http://www.techspot.com/news/67222-storage-real-world-performance-nvme-vs-sata-vs-hdd.html

The rest is copy/pasted from Facebook because I don't want to retype it all lol.

The mouse is a Razer Naga wired/wireless rechargeable mouse with a 12 button thumb grid, which I've already mapped to do all kinds of things like copy, paste, back, forward, refresh, and whatnot. They can be remapped to whatever you want but are especially useful in games with a lot of actions, like MMOs. The LED color can cycle or be set.

The keyboard is a Razer Blackwidow Stealth Edition. It is a mechanical keyboard (faster activating buttons for games) but the Stealth Edition has quieter, less clicky keys compared to a normal mechanical. It also has a USB, audio out, and mic in port on the side, and extra mappable buttons. There was a backlit version (Ultimate) but it only came in green (I'd rather have blue), and the Chroma version (changeable LEDs) was too expensive.

Pretty bad ass!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/aaa5/

I picked one of these up because they were half off last week, and it is so worth it.  Fits my laptop perfectly with plenty of space to spare.  Even can lug around my PS4, two controllers, cables, and a bunch of games with extra room also. 

If you're looking for a pretty great messenger bag, even just something to pack stuff to travel with, I would recommend this highly.

Two panda thumbs up.

But here's what I might order tonight:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=32567288

I also have a second of that 8GB stick of RAM, so the other is for proper dual-channelling.

The case that I already have is the NZXT Phantom 410 in white, that totally looks Portal-themed:  http://www.amazon.com/NZXT-Phantom-Tower-Gaming-Case/dp/B006I2H04I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395713851&sr=8-1&keywords=phantom+410+white

I bought it when I found it for $80 with free shipping (great deal).

I will also probably buy a cheap 300, 450 or so watt PSU to put into the old computer to keep it running, alongside the GTX 480 GPU I still have.  Just long enough to satisactorily make any transfers or remember any passwords and suchlike before I wipe the hard drives.

Any opinions or thoughts on what parts might be better to get?

For instance, is there anything else I've overlooked, like hard drive mounting brackets or screws for the motherboard I'll need to buy?  The water cooler says installation is easy and doesn't require you to fill it with any liquid.  And I do have some thermal paste from when I had to reapply it to my current CPU last month.

Uuuugggggghhhhh......  Fuck Facebook.  This is terrible.

Here's a summary of what it does:

NVIDIA G-SYNC is groundbreaking new display technology that delivers the smoothest and fastest gaming experience ever. G-SYNC’s revolutionary performance is achieved by synchronizing display refresh rates to the GPU in your GeForce GTX-powered PC, eliminating screen tearing and minimizing display stutter and input lag. The result: scenes appear instantly, objects look sharper, and gameplay is super smooth, giving you a stunning visual experience and a serious competitive edge.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/g-sync

I'm really close to pulling the trigger.  There will be other g-sync enabled monitors hitting the market later this year, but I have some gift cards left from Xmas that could make this a great deal.  So, should I go ahead and buy the kit and the monitor?

All in all, this is a nice feature to save the energy. But if you decide to keep all of your cores active at all times, there is no way to disable CPU parking from the user interface or by running command prompt.

While searching the internet, I could not find any utility that will allow you to enable and disable the CPU parking without having to go and modify the registry manually. So I decided to write one.

This utility will allow you to easily enable or disable core parking for your CPU. The first thing that you should do is to go to a resource manager to check if you have parked cores. The reason of doing so is that core parking is not enabled for all the multicore CPU’s. For example, if you have Intel Q9550 Quad Core CPU you may not see any parked cores at all.

http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility

I'm new to this forum, and I haven't introduced myself yet but my name is Aaron and I'm a pc gamer. 

I just thought I'd contribute a little, if any of you are looking for a good graphics card, at this price it's a steal.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-299-AS&tool=3

This is only for UK buyers however, sorry if you're all from the US aha.

