Hoorah! My GTX 260 Core 216 is on the way, [55nm from what I hear] and for a hell of a lot less than I thought it'd be. Ncix had the wonderful XFX model on for 240 dollars, with a 30 dollar mail in rebate. I paid 297 after shipping and taxes. [Just a shout for Purolator, you're amazing.] Stellar deal if you ask me. Of course, there were only 30 of them, so I scooped one up quick. XFX being my favorite graphics card manufacturer, after all. The bundle also includes Farcry 2, which of course I already have, so I'll be selling that along with my 8800GT. I'm hoping to get around 140 out of both of them together, as that would bring the cost of the card down to less that half of the cost after shipping/taxes/MIR. The best part about this is, the card arrives Monday. I work durring the day, get off at 4:30, and have the next two days off! So that means 2 whole days of GTX 260-lovin' for Jon. My plans are to test frame rates in Battlefield 2142, then play through Farcry 2 after overclocking.
I was also quite suprised today when I got home from work, to find a package from Nick on my desk. I open it up, and inside lies Sins Of A Solar Empire. I guess me talking to him the night previous about him taking half of my games to trade in must have motivated him to get me it. *cough cough*. Anyway, if you don't know what Sins is, please, do yourself a favor, and download the demo. I was simply blown away by the scale and complexity of the game, yet it's easy to pick up and play for a few hours. And trust me, you'll have to play for a few hours if you want to finish a match. It took me 5 hours to beat a single AI on a small sized map. Something like 18 planets. I finally did it though. =P I do strongly suggest giving the demo a try, and supporting Stardock and their lack of DRM, if it really matters to you. The fact that the game is only 30 dollars is a godsend as well. No disc in the drive, and you only need the CD key to play online/ update.
I've also been playing with the beta of Windows 7 on the Acer Aspire One. Actually, I'm currently posting from that right now. The beta is nice and snappy, and seems like a very viable alternative to XP for netbooks. The interface is nice, the new paint/calculator is nice, the ability to disable almost any windows component is a godsend too. I really do enjoy the new aero peek, and the mouse gestures. So far, I'd say I prefer it over XP on my Aspire One, just because of the interface. I'll be upgrading the AAO to 1.5Gb of RAM here soon, so that should improve performance vastly. [Idling at 500Mb of RAM!? Oh my! It's not that bad though. Firefox open with 4 heavy tabs along with anti virus software nets me 570Mb used.] I'll be sure to post an update.
Cheers,
I was also quite suprised today when I got home from work, to find a package from Nick on my desk. I open it up, and inside lies Sins Of A Solar Empire. I guess me talking to him the night previous about him taking half of my games to trade in must have motivated him to get me it. *cough cough*. Anyway, if you don't know what Sins is, please, do yourself a favor, and download the demo. I was simply blown away by the scale and complexity of the game, yet it's easy to pick up and play for a few hours. And trust me, you'll have to play for a few hours if you want to finish a match. It took me 5 hours to beat a single AI on a small sized map. Something like 18 planets. I finally did it though. =P I do strongly suggest giving the demo a try, and supporting Stardock and their lack of DRM, if it really matters to you. The fact that the game is only 30 dollars is a godsend as well. No disc in the drive, and you only need the CD key to play online/ update.
I've also been playing with the beta of Windows 7 on the Acer Aspire One. Actually, I'm currently posting from that right now. The beta is nice and snappy, and seems like a very viable alternative to XP for netbooks. The interface is nice, the new paint/calculator is nice, the ability to disable almost any windows component is a godsend too. I really do enjoy the new aero peek, and the mouse gestures. So far, I'd say I prefer it over XP on my Aspire One, just because of the interface. I'll be upgrading the AAO to 1.5Gb of RAM here soon, so that should improve performance vastly. [Idling at 500Mb of RAM!? Oh my! It's not that bad though. Firefox open with 4 heavy tabs along with anti virus software nets me 570Mb used.] I'll be sure to post an update.
Cheers,