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Hey like the company tag line says, "No Bills, No Contracts, No Evil.. Of course, now my friends are telling me they'd rather I text them instead of call them, which kinda puts a damper on my old phones. Yeah, I can text on them but not having a qwerty keyboard is a bit of a deal breaker. I'm going to have to think this over... :unsure:

My issue, now I have a windows phone, love it except the bluetooth streaming music is horrid, like a 75 bitrate and the pictures are also equally bad,, I unfortunately am going to plug into the apple machine next year and become part of the machine,,, resistance is futile

Yeah, all my friends and especially if you are in the dating scene,, you have to text and three tapping on that net10 was old fast

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I hooked a computer up to my TV in my living room, and one in the bedroom. I wasn't really satisfied with the arrangement, though. The one I put in the living room was my old gaming rig, so I had this big black tower sitting on the floor next to my entertainment center. And the one in the bedroom was one I threw together cheaply to test Linux distros and other beta OSes. I had the Windows 8 developer preview on it, but after having some issues with drivers I put Windows 7 on it. It almost served it's purpose... video performance on Hulu was fine, but choppy on Netflix. I wanted to put the tower back in the bedroom, and I wanted a smaller computer that'd blend into my entertainment center better.

So I'm at Best Buy today, and what do I find? Their old display unit Mac Mini (2010), for sale as an open box item, $409.99 Not too bad... but they didn't have the box, Snow Leopard disc, or power cord. Not a huge deal, I figure. Who needs a box? A friend of mine has a retail copy of Snow Leopard... morally gray area, but I feel ok to copy it and use it as a replacement. And the unibody Mac minis (2010 and 2011) have internal PSUs, so any old two-prong power cord would do. But I give them a hard time about the missing stuff anyway, and they knock it down to $350.

I might have an addiction, though. That brings the total number of computers in my house to 8 (Mac mini in the living room, Mac mini in my office, Windows 7 gaming rig in my office, Windows 7 tower in the bedroom, my Windows 7 laptop, my wife's Windows 7 laptop, my wife's previous laptop currently running Ubuntu Linux, and the desktop I'm probably going to put Windows 8 back on when Microsoft releases the public beta).

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Looking at a barebones kit for folks. But can't decide on a video card. Any suggestions?

The kit: http://www.Newegg.co...st=Combo.816530

Nice, its the processor I have,, but the motherboard I want

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130609

it has great reviews and for the price, really good performance in a standard kinda no frills card

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So i won an ipad2 in a local raffle a couple weeks ago, which is perfect timing since there's now a jailbreak for A5 devices, can't wait to get all of the jailbroken goodies i'm used to on my iphone4 onto the ipad2. I can't say that i was ever in the market to purchase an ipad2, but getting one for free was a pleasant surprise, the kids love it and it's great for watching movies in bed with the wife.

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Hello MW. I have a first world problem and was hoping to get some opinions. I have extra cash lying around and I am looking to upgrade my graphics card (and maybe the RAM) in my computer. Although I know it would be wise to save it and or invest it...what's the fun in that? My problem is that I am not sure how to go about the upgrade. I’m not sure if I should just buy a new PSU and GPU, along with more RAM, or build a whole new rig all together. I am concerned with bottlenecks in my current rig. It has been my understanding that it’s best to upgrade the GPU first, followed by the RAM and then the CPU when faced with bottlenecks and the likes. I first built my current system about 5 years ago. This is what I currently have (I’ll only list what’s relevant):

  • Windows 7 Ultimate x64
  • MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
    • 2 PCI-E x16 slots

    [*]Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz 65W (OC @2.8GHz)

    • LGA 775 (obviously)
    • Mobo supports Core 2 Quad/Extreme/Duo

    [*]4 GB of DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) RAM

    • Mobo supports up to 8GB

    [*]ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GPU

    • I originally had an NVIDIA 8600GTS and was planning on doing SLI with it or some other NVIDIA card in the future...in case someone was wondering why I have an NVIDIA mobo with an ATI GPU.

    [*]500W ATX12V PSU

I have my 32” Full HDTV connected to my PC, so I don’t plan to game at resolutions higher than 1920 x 1080. My wish is to play such games as Battlefield 3, Cyris, Crysis 2, and Skyrim at a 1920 x 1080 resolution with at least 50 FPS (60 FPS preferred) with all of the eye candy. I know I won’t be able to play with AA maxed out with the frame rates I’m looking for using a single GPU and that’s okay.

