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The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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23. January 2009 @ 18:22 |
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I can hardly blame you mate, I've often had the same though about 'half-arsing' an upgrade, but ultimately, whenever I have done so, I've regretted it, and whenever I haven't, I've been grateful.
As much as it hurts, there comes a time when you have to just sit it out if you can't afford what you really want.
As far as cooling and fan control goes, the best value plan in my mind would be to buy an NZXT Tempest and a Sunbeam Rheobus fan controller (and unplug its absurdly bright LEDs), then hook up each fan to a separate knob, using two controllers if necessary. I love the control that gives you, and the Tempest is a stunning case for cooling, reasonably quiet, arguably better designed than the Twelve hundred, more compact, and best of all, much cheaper, at $110. It comes with dust filters, all the fans you need are included, and it allows 8 hard drives to be installed with phenomenal ease.
As far as 4870 vs 4850 goes, if you go 24", I'd take a 4870 1GB for $220 or whatever they now cost. When you ramp up the settings, the difference is a hell of a lot more than 2-3fps.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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23. January 2009 @ 18:36 |
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That sounds good Sam. And the memory - I think I added the PS about the time you were posting - do you like ddr2 or ddr3? (got a link for the controller - is it a newegg item - never mind I found it lol)
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 23. January 2009 @ 18:40
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AfterDawn Addict
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23. January 2009 @ 19:41 |
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DDR2. DDR3 is still more expensive, not available on many decent motherboards, and doesn't offer any more than a negligible performance boost.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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23. January 2009 @ 22:40 |
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Ah, yes, thanks Sam. The gigabyte crossfire you recommended to me at $135 newegg says DDR2. That being the case, can I presume that this Dominator 4 gigs with fan (only $69 with giant $40 rebate - Estuansis maybe this is the one you should get too!!) is the recommended memory product to take the Q9550 to 4 ghz?
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AfterDawn Addict
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24. January 2009 @ 05:13 |
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harvrdguy
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24. January 2009 @ 22:13 |
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Thanks for the tip about the memory, Sam, no use paying for the fan if it isn't really beneficial.
Now I'm wondering about 1920x1200 monitors.
I'm not ready to step into 30 inch for the same reason as estuansis - besides the minimum $1000 investment, the raw horsepower to push 4 million pixels doesn't seem to be there. Maybe we'll see it this summer with the 5000 ati card family.
The 24" monitors at 1920x1200 are only 56% as many pixels to push, so if that means with IQ hack I can crank up crysis to high where it really starts to look good (maybe using the monitor money savings to spend $200 more and jump straight away to the 4870x2) then I'll just sit a little closer to the screen for the time being.
One dude with a 26 inch monitor kept his 19 inch 1440x900 around also, (only 56% as many pixels again as the 1920x1200) and switched over to that for the really brutal ball-buster games (like crysis hehe.) That's another strategy. Run crysis on ultra-high on the little screen (sit REALLY close like I do now on my Dell 19" lol) to see what the fuss is, and then switch over to the bigger monitor and see how badly the fps falls.
One guy with the 26 inch said he never knew there were little frogs in crysis. I'm sure you, Sam, have seen plenty of frogs.
I liked the Samsung T240HD tv/monitor that I got vanessa, and I was thinking about the 26 inch version of that - still 1920x1200, but slightly bigger, which with my not-great eyesight would maybe give me a little bit larger view of the guys across the map who want to snipe my head off LOL.
But I wasn't thrilled just now with the reviews on newegg of either the T260HD version with the tuner, or the t260 without the tuner. Everybody talks about TN versus TFT, and the samsung is not TFT, and they are dead right about dramatic changes to the image depending on where you are vertically in regard to the panel - I discovered that at Vanessa's house. Some people claim also that the Samsung is really only 6 bit TN color dithered to 8 bit. One guy said it just wasn't as sharp as the Dell.
The Dell panels claim to be true TFT. You Sam, know a lot about the Dells. But again, I'm thinking of getting something a little larger than the 2408 ultra-sharp Dell, but still with the same 1920x1200 pixel count. Dell makes a 27 inch pricey display. But the 27 inch dell has only a 0.303 dot pitch, and one reviewer on the dell website complained that he missed the sharpness of dot pitch under 0.28. I know that your 30", Sam, is 0.25 dot pitch.
