The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

Mass Effect 3 is great gameplay wise but story wise is very flawed...several parts don't make any sense. your also forced to get your ass handed to you on the last mission...didn't like that at all.

 

ASUS VE247H Black 23.6" 2ms Full HD HDMI LED

I got this exact same monitor almost a year and a half ago, absolutly love it.

 

No I remembered and was trying to be facetious, as I'm not real impressed with so called Intel and thought you were not to. I truly don't see the great performance and had wished I got a A6 quad or even an A8. However even though you pay more for less with Intel, due to DDR2 memory being so expensive and I couldn't find a Shuttle that supports AM3+, it forced me to go with Intel as the price was cheaper but I only got a dual core instead of a quad. So like I said performance wasn't important for my Media PC so there it is.

I'm thinking I will too. I've always had good luck with ASUS and in the past their displays were fantastic so I took the gamble.

Glad to here you like yours! Thanks Fred,
Stevo

 

I got my mom an Asus LCD monitor a while back. It's picture is probably as good or better than the samsung I used to have. Although I worry about the back light going one day. The way it flickers when coming on, so early in it's life. Good picture though. I don't regret it. It was cheap after all. I definitely prefer IPS panels now

 

My Sammy that I just revived has a very good display, A IPS might be better but the Sammy is close and much cheaper. Unfortunately they used cheap caps like so many do these days but for $10 it works like new and I used Panisonic-ECG EEU-FR's except were EEU-EB's were better.

Your flicker could be due to the same problem or possibly an issue on the inverter board, caps or the transformers. If it is caps it could be fixed easily and cheaply.

I hope my ASUS doesn't flicker at startup, Fred does yours suffer from flickering?

 

No sir, not one bit, Russ recommended this bad boy for me back when, I have had several friends fall in love with it also, 3 of them also got one, so far all 3 have no complains just praise, I know there are several models simular to this one, but glad to see this one still available, great monitor at a great price I know your Mom will love it, plus the fact I didn't have to adjust anything, right out of the box just the way I liked it.

 

Good to know and thank you very much for your valued feedback it truly helps. It was my moms birthday on the 5th so I'm late but this will make up for that, at least I hope so, she doesn't know it's coming so I'll set it up for her when she is not at home and surprise her.

Thanks Fred and Best Regards,
Stevo

 

Stevo,

No flicker with mine either. I've heard of CFL's flickering when it's cold, but I've never heard of the LED Back-light's doing it. Mine is 21.5". The 23.6 is just too big for my desktop. I used a 24" High dollar NEC for about a month, and the size overwhelmed me. Then again, so did the price. I want to fix the Sceptre, as it's such a great picture. I can get the parts easy enough, but I no longer have the ability to do the work, let alone take it apart. I do miss playing the piano and organ though!

BTW! This is the Asus Monitor I have.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236099

Best Regards,
Russ

 

That's really not big enough Russ LOL!

Here's what I got my mother.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236052
Looks like the price hasn't changed. It's going for exactly what I paid over 2 yrs ago.

 

You are right CCFL's would be more likely to flicker then LED's, I wounder if it is that nasty ceiling fan again? I have a feeling the blades on the ceiling fan are causing the light in Kevin's room to strobe slightly, with Kevin getting use to the flicker shortly after his system boots up.

I looked at that monitor and it was in the running even though I picked the other one.

If I was in the neighborhood, Death Valley, I'd fix them for you but money is tight and I doubt I'll be getting out your way for some time.

I'll bet you miss playing what a bumber.....

Regard good buddy,
Stevo

 

LOL! The ceiling fan was/is at my brothers I'm always gonna be reminded of that, aren't I?

 

Yup, it may still have effect at your dwelling even from your brothers house, those damn ceiling fans!... LOL

Getting ready for March Madness, those of you on the other side of the pound my not understand but this is a big month for sports in the US.

 

Oman7,

The problem with the size is my eyes and glasses. I wear Bi-Focals It either had to be about a foot and a half, 2 feet away, or about 4 feet. At 1 1/2 feet with a 24" is overwhelming, and 4" is hard to read anything, plus it takes up too much of my desktop. I'm more than satisfied with a 21.5" though. I would love to see a DSL monitor, because you wouldn't have any scaling problems. At best, LCD 1080p monitors do a fair job at best with smaller screen sizes. That's where the Sceptre has it all over the Asus. You watch an old movie like the 1956 "The King and I" on the Sceptre and the colors are Lush. Not so good with the 1080p NEC. Even with the $900+ NEC, the Sceptre looked far better with older DVDs, of which I have hundreds.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

High-end PC monitors are designed for colour accuracy, not for video work. For this reason they're very washed out and bland for playing back films and TV. The higher up you go, the worse it will get technically, since the displays will be further optimised to display content correctly, a little like using monitor speakers to play bassy music - you hear all the nuances of the audio, but that's missing the point somewhat

 

Well put!

