Jeremy's Tech Talk

The Second Amendment: Clarity

2011-11-11T14:44:00.000-06:00

In honor of those who have used arms to defend our rights...

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

What is the law of the land?

The Second Amendment is made up of two clauses. The first clause reads, "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state," and is known as the prefatory clause. The second clause reads, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." This is known as the operative clause.

A straightforward reading of the Second Amendment clearly shows that the first clause is not operational law. It is merely a preface to the law, written to explain why this amendment was created. Only the second clause is operational law. The Supreme Court of the United States has upheld this understanding:

The Amendment’s prefatory clause announces a purpose, but does not limit or expand the scope of the second part, the operative clause. The operative clause’s text and history demonstrate that it connotes an individual right to keep and bear arms.
District of Columbia v. Heller (1)(a)

Therefore, with the understanding that the first clause is only a preface to the law, we see that the operational supreme law of the land simply declares that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

We often try to look to other writings from our founding fathers in order to put their laws into context. This piece will contain several quotations from those involved in the writing of the Constitution. However, it must be understood that not all of these great men agreed with each other. The content of the Constitution was hotly debated, and that certainly includes the Second Amendment. Context is helpful, but contextual writings are not law. We must remember that only that which has been codified into law is law.

What does it mean to be regulated?

Despite the fact that the prefatory clause is not operational law, we can better understand the intent of the Second Amendment when we clarify this clause. First, let's look at what it means to be regulated.

In this context, the word, "regulated," refers to the competency of the militia. It is an adjective form of the word, "regular" - a professional soldier. (example: The regulars are supplemented by auxiliaries to form a larger, combined unit of soldiers.) It would be similar to saying, "well trained" and "well equipped." It does not refer to regulation in the sense of restriction by law.

This understanding is further supported by the fact that the operative clause states that the right shall not be infringed. A restriction of a right is, by definition, an infringement. This form of regulation would put the prefatory clause at odds with the operational clause.

Furthermore, if the first clause of the Second Amendment was operational and it referred to regulation in the sense of restriction by law, the amendment would contradict itself. If the logical law of noncontradiction were violated, the Second Amendment would be absurd - nonsensical. Ultimately, it is clear that the Second Amendment in no way supports any restriction on the right of the people to bear arms.

What is a militia?

Our understanding of the Second Amendment can also be strengthened by clarifying what a militia really is.

Just before the American Revolution, the colonies were protected from external threats by two primary forces: the regular British troops and the colonial militas. The British Regulars were controlled by the British Crown to defend the entire British Empire, but the colonial militias were managed separately by each colony. One of the hottest political issues of the day was whether the colonies needed regular British soldiers stationed in the colonies or their own militias were sufficient. Regular troops were expensive, and this tied into the taxation without representation problem.

By contrast, the members of the colonial militias were not full-time soldiers; they had their own occupations and provided for their own living. They were usually required to equip themselves; private firearm ownership at this time was commonplace and expected. In times of peace, they only assembled about three times per year for training. Some colonies required that all able-bodied men participate in their local militias. They were not used to "police" the citizens; they were formed by the citizens to deal with threats outside of their localities.

In times of need, especially in the tense period just before the Revolutionary War, minutemen were formed as a more dedicated portion of militia. They made up a fraction of all the militia, and underwent more training and preparation than the rest. Rather than display their capabilities publicly, they often hid supplies and ammunition from the British. Basically, the purpose of the minutemen was to respond quickly to any sudden armed threat from the Crown's troops. They were used to prevent British raids of supplies. They served as short-notice soldiers, and that is how they earned their famous title.

After the war had actually begun, it was determined that local militia forces were not up to the task of fighting a sustained conflict. A Continental Army of full-time regular soldiers was formed. Throughout the war, the army was often supplemented with militiamen.

Why was the Second Amendment created?

In the context of the American Revolution, it seems clear that the minutemen are the inspiration for the wording in the first clause of the Second Amendment. They were well trained, well equipped militiamen. They were used to maintain the freedom of the colonies against armed abuse by the British Crown. To put it more plainly, they kept an overreaching government in check.

It must also be noted that our founders understood militia participation to be a fact of life as a citizen instead of a specific occupation. The goal of protecting the freedoms of the people was intended to be accomplished by allowing all citizens to be armed. The operative portion of the Second Amendment grants a right to the people, not just a subset of those people.

The prefatory clause comports with the Court’s interpretation of the operative clause. The “militia” comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense. The Antifederalists feared that the Federal Government would disarm the people in order to disable this citizens’ militia, enabling a politicized standing army or a select militia to rule. The response was to deny Congress power to abridge the ancient right of individuals to keep and bear arms, so that the ideal of a citizens’ militia would be preserved.
District of Columbia v. Heller (1)(b)

Today, this "new world" has been tamed and we live in times of relative peace. However, modern examples of overreaching governments can still be found across the world. If local citizens had been well trained and well armed, many of those abuses could have been prevented. Our founding fathers understood this concept all too well, and I hope it is a lesson we never have to learn for ourselves.

Lest there be any doubt that the founders intended the Second Amendment to protect the people from an abusive government, see some of their own words provided at the end of this piece. The Second Amendment guarantees all the others.

What are arms?

Now that the why has been established, let's take a closer look at the what.

It has been suggested that "arms" only refers to the weapons available at the time of the writing of the Constitution, such as flintlock firearms. If we took this same logic and applied it to the First Amendment, we would not be able to read the news on the internet. Furthermore, our armed forces would have a very tough time combating foreign enemies. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court has maintained that these claims are utter rubbish.

Despite this fact, the people of the United States are very limited as to what arms they can actually bear. Why is this? Both the intent of the Second Amendment and the codified operational wording of the second clause point to a very broad definition of the word, "arms."

The founders clearly intended for the Second Amendment to give the people the power to keep the government in check. Therefore, it follows that the arms available to the people must be, at the very least, equal to the arms available to the federal armed forces.

The wording of the second clause states in no uncertain terms that the right shall not be infringed. As has already been stated, a restriction of a right is the very definition of an infringement. Restricting some types of arms, therefore, violates the operational wording of the Second Amendment.

One could claim that it would be crazy to allow any citizen the right to wield nuclear weapons. Our founding fathers knew that they could not see all ends, and provided a way for the Constitution to be modified in a case such as this. (This is clarified later.) However, such modification has not yet taken place. At it stands right now, the Second Amendment grants the people the right to bear whatever arms they might acquire.

Furthermore, in keeping with the spirit of the founders that gave us this amendment, it might behoove us to ask, "Why must the government of, by, and for the people have access to a weapon that the people are not allowed to bear?"

What does it mean to bear arms?

The term, "bear arms," is very broad. Transporting a rifle for hunting is a subset of bearing arms. Storing a shotgun in the closet for home defense is a subset of bearing arms. Carrying a handgun in one's pocket is a subset of bearing arms. The Second Amendment lacks specificity on this matter, and ensures that specificity would be a violation by stating that the right shall not be infringed.

It must be clarified that actual use of arms is not a subset of bearing arms. For example, a law that forbids murder with a weapon is not an infringement of the Second Amendment.

What if I think this law is ridiculous?

You would not be alone. Furthermore, you do have options available to you.

The United States Constitution, to a degree, was designed to be a living document. The Constitution can be modified. Article V of the Constitution states that it can be ratified by two thirds of both houses of the federal congress and three fourths of the states. This is no small feat, but it has been done many times in the past. Contact your legislators. If these super majorities cannot be reached, perhaps the law is not as terrible as some might think.

If the supreme law of the land will not be changed, you could also remove yourself from the land in one of two ways: expatriation or secession. The former, expatration, is simply the giving up of your U.S. Citizenship. There are many other countries with much more strict gun control laws. The latter, secession, is the removal of your state (or other locality) from the union. This would be much more difficult to successfully accomplish, but you may certainly contact your local legislators nonetheless.

If none of these options suits you, then your only legal alternative is to simply accept that this is the law of the land. It was put there for good reasons, and it just might be the case that they are still good reasons today.

Relevant thoughts from our founding fathers:

First, the constitution ought to secure a genuine and guard against a select militia, by providing that the militia shall always be kept well organized, armed, and disciplined, and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms; and that all regulations tending to render this general militia useless and defenceless, by establishing select corps of militia, or distinct bodies of military men, not having permanent interests and attachments in the community to be avoided. [...] But, say gentlemen, the general militia are for the most part employed at home in their private concerns, cannot well be called out, or be depended upon; that we must have a select militia; that is, as I understand it, particular corps or bodies of young men, and of men who have but little to do at home, particularly armed and disciplined in some measure, at the public expence, and always ready to take the field. These corps, not much unlike regular troops, will ever produce an inattention to the general militia; and the consequence has ever been, and always must be, that the substantial men, having families and property, will generally be without arms, without knowing the use of them, and defenceless; whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.
Richard Henry Lee, Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican - Letter XVIII, January 25, 1788

The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country against the British arms, will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion, that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession, than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors.
James Madison, The Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788

The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American ...the unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.
The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unnecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them.
Whereas civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as military forces, which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.
Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Federal Gazette on June 18, 1789

What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. [...] Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.
Elbridge Gerry, 1 Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789

Disclaimer: I do not claim to be an expert on history or law. I am simply attempting to generate healthy discussion. I will update this as necessary.

A Sane Smartphone

2011-06-16T20:19:00.000-05:00

I have so many things I want to write about and so little time (and energy) to actually write them. You know how it goes. However, I really want to get this information out to those who can use it. This is a big deal as far as technology goes.

Right now, you can get a very nice Android smartphone with a very inexpensive plan. The data is "unlimited" and there is no contract.

Prices:

LG Optimus V Android Smartphone: $120

Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk Monthly Plans:
$25 - 300 minutes, unlimited data/text
$40 - 1200 minutes, unlimited data/text
$60 - unlimited everything

Plan Details:

This is *not* your typical phone plan. Please understand the following before jumping to conclusions:

1) The anytime minutes (for phone calls, of course) are actually used any time you talk. There are no free nights or weekends.

2) There is no contract. You are free to quit whenever you wish, without penalty. Even so, it is possible to set up automatic monthly payments so you don't have to babysit your account.

3) You must pay the full price for the phone. It is not subsidized by the plan because there is no contract. This is the same hardware as the Sprint Optimus S and other Optimus One variants, which come cheap or free with more expensive plans that use contracts.

4) Look at all the details (extra minutes, foreign calls, etc...) before making your final decision. I'm only a consumer, and I may not have all my facts straight. These things are subject to change, as well. Don't blindly trust anything I'm telling you here.

Technical Phone Details:

Okay, but the phone's a piece of junk, right? Not at all:

1) The LG Optimus V uses Android 2.2, which is Google's custom version of Linux for mobile devices. This version of Android has a significant speed boost over 2.1, so it runs much smoother than older phones with earlier versions.

2) The phone display is 3.2 inches, diagonally. This is small compared to many of the newer smartphones. I like it because those larger phones look ridiculously large. This is a cell phone, not a tablet.

3) The display resolution is 320x480 pixels. This is less detailed than most new smartphones that usually have 480x800 resolution. However, this is not as not very noticeable due to the small screen size. Additionally, this means that the graphics hardware doesn't have to work as hard to make things run smoothly.

4) The CPU (processor) runs at 600 MHz, and uses a single core. Most new smartphones run at 1,000MHz and some even have two cores now. However, the real-life impact on speed is not as noticeable as the numbers make it sound. This is because the CPU is rarely the bottleneck for demanding tasks.

5) The phone has a dedicated GPU (graphics processor) which means that the CPU doesn't have to handle the graphics work. This allows the phone to run much smoother than other phones without dedicated GPUs. The Optimus V (and brothers) use the Qualcomm Adreno 200. Much faster GPUs are very common now. However, I have a very high-tech 3D video game on my phone that runs very smoothly at the highest graphical settings. Don't let synthetic benchmarks fool you.

Note: Angry Birds is the only application I have used that will sometimes (on a few levels with many moving objects) run slowly on my phone. I believe this is due to the fact that it uses very inefficient physics calculations. I don't believe it is a graphics issue. I have other, much prettier games that run very smoothly.

6) The phone uses 512MB of RAM, which is actually a very standard amount for even the newest smartphones. This means the phone will be able to handle heavy workloads without stuttering.

7) The phone has 512MB of internal storage, and it comes with a 2GB microSD card. This is plenty of storage, even for me.

Other Considerations:

1) You don't have to purchase the phone from Virgin Mobile. You can get it from anywhere. (I got mine from Be Intouch Wireless.) After it arrives, call VM and ask them to activate it. If you want to port over a number from your previous provider, be ready with your credentials (pin, etc...) for that provider. You should not have to call your old provider first.

2) Don't get the Samsung Intercept unless you *really* want the slide-out keyboard. It's thicker and slower. It only uses Android 2.1 and it doesn't have a dedicated graphics processor.

3) The phone actually comes with a screen protector already applied. DO NOT REMOVE THE SCREEN PROTECTOR AFTER YOU OPEN THE BOX!!! Simply cut off the tab in the upper-right corner with a sharp knife, and you will save yourself the trouble of buying extra screen protectors and applying them yourself. The image on the front can actually peel off separately; look at it closely and you will see what I mean.

4) Virgin Mobile's customer service seems good so far. I had an issue with billing on their website when I first signed up. After I e-mailed them, they replied back within hours to let me know my problem was resolved.

5) The phone can actually be set up to make VOIP calls to any phone using Wi-Fi. This requires a bit of work and technical expertise, and it's just a tad laggy. If you like to tinker, however, this can save you from using up anytime minutes when you're on your home network.

6) There's a lot of bad information out there, so don't install everything everyone tells you to. I have some recommendations for apps and tweaks that will enable you to get the most out of your phone, but I'll cover that in a separate post.

Are you ready to take the plunge into the smartphone world? Do you have experience with Virgin Mobile? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Things You Want to Say (but Probably Shouldn't)

2011-01-27T22:01:00.000-06:00

1) No, having kids born ten months apart is not just like the time your kids were born a year apart.

Sure, the sum of the blessings is equal, but you had 300% of the recovery time!

2) Demonstrating that a premise is unsound is NEVER nitpicking!

"What? Knock a single premise and the entire argument is shot? Logic, you say? Oh, you mean 'human reasoning.' Yeah, that stuff is totally flawed, man. Here's a hyperlink that says so."

I lament with Professor Diggory.

3) If you're convinced that I'm rich, and yet you spend more on entertainment than I do on taxes, you might want to rethink your asset allocation.

Let's see... I have about 65% in stocks, 25% in commodities, and 10% in real estate. I also picked up some term and disability for emergencies. What about you? Oh? If you die your wife can sell the 3D TV and all four modern video game systems? Wow! What's your secret?

(I'm gonna get an earful for that one...)

Do you have anything to add to this list? Bonus points if it's meant for me, specifically!

November Hardware

2010-11-20T13:27:00.000-06:00

Computer hardware prices have been in a free fall lately, especially where video cards and RAM are concerned. Now that the GTX 460 has been out for a few months, and AMD has provided some competition in the form of the HD 6850, prices on the 460 have fallen dramatically. You can usually find a 768MB version for under $150, and the 1GB version for around $175. The 6850 is still hovering around $200 because it's so new. In a month or two we will see better stock and more sales/rebates, which should bring it closer to the GTX 460.

Right now, there is little reason for a budget-minded gamer to purchase anything beyond a GTX 460 1GB. However, this will probably change with the introduction of AMD's HD 6950 next month. Below, I've constructed two basic gaming machines using Newegg.com. They might be inexpensive, but they are both quite powerful and extremely overclockable.

Bargain Gaming Rig

AMD Phenom II X3 715 Black Edition Triple-Core Processor - $80
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - $25 (after $10 rebate)
GIGABYTE GA-880GM-UD2H AM3 AMD 880G Micro ATX Motherboard - $80
PNY XLR8 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 - $50 (after $30 rebate)
EVGA 768-P3-1360-TR GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 Video Card - $140 (after $30 rebate)
W.D. Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s H.D. - $70
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case - $60
APEVIA ATX-JV650W 650W ATX12V Power Supply - $30 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - $20

Discount: $25 ($25 Case/MB Combo)
Shipping: $5
Total: $535

This machine has tremendous potential. At stock, it will play all the latest games smoothly and at high detail. You may be able to unlock the fourth CPU core using the motherboard's ACC feature. Add a modest overclock to the CPU and a more significant overclock to the GPU, which it is easily capable of, and you'll be set for a long time. Note that the motherboard supports firewire.

Budget Gaming Rig

Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - $209
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - $25 (after $10 rebate)
MSI P55-GD65 USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Motherboard - $140 (after $40 rebate)
PNY XLR8 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 - $50 (after $30 rebate)
Palit NE5X460SF1102 GeForce GTX 460 Sonic 1GB Video Card - $165 (after $35 rebate)
Seagate Barracuda ST31000528AS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s H.D. - $70
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case - $70
APEVIA ATX-AQ700W-BK 700W ATX12V Power Supply - $40 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - $20

Discount: $75 ($65 CPU/MB Combo, $10 Case/HD Combo)
Shipping: $2
Total: $716

The most significant improvement here is the better processor. On top of that, we have a slightly better video card, power supply, and case. The motherboard supports both USB 3.0 and firewire.

Please note: If you're not seeing the prices listed here, make sure you've properly applied the combos, downloaded your rebate forms, and entered the promotion codes (if any). I plan on making a separate post that discusses these three forms of saving more money from Newegg's already low prices.

September Update

2010-09-04T16:18:00.001-05:00

There are similar deals for inexpensive yet powerful gaming rigs this month. Below is an example using the new September deals.

Bargain Gaming Rig

CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 - $86
Motherboard: BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX - $55
RAM: OCZ Special Ops 4GB DDR3 1600 - $75 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 5770 - $145 (after $15 rebate)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB - $70
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W - $40 (after $20 rebate)
DVD Burner: SAMSUNG 24X DVD Burner - $18
Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX - $45

Discount: $60 ($25 HD/Case, $20 RAM/PSU, and $15 CPU/GPU Combos)
Shipping: $9
Total: $483

This case looks like an amazing deal. It has great reviews, and the specs are impressive for the price. Also, the motherboard supports ACC, so you may be able to unlock one or two of the disabled cores on this processor. Note that if you need Windows, there's a combo deal with the motherboard for $10 off Windows 7 Home Premium, which would bring the total to $573.

I picked up a set of that Special Ops RAM last month, and it's been working just fine. It brought some stability to Starcraft 2, which seems to be a big memory hog. Speaking of SC2, here's my profile for anyone that's interested: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/1691667/1/Vypir/

If you're playing too, send me an invite!

Powerful and Affordable

2010-08-06T14:20:00.000-05:00

It's that time again. Competition is once again working in our favor, and prices for gaming PCs are very attractive right now. Here is an example of a powerful machine for less than $500:

Bargain Gaming Rig

CPU: AMD Phenom II 550 - $88
Motherboard: ECS IC780M-A2 AM3 - $60
RAM: OCZ Special Ops Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 - $65 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB - $135 (after $15 rebate)
Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB/32MB - $55 (after $20 promo - ends 8/9)
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W - $50 (after $20 rebate)
DVD Burner: LG Black 22X SATA DVD Burner - $18
Case: Antec Nine Hundred - $65 (after $20 rebate, $15 promo - ends 8/6)

Discount: $60 ($40 MB/PSU Combo, $20 RAM/GPU Combo)
Shipping: $9
Total: $485

Frankenstein Rig

If that's still too much for you, I have an even better deal for you. Right now, I have some used hardware I'd like to sell due to upgrading. I've never had any problems with it (otherwise I wouldn't risk selling it) and it's all performed very well. Here they are:

Video Card: ASUS EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M GeForce 8800 GT 512MB - $60

You can see some of my testing with it in my last blog post. It runs very cool and very quiet.

RAM: OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 - $20

Pretty straightforward. It's good memory and it's cheap.

Power Supply: KINGWIN ABT-450MM 450W - $20 (used by me)

The PSU also runs very quiet. It has PCI-e connectors for video cards, and SATA connectors for SATA hard drives, meaning you won't need adapters.

All three of these components have been used for about two years without incident. If you buy all three, I'll knock off $10 for a total of $90. If you want to build a new computer out of them, I'd suggest the following:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor - $59
Motherboard: BIOSTAR A770E - $70

Discount: $25 CPU/MB Combo
Shipping: Free
Total with used parts: $194

This assumes that you'll reuse an old case, hard drive, and CD/DVD drive. The motherboard has an IDE slot, and IDE ribbons can support two devices. (I also have a PCI IDE card if you need it.) If you don't have the components to reuse, perhaps grab something from the bargain rig above.

Yes, but can it play... Starcraft 2?

If you're wondering how all the hardware above will run Starcraft, see the following:

CPU Benchmarks
High-End GPU Benchmarks
More GPU Benchmarks

Some relevant points to take away:

1) The HD 5770 Will run it VERY smoothly, even at the highest resolutions.
2) The 9800 GTX+ also runs it smoothly at high resolutions. My 8800 GT should deliver about 80% of the performance of a 9800 GTX+.
3) The amount of video memory really doesn't matter, even on Ultra High Details.
4) The Athlon II 245 should deliver above 70% of the performance of a Core i5-750, which is basically the best gaming processor available. That's with a high end video card running at a low resolution, forcing the processors to bottleneck. Therefore, real world results will be much closer.
5) The Phenom II X2 550 really won't be much faster than the Athlon II, and that's under the same bottleneck conditions. Pick whatever Athlon/Phenom flavor floats your boat.

Also, if you don't have an operating system to reuse, I hear that Starcraft 2 runs well in Linux using Wine. Just sayin'.

Bonus Upgrade!

2010-08-04T21:37:00.001-05:00

Left: ASUS 8800 GT, Right: EVGA GTX 460 SC

Introduction

It's time for an upgrade! In anticipation of Starcraft 2, and realizing that I don't exactly have much cash to blow on gaming right now, I decided to enter a few hardware giveaways online. One of them was run by Puget Systems, a business that specializes in custom PCs. All I had to do was use their website to design a custom gaming PC (gee, never tried that before) and advertise it on Facebook. They gave away two GeForce GTX 460 768MB video cards, and I was lucky enough to be randomly selected for the second one. (By the way, Puget Systems just introduced a new line of products that use an aquarium to cool a PC. I will say this: the presentation looks amazing.)