A pretty good Anandtech article about the Dell 2707 pointed out that pixel pitch is essentially a function of how many pixels are crammed into how much space - the 30" has a .25 pixel pitch, cramming 4 million pixels into that amount of space, a 24" typically has a pixel pitch of 0.27, and the 27" has the largest pixel pitch of .303 outside of big screen tv sets. (Well I guess the new 28" vizio has an even larger pixel pitch.) The anandtech reviewer said that people who are visually-challenged (he raised his hand) might prefer the larger pixel size.
For me, I just want to be able to spot Shaff or TheftAuto before they nail me!
So, what does anybody like in a 26 or 27 inch LCD display? Newegg has a 26 inch viewsonic and a 28 inch viewsonic - both $600 but the 28 inch has a $50 rebate. The reviews are mixed. I haven't gone to the manufacturer site yet for pixel pitch, etc.
At the manufacturer's site, the best is the x series, and I found that newegg had carried the 26" version at one time, and one newegg reviewer said clearly - "it's a 6 bit monitor with dithering." He said everybody else lied about their monitors except for viewsonic - I couldn't find anything in the viewsonic specs about 16.7 million colors.
Well, for sure, I DO want 16.7 million colors. But regarding 26 or 28 inch 1920x1200, maybe I'm wrong - maybe 24" with tighter specs like the Dell will result in overall just sharper, more pleasing picture. Maybe thnking 26-27" is a mistake - not-so-good eyesight taken into consideration.
Still, having the sniper's head slightly larger - same number of pixels spread out on 26-27 inches versus 24 inches, seems like it would be a slight advantage - is there something wrong with my logic?
Dell has the 2707 refurbished - a bunch of them - for about $500.
Originally posted by random dude on hard forums:
The dot pitch was my only concern going in but I'm surprised (rather shocked actually) that everything seems just as crisp as it was on my 2405. Everything is obviously just a tad larger.
What do you guys think?
Rich
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 25. January 2009 @ 00:21
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AfterDawn Addict
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25. January 2009 @ 07:07 |
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A 30" monitor is never going to run on anything but top-end hardware. The nature of games is such that by the time you can play most of the top titles, they have since got more demanding.
24" is a lot more realistic in that regard if you do want to max games out - though I do stress there's nothing stopping you using a 24" box in the middle of a 30" monitor using 1920x1200.
I've seen the frogs in Crysis, but not very often I don't think. As it stands now, at 1920x1200, an HD4870X2 can run Warhead at all Enthusiast with 4xAA. It's not ideal, but it doesn't run terribly any more - the newest drivers have really helped in that regard, and rumours are next month's will have a big benefit again.
It's TN vs S-PVA vs S-IPS. S-PVA and S-IPS are generally a lot better than TN.
The dot pitch is simply a result of the increased size and same resolution. If you have a bigger screen with the same number of pixels, the pixels are bigger, hence a higher dot pitch.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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25. January 2009 @ 16:30 |
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That's an interesting observation about the progressive nature of game hardware demands. I guess our friends at crytek took a big leap forward with a hardware killing game that would stay challenging for years.
I forgot about that 1920x1200 box in the middle of the screen. Excuse me if this seems like a dumb question, Sam, but how do you do that exactly? (Is it from the on-screen controls - right click empty part of desktop, go to properties, then settings?) Can you link to a photo of what that looks like on your monitor? Have you done that recently on any of your titles?
That's actually a great idea - we talked about this before. Instead of forking out $500 for the 1920x1200, just fork out another few hundred for the 2560x1600, and drop down to that box for the games that just won't run at 2560x1600. Meanwhile you have the full screen for the ones that will, like COD4. I imagine that COD4 at full 30 inches, would be quite a powerful experience! (Tell me again about "gorging on pixels" LOL)
I actually have the bucks for the monitor, and this indecision is killing me. Maybe I should start with that and that will force me to move forward with the new build as my funds build up. I could even run the 3707 off the 3850 since it has dual dvi ports - using the 1920x1200 box.
Originally posted by some random forum dude:
Or I could run it temporarily at 1280x800, hahahaha, which somebody said on one forum is another native resolution of the 30" monitors.
(How would that work? You'd be firing up a grid of four pixels at a time. You'd lose a lot of sharpness of course, but I wonder how it would look. Have you ever tried that?)
Pao's revolution on Hardcore has a 3707 in Long Beach for about $800. I could drive out and pick it up. He says no dead pixels and he'll throw in a $150 belkin dvd cable. (cable - so what - is that a big deal?) Ebay has a brand new one, bidding over in 18 hours min bid with shipping from Oklahoma, $819, no bids so far. Sounds like a better deal to me if it doesn't get bid up.
