Rooster90

Unfortunately no. We very easily could've started one a month or two ago, but most of our key players are no longer playing. Gunthar had one started with some friends, but Jeff ended up leaving Sparta almost entirely to join Warrior Nation, which he's now in a leadership position there. I haven't seen Pilotboy, Killerbees, or Barrowgrimm on in a while either. Interest was lost when they refused to fix their horrible matchmaking algorithms, and the problem was only exacerbated by clan wars. Pretty much the only way to enjoy the game now is to have tier 8+ and be in a clan.

Well, moral is don't post stupid crap on FB. I actually just went through and cleaned a lot of the stupid crap I liked and took pictures of in high school. However that libel case could have some substance. A picture without context is meaningless, so to judge somebody solely based on that and have it permanently recorded as such is extremely detrimental to character, especially if it denies you employment. You could even claim damages on something like that. Idk what the beef against LinkedIn comes from though. Don't know of any stupid crap being posted on that. Purely a professional/career-oriented site. If you manage to figure out how to put something dumb on there that's entirely the user's fault, lol.

As some of you may or may not know, I'm kind of the resident "hipster" when it comes to music. Most all the bands I know and love is some random and obscure band that only a handful of people know about. I'm very particular about my metal, but today I'm presenting something quite different. It's an ambient/post-rock outfit from Russia called "Kauan". They started out as an atmospheric black metal band, but even on their first EP their softer side could be heard in their sweeping synths and folk/jazz influenced melodies. The EP "Lumikuuro" can still be found on iTunes, though it's rather obvious it was a very tight budget on the production. Something not unheard of in black metal, but their approach was drastically different and more delicate and orchestrated. Here's a taste: Their first full-length album was when the band really changed genres almost entirely. However, the transition was rough and ended up being a bit of a flop. I wont really comment on it since I've never actually given it a full listen. Their second full-length however, is something incredibly dear to me. After "Aava Tuulen Maa" dropped in the fall of 2009 I became completely and utterly obsessed. I bought a limited edition digipak from Finland that came with a bunch of extra little goodies, including a beanie (winter cap) that I still wear today. It's one of those albums that I can't stop listening to halfway through. By the time it's over I want to listen to it again! It was perfect for those long winter drives I make to my drill station almost 4 hours away. I had this album on repeat the whole way through. The only way I can describe how this album feels is that it's almost like listening to the seasons change. It's so subtle and natural and everything flows together perfectly. If you're into post-rock bands like Sigur Ros, definitely check this one out. It's streaming on their facebook right now (but not fully, some of the songs had to be cut short for length). Best track: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kauanmusic?sk=app_178091127385 However, the real reason I'm posting here today is that his new album "Kuu.." is dropping very soon. As usual, he released one song to stream before release and it sounds to improve on all the things that were criticized on his last album. His voice is being used in a higher register, adding even more to the emotion and delicacy of his music. The orchestrations are even better, the melodies are even catchier and lovelier than before, and his songwriting is unmatched. He's still a very unknown artist, especially in America, but more so because he doesn't do live shows very often, if at all. These albums are his blood, sweat and hard earned money. He deserves every penny he gets from these albums. He barely had enough to push this one through, as he's run into some hard financial times. I've personally sent him money through Western Union and plan to send more. I've already bought the limited edition album + T-shirt (only 24 have been made) from sound-cave.com that was just announced today. Give the new track a listen and fall in love. If I can get even one more person who loves his music, that's all he or I could ever ask for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0THbyOeN9I

Very interesting development. I just ran Arma2's BM at Noob's clock settings and I'm actually getting about 5 fps LESS than I was at stock a day or 2 ago. WTF? Also keep in mind when I ran those benchmarks a couple days earlier my CPU was also overclocked to 4.0 GHz. It's running at it's stock 3.4 setting atm. What's ArmA's typical CPU load when you guys are playing it? During that benchmark my CPU is sitting around 45-50% usage, with short-lived spikes up to 60% during certain spots. I can see all 4 of my cores being used, so it's not like it isn't recognizing all of my threads or something. Any thoughts?

We knew ArmA had issues with CPU's with more than 4 threads. I tried disabling my hyper-threading option in my BIOS so I only run 4 primary threads (instead of 8) and it made pretty much zero difference. But you could be totally right, the old engine may not be very supportive of new architecture.