Up until now, I have been using an ASUS GeForce 8800 GT, which I bought for $130 from Newegg in June 2008. The new GTX 460 is of the EVGA Superclocked variety, which is currently going for $210 on Newegg. NVIDIA released the 8800 GT in October 2007, and the GTX 460 in July 2010. Both were very similar in that, upon release, they provided a uniquely low price/performance ratio as far as NVIDIA cards go. Both are also quite efficient in the realms of power, heat, and noise. The GTX 460 is a true successor to the 8800 GT.

I decided this would be a good time to do some benchmarking for fun. I basically want to see if I can put some measurements on just how much of an upgrade this is. How will it enhance the games that I currently play? Is there enough extra oomph for a larger monitor in the future? Is my computer going to turn into a space heater?

Testing Details

I don't have a whole lot of free time right now, with two small children and another baby due any day. Therefore, I decided to keep things simple. I didn't spend time making sure all the drivers were consistent, though I did record the driver numbers for all tests. I didn't spend much time researching the different types of antialiasing, though I think it was consistent across the board. I only used games with automated benchmarks. If I was actually doing a serious hardware comparison, I would have paid more attention to these details.

Here are my system specs:

Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP3, 32-bit / Linux Mint 9, 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (OC: 3.6 GHz, 1600 FSB)
Motherboard: Foxconn X38A (PCI-E 2.0 x16)
Memory: OCZ Platinum DDR2-800 2x1GB (5-5-5-15)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 250GB/16MB
Video Cards: ASUS 8800 GT 512MB / EVGA GTX 460 768MB SC
Power Supply: Apevia 650W
Case: NZXT Tempest

I know; I could use a RAM upgrade. Thankfully, my motherboard also supports DDR3. And yes, I have entered a few giveaways just for this purpose! I also have a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium sitting on my shelf. I'll install the 64-bit flavor some day - maybe after the first service pack or a RAM upgrade.

Drivers used:

8800 GT Windows: 254.08
8800 GT Linux: 195.36.15
GTX 460 Windows: 258.96
GTX 460 Linux: 256.44

All tests ran at 1600x1200 (I'm still using a CRT), 16x Quality AA, with all in-game details set as high as possible. Vsync and triple buffering were disabled. For Company of Heroes, AA was enabled via the game menu. For Doom 3 and Nexuiz, AA was forced via the NVIDIA control panel. I used such high levels of AA in order to keep the framerates down to reasonable numbers at this resolution.

Company of Heroes was run in Windows, Nexuiz in Linux, and Doom 3 in both. Wine was not used in Linux, though I could probably get CoH to run with it if I had the time. If Wine can run my heavily-modded version of Oblivion (which it does), CoH should be no problem. I may try it in the future. Nexuiz was run via the Phoronix Test Suite, an automated benchmarking tool that I had never used before. I hear it runs in Windows too, so I may visit that in the future as well. I am likely to re-run some tests when I upgrade to Windows 7.

Core/Memory clocks:

ASUS 8800 GT Stock: 600/900
ASUS 8800 GT Overclocked: 650/1000
Ref. GTX 460 Stock: 675/900 (not tested)
EVGA GTX 460 Superclocked: 763/950
EVGA GTX 460 Overclocked: 825/1000
EVGA GTX 460 Overvolted: 900/1050

The GTX 460 used a voltage of 0.975 by default, and I set it to 1.025 when overvolted. I didn't try to push the cards in order to get the maximum overclock possible. I just used what I figured would be safe based on my own research. I could have probably gotten more out of the new card if I really cared to do so and had the time for testing. I was unable to overclock the GTX 460 in Linux because the driver didn't seem to recognize the Coolbits option. It worked fine for my 8800 GT; perhaps the 460 is still too new. Fortunately, this is a factory "superclocked" edition, I still have speeds in Linux that are higher than reference.

Results

The Company of Heroes results are fairly straightforward, and impressive. Obviously, I have more frames than I know what to do with. All indicators suggest Starcraft 2 will be silky smooth as well.

Something must be abnormal with my Windows Doom 3 setup. Yes, framerates increased, but not nearly as much as Linux; the Linux number is closer to what we should expect. The Windows performance is inconsistent with the other benchmarks too. I didn't notice any differences in detail between Windows and Linux, though fine details can be hard to see at these settings. I know that AA was definitely working in Linux. I'll probably revisit this in Windows 7, but for right now I am assuming that it's a fluke. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Nexuiz is an open source FPS built on a heavily modified Quake 3 engine. It uses several advanced graphical effects, such as HDR, so it's a favorite for Linux benchmarks. The results here are nothing special, but it is interesting to note that the difference is not as large as the other two games. This was a great opportunity to try out the Phoronix Test Suite (http://www.phoronix-test-suite.com) for the first time.

This chart is quite impressive. Even with a hefty overclock, it's still cooler than my old card at stock. It should be noted that this card actually clocks itself way down (core, memory, and voltage) when idle, which explains the chilly idle temps. Also, it was interesting to note that overclocking and overvolting only affects the speeds and voltage under load. When idle, all the numbers are the same across the board.

(It should also be noted that there was a bit of dust on my 8800 GT when I finally uninstalled it. It wasn't too bad because I clean regularly, but it was enough to possibly make a small difference.)

I really like the physical cooling system on the new hardware as well. Rather than use a fan in the front that pushes air across the heatsink and out a rear exhaust, it simply blows air directly onto the top of the heatsink. The ASUS 8800 GT has a similar system. This has one disadvantage - the hot air is not all vented out the back of the case. However, it has advantages that I consider to be more important:

1) The GPU itself runs cooler. If the GPU is the hottest component in my system, I want it to have the best cooling. In addition, my NXZT Tempest has amazing ventilation, so the hot air gets sucked right out anyway.
2) The fan runs quieter. It spins consistently around 40%, and I can't hear it over the other components. That's saying something, because my entire PC is pretty quiet.
3) It's easier to clean. In this department, though, the ASUS 8800 GT is even better because it doesn't have a big plastic shield over the top. The plastic shield is probably the only negative thing I can find with the GTX 460. It looks cool, but I don't ~~buy~~ win internal components for looks. Some manufacturers, such as MSI, have removed them.

Conclusion

My machine will certainly be able to handle more advanced games with ease, and at higher resolutions. In fact, with results like this, why would I want a GTX 480? It's not like I'd get higher detail, but I would get more noise, heat, and power consumption. This card is a perfect fit for my goals. I think I'll keep it set to 825/1000 with no overvolting, as the card can handle this without breaking a sweat.

Perhaps a more demanding game and a 1920*something monitor will present more of a challenge, but I wouldn't count on it. It will be interesting to see if Windows 7, and maybe 4GB of DDR3, will provide any measurable differences. I'd like to see if I can find a simple way to benchmark The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Empire: Total War, as both are more demanding than the games above. Oblivion needs no introduction, and I use a lot of mods that make it more of a resource hog. Empire isn't nearly as popular, but it does some crazy things with memory, drawing massive armies across battlefields. I'd like to see it in more benchmarks because it's rather unique in this regard. As always, I'm open to suggestions.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a happy camper. Thanks, Puget Systems!

Fermis and Ghosts

2010-07-21T20:52:00.001-05:00

Back in December, I said, "Don't expect GPU prices to drop significantly until the summer season." The reasons for this were that we still had a while to wait for NVIDIA's GTX 4XX series, and it would take a while for them to ramp up production, produce midrange cards, and offer competitive prices against AMD.

Well, not only did NVIDIA drag their feet with Fermi, but it was also quite unimpressive when launched. The GTX 480 and 470 were expensive and inefficient, so AMD had no reason to lower their prices. However, NVIDIA has finally come out with something worth considering: the GeForce GTX 460.

The GTX 460 comes in two flavors - a 768 MB and a 1GB version. The 768 is going for $200, and the 1GB is around $230. The 1GB model also has a few other hardware tweaks that give it an average 10% better performance over the 768 model. Due to a significant redesign, both models consume much less power and generate much less heat than the bigger GTX parts.

The 460 cards are already forcing AMD's prices down, especially the 5830 and 5850. If you wait until next month, you'll probably see prices across the board hit very tempting ranges. Of course, the GTX 460 is already quite tempting as it is.

In other news, I just purchased a GIGABYTE GM-M8000 from Newegg. They had it on sale for $25 (after $20 rebate) with free shipping. It feels great so far, but I have yet to use it for any extended game time. This thing is loaded with features that normally cost at least $60. They've discontinued this model in favor of the GM-M8000X which costs exactly that, but the feature set is almost exactly the same.

This beautiful piece of hardware is a great complement to my Microsoft Sidewinder X6 that I am absolutely loving. Now, if I can just get ahold of a Belkin n52te SpeedPad, my dream peripheral collection will be complete!

Little Ones and Lobotomy

2010-06-08T19:37:00.000-05:00

The Incident

Two weeks ago, our two-year-old daughter ran into a table and smacked her head. She hit it pretty hard, and this resulted in a painful headache. We decided a medical professional should look at the injury to make sure it was properly cared for, so we took the girls and drove to a medical clinic. (If you haven't heard about this yet and are starting to freak out, don't. Everything is just fine; but please keep reading.)

Before going any further, I should explain that I have a pretty radical philosophy when it comes to medical treatments. I believe the following:

1) A medical treatment must not be performed unless it provides a benefit.
2) If a medical treatment has risks associated with it, it must not be performed unless the benefits are greater than the risks.

These are very simple and reasonable standards, but I have found that many parents as well as many medical professionals do not follow them. As my daughter's father, I believe it is my duty to ensure, to the best of my ability, that any medical treatment performed on her meets these criteria. That belief was put to the test during this incident.

On the way to the clinic, I knew we were going to be facing a difficult decision. You see, in cases such as this, it is a standard medical procedure to perform a lobotomy on the part of the brain that is causing the pain. This is done to prevent the pain from causing larger problems later on. In fact, most children of this age have already had that part of the brain severed as a precaution. Knowing that this is a controversial issue (many medical professionals are against this practice), my wife and I had previously done some independent research on the risks and benefits of this particular procedure. The results of our research led us to refuse the procedure for our children up until this point.

We got to the clinic, checked in with a nurse, and waited for a doctor to show up. While we were waiting, I decided to call our daughters' pediatrician. I am not a medical professional, and I had come to trust his expert medical opinion. Even though I had done my own research, I wanted to confirm with him that a lobotomy was not necessary in this particular case. Indeed, he told me that as our daughter's pediatrician, and with the information I gave him, he did not see a need for the lobotomy. He also confirmed that it is a standard procedure in cases such as this, and that I was correct to assume that the doctors at this clinic would recommend the procedure. He did not actually make a recommendation, but told us that it was perfectly fine for us to decide which course of action to take.

A doctor came and looked at our daughter. As I expected, she asked us why we had not allowed her to have a lobotomy until now. I answered simply and clearly, "Statistical analysis." Looking slightly surprised, she went on to explain that she would recommend we have the lobotomy done.

I should add that, during my research, I discovered that these procedures usually include severing multiple parts of the brain at once, in order to kill many birds with one stone. Therefore, I asked the doctor, "Will you only operate on the portion directly related to this injury?" She clearly answered in the affirmative, which surprised me a little. I told her that we would have to discuss it. We had time to think about it because our daughter's wound needed some cleaning and an X-ray to ensure no bone was damaged, which they were going to do soon.

That doctor left. A few minutes later, another doctor came in and introduced herself as the supervisory doctor of the clinic. She told us a little more about the lobotomy. She also added that many of "those studies" about medical procedures are flawed because they do not take into account collective immunity. For example, polio (which she mentioned specifically) does not spread much anymore because much of the population has been immunized against it. This makes the virus seem less dangerous than it would be if the immunization had never been created.

If you're asking yourself what the spread of viruses has to do with a non-contagious headache resulting from an injury, congratulations! You are more intelligent than the supervisory doctor of a medical clinic. I'm. Not. Kidding.

Anyway, I was not about to get into an argument with the very people that were trying to help our daughter who needed medical treatment. Therefore, I simply told her that we wanted to wait until our visit to the pediatrician in a few days before making a decision about the lobotomy. Our daughter was given a temporary treatment for the pain that would last until then, so an immediate decision was not necessary. The doctor didn't seem satisfied, but she left anyway.

A while later, a nurse came in to clean the wound. She asked my wife, "Is it okay with your religion if I use this cleaning solution on her?" Not once did we make any reference to religions or belief systems, but by now the entirety of the clinic staff probably thought they had a bunch of extremist nut jobs on their hands. As I said, I clearly cited statistical analysis as my justification for questioning the medical treatment.

Later on, one of the nurses told us that our pediatrician was on the phone. Obviously, the supervisory genius of the facility couldn't accept the fact that any self-respecting doctor would allow some religious whackos to deny medical treatment for a child in favor of simply praying that God will magically heal the injury. I'm assuming she tried to talk some sense into him and insisted that he convince us to get the lobotomy done.

When I picked up the phone, he repeated that we were free to make whatever decision we were comfortable with. He also added this juicy tidbit: if the operation were performed at this clinic would actually affect other parts of the brain, not just the one relating to the current injury. Oh, really? While this confirmed what I had learned in my own research, it was contradictory to what the first doctor told me when I asked her about it in no uncertain terms.

At this point, we just wanted to get out of the clinic. The doctors were very reluctant to let us go without making a decision regarding the lobotomy. (How is one to make an informed decision without time to gather information?) I told them that I knew we were going against the standard procedure, but I insisted that we take it up with our pediatrician.

Eventually, they let us go. Our one-year-old suffered little more than boredom. Our injured two-year-old was a real trooper - the only time she got really frightened was during the X-ray, but it was quick and I was able to sort of hold her while wearing protection. At my request, she said, "Thank you." to the clinic staff on the way out, which was really cute. They gave her a toy to keep, too.

If you suspect that parts of this story are made up, you would be correct. A similar event did occur, but I changed the injury and treatment in order to make a point. The same logic still applies to the actual injury and the treatment that was actually offered.

The Soapbox

You may have wondered why anyone in their right mind would perform a lobotomy just to eliminate the silly prospect of serious complications resulting from headache pain. The chances of such a thing happening must be almost non-existent! And obviously, a lobotomy has serious risks associated with it.

If someone tried to tell you that most doctors agreed this standard procedure was actually beneficial, wouldn't you ask to see some statistical data to back up that claim? If they told you that the procedure had been thoroughly tested, wouldn't you demand to see the evidence that the benefits outweigh the risks? If this was really tested, the results should surely be available to the public, right? Yet parents, medical "professionals," and others often fail to ask such simple questions.

In many cases, it is hard or impossible to find statistical justification for controversial medical practices. You can read about how difficult it was for me to investigate this particular treatment here. If the treatment is as good as many claim it is, why is it so difficult to gather this data?

Again, justification must meet these criteria:

1) A medical treatment must not be performed unless it provides a benefit.
2) If a medical treatment has risks associated with it, it must not be performed unless the benefits are greater than the risks.

There are no exceptions.

I don't care about looking up some hippie's website and finding that all vaccinations are evil because they give everybody autism. The onus is not on me to prove that the treatment is too risky; it is on the medical community to prove that the treatment is justified. If such justification cannot be produced, you can bet I'll exercise my right to refuse treatment for my children.

Just ask why. Ask for justification. It's not a complicated request.

If you don't, shame on you. Especially if you are responsible for the medical care of another.

Gaming Rigs Reloaded

2010-05-07T20:53:00.001-05:00

It's that time. I've been getting a lot of questions about hardware for gaming PCs, so this post is long overdue. Want to build a new PC? Read on:

Bargain Gaming Rig

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $83
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $30
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $95 (after $20 rebate)
SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $90 (after $15 rebate)
ASRock M3A770DE AM3 - $60
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB - $110
Antec Three Hundred Illusion - $60
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W - $55 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+-RW - $20

Discount: $63 ($20 DVD/PSU Combo, $20 HD Promo, $15 Case Combo, $8 PSU Promo)
Shipping: $24
Total: $564

The first thing you should note is that the processor is dual-core, but motherboard has the ACC feature which may allow you to unlock one or two more cores. This is not a guarantee, and success will depend on why the two extra cores were disabled in the first place. You have no way of knowing if this will work until you actually try it, but people generally seem to have good results. Regardless, modern games still show little benefit from using more than two cores when played with reasonable detail. For a total of $143 for this motherboard and CPU, you really can't go wrong either way. Note that the motherboard does not support firewire, so you'll have to pay a little more if you want it.

There's not much to say about the RAM or heatsink. Decent latency and plenty of cooling. DDR2 prices are right up there with DDR3, so might as well stick with the newer stuff unless you find an unbeatable deal.

Video cards are still pretty expensive right now, but the Radeon HD 4850 seems to be one of the few exceptions. There are still plenty of these cards to go around, so the price has remained stable. It will run Starcraft II smoothly at great detail, so it's the ideal selection to hold you over until we see how the competition with newer cards plays out.

The hard drive has a nice $20 off promo code until 5/10, it has a 1TB of space, and it's a top performer among non-SSD drives. You could save around $35 by going with something smaller and slower, but this great value makes it a tough decision. Note that it supports SATA III even though the motherboard only supports SATA II. However, I'm not sure you can notice the difference between the two unless you use a SSD.

The Antec 300 Illusion also has a $15 off promo until 5/10. The case is nothing spectacular, but it is tried and true with excellent cooling.

The OCZ power supply is modular, meaning you can detach the cables you don't use. It has an $8 off promo until 5/11 and a combo that basically gives you a free DVD burner. If you desire, you can save an additional $9.50 by getting the 500W version, which should be plenty to power all the items listed here.

Practical Power Rig

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $83
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $30
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $95 (after $20 rebate)
ASUS EAH5850 DirectCU TOP/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5850 - $340
ASRock M3A770DE AM3 - $60
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB - $139 (after $10 rebate)
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB - $80
NZXT Hades Crafted Series HADE-001BK - $60 (after $20 rebate)
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W - $55 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+-RW - $20

Discount: $68 ($30 GPU/RAM Combo, $20 DVD/PSU Combo, $10 HD Promo, $8 PSU Promo)
Shipping: $14
Total: $908

Here we have the addition of a Radeon HD 5850, which will basically play any modern game smoothly at its highest settings. This isn't the cheapest one you can find, but the $30 combo with the RAM makes it a reasonable deal.

You'll notice that this build uses a 60GB SSD. The OCZ Vertex is a good performer with TRIM support (just make sure you're using the latest firmware) to prevent performance degredation. If you use it to hold your operating system plus a handful of your most used games/applications, you will eliminate a lot of waiting from boot and loading times. Store everything else on the Caviar Green, which is inexpensive, cool, quiet, and has plenty of space. If you're interested, it utilizes the new large sector technology you may have heard about, but that'll make little difference when compared to the Vertex. The Green also has a $10 off promo until 5/9.

I actually had the pleasure of recently building a machine with the NXZT Hades. It has three temperature probes that display the results on the top of the front panel, and they're quite accurate. There are two voltage knobs inside the front panel that allow you to regulate the speeds of all the fans if you connect them properly. There are several other features I really like about this case, and it's amazing that the price is so low.

You might have some trouble with the large side fan getting in the way of your CPU cooler. I used a Xigmatek S1283 without the fan attached, and there was only a little room to spare. I moved the Xigmatek fan to the rear spot on the case and put the rear 120mm fan on the front top spot, which worked out very well.

This build is more expensive, but you will absolutely notice the performance difference.

Overkill Rig

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz - $200
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $30
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $95 (after $20 rebate)
Galaxy 70XKH3HS8GUX GeForce GTX 470 - $350
ASUS P7P55-M LGA 1156 Intel P55 - $108
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB - $139 (after $10 rebate)
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB - $80
NZXT Hades Crafted Series HADE-001BK - $60 (after $20 rebate)
Thermaltake TR2 TRX-750M 750W - $75 (after $20 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+-RW - $20

Discount: $80 ($60 GPU/PSU Combo, $10 CPU/MB Combo, $10 HD Promo)
Shipping: $12
Total: $1,099

If you're not an AMD fan, feel free to give this machine a try. The processor is one of the best gaming processors available today, and the motherboard supports firewire. However, these advantages will cost you about $155, and you may not even notice the difference in performance for most games.

The video card/power supply combo of $60 off is an amazing deal. There are actually several flavors of GTX 470 with the same price and combo, so feel free to take your pick. The 470 will perform a little better than the 5850 in most games, but you'll want to consult benchmarks for the ones you play.

That's it. Many of these parts can (and probably should) be mixed and matched to suit your price/performance needs. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments or via e-mail. Even though I haven't tested most of this hardware myself, I always choose parts that get at least 4/5 "eggs" on Newegg (unless there is a very good reason to pick something else), and I check the reviews for other information like component noise. You can be relatively confident that these components will be quiet, efficient, and reliable.

The Golden Bridge

2010-03-02T20:23:00.000-06:00

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (Scipio, for short) is considered to be among the greatest generals in the history of the world. About 200 years before Christ, he ended the greatest threat to ever face the Roman Republic by defeating Hannibal of Carthage in his (Hannibal's) own land without any military or financial aid from Rome.

Scipio is credited with being the first recorded man to promote the use of what is sometimes called the golden bridge. According to Vegetius:

"Most people ignorant of military matters believe the victory will be more complete if they surround the enemy in a confined place or with large numbers of soldiers, so that they can find no way of escape. But trapped men draw extra courage from desperation, and when there is no hope, fear takes up arms. Men who know without a doubt that they are going to die and will gladly die in good company.
For this reason, Scipio's axiom has won good praise, when he said that a way should be built for the enemy to flee by. For when an escape-route is revealed, the minds of all are united on turning their backs, and they are slaughtered unavenged, like cattle. Nor is there any danger for the pursuers once the defeated have turned round the arms with which they could have defended themselves. In this tactic, the greater the numbers, the more easily is a mass cut down. For there is no need of numbers in a case where the soldiers' minds, once terrified, wish to avoid not just the enemy's weapons but his face. Whereas trapped men, though few in number and weak in strength, for this very fact are a match for their enemies, because desperate men know they can have no other recourse. 'The only hope of safety for the defeated is to expect no safety.'"
- Vegetius, Epitoma Rei Militaris III, xxi

The golden bridge is the perceived route of escape. It gives people a reason to stop fighting and try taking the easy way out. What they don't realize is that it's actually a trap that ensures their defeat more easily and soundly than fighting to the last man.