Dell doesn't have any refurbished.
Oh yeah, and there is that other thing about 3707wfp-hc with 92% of the color gamut, instead of 72%, faster 6ms response vs 11ms, but only 300 bright instead of 400. I remember reading a lot about that before. You recently upgraded, but prior to that you had the original 3707 and you were pretty happy with it. Is it worth it to try to get the -HC version, or not that big a deal?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 25. January 2009 @ 16:58
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spamual
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25. January 2009 @ 19:01 |
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liek i wouldnt mind a 42" 1080p TV and play PC games on that, caus id sit a good few meters back, so it wouldnt make adiffernce
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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25. January 2009 @ 19:15 |
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Yeah, that's what I was thinking with the bigger monitor - it's all 1900x1200.
But Sam has really got me thinking about 30" at this time.
Hey, did anyone notice that none of the dual-link DVD-D male to male cables at newegg will claim support of 2560x1600? Only the display port cables will claim that resolution.
But this cable for $12 does claim 2560x1600 - and I don't see that it is any different or better. The reason I'm looking is that one of the 3707 monitors I might bid on doesn't come with the data cable.
Wow, I found out a lot more about cables - by googling "2560x1600 dvi cable." They say the standard bandwidth for WQXGA (2560x1600) is about 7.92 Gps, and while the Newegg cables boast 9.9 Gps, they only claim to support QXGA, 2048x1536. I'm not sure why. But datapro, and another one, Better Cables, both claim full 2560x1600 support, and have more expensive types - the Better Cable guys have a $60 6 foot cable - and they show charts indicating much lower resistance on their cables. They say it does make a difference how large the cable is, because with larger resistance you can lose data bits - which can cause sparkling in the display.
Anyway, the monitor I'm bidding on right now comes with a dvi cable, and from the pictures it looks like Dell ships a pretty good quality cable which of course is what one would expect. I'll let you guys know if I win the auction.
Once I get the monitor I'm committed (or maybe I should go out and have myself committed) since the only thing I can do now is fire it up with my p4 and 3850 (which WILL run it for awesome desktop wallpaper displays, lol.)
Next I'll order a case, and get started gradually on the new build. If I lose these auctions, then that means fate doesn't want me to do this, so I'll start waffling again about an interim core 2 duo solution. Oh no!! Hahahaha.
Mr. Indecision, signing out.
-Rich
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 26. January 2009 @ 02:28
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. January 2009 @ 07:41 |
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Rich:
Crysis was undoubtedly a trendsetter for hardware performance. The majority of PC games can run at max settings on a high end PC on the day they are released. There are a substantial portion that can't, and it's typically 6-12 months before they can be maxed on a top end PC. There is then also the point of realistic demands. A top-end PC right now could be considered a heavily overclocked 45nm Quad or i7 and three GTX285s. However, the number of systems like this in circulation is so small, it isn't really fair to say that we can finally a max a game that this setup can, as 99+% of gamers still couldn't.
Realistic demands for me sit at one graphics card (though this includes duals, as they are the price now that single high end cards used to be), and a fast quad core processor, not overclocked, as this means a relative newcomer can have a PC without needing to tinker. That is where we have hit the point of being able to run games. If this system (I will say, a Q9550 and HD4870X2, stock) can max a game, there's our mark. For this mark, I initially gave Crysis a figure of 5 years, which means playable with so little lag that it is playable throughout without being tedious or more difficult, at 2560x1600, 4xAA, all Very high settings. Technically we should include 16x AF forced in the control panel for that too.
Right now, the Palit revolution 700 (a pre-clocked HD4870X2 with a fancy cooler) runs with a miserable minimum frame rate of 11 all very high, and worse still, no AA has been applied, and most tests aren't conducted in 'Reckoning' where the frame rate for the game is at its lowest. We are now approaching 18 months past the game's release, and there's a long way to go.
I wonder what the second longest game will be in that regard? GTA4 perhaps? As that's basically CPU-rendered, we probably need 8-core CPUs beyond 4Ghz to pull that one off... :S
The box in the middle of the screen. With a Radeon, go into Catalyst, where the monitor properties are, and select 'use centred timings'. You won't find it in desktop properties.
I will gladly upload a screenshot of what that looks like momentarily.
