Archive for April, 2009

New Headset, Space Cadets and More

Published
by
Abyss
on April 22, 2009
in Tech
. 0 Comments

Well, last night I did something rather crazy which involved jumping up from a game of Counter-Strike and running to the living room. Unfortunately, I took the headset cord with me. I literally ripped the cord in half at the Y connector. I attempted a really horrible splicing job, but couldn’t get it to work. So, off I went to purchase a new headset. There were 3 models on the Best Buy website that seemed like they’d work: GameCom 377, GameCom 777 and the Logitech ClearChat Pro USB. Needless to say, I cheaped out and got the 377.

GameCom 377 Headset

GameCom 377 Headset

Initial impressions were definitely mixed. The sound was good, the cord was reinforced, and the controls were huge. Of course, everything about this thing was huge. For $40, you really got your money’s worth in plastic. The mic tucks away very nicely, but in comparison to the ear cans you’d probably miss it entirely. I honestly looked like a space cadet with those things on. They were pretty heavy, and they made a clear statement: “I have no idea why I’m wearing these, but aren’t they wicked cool? No? Aww, seriously?”

So, my wife came home and I displayed my inner uber nerd and then realized just how crazy these things were. So, a quick check on the return policy, and back to the big blue and yellow box they went. Shay, a good friend of mine and one heck of a shot in Counter-Strike, recommended the ClearChat Pro USB from the start. I gawked at using USB for audio, but this time around I decided I better heed someone’s advice since I apparently have horrible judgment.

Logitech ClearChat Pro USB

Logitech ClearChat Pro USB

Snapped up a pair for $10 more than the 377s and headed home. Opened the horribly designed blister pack and threw them on my head. These things are light. To be honest, it hardly feels like you’re wearing anything at all. The cable is just long enough to comfortably reach my tower, and the thing was plug and play. Vista 64bit just installed them and set my defaults for me. One game of Command & Conquer 3 later and I’m happy with them. Logged into Ventrilo and someone even commented that I sounded much better, easier to hear. Weird. It’s just a headset, right? The build quality is just okay, but if you’re relatively careful (unlike me) they should last awhile. The on ear controls aren’t as strange as they sound. You get used to it.

Anyways, I hope that helps a few people make some decisions on headsets. Just remember that return policy.

i7 Build is Done

Published
by
Abyss
on April 5, 2009
in Tech
. 1 Comment

I finally got around to building a new desktop PC. I’ve been working from my MacBook Pro for the last year or two, and its perfect for getting things done and its very speedy. Unfortunately, it simply cannot handle any of my hard-core games. So, in a fit of insanity, I built a new rig.

Components I had to buy to bring the old box up to speed:

  • i7 920 2.66ghz Quad Core
  • GTX 260 896mb Video Card
  • 6gb DDR3 1600
  • X58 Motherboard
  • 550w PSU
  • Vista x64 Home Premium

So far, everything is working without a hitch. I am noticing some interesting things though. For one, I now understand the frustration that everyone has with Windows Vista. UAC is beyond annoying, and sometimes things are a pain to find due to the new start menu. However, the machine is incredibly snappy. Everything runs incredibly fast, and crash recovery is much better. I can alt+tab from a game to desktop and back without a complete reboot, and games run like melted butter. That said, getting my older games to run under 64bit Vista was… fun. Battlefield 2142 apparently requires the patches to be installed in a certain order, and Punkbuster (the anti-cheat scanner) has to be manually updated. All of my Steam games run perfectly though, and the recommended settings are right on par with what I expected. Overall, I was really impressed with how they handled that. The game knew I had a decent machine, and automatically ramped up the settings. I love it.

I’m still running on some old 17″ LCDs, but a friend of mine has volunteered to swap me his dual 19″ for them. I’ll definitely owe him, but it’ll be nice to have matching monitors again. I should be all set, except for my chair, which is the next upgrade on my plate.

Now, the i7 definitely gets my seal of approval for hardware as does the GTX 260, but if you are trying to build a machine on the cheap go for the raw clock speed. The i7 does a lot of things (at the same time) well, but Battlefield is still not as buttery as it should be. I got the EVGA brand motherboard and graphics, which at the time was due to reviews and cost but in the aftermath I think it was a great choice. Why? Because it came with free stuff. Not only did I get the Newegg bonus Call of Duty: World at War, but I also got 3d Mark Advantage, the ELEET overclocking tool and a bunch of discounts. EVGA also offered to let me return my new graphics card and upgrade it to a higher end model within 90 days. That is just amazing, to me. Also, the extra year warranty I get from registering my motherboard is a wonderful bonus.

One day I’ll get around to installing Visual Studio, for now, Counter-Strike and BF2142 will do nicely for burn-in testing.