If you corner the bear, you get mauled. If you let it run, you get a free shot at its back.

Isn't my blog supposed to be about technology? So far, this has nothing to do with it. Well, the rest won't either. Too bad, so sad. This little unread personal space of mine isn't ruled by law; it's ruled by a dictator.

Now, I'm going to throw a thought out there, and I'm sure it's not going to be very popular. Here goes:

In the United States of America, the vote is your golden bridge.

That's not to say that you shouldn't vote. Every American citizen has a duty to exercise this right. The key is to not let it fool you into ignoring the things that can actually bring about change for the better. As to what those other things are, I'll leave that for you to dwell on. (Remember, think peacefully, people.)

We must not get caught up in the mindset that things will improve if we just get enough of the right politicians in office. Ain't. Gonna. Happen. Digging up dirt on this politician or campaigning for that poitician are only ways of treating the symptoms of a system that is broken at its core, and those who are truly in control want you to believe that you're really making a difference if you just do these things. As you run across the golden bridge they have set up for you, your back is exposed and they don't have to worry about defending themselves.

Let's be honest. Your right to vote has driven you to complacency. You have used it as an excuse to throw up your hands and say, "I did my part."

If you're one of the sorry creatures that gets upset or depressed when an election doesn't go your way, if you place all your hopes for the future of this country on what the polls are telling you about the next election, you are the problem. Your favorite party isn't going to fix what is actually broken. It isn't driven by moral obligation or patriotic duty, and it's certainly not driven by you. The fact that you and the rest of this country don't recognize the golden bridge for what it is ensures the fate of this land just as the fleeing soldier ensures the victory of his attacker.

Note: There are many peaceful, lawful ways to bring about political change, though some of them may be more unconventional than others. When considering my thoughts above, understand that I do not advocate actions that are either violent or illegal.

Gmail is my E-mail

2010-02-11T19:54:00.000-06:00

In the past few months, I have witnessed the rapid spread of a terrible disease. This disease is not physically harmful, but, let me tell you, it aggravates the snot out of me. It affects users of the internet, and here are the symptoms:

1) The victims are unhappy with their e-mail services and/or e-mail clients.
2) They are unwilling to fix the problem.

Now, there's a good chance you're rolling your eyes right now and thinking, "There he goes again. He's writing this just for me because we've been over this a million times." Well, you're wrong. I am not writing this "just" for anybody. I personally know a large number of people infected by this virus. In recent months, the victim count has grown at a disturbing rate. You are not alone.

So now you're probably thinking, "Yeah, yeah. I know you're going to tell me to switch to Gmail again." Not exactly. You don't have to "switch" to anything. More specifically, you can enjoy the benefits of a better e-mail solution while retaining your current e-mail addresses. To find out how, read this quick tutorial:

Manage All Your Email Accounts with Gmail

As the link explains, you can use Gmail to manage all your e-mail addresses without your contacts ever knowing you are using Gmail! You can even import all your old e-mail into Gmail. It's super-duper easy; I promise.

Of course, you're probably thinking, "Okay, I understand the 'how,' but not the 'why.'" Why would anybody want to use Gmail?

Reason #1: Gmail's web interface is the best e-mail client in existence.

Forget Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Mail. The best software for managing your e-mail doesn't need to be installed on your computer. All you need is a web browser! Gmail's web interface has so many great features and options that I can hardly begin to describe them all. (Of course, the default settings are great too, just in case you don't like to tinker.)

Gmail has an excellent labeling system that is a huge improvement over the typical "folder" systems other clients use. It also has a robust filter system for automatically managing your e-mail as it arrives. The search function is fast and effective; I never have trouble finding old messages. You can also enable hotkeys if you're not a fan of clicking on everything.

Gmail Labs allows you to turn on extra features, including multiple inboxes, forgotten attachment detector, undo send option, and much more. In addition, there are many browser extensions that you can use to change the way your web browser handles Gmail.

Most importantly, you can access the Gmail web interface wherever you go. You don't need to install anything! However, if you're still attached to your current e-mail client, Gmail's service still works fine with the aforementioned e-mail software as well as others.

Reason #2: Gmail (Google) accounts contain many other useful tools.

Your Google account will also come with an awesome calendar that supports all the main features people need in a calendaring system. These include recurring appointments, meeting invitations that work even with people who don't use Gmail, task management, and more. Easily access it all from your web browser.

Other features include Google Talk for chat (IM, voice, and video), Picasa Web Albums for photo management, Google Reader for managing RSS feeds and non-RSS web articles, Google Docs for an online Office suite (yes, it supports common Microsoft Office formats), Blogger for... well... blogging, Google Voice, and much, much more.

Reason #3: There is no better junk filter.

The spam filter is regularly praised by IT experts as being the best of its kind. I have been using Gmail since it was in its invite-only beta stage years ago, and I think I've only ever had two false positives and maybe five spam messages that didn't get automatically filtered.

Reason #4: Gmail is reliable.

I've never been unable to access my e-mail. Ever.

If you are concerned about losing your mail, you can back it up automatically using an online service called Backupify. You can also use it to back up accounts for Facebook, Twitter, and others. Backupify accounts are available for free until February 15th, so don't wait!

Reason #5: Gmail has a bright future.

Gmail is under very active development; it is constantly being improved. It integrates well with the latest technology - new browsers with massive plugin support, mobile devices, and various "Web 2.0" applications. You can be confident that your Gmail account will keep up with whatever the IT industry dreams up next.

I could go on about why I use Gmail, but I'm sure you get the picture. If you have any questions about Gmail, be sure to drop me a message or leave a comment. If you already use Gmail, check out this recent article for some advice on getting the most out of your e-mail experience:

Become a Gmail Master Redux

Google also has a list of useful Gmail tips.

Jesus Rifles

2010-01-19T22:22:00.004-06:00

- Somewhere in Afghanistan -

"Akhmed! I am mortally wounded!"

"D'oh! What ever shall we do, Sarge?"

"Did you catch the serial number on that rifle?"

"ACOG4X32JN8:12, Sir."

"Ack! That is obviously a reference to John 8:12. Pull out your NIV and read it to me!"

"No need, Sir. I can recite it from memory. 'When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.''"

"It is just as I feared! I have been shot by a Jesus rifle. Avenge me in the name of Allah!"

"But Sir, isn't Jesus one of Allah's great prophe-"

"DO IT ANYWAY!!!"

- Back to Reality -

I know, it's ridiculous, but according to ABC News, this is exactly what Michael Weinstein of the inappropriately named Military Religious Freedom Foundation claims is happening:

"It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they're being shot by Jesus rifles, ... We're emboldening an enemy."

Getting shot may or may not tick you off, but if it's a Jesus Rifle (TM) you're sure to be angry. It's almost like they haven't already decided the States are "the great Satan."

Seriously, though, worshipers of religious ~~censorship~~ "freedom" are making two primary claims when discussing this story.

Claim #1: It violates the separation of church and state.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

A violation of the separation of church and state is not necessarily a violation of the U.S. constitution (or any national law, for that matter) because the words "church," "state," or "separation" do not exist in the "establishment" clause. This issue has nothing to do with congressional laws, so it gets the Bill of Rights nod of approval.

Claim #2: It violates U.S. military rules by proselytizing to the people of foreign nations.

The funny thing about this claim, similar to the one above, is that the people crying about injustice won't actually quote the rules. Here is what the Uniform Code of Military Justice says about proselytizing:

"Military officials must ensure that service members are neither punished for their beliefs nor subjected to unwanted proselytizing or evangelizing from military chaplains or senior officers and noncommissioned officers, even if the proselytizing or evangelizing is intended as a good-faith effort to salvage the spiritual health of the service members."

What does this regulation have to do with protecting foreigners from harmful messages of love and forgiveness? Right. Nothing.

[Edit: Actually, there's more. For a discussion of General Order No. 1, see the comments below.]

In addition, if you wanted to make the claim that service members are being subjected to unwanted evangelizing from officers, go ask your local serviceman if he'd rather have the Bible-stamped scope from Trijicon or the basic hunting model from Wal-Mart. (Go on. It's okay. They're actually nice once you get to know them.) I guarantee he'll agree with the officers that signed the contracts for these excellent pieces of American technology.

A private company has every right to stamp references to Bible verses, quoted Bible passages, crosses, or whatever on its products. And if that company's products are the most effective at saving American lives, the armed forces have every right to purchase them. Isn't the rule of law wonderful?

Besides, I have it on good authority that Trijicon only hires the very best productivity engineers. Trijicon is one of, what, two? businesses in Michigan that are successful right now. Perhaps the media could benefit from the use of some scopes to zoom in on actual problems instead of shooting themselves in the feet.

Amazing Case&PSU Combo

2009-12-30T11:54:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted any recommendations for budget gaming PC hardware, and there's a reason for that. Video card prices are terrible right now, and RAM isn't much better. The production of AMD's HD4XXX series has dropped in favor of the new but understocked HD5xxx generation. In addition, AMD won't have any real competition from Nvidia for a few more months. Don't expect GPU prices to drop significantly until the summer season, after the price of Nvidia's yet unreleased hardware starts to settle.

As far as RAM goes, it looks like DDR2's reign is ending in favor of DDR3, so a lower supply has brought the prices up to DDR3 levels. By the time video card prices significantly drop, we might also see DDR3 go down a bit more.

Regardless, I did happen to notice a totally awesome deal that I wanted to make people aware of. AZZA, a company that doesn't seem to get much attention, has a great rebate/combo/sale/promo offer at Newegg for a PC case and power supply. Here it is:

Case: AZZA Solano 1000 Black Steel/Metal mesh ATX Full Tower - $65 (after $45 rebate and $10 promo code)

Power Supply: AZZA Dynamo 850W ATX Power Supply - $60 (after $40 rebate)

Discount: $20 (Case/PSU combo deal)

Shipping: $10

Total: $115

The shipping on the case is free, which is awesome because cases usually have the highest shipping costs. The same $20 combo deal also applies to three different power supplies. Here are the other two:

AZZA Dynamo 650W ATX Power Supply - $40 (after $30 rebate)
AZZA Dynamo 500W ATX Power Supply - $20 (after $20 rebate)

The 850W PSU has 2 6-Pin and 2 6+2-Pin PCI-Express connectors for lots of GPU power, as well as 4 12V rails.
The 650W PSU has 1 6-Pin and 1 6+2-Pin PCI-Express connectors and 2 12V rails.
The 500W PSU has 1 6-Pin PCI-Express connector for a modest single-GPU setup and 2 12V rails as well.

Therefore, if your power needs are similar to those of my current gaming machine, you can get away with spending a total of $74 (after rebates) for an awesome case with a nice 500W PSU.

Things to note:

- The rebates for the power supplies end on Dec 31st, the promo code for the case ends Jan 1st, and the rebate for the case ends Jan 5th.
- The case seems to have gotten great reviews on several review sites, as well as 5/5 eggs at Newegg.
- The Power Supplies seem to have decent reviews with 4/5 eggs, although the 500W only has 3/5 eggs. I generally don't suggest getting anything with less than 4/5 eggs and a healthy number of reviews, but I think it's safe to assume that the smaller PSU shares the same build quality as its bigger brothers. It wouldn't hurt to do a little more research, but at this price you're really not risking a whole lot. Remember, Newegg's customer service is second to none.

I know this deal is very rebate heavy, but I've always been comfortable with taking advantage of the rebate system. This bargain is so good that even if you're not planning on building a PC for a few months, you might want to grab these items anyway and use the rebate money to build the rest of your system later. Sure, other deals will be available in the future, but I haven't seen anything this good for a long time. Just be sure you are able test them right away to verify that they're working properly.

In other news...

I got a Microsoft SideWinder X6 keyboard for Christmas and am loving it. It was on my list because I wanted something with backlighting and a detachable numpad. The healthy list other features is nice, but I haven't had time to play with them much yet.

One thing to note is that it's a little weird getting used to the new key positioning. The macro keys on the left throw me off when I want to hit Tab or Shift, and removing the numpad also messes me up on the right side. I was expecting this and I'm sure it will pass with time. I want to try keeping the numpad on the left for a more ideal gaming position, so we'll see how that works out.

Truth is Absolutely Unrelated to Consensus

2009-12-04T16:16:00.000-06:00

In light of the recent issue of "Climategate" I hope people are understanding how other areas of science may be impacted by similar problems. If you think this problem is isolated to a few rogue scientists, you simply have not been paying attention to academia in our country and in the world. The fields of environmental science, historical science, and medical science are all damaged by corruption, greed, and deception. Even my own area of expertise, computer science, is not immune to these vices.

Facts are not factual just because people believe them to be true. Consensus is completely independent of truth. In addition, credentials have nothing to do with trustworthiness.

C. S. Lewis lamented the fact that the proper use of logic is no longer taught to our children. I lament with him, but I will not allow my own children to suffer the same harm.

HTPC Hardware

2009-11-11T22:02:00.001-06:00

Another friend recently asked me about home theater PCs (HTPC). This is a topic I've been wanting to post about for a while, but I've avoided it because it's a lot more complicated than gaming PCs.

Therefore, I've decided to keep it simple for now. I'm not going to talk about TV tuners, remote controls, optical disk drives, cases, or even software. I'm just going to start with what I know best: the core hardware.

Here are some important things to know when deciding what hardware to get for your media PC:

1) Many media processes are multithreaded, CPUs with multiple cores are more valuable.
2) Video card performance doesn't affect media as much as the processor does.
3) Silent components are very important.
4) You probably want to avoid components with bright lights.
5) HTPC cases usually lie flat and look similar to DVD players. These look less out-of-place in your home theater setup.

As you can see, the requirements for a media PC are quite different from those of gaming computers. That's not to say you can't have both in one machine, so I will attempt to put together both a media only PC and a combination media/gaming PC.

The media only rig is designed for a small case while the media/gaming PC is designed for a large case. For both, I will be excluding optical drives and cases. Your case is going to be a very personal choice based on your setup at home, and the optical drive will vary based on the type of case you get and whether you want to have a Blu-Ray player or not. An interesting point to note is that optical drives can come in both normal and slim sizes, so consider this when selecting your case.

Anyway, on to the hardware:

Media Only PC - Small Size:

Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.6GHz - $99
Motherboard: ASRock M3A785GMH/128M AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX Motherboard - $80
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 RAM - $94
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB 32MB - $55
Power Supply: Diablotek PHD Series PHD380M 380W MicroATX Power Supply - $30

Discount: $15 (CPU/RAM combo deal)
Shipping: $6
Total: $349

This particular machine features the most inexpensive quad-core processor available - the Athlon II 620. This CPU regularly outperforms more expensive processors in multithreaded applications, so it's an awesome deal for HTPCs.

The motherboard supports HDMI. In addition, the on-board video uses 128 MB of SidePort memory so you don't have to rely on your RAM. This is a great feature for anyone who wants to utilize on-board graphics processors. The motherboard's GPU should be able to easily handle the flashy desktop effects modern operating systems provide, and even play some 3D games at modest settings.

The RAM has a low cas latency, so it should be quite responsive.

Avoiding a dedicated graphics card is a great way to reduce size, heat, noise, and cost, so that's what we're doing here. If you're not worried about playing the latest 3D games at high settings on your HTPC, a dedicated card won't provide much benefit.

The Caviar Green hard drive is known for running very cool and quiet. The only thing more perfect for a media PC would be a solid state disk.

The power supply is small, and the reviewers also remarked about its silence. (Always do a search in the NewEgg comments for words like "loud," "noise," "quiet," and "silent" when looking for parts that might be noisy.) It still has enough oomph to easily handle some extra devices if you wish to add any.

Media and Gaming PC - Large Size:

Processor: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 Quad-Core Processor - $200
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler - $30
Motherboard: ASRock P55M Pro LGA 1156 Micro ATX Motherboard - $100
RAM: Patriot Viper II Sector 5 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM - $79 (after $15 rebate)
Video Card: HIS H487FM1GH Radeon HD 4870 1GB - $150
VGA Cooler: Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 - $27
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5G - $7
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB 32MB - $55
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 - $40 (after $25 rebate)

Discount: $14 (CPU/MB and Heatsink/Paste combo deals)
Shipping: $14
Total: $688

This machine utilizes what is just about the best gaming processor available - the Core i5-750. Coincidentally, it's also awesome for multithreaded applications. Since I'm expecting a larger case, I've added an affordable, efficient, and quiet heat-pipe-direct-touch heatsink. As an experiment, you might want to try detaching the fan from the heatsink and instead using it to ventilate your case. As long as there's enough cool air in your case, the passive cooling will probably be just fine on the processor. If you keep the connector plugged into the CPU fan spot, it should also regulate speed as a normal CPU fan would.

There's nothing too special to say about the motherboard other than the fact that it's small and supports firewire. This RAM also has low timings for good speed. Again, we have the Caviar Green for a hard drive.

The video card should be able to play all the latest games at great settings. It also has a HDMI port, which is a must for a good HTPC. Use the GPU heatsink on this card to keep things cool and quiet. If your case has good ventilation, you might be fine with passive cooling here too. You also get a nice combo with some Arctic Silver 5, which you can use on both the CPU and GPU.

Regarding cooling and thermal paste, I found a totally amazing article that covers the subject in crazy depth. You can find it here: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62

This power supply also has great reviews regarding its silence, and it has the power and connectors to handle the hefty video card plus more. There are alternatives with LED lights, but you probably want to avoid too many LEDs on media PCs.

That's it! I actually did the research for these parts last week so some of the deals may have changed. Regardless, it gives you an idea of what to look for. I'm still learning more and more about HTPCs, so if you have any comments or suggestions please provide them. Enjoy!

Budget Gaming Rigs for a Modern OS

2009-10-27T22:19:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, a friend asked:

"Hey Jeremy, think you could build a moderately priced ($600-$700) computer that will actually play things in 64bit? I got Windows 7 and want to actually run the thing along with some other new games..."

This is a great question, and probably one that many people are asking right now. It's very convenient to upgrade your hardware when you reformat to a new operating system. In my personal opinion, you really have just two gaming options near this price point. You can either go for an Intel-based system for a little more than $700, or you can go for an AMD-based system for a little under $600. Both are very solid and will get you almost the same gaming performance for now, but the Intel solution will be more future-proof. I'll list the builds first and then expand on the details.

$725 Intel Gaming System

Processor: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 Quad-Core Processor - $200
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler - $30
Motherboard: MSI P55M-GD45 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - $120
RAM: OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM - $79
Video Card: Powercolor AX4870 1GBD5 Radeon HD 4870 1GB - $150
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB 32MB - $55
Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $52
Power Supply: Kingwin ABT-610MM 610W ATX 12V Power Supply - $30
Optical Drive: Lite-On Black 24X SATA CD/DVD Burner - $26

Discount: $42 (CPU/MB and VC/RAM combo deals)
Shipping: $25
Total: $725

$571 AMD Gaming System

Processor: AMD Phenom II X3 710 2.6GHz - $100
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - $27 (after $10 rebate)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX Motherboard - $80
RAM: Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 RAM - $62 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: Asus EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GD5 Radeon HD 4870 Dark Knight 1GB - $140 (after $20 rebate)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB 32MB - $55
Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $52
Power Supply: Kingwin ABT-610MM 610W ATX 12V Power Supply - $30
Optical Drive: Lite-On Black 24X SATA CD/DVD Burner - $26

Discount: $23 (CPU/MB combo deal)
Shipping: $22
Total: $571

For the Intel machine, I selected the i5-750 because it's basically the best gaming processor you can get right now. Take a look: http://techreport.com/articles.x/17545/6. In order to get any more performance, you need to spend at least $350 MORE, and the difference is nothing you will ever notice. By the way, if you ever read CPU benchmark articles, make sure their testing methods use Windows 7 and not Vista. For some incredibly stupid reason, Tom's Hardware and AnandTech keep testing with Vista. Windows 7 has had significant changes to the way it handles multithreading, and it shows. Multi-core processors are now very relevant in the gaming world as the Tech Report article shows.

The one issue with using this type of processor is that none of its motherboards support multi-GPU solutions at x16 mode. You can only get PCI-Express x16 with one GPU. That's perfectly okay with me, though, because it rarely ever makes sense to use two video cards from a price/performance perspective. This MSI motherboard supports firewire and gigabit ethernet, and it should have everything else you could want.

It's generally a good idea to get an aftermarket CPU cooler even if you don't want to overclock. For overclockers, it's almost a necessity. I heard good things about the Cooler Master Hyper 212+, and a recent benchmark (http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/23884-intel-core-i7-lga1366-cpu-cooler-roundup-24.html) shows that it does very well in the price/performance/noise department.

The OCZ Obsidian RAM is a great value, but the CAS latency of 9 is a bit high. This won't make a noticeable difference, but you might want to see if you can clock it down to 8 without much trouble.

You might have heard about AMD's new DirectX 11 video cards. Well, the only one that makes sense from a price/performance perspective right now is the HD 5850 ($260), and it's out of stock in many places. Honestly, hold off on these until they have some competition from Nvidia. Supply shortages and lack of competition are keeping the prices a bit inflated right now. DirectX 11 won't be relevant for a while yet anyway. For now, the HD 4870 1GB will get you awesome performance and it won't break your wallet.

The Caviar Green is quiet and affordable. It does not have the same write performance as a Caviar Black, but the read speeds should be roughly the same and the Black costs $15 more. Reading is much more important than writing for gaming purposes.

The Antec 300 case should serve you very well. It doesn't come with a power supply, but it has much better cooling than the Rosewill cases I recommend for cheaper PCs. Larger fans move more air and are also quieter.

The Kingwin power supply is an awesome value! It has two 6-pin connectors for video cards, and the biggest video cards will require both. I have a similar Kingwin power supply, and it has served me reliably and quietly for over a year.

There's not much to say about the DVD burner. It has SATA connectors, which is something to watch for. You don't want to accidentally end up with bulky IDE cables in your new system!

For the AMD build, I picked the Phenom II X3 710 because it really seems to be the sweet spot for gaming processors. It has the large cache of the Phenom IIs, the gaming-optimal three cores, an architecture that will allow for some nice overclocking, and a price that puts Intel to shame. Sure, it can't compete with the i5-750, but it's not supposed to. If you want to save $150, this is the processor to grab.

