I had an old Sony Discman tha lasted 7 years, and the only work it required on it was epoxy glueing the small cylinder that you slip the CD on back to the spin table, because the glue on it wore out. Eventually, it finally stopped working when the motor moving the laser lens burnt out. But never, ever, was there a problem with the headphone jack.
Personally, I find that most screws fit almost anywhere when new ones come. They are pretty much this way so users do not have to go picking through them wondering...ughh where does this go? However, it is true that some screws, mainly for hodling IDE devices do have a bit of different sized screws, and it is nice to know what these kinds are. Also, screws for attaching fans to cases sometimes are not standard compy screws, although most cases have "fan cages" with clips so crews are not necessary. The only other place where I saw non-standard screws was for attaching heatsinks to mobo's and for attaching CPU Fans to heatsinks...thats about it.
Depends on the onboard sound. I have an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe with the nVidia nForce 2 400 Ultar chipset, which comes with SoundStorm Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio. Not to be bragging, but that is one fucking good onboard sound. I'd say its even better than some of my standalone PCI sound cards, which are nothing to sneer at either. I have also owned an ECS board with integrated audio (shiver). That is your typical shitty audio. You had to use amplified speakers, because it could not push headphones and passive speakers up that high! I'm completely serious, no joke. And the sound was horrible. My friend has an MSI with 6-Channel sound. And while it is very good, I can say that the Asus is noticeable better. So yes, generally onboard sound does suck... but there are exeptions
Look at it this way folks. The average joe plays a computer game for what... 3-4 months? If they have to pay say 10 bucks a month to play, they will still end up paying only 40 dollars compared to the 80 they have to pay when they buy a CD in the store (These prices are in Canadian Dollars, btw). And there is a lot more average joe than hardcore games out there. Another aspect of this is that it limits piracy. So the end user is still pretty well off. If you on the other hand are one of the hardcore types who keeps and plays their games for a long time, I'm pretty sure you'll find a way around the system. I mean come on, every security measure that software companies came out with, someone cracked. From hardware CD protection, to CD keys that check against databases, etc. And if you wont do it, Deviance, Fairlight, or Razor 1911 will.
When I was a little kid, we didn't have any of this "Movie Lego" crap. And lets face it, it is crap. I was over at a friends house, and his little brother has oodles and oodles of the new Harry Potter stuff. There are so little generic, simple pieces in there that it just made me cry... You couldn't build anything else with that, because about 3/4 of the pieces were specially made for that... I mean WTF. Lego is undermining their principle of encouraging creativity here. Now, I am not saying that all movie Lego is crap. Star Wars still uses a very large amount of generic pieces, they only colored them differently for the sets. I have an X-Wing set that I got when I was a kid, and now my little sister can build all kinds of stuff with it. Lego should go back to the days of Castles and Ships. I have one of the big Castle sets, and while it does have some custom pieces, those custom pieces can be used building something other than a castle. The hugeass pirate ship set that we is almost everything generic, except for the cannons (and I'm sure you can stick those on lots of different things) the sails, and the ship base which can be used for building tons of different ships. As far as Mindstorms goes... Lego screwed up. It may have been a bit too complicated for kids, and as one user said, too limited for adults. There is no real in between they can go for there... they messed up, and thus swalloed their own ass.
It might be with out current cooling solutions, IE air cooling. However, it is about time we have moved away from that, and went onto something a little bit more cooler. Yes I know its fun sticking in oodels and oodles of glowing fans into your case... but lets face it. We are eventually going to hit a point where fans moving around air will not do. So, what other alternatives are there? Watercooling for one. Add a cooling system to the water, and you've got good cooling that looks cool, and isn't so loud your mother is yelling at you from across the house to "turn off those infernal ventilators". Then there is the Vapochill cooling technology...that is something I would look forward to if it wasn't so dam expensive. However, I would be most thrilled if liquid NO based cooling systems became avaialable... now that would be COOL (in both senses of the word)
Yes, I know its an EA Game. However, here they actually did a very decent job of picking good music. The menu music I am not too thrilled about, but the rock/alternative/punk that plays while you drive is awesome, adds to the feeling of the game. Titles like Crystal Method: Born Too Slow and Rob Zombie: Two-Lane Blacktop are great to listen to, have a fast beat that goes well with the game, and you can easily relate to the lyrics while driving. I don't know about you, but listening to the Crystal Method vocalist yell "Born just a little too slow" when you whizz past someone and leave them eating your dust (or smelling NOS fumes) is just great.
The Card only cost me around 200 bucks Canadian, which is about what... 120-140 American. It has a beautiful picture, packs quite a good punch performance wise for its cost, so it will run most games. TV In, HDTV Out, as well as Video In make this an awesome card.
To answer that, you should know that this was an 1800 with a Thorougbred B core. I had it overclocked to about 2 GHz, and it was running very hot. The fan was a cheap thing I had in place, which was OCed by putting more voltage through it by using a secondary power-supply (mobo intput jack is free, so you can feed all kinds of voltage through different components) so that the fan could keep up with the CPU until I could get a Volcano of some sort for it. However, the engine in the fan and the bearings didn't take too well to having more juice than intended running through it, therefore the fan died.
