicalKeyboards.com.  There are even multiple versions of the keyboard.  You can find one with just the switches you want in it, if you look hard enough.  Thankfully I wanted to try out the Browns, which was part of the reason why I picked this one.

Great price, multiple options, available all over the place.  This is a place where this keyboard shines!


Typing and Gaming (7/10)
Time for some of the wicked honesty.  The keyboard is great, but only because it was cheap.  I wanted to give another set of caps a try and I wanted to see what this thing was all about.  Sure, I'm gonna stick with it, but I know that there are better options.  I feel it is a step up from the keyboard I had previously, even know I lose out on the headphone/mic jacks and the additional USB.

The keys feel great, but they also feel kind of small.  This isn't such a bad thing.  Like I said, I easily made the adjustment in just a few hours.  There are features on the board that almost don't make sense, especially when leaving others out.  The lack of macro keys means that this is a very limited keyboard from a gaming standpoint.  The NKRO feature seems kind of strange as a key feature of this keyboard, since it is lacking those macros.  The main feature of it is kind of defeated, but okay....  However, macros are not a big deal to me, but I have to consider the person that would be buying this.

Typing here is kind of complicated with the smallish keys.  I made the adjustment, but one of the features of that NKRO is that it will now register all of those accidents as you are missing keys.  This can be infuriating if you use a lot of different keyboards or if you are used to a larger one.  I work in front of a computer all day and then play in front of one all night.  I have been doing this for more than two decades, I might have a leg up on the average Joe.  My work keyboard is a dome that wants so bad to be a mechanical. it has a similar layout, so it makes it a little easier.

This isn't a typists dream or a gamers go-to board.  This is a keyboard that can exist in both worlds.  It does fine in gaming and feels good to type on.


Conclusion (32/40 = 8/10)
I'm glad I got it.  I am glad that I took this jump.  I may find that 8 months from now that I am in love, but my initial reaction is of happiness... and a little disappointment.  This thing matched my computer "theme" of black, red and white.  It fits in way better than an obnoxious green Razer would.  That doesn't mean that it is a better product, though.

The product is fine, don't get me wrong, but it could be better.  I would be willing to pay more for something with a few more features.  Make the keys larger, add macros, included a wrist rest and give us some adjustable heights and this thing is worth $150 to me.  The weird lighting is fine, as long as it works and feels good, but if you wanted to illuminate them ALL and just give me red highlights for the "gaming" keys, that would look amazing.  Pay attention CoolerMaster, I'm a big fan and I'm trying to get you millions. =P

Overall, I'd recommend the keyboard.  I would be sure to mention some of the limitations, though.  It's a nice keyboard and I look forward to making other folks smash their own keyboards into bits with it.

The Build Saga: Part Fifteen.

We are officially on the home stretch. The PC is assembled. All major parts and pieces are inside. I will have picture very soon. The case still needs a little lovin' and I'd like to put in my non-crucial media player before I snap pics. I've also got another fan to install. Turns out that the sweet 230mm fan that people were raving over and swearing fit into this case... does not. I have a $20 huge white fan that I have no use for. Who the fuck is going to need a 230mm white case fan? FUCK! I ordered another 200mm, same as what I got to go with the one that was already in the case. It will mount just fine, just so long as it has clearance with the video card. The video card looks like it MIGHT cause me some trouble, but we'll have to see.

 My shopping list is pretty small now. Picking up some Noctuas to replace the fans in the case. Grabbing a Blu Ray player because I fucking want one. Getting the 200mm NZXT case fan just so that I've got something on the side. After that we are done. Complete!

 I've got a couple of monitors and a mount ordered. I decided to go with the ASUS VS239H-P monitor, twice over. 23 inches, matte-like screen, VESA compatible, black on the bezel, IPS and competitively priced. The mount seems pretty standard. It's made by Tyke. It has some pretty good reviews, is not insanely expensively and looks easy to use. I actually watched some YouTube videos about the mount, because I wanted to see what I was in for. It looks pretty good. I'm excited to get the monitors and get them attached. Again, pictures are coming soon. I will have complete pics of the PC, as well as some shots of my desk and my monitors.

 Since I've got everything together, I figured that I would run some benchmarks. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but without overclocking I can say that I am very pleased compared to my old rig.

Used the defaults for 3DMark, not sure if I can even use anything else.  In the top 25% seems pretty good.