Just ran DX10 and 11 tests with Noob's clock settings. With Noob's original DX10 test, our scores are literally the same. Same Avg FPS, same score. However, I'm noticing about 2 or 3 minor artifacts in random places throughout the test. It seems once my card starts encroaching upon that 69-70 degree mark and beyond, my card flakes out. Noob's doesn't due to a much better cooling system on his GPU, I'm sure of it. In DX11 with Extreme tessellation the artifacts become much worse. However, this is a benchmark program and not an actual game which would be better optimized to handle these sorts of issues. I'll be back when I run some benchmarks in actual games. EDIT (after reading Noob's post): Well, at 30% fan speed (which is the lowest it will go) my fan runs very silent at about 1280 RPM. So that 950-1000 RPM rule must be a card-specific issue. I've got 850W of power in my rig and a very energy efficient Mobo and CPU. I've got the headroom for additional fan power.

Idk why I didn't think of that... *facepalm* Running with Noob's clock speeds and with tessellation disabled my score is almost EXACTLY identical as his. However, I caught two small artifacts when running the test. These very well may be heat related. I had my fan speed set to a rather audible 65% (~3150 RPM) and at peak heat it was around 73-74 degrees C. This also happened to be around the time when I noticed these artifacts.... I guess the logical question that I would ask next is: What temp is Noob's GPU typically running at? And the fan speed? His GPU may also be a more efficient and cooler running card than mine, giving him yet even more added performance.

Ah, that explains a bit. Your 560 is in fact, superior to mine. That explains some discrepancies, though the gap is still fairly large (10-15 fps more than mine). My 560 at stock is: Core: 900 Shader: 1800 Memory: 2106 Currently I have it OC slightly at: Core: 950 Shader: 1900 Memory: 2106 I likely could OC my card further, but when going through my OC tests I was using Heaven as a guide. Anything above what I have now started to produce artifacts and glitches. Granted, the program is pushing my GPU farther than any game is in DX11 for an extended period of time. Plus having all the settings set to the most extreme doesn't help. However, I'm sure your card is designed to handle the higher speeds and heat better than mine. I don't want to push my luck and fry the card early.

@Hajimoto: Your tessellation was set to normal. Set it to "Extreme" to be relative to everybody else's score. I've been OCing my GPU and running a multitude of tests today. Tessellation alone going from Normal to Extreme will be a 10-15 fps difference (on my rig). I imagine it's because the technology is still fairly new, as is DX11. @Noob: What manufacturer/brand of 560 Ti do you own? I own the EVGA Superlcocked version (900 MHz core clock, stock). I'm wondering that, despite the manufacturer's numbers, my GPU is simply using inferior hardware/architecture compared to other 560's. I find that a little hard to swallow considering my brand, but it's been proven in the past that hardware will say big numbers on the box, but still can't perform up to snuff with similar products. It certainly isn't my CPU because even at stock settings my CPU is essentially idling. At full speed I'm only using about 50-60% of my CPU during ArmA 2.

Thoughts and Reflections so far. I'm not really sure what to think of my Heaven results. I honestly don't know what a comparable system to mine's results should be. They seem pretty low to me, but I can't be sure. Maybe it just means Heaven really is as brutal as they say it is. I still feel like I should have performed better, especially considering my resolution. I also noticed at the end of the benchmark it said this was using 32-bit C++ binaries, even though I'm on a 64-bit system... idk if this means anything or not though. Somebody better versed in the program should clarify this. What do you guys think? Is this to be expected of this benchmarking program, or is there something sinister going on here? I've already named one culprit to my problem, and that is my RAM. I got it for a great price, but you get what you pay for. It's clocking in @ 1333MHz stock and has a CAS timing of 9. Meh. But for something like this, you'd think it would be more reliant on the GPU. Refer to my first post for my GPU's stock settings. Even for stock, they're pretty damn good. What else could be going on here?.... I await your thoughts and opinions (if any). I will continue benchmarking my stock system tomorrow.

PART 2: GPU stock settings. Synthetic benchmarking/stressing. I'm using another Haji-approved program for this one. This time, it's the Unigine developed benchmark program called "Heaven". Direct download here: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1961/Unigine_Heaven_DX11_Benchmark_2.5.html Supposedly this stuff is top of the line stressing for DX11 systems. And if good ole Hajimoto recommends it, I'm definitely willing to give it a go. It's a modest 228MB download, FYI. I will also be using EVGA Precision to monitor my GPU. Found here: http://www.evga.com/precision/ Idling, my GPU runs at a cool and calm 36 degrees C. Now to begin the Heaven test. I'll also be monitoring my CPU temps, for the hell of it. Heaven settings: DX11 Stereo 3D: disabled Shaders: High Tesselation: Extreme Ansiotropy: 16 AA: x8 Res: 1680x1050 (old monitor, still running strong though). All of these are pretty much the highest settings on the program. Onto the results.... DX11 = BRUTAL Max CPU temp: 46 degrees C Gpu temp: ~80 degrees C, fan speed ~50% Average frames: ~21fps Score: 582 Ouch. For kicks and giggles, I'll add DX9 and 10 results as well. DX9 Results: Max CPU temp: low 40s GPU temp: ~80 degrees C, fan speed ~55% Avg frames: 51 Score: 1287 DX10 Results: Max CPU temp: 46 degrees C GPU temp: ~80 degrees C, fan speed ~53% Avg frames: 39 Score: 971 Hmm. Interesting indeed. To be continued....

