MBJ

I heard the news from Phillyman yesterday. This is definitely a bummer. In the early days of Retromags there were more torrent-based releases (e.g. Nintendo Power by year), but I inderstand the desire for an alternative. I hope that you;re able to figure out a stable solution.

I was surprised to see him back on the site after all of that nonsense in 2006. I doubt that we'll go through this cycle again.

I had a "My Buddy"! Also, the Oozeinator was the perfect finale.

I made one of my animals say "dingleberry". Think the language filter will catch that one? That word was another favorite of Carlin's: "Sounds kind of festive, doesn't it? Let's put one under the tree!"

@Philly: The price of the parts as listed comes to about $1350 with about another $50 for shipping. @Hidinger: Thanks for the advice. I suspected that the graphics card that I picked might be more powerful than I need. I picked it based on the most recent Best Video Cards For The Money: Dec '08 article at Tom's Hardware. Tom's review listed the 8800 GT as providing "good 1600x1200 performance in most games;1920x1200 in most titles with some lowered detail". I had selected the Radeon HD 4870 because Tom's suggested that it could provide good 1920x1200 performance (without lowering detail). I'll be using a 24" widescreen monitor at 1920x1200 resolution. Aside from the Sims 3 I'll likely be doing some HD video playback (downloads at first but I'll probably add a Blu-ray drive once the prices drop a bit more). If you think that the 8800 GT can handle those then I'll go with that and save some cash. As for Vista/XP, I can get XP Pro 64 bit at Newegg for $140 ($40 more than the version of Vista I had picked out). I know that Vista vs. XP is a debate that is still raging in the IT world. I've been using Vista on my personal machines for about a year and a half and have grown to prefer it. XP is still a great OS but I've been perfectly happy with the experience I've had with Vista. Plus, my wife (who would also be using the computer quite a bit) has a strong preference for Vista and I don't relish the thought of debating the issue with her. Anyway, I appreciate the recommendation and I definitely understand that you have more experience with and knowledge about PCs than I do but I'll probably just stick with Vista. Thanks for the advice on the thermal paste. I have never done anything with processors before and that was the part of the building procedure that I was most nervous about. I've read some guides online but your tips offer some details I hadn't heard before. Thanks again. Finally, in your third point when you said that a dual core processor would run the Sims 3 just fine, were you suggesting that my selection for the quad core Core i7 920 was overkill? If that's the case then I'm well aware of that. I've been holding off on replacing my old NetBurst based system until the true successor to Conroe came along. Now that Nehalem is here, I'm ready to jump into the next generation. Plus, since I'll be using the new LGA 1366 socket on my MOBO, I should be able to upgrade the processor for another several years down the line. I know that I could save about $300 and get amazing performance by going with a Core 2 Duo E8500 or Core 2 Quad 6600 setup but I have been looking forward to Nehalem for quite some time and that's probably the one component I'm most excited about.

I'm thinking of building a PC to replace my 5+ year old desktop. This would the the first time I've built a computer myself. I've done many different types of upgrades/replacements before (RAM, hard drives, video & expansion cards) so I feel comfortable enough to take the next step. I don't really do much PC gaming but my wife is into The Sims in a big way and wants to make sure that we have a state of the art machine to run The Sims 3 when it releases in February. I do some video encoding so the extra power will be appreciated. My budget is in the $1300 to $1500 range. I'd like this PC to last me another 5-6 years and to be easily upgradeable. Below is a list of components I've selected at Newegg. I'd love to hear any thoughts or recommendations that anyone has. Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Power Supply: Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply MOBO: ASUS P6T Deluxe/OC Palm LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 RAM: Crucial 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT3KIT25664BA1067 Video card: HIS Hightech H487F512P Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Optical drive: SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD Other: SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader w/ USB 2.0 Port supports SDHC/VISTA Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (2x) Nippon Labs 18" (1.5 ft.) SATA II Cable with locking latch Model SATA-L0.5-R Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 B2L-00047 Black USB Ergonomics Keyboard and Mouse

@ the Colbert animated GIF: My sentiments exactly.

My wife and I arrived at the polls here in Florida an hour before they opened this morning. I'll be attending an election party tonight. Only a couple more hours until we start seeing some numbers!

I got Rock Band 2 for PS3 yesterday and my wrist is now sore from the furious fretwork. I'll be getting the full band kit for Guitar Hero: World Tour next Sunday and LittleBigPlanet the Tuesday after that.

I was born in 1980 but never played an Atari 2600 until recently. I did play some games on our old Tandy Color Computer 3 before I got my first console: the NES. I got my NES for Christmas in 1988 and I was instantly addicted. I still have home video of Christmas morning when I got the system and played Super Mario Bros for the first time. Ah, memories.

Based on the most recent state polling data, it's looking like Obama is most likely to win. There are still a few weeks until the election though so a lot of things could still happen to turn it around. McCain has regained some ground over the past few days but Obama still has a clear advantage when you look at where the electoral votes are likely to go. IMHO national polls aren't of much use since we don't use the popular vote anyway. If we did, Dubya never would have been "elected" in 2000.

Gas here in Tallahassee has dropped to just under $3 a gallon in the last week.

Desktop: 5 year old Dell Dimension 4600 3.0 Ghz Pentium 4 HT Processor 3 GB RAM Laptop: 1 year old Gateway MT 3708 1.73 Ghz Pentium Dual Core Processor 2 GB RAM Both are running Vista but Aero is disabled on the laptop for performance reasons.

I can't think about Castlevania 2 without remembering the Angry Video Game Nerd's first video: Castlevania 2. CLASSIC. NES games I'd like to see re-made include Rad Racer, A Boy and His Blob, Silent Service, Kid Icarus, and all of the original zapper games (Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley, Wild Gunman, etc.).