The Gigabyte motherboard also supports firewire, gigabit ethernet, and PCI-Express 2.0, so you're basically getting the same stuff for much less.

The Xigmatek cooler is the same one that I have in my own machine. It rocks, hands down. For detailed results on what it did for me, take a look at the tail end of my first post no this blog.

The Patriot Viper DDR2 RAM is a great value and also has a very low CAS latency. It will perform quite well at stock settings.

I selected different 4870s for each build because of the combo deals. Reviews for either look great. Everything else in these machines is the same.

Really, the only serious difference between these two systems is the processor. If you'd rather save your money for a future video card upgrade or maybe even a soon-to-arrive 40GB X25-M G2 SSD for $85, you'll probably get more bang for your buck. Even so, the gaming potential of the i5 is hard to deny.

I wish I could tell you that there was another way to trim a few bucks off the Intel build, but the only thing that you can sacrifice without much pain is the processor (and, therefore, the motherboard). If you spend much less on the case, PSU, hard drive, RAM, or GPU, you're definitely going to feel the pain. All of those parts are totally worth every penny.

By the way, you might notice that the Intel build doesn't have any rebates to worry about. It's not a big deal, but some people seem to be afraid of rebates. If you get this particular AMD build, make sure to do it before the end of the month. If you don't, you'll have to re-analyze your options because there will be different rebates and sales. (Might get better deals though. Who knows? It's like timing the stock market.)

Note: You can get the Radeon HD 5850 from some place other than Newegg for $260 and free shipping. If you get the AMD build minus the HD 4870, that's $431. Add the 5850 for a total of $691. That'll give you a rig within the bounds of the budget in question, and a gaming experience far superior to the other two builds listed above. Oh, and you'll be all set for DirectX 11. Tempting, isn't it?

Gaming Hardware Happenings

2009-09-25T19:23:00.008-05:00

If you're considering the purchase of a gaming PC any time in the near future, you'll want to be aware of several important pieces of information. The hardware market is going to see some very interesting changes soon, and it will probably be to your benefit to wait just a little while longer until the waters settle.

Radeon HD 5800 Series

First of all, AMD just started releasing their HD 5800 video cards. These are the first DirectX 11 GPUs to hit the market, and their performance is significantly greater than anything else out there. The first card released this week is the 5870. We'll be seeing its little brother, the 5850, in a few days. Next month, we should have the 5870 X2 and the month after that we should see what might be the 5830. The 5850 is going to be the card that really shakes things up with its price/performance ratio. Therefore, now is probably not the best time to be purchasing video cards.

Nvidia should also be coming out with the GTX 300 series in a few months. These will be in direct competition with the HD 5800 cards, affecting prices even more. My advice: if you plan on spending more than $150 on a video card soon, don't. Wait until early 2010 for big GPU purchases.

Lucid Hyrda 200

Speaking of graphics cards, this nifty piece of technology should make GPU upgrades much more pleasant. Basically, this is a chip that can be included on motherboards that will allow you to use two very different video cards at the same time while benefitting from the performance of both. For example, you could theoretically have a Nvidia 8800 GT working in tandem with a new AMD HD 5850, getting a performance benefit otherwise not possible with either card. Due to the limitations of SLI and Crossfire, something like this is currently impossible.

Motherboards with this chip will be a bit more expensive than normal, but we'll see how the market reacts. Benchmarks should be available closer to the release in a month.

Clarkdale

Intel's new dual-core processors are codenamed Clarkdale, and they are manufactured with the 32nm process. They'll be available before the end of the year. There are also six-core versions in the works, but no quads any time soon. Expect these processors to be great overclockers with awesome gaming potential. The desktop versions will use the LGA-1156 socket, which is the same as the new Lynnfield processors.

I can see these processors being even more important for the mobile community than the gaming community. With a low-power 32nm process and only two cores, the performance/battery power ratio should be amazing.

Windows 7 and Multithreading

Most benchmarking sites use Vista x64 right now, but I stumbled upon this Tech Report review that switched over to Windows 7. They seem to have discovered something that could be quite significant for gamers. It appears that modern games in Windows 7 make better use of multi-core processors than in Vista or XP. According to the authos, Scott Wasson:

"Another trend of note is the relatively poor showing of the high-frequency dual-core processors we've included the group, the Core 2 Duo E8600 and the Phenom II X2 550. This isn't a trend we've come to expect, the higher clocked dual-cores falling behind even the slower quad cores like the Core 2 Quad Q9550. We are using newer versions of both of these games, which could have better threading optimizations. I kind of doubt that's it, though. My stronger suspicions involve Windows 7 and the switch to Nvidia GPUs and graphics drivers. Somewhere along the line, something has changed that's tipped the balance in the favor of higher core counts."

I think he may be on to something here. I've read about how Windows 7 had some significant adjustments to the way it assigns threads to cores, so I'm inclined to assume Windows 7 is the culprit here. When more Windows 7 CPU benchmarks arrive, we'll know for sure.

Keep in mind that these benchmarks were run at very low resolutions with very low graphical settings. This is done in order to turn the CPU into the bottleneck. In the real world, your GPU will almost always be your bottleneck when gaming, so this will only be a serious concern when your computer gets very old. Even so, I think the find is quite interesting.

Also interesting to note is how well the $200 Core i5-750 performs in the gaming benchmarks. This little sucker combined with a HD 5850 should be a sweet spot for budget gaming performance.

Bargain Gaming Rig

Finally, what would a computer gaming hardware update be without a new Bargain Gaming Rig? I know it's the end of the month, but if you're in the market some of these deals are just too good to pass up!

This is a significant upgrade from my previous bargain gaming rig. Instead of an Athlon II we have a Phenom II, and it's an unlocked Black Edition too! On top of that, the HD 4870 will deliver a significant performance boost over the 4850, and can handle higher resolutions with ease due to the 1GB of GDDR5 RAM. The hard drive also doubled in size. For an increase of only $75 from the last build, it's a great way to go.

Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $102
Motherboard: ECS BLACK SERIES GF8200A AMD ATX - $50 (after $20 rebate)
RAM: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 - $52 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: XFX HD-487A-ZWFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB - $125 (after $20 rebate)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB - $57
Case: Rosewill TU-155 Black Steel ATX 400W - $70
Optical Drive: HP Black 24X SATA DVD Burner - $30

Discount: $36 (CPU/RAM and MB/HD combo deals)
Shipping: $0!
Total: $450

Add Windows 7 Home Premium for $100.

This Week in History

2009-09-09T20:25:00.007-05:00

On September 7th, 12 years ago, video game history was made.

Okay, so I know that's probably one of the nerdiest statements you'll ever read, but I had to say it. On Friday, something caused me to reflect on what is probably my favorite video game of all time. I actually thought to myself, "Some time, I should blog a small tribute to Final Fantasy VII. Maybe on the anniversary of its North American release." So I looked it up and discovered the anniversary was in three days. Unreal.

Anyway, when I look back across my years of enjoying various video games, two very different games stand out from the rest for very different reasons: Doom and Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy VII was groundbreaking for a number of reasons. Primarily, this video game delivered an immersive cinematic experience like no other before it. When playing, it was as if you were sucked out of your chair and placed into your favorite adventure movie series. However, the word "adventure" doesn't do it justice. "Epic Tale" is more fitting. This special achievement is not something that was easily repeated. I've played several other role-playing video games over the years, including later Final Fantasy titles, and have yet to find a comparable experience.

In January 2005, it was selected by Electronic Gaming Monthly as sixth on their list of "the 10 most important games … that helped redefine the industry since … 1989". Citing its "beautiful cut-scenes and a deep, introspective narrative", they claimed that "Square’s game was … the first RPG to surpass, instead of copy, movie-like storytelling."

Other than that, Final Fantasy VII seems to have found itself a permanent place in video game history for two very clear reasons which I will discuss below. I'll try not to spoil too much just in case there's someone out there who may be convinced to experience this for himself.

The Best (Worst?) Villain in Video Game History

Who are some of the most memorable, fictional villains you can think of? Hannibal Lecter, Gollum, and the Joker all come to my mind. But for me, this list is incomplete without Sephiroth.

The hero of Final Fantasy VII is Cloud Strife. The game does a fantastic job of placing you in Cloud's shoes instead of just showing you how cool he is. Cloud's nemesis is Sephiroth. As the story unfolds, there is a point at which Cloud asks Sephiroth, "What about my pain?" When I first played the game, it was at this point that I had to put down the game controller, get up, and remind myself that I was only watching a story. On very rare occasions, a good book will give me a similar feeling. No movies so far.

The feeling is hard to describe, but this game made me want to actually hate a person that doesn't even exist. Maybe that's impossible, but Final Fantasy VII pushes many limits. (...in a "this is amazingly unique" way, not a "Grand Theft Auto" way.)

The Most Memorable Moment in Video Game History

Final Fantasy VII did something that is basically unheard-of in video games, even today. I'll let others do the explaining:

[Something Happens] in a scene referred to as "the most shocking moment in video games".

Director and scenario writer Yoshinori Kitase concludes: "... It leaves, not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness. ... you feel this big empty space and think, 'If I had known this was coming I would have done things differently.' ... Feelings of reality and not Hollywood."

While reflecting on the game, Tetsuya Nomura [said] "... When I reflect on Final Fantasy VII, the fact that fans were so offended ... probably means that we were successful ... The world was expecting us to [undo this event], as this is the classic convention." A lengthy petition asking for [undoing] by Japanese players was sent to scenario writer Yoshinori Kitase. However, Kitase states that "there are many meanings in [this event] and that could never happen".

[The event] in Final Fantasy VII has received a great deal of attention. Players commented on message boards and blogs about the emotional impact the scene held. Fans submitted a petition to Yoshinori Kitase requesting [its undoing]. GameSpy numbers [the event] as the 10th greatest cinematic moment in video game history. Its readers voted it the second most cinematic moment in video games. GamePro considers [the event] sequence to be the greatest of all gaming moments. Tom's Games called the scene "one of the most powerful and memorable scenes of the Final Fantasy series - or any other game, for that matter." Edge called [the event] the "dramatic highpoint" of Final Fantasy VII... . In 2005, Electronic Gaming Monthly listed Final Fantasy VII number six in their list of "10 Most Important Games", stating without it, "[The event wouldn't have happened], and gamers wouldn’t have learned how to cry." GamesTM commented [the event] helped establish the popularity of Final Fantasy VII. ScrewAttack has added [the event] in their "Top 10 OMGWTF Moments" referring to it as one of the "touchiest moments in video game history."

There's not much I can add except this: if you only ever play one video game in your entire life, it should be Final Fantasy VII.

Note for this post: Words in italics or the image captions are not my own, but probably found on Wikipedia.

Operating Systems - The Best of the Best

2009-08-15T11:00:00.006-05:00

If you weren't aware, Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional upgrades were available a few weeks ago for a significant preorder discount. At $50 for the Home Premium upgrade, they got me to bite. I'm currently running XP Professional 32-bit, so this will be an upgrade for me in several ways.

First of all, I plan on running the 64-bit version. Second, I'll jump from DirectX 9 to 11. Well, my video card currently only supports 10, but games won't really take advantage of 11 for a while anyway. Third, I'll finally be using the new Windows interface. It's a little frustrating trying to help other people that use Vista while I stumble around on their machine trying to figure out where all the administrative stuff got moved to. As someone who takes pride in being the best at troubleshooting PC problems, it's also embarrassing.

When I reformat for the new Windows install, I also plan on installing the latest version of Linux Mint. I'm currently running Ubuntu 8.10 x64, and I really haven't been using it much lately. I'd like to get to the point where I'm habitually using Linux for everything except Windows-only games. I think Linux Mint will help make that happen because I have been happily using Mint 6 on a laptop.

Windows 7 is scheduled for release on October 22nd. Coincidentally, Ubuntu 9.10 will be out around the same time, so Mint 8 x64 should be out shortly after that. However, I'm not sure I want to jump right into Windows 7 as soon as it hits the streets regardless of how well the beta has been running for everyone. Ubuntu 10.04 (April 2010) will be the Long Term Support version which has more of a focus on stability instead of new features. I think we can expect Mint 9 in early May. At that point, Windows 7 will have had half a year to work out any early issues, and so will driver developers.

Therefore, I'm not sure what course I want to take. Should I install Windows 7 with Mint 8 in November 2009, or should I wait for Mint 9 LTS in May 2010 and give Windows a chance to be "broken in?" Let me know what you think. Either way, the comparisons should be interesting.

I might even go nuts and throw in a hardware upgrade of some sort. Around April, if Newegg has a good combo for 4GB DDR3 and a DX11 video card, things could start to get crazy!

Bargains, Power, and Overkill

2009-08-08T10:11:00.003-05:00

While the bargain gaming rigs sure are a great bang for the buck, I understand that you might be looking for something with a little more power. Today I'll show you three different gaming rigs at very different price ranges. Each of these will give you a practical idea of what you can actually expect to pay. Most tech websites do not do this because they ignore combo deals and sometimes even rebates. Yes, these deals change all the time, but when they do they are replaced by similar deals. If you're in the market for a new machine but these exact deals are no longer available, just drop me a line and I'll help you sift through the combos and rebates for the deals with your name on them.

Today we'll look at what I call the Bargain Gaming Rig, the Practical Power Rig, and the Overkill Rig. I know. I'm so creative. Let's start with the inexpensive one.

Bargain Gaming Rig:

Processor: Athlon II X2 245 - $68
Motherboard: ECS IC780M-A AMD 770 ATX - $50 (after $10 rebate)
RAM: Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - $40 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-R485ZL-512H Radeon HD 4850 - $90 (after $20 rebate)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB - $45
Case: Rosewill TU-155 Black Steel ATX - $50
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X SATA DVD Burner - $29

Discount: $17 (CPU/MB and Case/HD combo deals)
Shipping: $20
Total: $375

This machine will play all of the latest games. The most demanding of them, however, will need to have some of their settings set to medium levels. Later on you can upgrade this machine with any PCI-Express 2.0 card, so it's not like you'll have to replace this rig any time soon. If you're on a tight budget and don't care about running the most demanding games on the highest settings, this is the machine for you.

Practical Power Rig:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE - $119
CPU Cooler: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 - $37
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G Micro ATX - $90
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 - $75
Video Card: HIS H487FN1GP Radeon HD 4870 1GB - $150
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB - $75
Case: Rosewill TU-155 II 500 Black cold rolled steel ATX - $80
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X SATA DVD Burner - $29

Discount: $40 (CPU/VC, MB/RAM, and HD/Case combo deals)
Shipping: $25
Total: $640

This machine is an upgrade from the bargain rig in every way, excepting the DVD drive. This processor is really the sweet spot of gaming processors. It overclocks better than any of the other Phenom II processors. Recent benchmarks have shown that a fourth core on the same architecture (regardless of CPU manufacturer) yields no benefit in gaming - as long as you're not running demanding tasks in the background. If you overclock this processor, you will not get any other overclocked Phenom II to outperform it.

The motherboard doesn't support SLI or Crossfire, but practical gamers will want to avoid using multiple GPUs anyway. The benefit is just not worth the cost. It does support DDR3 which, unlike multi-GPU solutions, is becoming more practical as time goes on. You might want to try overclocking the RAM to 8-8-8-24 timings; I'm sure you could get away with it. The video card will chew up almost anything you throw at it, as long as your monitor doesn't run at a crazily high resolution. You should be able to play the latest games for a few years on this.

As an added bonus, there are no rebates so you don't have to wait for your money to come back.

Overkill Rig:

Processor: Intel Core i7 920 - $280
CPU Cooler: XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V - $45
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 ATX - $175 (after $15 rebate)
RAM: OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 - $90 (after $10 rebate)
Video Card: MSI R4890-T2D1G OC Radeon HD 4890 1GB - $180 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: HIS H489F1GP Radeon HD 4890 1GB - $190
Hard Drive: Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G1 80GB SSD - $230
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB - $70
Case: NZXT TEMPEST Black Steel / Plastic ATX - $80 (after $20 rebate)
Power Supply: Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-S-B 850W - $100
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X SATA DVD Burner - $29

Discount: $45 (CPU/Fan, MB/RAM, and VC/PSU combo deals)
Shipping: $38
Total: $1,462

Happy birthday, Jeremy! (hint, hint)

While this machine looks absolutely crazy, I wouldn't exactly say that it's wasteful. It's very future-proof and you will notice the performance gains. If you wanted, you could remove one of the video cards and the SSD to bring the price close to $1k. The machine really won't lose any longevity if you do that.

The processor is basically the best you can get. At stock speeds, it outperforms anything but the other Core i7 CPUs. It overclocks better than any other processor on the market. We're also using two HD 4890s in Crossfire here. I think that all X58 motherboards have at least two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 lanes, and this one is no exception. This graphical power will allow you to play Crysis smoothly at 2560 x 1600 with the highest settings.

Yes, I listed two hard drives. Yes, one is a high-performance solid state disk. Use it to install Windows and your games with the longest load times. Potty breaks between levels will be a thing of the past! There's enough room, power, and cooling to keep all this hardware under control. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory.

Next time some website tells you that you need to spend over $2000 for the ultimate gaming experience, just laugh. This machine gives you all the performance you could want, and all without becoming a jet engine space heater. Think it's missing something? Leave a comment and let me know!

Recommended Related Reading:
New Gaming Rigs - Where to Start
Again with Feeling

Saving Money with Google Voice

2009-07-31T19:58:00.008-05:00

[Update: If you make your outbound Gizmo5 calls from the Google Voice website, they are completely free even past the first 3 minutes. Gizmo seems to treat it as an incoming call because Google is technically calling Gizmo when you use that method. That means both the incoming and outgoing calls form your PC are completely free all the time. I'm not sure if this is intentional or if it will last, but that's the story for now.]

If you haven't heard about Google Voice yet, it's time you did. This new service not only provides you with amazing new options for managing your phone communications, but it also has the potential to save you a lot of money. In this blog post, I'm going to explain the basics of Google Voice and then give some examples of ways to improve the cost effectiveness of your phone plan.

When you sign up for a Google Voice account you will choose a phone number. This number can be used as a middle man between all your phone numbers and the outside world. If someone calls your Google Voice number, GV will make a call to all the phones you've registered on the account. Whichever phone picks up first is the one that ends up taking the call. It's sort of like having all the land phones in your house ring when someone calls your land line. This is why people have called the GV number "one number to rule them all." Of course, you can make outgoing calls from your GV number using any of your phones. Text messaging is also fully supported.

If you use Google Voice for calls from anywhere within the mainland US to anywhere within the mainland US, everything is free. They charge small rates for international calls, but I'm not going to get into that here.

Now for the really cool part. There's this SIP service called Gizmo5. It is currently the only SIP service that Google Voice supports. What it basically allows you to do is make Google Voice calls with any internet-capable device. You will need to sign up for a Gizmo5 account and apply the proper configuration settings to both your Google Voice and Gizmo5 accounts. It's not too difficult.

Gizmo doesn't charge anything for incoming calls. However, they do limit your outgoing Google Voice calls to 3 minutes free. If you want the outgoing calls to last longer than 3 minutes, you can purchase additional minutes for what I believe is currently 2c/min. In order to set up Gizmo on your internet-capable device, you will need to install a SIP client. Gizmo has one that you can download from their site, and it works on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Gizmo uses open standards so you have the option of using other SIP clients to hook up to your Gizmo account.

Let's now consider a few options for saving money.

1) The Gazelle Intense Method (as Dave Ramsey would put it)

Forget paying for cell phones or land lines. Assuming you have a home internet connection, your computer can be your new home phone. Sign up for Google Voice and Gizmo5 and install a SIP client on your computer. With the client running as a background program, your computer will "ring" whenever someone calls your GV number. You can also use the SIP client to make outgoing calls. You'll even have unlimited text messaging. With a microphone or headset, you'll be good to go.

What you're paying for here is the regular fee for your home internet connection, the power to keep your computer running, and the occasional cost of outgoing calls that last longer than 3 minutes. You can avoid the latter by asking your friends to call you back. There's also the one-time cost of a headset or microphone if you don't have one already. This solution is obviously not the most convenient because your computers are your only phones, but it's practically free. If you're running on a tight budget and are willing to give up a little freedom in order to make ends meet, it's worth considering. The best part is that you can easily eat your beans 'n' rice when you don't have to hold a phone to your ear!

Detailed instructions can be found here.

2) The Voiceless Method

The "voiceless" method involves using only a data plan for your mobile device and not paying for a voice plan. Some plan providers do offer the option of getting a monthly data plan without a voice plan. U.S. Cellular, for example, offers a personal unlimited data plan for $30/month without a voice plan. All you need is a device capable of accessing the internet and running a SIP client. A basic Blackberry should do the trick.

This gives you the mobility of a cell phone with all the advantages that come with having an internet data plan. You can check your e-mail and surf the web from anywhere. You get free unlimited incoming calls, free unlimited text messaging, and free outgoing calls as long as they're under 3 minutes.

The cost to you is the price of the data plan and the cost of extra outgoing minutes. Again, you can avoid the latter if you don't mind asking others to call you back. You'll also have the one-time cost of purchasing an internet-capable mobile device if you don't have one already.

3) Unlimited Everything Everywhere

Consider, now, what Google Voice means for T-Mobile users with a myFaves plan. List your Google Voice number as one of your "faves" and you will have effectively gained unlimited anytime minutes. All you need is the cheapest plan you can find that allows you to select "faves." These plans seem to run at $40 for single users and $70 for family plans. Each phone on the plan can have five "faves" which are numbers that cann be called an unlimited number of times with no additional cost. Five is four too many. If you also purchase the data plan which seems to be $40 and have an internet-capable phone, you'll get unlimited texting and internet usage.

Basically, this means that $80/month will get a single user unlimited everything. Who needs anytime minutes or texting packages?

Finally, do I recommend dropping everything and switching to Google Voice for all your phone needs? Only if you're willing to deal with the risks. Consider that you'll be relying heavily on both Google and Gizmo. Both of their products are experiencing something very new right now, and big changes may or may not be headed their way. Cell plan providers are also very likely to make serious changes because of this. If your current provider has been reliable and affordable, you should think twice before burning your bridges. Start out by requesting a Google Voice invitation and play around with it in combination with your current plan. Get used to it and let it mature for a while. After Google Voice and Gizmo5 have proven track records for reliable service - and your current cell contract expires - the extreme measures mentioned above will be much less risky.