You do not need two DVI ports to run 2560x1600. You need Dual-link DVI, which is only one port, but one that uses high-grade technology for double bandwidth. The HD3850 AGP will have this, as will any Radeon X1000 series or Geforce 7, and beyond, even if they only have one DVI port on the card. The exception is laptops, very few laptops have dual link DVI ports.
I assume you mean 2707 not 3707, as I have yet to see an Ultrasharp monitor beyond 30", no matter what the resolution is.
The cable market is a bit of a con. You can spend a fortune on high grade cables that supposedly increase the image quality, to no effect. My £5 HDMI cable looks fantastic. Ultimately it's technology that makes the difference. Changing from regular composite-based, to RGB signals in a SCART connector helps, moving to High-def certainly helps, and using HDMI and DVI over component or VGA helps a great deal. However, a $100 cable is unlikely to look any different to a $10 cable.
I didn't get my monitor refurbished from Dell, I got it from ebay, directly from the refurbishment company, by happy coincidence.
Lastly, HC vs non HC, the panel in my 3008WFP is effectively an HC, and I can tell you now, I wouldn't worry about it. The brightness, contrast, response time and colour accuracy on my non-HC 3007WFP were all exemplary. If anything, the panel on the 3007WFP was better as it had no leakage spots or brightness differentials with angle. That said, it is meant to have more issues with backlight uniformity. When I looked for them, I found them, but honestly, anyone who tells you they can see them when they aren't looking is lying, it was never noticeable. The downside to that monitor was that after two years it had picked up half a dozen dead pixels. Still, it had been used heavily throughout that time, and had travelled on over 50 car journeys.
Spam: I certainly wouldn't turn one down if you gave me one, but the increased desktop space is absolutely luxurious, and strategy games at 2560x1600 have to be seen to be believed.
Rich, again: All Dual link DVI cables support 2560x1600. Displayport cables support even higher than that (for reference the 3008WFP not only supports displayport, but also comes with the cable for it). All Dell monitors that support DVI come with that cable too, mine included. I am however using the same old cable that my 3007 came with in 2006, as I gave the new one away when I sold the 3007. Two years plus of bending, dropping, plugging, unplugging, and the picture quality on the screen is still immaculate.
Wow, long post.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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26. January 2009 @ 15:55 |
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Sam, nice post. Thanks. Nobody had bid on that new 3707wfp-hc by the time I went to bed, and the auction was going to end before I got up, so I bid $768 (min was $750.) I'm gonna check right now to see if I won. Well, in a minute. If not there are 4 more 3707 auctions to bid on - some of them are new too. I think at one time that Dell had a sale at $750 - because one of the Dell reviews mentioned that price - so it looks like some of these guys picked up a few extra to try to make money on ebay.
Thanks for explaining the 1920x1200 box - so one definitely needs to install Catalyst to do that. I didn't install Catalyst on the 3850 because at first when I did I couldn't run 3dmark6 anymore. Anyway, I assume the 4870 drivers will be relatively trouble-free.
Hey on that subject, you mentioned multiple gpus on a card. One guy with a 30" samsung on newegg was reviewing something I was looking at, and he was running a 4870x2, plus a 4870 - three gpus. He was talking about running crysis, but I recalled that you said crysis doesn't notice the third gpu unless it's an nvidia card. Is that still true?
Back to ATI, Regarding the 4870x2 - which I am seriously considering - I was favoring the Asus 4870x2 with three fans which most newegg reviewers said runs cool and quiet. (Price just jumped $40!!) I use ATI tray tools to overclock the cards so I don't actually care what clocks they come with, but do you recommend the Palit revolution for superior cooling? I'll have to look it up if you think the cooler is actually superior.
Well, I didn't win. I had bid $768, it went for $778. That's what happens when you're not around in the last few minutes of the auction. No problem - there are a bunch more. (Besides, those last minute bidding wars can sometimes be costly.) Still I was hoping to finalize my new build. I'll keep trying for the rest of the week.
Sam, you mentioned 50 car trips with the monitor - are you telling me you actually took the beast to your frag socks? I was wondering how they did that - so everybody has to bring their own full pc, monitor, keyboard, mouse - I guess that makes sense. They provide the LAN - how many players show up at a time, and what kind of a place do they use to stage the event - a gymnasium at a school, a clubhouse at a condo - an Elks meeting hall? Do they charge money to get in? They must have a pretty powerful server - what kind of equipment do they usually use for the host?