Well, to put it lightly, I'm a total noob when it comes to overclocking. I know some basics and I understand a few terms, but outside of that this is the first computer where I'm really delving into this. (Refer to my avatar, that will explain how I feel when people start throwing voltages and weird abbreviations at me) I will document my methods and results here, mostly for my own benefit, but also for others' too. Tips and pointers are always appreciated. Here's my system, all stock settings: CPU: Intel i7 2600K @ 3.4 GHz (actually at default it runs closer to 3.5 according to CPU-Z) Mobo: MSI P67A GD-65 RAM: G.Skill Ripjaw-X 8GB DDR3 (dual-channel) @ 1333 MHz GPU: EVGA GTX 560 Ti 1GB -Graphics Clock: 900MHz -Memory Clock: 2106MHz -Processor (Shaders) Clock: 1800MHz Case: Cooler Master HAF 912. Great, ventilated case and unbeatable price. Highly recommended for those on a tight budget. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233 I have sealed liquid cooling system on my CPU and 3 120mm fans throughout my case, one intake on the side and two exhaust (one in the top rear, the other on the very top). My Corsair 850W PSU sits at the bottom of my case. Liquid Cooler = Asetek 550LC: http://www.asetek.com/products/oem-standard-products/120mm-products/550lc.html On to the fun stuff. I just uninstalled my video drivers, rebooted in Safe Mode (hit F5 on start-up, selected it in the advanced start-up options) and reset all of my CPU overclocking profiles to the default settings. My mobo comes with a pretty sweet BIOS that's actually a GUI with clickable buttons, making it a much more user-friendly experience. I installed the latest drivers onto my EVGA GTX 560 Ti (275.33 as of this writing). Nvidia drivers: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us On to some synthetic testing. My first test was to test my CPU stock and my liquid cooling. I'm using a program called RealTemp to monitor all of my core's temps simultaneously. Hajimoto recommended a good stress test called Prime95 for this very purpose. Note I'm using the 64-bit version, the same that my OS is running. For those of you running 32-bit OS's, there is a "related link" on that page for the 32-bit version. I've run both the "In-place FFT" test (explained as a max temp/power consumption test) and the "Blend test" which tests a little bit of everything. I ran them both about 5-10 minutes each with my max temperature sitting somewhere around 69-70 degrees C. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Intel really did deliver a great line of processors that run exceptionally cool. According to CPU-Z the core voltage is sitting at 1.152. So far, so good. My CPU and cooler can more than take the heat at stock settings. And not hardly a peep out of my fans. In my next post I will begin GPU tests, both synthetic and "real" at stock settings. To be continued....

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/06/19/intv.mansbach.go.to.sleep.cnn?hpt=hp_c2 Now the #1 New York Times best-seller.

Frames: 1932 Min: 17 Max: 45 Avg: 32 Arma2 Avg: 29 Specs: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit Intel i7 2600K @ 4.0GHz EVGA GTX 560 Ti 1GB 8GB DDR3 G.Skill Ripjaw X @ 1300MHz Hmmmm... I feel like my machine should be pushing out some better frames. Wonder what's bottle-necking me right now. :/ EDIT: Updated my GPU drivers to the latest, though the performance increase was minimal. I OC-ed my CPU to 4.5GHz and OC-ed my GPU slightly and my frames were barely affected. Min: 21 Max: 54 Avg: 34 ArmA 2 Avg: 30

Random question: I'm thinking about getting a new video card when BF3 comes out. I have a GTX 560 Ti right now which is certainly passable, but I want to push that game's settings as far as my computer can take it. I kind of want a 590 which would give me integrated SLI. However, does that card require or highly recommend it's own cooling? I have liquid cooling on my CPU and a ton of fans in a well ventilated case, but I've been reading mixed things about what kind of rigs can even run a 590. I know I have the power to run it, but the cooling worries me. Some say I don't need to worry about it since the card's built-in cooling is great if I'm not overclocking it (which I wont). But others say I'd be taking a huge risk without having its own dedicated cooling. Thoughts?