Heaven kind of hurt my feelings.  I was expecting to be closer to the 60 FPS mark.  I'll take it, though.  Maybe with some overclocking I can hit that mark.  I ran this test at Ultra Quality, Extreme Tesselation, 1920x1080 fullscreen at 8xAA.  It was unforgiving.

I've never run Valley before.  My first experience wasn't so bad.  I thought the benchmark itself was gorgeous.  Even though I tried to ignore it, all of the colors and outdoor landscape sucked me in.  I maxed out the settings here, too.  1920x1080 fullscreen with 8xAA with Extreme HD Preset.  I pushed it pretty hard.

The Build Saga: Part Fourteen

Oh video card, where art thou?! I've got my new PC pieced together. I've got Windows on the SSD. I've started installing certain games to the other SSD. I've got Steam setup. I just need one... final... piece. The video card. I ordered it quite a while ago. It packed up and was out the door quickly, but then got stalled. After sitting for almost two weeks (8 business days) I decided to shoot an email out and see what the hold up was. Well, turns out they gave me a shitty tracking number. Not that it wasn't sitting there, but it was one of those hand-off deals and one of the carriers just hadn't updated correctly. It was still sitting in the same shithole, just with incorrect info. That info made the tracking looking scarier than it needed to. It was corrected and has now, amazingly, nearly landed at my door. I really look forward to getting this beast in. I plan to go and check out monitors OR do some interweb shopping for them here very soon. Woo! I am going to have to buy a new keyboard. It is official. My Thermaltake MEKA G1 is dead. I thought I had already killed it, but I fired it up and it worked to my shock and surprise. I got a few more months out of it, but I am now on a garbaged-out, beaten and used Logitech domed key keyboard. =X I want to make a switch to Browns, I think. I really liked black, but having to bang on my keyboard to get something out of it kind of sucked. I haven't looked at Thermaltake's latest offering, but I think I am going to look around this time. That worst part? I was just telling someone at work how fucking awesome the MEKA G1 was. It was the best keyboard I've ever had, for sure. I've got a couple of fans and a media drive to pick up, but nothing major. I should have the majority of the rig setup very soon. I should have my "battlestation" updated with new monitors and a proper keyboard in the near future. It's hard to motivate yourself to spend 100+ dollars on a keyboard when you are gonna get MAYBE 8 hours a week to even use it. I'll wait until I've got some days off before I go down that road. I can't wait to get my new monitors and get them setup. I will be handing my old monitor over to my wife. She has an old school 17 inch CRT display that will land in a closet or a dumpster. She will probably be happy with this nice, big 23 inch Samsung beast that I've got now. I really wanna setup my desk with a multi-monitor mount and do this right! Pretty stoked about it.

The Build Saga: Part Thirteen

The video card has been ordered.

PCPartPicker part list

To be ordered
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm  Fan
Case Fan: 3 x Noctua NF-S12A FLX 120mm  Fan
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm  Fan
Optical Drive: Asus Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer
Monitor: 2 xAcer H236HLbid 60Hz 23.0" Monitor  ($149.99 @ NCIX US)

Ordered
Logitech G500 Laser Mouse
Thermaltake Meka G1 Keyboard
Windows 8 Professional (64-bit)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Gelid GC-Extreme
ASRock Z87 Fatal1ty Killer Motherboard
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
Corsair H100i Liquid CPU Cooler
Kingston Blu Red 2x8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
NZXT Phantom Enthusiast (White/Red) ATX Case
NZXT FS-200RB Red LED Case Fan
Antec HCG-750M 750W Semi-modular Power Supply
BitFenix Spectre Pro 230mm Fan
Intel Core i5-4670K Processor
ASUS DirectCUII nVidia GeForce GTX 780

We are getting very close to the end.  I am still debating about the monitors, but this is my choice as of right now.  I am still trying to decide if I want one larger (27 inch) monitor or two smaller (23 - 24 inch) monitors.  Either way I will probably pick up a new display and give my wife my old one.  She will be excited, I hope.  She just inherited my Phenom II 955BE with 8 gigs of RAM and a Radeon HD6870.  I will probably need to get her a new drive.  Her drive is 160GB and very loud and very old.  I think a 250GB SSD may be in her future...