Just curious. It must be a pretty good time for all. LOL
Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. January 2009 @ 16:06 |
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Again with the 3707, is it 3007?
3dmark has issue with current graphics cards, it's normal. There's a patch you install to allow it to run on modern cards.
You are correct about triple CF not working with Crysis, but for a different reason. Triple crossfire that way does work, though AMD says it doesn't, but Crysis doesn't support more than 2 GPUs, so 4 wouldn't work either. It does however, support more than 2 nvidia GPUs.
Other games like STALKER Clear Sky and I believe Age of Conan, but don't quote me on it, work with triple and quad CF, but often games don't need beyond two 4870s if they do work with CF, and if they don't run, they usually don't accept CF either,. sometimes that's why they run badly, and other times it's because they're badly coded, hence why they run badly.
The Asus 4870X2 looks interesting, but so far my 'pick of the X2s' is this one:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-revo...4870-x2-review/
One review claimed it had very high idle power consumption, but others haven't reported that so I think they just had a driver error.
Fragsoc is awesome. 35-50 gamers for a weekend (Sat 1200 - Sun 1800), networking, it's hosted in the maths department of a university, so four classrooms - two events' time it's moving to a large hall in a different part of the campus, should be interesting. Membership fee is only £5 for the year, and it's typically £2-£3 per event.
Generally it's rare for people top all be playing the same thing outside the tournament, for which there is a gameserver. It's not very powerful, only a SKT939 Athlon X2 I believe.
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spamual
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26. January 2009 @ 17:22 |
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sam bit-tech reported a higher idle and load power draw aswell. i think its due to the fans and OC.
lol rich, frag sock haha
yeah fragsocks awesum. though they tend to be biased against some games :(
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. January 2009 @ 17:51 |
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Biased pro-good games :)
The idle usage was like 80W higher though, similar to how the cards performed before they undervolted at idle, so that's what I suspect the problem is.
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spamual
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26. January 2009 @ 17:57 |
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(yawns at CCS over COD4)
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. January 2009 @ 19:01 |
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CS:S as it was played for the tournament was much more fun than I've had for a long time, including COD4. On its own though for regular games, I'd take COD4 over it.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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26. January 2009 @ 22:15 |
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Well, the fragsoc sounds great! So does everybody have a mic and headphones - what do you guys take with you for that? So you set up in several classrooms - what? - long tables - that type of thing? Does everybody stay all 18 hours? Do people bring sleeping bags when they have to catch a snooze in the hallway or does everybody just go have some food and coffee? What a riot! Does anybody else haul a monster 30" monitor with them, Sam, or are you the only one!! If so, I bet you always have people gathered around looking over your shoulder!
What about you, Shaff, is your water rig portable enough for the fragsocs - everything's all self-contained in the Buckingham Palace, right? You don't have any outside radiators as I recall from all your pictures.
Regarding the fragsoc hosts liking to host CS:S ("yawn" to quote Shaff) versus COD4, it's just that EVERYBODY knows CS, Shaff, so it makes sense to host that. As Sam pointed out, the only reason COD4 is the top xfire game is that xfire lists all the PIRATE SERVERS, hahahahaha! Anyway, Shaff, you shouldn't complain - it's enough similar - requires the same skills - you shouldn't much notice the difference when you get used to the maps. And it has WAY better built-in mic support, right? No need for programs like teamspeak and mumble.
Anyway, Sam, you like CS:S a lot at the fragsoc. What do you like about it especially? And what's your favorite CS:S weapon?
For me, I seem to do best with the bullpup. I was on Condition Zero one long evening a few months ago with all the bots, just trying to beat the Havana map at Hard so I could move on, and it was the same, bullpup was best.
I remember encountering that map a few years ago when I was playing CS a lot - I couldn't figure out where anything was. But playing straight about 12 hours several months ago, I began to get the hang of it. I almost beat it. I finally started getting fatigued but before that I was way ahead of the damn bots. However, besides all the other things you have to do - lead the hostages to safety, blah blah blah, you also have to knife a guy and survive the round, and the bots are very good. I only had to do that one thing. I know that the condition zero and counter strike bots slightly over-react to smoke - they don't react enough to flashbangs, but they overreact to smoke. So I had the room all smoked up and I was right behind him - I hit the shift with my little finger to run and knife the guy - but in CS you are always running, and SHIFT MAKES YOU WALK.
.............@#!$%@!
