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I think I'm still hunover from Vegas. Let me tell you, it's not a town for the kids!
Heat Makes Me Slow Too
In every debate about clock speeds and video cards and processors and everything, issues always come up about how fast a processor can go. That one guy says his Celeron goes really fast, but you say he'll need a great fan to keep it stable. Well, my question is, what the hell do you mean? I know a fair amount about computers, but no one I know has been able to answer me, and I feel stupid whenever people talk about it. So, what does being "stable" mean, and what happens if it gets to hot and isn't "stable?"
Thank you very much.
-- kudos200
Stability is just a rating of how well your processor works, unlike Doug Perry who's completely unstable and gets very little work done. Being stable just means that your processor continues to work properly even under extreme conditions. Heat is one of the main causes of processor lock-up when overclocking, so devising a way to get the heat away from your chip (ie. a fan and heat sinks) helps to keep your processor stable.
-- Tal
Speak 'N' Play
Hey Tal,
I am curious if you guys (or Bobo) have used to new Game Commander
voice software and headset mike. Does it actually work and does it actually
enhance you gameplay? By the way, I do trust your opinion (except for that
loser Trent), as most of the games I buy are based mostly on your sites reviews.
Sincerely,
-- Merk
Good thinking, Merk. I swear that Trent is responsible for Bobo's disappearance as well as that Bay of Pigs Incident and the cancellation of Knight Rider.
Yes, I have used the Game Commander, and I'm genuinely impressed with it. It really works! The voice templates are OK, but you can also customize the voice controls on any game. It recognized most customized commands we gave it the first time we spoke, which is pretty damn good in my opinion. Now I would suggest that you play in an empty room with no one else around or they may think you're a freak shouting out phrases like "Fire!", "Reverse!" and "Eat Hot Lead You Friggin' Alien Bastard!"
-- Tal
TV Rots Braincells ... Play Games
What's the good word fellas? I have had this question I've been thinking
about for a while. Why don't game companies advertise their games on
television??? Perhaps all the REAL games like Half-Life, or Rainbow Six will
start to see the selling numbers that those Deer Hunter "games" that seem to
be selling like hotcakes. People are intimidated sometimes by what they see
on the shelves. If they have seen commercials they may not be so intimidated
and they would start to explore more titles. Console games sell very well.
Why??? Because they're well advertised. Also, what is going on with Team
Fortress 2?? Has it been delayed to the fall??? Need to know
-- Sureshot
Let's get the easy one out of the way first. The latest we've heard on Team Fortress 2's release date is that it will be out before the end of the year. Sorry we can't get more specific, but that's how these things go.
As far as computer games and commercials go, you're right, there aren't that many. I've only seen ones with console tie-ins, like Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy. So why is this? Well, I don't know specifics, but my main guess is that advertising on television only reaches a small number of potential PC gamers, so the gaming companies tend to spend advertising dollars in areas where their target audience is more likely to see their ads, like gaming magazines and websites such as ours. It may also be that PC gamers have traditionally been better informed on upcoming titles than console users because PC players typically buy more game-related mags and no console (as of yet) has been able to connect to the Internet. Good PC games still sell well (not as well as Zelda, mind you, but well) and they usually cost a lot less to produce since game manufacturers don't have to pay Nintendo for the cartridges or Sony for disc duplication.
-- Tal
More Acronyms Than You Can Shake A Stick At
I was considering upgrading my computer and was looking on pricewatch for the cheapest prices. All of the cheapest prices for CPUs and video cards have OEM in their description. What is OEM, and why is it cheaper than the boxed retail versions? Are the parts used or something? Would I be taking a risk by buying OEM hardware? And one more question: how does a Celeron compare to a P2 of the same Mhz? (ie. how does a Celeron 300 compare to a P2 300)? Is there a huge difference other than the cache size?
-- -- SpecialK02
OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, which is rather odd since, in most cases, OEM equipment doesn't come from the original manufacturer at all but rather from a value-added reseller (VAR), a company which takes existing product from a manufacturer and modifies or alters it in some way, whether it be in the product itself or packaging. Usually when you buy an OEM part it's the exact same hardware without the flashy box, but sometimes you can run into problems with OEM processors because they may be out of warranty since they were probably intended to go in machines made by the manufacturer and they had extras so they passed them onto the consumer at a lower price than expected retail. I can tell you that I've bought OEM components before (video cards and processors) and never had a problem with them. Most that I've bought have been a bit cheaper than their highly marketed counterpart, but you should ask if you can return an OEM product or if it's still under warranty if you do decide to go the OEM route.
Oh, and the Celeron processors are just slightly slower, but they still offer some of the best gaming bang for the buck.
-- Tal
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