New Graphics Card - XFX GeForce 260 GTX 896MB

My new GeForce 260 GTX card came in today.

NOTE: Asus Crosshair motherboard owners: This card will NOT fit into PCI-E slot 1. There is a capacitor near the back of the motherboard that sticks out just enough to catch the plastic cover over the second DVI output. Pushing will probably ruin your motherboard. You could always risk bending the capacitor down or sideways, but it wasn't worth the risk to me.

I ended up sticking this in PCI-E slot number 2. It is also NOT a good fit. If you have USB cables plugged in, you will need to bend the wires down out of the way, you will also need to bend the Asus quick connect thingy down as well, and the bottom two SATA slots are covered by the top of the card.

When people say this card is huge, they are not joking. If you have a small case, forget it. My card sticks in to the bottom hard drive bay of my Raidmax Smilodon case. If I didn't have my SATA drive in a cooler in one of the 5.25 slots above, this card would not have even fit in my case. My Killer NIC will not fit into the PCI slot above the card. This means I am going to have to go without until I can get a PCI-E soundcard, as now only one PCI slot is available to me. If I could have waited for the next gen, I would have, this thing is just too big.

On the positive side, Assassin's Creed runs smooth as butter with all the graphics turned all the way up. Ditto for COD4 and Frontlines. I am going to try out Crysis again later. And, oh yeah, I can play games again. That's always good.

GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB video card - Overheating?

It seems I'm having some issues with my video card.
At first, I thought it was dead. I was playing Frontlines: Fuel of War, and my PC had a weird graphics glitch, then locked up. I rebooted and was able to play for another hour before it did the same thing. When I rebooted again, Windows showed up in 640x480 and 4bit color. (Pretty much illegible.)

I tried a bunch of trouble shooting, but all signs pointed to the video card being the culprit. So, I ordered a new XFX Geforce 260 card.

Of course, now my video card seems to be OK, so I'm guessing it overheated. Unfortunately, my PC is already well ventilated, and the cooling is pretty much top notch without going to water. My guess is that it's just going to keep happening until I replace the card anyway.

UPDATE: Of course it wasn't working. 2D works, but as soon as I attempt to use ANY 3D program *BAM!* the screen goes all funky and then the PC locks up moments later. And when I reboot after trying a 3D program, even my BIOS screen is all messed up. Doh!

Oh well, my new card should be here tomorrow.

Google It!

Found this today. I want to print these and hand them to people who ask me stupid questions.

Funny Signs

LINK

Stargate: Continuum

Let me start by offering up my review in a quick, easy to read format:

Best. Movie. This. Summer. Period.

Sure, it's direct to DVD. Sure, it's not a $100 million budget movie. It doesn't matter. If you are into Stargate at all, this movie rocks your summer.

I'll probably write more about it later, but I have to let it sink in right now. The sheer awesomeness of this movie is frying my brain right now.

I will say this, though; Ben Browder is the MAN!

Stargate Contiuum - Almost had it today!

My local Stupid City had Stargate Continuum on the shelves today. Sweet! Of course I grabbed one and ran to a register. Unfortunately, they now have an idiot warning that comes up and tells them that the movie hasn't been released yet and that they aren't allowed to sell it. Oh well, I tried.

Burn Notice

I'm unemployed. Being unemployed, my only "job" is to find a job. Finding a job involves several hours of intense work: Writing a resume, some cover letters, finding job opening that you are somewhat even remotely qualified for, watching the job boards, networking with friends, and trips to the post office.

It also involves lots and lots and LOTS of waiting around. I don't know if you know this, but waiting around is the major leading cause of heart attacks in otherwise healthy people. It's true, I read it in *cough**mumble* one time. It's very stressful wondering how you are going to make your mortgage and car payments while people dick around with your resume.

So, while you are waiting around, trying not to have a heart attack, it's nice to have something to do. I have lots of hobbies. Most of them require money. Money is something I'm trying to conserve right now, being unemployed and all. There's a point here, wait for it....

So, being that I don't have and sort of television, it's hard to discover new shows when they are airing on TV. I found this one new show, Burn Notice, because Amazon was nice enough - in that sort of crack dealer nice enough, here's a free taste, you come back now when you start shaking way - to let me watch an episode for free. Burn Notice is funny, well written, witty, and just downright damn good. I was surprised, considering the amount of absolute shit on TV right now.

Hey, from me that's a downright glowing review. You should watch it, it's great. And, oh yeah, Bruce Campbell is in it.