If I ever go back to beat that map I'll get the knifing out of the way first.
Miles, the Valve guy, was telling me the same think one time regarding Counter Strike weapons - he likes the bullpup too. As you probably know, Sam, the bullpup is rifle number 4, and it's a little pricey. With the bullpup you have a slight 2:1 scoping on the right-click mouse, which can be quite helpful. But I have found that you don't really want to run around scoped in all the time, because it actually slightly reduces the fire rate. Better to run around regular - it has minimal recoil - and the faster fire rate is often the difference between you walking away, or the other guy walking away. I complained to Miles about that fire rate issue one time. I said - "How realistic is that? - the fire rate gets reduced depending on whether you are slightly scoped in or not. How does the gun know know if you're looking through the scope?"
He laughed - his answer was that the Valve guys always try to balance the guns so that no gun has too much of an advantage. Then, in the same breath, he started complaining about the machine pistol that the rocket launcher class of Germans carry in Day of Defeat, which he was playing a lot of at that time. He said, "They messed up with that one and made it too powerful - it fires WAY too fast. One of the other animators always used to get killed by me, then he started kicking my ass with that pistol!"
It was my turn to laugh. I told him that I had tried it myself, and it was great for close combat - you could wipe out several guys in the room all at once - but it totally sucked for anything over 30 yards.
Back to the bullpup - it's a little loud for my tastes, though, and it has a slightly scary long reload cycle - maybe 2-3 seconds. That's longer than my other favorite CS gun, the default counter-terrorist rifle, the wonderful colt, rifle number 3. I love that gun. It's almost as powerful as the AK-47, much less recoil, good for close in also. I always use it silenced, to me it sounds better and Miles told me that in professional competition they have found that the silencer may slightly increase the accuracy, without having much negative affect on power. But there is a problem after using the bullpup for a while, which sometimes happens if I start running out of money. All of a sudden I'm on the colt, then thinking I'm still on the bullpup, I right-click to scope in, and the silencer comes off. That's a really bad time for a terrorist to come around the corner - two f**king seconds of defenseless! Deadly mistake! Hahahaha.
Anyway, who am I to talk, Shaff, all I play now is COD4. One day I'll start up with CS:S again - it's a different feel, and the only play style is the COD4 search and destroy you told me about (which I still haven't tried yet, lol.)
I'm reading that long Palit review you linked me to Sam - very nice review. Versus stock, they're showing about a 12 degree reduction in gpu temps, but the Asus with three fans claims a 24 degree drop from stock. The Asus gets great reviews on newegg, and of course newegg doesn't carry the Palit.
I don't see any mention of heatpipes on the Asus design - I know that Asus DOES use heat pipes on the straight 4870 - Sapphire does too. Maybe with all those fans the heat pipes don't help. I'm going to research the Asus a little bit more before my final choice.
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AfterDawn Addict
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27. January 2009 @ 08:16 |
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Yeah, we use microphones for voice chat and headphones (often the same device).
We set up tables in a circle with an entry point at one or either end like this:
This wasn't very busy, usually it's solidly crammed with people, wires and PCs :) - oh, and that's me on the far left of the picture, next to my current housemate nick.
Is Shaff's water rig portable? not really! You should have seen him try to carry it.... hehe
I tend to whore the Desert Eagle, cheap, easy to get kills with, as long as you don't have to expend your entire clip and find more enemies.
I do love the Bullpup, but when playing competitively, it's just too expensive.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 27. January 2009 @ 08:18
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harvrdguy
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28. January 2009 @ 20:43 |
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Wow, thanks for the picture Sam. Those frag socs must be a whole lot of fun, coffee (looks like energy drinks), and lack of sleep lol.
And I can picture Shaff trying to carry the Buckingham Palace with all the water - hehe. I hope the aluminum is built pretty stiff to take the strain of hauling it around with all that weight - I know it's not going to be as stiff as steel. So did he get it there? Hahahaha.
By the way, that's just what I thought you looked like - just kidding - I can barely see you. But I see the big Dell. Looks like your mate Nick has at least a 24" - is that right - or does he have a 30" also?