 

Stevo,

I would be more than happy to ship it to you. I even have the original box it came in. I have the utmost respect for your electronic capabilities, as we've both been at it for a long time. Send me your addy in a PM and I'll UPS it to you.

Warmest regards,
Russ

 

Dude it was a trilogy for a reason. You have to play and beat both the other games for the story to make sense. It's kinda like watching Return of the Jedi without watching Empire Strikes Back first and knowing why Han is encased in carbonite. I'll bet all the confusing things would make sense if you were loading a save started with Mass Effect 1. I have played a lot of it already and it's definitely made to tie-in to the other games. The story is fantastic.

Also Sam, for what it's worth my ASUS monitor has been working just fine with heavy usage for over a year now. Works perfectly and very nice image quality.

 

I'm a Mass Effect junkie I've played ME1 and ME2 and yes your right the story does make sense its more of the way its handled that doesn't. there are several parts where alternative paths would have been fantastic but just aren't there. and i hate games that have multiple choice endings with no cause for there bases.

 

Your opinion is valid. They could definitely have done a lot to improve on the formula. I personally preferred the actual loot system of ME1(ie buying and selling loot vs just a pool of guns for everyone to choose from), but disliked the long vehicle sections for no point(though the vehicle gameplay itself was alright). I also really like the atmosphere and sense of exploration in ME1 and the slower pace, owing the the story's slow start. Everything was new and mysterious, and there were abandoned facilities and ruins in middle of nowhere waiting to be found. ME2 was less like this and more like a multiple choice cutscene.

I actually spent more time with ME1 because of all the time I spent sorting items and making sure my crew had the best stuff. ME2 and ME3 turned it from a sci-fi RPG into a sci-fi action/adventure game. While ME2 is incredible, it compromised its complexity in order to be more approachable by the average gamer. ME1 was overwhelming for a long time. I probably started it over and over about 5 times before I grasped everything and could enjoy the story. On the other hand the newer games felt hollow, like the RPG guts were sucked out and replaced by fireworks(awesome fireworks full of drugs and candy albeit).

On a different note, ME2 is an entirely different game with all of the DLCs installed. About 10 DLCs in all for roughly $50. They add ~10 hours of new gameplay, a bunch of vehicle missions, 2 new squad characters(both with their own mission), several new armors and some awesome guns(some of which appear in ME3). I did purchase a copy but I'll be damned if they're gonna charge me the price of another copy for content that should have been in the original game. Much like Fallout New Vegas where some sections of the already-existing world map are simply "cut off" until you pay for the DLC. What a rip(another game I paid full price for only to get screwed out of content). Oh, and half of the DLCs are retailer-specific so that means my copy of ME2 purchased at Gamestop can't use about a quarter of the DLCs. I have since circumvented this problem by "alternatively obtaining" ALL of the DLCs independently of the game ;P

Let's not forget the Oblivion DLC debacle where if you lose the exe that you purchased, you are out of luck. I also had to "alternatively obtain" the Oblivion DLCs I paid for just to use them. Basically, I'll still purchase a game, but I will not pay for the DLCs because they should be free. I'm not paying $50-$60 for 40 hours of gameplay only to pay half that again to get the real ending to the game, Fallout 3 I'm looking at you. Literally in Fallout 3, your character dies at the end, but if you purchase the $15 DLC, it adds the real final mission to the game(ie your character lives instead), unlocks the level cap, and allows free-play mode. Now tell me, shouldn't those things have been included to begin with? Actually, they were, the DLC was available for purchase at release... I'm not against DLC, but don't insult me with it.

LOL went from Mass Effect to ranting about DLC. But it is a big deal. Games are expensive enough these days without having to "pay for half now, half later". Real DLCs are still appreciated but simply cutting chunks out of the complete game and charging for them? I in no way condone piracy, but it's not surprising it happens considering how software developers treat their long-time customers.

And I do consider this OT because this is what I built my PC for. I have been hijacking this thread lately though and that's rather unfair to some so I'll be stopping

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRRpGlmtws8