No not really. Starcraft II's match making system works very well and places you against people of a similar skill level. If you're really bad you won't be playing against any pros unless you choose to do so. The system is designed to match you such that your win/loss ratio is 1:1.
Look, I can understand asking once, maybe even twice. But if you're going to ask over 4 times, why don't you just save yourself the trouble and google it?
Gold places you in the middle 20% of Starcraft II players, congratulations, you're average! It's not much of a surprise that the bottom 50% don't use hotkeys though.
Some of us don't care about Shinies yah know? Starcraft lived on because it was a great game, just as Starcraft II will. Did you know that people still play Chess in this day and age too?
Blizzcon occured this past weekend which is why you see multiple Blizzard posts on here.
I don't think it's much of a slash-vertisement per se, I think most nerds are genuinely interested in Blizzard's games. You on the other hand seem to be more interested in counter culture and bashing others, cool.
If you buy those expensive digital cables for stereo, you are NOT getting what you paid for -- you've been scammed.
It depends, similiar to your Alieve/naproxin sodium example, you can buy high quality cables for reasonable prices as well and there IS a difference between high quality cables and trash cables.
When you pay $100 for a pair of blue jeans, you're also being scammed.
Not true, it just means you didn't buy a piece of crap pair of jeans from a sweatshop in the third world. Have you ever worn an expensive pair of jeans? I'll admit they are overpriced to a point, but they tend to be much more durable and comfortable than regular jeans.
When you pay three times for a bottle of Alieve what you would pay for a bottle of generic naproxin sodium, you're getting scammed.
To a point, you're also paying for the fact that Alieve has a known high level of quality control for their product. To some people that piece of mind is worth the price. See melamine contaminated food imported from China for an example.
For starters, those fans don't make economic sense, but that was never the point. The point is to get the best performance possible.
The fact is that the replacement of a fan/heatsink with a item that isn't supplied by the systems manufacturer makes no sense and doesn't, actually, get you any worthwhile gain for the money you spend.
This is just a sign of your ignorance, an aftermarket heatsink will reduce the CPU temperature by tens of degrees. It's the difference between getting a 3.5ghz overclock on air versus a 4.2ghz overclock on air. It's a pretty big difference performance wise, on the order of 20%. As an anecdote from my own testing, my Core i7 920 hits around 90C at 3.6ghz with the stock fan/heatsink while on my Scythe Mugen 2($50 heatsink/fan) it hits 68C at 3.8ghz. For some people that extra 20% of performance is important, for most people it isn't.
(I hate overclockers - I challenge any overclockers to ring up a significant number of CPU cycles gained by overclocking when you take into account their overall average computer usage. Yeah, you might get a handful of FPS better but the games aren't designed for that anyway so all you gain is stretched textures on a unnecessarily high resolution moving slightly faster than your perception would ever allow you to detect anyway).
Cool man. Did you ever think that some people do it because they enjoy the tweaking? Some games also require you to run overclocked if you run the game at high resolution(2560x1600) to max out the game. On the i7s with multiple GPUs the issue is very apparent. A lot of overclockers also contribute their spare CPU power to groups such as Folding@Home doing Protein research.
Expensive fans, heatsinks, etc. do not make economic sense for 99.999% of users.
Sure, so what? See above.
Overclocking is the go-faster stripes of the PC world.
Not true at all, the main reason people overclock nowadays is to turn their $200 CPU into the equivalent of a $1000 CPU. I purchased my i7 920 for only $200 last year and I have it performing faster than the i7 960 which cost $999 at the time by overclocking it. A lot of people do it for price/performance reasons more than anything else. The money saved from purchasing an "inferior" CPU goes into the purchase of better cooling equipment to manage the heat.
If I want a cooler PC, or faster graphics, or whatever, it tends to be that after a certain point (usually the mid-to-top-end equipment), the returns are so minuscule as to pale in comparison to *ANYTHING* else I might do. I've seen processor overclocking gains that are wiped out (by orders or magnitude) by installing a better antivirus (yes, they were running an AV on their overclocked, behind-the-firewall, games-only machine that was sucking up about 25% of their CPU time but thought that running their systems out of specification by a handful of percent was "worthwhile"), or taking a couple of items out of my startup, or putting the PC so it's not blowing its exhaust air at a solid wall.
This is true to a point. I recently built a comptuer for my friend to play Starcraft II maxed out, total cost was only $550, miniscule compared to the $2k I spent on my rig and it plays the game nearly as well. However that's not why I spent $2k on my computer. Regardless, why do you assume overclockers are idiots? You'd think most of us would be smart enough to recognize where slowdowns are occuring in our computers since most of us are seeking the best possible performance for the money. Just because your friend is an idiot doesn't mean we all are.
And when you factor in the extra cost, you really are better off NOT touching a bog-standard off-the-shelf system but instead saving all that money and time you would normally spend tweaking with a) playing the damn game and b) putting the money sav
I guess you aren't a developer, if you can get by with only one box.
Developing is a hobby of mine, I'm a Mechanical Engineer by trade.
As a previous poster mentioned, you might be interested in using Virtual Machines for your workflow. A VM with a nice Quad Core processor works very well. Almost all of my friends who are professional software engineers use VMs as well for their workflow.
Also you're mentioning a 2nd computer, but you're previous post was specifically mentioning 4 laptops... I can see the reason for having a desktop and a laptop, maybe even 2 desktops with one working as a personal server. But 4 laptops? That's silly. I'd rather have one very well designed and powerful laptop over 4 crappy ones. Not to mention if I'm buying a 17" laptop I want at least 1080p resolution, unfortunately some of the more popular cheap models only come with a 720p resolution(1368x768). Not to say that I would ever buy a 17" Laptop, I had a 15.4" one and it was just too big and not portable enough.
Yes, they weigh a bit more. The extra weight is irrelevant when it's sitting on a desk, which is where I work. I have yet to see anyone spend much time with a laptop actually on their lap, unless it was off/hiberating/sleeping/broken...:-)
Maybe for you, but I personally carry my laptop around a lot and I use it on my lap a lot as well.
The expensive fans are more of an overclockers toy than a gamers. Like everything else in life, you get what you pay for. Cheap fans usually have terrible sleeve bearings, are very loud, and the sleeve bearings will die out within a year of usage. Also, the heatsink usually tends to be more expensive than the fan itself and is just as important if not moreso. You may be confusing the two.
As far as expensive mice go, it's an issue of ergonomics and precision. My space ball that I use for 3D CAD modelling cost more than any expensive gaming mice I can think of and that also has to deal with ergonomics and precision.
"Oxygen-free-cable" I have no idea you're referring to.
1) What can you do on linux that you can't do on OS X? 2) Why? Last I checked humans only have 2 hands, not 4, are you some sort of freak? 3) That's not the same as running 4 different computers with 8 different inputs for obvious reasons. I also have 3 24" LCDs for my desktop. 4) See Above
Ok, so you don't like anything smaller than 17", why make long winded whiney posts about it deriding others for choosing a smaller screen?
When applied nationally it also has the effect of seriously affecting supply/demand for diesel fuel in this country. Considering diesel fuel prices are directly tied to the price of almost every single good(transportation is primarily diesel)it's not as cut and dry.
Slashdot Mirror
No not really. Starcraft II's match making system works very well and places you against people of a similar skill level. If you're really bad you won't be playing against any pros unless you choose to do so. The system is designed to match you such that your win/loss ratio is 1:1.
Seriously? Are you serious? I can't tell if you're just being sensationalist or if you're an idiot.
But but but it's got Hexagons and 3D graphics!
It works pretty well for Blizzard.
Look, I can understand asking once, maybe even twice. But if you're going to ask over 4 times, why don't you just save yourself the trouble and google it?
I'm sick and tired of new for the sake of being new. I loved Starcraft I and I love Starcraft II.
Gold places you in the middle 20% of Starcraft II players, congratulations, you're average! It's not much of a surprise that the bottom 50% don't use hotkeys though.
I like it as is. Besides who does much clicking anyways? Everything is through hotkeys in Starcraft II.
Some of us don't care about Shinies yah know? Starcraft lived on because it was a great game, just as Starcraft II will. Did you know that people still play Chess in this day and age too?
Blizzcon occured this past weekend which is why you see multiple Blizzard posts on here.
I don't think it's much of a slash-vertisement per se, I think most nerds are genuinely interested in Blizzard's games. You on the other hand seem to be more interested in counter culture and bashing others, cool.
Apparently nerds only use Linux in your world?
This will also kill the used book market.
It depends, similiar to your Alieve/naproxin sodium example, you can buy high quality cables for reasonable prices as well and there IS a difference between high quality cables and trash cables.
Not true, it just means you didn't buy a piece of crap pair of jeans from a sweatshop in the third world. Have you ever worn an expensive pair of jeans? I'll admit they are overpriced to a point, but they tend to be much more durable and comfortable than regular jeans.
To a point, you're also paying for the fact that Alieve has a known high level of quality control for their product. To some people that piece of mind is worth the price. See melamine contaminated food imported from China for an example.
For starters, those fans don't make economic sense, but that was never the point. The point is to get the best performance possible.
This is just a sign of your ignorance, an aftermarket heatsink will reduce the CPU temperature by tens of degrees. It's the difference between getting a 3.5ghz overclock on air versus a 4.2ghz overclock on air. It's a pretty big difference performance wise, on the order of 20%. As an anecdote from my own testing, my Core i7 920 hits around 90C at 3.6ghz with the stock fan/heatsink while on my Scythe Mugen 2($50 heatsink/fan) it hits 68C at 3.8ghz. For some people that extra 20% of performance is important, for most people it isn't.
Cool man. Did you ever think that some people do it because they enjoy the tweaking? Some games also require you to run overclocked if you run the game at high resolution(2560x1600) to max out the game. On the i7s with multiple GPUs the issue is very apparent. A lot of overclockers also contribute their spare CPU power to groups such as Folding@Home doing Protein research.
Sure, so what? See above.
Not true at all, the main reason people overclock nowadays is to turn their $200 CPU into the equivalent of a $1000 CPU. I purchased my i7 920 for only $200 last year and I have it performing faster than the i7 960 which cost $999 at the time by overclocking it. A lot of people do it for price/performance reasons more than anything else. The money saved from purchasing an "inferior" CPU goes into the purchase of better cooling equipment to manage the heat.
This is true to a point. I recently built a comptuer for my friend to play Starcraft II maxed out, total cost was only $550, miniscule compared to the $2k I spent on my rig and it plays the game nearly as well. However that's not why I spent $2k on my computer. Regardless, why do you assume overclockers are idiots? You'd think most of us would be smart enough to recognize where slowdowns are occuring in our computers since most of us are seeking the best possible performance for the money. Just because your friend is an idiot doesn't mean we all are.
Developing is a hobby of mine, I'm a Mechanical Engineer by trade.
As a previous poster mentioned, you might be interested in using Virtual Machines for your workflow. A VM with a nice Quad Core processor works very well. Almost all of my friends who are professional software engineers use VMs as well for their workflow.
Also you're mentioning a 2nd computer, but you're previous post was specifically mentioning 4 laptops... I can see the reason for having a desktop and a laptop, maybe even 2 desktops with one working as a personal server. But 4 laptops? That's silly. I'd rather have one very well designed and powerful laptop over 4 crappy ones. Not to mention if I'm buying a 17" laptop I want at least 1080p resolution, unfortunately some of the more popular cheap models only come with a 720p resolution(1368x768). Not to say that I would ever buy a 17" Laptop, I had a 15.4" one and it was just too big and not portable enough.
Maybe for you, but I personally carry my laptop around a lot and I use it on my lap a lot as well.
The expensive fans are more of an overclockers toy than a gamers. Like everything else in life, you get what you pay for. Cheap fans usually have terrible sleeve bearings, are very loud, and the sleeve bearings will die out within a year of usage. Also, the heatsink usually tends to be more expensive than the fan itself and is just as important if not moreso. You may be confusing the two.
As far as expensive mice go, it's an issue of ergonomics and precision. My space ball that I use for 3D CAD modelling cost more than any expensive gaming mice I can think of and that also has to deal with ergonomics and precision.
"Oxygen-free-cable" I have no idea you're referring to.
I was just about to say this. Most developers I know these days use VMs for all of that.
1) What can you do on linux that you can't do on OS X?
2) Why? Last I checked humans only have 2 hands, not 4, are you some sort of freak?
3) That's not the same as running 4 different computers with 8 different inputs for obvious reasons. I also have 3 24" LCDs for my desktop.
4) See Above
Ok, so you don't like anything smaller than 17", why make long winded whiney posts about it deriding others for choosing a smaller screen?
You mean the 2.0T? It's a good engine, but I don't think it's comparable to the one in the article.
I apologize however, I was thinking of the 1.4T TSI which they don't offer in the States.
When applied nationally it also has the effect of seriously affecting supply/demand for diesel fuel in this country. Considering diesel fuel prices are directly tied to the price of almost every single good(transportation is primarily diesel)it's not as cut and dry.
Now tell me, are you going to be more productive with 4 crappy laptops or 1 really good laptop?
I was comparing the 2-doors.
There are two engines actually, there's still the turbocharged engine in the GTI.
Car-2 costs $5,000 more than Car-1 (Note Golf vs Golf TDI)
You may be saving $.03 per mile, but that's going to take you over 150,000 miles to pay back.
You can't actually buy a TSi in the USA, who knows why. I would have bought the TSi if they had it available instead of the 2.5 5cylinder in my MKV.
obligatory xkcd: http://xkcd.com/591/