Oh, I know the other side of the story. It has more to do with some dispute between how Crytek is being distributed and Steam's Terms and Conditions. At least that's what we're told. I'll still trust Valve's word over EA's any day. And that still has nothing to do with SW:TOR or BF3 or any other big name future EA title being exclusive to Origin. And of course I support competition. I've purchased a few games from D2D before simply because they had better day 1 deals. I pre-ordered Black Ops for 40 bucks (really glad I didn't spend the full price too, lol). But can't you see what EA is doing is the opposite of competitive? They're denying select distributors and competition from their games to funnel players to their service. That isn't being competitive, that's a forced purchase.

If it aint broke, don't fix it. If it works, and works exceptionally well, why not use it? You can't possibly think EA's "alternative" to Steam is, or will ever be, superior (or even competitive). They are a decade behind the game, they missed the boat. All Origin is is a re-skinned EA Store, which was atrocious. Over 25 million PC gamers use Steam and the number only grows. Why would you deny yourself such a huge market for such a huge game? I'm not even asking for the game to include Steamworks. After a few months of patching BFBC2 worked fine without it. It's more principal than anything else. The only reason Origin will become "popular" won't be from a consumer's decision or because it's a good service, it will be because EA, the largest games publisher on earth, has forced PC gamers to use it as the only place to receive their games. Buying a disc version won't matter either because you'll still need an Origin account for it to run. You can argue that Valve does the same thing, but the difference lies in that Steam actually works. Valve has earned the respect of PC gamers worldwide, we didn't just hand it to them overnight. Steam was heavily criticized for years, but they've proven that they serve the customer and they genuinely support the PC platform. There's a reason an increasing number of third-party developers, including Relic, are making Steam (and Steamworks) an important part of their PC games. We love it, the devs love it, Valve is incredibly supportive and helpful, and it works far better on day 1 releases than any other platform. EA has done nothing in the past decade to show that they even notice the PC as a legitimate platform until now. And they're out for our money, not our loyal service. I never said I wouldn't purchase BF3, but man does it look a lot less appealing without Steam in the picture. It's going to be worlds harder for it to compete with Activision. Even THEY use Steamworks for their CoD franchise. BF3 is destined for an even tougher uphill battle, and possibly failure, with EA at the reigns and the denial of Steam.

I've yet to see exclusive DLC that has been game-breaking though, especially MP games. Sometimes SP content is released that is a little "broken", but rarely MP content.

I doubt they'd offer actual exclusive content to certain retailers. When BF:BC2 came out there were lots of the same "pre-order specials", but all of it ended up in the game free to everyone in the end. I remember having early access to the "Squad Rush" and "Squad Deathmatch" modes, as well as having a bunch of weapons and equipment earned right off the bat because of my pre-order. Same thing going on here. It's not a strategy that will last. Physical retail is going the way of the dinosaur, and for the better. Pandering to publishers to sell exclusive content to them to keep their video game sections alive is their last breath of hope. I jsut hope developers and publishers see this ruse and get rid of the middleman and all the extra cash needed to distribute hard copies. Digital is the way of the future, and until that concept is fully embraced we're probably going to see a slew of dick moves from the old dogs in the industry until they give up. It happened in the music distribution industry, it's slowly happening in the film distribution industry, only a matter of time before it happens in the games industry as well.

That was the least of my concerns. EA or DICE has yet to confirm whether BF3 will be available on Steam or be an Origin exclusive. That's the real deal-breaker for me. Considering Crysis 2 was removed from Steam and has now been labelled an Origin exclusive and they already have stated that SW:TOR will also be exclusive, I worry that BF3 will be as well. Any hopes of BF3 dominating the PC market will go down the drain if there isn't a Steam release.

I have, but there's not a lot that interest me right now. Most of the islands are garbage. I don't really look for missions as I don't play them too often. Haven't found too many stand-out mods either.

Pretty sure none of that would happen. These hackers don't have any sort of leadership. It's just like Anonymous, they're more akin to a school of piranhas than any sort of hierarchy of leadership.

Considering Gabe Newell put his own username and password up for the world to see and to dare hackers to try and crack their recent security upgrades a few months back, I'm pretty confident my information is secure (for now). Valve has always taken hacker security very seriously from the start, I don't see why they wouldn't be just as vigilant, if not more so now, than they have in the past.

From what I read those animations are for PvP only, not PvE compatible. I could be wrong though.

XD I totally could get it for free with the Army.... I know some basic German, but I'm not fluid or quick enough to translate active conversations fully.