I’ve been looking at replacing my HD 4870 with a HD 6970, HD 7950, or HD 7970. I’m going to have to replace my current PSU as it only has two 6-pin connectors and these cards need an 8-pin and a 6-pin. I’ve talked to a couple of my friends and they suggest I go the HD 6970 route and save myself a couple hundred dollars. However, from the reviews I’ve read, I’m not so sure the HD 6970 is the right card. I’m leaning more towards the HD 7970.

Should I wait for the HD 78XX series and see what they have to offer, and or wait on NVIDIA’s Kepler cards to come out and wait for price drops? Or am I just being silly in that a HD 6970 would be just fine at the resolution I want to play at? Moreover, I’m wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to 8GB of DDR2 RAM or if I should just build a whole new rig all together with a Core i7 and DDR3 RAM. Also, I don’t plan on going the Crossfire/SLI route. I would like to not spend too much....

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I’m sorry it’s such a long read. Thanks for any input.

Edited by Oihan
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With the money your dumping on the card, its like having a Lamborghini motor in a Malibu, you might as well get all the guts for a few hundred more,, but then again you can always unplug the graphics card and put it in a new motherboard if your unsatisfied with the performance. Id buy the card and ram is pretty cheap, you'd need to upgrade the power supply anyway so iff you want to go all out it wont cost you but time and a little bit of ram you can always craigslist

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Hello MW. I have a first world problem and was hoping to get some opinions. I have extra cash lying around and I am looking to upgrade my graphics card (and maybe the RAM) in my computer. Although I know it would be wise to save it and or invest it...what's the fun in that? My problem is that I am not sure how to go about the upgrade. I’m not sure if I should just buy a new PSU and GPU, along with more RAM, or build a whole new rig all together. I am concerned with bottlenecks in my current rig. It has been my understanding that it’s best to upgrade the GPU first, followed by the RAM and then the CPU when faced with bottlenecks and the likes. I first built my current system about 5 years ago. This is what I currently have (I’ll only list what’s relevant):

  • Windows 7 Ultimate x64
  • MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
    • 2 PCI-E x16 slots

    [*]Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz 65W (OC @2.8GHz)

    • LGA 775 (obviously)
    • Mobo supports Core 2 Quad/Extreme/Duo

    [*]4 GB of DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) RAM

    • Mobo supports up to 8GB

    [*]ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GPU

    • I originally had an NVIDIA 8600GTS and was planning on doing SLI with it or some other NVIDIA card in the future...in case someone was wondering why I have an NVIDIA mobo with an ATI GPU.

    [*]500W ATX12V PSU

I have my 32” Full HDTV connected to my PC, so I don’t plan to game at resolutions higher than 1920 x 1080. My wish is to play such games as Battlefield 3, Cyris, Crysis 2, and Skyrim at a 1920 x 1080 resolution with at least 50 FPS (60 FPS preferred) with all of the eye candy. I know I won’t be able to play with AA maxed out with the frame rates I’m looking for using a single GPU and that’s okay.

I’ve been looking at replacing my HD 4870 with a HD 6970, HD 7950, or HD 7970. I’m going to have to replace my current PSU as it only has two 6-pin connectors and these cards need an 8-pin and a 6-pin. I’ve talked to a couple of my friends and they suggest I go the HD 6970 route and save myself a couple hundred dollars. However, from the reviews I’ve read, I’m not so sure the HD 6970 is the right card. I’m leaning more towards the HD 7970.

Should I wait for the HD 78XX series and see what they have to offer, and or wait on NVIDIA’s Kepler cards to come out and wait for price drops? Or am I just being silly in that a HD 6970 would be just fine at the resolution I want to play at? Moreover, I’m wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to 8GB of DDR2 RAM or if I should just build a whole new rig all together with a Core i7 and DDR3 RAM. Also, I don’t plan on going the Crossfire/SLI route. I would like to not spend too much....

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I’m sorry it’s such a long read. Thanks for any input.

Really depends on how much you want to spend. You could buy a Radeon 6870 and play most of the games you want just fine, but if you're planning on getting a beefier card than that, then I agree with pfunk, get yourself a new mobo (I'm thinking Sandy Bridge), a shiny new Core i5 or i7 CPU, and at least 8GB of DDR3 RAM.

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Are the 8G's of RAM the new standard/minimum? I'm still running with 4G's; I'm even planning on a laptop and I only spec'd it out with 4G's of RAM.

Edit:, here's the laptop I'm sorta looking at. I've just discovered how liberating it is to have your PC mobile and may have to buy one. What do you guys think?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=637440&Sku=A50-1733001

Edited by myk
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Are the 8G's of RAM the new standard/minimum? I'm still running with 4G's; I'm even planning on a laptop and I only spec'd it out with 4G's of RAM...

