The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

Again Russ, don't fret, you made a great deal, by the way I was at Sams Club 3 days ago, I did not see anything cheaper for a 40in. set than $399, and thats not the cost of getting there nor was tax included, so you made out.

 

I will agree with lamenting the loss of 20" 16:10 monitors. A real technological step back when they discontinued those imo.

 

Currently a cartoon watcher myself. Maybe cartoons and some of the Discovery Science and History channels.

 

I'm grown up now so no cartoons but Science, History, Discovery channels are fine by me.

 

Mr-Movies,

I'm Grown up too, but I wouldn't say no to some Danger Mouse, or Pinky and the Brain! LOL!!

Best,
Russ

 

Funny...

 

I watch a fair amount of cartoons. A lot of them are really well written and creative. I'd watch more adult programming if TV wasn't mind numbingly stupid. I'll probably be watching cartoons until I'm an old man. Currently been watching The Regular Show. Riot laugh that show. 80's music references throughout.

 

The cartoons these days are pretty much mind numbing and stupid, actually really stupid!

Like Family Guy, talk about brain dead!!

 

Some episodes are bad, but others are really funny

I think it's pretty hard to screw up a children's movie. Fact of the matter is, I enjoy 99/100 of them. I'll probably watch them til I'm dead and buried.

 

Hate to say it but I watch a huge amount of anime(Japanimation) as well. Am not a major anime nut but I am certainly a small time collector. I appreciate writing and substance more than shock value and comedy. A little bit of each doesn't hurt though

Hand animation is particularly nice. Disney are the master at this but their newer films are not a good example. They heavily recycle original cels from older films.

LOL Family Guy sometimes gets braindead but most of it is really clever and funny. Some of it is supposed to be stupid, that's the joke. My dad doesn't get why it's funny either.

 

Did you see the one where they won the lottery? Peter bought a crap ton of fake tickets, and then the real ones LOL! Friggin hilarious episode!!!

Wrath of kahn, edited for sheeps!
I shall leave you, as you left her. Buried in the center of a dead planet. Buried alive! Be ah heh

 

Family Guy is an acquired taste, but by design some episodes are going to leave people scratching their heads, others roaring with laughter, there are so many hidden obscure references.

 

Especially Star Wars and 60's 70's and 80's pop culture/music references. The show actually caters to nerds more than anything, so if you like Star Wars, Tron, or old cartoons it probably has a joke or two for you. I like to think part of the stupidity is poking fun at the stupidity of others. They are not afraid to offend.

Just because we are getting a bit OT I might mention Mass Effect 3 is out, and it is amazing. Once again, I find yet another reason not to upgrade. Absolutely maxed 8xAA and locked at 60FPS. Sort've a gaming thing more than a PC thing but nice to know the PC I built isn't outdated yet. I mean here I am with a game I was at the midnight release for a few nights ago, and I'm running it maxed easily on relatively dated hardware. The textures are mercifully improved as well(ME2's only downfall) so the game is no graphical slouch. Loads of fireworks and awesome set pieces.

Just another thought...My Wii stopped playing Gamecube games this week. Hard locks whenever you insert a disc or try loading an image. It may have stopped playing games, but it can't stop match-grade .308 boat-tails. Like butter

Gamecube games in 480p was the only reason I bothered to buy a Wii, period. Now it's dead and I have received my coveted Gamecube composite cable(ultra rare woohoo) and I'm not missing the Wii at all. Good riddance. Damn thing had so many attachments and gimmicks and peripherals I was starting to get sick of it. Takes up half my room with controllers and hardware and gets about 1% of my game time... thanks for the gimmicky POS Nintendo. Why can't they make a console as fantastic as the DS WITHOUT gimmicks. I mean, touch screen at least makes sense on a mobile product, but the Wii-U? What the f***.

 

and internet memes, such as this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT5En14A5Cc

 

This is exactly what I'm talking about... LOL

 

Thanks sam, that's gonna be stuck in my head all day!

 

Getting back to computer builds.....

I just pulled the trigger on a new monitor for my mother who has the longest running monitor, and it still works flawlessly, that I've ever seen, a 18" NEC that is going on almost two decades of full time use. Not 4 years like some people, I won't mention Russ's name of course. :0 I bought her an ASUS 23.6 LED with speakers on sale for $159.99:

ASUS VE247H Black 23.6" 2ms Full HD HDMI LED

Now don't get mad Russ but I actually bought a Intel based Shuttle for a new Media Center PC as my ECS KN1 Pro is getting old and I'd like to retire it to a Linux machine before it dies. I was going to buy a quad core AM3 Shuttle but DDR2 memory is insanely priced now and it made the low end H61 Intel Shuttle cheaper, plus I don't need high performance for my Media Center PC so Intel should be fine.

Shuttle SH61R4 Intel Core i7 / i5 / i3 / Pentium / Celeron (LGA1155) Intel Socket H2(LGA1155) Intel H61 Intel HD Graphics 2000/3000

Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G620

I'm going to take the DDR3 1066 (4GB) memory out of one of my Desktop PC and use it with the Shuttle and then get 16GB's to replace the Desktops RAM, which I run VM's on.

I also bought mom a dual monitor arm for her new monitor and the ViewSonic VA1912WB she uses to view DirecTV with.

Tilt/Swivel DUAL Monitor Desk Mount Bracket (max 18 lbs per arm, 15~22inch) - Black

And I bought a new arm for myself since I gave dad one of my old arms.

High Quality Adjustable Tilting Desk Mount Bracket for LCD LED (Max 17.5Lbs, 15~22inch) - Black

I have a couple of their $21 arms but these two are much better quality.

Don't get mad Russ,
Stevo LOL

 

I doubt that Asus will manage anything like the lifetime that NEC has had. One of our clients at work has a 13 year old HP CRT in their server room, only fault with it is the power LED no longer lights up. Having dealt with consumer components for so long you forget what tier-1 commercial hardware is capable of.

 

I think you right Sam the ASUS definitely will not hold up like the NEC, if I had more cash it would be well worth getting an NEC over ASUS or most other monitors. This is a flat panel 18" not CRT but either way they make business quality monitors.

 

Stevo,

You forgot, I beat you to it! I bought an Intel P-6200 2.13GHz Acer laptop about 5 months ago for $329, $346 delivered. Got a free upgrade from a 380GB to a 500GB HDD and a DVD burner in place of the DVD-Rom/combo drive. Sweet price, Sweet Computer!

Best Regards,
Russ