Dillon 1st MRB

Go with the video card upgrade and call it good. The C2D is a good cpu. But in order to upgrade it, you'll need motherboard, cpu and RAM. Minimum of $300. Go video card.

This all depends on 1 thing: your budget. Is it a computer that someone built, or that is braded (like Dell, HP, etc)? Here are a couple of programs that will help you know EXACTLY what you have: CPU-Z GPU-Z First priority - New video card - If you want ATI, go with a 6850. Here is a great one and it comes with Dirt3. Its factory overclocked, as well. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814125353 $139.99 after rebate Next priority, if possible - new cpu and motherboard - 1st make sure you are using DDR3 memory (CPU-Z will tell you). I'd look at the new Intel i5 (not the k, because you don't seem like much of an overclocker). I'd probably steer your towards the i5 2300. Its a good choice, and at a good price. 200 mhz doesn't make a huge amount of difference these days, unless you are going up to the ~4ghz+ range. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115076 $179.99 Here is a solid motherboard for a new processor. Intel pretty much needs a new motherboard for every generation of cpu they come out with. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128520 $89.99 If you need new DDR3 ram, only get 4 GB. Because you are using the 32 bit version of Windows, you can only use ~3.2 GB of RAM. If you have the option of going to 64, get 8 GB. Its just really cheap right now. But 4 is good.

I'm very brand-nuetral. Both companies have their gimmicks (Eye-Finity, PhysX, CUDA, stream, surround 3D), and I pretty much ignore all of them for myself. Some people swear by them. I'm currently rocking a highly overclocked 460 that competes with the 6870 very well. That being said, I usually find the best bang for the buck. I prefer my cards to be energy efficient and cooler. For me, those are advantages, but they aren't for everyone. At $200 or less, you can't go wrong. I would probably lean towards the 6870 for the energy and temperature stuff. However, for people that don't care about these things, its really not an issue. Now, if you are going to go up to $250 and look at the 560ti, that would throw the 6950 into the discussion. I would definately go with the 6950 1GB . It uses far less power at load and is much quieter. 6950 235 watts, 68 degrees C 560ti 283 watts, 79 degrees C Actually, in looking at the prices and rebates, you could really get something nice. 560ti - $234.99 + $30 rebate + Batman Arkham City game + $7.56 shipping = $212.55 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814125363 6950 1GB - $239.99 + $20 rebate + Dirt3 + $.99 shipping = $220.98 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814125385 One thing.... the nvidia cards are for some reason running with mini HDMI instead of full sized. If your monitor has/will have full size HDMI (most all now do), you will need an adapter (may be included). This is one where I would definately go with the 6950. Here is a comparison of these two GPU's head to head: http://techreport.com/articles.x/20777/1

430 watt can be just fine. Video card manufacturers project their PSU numbers far in excess of actual needs. And, many of the cheap PSU brands are very poor at getting even halfway to their wattage. I run a very power hungry 460 1gb (draws more power than you are looking at) with 125w CPU at 4.3ghz on a 500w PSU. A 560ti will pull about 308 watts from the wall. Figure in the 80% efficiency on a 430w PSU and it gets pretty marginal. I don't know if I would risk it. A vanilla 560 pulls 238, which should be okay. On the AMD side, a 6870 pulls 212 watts from the wall. Load noise (the sound of the fan and whatnot) is about the same for both of these. First off, take off the 460, 550ti, and the 6850 as a possiblity. They are all in the price range, but have significantly less performance. I'd pull it down to choosing either the 6870 or the 560. The 560ti has better performance at a much higher power draw and higher price (over $200). Here is the 6870 I would recommend: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814125357 Its $189.99 + a $30 rebate + Dirt 3 + free shipping. Total price of $159 makes it very very attractive. The 560 I would recommend: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814127592 Its also $189.99 + $20 rebate + Batman Arkham City + NBA2k11 + $7.56 shipping. Total price is $177.55. You really won't go wrong either way. Both companies make great cards, and at the $200-level its the bread-and-butter of sales. They both have excellent options. Now, $250 and above things are a bit more cut and dry. If you want to read a review that compares these cards, here you go: http://techreport.com/articles.x/20957/1

There is one really big question that must be answered first and a couple of minor ones: What is the maximum resolution of your monitor? and What power supply do you have?

Are you running a specialized config? How about any skins? What sort of network are you running? Wired, hopefully.

So yeah, my wife and I did some work. We turned this: Into this: My back fucking hurts. But, talk about a party room. We could spill anything (even sperm Engle!) and just mop it up.

Makes me feel better. And I felt the hardware alone was worth taking the risk on. If we just use it as an alarm clock, radio, e-reader, media player, occaisional web browser, and Angry Bird platform I think we'll be thrilled with it. The wife does like her Angry Birds.

So, I just bought an HP TouchPad, as reviewed here. So, why is this dumb? Well, its WebOS (not iOS or Android) which has been scrapped by HP after all of 4 months. Oh, and the kicker? The TouchPad itself is being scrapped. So, why did I get it? Because it was listed as $599, and called "not a good value." Its also a very good tablet, but not a great one. However, I only paid $149 for it. Got it on the NCIX.com US launch. I guess they had ~30 of them and I snagged one. That being said, I'm pretty stoked about it. I can play all of my videos on it, my wife can play angry birds, I can also use a Kindle app, and it also has a pretty cool free app to stream radio over the wireless. My risk: it will one day be borked. Why might this be brilliant? Windows 8 and/or Andriod may be ported to it very soon. If so, I may have scored an awesome deal. Time will tell. I cannot advise anyone to do what I've done, but if you are willing to risk it like I have, and if you can find them, its an awesome deal.