Not really. I'd say 4-6 is probably standard. Microsoft might say 2GB for 64-bit installs of Windows 7, but I'd say 4 is the new minimum. And truth be told, of the 8 computers I've got, the one with the second highest performance has just 3GB (it's only using a 32-bit Windows 7 install).

Of course, it really depends a lot on what you want to do with it. I built my current gaming rig (which is my highest-performing computer) with 12GB, but in practice I've found that I rarely have more than 5GB in use at any given time.

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Ok, so I have to ask what's all of the extra RAM for then? Doesn't sound like your highest performing machine needs anything beyond the 5G's. In theory, what would, or COULD a system do with all of that extra RAM?

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Ok, so I have to ask what's all of the extra RAM for then? Doesn't sound like your highest performing machine needs anything beyond the 5G's. In theory, what would, or COULD a system do with all of that extra RAM?

Virtualization, for two. If you run an OS inside another OS, you want to make sure both OSes have enough RAM to run smoothly.

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Does anyone know an internet seller that ships to South America this headphone: "CREATIVE AURVANA LIVE!"?

Amazon doesn't count because they don't send declared as a gift... haha...

Or am I just being silly in that a HD 6970 would be just fine at the resolution I want to play at?

I don't think there is yet any game that would require more than a HD6970 at just 1080p. Anything more powerful would be justified by using Eyefinity.

But the newer AMD hd7xxx cards seems to be a lot better at tesselation, so maybe you should wait... probably in the future more games will have heavier use of tesselation.

Edited by akt_m
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Looks like my friend will be taking his laptop back-I'll probably buy my own. What do you guys think about this one: http://www.tigerdire...Sku=A50-1733001

Shop around for that model a bit more if you already haven't. There are a few G74 configurations out there for different vendors including Asus directly. One of them comes with a SSD and generally doesn't cost a lot more from what I've seen. If space is an issue, it has a second hard drive bay either way. Great system otherwise. A buddy of mine has last years model with the ATI chipset and it's a very solid machine.

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Wow, thanks guys. What do you guys think of Tigerdirect, the company itself? Somehow I don't get that warm, fuzzy, safe in the bosom of my mother feeling like I get when I deal with Newegg. If I limit myself to buying from Newegg, here are some of the candidates I was thinking about:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214613

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214492

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Looks like my friend will be taking his laptop back-I'll probably buy my own. What do you guys think about this one: http://www.tigerdire...Sku=A50-1733001

Right now, no kidding a girl I am dating has an Asus and the hard drive went within a year. I packaged it for shipping Sunday. Asus is covering it, but she didn't back up the info unfortunately. Her school program is getting her a laptop so she is fixing this one and then selling it.

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I have an Asus laptop... can't recall the model off the top of my head, but it was a Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM hard drive, and a GeForce GTX 260M. I love the keyboard... keys feel great, and I loved the backlighting so much that I bought a Logitech Wireless Illuminated keyboard for my desktop. Gaming performance was good enough. My only complaints were that it's pretty chunky for a 15.6" 1360x768 screen. I've had no real issues with it, but I don't use it a ton. I mostly take it to friend's houses or when I go on trips, because my gaming desktop (i7, 12GB RAM, 2 1TB hard drives, GeForce GTX 465) is a lot more powerful.

Come to think of it, I bought my wife an Asus laptop, too. It's nothing too fancy... she mostly does Excel spreadsheets and surfs the net. I think it's a Pentium Dual Core, 4GB, 500GB, and integrated graphics of some sort, but I was pleased to see it had the same keyboard as mine, right down to the backlighting, in a simple but pleasing case with a nice textured lid. Like I said, nothing too fancy, but nicer than the HPs Staples and Best Buy sell at around the same price. Again, no issues with it.

For that matter, I have an Asus motherboard in my desktop. Only minor issue was that I had a little trouble getting it to recognize the SATA 3.0 drive I wanted to use as the primary boot drive. The Asus DVD drive I put in it crapped out in just under a year, though. Replaced it with a Samsung.

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Wow, thanks guys. What do you guys think of Tigerdirect, the company itself? Somehow I don't get that warm, fuzzy, safe in the bosom of my mother feeling like I get when I deal with Newegg.

They're not as consumer friendly as Newegg. Trying to get info out of them for a product I wanted to buy was like pulling new teeth out. If you can avoid customer service, great. Otherwise, they're no better or worst than any other retailer. Another good thing is I can get gift certificates for TigerDirect.

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