New Net for 2012
Moved into my new apartment this last weekend (which is only about ~5mile from the old one).
BUT with this move I’ve switch Internet service providers! What does this mean? MORE SPEED
My new upload is now a wonderful 3 megabit (or 375 kilobyte) per second. This means that I can now Livestream in glorious 720p HD. So look for some updates on that soon!
FYI: Internet companies generally advertise in Bits and not Bytes. Your computer normally displays speeds in Bytes (the smaller number) so to find that number just divide the bit amount by 8.
PC Upgrade 2011
Christmas was simple this year, did not have a big family gathering. Simple is not bad though and my PC got some love. I built my current PC back in May (2011) with the base stats of Intel i5 3.2 GHz w/ 8GB DDR3 and my old 64GB SSD & GeForce GTS 250. The Holidays brought about some new additions:
- Bamboo Capture Pen Tablet
- Logitech Wireless Gaming Headset G930
- OCZ Agility3 120GB SATA III 2.5″ SSD
- Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600 (2×4)
ApexGamers.org Live
The new Apex Community Website I’ve been working on is live now! at www.ApexGamers.org
This new website will allow Apex to continue gaming in any capacity while still having a central website location. StarWars: The Old Republic will be out in less than 10 days and it will mark the first major game some Apex members will be playing and utilizing this new website.
Background: I joined Apex, the guild on Garona [US] in World of Warcraft back in April this year. This guild itself has been around since the first week of WoW and has actually existed throughout many games over the years including EverQuest II before WoW. The interesting thing is that Apex Guild merged with my old guild Divinity back in the Burning Crusade expansion and has been somewhat inactive in the raiding scene since then. Apex has been revived in Cataclysm and it seems things have gone full circle and sideways — as I have joined a guild that once merged with my old guild. As Scary Movie 3 would say, that’s some Quantum sh1t.
Apex ftw
Tri-Monitor Setup now
My Monoprice order has been delivered so now I have my HDMI-to-VGA adapter for my 3rd (15″) monitor, seen on the Left below:
Click the images above to view the full size.
New PC Build 2011
Well my birthday has come & gone now, funds from this year attributed to info below.
I can happily report that I’ve actually put WoW’s slider to ULTRA in the graphics settings and I still get at least 40FPS in Stormwind. rawr
Case: ANTEC One Hundred ATX
CPU: Intel i5 2400 (3.10 GHz Quad)
Motherboard: Intel BOXDH67CLB3 1155 ATX
RAM: Corsair 8GB (2×4) D3 1600
PSU: PCPower 650w Silencer Mk II
HDD: 500GB WesternDigital Blue Sata 6.0
Optical: 22x DVDRW SATA w/LightScribe
Not shown in picture (not new, these are from my last PC)
SSD: PNY SSD 64GB
GFX: Nvidia GTS 250 1GB
Also using Windows 7 Professional x64
Solid State Goodness
My new hard drive for Windows, SC2, WoW and various editors, woot.
How to Fix $160 WoW Headset Mic
So I bought a Sound Blaster World Of Warcraft Wireless Headset about a month ago for $140 (on sale). And ever since using this headset, the earphone sound is great but many of my friends on Ventrilo hate the new mic!
After toying with every setting I can think of and trying to find a solution online, I stumbled upon my own small fix. Ever see the mics with a foam cap covering the tip — like the one to right side of this paragraph? That’s what you need!
Except I don’t have such a thing so I made my own after I realized how much better the mic would sound if I simply covered it with my hand. So grabbing my scissors and snipping a small bit of foam material from a bed-memory foam thingy and grabbing some (new) toilet paper to wrap around the foam and hold with some scotch tape, I made the contraption you see below:
World of Modern Warfared via 360
Small break from the usual WoW posts, time to mention the Xbox and my experience thus far.
After much debate, ‘I bit the bullet’ and bought an Xbox 360 (Limited Ed. MW2) a couple months ago.
Why Limited edition:
For those who do not follow the ‘Xbox family‘ of products, the limited editions tend to be $100 more in price. Naturally, a couple of friends wondered why I would bother with purchasing such a version but I figured why not? Aside from being the latest and greatest (thus presumably less buggy) version, the harddrive is 250GB, a nice step up from 120GB ‘elites’. I’m sure I could have lived with only a 120GB main storage device but the bump up really eliminates any worry of capacity issues.
Also, the limited edition looks sweet! It’s not the pure white or black like the ‘normal’ Xbox. Yes, I know there are Xbox faceplates for changing the look but I prefer the MW2 look still. But regardless of harddrive and the exclusive design, I still did not waste $100 on this edition. Why? Because a copy of Modern Warfare 2 ($60) and an extra 360 Wireless Controller ($40) are included in the package. Those two items alone compensate for the rise in price.
A Little History
Ever since I first laid eyes upon my first MMORPG I was pretty much hooked. This game happened to be World of Warcraft and it took me a while to download! I remember my friend logging into the game after I finished installing and patching it like he asked. He was actually using a friends account, so my first look at the game was through a friend’s friend… but anyways, he had a level 60 Pally! I realize now that the forested area where the character stood was in fact Ashenvale Forest. This was the summer of 2005, just over half a year after game’s launch. It wouldn’t be until October that I decide to buy and pay $15 (subscription) every month for an online game.
Ever since I started my own account (a little under a year after WoW’s release) I’ve played and remained active 95% of the time. The longest my account has been ‘froze’ would be around a week and only a couple times which has not happened in two years now. Back then, I did not fully raid SSC/TK so I could focus on finishing up vocational school at the time. My raid attendance was very lax at the time. Other no-play times would be vacation time with the family.
‘RPG’ is for Rocket-propelled grenade…
Back to the Xbox, I’ve logged a good amount of hours in the past two weeks now with my game of choice Modern Warfare 2. (I used to call it CoD6 but that greatly confuses some people.)
Most of my friends, on and offline, have an Xbox 360 so I’d be lying if I said that had no weight on my console decision. The PS3‘s support for Blu-ray and the web browser is quite appealing but do I really need another device to browse the web? *Pickups up iPhone & lays it on laptop* And since I’m a Windows (7) user, my Xbox is linked into my media via Microsoft’s Media Center software which can browse network drives/shares so it works out to be a pretty nice if setup if done correctly. Although I just use my laptop for such things still, best solution for PowerUser.
Steam has been installed on my PCs for many years now (and for many to come) so I naturally have the Orange Box for PC. For $20, I also have it for the Xbox now (should I ever want to beat Portal again or popup Team Fortress 2 for some good online play). So aside from MW2, I have Dragonball Z: Burst Limit which is another reason for purchasing a console system. I’ve tried the whole emulator mess off and on over the years but I just don’t care for it. Some games are console only… like DBZ: Burst Limit! I played the original DBZ Budokai games on my Play Station 2 so it brings back memories to some degree playing through the new DBZ games.
Since the online portion of DBZ: Burst Limit! pretty much lacks players, most of my console time is with Modern Warfare 2. First person shooters provide a nice break from WoW and the guild during slow parts of the day/afternoon but it is only a small break because it’s back to warlock in the evenings for raiding!
iPhone Upgrade
This post is being brought to you via an app on my new iPhone 3G S!
I’m very happy so far with my new mobile device. It is a huge step up from my old Net10 prepay tracphone! So after a year of waiting I bought this phone yesterday & have been exploring the many features since then.