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I had an old Sony Discman tha lasted 7 years, and the only work it required on it was epoxy glueing the small cylinder that you slip the CD on back to the spin table, because the glue on it wore out. Eventually, it finally stopped working when the motor moving the laser lens burnt out. But never, ever, was there a problem with the headphone jack.
Personally, I find that most screws fit almost anywhere when new ones come. They are pretty much this way so users do not have to go picking through them wondering...ughh where does this go? However, it is true that some screws, mainly for hodling IDE devices do have a bit of different sized screws, and it is nice to know what these kinds are. Also, screws for attaching fans to cases sometimes are not standard compy screws, although most cases have "fan cages" with clips so crews are not necessary. The only other place where I saw non-standard screws was for attaching heatsinks to mobo's and for attaching CPU Fans to heatsinks...thats about it.
(oh, btw, FP!!)
Depends on the onboard sound. I have an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe with the nVidia nForce 2 400 Ultar chipset, which comes with SoundStorm Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio. Not to be bragging, but that is one fucking good onboard sound. I'd say its even better than some of my standalone PCI sound cards, which are nothing to sneer at either. I have also owned an ECS board with integrated audio (shiver). That is your typical shitty audio. You had to use amplified speakers, because it could not push headphones and passive speakers up that high! I'm completely serious, no joke. And the sound was horrible. My friend has an MSI with 6-Channel sound. And while it is very good, I can say that the Asus is noticeable better. So yes, generally onboard sound does suck... but there are exeptions
Look at it this way folks. The average joe plays a computer game for what... 3-4 months? If they have to pay say 10 bucks a month to play, they will still end up paying only 40 dollars compared to the 80 they have to pay when they buy a CD in the store (These prices are in Canadian Dollars, btw). And there is a lot more average joe than hardcore games out there. Another aspect of this is that it limits piracy. So the end user is still pretty well off. If you on the other hand are one of the hardcore types who keeps and plays their games for a long time, I'm pretty sure you'll find a way around the system. I mean come on, every security measure that software companies came out with, someone cracked. From hardware CD protection, to CD keys that check against databases, etc. And if you wont do it, Deviance, Fairlight, or Razor 1911 will.
When I was a little kid, we didn't have any of this "Movie Lego" crap. And lets face it, it is crap. I was over at a friends house, and his little brother has oodles and oodles of the new Harry Potter stuff. There are so little generic, simple pieces in there that it just made me cry... You couldn't build anything else with that, because about 3/4 of the pieces were specially made for that... I mean WTF. Lego is undermining their principle of encouraging creativity here. Now, I am not saying that all movie Lego is crap. Star Wars still uses a very large amount of generic pieces, they only colored them differently for the sets. I have an X-Wing set that I got when I was a kid, and now my little sister can build all kinds of stuff with it. Lego should go back to the days of Castles and Ships. I have one of the big Castle sets, and while it does have some custom pieces, those custom pieces can be used building something other than a castle. The hugeass pirate ship set that we is almost everything generic, except for the cannons (and I'm sure you can stick those on lots of different things) the sails, and the ship base which can be used for building tons of different ships. As far as Mindstorms goes... Lego screwed up. It may have been a bit too complicated for kids, and as one user said, too limited for adults. There is no real in between they can go for there... they messed up, and thus swalloed their own ass.
Just my two cents
It might be with out current cooling solutions, IE air cooling. However, it is about time we have moved away from that, and went onto something a little bit more cooler. Yes I know its fun sticking in oodels and oodles of glowing fans into your case... but lets face it. We are eventually going to hit a point where fans moving around air will not do. So, what other alternatives are there? Watercooling for one. Add a cooling system to the water, and you've got good cooling that looks cool, and isn't so loud your mother is yelling at you from across the house to "turn off those infernal ventilators". Then there is the Vapochill cooling technology...that is something I would look forward to if it wasn't so dam expensive. However, I would be most thrilled if liquid NO based cooling systems became avaialable... now that would be COOL (in both senses of the word)
Yes, I know its an EA Game. However, here they actually did a very decent job of picking good music. The menu music I am not too thrilled about, but the rock/alternative/punk that plays while you drive is awesome, adds to the feeling of the game. Titles like Crystal Method: Born Too Slow and Rob Zombie: Two-Lane Blacktop are great to listen to, have a fast beat that goes well with the game, and you can easily relate to the lyrics while driving. I don't know about you, but listening to the Crystal Method vocalist yell "Born just a little too slow" when you whizz past someone and leave them eating your dust (or smelling NOS fumes) is just great.
Bahahah First Post!!! Much cooler than any thing the Japanese could come up with
The Card only cost me around 200 bucks Canadian, which is about what... 120-140 American. It has a beautiful picture, packs quite a good punch performance wise for its cost, so it will run most games. TV In, HDTV Out, as well as Video In make this an awesome card.
To answer that, you should know that this was an 1800 with a Thorougbred B core. I had it overclocked to about 2 GHz, and it was running very hot. The fan was a cheap thing I had in place, which was OCed by putting more voltage through it by using a secondary power-supply (mobo intput jack is free, so you can feed all kinds of voltage through different components) so that the fan could keep up with the CPU until I could get a Volcano of some sort for it. However, the engine in the fan and the bearings didn't take too well to having more juice than intended running through it, therefore the fan died.