I should also add that I have only personally tested method #1. I'd have to change my cell plan in order to try the others, so you'll have to look elsewhere for confirmation that they definitely work. If you do have any other questions about Google Voice, however, let me know and I'll do my best to find an answer. I'm willing to experiment.

Google Voice is currently only available via invitation. To request an invite to Google Voice, follow the link at the top of this page. I got mine in about a week.

Athlon II - Bargain CPU

2009-07-25T12:34:00.006-05:00

Newegg recently made something available that has caused me to reconsider the bargain gaming rig. I've been recommending the Phenom II X2 550 BE because of its incredible bang for the buck. However, it is still the most expensive component in the bargain gaming rig at $100. When it was released, AMD also gave us the Athlon II X2 250. This unique processor is also built using a 45nm process like the Phenom II line, and it works with the same motherboards because it uses the AM3 socket. It's not as fast as the Phenom II in games, but it's also $20 cheaper and has similar overclocking results. It's important to remember that this performance difference only matters in gaming when the CPU is your bottleneck. That won't happen for a few years. (You might also want to note that it significantly outperforms the $73 Pentium E5300 at stock speeds.)

Well, I've been recommending the Phenom II anyway because it is more future proof. The thing that caused me to reconsider this choice is the release of the Athlon II X2 245. It has all the same specs as the 250 except that it runs at 2.9 GHz instead of 3.0 GHz. If you think you'll ever notice the difference, I have a bridge to sell you. Now for the kicker: this CPU is only $65! That's 2/3 the cost of the Phenom II for a difference that you will not notice in your gaming experience. It also comes with a nice combo on a PCI-E 2.0 motherboard. I think the word, "bargain," fits this part like a glove. Let's put it in a full build:

Processor: Athlon II X2 245 - $65
Motherboard: BIOSTAR TA790GXB A2+ 790GX ATX - $80 (after $20 rebate)
RAM: Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - $30 (after $25 rebate)
Video Card: HIS H485QT512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $80 (after $20 rebate)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green WD7500AADS 750GB - $60
Case: Rosewill TU-155 Black Steel ATX - $55
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X SATA DVD Burner - $27

Discount: $25 (CPU/MB combo deal)
Shipping: $25
Total: $397

As with the other bargain rigs, mind the power supply if you want to add more devices. You might consider grabbing the RAIDMAX AURORA 2 RX-600F 600W PSU for $30 if you're not comfortable with the one that comes with the case. As always, if you want to play with overclocking, I suggest grabbing the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 for $27.

The Caviar Green 750GB recently dropped in price so it's only $2 more than the 500GB version. Might as well go with that one. The video card says it's a special weekend deal, but that's what it said last week too. There's another available for the same price if this one goes up. You get a free Stormrise game too!

The end result is a gaming rig that is powerful enough to play all the latest games in stunning detail for less than $400! It's also quite upgradeable as it supports up to 16GB DDR2 RAM, Phenom II processors, and PCI-Express 2.0 video cards. As usual, the rebates expire at the end of the month. Don't fret if you miss out, though, because there will just be a new batch of deals in August.

Recommended Related Reading:
New Gaming Rigs - Where to Start
July Bargain Gaming Rig

July Bargain Gaming Rig

2009-07-18T09:55:00.007-05:00

If you're looking for an inexpensive yet powerful gaming rig this month, you won't be able to get a better deal than this machine. When compared to last month's setup, there aren't many significant differences. The price is only slightly higher at $430. Even though base prices have dropped, there really aren't many combo deals available right now. If Newegg starts throwing out combos again, we could easily get below $400. Anyway, here are the goods:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $100
Motherboard: Foxconn A7GM-S 2.0 Micro ATX - $70
RAM: Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - $31 (after $25 rebate)
Video Card: MSI R4850-512M OC Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $83 (after $30 rebate)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB - $58
Case: Rosewill TU-155 Black Steel ATX - $50
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X SATA DVD Burner - $26

Discount: $10 (CPU/MB combo deal)
Shipping: $22
Total: $430

The RAM and video cards are different brands but essentially the same. The hard drive is a Caviar Green instead of a Black. This is because the Black costs $70 - a $12 difference. I honestly doubt you'll notice a different in performance due to the hard drive change because the Green is still no slouch. It still has 32MB cache, so we're really not sacrificing any significant specs.

I also changed the motherboard. This is mostly due to the fact that it has free shipping, making it slightly more affordable. It does have a few differences from last month's board, but I don't feel any of them are worth worrying about. One nice feature is that it has on-board video with HDMI. If your goal is to simply build a powerful machine but don't care about gaming, you can ignore the video card for a new total of $346. I'm also glad that we have another option than ASUS because I haven't been too thrilled with their service. I just don't feel right recommending their hardware anymore. On the other hand, I'm using a Foxconn board right now and couldn't be happier.

One thing to consider here is that there are a few combos for different cases. If you don't like the one I picked, keep this in mind. Also, if you need an operating system there are small combos with Windows. Next month should be interesting. With the right combos in the right places, we might end up with a perfect back-to-school machine for the student who likes to play hard after studying hard.

As always, I'm willing to work with you to customize your own machine. Let me know your thoughts!

Recommended Related Reading:
New Gaming Rigs - Where to Start
June Bragain Gaming Rig
What a Little More will Get You

Mimicking the Superior

2009-06-19T22:17:00.012-05:00

Sallie over at WELSTech recommended Lifehacker's List of Essential Free Windows Downloads by Kevin Purdy. It's a very nice list of free software that will definitely enhance your computing experience. Every Windows user should check it out.

I have used many of the programs they recommend and I agree with many of their recommendations. They've also suggested some things I haven't tried yet but will soon. There are a small number of items on the list that I can't say I would recommend because I feel there are better alternatives.

I'd like to go over many of the items on this list with my own comments. I'll also be offering a slightly different perspective, being the Linux advocate that I am. You see, one of the best ways to get used to Linux is to use Linux-compatible software in Windows. That way it becomes easier to switch between the two operating systems.

I will also look at whether the software is open source, though this probably won't affect my own recommendations much. In addition, I will talk about other possible software needs they did not address.

Foxit Reader
Linux: Yes
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? Yes

Foxit Reader is absolutely wonderful and I completely agree with Lifehacker here. I switched to Foxit after Adobe Reader tried installing other junk on my computer in a rather sneaky manner. I've been using it for years, and so should you.

Most Linux distros come with their own built-in PDF readers that are also fast and friendly, so Foxit isn't really needed there.

Notepad++
Linux: N/A
Open Source: Yes
Do I recommend it? Yes

Notepad++ is another sweet piece of productivity software. I'm a big fan of plain text because it's usually all I need to get the job done. The colors, tabs, and plugins great features.

While Notepad++ is open source, it does not work natively on Linux. However, this doesn't matter yet again. Linux distros often come with text editors that already include my favorite features in Notepad++.

OpenOffice.org
Linux: Yes
Open Source: Yes
Do I recommend it? Yes

Lifehacker didn't actually put OpenOffice on the list, but they did recommend it in their Notepad++ paragraph. I also recommend it. OpenOffice serves as a great replacement for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others.

Yes, it will still allow you to read, create, and edit .doc, .xls, .ppt, and other file types used by MS Office. If you're daring enough, you can even adhere to the OpenDocument standard. OpenOffice is free and open source, and is often automatically bundled with Linux distros. There's a very good chance you have absolutely nothing to gain by using MS Office, which costs a lot of money. So don't!

Texter
Linux: No
Open Source: Yes
Do I recommend it? No

It looks like Texter is Lifehacker's own design. I can see how it could definitely be useful for some people with specific needs, but I don't think I'd get much use out of it at home. I might try giving it a whirl at work because I can see the advantages for a software developer. For most people, it will probably become another ignored app running in the background.

Firefox
Linux: Yes
Open Source: Yes
Do I recommend it? Yes

The question of whether Firefox is the best browser available is not easy to answer, but you'll be hard pressed to come up with a good reason to use Internet Explorer instead. I've used Firefox for years. When I made the switch from Internet Explorer, my spyware detectors stopped finding crud on my system. I also super customizable, and Lifehacker has some awesome Firefox tips! I'll be trying many of them soon.

Again, Linux distros often come bundled with Firefox. The fact that it's open source is what really gives Firefox its strength. The community behind this product is massive.

Pidgin
Linux: Yes
Open Source: Yes
Do I recommend it? Yes

I recently installed Pidgin and have been loving it. It works with my AIM account that is over fifteen years old, my Yahoo account that I created for communication with family, my Google account that I use more than the others, Xfire, Twitter, and many others that I don't use. I have all the mentioned chat accounts running at the same time using one simple, small program called Pidgin.

Linux distros often come with Pidgin too. You may need to install plugins for various services like Xfire, Twitter, or Facebook, but the process is not difficult.

Postbox
Linux: No
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? No

Lifehacker mentions several features Postbox has that Thunderbird doesn't, but the only one I think I'd use is tabbed e-mail views. I've never used Postbox, but I'm sure it's a good piece of software.

There are a few problems with Postbox, however. First, it's in beta. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself, but it does mean that there is less support in the form of addons. It's not open source, so people are unable to change it to fit their own needs. (While it's not supported by default, people have developed addons and source changes that implement tabbed messaging in Thunderbird.) Thunderbird supports calendaring through the Lightning addon, but Postbox has no calendaring support yet. Also, the Postbox FAQ says that "pricing has not yet been announced." No thanks.

Thunderbird is installed by default on some Linux distros such as Linux Mint, which is my recommendation for Linux beginners. If your distro doesn't come with it built in, it's easy enough to install. Lifehacker says they have previously recommended Thunderbird. They should continue to do so.

7-Zip
Linux: N/A
Open Source: Yes
Do I recommend it? Yes

There's not much to say here. It lets you open pretty much any kind of archive. Use it and love it.

Linux distros usually come with their own archivers that support .7z, .rar, .zip, and other archive formats. This 7-Zip falls under the same category as Foxit and Notepad++ in that you simply won't need it if you use Linux.

Everything
Linux: N/A
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? No

Maybe it's faster than the basic Windows search, but I don't use that often enough to care. I wouldn't bother with this.

Linux distros come with efficient search tools built in.

µTorrent
Linux: N/A
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? N/A

The only reason I'm reluctant to recommend µTorrent is because I don't like recommending things I have never used. I don't use BitTorrent, but if you do this sounds like a sweet piece of software. I see no problems with it.

Many Linux distros include their own Torrent clients.

I'm starting to see an interesting trend here. I'll elaborate later.

Revo Uninstaller
Linux: N/A
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? No

One word comes to mind: overkill. While I do recommend running RegCleaner every now and then, I don't see a need for this uninstaller. Most programs provide their own uninstallers, and you can just delete leftover folders manually if for some reason they don't go away. If, however, you want your hand held through the entire process I suppose this might give you some comfort.

Linux installation and uninstallation is vastly superior to Windows, so solutions like this are laughably unnecessary.

TeraCopy
Linux: N/A
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? No

This is cool. However, like Texter and Everything, I don't see myself benefitting from it much at home. Back when I was doing tech support in college, I totally would have loved this. I just don't do much playing around with large files now. This probably fits in the same categories as Texter and Everything, where I can see how they could be useful in the right situation. However, they're just not awesome enough for me to bother with them.

I'm pretty sure Linux handles files a bit more efficiently and safer than Windows, but I'd have to do some reasearch before I could explain how.

ImgBurn
Linux: Official Wine Support
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? N/A

This sounds great and I plan on giving it a try, but as of right now I haven't used it yet. The burning software that came with my DVD burner does everything I need it to. However, I'm tempted to uninstall it and try ImgBurn, and I may do just that if I ever have some time to kill. (Yeah, right!)

Linux distros often come with their own burning software, though I can't really elaborate on all their features. ImgBurn isn't natively supported in Linux. However, it is officially supported in Wine, which means that it "works perfectly" in Wine.

Picasa
Linux: Yes
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? N/A

I don't really have much to say about Picasa because I have never tried it. It does work with Linux. I might suggest it to my wife, who manages our family pictures.

VLC
Linux: Yes
Open Source: Yes
Do I recommend it? Yes

VLC is an absolute winner. I've used it for years and love it. It's open source and works with Linux.

iTunes
Linux: No
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? No

I don't have an iPod or iPhone, so I don't use iTunes. If you do, I guess you don't have much of a choice. It doesn't work with Linux.

Songbird
Linux: Yes
Open Source: Yes
Do I recommend it? N/A

I think I will download Songbird soon. I've only used Windows Media Player and Amarok, but Songbird definitely sounds like a winner. I do like Amarok, so I'm curious to see how they compare. Amarok, however, doesn't really have native support for Windows.

Dropbox
Linux: Yes
Open Source: Partially
Do I recommend it? N/A

I can see how some people might like Dropbox's synchronization features, but I'd probably never use them. However, Dropbox does get points for its security measures and the fact that you can upload files through a web interface. I'm assuming this means you don't have to install software just to store files somewhere else. I'll probably try it out soon.

Mozy
Linux: No
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? No

While Mozy has good security, it doesn't support Linux or allow for much free space. However, ADrive has 50GB free storage space and supports Linux. Adrive doesn't use too many security features in the free version, so you might want to keep your sensitive stuff on Dropbox. However, the massive space is great for large photo albums.

KeePass
Linux: Yes
Open Source: Yes
Do I recommend it? Yes

Well, the cross platform version (Windows, Mac, and Linux) is actually KeePassX. Martin over at WELSTech recommended this a while ago, and I just started using it. It's a great concept! I recently had a hard time trying to remember all my chat logins when I set up Pidgin. KeePassX will prevent me from having similar problems in the future while keeping everything secure.

AVG Free
Linux: Yes (Hah!)
Open Source: No
Do I recommend it? No

AV-Comparatives, an independent antivirus tester, shows that AVG just isn't cutting it when compared against other antivirus software. Instead, AVIRA does a much better job, runs faster, and is also free. AVIRA's only problem (which AVG also shares) is the fact that is comes up with more false positives than the two best (non-free) scanners, Kaspersky and NOD32. All this means is that if AVIRA catches something, you'll want to make sure it actually is a virus before having it removed. Quarantines work well for this.

I used to use AVG and I love the fact that they provide a free scanner for personal use. However, AVIRA's product is simply superior.

If you need a virus scanner on Linux, you're probably doing something wrong.

Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware
Linux: N/A
Open Source: No
Do I recommend them? No

If you use Avira and Firefox, these two programs will get bored with nothing to do. Therefore, don't waste your time on them. If you're really paranoid, go ahead and use Ad-Aware. However, Spybot got old a long time ago and just isn't as effective as it used to be.

Spyware and Linux don't belong in the same sentence together. Oops.

So there you have it. I haven't read much on Lifehacker before, but I thought this article was pretty good. I do disagree on a few things, but I'm also looking at this from a different angle. I'll definitely be trying out some of their recommendations. Below is a summary of my thoughts.

Things I recommend:

Foxit Reader
Notepad++
OpenOffice.org
Firefox
Pidgin
Thunderbird
7-Zip
RegCleaner
VLC
KeePassX
AVIRA

Things I would like to try:

µTorrent
ImgBurn
Picasa
Songbird
Dropbox
ADrive

Things I do not recommend:

Texter
Postbox
Everything
Revo Uninstaller
TeraCopy
iTunes
Mozy
AVG Free
Spybot Search & Destroy
Ad-Aware

By the way, remember that trend I said I thought I saw? After scrolling through this list, I came to realize that most of the items (2/3 of them) are attempts to give Windows features that exist in Linux by default or fix problems that don't exist in Linux. So basically, if you want a superior computing experience out of the box you should seriously consider my ultimate recommendation: Linux Mint.

Silent but Deadly

2009-06-10T17:58:00.003-05:00

Let's take a closer look at noise. If you're like me, you'd rather not be able to hear your PC from the other room. Noisy components can be quite irritating, and your computing experience may be enhanced by not just increasing performance, but by reducing noise.

What causes noise in a computer?

Noise is caused by components in your machine that move. Most of these moving components are fans, but there are two other common components with parts that move often and generate noise:

Hard Drive
Optical Drive (CD, DVD, Blu-Ray)

Both of these drives use moving components to read and write data. You may recognize their sounds - audible hard drives will often start clicking when you fire up a program and DVD drives will whirr up when you pop in a disk. These sounds are often in sync with lights on the front of your computer case.

The electrical components in your computer can get quite hot. This is bad for electronics, because they can only tolerate so much heat before they become damaged. These components are usually very small, so heatsinks are used to dissipate the heat over a large surface area. Larger heatsinks can spread the heat over a larger area, keeping things cooler.

In order to help heat spread from an electrical component to a heatsink, a form of "thermal paste" is usually applied between the two parts. The purpose of this paste is to displace the small pockets of air that end up between two touching pieces of metal. Air acts as an insulator, (keeping your components hot by preventing the spreading of heat) but the paste is made of components that conduct heat well, allowing it to spread more evenly.

To better understand this effect, imagine a metal pot with a wooden handle. The handle is safe to hold while cooking because the wood is full of air pockets that insulate your hand from the heat. If you touch any metal, however, you will get burned because the heat travels through the metal much easier. Inside a computer, this free travel of heat is actually desired because we want to suck all the heat out of those little microchips. (Did you know your pot would heat up more efficiently if you put thermal paste on the burner? ...until the paste burns up, anyway. Not recommended.)

Whenever you buy a heatsink, it will usually come with its own thermal paste. However, you can also purchase thermal paste separately. People often praise Arctic Silver as being more efficient than other thermal paste, and there are some benchmarks out there to support these claims. I am of the opinion that the marginal difference is not worth the added cost, but I that's really up to the buyer.

Having a fan blow air through heatsinks helps to drastically cool hot electronics. Fans are what cause the general humming that you hear in the background whenever your computer is on. They rarely change speed during use, so it is often easy to forget they are running. Generally, larger fans can move more air while spinning at slower speeds. This means that larger heatsinks and fans tend to keep things cooler and quieter.

Common components that use fans include:

Processor
Motherboard
Video Card
Power Supply
Case

Basically, this means that just about any component in your computer, except for the RAM, has the potential to generate noise. It is a good idea, then, to do a little research on each part before deciding it is right for you. Sure, that Radeon 4870 might be a bargain, but it has the potential to turn your otherwise quiet system into something that will make the dog howl.

How do I find out if a component is noisy before I buy it?

There are two main ways, other than personal observation, to determine whether a component will be noisy. First, look at the customer reviews. Newegg's customer reviews are a vital part of making purchasing decisions. If the sound generated by the component is noteworthy, people will talk about it. People will either complain that it is too loud, or remark at how pleased they were with its silence. Go to the customer review pages for a part and do a search for words like, "quiet," "noise," and "silent." These reviews are objective, of course, but it still gives you a good place to start.

The other way to find out how loud a component will be is to look for hardware review articles. Benchmark sites sometimes compare sound levels between components in order to give potential buyers a more objective measurement.

What can I do to reduce noise?

One way to reduce noise is to buy an "aftermarket" cooler for your component. This is mostly done for processors and video cards. CPUs and GPUs always come with their own stock heatsink and fan, but they are often not as effective as one would like. CPU stock coolers seem to be consistently mediocre. However, GPU manufacturers are often more flexible with their solutions and you will sometimes get lucky with a very silent and cool stock solution.

If you want a good aftermarket cooler for your Phenom II or Core 2 processor, I recommend the Xigmatek HDT-S1283. You can see my personal results with it in my first blog post. For $27 plus shipping, it's a steal. It's also very large, so you'll need to make sure your case has room for it. It comes with its own large fan which is very quiet. The heatsink is so effective that you might even be able to get away without using the fan at all! You'll need good case airflow if you want to try that.

Apparently, there are two good solutions for a video card, which I mentioned in my last post. The Thermalright HR-03 is the most effective, but it is also a bit pricey at around $45. You'll have to go somewhere other than Newegg to find one as well. A more reasonable choice is the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev.2. This one is also very effective and only costs $25 plus shipping. Neither of these two coolers come with fans, but they are able to keep things cool anyway. You can attach a quiet 120mm fan if you like.

Another way to reduce noise in your system is to adjust the fan speeds. For CPUs and motherboards, your BIOS may allow you to set fan speeds that will be used at certain temperatures. As long as your components are staying cool, you might as well let the fans run at around 20% because faster speeds are not needed. Of course, different motherboards will allow you to do different things.

For GPUs, you can try using ATI Tray Tools for ATI cards or RivaTuner for NVIDIA cards. These software programs allow you to change many settings on your video cards, overclock them, and even adjust fan speeds for different temperatures. You can even use them to monitor temperatures for most components in your system. Your options for fan speed will depend on what video card you have.

If a component of yours is running cool enough and you are unable to adjust the fan speed, you may be able to get away with simply removing the fan. Always check the temperatures after doing this to ensure that the heatsink alone is enough to passively keep your parts cool. I did this with an annoying motherboard chipset fan in my previous machine, and it hardly made a difference on the chipset temperature at all.

Another option is to purchase a fan voltage regulator. These usually come with panels of knobs that can be attached to either the front or back of your case. You can wire up knobs to just about any fan in your system and use them to manually control the fan speed. This is usually done for case fans when there is no other way to control them.

If you use headphones while you game, you will notice the computer's noise less. You could also try noise reduction headphones for an even greater effect.

Finally, just try turning up your stereo. With Metallica rocking away, your computer won't stand a chance.

What are some good components that are natively quiet?

Most motherboards are generally quiet, so if you don't see any noise comments you probably don't have anything to worry about.

Stock CPU coolers, while often not the greatest at dissipating heat, are generally not too loud either.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 I suggested earlier is probably very quiet with the stock cooler. You'll notice that many commenters had very positive things to say about the heat and sound level.

While the Cavair Black hard drives are not necessarily known for being exceptionally hot or loud, the Caviar Green disks are known for being exceptionally cool and quiet. There are several versions of these, so pick the size and price that are right for you. Do note that while all Caviar Black disks have 32MB cache, the Caviar Greens below 750MB do not.

Owners of the LG Black 22X SATA DVD+-RW drive seem to agree that it's very quiet.

I haven't mentioned this power supply yet, but you might want to check out the Raidmax Hybrid 2 RX-530SS 530W PSU. It uses a huge 135mm fan, and the commenters consistently note how silent it is. It's also modular, which means you can detach the power cables you don't need. For $40 with free shipping, it's hard to ignore.