I am very excited to get to the end of this process.  I have assembled most of my parts, but I have yet to really take an enthusiast approach with it.  I have not setup my SSDs to be optimized.  I have no fooled with Corsair LINK.  I have no overclocked or adjust anything (other than my RAM which was surprisingly easy).  I look forward to next month when I will get the chance to take a break and really fool with all of my new toys.  It will also be just in time to give my wife a special birthday and HOPEFULLY get into a shift that allows me to see my family.  As much as I love my new PC, I'd love to spend some time with my family, too.

I am really thankful that my brother came over and hung out with me while I put all of this stuff together and helped out A LOT.  I get a little anxious about things like this when I build for myself.  I mean REAL anxiety, here.  He will be bringing by a nice camera to take some pictures soon, once we get it all finished.  We wanted to get some build video, but did not.  We might still take some, but it won't be progressive.  I also ordered some case badges for about 6 bucks to fix in the color scheme that will really put the finishing touches on it, I hope to get a chance to show those off on this new rig, too.

The Build Saga: Part Twelve

I know that it has been a while.  I disappeared while the majority of my packages shipped.

Almost everything has arrived.  The Blu Ray player, some replacement fans, a video card and some monitors (if I choose to get them) are all that is left.  The Blu Ray player will probably be the cheapest one I can find, since I will use it sparingly.  The replacement fans will all be Noctua.  I am getting the ASUS DirectCUII GTX 780.  I have looked at a few different monitors, but it looks like I will either be picking up a couple of Acer 23" monitors (H236HL BID), a couple of ASUS 23" monitors (VS239H-P), or a nice 27" monitor (
ASUS VE278H or maybe an IPS/PLS).  

My brother and I got together and put the PC together.  We didn't get any pics of the build, because we forgot the camera.  We had to rush to get it put together.  We got a late start and then had to finish up early.  Being responsible isn't always fun and doesn't always support your hobbies.  A dad's work is never done.  We will snap a few pics once the entire process is complete.

The board is in, but no major cable management has been attempted.  The H100i is in and mounted and seems to be working fine.  I haven't had a chance to punish it or overclock it, yet.  The RAM worked almost perfectly.  It showed up as CAS9 1333, but switched easily to the XMP profile of CAS10 1600.  The SSD drives are silent and very fast.  It is quite an enjoyable experience.  I am using the onboard video, but haven't done much more than setup Windows and browse, honestly.  I am still a little paranoid about the SSD.  I've felt a couple of stutters or pauses as I go to open a program and I can't tell if it's a hard drive thing or a CPU thing or if I am just imagining it.  I was kind of expecting instant access. =P

The video card should be here by NEXT weekend, so that is a bummer.  Won't have much more to provide, other than maybe some pictures, until then.

The Build Saga: Part Eleven

We are now official in the double-digits.  Wow.

This is where we currently are:

2 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm  Fan (~$50)
3 x Noctua NF-S12A FLX 120mm  Fan (~$65)
Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm  Fan (~$23)
Asus Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (~$60)
Samsung SyncMaster 2333SW 23" Monitor (Purchased)
Logitech G500 Laser Mouse (Purchased)
Thermaltake Meka G1 Keyboard (Purchased)
Windows 8 Professional (64-bit) (Purchased)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (Purchased)
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB (Purchased)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium (Purchased)
Gelid GC-Extreme (Purchased)
ASRock Z87 Fatal1ty Killer Motherboard (Purchased)
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD (Purchased)
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD (Purchased)
Corsair H100i Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased)
Kingston Blu Red 2x8GB DDR3 1600 RAM (Purchased)
NZXT Phantom Enthusiast (White/Red) ATX Case (Purchased)
NZXT FS-200RB Red LED Case Fan (Purchased)
Antec HCG-750M 750W Semi-modular Power Supply (Purchased)
BitFenix Spectre Pro 230mm Fan (Purchased)
Intel Core i5-4670K Processor (Purchased)

We are waiting for packages to arrive.  All I have left are replacement case fans, a Blu Ray drive and some cables if we need them for hooking this all up.  Oh, yeah... I'm still missing a VIDEO CARD!

The AMD cards are still impossible to come by for any kind of reasonable price.  the 30-60% mark up still exists for everything that is available.  I am still mulling over my choice for a GTX 770 or GTX 780.  I've had some of my parts for almost a month now.  I am itching to get it all put together.  I know that I can use my HD 6870 until I get a card, but I know that I'll yearn for a card the whole time.  Most of my games will perform the same, since I'll be reusing the card.  The SSD and better CPU should help a little.

