Hey, just thought I'd give a suggestion or two for games we could do at the lans. Two of my favourite games of all time are BF2 and BF 1942. With big enough groups these games would work great!

I would suggest some newer games like COD 4 or Crysis / Crysis Warhead, but I know that not many people have PC's capable of running them (especially Crysis).

Well this is also my introduction. So yeah I am SugarySnack (Or Jeff lol), and I am a first year Comp Sci student. If anyone wants to play any PC games online give me a shout! (chances are I have it if it is newish)

welcome sugary snack.

look forward to meeting you at tuesdays event, come and say hi!

note to self: wear a name tag lol.

Crysis... no.. like you said .. too computer intensive...

BF if i remember it took a bit of computer power too... i didnt like it personally so i uninstalled from my computer. It could happen if enough people want it though, ive received a few requests already

-Kevin

BF1942 doesn't take much resources at all. Most laptops bought in 2006 + should be able to run it even with an integreated graphics card. Anything over a 6000 series Nvidia card can most likely run it as well. BF2 can run on any 128mb graphics card. it isn't too computer intensive by today's standards.

How about the origional COD? That game isn't too computer intensive. We should put a thread up where people post their computer specs so we can select the games by that. I don't really know what to expect... I mean i have a brand new system with almost top of the line parts so.... lol.

well if you look on the event info page you can see all my computer specs. My desktop aint too good right now, but considering i got the thing for free from volunteering with computer recycling, its not bad... ive upgraded everything except the processor and motherboard now though.

Oh, i was talking about BF 2142 as being more computer intensive compared to the games we lan anyways...

Whats your comp specs?

My comp specs are:

CPU: Core 2 Duo E8600 @ 4.0Ghz
Motherboard: Asus Rampage Formula X48
RAM: G.Skill 4GB DDR2 1000
Graphics Card: Visiontek 4870X2
Power Supply: 750w Corsair
Audio Card: Asus Xonar DX2
Monitor: 24" Samsung (245BW)

This is a brand new system (just finished building it last weekend). Only reason i got all of it is cuz lightning hit my house and fried my old computer (Which was good as well. E8400, Sli 8800GT's, 4gb ram and what not). The insurance company took my computer and gave me around $2000 bucks so it was a nice upgrade for me anyways.

I am quite a "hardcore" PC gamer and play lots of new games so I need powerful hardware for it. But yeah, I don't expect anyone else to really have anything like that (I am fine playing older games).

A lot of people seem to think that you need a $2000 computer in order to play "the latest and greatest". When it comes down to it though, it all depends on monitor size. If you have a very high rez monitor (for example, 1920 x 1200 or above), yeah you might need a $1500 + computer to run the best graphics. I just recently built my brother a $800 computer (without the monitor) that would have no problem with any games at around 1650 x 1080 resolution, Even Crysis on Highish. But with a lot of university students getting laptops I understand that money IS hard to come by for something like that. Not just that, but laptops with integrated graphics chips almost always perform poorly, and that is what the majority of university student / college student laptops have in them. I think I will end my rant now lol.

IF anyone is thinking of building a computer give me a shout, I know cheap places to get parts and I am quite knowlegable about what parts are good, and what parts have good "bang for your buck". Everyday I visit an overclocking forum with lots of news updates so I usually know about new hardware and what not. Don't be afraid to talk to me!

nice monitor choice.. I was on the fence trying to get a 226BW for a long time, but i ended up getting a 225ms (with the built in speakers, tv tunner,etc). Works great and i highly recomend samsung products. You are totally right, if you have a CRT monitor that looks great at say 1024 resolution, you can play games looking great really easy..... when you have a 20+ inch display with native resolution of 1680 or higher, it becomes tricky to get decent looking graphics without a serious rig. Let alone widescreen issues in some games.

you have the dual core ati card.. i was just reading about that yesterday, damn i want one for my next system but they are expensive! I have a 1300$ computer picked out on tigerdirect... just waiting for next year price drop i think.

Looking forward to seeing you at the lan party, are you bringing your desktop or a laptop?

-Kevin

Heh, that video card is very expensive. I think the most expensive on the market right now. But I think I will be bringing my laptop. My desktop weighs about 35ish pounds + I would have to bring my monitor. unless anyone *wants* me to bring my desktop (can't see why) but I'm sure I'll bring my desktop to one of the lans. I'm looking forward to going!

Oh, and kevin try www.ncix.com or www.directcanada.com both sites are usually cheaper than tiger direct. What is in the $1300 computer you're building?

i like tiger direct for their product description, variety of brands, and item searching. Thanks for the suggestion of digitalcanada havnt heard of them, will check them out nxt time.

http://www.maclanclub.x10hos ting.com/images/1300.jpg

i would switch the 2 ati cards for the dual gpu HD 3870 X2 though, specially for the compatibility, pricepoint (325$) and power efficiency.

-Kevin

(The website was directcanada, not digital canada . I think the mac lan site is down though... can't get to the homepage.

yar, it did go down for a bit, but its back up now... you get what you pay for.. wait it was free..

x10hosting.com is pretty good though, its got tons of features, and 10gb bandwidth on a 300mb account with no ads.

Oops, i guess i typoed.
-Kevin

Just a few quick remarks about the build you have there.
The 3870's I would repalce with a 4870. The 4870 is such a good card and I think it might be cheaper than the 2 3870's. I would check some reviews first though. (i looked around for some but couldn't find a whole lot). I found a Visiontek 4870 for 298 bucks at Direct Canada.

Next is your choice in processor. If this is a gaming machine, I am going to have to say "Go intel". Intel procs can overclock quite high (if you are into overclocking).

For the HDD, I would go with seagate. I have owned a few seagates (and still do) and so far so good. They are slightly cheaper than WD. For instance, I found a 500GB for 60 bucks with the same RPM and same cache. (from direct Canada).

For the RAM, there is a 4GB kit of G.skill ( I own that brand for my ram) of PC-8000 for 97 bucks.

Oh, and that ASUS M3A32 motherboard you have there is $205 at Direct Canada .

Hope that helped a little bit

I have switched to amd now, at least you have an ati gfx card instead of nvidia.. so i wont rant on you too bad My amd 2500+ can overclock from 1.8 to 2.2ghz (3200+), the via chipset in my asus mobo is preventing me from going higher then a stable 2.1 though. So ive dipped into overclocking a bit.

Thanks for the money saving , directcanada has a good price point. Come summer ill get the specs from tiger then order from direct

I had a seagate go bad on me so i RMAd it and got a new one (which they do a great job on the warrenty deal!), and bought WD instead.... both ones are going good for me now (160GB seagate IDE and 250GB WD SATA)

Whats the performance of G.skill vs OCZ? Ive never really heard of that company before.

I would highly recomend OCZ flash drives though, i got a 8GB for 30$ and it is the fastest flash ive ever used!

-Kevin

Intel has been on top of AMD for the last 2 years (since the Core 2 Duo came out).
I can overclock my proc from 3.3 to 4.0 easily. I can probably do 4.3ghz with decent temps. I am not an intel fanboy, I just like the one who gives the best performance .

For the RAM, G.Skill is quiet well known in the overclocking community. I think they are a good brand. That or Corsair. OCz is also a good brand though.
I would look at:
Crucial
OCz
G.Skill
Corsair

Those are some good brands.

And the OCz flash drives, I have an 8gb rally I love it!

hey sugarysnack, u play BF1942 Desert combat ? i can only play dc bf1942 on my crummy laptop, but im up for playin dc go go mega pilot