- Blinked

TechSpot Article

http://www.techspot.com/news/53447-enthusiast-class-ivy-bridge-e-cpus-get-priced-ahead-of-launch.html

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-attempting-to-patent-augmented-reality-gaming-glasses

Going from an older MSI GTX 460 cyclone to a shiny new GTX760!  Should be quite the bump!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alisonw/keyprop-simple-smartphone-stand-self-timer-app

NVIDIA Shield

SHIELD runs pure Android with the latest version of the Android Jelly Bean OS. It’s also powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 4 mobile processor, clocked up to 1.9Ghz, and paired with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of onboard storage (expandable to 64 GB more with a microSD card slot). The 5-inch 720p HD retinal touchscreen serves up high-resolution eye candy, while the integrated stereo bass reflex speakers pump out loud audio. And a robust battery means you’ll enjoy a whole lot more gaming, videos, music, and web browsing.

I wasn't that interested in it until I read about the PC game streaming.  NVIDIA GPU owners will be able to stream a number of games (beta and limited on release) from their PC to the handheld. Or, since it can connect to your TV via HDMI, you can stream to any TV in your house through it.  I thought that was a pretty awesome feature.

Some of you are lazy, so I won't force you to go to the link. It is worth it, though. More than just the case is shown. Some true Borderlands love being shown there.

So, before they disappear I went ahead and ordered the PC360 from Sennheiser to replace them.  They are suppose to have the same cans as my 595s and a very similar fit.  I am getting them Thursday, and I'll put them to the test then.  Pricey, but so were the A40s and they never lived up to my expectations.  The mixamp is fantastic, and I'll continue to use it with the PC360s.

http://en-us.sennheiser.com/gamer-headset-hifi-sound-noise-cancelling-microphone-pc-360

I know that at this point, Samsung is probably hiding behind the carriers, using them as shields, contractual obligations, yadda, yadda, yadda. We tend to think that this is a somewhat valid excuse, but the truth of the matter is that when a certain company reaches a point of critical mass in terms of how big it actually is, the tables turn. In other words, AT&T’s success (or Verizon’s for that matter) is not just dictated by the quality of its network. One thing that people also look at in this day and age, is the wide array and variety of top of the line devices being offered. The combination of both certainly makes up for about 90% of the total success of a carrier, with the remaining 10% attributed to good customer service. So, that leaves you at, quite possibly (and being a bit conservative) on a 60-30 split in terms of importance. After all, you could have a 5G network, but if you have no phones to support it, what good is it? I guess what I am trying to say here is that Samsung definitely had a lot of weight in negotiations in order to avoid caving in like this, which makes me wonder even more if the Korean manufacturer is in fact leaning towards the dark side.

The SGS4 International and T-Mobile versions are sold unlocked and are perfectly capable of taking the market by force. Why do you let two carriers dictate how you make your products? I hope that Samsung realizes that they likely have considerable weight as people nowadays are happy about devices performing well, and not so much about getting over 9000 Mbps in speed (particularly when you will be capped or hit a limit). So, Samsung, you ARE driving the market and the continued success for these carriers and not the other way around. At this point in time, I can draw two conclusions:

1. You have some of the worst contract reviewers and negotiators on the planet when it comes to dealing with US carriers.

2. You are indeed turning a page in history and have started going down a path where developers and hobbyists are not really welcome anymore.

The path you are taking right now is likely #2, as you obviously can spend a pretty penny on half decent lawyers (based on recent wins against Cupertino’s finest). In fact, it seems to me that you are turning into what you claimed to despise the most. You have absolutely, positively, nothing at all to gain from locking the bootloader (and neither does AT&T for that matter), and in fact, you are simply losing a good stream of bug reviewers and people who can discover pretty serious flaws in your code. Let alone the sole fact that, regardless of your statements about us (us being the developer and hobbyist world) representing a small fraction of your overall sales, you will definitely lose lots and lots of potential sales, which will translate into millions of dollars of lost revenue. Again, having someone with as massive of a following as Steve Kondik telling hundreds of thousands of users from this group not to buy this device… well, lets just say that I sincerely hope your contract with AT&T has a provision for getting paid back for unsold devices.