(Oh, and sorry about the "3707" confusion. Yes, I was originally looking at the 2707, so then I started calling the 3007 the "3707" - I didn't catch myself doing it, even when you questioned me in your posts, until finally a seller on ebay emailed me "No it's not the 3707wfp-hc!" LOL)
Back to CS, I was really surprised when I first got kills with the Desert Eagle. I shot a terrorist coming out of the ct spawn side of the hallway on dust1, just above the tunnel opening, carrying a very expensive $7500 Para - I was partially hidden by the opposite little wall. Poor guy - he saved and saved to get that machine gun and I blew him away with the pistol hahahaha. (I ran over quick and got it.) Anyway, yes, well worth the money, and I think it's good for decent distance too - maybe 50 yards. But what do you mean - run out of bullets - doesn't the pistol ammo give you at least 100 rounds? You're not telling me you're so broke you can't buy secondary ammo?? Hahahahaha. (I think it's B6 on the buy menu.)
Well, I'm kind of an excited ebay buyer. And I'm anxious not to get a bad monitor.
I'm starting to close in on an ebay 3007 - maybe by the end of this week. One auto parts guy up near UCLA has new ones for about $850 (he probably bought a dozen when dell had them for $750 recently - as per a review I read on the dell web site - they're back up to $1300 at dell right now.)
He says they're under a 3 year warranty, but he says I don't need his purchase information to get dell warranty service - but I'm concerned because another seller said I did. And we're discussing stuck pixels. He's willing to let me drive up to LA and turn on the monitor with the color self test to see.
I told him I'd have my pc with me just in case. With my out of date prescription, my glasses might not allow me to see the color test well enough.
What is the best way, Sam, to test for stuck pixels? Is the monitor self-test good enough in your opinion? If it is, great. If not, I thought that some nice wallpaper images would help - I can always use Ulead PhotoImpact (remember that) to expand them to 2560x1600 so I can get 1:1 pixel mapping for the test pictures.
Meanwhile, there are some other auctions on used 3007wfp, not the -hc version. One guy that sounds trustworthy promises no stuck pixels. That one might go for $600 total. I might bid on that one tomorrow since you said the difference in -hc might not be very noticeable to me, and it IS a brighter monitor, 400 versus 300. I like bright. Of course it's not new, and it COULD be damaged in shipping from Arizona, unlike the new one that I bring back myself in the car.
So, when you think about it, maybe the extra $250 is worth it for peace of mind like the auto parts guy said in his ebay listing - brand new - test it first - 3 year warranty - hc version - no chance for shipping damage.
Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. January 2009 @ 21:18 |
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Yes, he has the 2407. I have since sold the 3007 to another Fragsoc member in favour of a 3008.
I didn't mean run out of ammo, but having to reload, the deagle only has a 7 bullet clip.
As far as I know Dell will repair anything with a product code stating it's in date unless it's been tampered with. Cheap refurbs fall in that 'tampered with' category.
Realistically, if you've got stuck pixels you'll see them when you look closely enough. Use different single-colour backgrounds (black, grey, white, red, green, blue) to check,
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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28. January 2009 @ 22:19 |
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Oh, you were talking about the small clip - yes indeed only 7 rounds. It empties very fast. For that reason, on cod4, I have stopped using the deagle and I use the 45 silenced (I kept getting killed by these maniac sniper dudes who went around with the 45 silenced - pulling the trigger like mad - it makes a weird sound like wire being plucked - but it's super powerful - so I joined the party.)
Yes I knew that you had moved on to the 3008. Did you calibrate it?
While we're on the subject, a samsung 305t just popped up that is about the same price as that $850 3007 I have been talking about. It is an almost-new opened box return - I'm emailing about warranty.
The samsung is pva, and the dell is isp. From what I can tell, one small advantage is that the samsung seems to be factory pre-calibrated whereas the dells need calibration (how does one do that?) Do you continue to prefer the dells to the samsung?
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28. January 2009 @ 22:32 |
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LOL cool pic Sam. It reminds me of LANs past :D
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Looks like your mate Nick has at least a 24" - is that right - or does he have a 30" also?
It looks like a 2407 just like mine :)
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The samsung is pva, and the dell is isp. From what I can tell, one small advantage is that the samsung seems to be factory pre-calibrated whereas the dells need calibration (how does one do that?) Do you continue to prefer the dells to the samsung?
I personally prefer Dell monitors over any other. Though I've seen even TN panels with really excellent clarity and contrast, so it's really up to the quality of the product. Samsung is good, but Dell has my current pick as the best :)
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
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28. January 2009 @ 23:06 |
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I don't know anything about the Samsung 30s I'm afraid, I've never seen one. Calibrating my 3008 wasn't hard though.
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29. January 2009 @ 14:26 |
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