I have enlisted the help of my brother to take some photos and videos of the build process.  I want to document it so that I can put it up.  I'll post a link to a gallery here.  Put it on imgur.  Get it up on Reddit.  And... put it up on the website that I am going to work on this year.  With my brother and a couple of friends I plan to tackle a bit of webpwning.  I've registered a domain, got hosting, got some people on board and I am wanting to unveil my PC build there.  Woo!

I can't wait to wrap this project up and get down to some gaming!

The Build Saga: Part Ten

Phase One complete?

I've received the motherboard, CPU, RAM and SSDs.    I've knocked out some of the key components.  I have plenty of other parts and pieces to collect.  I've gone over my future choices over and over again and I think I want to make some changes.  The more I consider the changes, the more I wonder why I want to make them.  There is a reason why so many builds are so similar, because it just works.  A lot of people have the same component list because those are the ones that are the best and they know they are reliable.

Next on the list is the case, PSU, another stick of RAM and a CPU cooler.  The NZXT Phantom in White with black and red accents should look great!  I'll be picking up an NZXT HALE82 700w PSU, too.  I've never used or owned an NZXT case or PSU.  I am hoping that they are both satisfactory.  Both products seem to have overall positive reviews and no glaring defects that drive me away from them.  I am hoping these unique products and their design can shake up my boring black and blue LED'd monolithic case theme that I've had for nearly a decade.  I need to grab another stick of RAM, because I'm a big, dumb idiot.

The cooler is something that I am still very concerned about.  I've never done water cooling.  I've always wanted to, but never had the patience or money.  Over the last 5 or so years a lot has changed and AIO CLCs (all-in-one closed-loop cooler) have become very popular.  They are also rather easy.  I am quite smitten with one in particular, the Corsair H100i.  I hear the Link software blows and people constantly say that the gargantuan air coolers are better.  I don't really want a huge slab of metal hanging off of my motherboard anymore, I'd like to try something different.

I'm really trying to move outside of my comfort zone here.  I'm proud of my component list, but I've been at this so long I feel like I need to really give new stuff a try.  I'm trying new things and new brands.  I'm hoping the experience is good...

Memory: Kingston Blu Red Series 8GB DDR3-1600
Case: NZXT Phantom (White/Red) ATX Full Tower Case
Thermal Compound: Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme
Power Supply: NZXT HALE82 700W Fully-Modular Power Supply
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i Liquid CPU Cooler
Total: ~ $550

Once we are done with that, I will need to pick up case fans, a Blu-Ray reader, and... a video card.  Hopefully we have more choices for video cards by the time we get around to that!  I have ranked my video cards as follows ASUS > MSI > Gigabyte > EVGA/XFX, this is for both AMD and nVidia.  The ASUS cooling solution is very good.  The quality and craftsmanship of the MSI cards (Twin Frozr) are excellent.  Gigabyte's Windforce is very good, but can get pretty loud, too.  EVGA and XFX have warranties that prove that they stand behind their products... and if they don't you can at least get another one with relative ease.

Case Fan: BitFenix Spectre Pro 230mm  Fan
Case Fan: NZXT FS-200RB-RLED 200mm  Fan
Case Fan: 2 x Noctua NF-S12A FLX 120mm  Fan
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm  Fan
Optical Drive: Asus Blu-Ray Reader/DVD/CD Writer
Total: ~ $175

Video Card: UNKNOWN!
Total: ~ $325 - $550

The Build Saga: Part Nine

With orders placed and other getting ready to be placed, I feel like I can finally now down what this build will contain.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer
Memory: 2 x Kingston Blu Red Series 8GB
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" SSD
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" SSD
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Case: NZXT Phantom (White/Red) ATX Full Tower Case
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A FLX 120mm  Fan
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A FLX 120mm  Fan
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 FLX 68.0 CFM 140mm  Fan
Power Supply: NZXT HALE82 700W Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 Professional (64-bit)
Keyboard: Thermaltake eSPORTS Meka G1 Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech G500 Wired Laser Mouse
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 2333SW

I did some looking and I decided on this case.  The NZXT Phantom.  It has some very nice features and THIS one looks amazing.  I may have to do some modifying to get a 200/230mm fan in the side, but I'm okay with that.  It has a built-in fan controller and plenty of space.  It is easier to find than the Azza 9000, too.  Both cases are great.  I'm trying to break out and try some different things.  I've been doing black cases with windows and blue lights for a pretty long time now.  I need a change.