It's okay. Even my wife calls out your name in bed.

Delete all of your temp folders. There are also some great programs out there that show you where your files are at and which ones are biggest. Here is one of the best. http://windirstat.info/download.html

The bucket list - The things I need to do before I die. 1. Visit Egypt, Italy, Greece, and Japan. 2. Own a diesel pickup. 3. Be a good dad. 4. Engle 5. Get my Master's Degree. 6. Build a mountain cabin out of shipping containers. (don't laugh, Jones is totally with me on this) 7. Build my ultimate computer (I always compromise over price) 8. Go on a baseball stadium tour - visit every stadium in 1 summer. 9. Catch a show on broadway. 10. Take legit singing lessons. 11. Feed 100 people with my BBQ.

Well, this may make you feel better. I've got my degree and moved to take a shit job at a call center so my wife could get her Master's Degrees (and then I will get mine). I've lasted 4 years in an industry with 100% turnover. Here is how my time has gone: Hired Promoted 82 days later 4 months go by - told entire department of 300 is moving to another vendor. Apply to other places like mad. Get a new position within the company. For a little bit more money! Trainer position opens up. Get it! For more money! Trained for a year plus. Subject Matter Expert job opens up. Get it! For more money! 3 months go by. Get told entire department going away. Took demotion for Trainer money. 3 months go by. Get told entire department going away. Took demotion for Agent money. Back on the phones. 10 months go by. Get told entire department going away. Got a supervisor job! Money back up a little bit. Now, this whole time... I work with people who, for the most part, lacked either the intelligence or wherewhithal to graduate high school, let alone go to college. They are mostly sub-literate, uneducated folks who want an easy, temporary job. Herding cats would be a pleasure compared to this job. At this point, I hope I get laid off. But, the light at the end of the tunnel.... wife got a job, making 1.5x what I make. I get to go to grad school!

So, how do you spend your time at work? This is how I spend mine: Bloons Tower Defense 4

This game looks good enough to buy before the deal.

I'd upgrade the firmware on your surfboard before you start getting too disappointed. After that, you may want to go wtih DD-WRT. It tends to work very well. As to the packet loss.... that's a ton. When they installed the Internet, did they upgrade your coax? RGB 6 is the standard. Might want to see what is plugged into your modem. You may have some old, crappy coax.

You are on a 4G wireless internet? ummm.... As in through a cellphone company? That might be an issue. So you aren't going through a wire outside your apartment/house/cell? If this is the case, this might be as good as it gets. However, can you run this for an hour or so when you aren't otherwise using the computer: ping 208.167.243.207 -t >ping.log Then attach the file once you are done with it. Its a Command Line. I'd recommend running that command in your root directory.

This. If the computer just completely shuts off, there is a short. I'd look at your powersupply being bad. But, there could be bad capacitors on the motherboard, as well. Definately not related to your mic. However, your mic usage is what is letting you know that there is a problem, as a mic and headset draw power from the motherboard.

Update. He came back in, caught the steam id, and banned him permanently. If you would rather change the perm, please feel free. However, their actions over the last ~25 minutes and effort they took against our server, inclines me to recommend it be perm.

Name: Cpl. Jones [69th ID] Steam I.D:STEAM_0:1:1490488 Reasons for the Ban: Continually TK'ing, dx'ing, coming back, repeat Recommended duration of ban: Perm. Douchebaggery needs to be rewarded. Demo Provided?: N

Does it give you an error message? A computer shutdown should never result from a microphone being put in. There are no drivers for it that are specific to the device (at least on 3.5mm). Does it bluescreen on you? If you can get us the error message, there is some more research that can be done. It may even be a device driver issue (more than likely) for your sound device, but we need to be sure. What model is your Dell, so we can find out what sound driver is in it? Another option would be to go to the Dell website.... http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/...;l=en&s=dhs There are three ways to check your device drivers. Give it a shot.

When it crashes, what is the error? Is it Windows that crashes or is it a game?

Also, are you using the front panel or the rear panel to plug your mic into? What happens if you switch it? Did you build the computer yourself, a friend do it, or was it bought as is from a major manufacturer. The reason I ask these is because sometimes a front panel connector has two options of AC'97 and HDAUDIO. If you have the wrong one installed, it will only start to futz out (on some motherboards) after you have a device plugged into it. If it works good in the rear, you've got a simple solution. But, if not, I definately agree with Magoo that your best bet is with new drivers. If you can take a screenshot of your Device Manager with your audio sections expanded, it will help us find you the right driver.

Alright, I've sort of had my mind blown. While its a simple concept, this article definately takes a look at framerate in a new way: Instead of FPS (framerate is life), it looks at the number of ms to render each frame. 16.7 ms = 60 fps... pretty safe ground. Until you see some frames needed 500 ms to be rendered. This article also addresses the "micro-stutter" that is seen with multi-gpu configurations (SLI/Crossfire). Beware, however, it is quite long (thorough) but there are pretty graphs that really extrapolate it. http://techreport.com/articles.x/21516

Its going to depend if your wireless protocol is -g or -n. -n will generally be much more robust and provide a better connection, depending on distance and things interfering (walls, metal, etc.).