The NZXT Tempest is $90 and the shipping is usually pretty hefty because it's so large. Still, there is no denying that getting this case is probably the best way to keep everything inside your machine cool. Its airflow is ridiculously effective, and this is very important. All the best heatsinks in the world won't do you any good if your case can't move the hot air out. This case is also incredibly silent; it uses four 120mm and two 140mm fans. It's a cool breeze on a summer day.

One of the neat things about the NZXT Tempest is that the two 140mm fans push the air out the top. My huge Xigmatek CPU cooler is located near the top of the case, and I have the fan located on the bottom so it pushes the air up through the heatsink while the case pulls from the other side. There couldn't be a better arrangement.

As you can see, you don't necessarily have to spend a lot to get a noiseless machine. There's something very satisfying about having a computer that is both powerful and silent. Teddy Roosevelt would be proud.

What a Little More will Get You

2009-06-09T19:02:00.006-05:00

It looks like I spoke too soon regarding midrange video cards. A rebate has come along that gives us a Radeon HD 4870 1GB for $140. In addition, it has a $15 combo with the OCZ DDR2 RAM I've been suggesting. The shipping isn't free, but the overall cost will still be less than the GTX 260 I suggested earlier. This card will also outperform the 260. Since this is a 1GB model, it will do well even at very high resolutions. It also has integrated HDMI. It even comes with a free wireless mouse!

While the HD 4850 is still the best bang for the buck, let's assume you want to spend a little more than $424 on a gaming system. Perhaps you want a processor that's more overclockable, better cooling, and more power.

Processor: AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition - $139
Motherboard: ASUS M4A78 Plus - $70 (after $10 rebate)
RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - $30 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-R487D5-1GD Radeon HD 4870 1GB - $140 (after $20 rebate)
Case: NZXT TEMPEST Crafted Series CS-NT-TEM-B Black Steel - $90 (after $20 rebate)
Power Supply: NZXT PS-NT-PP600-R 600W - $70
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB - $75
Optical Drive: LG Black 22X SATA DVD+-RW - $24
CPU Heatsink & Fan: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 - $27 (after $5 rebate)

Discount: $55 (CPU/MB, VC/RAM, Case/PSU combo deals)
Shipping: $40
Total: $650

This build is basically superior to the bargain build in every way. You have a faster processor, better video card, more power, more hard drive space, and a case with more room and cooling. You'll also notice that I included a heatsink and fan to give you more flexibility when overclocking the processor.

At stock speeds, the gaming performance of this processor will be almost the same as the Phenom II X2. However, this one will give you greater gains when overclocking, and that's what you're expected to do with this build. The Xigmatek heatsink will allow you to overclock to your heart's content while keeping your CPU at reasonable temperatures. The NZXT Tempest case is known for its excellent airflow, which will also help with the cooling.

And it's a good thing we'll have decent airflow here because it sounds like the 4870 GPU will be running hotter than the 4850. You might also want to see if ATI Tray Tools will allow you to adjust the fan speed - the reviewers said it likes to run at max. If you can find a Thermalright HR-03 for a decent price anywhere, you might want to consider getting it. Newegg doesn't carry them anymore. However, Newegg does carry the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev.2 for $25 plus shipping. Either of those heatsinks are able to passively cool this video card to great effect, though you can also attach a quiet fan if you wish. A silent GPU would actually turn this system into a decent home theater PC.

The 500GB version of the Caviar Black seems to have gone up to $70 now. For $75 you can have the 640GB version, for $80 you can have 750GB, and for $100 you can have 1TB. I suggested the 640GB version here, but get whatever you like. There don't seem to be any amazing combos, though you can still get the deal with the 500GB version and the Rosewill case. If you don't like any of the combos, be sure to at least get a free SATA cable combo because it won't cost you anything. It does have combo deals with OEM versions of Windows Vista, such as $20 off Home Premium x64 which is my recommendation.

The hefty power supply will give you much more flexibility with your system. It has a $30 combo savings with the NZXT case, so they're a great pair.

Overall, this system shows you several inexpensive upgrade paths you can choose in order to enhance the bargain build to your desires. You can mix and match as you please. For example, the biggest difference in performance would come from simply popping in the better video card for an extra $50.

If you just prefer silence you can get the heatsink, case, and PSU for an extra $110 while keeping the 4850 and X2 550. You also might consider the cooler and quieter Caviar Green hard drives. That would make a nice HTPC, and for only about $550. Maybe I'll dabble more in HTPCs later. Anandtech has mentioned they will be covering the topic soon, so it will be interesting to see what they have to say.

Video Cards - The Easy Part

2009-06-07T12:40:00.003-05:00

The component that makes the most impact on a computer's gaming performance is the video card. However, choosing a video card is not as complicated as choosing the right combination of processor, motherboard, and RAM. Basically, any modern video card will work to its maximum potential in any of the system builds I listed earlier.

I won't be suggesting SLI or Crossfire setups, or video cards that are much over $200. I don't do this for the same reason I don't recommend $300+ processors. It's generally not worth it. If you really have the money to blow, however, I'm willing to help on a case-by-case basis.

I also won't be suggesting processors that just don't make sense for the price, such as the GeForce GTS 250 or anything in the GTX line beyond the 260. AMD's counterparts simply have better performance for the price right now.

Moving on, let's start with the inexpensive piece:

SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $100 (after $15 rebate)

This card has free shipping as well as some other possible deals. First of all, it has many amazing combo deals. One of these combine with DDR2 RAM that I recommend for an extra $20 in savings! If for some reason you don't want to use a combo deal, there is a promo code for $15 off the card until June 11th. You can't use it if you use a combo, but it does "stack" with the rebate to make a new price of $85.

To see how this card performs when compared with the competition, see this low-end benchmark article as well as this high-end benchmark article.

If you want to move up from the Radeon 4850, you really have to pay for it. There just aren't any good deals in the midrange right now. Last month, there was a Radeon 4870 512MB for about $130 with two free games, but that deal is gone now. Besides, the 4850 will smoothly play just about anything except Crysis on high settings at 1680x1050. (See the benchmarks above.) However, if you really must have more power and don't want to spend $200, I suggest you consider the following:

BFG Tech BFGEGTX260896OCE GeForce GTX 260 896MB - $145 (after $20 rebate)

This 260 is the original 192 core version. It doesn't come with any combo deals that I would suggest, but the shipping is free. It does have the potential to serve as a Physx processor in the future, but that technology isn't really taking off. It will certainly outperform the Radeon 4850, and its larger RAM will especially serve it well at higher resolutions. Check out this old benchmark article to see the differences between the various GeForce 260s and Radeon 4870s.

Finally, if you really must play all the latest games at the very highest detail, you will want to consider this one:

HIS Hightech H489F1GP Radeon HD 4890 1GB - $200

The shipping isn't free, but it does come with both Stalker: Clear Sky and EA Battleforge.

Anything beyond this, and you're just wasting your money. Video cards are easy to upgrade, so it's pointless to bother with SLI, Crossire, or uncompetitive products unless money is simply not an issue.

Remember, when factoring in the cost of going with SLI or Crossfire, you also need to make sure your motherboard and power supply are up to the task. While the motherboard in my last post will run any single card at PCI-E 2.0 x16, it will only run crossfire at x4. In order to get a dual x16 board, you'll have to pay an extra $10 and lose the $20 combo deal. That's an extra $30 in addition to the cost of the new board. Also, you won't have the option of using the 400W PSU because you'll definitely need more juice. Then there are the driver bugs that everyone is *still* complaining about. And the heat. And the space. Seriously, just stay away from multiple GPU configurations.

(Though I was able to come up with a neato triple Crossfire 4850 build for $867. It had a NZXT Tempest for the case and the triple-core Phenom II x3 720 BE for the processor. I call it, "Rise of the Triad.")

Finally, I'd like to mention something about PCI-Express 2.0. None of the major benchmarking sites seem to have done any recent PCI-E 1.0 vs PCI-E 2.0 comparisons. I think this is mostly due to the fact that most modern motherboards use PCI-E 2.0. However, Tom's Hardware, in its seemingly endless failures, is still recommending PCI-E 1.0 motherboards in its system builds. Yes, it may not make a big difference now. However, I found one site with some more recent benchmarks that suggest we are getting close to the point at which it will make a noticeable difference. Page 7 has a good example using Crysis. If we're already noticing small differences on today's $200 cards, and very significant differences on today's X2 and Crossfire setups, what about next year or the year after? Your next video card upgrade should be able to work to its maximum potential with the system you buy today, and PCI-E 2.0 can be had for excellent prices right now. That's why I never suggest PCI-E 1.0 motherboards. AnandtTech won't either, even in their "Entry-level" PCs. Ignore Tom's Hardware. This is the least of their bad advice.

Bargain Gaming Rig

2009-06-06T12:41:00.005-05:00

Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $110
Motherboard: ASUS M4A78 Plus - $70 (after $10 rebate)
RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - $30 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $100 (after $15 rebate)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB - $60
Case: Rosewill TU-155 Black Steel ATX Black - $60
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X SATA DVD+-RW - $27

Discount: $55 (CPU/MB, VC/RAM, and Case/HD combo deals)
Shipping: $22 (to my area, anyway)
Total: $424

Wow! This is one killer machine for only $424!

The video card may not be the latest, but it's better than what I have at home. It should be able to play most of the newest 3D games smoothly at high settings. It even comes with an integrated HDMI port. I'll talk more about video cards later, but let me just say that you won't find anything better for anywhere near this price!

The hard drive is built for performance, having 32MB cache and dual processors.

The DVD drive is pretty straightforward. When shopping for these, make sure you get one with a SATA interface instead of IDE. It's much easier to manage SATA cabling inside the case. By the way, this optical drive as well as the hard drive do not come with their own SATA cables. Thankfully, the motherboard comes with two.

Cases are mostly about personal preference, but a family member of mine owns this one and loves it. It's definitely a bargain.

The power supply that comes with the case should have enough power to support this hardware, but if you plan on using more devices you might want to consider something just a little more beefy. As it is, you will need to use the power adapter that comes with the video card. You will also need to use the Molex-SATA adapter that comes with the motherboard in order to power one of your SATA devices (hard drive or DVD drive) because the PSU only has one SATA cable. If you'd rather have a power supply that takes care of all these issues, try this:

Power Supply: SIGMA Power Engine SP-535 535W - $25 (after $15 rebate) + $3 shipping
New Total: $452

Obviously, you'll need a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and speakers. If you're upgrading from an old machine, you'll already have these. I'm only dealing with the stuff inside the box for now, but feel free to ask any questions if you want an opinion on something else.

Again, this machine is simply awesome for the price. Good luck finding a better deal anywhere else. If you want one, contact me about building it for you. Enjoy!

Note: At least one of the discounts ends on June 20th.

Again with Feeling

2009-06-05T17:34:00.003-05:00

It's time to re-evaluate the processors we will want to use in a gaming system for a few reasons. First of all, I would like to discuss overclocking. Second, AMD has just released something that I feel is absolutely perfect for a budget gaming system. Let's take a look.

AMD's new surprise is the Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition. This is basically a quad-core processor with *two* cores disabled. If you thought the X3s were a steal, you'll be thrilled to know that you can have this guy for only $110. You'll also be thrilled to know that it's no slouch on performance.

Now, let's talk about overclocking. If you really want to get the most bang for your buck, you are going to have to overclock. There are no buts about it. If you choose to ignore this option, you are not utilizing one of the best features of these great 45nm processors. Ultimately, my purpose here is to show you how to get the best gaming performance for your dollar. Therefore, I am going to base my suggestions in this post on the assumption that you will be overclocking these processors.

Here is a breakdown of the processors that I suggest, and the overclock percentages they are able to obtain under reasonable conditions:

[Updated 8/8/09]

Athlon II X2 250: 25% - Stock: 3.0 GHz, OC: 3.75 GHz ($79)
Phenom II X2 550 BE: 20% - Stock: 3.1 GHz, OC: 3.7 GHz ($103)
Phenom II X3 720 BE: 35% - Stock 2.8 GHz, OC: 3.8 GHz ($119)
Phenom II x4 940 BE: 30% - Stock 3.0 GHz, OC: 3.9 GHz ($189)
Phenom II x4 955 BE: 22% - Stock 3.2 GHz, OC: 3.9 GHz ($200)
Core 2 Duo E8400: 40% - Stock 3.0 GHz, OC: 4.2 GHz ($168)
Core i7 920: 43% - Stock 2.66 GHz, OC: 3.8 GHz ($280)
Core i7-975 Extreme: 23% - Stock 3.33 GHz, OC: 4.1 GHz ($1,000)

Remember that the price of the processor alone is deceptive. The motherboard and RAM also make a huge difference in price. I might revisit this later.

Anyway, these overclocks show us a few important things. First of all, the x2 550 might just be the right chip for you if you really don't want to bother with overclocking. It already comes with a high stock clock speed (higher than any of the others) so overclocking really can't push it much farther.

Second, the Phenom II x4 955 BE only overclocks by about 22%. This puts it at exactly the same speed as the x4 940, but for a lot more money. Therefore, I can't really justify it.

Third, the E8400 stands out as a possible sweet spot here. Its gaming performance is roughly on par with the x4 940, depending on what benchmarks you look at. The price and the overclock may give it a nice edge depending on your motherboard needs.

Finally, the value of the i7 920 really stands out. At a 43% overclock, it will very clearly outperform anything else here. The price is a little more justified with this in mind.

There are also some other considerations. First, you can disable hyperthreading in the i7 920 for a small (5%) boost in gaming performance. Second, you might be able to get away with "unlocking" the disabled cores in the Phenom x2 and x3 processors. There is no guarantee that it is doable, and it depends on your motherboard and its BIOS version. I don't recommend doing this because you won't be able to overclock as much and the game performance really won't improve a lot.

The Xigmatek heatsink and fan that I'm using should work with all of these processors except the i7 920. Overclockers will love it.

Remember, the performance of these processors really doesn't make a huge difference in gaming results as long as you have a modern video card. The GPU will be your bottleneck. However, having a faster processor will help to ensure that your machine is "future proof." A faster CPU will be able to keep up years down the road when games are more demanding and video cards are more powerful. This is why the unrealistic low-res benchmarks out there still have some value.

New Gaming Rigs - Where to Start

2009-05-19T21:34:00.004-05:00

Almost a year ago, I built a new computer. It was a budget machine that cost around $800, and it's still going strong today. I can play all of my games at their highest detail, including a graphically intense one released this year, and they all run silky smooth. For details on my setup, as well as basic advice on PC building, refer to my first blog post.

Are you in the market for a new gaming rig? If so, read on. I've done some studying of what's currently available, and I have great news for you. First, prices have gone down. Second, AMD is back in the game, so you have more options for processors and video cards. Third, there's even a new, reasonable option on the Intel side for a slightly larger budget. Last year, there was really only one viable option for a budget gaming rig. Now, there are more.

In this post, I'm going to analyze five different combinations of processors, motherboards, and RAM. Remember, these are what make up the core of the system; everything else is cake. I'll get to the other parts in another post. These other parts include, but are not limited to:

- Video Card
- Hard Drive
- Case
- Power Supply
- Optical Drive (DVD)
- Heatsink and Fan

I estimate that these other parts might total about $450 if we're careful, so keep that in the back of your mind when considering the entire cost of your new machine. I'm assuming you already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other external things.

This is a long post. If you don't care about all the details, I recommend you just take a look at the first build and the last build. Those are the two most viable options in my opinion.

Now, onto the meat!

My first CPU/MB/RAM combo is an AMD build. It's the least expensive, but it's still a competitive performer when compared to the others. Here's the breakdown:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X3 710 - $119
Motherboard: ASUS M3A76-CM - $65
RAM: Patriot Viper 4GB DDR2 800 - $27 (after $25 rebate)
Shipping: $11
Discount: $25 for Newegg's CPU/MB combo deal
Total: $197
Estimated entire build: $647

Like I said, AMD is back, and its Phenom II line is right up there with Intel's Core 2 line. The triple-core Phenom IIs are giving the Wolfdale processors a run for their money.

You'll have a hard time finding the Phenom II X3 710 on benchmark sites. The reason is that the 710's big brother, the 720 Black Edition, is more popular. However, the only differences between these two processors are the clock speed and the unlocked multiplier in the 720.

The 710 is clocked at 2.6GHz while the 720 is clocked at 2.8GHz. This gives the 720 a very slight performance advantage. AMD will unlock multipliers in some of their processors, and these are referred to as Black Editions. This makes BE processors a little easier to overclock. However, all the Phenom IIs are great overclockers and you don't need a Black Edition to get a modest boost in clock speed. So, what is the performance difference between the two? I found a spot an AnandTech that gives a nice comparison.

For the games, which are at the bottom, the difference is no more than 5%. If you want to get the 720 instead, you'll have to pay an extra $25. The processor itself costs $20 more, but your combo discount will also be $5 less. The Phenom II X3 710 is a gem that will give you way more bang for your buck than anything else I will discuss here.

Beware! Never forget that gaming performance is most heavily impacted by your video card, not your processor! The benchmark sites that measure CPU gaming performance do their tests in a way that is not practical for actual gameplay. They run the games at very low detail, shifting the bottleneck from the video card to the processors. This makes for good CPU comparisons, but it's not a realistic example of actual gameplay. When you get your shiny new video card and run these games at much higher detail, the difference in CPU performance will be practically non-existent.

If money is tight, anything more than the Phenom II X3 710 is a waste. You won't notice any gaming difference with other processors as long as you have a video card that's more than $70.

Regarding the motherboard, it's inexpensive but it has good reviews. (I ignore any product with less than 4/5 eggs.) Newegg's combo deal makes it an absolute steal. It is PCI-Express 2.0 compatible and has HD Audio, as does every motherboard in this post. It should also allow you to do some modest overclocking, as should every motherboard in this post. You should note that it does not support firewire, and it only has one PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot. It also does not support DDR3 RAM. If you want an AMD motherboard that has firewire, more than one PCI-E 2.0 slot, or DDR3 support, they are available. However, they also come with a higher price tag. Please leave a comment of write me an e-mail if you want recommendations that meet your specific needs.

The DDR2 RAM is an awesome value. It operates at 4-4-4-12 which is about the fastest you can get with DDR2 800. 4GB is more than enough for today's software. Simple and sweet. Moving on.

What does Intel have to offer for a budget gaming rig? Well, it still looks similar to my own setup. Here's the breakdown:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale - $168
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45C-UD3R - $105 (after $15 rebate)
RAM: Patriot Viper 4GB DDR2 800 - $27 (same as RAM above)
Shipping: $3
Discount: $15 for CPU/MB combo deal
Total: $288
Estimated entire build: $738

Last year, I paid $190 for the same processor. The price has dropped a bit, but not significantly. It still seems to be the sweet spot on the price/performance curve. If you want something that costs less, you'll end up with a crippled CPU that has not only a lower clock speed but also a smaller cache. If you go up, you pay a premium for a very slight clock increase.

For performance comparisons, you can use the same tool I did for the 720/710 comparison. The E8400 seems to be about a 10% gaming improvement over the 710. However, I also noticed an interesting benchmark article that showed the Phenom II x3 720 outperforming the E8400 in Far Cry 2 and Unreal Tournament 3.

You'll also notice that the 710 and 720 outperform the E8400 on some things like media encoding. The E8400 is a dual-core processor, and software is slowly changing. It still has the edge in gaming, but other areas are not so clear. As more multi-threaded applications are used, triple-core and quad-core processors will have a greater advantage. Also, consider that these other applications will not be relying on your video card as much as games, if at all. Therefore, you're actually more likely to notice the performance increase.

There really aren't any viable motherboards with a price similar to the one in the AMD build. However, this GIGABYTE board does have some features that the other doesn't. It has firewire and supports both DDR2 and DDR3.

The RAM is the same as before. However, if you really want DDR3 you can get this set for a total of $25 extra. Since the price of DDR3 has dropped significantly from what it was last year, this actually isn't a terrible option. However, the performance increase won't be much more than 5% if you're lucky.

Thanks to AMD's options, Intel has a great competitor at this price point:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition - $190
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P - $110
RAM: Patriot Viper 4GB DDR2 800 - $27 (after $25 rebate)
Shipping: $3
Discount: $30 for CPU/MB combo deal
Total: $300
Estimated entire build: $750

This quad-core processor seems to be neck and neck across a spectrum of gaming benchmarks from different sites. However, since it has twice as many cores it seems to have the edge in other applications.

This motherboard doesn't support DDR3, but it does have firewire. It also has two PCI-Express 2.0 slots so you can run Crossfire or Physx. NVIDIA doesn't like AMD, though, so the AMD boards can't do SLI.

Overall the comparison between the X4 940 and E8400 is too close to call. It's really up to your personal preferences.

Now, let's suppose that you're on Dave Ramsey's Baby Step #5 or further. (You know who you are.) There's a new option that will give you a relatively future-proof machine for a price that has recently become somewhat affordable. The following may be worth considering:

Processor: Intel Core i7-920 (Nehalem) - $280
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R - $185 (after $15 rebate)
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB DDR3 1600 - $75 (after $20 rebate)
Shipping: $8
Discount: $25 for CPU/MB combo deal
Total: $523
Estimated entire build: $973

Core i7 is Intel's newest architecture, replacing the incredibly successful Core 2. These pricey processors weren't exactly designed for gaming, though the most expensive ones still give the best gaming performance. The 920 is the most inexpensive Core i7 CPU available right now, and its gaming performance is actually pretty close to the other processors listed already. Core i7 was really designed for multi-threaded performance, and that's where it excels.

If we look at the Tech Report benchmarks again we'll see that this processor is very slightly outperformed in games by the others I've mentioned. However, notice that they did comparisons with the Core i7-965 Extreme with Hyperthreading enabled and disabled. You can do the same thing with the 920. It looks like this can give you perhaps a 5% boost to your gaming performance, putting it about exactly on par with the others. Also, the 920 totally owns in most of the non-gaming benchmarks. If you plan to use your machine for more than just gaming, you may want to give this build some serious consideration.

Don't make a judgement just yet! If we look at Anandtech, they seem to show the i7 beating out the other processors. It's hard to tell just what's happening here, so I'll investigate it further and post an update.