I'm going to throw in some Noctua fans to make everything flow the right way.  I might even toss a couple on my heatsink eventually.  I'm not a huge fan of Kingston, but I'll give their RAM a shot since I wasn't able to cancel more order and I'm getting some anyway.  LAWLZ.

I've been looking into some case badges, because I'd like to keep with the theme here.  Hoping to find some correctly color coded badges for the case.  I'm totally getting a Jumpman (Jordan) logo for this beast, too.  CPU showed up today, the motherboard, RAM and CPU cooler should be here by the end of the week to meet and greet with the hard drives.  I am excite.

The Build Saga: Part Eight

For real?

The guy who had the deal on a computer and monitor sold it.  Well, he traded it for a PS4.  Good for him.  That just means that I've actually got to put something together myself and quit being such a lazy bastard.  Apparently he got a PS4 with BF4 AND 400 bucks.  That's a hell of a deal for him.

I started ordering my parts as soon as I confirmed this happened.  I ordered the 4670K.  It is now confirmed as my build CPU.  I ordered the ASRock Z87 Fatal1ty Killer motherboard.  I also ordered, like an idiot, the wrong RAM.  I wanted to order Mushkin Stealth, but it was out of stock... because when I want something it is always out of stock.  I scrolled down and selected one of the similar products, checked the specs and added to the order.  Once I ordered I was inspecting the form and realized that I ordered only ONE stick of RAM.  So, I ordered ONE stick of DDR3 1600 Kingston HyperX Red RAM.  At least it is 8GB.  I was trying to save a little cash up front and was going to go with a 2x4GB package.  My second choice was the G.Skill Aegis RAM, which I will still try to get if I am able to cancel this order.

I've changed up some of my preferences based on some issues I've run into.  I've left out parts that I haven't decided on or are not in stock.  My ASUS 780 Direct CU II I wanted?  Yeah, it's outta stock.  The CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO is even out of stock.  WOW!  Le sigh.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer
Memory: G.Skill AEGIS 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Case: NZXT Phantom (White/Red) ATX Full Tower Case
Case Fan: BitFenix Spectre Pro 156.3 CFM 230mm  Fan
Case Fan: BitFenix Spectre Pro 148.7 CFM 200mm  Fan
Case Fan: NZXT FX-140LB 98.3 CFM 140mm  Fan
Power Supply: NZXT HALE82 700W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer
Other: NZXT Hue

I've already got the SSD drives and ordered some other essentials.  I look forward to getting started with these for now.  I hope to continue fleshing it out slowly.  I plan to pick up the Case, cooler and PSU next.  Then again, I'm sure something will change again. =P

The Build Saga: Part Seven

Money woes.

I think that as a human being that if you SEE money that you want to SPEND money.  You see there is a little extra and you think "Oh, this 8 dollars isn't that big of a deal", then after 12 of those "no big deals" later, you end up down 100 bucks and wondering where it all went.  That has been the state of my PC building fund.  I didn't want to evacuate the money from my account, but just seeing it caused us to spend a little more than I'd like of it.  Cutting out some of the massive OT I was working will result in a smaller check than I anticipated and may result in me having to push back the building of the rig.  My original plan was to buy in stages, but this has gone horribly wrong.

Thankfully my next check will include a topped-out bonus from work, so it shouldn't hurt too bad.  This is just another setback.  The motherboard is still out of stock and so are the video cards.  No one seems to know when they will be coming back.  A lot of "we think it will be..." and "maybe around...." is all I can seem to find.  It's kind of sad.  I was ready to get this started, but was unable to spend the money... and now a portion of it is gone.  Don't get me wrong I made sure that all of my bills got paid and my son and wife got gifts for his (and my) birthday.

The guy with the 900 dollar system may have it sold, but I won't know until someone shows up to check it out over the weekend.  I know I won't be able to pull off a whole system and I was really hoping to have it knocked out by the end of January.  Hopefully they don't drag their feet too much and I can file my taxes for my wife and I get whatever shitty return I can back from the government.

I am not faced with a couple of options...

1. Buy some of it now
Before I manage to squander more money I can buy some of it now.  I know for sure that my budget currently includes enough to pick up a CPU, motherboard, heatsink and fan and RAM.  I can pick up the "essentials" right now.  I can put it together, make sure it works and all that jazz.  I already have a solid PSU and I know my current case would easily support any board and cooling solution that I choose.