Well, Samsung, if for argument’s sake you are indeed being locked by AT&T into this nonsensical contractual provision, you are effectively the proverbial elephant with a chain around its ankle. For those of you not familiar with this analogy, when an elephant is young, it can be chained easily to prevent it from escaping. As the elephant grows up, the chain can no longer restrain it, but the elephant does not break it because it knows in its head that it will not be able to, even though it can. You needed to be around when you were a smaller player in the market and as such, you took upon weird termed contracts and accepted certain conditions from carriers. Fast forward 12 years or so since the boom of mobile devices and your introduction to the world of mobile communications. You are now a behemoth and are still bound by the same stupid chain, refusing to break it because you think you will hurt your business. You are a provider, you have many, many venues to get your products out to your customers (other carriers, developer edition phones, selling directly, etc). God only knows how many millions of dollars you spend yearly on marketing efforts, so getting your name out there is not exactly an issue either. Why in the world are you letting a single (well, two if you count Verizon) dictate how YOU do business? You have successfully made a name for yourselves already. I am positive that IF you were to threaten carriers to pull your devices from their networks, they would effectively soil themselves. Oh, and there is no law protecting them from being able to block your devices from working with their network either. It would likely fall under the umbrella of anti-competitive practices (aka boycott). Considering past/recent events involving carriers (DMCA and the T-Mobile/AT&T failed merger, for instance), I am sure that any court would be thrilled to hear such a case and rip the carriers to shreds.

So, I am sincerely hoping that you are indeed being forced by carriers AND that you are taking resolutions to tackle this pointless ordeal. All I am going to say is that after a 1 year affair with an Epic 4G Touch, being afraid to brick my device for flashing it as it was hard brick positive due to faulty chips (even with a documented reason AND fix provided by our developers which you paid no attention to whatsoever); and after seeing this ongoing trend by Samsung to bend over for carriers while making developer’s lives miserable and caring little about their users, I will gladly never recommend Samsung devices to anyone ever again. Just because I can, here is Steve Kondik’s closing statement on his Google+ post:

It is now time to act and try to save face, Samsung.

You can find more information in here, here, and a bit more discussion going on in here.

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/official-and-confirmed-att-galaxy-s-4-is-bootloader-locked/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+xda-developers%2FShsH+%28xda-developers%29

Well there went me buying the S4 later. I should be able to do whatever the hell I want with MY DEVICE.

If you don't know what exactly this means, a close comparison would be like if I bought a laptop from HP with windows 8 and was not allowed to install Windows 7 on it or remove any of their bloatware.  I also would not be allowed admin access to my own device.

Really this is just a big smack in the face to android developers.

More to come later as it is very much unfinished.

http://bit.ly/sd-hm

All our other paid games are free for one day!

Killer Pool … http://bit.ly/sd-kp
Killer Pool HD … http://bit.ly/sd-kphd
Nano Rally … http://bit.ly/sd-nr
Nano Rally HD … http://bit.ly/sd-nrhd
Space Balls … http://bit.ly/sd-sb
Space Balls HD … http://bit.ly/sd-sbhd
Amoebas … http://bit.ly/sd-am
Ice Riders … http://bit.ly/sd-ir
Monkey Tennis … http://bit.ly/sd-mt
Banjo Piranha … http://bit.ly/sd-bp
Touch Soccer 3D … http://bit.ly/sd-ts3d
Touch Soccer 3D HD … http://bit.ly/sd-tshd

Share the love!

Links to the cards in question:

XFX HD 6870: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150506

EVGA GTX 580: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130587

Thoughts/recommendations appreciated.