Anyway, the motherboard is also more expensive than the others, but it definitely has more to offer. It supports firewire, triple channel DDR3, and has two PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots for Crossfire, SLI, or Physx. Yet again, a combo deal helps to curb the hefty price tag.

Since the motherboard uses triple channel, we're getting 6MB of RAM. Just like the 4GB of DDR3 I picked out for the E8400, this ram operates at 7-7-7-24. This is about the fastest you can get at this bandwidth. Make sure you use a 64-bit operating system so your computer uses all the memory! Also, note that this set of RAM has several combo deals with video cards. You may be able to save up to $25 if you want the right card. I'll consider this in a later post when I dig into the other hardware.

By the way, don't assume that you'll be able to upgrade your CPU if you get a more advanced motherboard right now. If you only upgrade about every 3 years, your board will probably be outdated no matter what you get. It's generally a bad reason to spend more on a motherboard.

Is there an AMD alternative at this price point? I'm glad you asked. Take a gander:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $245
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P - $125 (after $15 rebate)
RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB DDR3 1600 - $55 (after $20 rebate)
Shipping: $8
Discount: $15 for CPU/RAM combo deal
Total: $418
Estimated entire build: $868

Well, what can I say? This build puts Intel to shame, at least as far as gaming is concerned. The motherboard supports firewire, dual channel DDR3, and Crossfire or Physx. This build is basically capable of anything the i7 build is capable of, it costs less, and it seems to usually beat out the 920 in gaming performance if you look at both the Tech Report and AnandTech. I the i7 still has a clear performance advantage in other applications, but that's not really our focus here.

By the way, you could even couple this processor with the motherboard and RAM from the X4 940 build for a total savings of $53. The only real difference would be a choice between DDR2 and DDR3.

So there you have it. These are five different builds based on the three main CPU architectures available. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. Each one is also highly customizable, and I'm willing to help you make adjustments to meet your specific desires.

All of these CPUs are manufactured using a 45nm process. They are all great for overclocking. I strongly suggest that you give it a try, and am willing to walk you through the process.

Little Ones and Lockjaw

2009-04-02T19:46:00.006-05:00

Some concerned family members have asked me to provide evidentiary support for our decision to avoid vaccinations, so far, for our children. Understanding this valid concern, I'm more than willing to provide some. There are many vaccinations that can be discussed, but I'll just focus on tetanus right now because it was mentioned specifically.

I have zero medical training. I'm not responsible for your medical decisions. If you make any judgements based on this post, your lockjaw isn't my fault.

This is hardly a scientific study, but rather my own analysis of other studies. I'm going to show a blatant disregard for things such as significant digits and formal terminology. Where assumptions need to be made, I will tend to grant the benefit of the doubt to support of vaccination. I'm open to corrections, so if you have any please leave a comment or write an e-mail. Finally, I'm going to avoid wasting time defining everything. There is plenty of information available on what tetanus is and what the DPT vaccination is.

Generally, when considering whether to receive medical treatment, an analysis of the benefits and the risks is prudent. If the treatment provides a great benefit while having little risk, it should probably be taken. However, if the benefit does not outweigh the risk associated with the treatment, it should probably not be taken. If the risk and benefit are considered to be equal, the treatment most likely isn't worth the trip to the doctor.

I'm going to roughly evaluate the benefits and risks associated with the DPT vaccine where the benefits apply to tetanus. The DPT vaccine is one of the most well documented. It's difficult to find anything reliable on DTaP. The only thing I read about that had any semblance of a scientific study regarding Pediarix (DTaP/IPV/Hep B, the five-in-one currently used in the U.S.) contained a sampling of only 400, 8 of which had questionable serious adverse events. The sample size is way too small for the probabilities we're considering here, so it's hardly worth mentioning.

If someone wants to argue that the drugs have improved, put forth some serious studies that are readily available to interested parents. In this information age, there's absolutely no excuse for doing otherwise. The onus is not on me to prove how safe a treatment is. If they can't make a decent study readily available to me, they have no business sticking it in my kids.

Before looking at the probabilities of getting tetanus, I would like to establish one fact: the vaccination is not the only thing that prevents tetanus. Sanitation and wound hygeine are also factors. All three of these factors have become more significant over time - the number of vaccinations has increased, sanitation has improved, and wound hygeine has improved.

A Population-Based Serologic Survey of Immunity to Tetanus in the United States by the New England Journal of Medicine found that 69.7% of people at least six years old surveyed from 1988 to 1991 were immune to tetanus. For the sake of simple argument, let's assume that 69.7% of the U.S. population was immune in 1990.

Now, refer to Figure 1 near the bottom of the Tetanus Surveillance report by the Centers for Disease Control. It shows the decline of tetanus cases and tetanus deaths from 1947 to 1997. Tetanus cases began to be recorded in a consistent manner at 1947 when the vaccine was beginning to be used in a widespread manner.

According to the graph, 0.4 of every 100,000 people in the U.S got tetanus in 1947. In 1990, it was 0.025. 0.025 is 6.25% of 0.4. This suggests that the chance of getting tetanus in 1990 was 6.25% of what it was in 1947.

Now, let's assume that 100% of the population was not immune in 1947. This isn't true (though the percentage immune was probably very small), but it doesn't matter for this argument. With that assumption, the percentage of vulnerable people in 1990 was 30.3% of what it was in 1947.

Compared to 1947, the number of non-immune people in 1990 was 30.3% while the number of tetanus cases was 6.25%. In other words, the percentage of tetanus cases decreased faster than tetanus immunity. Yes, these are very rough estimates, but I think they still make one thing clear. Immunity could not have been the only factor in the reduced cases of tetanus.

Now, let's consider the benefits of the tetanus vaccination:

Even though immunity isn't the only factor, let's be conservative and assume that an unvaccinated person today will have the same probability of getting tetanus that people did in 1947 when the vaccination was rare. (I'd go back to a time before the vaccination even existed, but the numbers are less reliable. I want to compare apples to apples as much as possible.) The probability of getting tetanus for that year was .000,4%. Add the fact that the life expectancy of a United States female today is 81 years. This means that, for our argument, the probability of an unvaccinated person getting tetanus today is 1 out of 3,086.

What about death? Let's use the data in the graph again. Consider that, in 1997, about 0.000,016% of the population got tetanus while 0.000,002% died from it. This means that, with 1997 medical care, 1 out of 8 tetanus patients died. If the chance of getting tetanus is 1 in 3,086, then the chance of dying to it with 1997 care is 1 in 24,688. Rough, yes, but good enough for now.

It is not the case that being vaccinated means you will not get tetanus, but let's just assume that it does anyway. This means that the benefit of getting vaccinated is the prevention of a 1 in 3,086 chance of getting tetanus, or the prevention of a 1 in 24,688 chance of death due to tetanus.

On to the risks:

One source of data for the DPT vaccination is a UCLA study published in 1981. According to the National Vaccine Information Center:

"The UCLA/FDA study showed that 1 in 875 DPT shots results in a convulsion or collapse/shock reaction. Two babies in the study died following DPT reaction symptoms, but their deaths were classified as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS or crib death)."

There were 15,752 DPT immunizations in that study, so if you associate the deaths with the vaccination that's a 1 in 7,876 probability. The cause of those deaths is questionable, so we'll leave them out.

1 in 875 vaccinations result in a serious adverse reaction, but a person's chances of a bad reaction increase if they have more than one shot. According to the typical DPT vaccination schedule, it was administered five times to young children. (It is recommeded that an adult receive a tetanus booster shot every ten years, but this is different from DPT or its variants.) This gives us a 1 in 175 chance of convulsion or collapse/shock in a lifetime.

In 1994, the NVIC reported on a year-long investigation of the Vaccine Adverse Reaction Reporting System (all data available for download at http://vaers.hhs.gov). It found that "A total of 54,072 reports of adverse events following vaccination were listed in a 39-month period from July 1990 to November 1993 with 12,504 reports being associated with DPT vaccine, including 471 deaths." (http://www.whale.to/vaccine/nvic4.html) Keep in mind that these are only the results of the national reporting system. The article goes on to explain, "At the end of February 1994, NVIC/DPT also conducted a survey of 159 doctors' offices in seven states, including Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Texas. When asked the question, "In case of an adverse event after vaccination, does the doctor report it and, if yes, to whom?" only 28 out of 159, or 18 percent said they make a report to the FDA, CDC or state health department. In New York, only one out of 40 doctors' offices confirmed that they report a death or injury following vaccination."

Ick. Let's be generous and assume that the VAERS database contained 20% of the total number of incidents. That means there were really 62,520 adverse events from DPT, 2,355 of which were deaths. So, how many DPT vaccinations were given during this time period?

I can't seem to find any information that even comes close to estimating the number of actual DPT vaccinations in the U.S. during this period, but I think we can still come up with a very generous estimate. According to the typical DPT vaccination schedule, it was administered five times to young children. I'm going to assume that the CDC's DTaP schedule resembles the old DPT schedule. I'm going to assume that every child born during the time periods that qualify them as being due for a shot during the study's time period lived long enough to get all five shots, and that every single one of them did in fact get all five shots. We can estimate this number of children using the annual birth numbers listed at http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/ab-unitedstates.html. This estimate is 65,499,055.

Something close to 65,499,055 children were born during five 39-month periods that make them due for DPT shots during the time period analyzed for the NVIC study. I'll assume that 65,499,055 shots actually were given even though it realistically would have been fewer. With 62,520 adverse events and 2,355 deaths, this suggests a 1 in 1,048 chance of adverse event per shot and a 1 in 27,813 chance of death per shot. Multiply those by five shots per person, and you get a 1 in 210 chance of adverse event in a lifetime and a 1 in 5,563 chance of death in a lifetime.

Here's a quick review of my estimates:

If you are unvaccinated:

1:3,086 to get tetanus in lifetime
1:24,688 to die from tetanus in lifetime
1:2 chance your dad's fingers will bleed from too much typing

If you are vaccinated:

1:875 to have convulsion or collapse/shock per shot
1:1,048 to have adverse event per shot
1:27,813 to die per shot
1:175 to have convulsion or collapse/shock in lifetime
1:210 to have adverse event in lifetime
1:5,563 to die in lifetime

So far, it's looking like DPT isn't worth the effort to pull up my child's sleeve. Even if we assume the VAERS database contains every single incident, it still looks bad for DPT. Also, consider that this does not even take into account the tetanus booster everyone is supposed to get every ten years. I don't even need to bother with it.

Based on all of these extremely conservative estimates, if my concern is Tetanus, it would be irresponsible of me to have my children vaccinated.

A Stick of Mint

2009-02-18T15:49:00.004-06:00

One of the neat things about Linux is that you can install an entire operating system on a little USB stick. This allows you to run your personal operating system from just about any computer at any location. As you can imagine, there are many reasons for doing this. I'll explain mine below.

I have access to a laptop with an encrypted hard drive with Windows installed on it. I won't get in to the reasons why, but I should not be installing any programs on it. Use your imagination. If I can't install programs on Windows, I could normally resize the Windows partition and install Linux on the cleared space. However, I can't just resize the partition because the hard drive is encrypted. The one good thing is that the bios is not password protected, so I am free to change the boot order. This allows me to boot the laptop from things other than hard drives, such as CDs or USB drives.

I put an 8GB thumb drive on my Christmas list, and my brother-in-law was kind enough to get me one. Let the experimentation begin!

You can do this with as little as 1GB, but that only leaves you with about 200 MB of extra data storage. 4GB should give you plenty of wiggle room for installing updates, configuration changes, and adding several extra programs. With 8GB, I have plenty of extra room for things like music and videos.

I tried this twice, and I'll explain why later. The first method is simpler but limits your storage space to about 4GB. The second method unlocks all the available space on your USB drive.

Ubuntu has a program called usb-creator, and I used it for both methods. It is installed by default on Ubuntu 8.10, but it also works on Ubuntu 8.04 if you download it. To use it, look for the option to create a USB startup disk under the Administration menu. You might be doing this from a Live CD, which is just fine. I heard that you can even run usb-creator from Windows, so you are free to do this from your Linux or Windows desktop if you wish.

In order to boot from a live CD or a USB drive, you may need to change the boot order in your bios. This method can vary depending on your motherboard, so I won't get into that here.

The First Method:

For my first go, I formatted my entire USB drive with a FAT32 partition before using usb-creator. To do this, you can use the program, GParted, which can be found in the administration menu as "Format Hard Disk." You will need at least one FAT32 partition because the USB drive will be running Linux similar to the way your Live CD does. Don't worry, the program will enable a way to save your files and changes as I mentioned earlier.

When you run usb-creator, the program will ask you to select a .iso file to use for the installation. This can be the same .iso file you used to create your live CD. I used a second thumb drive to hold this .iso file while the program running off the live CD installed to my new thumb drive. I suppose you could copy the .iso file to the home folder of the live CD, which means it would be stored in RAM and erased when you rebooted. That's fine because you only need it once, and it allows you to get away with using only one thumb drive for the entire process.

I used a .iso file for the Ubuntu 8.10 64-bit Desktop version the first time. This worked right "out of the box" with only one small issue that I will discuss later.

One of the other options the program gives you is the ability to enable persistency. This allows your changes to the operating system to be saved, making it much nicer than just running from the Live CD. This option presents you with a slider, allowing you to designate an amount of "persistent space" on your thumb drive. This space can be as small as 128MB or as large as 4GB. Here's what's really happening behind the scenes:

The usb-creator program will copy the Live CD files from the .iso image to your thumb drive just like it does for CDs, and mark the FAT32 partition as bootable. This takes up about 700MB of the parition's space. Then, the program will create what is called a persistency file. This file is named "casper-rw" and is stored on the root of your FAT32 partition right along with the Live CD files. This persistency file is used by your Linux installation to store all the changes you make to the operating system. All your configuration changes, software updates, and added data files such as music or office documents are magically stored inside this persistency file. Think of it as a big, complex .zip file. The FAT32 file system cannot handle files that are larger than 4GB, no matter what operating system you are using. You cannot create a persistency file larger than 4GB, and as a result, you cannot store more than 4GB of extra data in it. There is a way around this, and I used it for my second method which I will discuss later.

Anyway, once you tell the program how large you want the persistency file to be, it's ready for you to click, "Make Startup Disk." Writing to flash isn't exactly speedy, so this may take a few minutes. Once it's finished, shut down operating system, remove the CD when it tells you to, and boot up again with the USB stick in the computer of your choice.

When I did this the first time, I had an almost fully functional Ubuntu operating system. It takes a while to boot up because flash drives are slower than hard drives. However, once the operating system is up and running, most things seem to run quite smoothly. The one thing that did not work right away was the wireless card. All I had to do was connect the laptop to my wired network, go to Hardware Management in the Administration menu, and select the wireless driver I wanted to enable. It downloaded the driver and turned it on after I rebooted. This is a Dell Latitude D630.

I noticed that whenever I would boot off the thumb drive, it would come up with a menu similar to the one you see on the Live CD. If you just select the default or let it timeout to the default for you, it will continue to boot to your persistent Ubuntu installation. I also noticed that Ubuntu did not require any login credentials by default, just like the Live CD. You can enable this if you want, and I did the first time, but I won't get into that right now.

One of the most fun things about having Linux on the laptop was that I was able to install Adobe Flash and watch TV shows on Hulu.com via my 32" LCD TV. I didn't have to worry about hauling a larger, noisier desktop machine over by the TV and running network cables to the family room. There were two drawbacks to this, however. First, the only sound output on the laptop is meant for microphones. In order to hear the shows we had to turn the volume all the way up on the TV and computer. I am sure a desktop or other laptop with standard sound output would not have this problem. Second, the laptop doesn't like displaying at full resolution on my TV, so the picture is smaller than it could be if the show is in widescreen. I also think that a desktop would fix this issue, because the operating system won't have to worry about the laptop's built-in display. I may still figure out how to get this to work.

Anyway, I did have one small problem when I tried installing updates from Synaptic Package Manager. I selected "Mark All Upgrades" and let it do its thing, as usual. However, when it was done, it gave me an error about a broken symbolic link. This error would pop up every time I did an update in the future. After a bit of research, I found out that it was because of an issue downloading Linux kernel updates onto Live CD types of installations. Remember, the usb-creator method of making a bootable thumb drive treats your installation much like a Live CD. The update that caused the bug wasn't really necessary, and the bug itself seemed to be harmless. I also discovered a way to fix it, but I won't go into that here.

Remember that my persistency file was only about 4GB in size. The core Linux installation was about 700MB. This left me with around 3.5GB of wasted space. I used GParted to turn that extra space into a separate FAT32 partition so I could store other files on it and access them while Linux was running. However, in the end I decided I really wanted to have all of my storage space on a single partition so I could install as many programs as I wanted in the future. This brings me to...

The Second Method:

I also had recently done some research on another popular Linux distribution called Linux Mint. According to DistroWatch.com, it is the third most popular Linux distro after Ubuntu and openSUSE. Linux Mint is based off of Ubuntu similar to the way Ubuntu is based off of Debian. However, they seem to focus on a much more user friendly experience (though I would definitely not complain about Ubuntu being unfriendly) and a better "out of the box" experience. The primary version of the operating system comes with media codecs and other free proprietary software (such as Adobe Flash) preinstalled. It also comes with some applications called Mint Tools, which have been added to make life a little easier. The graphical interface is also attractive, and more familiar to people who are used to Windows.

Since changing how persistent data was stored on my thumb drive would require me to basically start over from the beginning anyway, I decided to use Linux Mint 6 64-bit for my .iso this time. But why did I need to start over?

I found out that instead of using the casper-rw persistence file, it is also possible to simply create a separate partition with the label "casper-rw" and it will store all of the persistent data. You just need to delete the casper-rw file so Linux knows to use the partition instead.

The recommended file system for this partition is ext2. Why not ext3? Well, ext3 does a lot of extra writing to the drive for things like indexing, which isn't necessary and will actually wear out your flash drive faster. (Flash drives are supposed to have a more limited lifespan than hard drives, so keep this in mind if you ever use them for important data.) Also, it is my understanding that some of the features of ext3 aren't even enabled when running like a Live CD, so much of the benefit of ext3 is wasted anyway. So, I used GParted to make a 900MB FAT32 partition for the Live CD portion of the operating system combined with a temporary minimal casper-rw file, and used the rest of the space for ext2.

After the partitions were set up, I went to usb-creator and had it make my Linux Mint bootable drive with a minimum persistence file of 128MB. After that was finished, I deleted the casper-rw file from the FAT32 partition. In order to make use of that extra space, I went back to GParted and resized the FAT partition to 700MB and added the extra to my ext2 partition. Then, I had to label the ext2 partition as "casper-rw" by using the following command in the terminal:

e2label /dev/ casper-rw

The exact location of the ext2 partition should be listed in GParted, so be sure to use that in the command.

I rebooted, took out the CD, booted from the thumb drive, and had Linux Mint running. There was just one problem: no persistence. Of course, it was the first thing I tested. I did some research and learned a little about the Live CD menu that pops up before you actually boot into Linux. On the Live CD, and on the thumb drive, there is a file that tells the menu what options to display and how to behave. This file is /syslinux/syslinux.cfg. This file needs to tell Linux to boot into persistent mode, not just normal Live mode. I am assuming that for whatever reason, usb-creator was able to properly modify this file for Ubuntu but not for Mint, so I had to do it myself. Here's how:

Above the line that says "label live" you need to insert the lines:

label custom
menu label Start Linux Mint in ^persistent mode
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append file=/cdrom/preseed/mint.seed boot=casper persistent initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash --

You'll notice that the only difference between the custom section and the live section is the word "persistent." After you insert those lines, you need to go to the top line and change it to say:

default custom

I guess this tells the menu to use the information in the "custom" label as the default option. For the heck of it, I also changed the "timeout 100" line to say:

timeout 50

After doing this, two things happened. First, I noticed that I no longer got the boot menu at all! The thumb drive just went straight into Linux Mint. I'm not sure why this happened, but I might have messed up the syntax in the config file. After all, this was all new to me. I actually thought this was a good thing, however, because I really don't need that menu anyway. The other thing that happened: persistent mode was now working. I guess I killed two birds with one stone.

After I installed the wireless driver exactly as before, everything worked perfectly. I didn't have to install Adobe Flash because it was already installed, and Hulu worked the same as before. I also heard that DVDs play just fine right out of the box.

Instead of using Synaptic Package Manager for my updates, I used mintUpdate, which was located in the lower right corner of the tray. One of the neat things about mintUpdate is that it ranks each update on a scale of 1 to 5. If something is very important and/or very safe to install, it gets a 1. If something is unnecessary and/or unstable, it gets a 5. I've heard that these ranks can change based on user feedback, so even if a package gets through initial testing but causes problems later, it can be moved down the list. By default, mintUpdate only displays and installs updates with a rank of 1 to 3. I changed it to display all five ranks, but only install 1 to 3. Guess what package showed up in the list of unsafe updates? The kernel update that gave me that error under Ubuntu. One of Linux Mint's tools just prevented me from getting an unnecessary error that Ubuntu would have given me (and did). I am a happy camper.

Linux Mint looks like the best option for Windows users that want to get away from Windows. I'm already talking it up to my friends. It's free, easy to use, and has a nice graphical interface that feels a bit more like what we're used to under Windows. (As with most Linux distros, you customize the GUI to look very different if you wish.) It comes with a complete office suite and e-mail client among other useful software, and it's completely free. Check it out at http://www.linuxmint.com/.

Brain Drain

2008-11-14T08:43:00.002-06:00

In the technology industry, we understand that outsourcing is a growing problem for the American worker. However, we don't always understand why this problem is growing. If someone tells you, "It's just because they work for cheap over there," he could probably use a lesson in taxation. A family member e-mailed me the following:

Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar everyday and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share'? They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

This is one of the reasons why socialism sounds nice and fair, but is actually impractical. Other countries such as France are starting to realize that different forms of wealth tax are actually losing the country tax dollars. Also, before you criticize a politician because he provided a tax cut you don't agree with, look up the actual results of that tax cut and how it affected overall tax revenue. You may be in for a shocker.

Here's something to ponder: how do you think the FairTax would affect the customers at the bar?