2. Buy a nice nVidia card
The AMD cards are sold out.  They are incredibly popular among the mining community and I am not sure when they will be back.  I've seen some reports that suggest they are basically bought out through most outlets for a while, due to the insane popularity and willingness of people to throw money at distributors.  I do not know how long it will take to get a new card, but I'd like one before Spring.  nVidia has dropped their price and have some very attractive cards.  I am considering the ASUS Direct CU II GTX 780.  Supposedly lower heat and noise, along with great performance.  I don't know how much longer I would want to play with an HD6870.

3. Save for a rainy day
Save up my funds.  Maybe that dude won't sell his 900 dollar rig.  Maybe I can save up some money and throw it at him at the end of the month for a sweet new rig.  Maybe I can suck it up and dump a fuckload more OT in and just replenish my stacks and burn them on a killer system.

Ultimately, I don't know what to do.  I don't have the time right now to game properly, but in the near future I will.  I look forward to having a great time and doing it on a sick new PC.  I worked hard and I deserve it, dammit!  Hopefully something will break my way and it will turn out alright.

The Build Saga: Part Six

Why?!

It's been two weeks since I started this process.  I was hoping to have parts in.  I was hoping to be building now.  I was hoping that everything would go well.  Well, it hasn't.

So far I've managed to get.... SSDs.  Granted SSDs are the only thing missing from my rig right now.  I could technically grab a better video card and rock the shit out of it, but that isn't what I want!

The motherboard I want is still out of stock.  The CPU has come back down in price, but I really wish I would have been able to get that 4770K for 115 bucks!  The AMD cards are still out of stock with no end to that plight in sight.  I put together a build with a 780 and the price difference between it and the 280X makes me kind of sad.  The case that I want showed up and had to be sent back due to an issue with the tray that holds the motherboard.  I'm glad I noticed before putting a fucking motherboard in it.  Thankfully I hadn't ordered the fans yet.

I have discussed with my brother the idea of picking up the 900 dollar pre-built system that is a couple generations behind, but less than a year old.  It'd save me some coin and provide me with a better gaming experience right now.  I'm getting burnt out on the process already.  LOL.

I did use this anxious energy to take my current PC out to my garage and give it a good blow.  I blew out some dust and grime that has been bothering me for a bit.  It was probably overdue for a cleaning, but after about two or three months of constant overtime and never seeing the PC it was awful.  The clear side fine is now clear.  It is also now very fucking loud, I probably didn't notice with all the shit it had caked to it.  I changed out the Blade Master 120 that was going out on my Hyper 212 with a new one while I was in there.  Pulled the video card and PSU and gave it a pretty good cleaning.  I did miss one fan, but I think I'll let that slide for now (I've got 6 120mm fans in my case, not including the one on my Hyper 212).

I'm wondering when I'll actually get this thing put together or if I'll end up putting it off until after taxes...

The Build Saga: Part Five

The Offer.

Someone at work has been trying to sell his "custom gaming system".  I asked him about it when I first started building a new PC.  He wants 900 bucks for it and I laughed it off at the time, but my recent luck with out of stock or non-shipping parts has began to bother me.  The build is less than a year old and according to him has no current issues.  The CPU has even been overclocked.  The guy is pretty knowledgeable and I take his word for it, mostly.  I'd still like to see it in action.

Specs are as follows:

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost)
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
SAPPHIRE 100351SR Radeon HD 7970
OCZ Vector Series VTR1-25SAT3-256GB
Western Digital Black Drive 500GB
NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK ATX Full Tower Computer Case
CORSAIR HX series HX650 650W 
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 
SONY Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive 
ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms Full HD Widescreen LCD Monitor 
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
Logitech G700 Mouse
Logitech G15 Keyboard

It's a 2500K.  It's two generations behind, but still performs well in almost all circumstances that I'd use it for.  I lose out on a die-shrink, some memory tweaks and a whole lot of useless on-board GPU work.  I'm sure I would be sacrificing some performance, but I'd be getting a full system that already works AND it comes with a monitor, decent mouse, legit Windows key and a G15 (which might be a steal depending on which one is included).

I am really considering this for two reasons.  One, I think I might be able to talk him down 100 bucks.  Two because I could literally have the PC delivered to me at work and take it home and play on it THAT DAY.

Patience is a virtue, I never said I was virtuous.