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I'm getting good at this!

New CPU cooler installed and only a small (bled like a stuck pig though ) cut on my knuckle. Professional computer repair guys must have asbestos hands, or something - 7thson's party trick is tickling trout. In a lit volcano...

Overclocking seems to be a doddle with this Mobo, although I bought it because it was OC-friendly so that's not surprising. The cooler's very quiet but, at the size of a small child, it had better be.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Watch Dogs looks very interesting. PS4 and PC I think, although the vids are all from the PC version.



I wanna play as Gene Hackman.

Nice. I've been consuming everything I can find about this game for months, so I'm excited to see some new stuff.

Very excited. If the advance reviews are even fairly good, I'll probably break my normal rule and buy it at full price early on.

I'm definitely excited for Watch Dogs. One of the only two games I'll buy full price this year, honestly (first was BioShock Infinite, which I've beaten to death by now). Ubisoft looks like they'll make a fantastic game.

Two words - Arctic Silver.

Did a stress test on my new overclock (ok, I ran Witcher 2 on Ultra and went and had a shower with a hardware monitor running ) and was getting CPU core temps of 70C. Max recommended for my processor is 62 so something was wrong. I'd just used the included thermal paste when seating the new fan because I'd forgotten to buy a tube of Arctic Silver and I'm stupid and impatient... Rooted around in the toolbox this morning for a screwdriver and found not one, but two unopened tubes.

As Homer Simpson would say - Arse!

Same stress test only with a proper thermal compound - Core max temp: 48C - Either the original compound was truly rotten or I'd not seated the fan correctly first time round. Which is possible.

Back to games instead of the things on which they run - I've found my first complaint about Witcher 2. Chapter 2 has the worst collection of Irish accents this side of a 90s Hollywood 'Too-honourable/mad-for-the-IRA' film. It makes Nadine Coyle sound like Alex Higgins.

Shocking, but like Nadine, still really pretty.

Been playing this game again.





I'd forgotten how good I was at it too. I've not died once since I started, and I'm already a third of the way into it. Also, I can't believe how well this game has held up. It has awesome platforming, excellent combat, and a great storyline, along with an escort mission that DOESN'T SUCK! Glad I found it again.

I think it holds up well because a whole mess of games emulated it in the years that folllowed. I remember when it came out; both the time mechanic and the acrobatic piecing together of architecture were really fun and really inventive, and to some degree the latter's almost become standard for 3D platformers.

Meanwhile, I think I'm something like 20th on the all time Spy Party games played list.

Have I yammered on about it long enough to persuade any of you to jump on the beta when it opens up? I'll tutor any and all MoFos who do if they want help getting started.

I think I'm owed some advice.

Well, I've officially joined the Dark Side and bought a Windows 8 disc. I'd tried the 30 day trial thing and was actually pretty impressed, apart from that hideous start screen and lack of a start button when you actually get to your desktop. There are ways and means around that (Stardock do one and there's an open source start menu replacement available) particular gripe but I've not tried them yet.

Basically W8 is a slightly slicker, slightly quicker W7.

Now watch as all my games run like treacle and I re-install W7 by the end of the week. You know that's coming.

You totally are. You've helped me with two upgrades.

I'm thinking next time I'll have to build something before the old one croaks. Maybe take the plunge and go for an SSD.

I've got an OCZ SSD but it's just a data drive, not where Windows is installed so I can't comment on how quickly programs start etc. What I can say is that Skyrim loading screens are 2 seconds as opposed to 5 or 6 on the old HD...

Then I went a bit mad adding HD texture packs and loading times are now slightly above 5 seconds again.

Prices are coming down but I'd want a 1TB system drive minimum and the equivalent OCZ (my SSD is 120GB) drive to the one I bought is an eye watering £2000!

Yeah, to go the SSD route is to probably change one's computer usage in general. I've already been moving towards more cloud storage, and this would make that even more necessary, to be sure.

I'm more concerned about their limited shelf life, though. But it sounds like the gains are tremendous, so it really might be worth it, and to just spend a little extra on premium backup services and replacements every year or two.

Yeah, cloud storage is looking increasingly viable but I suppose I'm still a bit of a paranoid Luddite who thinks that one day the internet is bound to break just as I want to access something.

What I might do when this W8 disc arrives is to try the SSD as my system disc - I've got 2TB of storage on conventional drives so I've got plenty of room to use them to install programs which wouldn't be improved by an SSD.

Yeah I think that's the way to go. There's no way to do a lot of gaming on a SSD. The funny thing is, I dunno about you, but games are probably what take up the majority of my hard drive space these days. Or at least a plurality. It's definitely a way higher percentage than it used to be; everything else can go in Dropbox.

Sorry, I guess this is veering away from video game talk.

It's the medium you and I use to game so I wouldn't say it's any more off topic than talking about buying a PS4.

I agree with what you say - I've got a 500GB system disc and my Steam folder is sitting at 195GB. All other apps and programs take up 10GB.

EDIT - I'll preface that by saying that I always store documents, video and music files on a separate HD, so that's not counting towards the system disc's space.

Back to games - The most realistic game in the world?

I love it.

Recently I have been addicted to Dota 2. Especially with the 2013 international tournament going on.

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Why can I not stop playing this game! Please help me! Reely

Bored today. Wondered what Steam for Linux was like. Installed Ubuntu. Installed Steam.

Ubuntu failed to recognise the GPU in my old PC testbed where everything replaced on the new PC ends up. Stuck in my 560ti, which got recognised, and marvelled at the 10% of all my Steam purchases which actually work on Linux ... and this is what they're coding the Steambox with.

The obvious Valve titles work ok (HL, HL2, Portal etc) and most of the rest are little Indie titles which were bought as part of bundles and never played.

Crusader Kings II works, though (but loads incredibly slowly, which might have something to do with the ancient CPU and RAM in the rig), so if Bill Gates takes a dislike to me I'll still be able to roleplay an inbred Irish duke.

CKII rocks, and there's a new DLC on the way.

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~ I am tired of ze same old faces! Ze same old things!