Operating Systems

2008-09-30T21:14:00.002-05:00

A few months ago, an acquaintance brought an essay to my attention. It is titled, "In the Beginning was the Command Line," by Neal Stephenson, and it is available on his website. It is a long but informative and entertaining piece about operating systems and their history. I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. Here is a famous excerpt:

MGBs, TANKS, AND BATMOBILES

Around the time that Jobs, Wozniak, Gates, and Allen were dreaming up these unlikely schemes, I was a teenager living in Ames, Iowa. One of my friends' dads had an old MGB sports car rusting away in his garage. Sometimes he would actually manage to get it running and then he would take us for a spin around the block, with a memorable look of wild youthful exhiliration on his face; to his worried passengers, he was a madman, stalling and backfiring around Ames, Iowa and eating the dust of rusty Gremlins and Pintos, but in his own mind he was Dustin Hoffman tooling across the Bay Bridge with the wind in his hair.

In retrospect, this was telling me two things about people's relationship to technology. One was that romance and image go a long way towards shaping their opinions. If you doubt it (and if you have a lot of spare time on your hands) just ask anyone who owns a Macintosh and who, on those grounds, imagines him- or herself to be a member of an oppressed minority group.

The other, somewhat subtler point, was that interface is very important. Sure, the MGB was a lousy car in almost every way that counted: balky, unreliable, underpowered. But it was fun to drive. It was responsive. Every pebble on the road was felt in the bones, every nuance in the pavement transmitted instantly to the driver's hands. He could listen to the engine and tell what was wrong with it. The steering responded immediately to commands from his hands. To us passengers it was a pointless exercise in going nowhere--about as interesting as peering over someone's shoulder while he punches numbers into a spreadsheet. But to the driver it was an experience. For a short time he was extending his body and his senses into a larger realm, and doing things that he couldn't do unassisted.

The analogy between cars and operating systems is not half bad, and so let me run with it for a moment, as a way of giving an executive summary of our situation today.

Imagine a crossroads where four competing auto dealerships are situated. One of them (Microsoft) is much, much bigger than the others. It started out years ago selling three-speed bicycles (MS-DOS); these were not perfect, but they worked, and when they broke you could easily fix them.

There was a competing bicycle dealership next door (Apple) that one day began selling motorized vehicles--expensive but attractively styled cars with their innards hermetically sealed, so that how they worked was something of a mystery.

The big dealership responded by rushing a moped upgrade kit (the original Windows) onto the market. This was a Rube Goldberg contraption that, when bolted onto a three-speed bicycle, enabled it to keep up, just barely, with Apple-cars. The users had to wear goggles and were always picking bugs out of their teeth while Apple owners sped along in hermetically sealed comfort, sneering out the windows. But the Micro-mopeds were cheap, and easy to fix compared with the Apple-cars, and their market share waxed.

Eventually the big dealership came out with a full-fledged car: a colossal station wagon (Windows 95). It had all the aesthetic appeal of a Soviet worker housing block, it leaked oil and blew gaskets, and it was an enormous success. A little later, they also came out with a hulking off-road vehicle intended for industrial users (Windows NT) which was no more beautiful than the station wagon, and only a little more reliable.

Since then there has been a lot of noise and shouting, but little has changed. The smaller dealership continues to sell sleek Euro-styled sedans and to spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns. They have had GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! signs taped up in their windows for so long that they have gotten all yellow and curly. The big one keeps making bigger and bigger station wagons and ORVs.

On the other side of the road are two competitors that have come along more recently.

One of them (Be, Inc.) is selling fully operational Batmobiles (the BeOS). They are more beautiful and stylish even than the Euro-sedans, better designed, more technologically advanced, and at least as reliable as anything else on the market--and yet cheaper than the others.

With one exception, that is: Linux, which is right next door, and which is not a business at all. It's a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, and geodesic domes set up in a field and organized by consensus. The people who live there are making tanks. These are not old-fashioned, cast-iron Soviet tanks; these are more like the M1 tanks of the U.S. Army, made of space-age materials and jammed with sophisticated technology from one end to the other. But they are better than Army tanks. They've been modified in such a way that they never, ever break down, are light and maneuverable enough to use on ordinary streets, and use no more fuel than a subcompact car. These tanks are being cranked out, on the spot, at a terrific pace, and a vast number of them are lined up along the edge of the road with keys in the ignition. Anyone who wants can simply climb into one and drive it away for free.

Customers come to this crossroads in throngs, day and night. Ninety percent of them go straight to the biggest dealership and buy station wagons or off-road vehicles. They do not even look at the other dealerships.

Of the remaining ten percent, most go and buy a sleek Euro-sedan, pausing only to turn up their noses at the philistines going to buy the station wagons and ORVs. If they even notice the people on the opposite side of the road, selling the cheaper, technically superior vehicles, these customers deride them cranks and half-wits.

The Batmobile outlet sells a few vehicles to the occasional car nut who wants a second vehicle to go with his station wagon, but seems to accept, at least for now, that it's a fringe player.

The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with bullhorns, trying to draw customers' attention to this incredible situation. A typical conversation goes something like this:

Hacker with bullhorn: "Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! It is invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety miles an hour while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!"

Prospective station wagon buyer: "I know what you say is true...but...er...I don't know how to maintain a tank!"

Bullhorn: "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!"

Buyer: "But this dealership has mechanics on staff. If something goes wrong with my station wagon, I can take a day off work, bring it here, and pay them to work on it while I sit in the waiting room for hours, listening to elevator music."

Bullhorn: "But if you accept one of our free tanks we will send volunteers to your house to fix it for free while you sleep!"

Buyer: "Stay away from my house, you freak!"

Bullhorn: "But..."

Buyer: "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"

My favorite line from this snippet is, "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!" Seriously, if familiarity is the only thing stopping you from trying something new, you are cheating yourself out of many greater advantages. Suck it up. You may even find that a tank is easier to drive and repair despite your limited experience. I did.

FairTax Calculator

2008-09-26T21:54:00.003-05:00

I occasionally find myself discussing the possibilities of the FairTax with others. Whenever I tell people that they would easily be saving money under the FairTax, I am met with consistent disbelief. Well, I just discovered this fun little tool:

FairTax Calculator

If you think the FairTax sounds expensive, give the calculator a shot and see if you still think I'm crazy. Then, consider what this revenue neutral plan would do to boost the economy. The current situation in our country demands that we take a serious look at such things. You can read more at FairTax.org.

Free ISP Upgrade!

2008-09-09T21:38:00.003-05:00

I remembered to retest my internet connection today. You see, there is this neat website with some network tools, and they basically allow you to figure out if you need to tweak your network settings in order to get the most out of your internet connection. Here is the link:

http://www.dslreports.com/tools

I ran the Tweak Test, and it told me that 10% of the packets I was downloading were being resent. Yikes! They suggested I download a small utility and use it to change one of my network settings so this problem gets fixed. I did, rebooted, re-ran the test, and I now have 0 packets being resent. Very nice.

I also ran the Speed Test and found that my internet connection was faster that I thought. For some reason, I assumed we had 768/128 because we basically just got the cheapest we could find. However, I got these results instead:

Overclocking Obstacles

2008-09-08T20:05:00.005-05:00

Well, I was able to overclock my CPU to 4.05 GHz with everything running fine, but I had one small issue. Whenever I would shut down the machine, the computer wouldn't actually turn off. The rest of the shut down process completed, the screen turned black, but the fans and lights in the case were still on.

I tried playing with the voltage a bit, but decided not to experiment too thoroughly because I really don't need to be clocked so high. I figure it might have been a RAM issue, because I have the RAM frequency set to automatically match the FSB. The CPU multiplier is locked at 9x, so that puts a 4 GHz overclock at 1778 MHz FSB. The RAM frequency was overclocked by 11%, and considering the small issue I had with it to begin with, I suppose I shouldn't expect it to play nice with such a drastic change. I could try keeping the RAM frequency from automatically matching the FSB and see how it works, but like I said, I'm perfectly happy with my 20% CPU overclock at 3.6 GHz. Besides, I'm sure that the CPU won't be my gaming bottleneck for a long while yet.

Speaking of gaming bottlenecks, I pointed out earlier that I got the GPU to overclock well in Windows. It also overclocks in Ubuntu, but there's one annoying issue with the Nvidia Linux driver: it doesn't reapply your overclock when you restart. Yuck. Well, this isn't such a big deal right now because my most demanding games only run in Windows. Perhaps the drivers will have this feature by the time I really want it in Ubuntu.

That being said, I'd also like to point out that I only seem to be having problems with proprietary software on Ubuntu. All the non-proprietary stuff is running great! The Nvidia drivers are, of course, proprietary. So is Savage Full Enhancement, which seems to insist on running in windowed mode and doesn't want to connect to the servers. (It worked fine on my last computer.) I'll be investigating Savage next. Basically, I haven't had to use the command line for anything but proprietary software. Congrats, Ubuntu 8.04!

One final tangent on this tangled web of rambling: I should admit that Compiz Fusion does give me a few problems with things like Flash (Gnash) and full-screen games like Wesnoth. I've decided to disable it for now. It is in beta, however, so I can't really complain. It already puts Aeroglass to shame even with the few bugs that linger.

My New Gaming Rig

2008-09-04T21:24:00.009-05:00

I posted this back in June at this location:

http://www.beewee.net/forcegamers/Forum/index.php?topic=47.msg356#msg356

I'm reposting it here because I think it's a good way to start off this blog.

Warning: I'm long-winded (long-fingered?) so if you're only interested in the components and prices, skip to the bottom. The reason I'm writing so much is because I want to refer a few people here that have asked about building budget gaming machines.

Well, my computer crashed the day before the party. My power supply and two hard drives all got killed dead, probably due to lightning. (Yes, I was on a UPS.) While I had a backup PSU, I couldn't do anything about the hard drives, so no party for me. However, something good did come of this. I now had a very good reason to upgrade my 4 1/2 year old machine.

I've been keeping up with the tech news, but not really paying attention to prices because I didn't think I'd be building a computer so soon. So I spent much of my now free Saturday doing some shopping online. I was absolutely amazed to discover that I could have many of those cool late technologies I've been reading about for around $750! If you are interested in building a great gaming machine (or possibly having one built for you...), read on.

Every good desktop computer has four main components: CPU (processor), motherboard, RAM (memory), and GPU (video card). The hardest part of building a computer is figuring out what motherboard you want to go with your desired CPU, RAM, and GPU. You can upgrade all three of the latter components, but if you ever need to upgrade your motherboard it's usually best to just build a new computer. Of the three other components, the one that probably gets upgraded the least is the CPU, so it's usually best to start by asking yourself what kind of processor you want and progress from there.

CPU

Processors are an interesting subject, because they now come with different numbers of cores on the same die. This means that the processor you buy may actually be several processors basically lumped into one. The most common options are dual and quad-core CPUs. Many people seem to think that the more cores you have, the faster your games will run; many people are wrong. For some quick benchmarks, take a look at the interactive CPU charts on Tom's Hardware:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/processors/3d-studio-max-9,369.html

Here is a good selection of processors that are more relevant to this topic:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2007/unreal-tournament-2004,398.html?p=1228%2C1253%2C1275%2C1266%2C1274%2C1265%2C1267%2C1268%2C1271%2C1272%2C1273

Even better, the processors in this filter all have the same clock speeds, so you can see how having multiple cores truly affects performance. The top two processors are from the same generation, and so are the bottom two processors:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2007/unreal-tournament-2004,398.html?p=1272%2C1271%2C1267%2C1265

You'll notice that only Supreme Commander and Warhammer Mark of Chaos actually have performance improvements with four cores, and even those performance gains are minimal. The fact of the matter is that most games only have one critical thread, so they don't take advantage of more than one or two cores.

If you go to Newegg.com and look at the prices, you'll realize that this minimal performance gain isn't worth the >5x price. Say what? The dual cores are less than $200 while the quads are greater than $1000? It's not even close! I think that the prices are so different not only because the quad-core processors cost more to make, but also because of increased demand due to the common misconception that they are much better. Whenever I have conversations with people about getting new computers, they always say that they want a quad for their next computer. However, they can never really explain why. Call it stupid tax.

Anyway, after doing a price/performance comparison, I decided to go with the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400. This is one of the new, famous Wolfdale processors that I read about:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wolfdale-shrinks-transistors,1773.html

They use the new "high-k" metal gate manufacturing process, so they suck up less power and run extremely cool even when overclocked:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wolfdale-steroids,1777.html

For $190 on Newegg, this is the most expensive component in my system, but it's also one of the best pieces of technology around:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

I might end up having to get a CPU fan, but we'll see how quiet the stock cooler is first.

RAM

We basically have two choices for the type of RAM to use. There's DDR2 and DDR3. DDR2 is WAY less expensive than DDR3. Also, the type of RAM you use generally has little impact on the performance of your games, so DDR3 really can't be justified right now. DDR2 it is.

Now we need to choose the RAM speed. Typically, it is ideal to match your RAM frequency to your CPU FSB frequency. If you use dual-channel, this effectively doubles the RAM frequency. My processor has a FSB of 1333, but I plan to overclock it to 1600. I also plan to use dual channel RAM, so I will be getting DDR2-800.

Now I need to determine if I want to get 2GB for $24:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227139

or 4GB for $61:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227314

Well, gaming doesn't yet require any more than 2GB, especially if you use XP instead of Vista, like me. Also, you can't utilize the full 4GB unless you use a 64-bit operating system. If you know anything about RAM timings, you'll also notice that the 2GB sticks are a little better. This makes only the slightest difference in performance, so don't worry about it unless it's a close call. 2GB for $24 is too good to pass up, so that's what I got. Actually, it was $23 when I got it. :o

Motherboard

Choosing a motherboard is hard. Motherboards have many features to consider, and they're the backbones of our computers, so they need a lot of careful consideration. I like Newegg's filtration system. It allows me to narrow things down a bit. First of all, I need something that supports my processor. For that, I need the LGA 775 socket. Next, I need something that supports DDR2 RAM at 800 MHz. I'll get to the video card later, but we should all know that we need a PCI-Express x16 slot. I don't plan to get into Crossfire or SLI because the costs and bugs outweigh the benefits, so just one slot is fine. We won't rule out more if the price is right. I also want SATA 3Gb/s support.

We also need to consider future upgrades here. Will I want to use DDR3 RAM in the future? Possibly. How about PCI-Express 2.0 video cards? As with the RAM, there's no benefit now, but there could be in the future. Let's look for a motherboard that supports these things and see what comes up.

You'll get a long, confusing list of boards if you filter on these things. The filters also don't quite work the way I want either, so there was a lot of page refreshing. Basically, the things to look for are lower prices and good reviews. This was my pick:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186134

$175 is a great price for a X38, and there are a significant number of reviews that average 4/5. Skimming through the bad reviews, I don't notice anything that makes me want to avoid this piece. (You should do this for all your parts, by the way.) It supports everything I need, as well as PCI-E 2.0 and 4GB of DDR3. It also has 8-channel on-board sound. This board will last me a nice long time.

Video Card

This item is going to make the biggest difference in your gaming performance, but it's also the part that you have to worry about the least. If your motherboard supports PCI-Express, you'll be just fine for a good time to come. Even longer if it supports PCI-E 2.0. Video cards are also much easier and cost-effective to upgrade than processors. Check out Tom's interactive VGA charts for performance comparisons:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards/3dmark06-v1-0-2-hdr-sm3-0-score,538.html

For the latest cards, go here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-gtx-280,1953-21.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-9800gtx-review,1800-11.html

Here is my pick:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121224

The price/performance ratio is great on this one. Only $130 for an 8800 GT? Maybe I should give SLI a second thought...

Hard Drive

I didn't think too hard about this one. Good reviews, good stats, and good price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

Some people like to get those crazy Raptors with faster spin speeds. Sure, they're nice, but the only way they improve your gaming experience is by reducing loading times. They are also louder, hotter, more expensive, and have less capacity. No thanks.

Power Supply

You need to make sure it supports your motherboard connector and PCI-E card, but other than that it's pretty much a matter of wattage, price, and reviews. Don't ignore the efficiency factor either. Basically, I don't care much about having lots of power because I don't plan on having a lot of junk in my system. I chose mine because it seems reliable in the reviews, and they also said that it's quiet:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121024

Case

Last of all, I needed a case. It's a good thing that Tom's did a recent review on some of the nicer cases out right now:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pc-case-roundup,1951.html

Yes, we're not limited to these choices, but I decided to go with the NZXT Tempest for $100 anyway:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146047

I might have been able to find something cheaper, but I chose this for a few reasons. First of all, a bigger size is important to me because I do a lot of tinkering. Second, Tom's and the Newegg reviewers commented on how quiet it is even though there is a lot of airflow. You'll notice that the reviewers of many of the products I chose commented on how quiet the devices are. This is important to me. Third, it has lots of good reviews, so I know I won't be disappointed with it. Finally, it looks cool.

Summary

So there you have it. Here's the product summary with prices:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - $190
Foxconn X38A - $175
OCZ DDR2-800 2x1GB - $23
ASUS 8800 GT 512MB - $130
Seagate Barracuda 250/16GB - $60
Kingwin ABT-450MM - $35
NZXT Tempest - $100

Total before rebates after shipping: $843.29
After rebates (and postage): $754.93

Of course, you'll need a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and DVD drive, but I have those already and that's the easy stuff.

The following is taken from later posts by myself in the same thread. It contains some good, supplementary information.

My UPS might be covered by a lifetime warranty (I hear they usually are) so I might get something for the lightning damage. I need to look that up. That reminds me that I wanted to say why I got all my parts from Newegg:

1) First of all, I use their reviews to determine if I really want the product or not. This helps me avoid things like cheap power supplies that burn out all the time.

2) Their prices are simply the best. I did research on every component that I purchased, and I couldn't find a better price anywhere. Sometimes you might get lucky, but Newegg is still a good starting point at the very least.

3) They have excellent customer service. Was something damaged during shipping? DOA? You don't have to worry if you got it from Newegg. When I built my old computer over four years ago, the front panel of my case was broken. They sent me a new one immediately.

4) They also ship really fast, though I'm not the impatient type. I ordered on Sunday evening, and everything shipped on Monday. I'll bet the parts will be here tomorrow. Edit: They were. I got everything on Thursday, even though the case shipped from a separate location.

It really is true: "Once you know, you Newegg."

And this:

Results

Overall, I'm really happy with this rig. Everything is running great. The machine is super quiet compared to my last one, yet you can definitely feel the airflow. I can't hear the hard drive at all. The case also looks pretty slick.

After I put everything together, it worked on the first try. I guess Murphy was on vacation. I installed XP Pro, and applied all the essentials which I had downloaded beforehand, including XP SP3, DirectX, Nvidia drivers, and a few other things. I also downloaded and installed some other random drivers and tools after the fact.

The RAM was advertized as using the timings of 4-4-4-15. However, the bios automatically set it to 5-5-5-15. I tried setting them to 4-4-4-12, but that made the system very unstable. I noticed that many people seemed to have this issue, but that it was also easily fixed. The default voltage for the RAM was 1.8 volts. In order to use the advertized RAM timings, the voltage had to be increased to around 2.1 volts. I did that and everything is fine again.

The processor's default was 3.0 GHz at 1333 FSB. Realizing that this processor is one of the best overclockers ever, and also wanting to match the FSB with my 800 MHz RAM (dual channel), I clocked it to 3.6 GHz at 1600 FSB. I also upped the voltage very slightly by 0.0125 volts, even though it seemed to be stable at the default. I also told the bios to match the CPU clock with the RAM clock by a 1:2 ratio. This makes the effective frequency of the dual channel RAM match the system FSB.

For the GPU, I noticed that it was clocked at 600 MHz, though many 8800 GTs are clocked higher. This card has good cooling, so I decided I would clock it up a bit. I used RivaTuner to set the core to 680 MHz, and I also upped the memory from 900 MHz to 1020 MHz. Everything runs just fine.

The tempuratures are:
CPU Idle: 44 C
CPU Load: 58 C
GPU Idle: 42 C
GPU Load: 65 C

I'm using the stock cooler for the CPU. I think that 58 is acceptable and the fan is quiet, so I don't think I'll bother getting a different cooler even though I'm sure it would lower the temperature. 65 for a GPU is pretty good.

Now I just have to wait until SC2 is out.

And this:

The room temperature is about 25 C. As far as the case temp, it doesn't look like RivaTuner has a way to pick that up. Maybe there's a plugin. The only other temperature I saw in the BIOS was for the motherboard chipset, which was somewhere in the 30s.

Yeah, I figure that a 20% overclock isn't bad at all, especially when I don't even need to buy another cooler. Of course, this is about what I expected from a Wolfdale. It lives up to its reputation.

And finally this:

I have a small update on the machine. I decided to grab a different heatsink and fan. Tom's Hardware had a review on CPU air coolers, and this one totally crushed the competition. It's very efficient, and it only costs $27 after a $10 rebate. Free shipping too! For that price, I figured it was worth keeping my CPU a little healthier and hopefully prolonging its life. Here it is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

And here's Tom's article:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-cooler-charts,1967-9.html

And here are the results:

Room Temperature: 22 C (72 F)
Stock fan Idle: 45 C (80% fan speed)
Stock fan Load: 61 C (100% fan speed)
Xigmatek Idle: 37 C (20% fan speed)
Xigmatek Load: 48 C (60% fan speed)

I used a small utility called Max CPU this time, instead of a CPU-intensive game, in order to put my CPU under load. It allows you to set all of your cores (two in my case) to 100%, so you know that your CPU is being maxed out. I'll probably never hit that point in real life, but tests like this should include the worst case scenario. Of course, I let it run for several minutes until the temperatures were stable. Needless to say, I am very happy with the results. The results are so good, in fact, that I may decide to bump my overclock from 3.6 GHz to 4.0 GHz. That would be 33% above stock, and very sweet indeed.

I also didn't notice any difference in noise, which probably means that both fans were quieter than other fans in my machine. (Even though the entire computer is much quieter than any other in the house.) You'll notice I didn't have the fan running at full capacity, which makes the temperatures even more impressive.

Note: This heatsink is BIG. It fits in my case just fine, but I didn't get a cheapo tiny case either.
Other note: Installation wasn't easy. One of the push-pins was hard to get at. Some people added the fan after attaching the heatsink to the motherboard. Others even removed the motherboard. I didn't have to resort to any of these measures, but I did have to struggle with one of the pins under the fan for a while. The pins that I could reach snapped into place easily.