GhostHunter

Gob said it's slowed down to a crawl. There's a reason why board software is updated on a regular basis, and it's not just features, it's security. The longer the spans of time between updates/development, the higher the likelihood that someone will find a exploit in the existing version(s). I would imagine that board software which you pay for would inherently have a high rate of development, in addition to more thorough updates.

Let old threads die their rightful death. Topic locked.

Not currently. I've been focusing on trying to get back here on a more consistent basis. But now that you mention it, it does make one's mind wander. ;D

I run a COD4/BC2 clan with 50 members and a website with a forum. Being full admin, I can understand your concern (we run phpBB, though). I would say go for it. I'm sure that our current theme isn't a default theme, meaning you tinkered with it. Thus, there isn't any doubt in my mind if you were to tinker with something new that it wouldn't be great. I've come to like this board, but progress isn't a bad thing. It will lead to new features on the user-end, but also (and what we can't see, and I can tell you from going from 3.0.1 to 3.0.7-PL1 on our boards - the latest version for phpBB) on the administrative end. I'm sure it will make Gob's life a little bit easier, while giving us additional features and incorporating a theme refresh which maintains the current minimalist system. Also, security is a issue as well. Forum software that is not continually developed has loopholes which are not resolved, and someone with knowledge can exploit them. So, I'm all for it.

Not sure if I posted, but I've been back for the last few weeks.

Cleaned up the last few responses. Please refrain from personal attacks. If you have a issue with a member there is private messaging, either to the person at hand, or to a staff member to let us know of the issue.

A quad-core isn't necessary for BC2.. Minimum Frostbite PC Specifications for BFBC2 & BF1943 Processor: Core 2 Duo @ 2.0GHz Main memory: 2GB Graphics card: GeForce 7800 GT / ATI X1900 Graphics memory: 256MB OS: Windows XP Free HDD space: 15GB for Digital Version, 10GB for Disc Version (BFBC2) 10GB for Digital Version, 4GB for Disc Version (BF1943) Recommended Frostbite PC Specifications for BFBC2 & BF1943 Processor: Quadcore Main memory: 2GB Graphics card: GeForce GTX 260 Graphics memory: 512MB OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7 Free HDD space: 15GB for Digital Version, 10GB for Disc Version (BFBC2) 10GB for Digital Version, 4GB for Disc Version (BF1943) I'm sorry but the core 2 duo is FOUR years old now. PC gaming requires continual upgrades. Don't really know what to tell you - it's always been this way. And you really think BF3 will go DOWN on specs? ::)

PC.

Call of Duty 4 Bad Company 2

Exactly. I just ordered the new SATA3 velociraptor (sold my SATA2). I was looking at both OCZ and Intel for SSD, but there were several issues. First of all, my board supports SATA3. There aren't SATA3 drives available for SSD, or if there are they are not widely available yet. Meaning I'm not using my board's capabilities, and obviously SSD will eventually go towards SATA3 - leaving me with a slower SSD. There's a lot of other issues (I made a pro's/con's list, lol), such as the write degrading issues on SSD. Also, the fact that there really isn't any long-term knowledge on how reliable they are/the effects of write degrading over time. Another issue is that many SSD come with either a 1 or 3 year warranty, where as the Velociraptor is built not only on Enterprise drive standards (vs. standard consumer drivers), but also comes with a 5 year warranty. Finally, simply the space is a issue. Drives priced around the Vraptor were 60/80GB drives. That's simply not enough. I use my PC for gaming. Games are getting huge now, many are within 7-15GB alone. So between Office, the OS, firefox, some data, I'm going to be able to have what..3-4 games? Which brings about the argument "well, get a data drive" - so now I'm going back to spinning drives and have to deal with them anyways? Plus, no matter if people are okay with doing it or not - having everything on one drive and not having to switch between both out of necessity is simply easier. I am not trash-talking SSD because I know the Vraptor will more than likely be my last spinning drive, but the reality is the technology, knowledge, support, and capacity just isn't there yet to justify it in my mind.

I would highly suggest a WD 1TB Black. Fastest 1TB spinning drive available, and relatively cheap. More importantly though, they are built on enterprise-class standards, which ensures higher build quality and they come with a 5yr warranty.

There are applications that attempt to do sector repair, but take that with a grain of salt.. I'd recommend replacing the drive as soon as you back-up the data. Errors in both programs, including the Samsung one are all the indication you need.

Very common hard drive failure is attributed to bad sectors on the drive, essentially portions of the platters that are unreadable. It seems that the errors that you're seeing are alluding to sector-related errors.. If you're having lag/data loss/random errors (common indications of bad sectors), I would replace the disk. Alternatively, for verification sake you could try running the Samsung test if those issues aren't as prominent (and as a double-checking mechanism). Best thing to do regardless is to trust your instinct, but more importantly - back-up your data ASAP. Samsung test can be located here: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/utilities/Support_HUTIL.html

It depends on drive, manufacturer, etc. The link posted about was for drive fitness test (DFT), which is a Hitachi test for Hitachi drives, not Western Digital. Here is the link for the WD test for in-Windows: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=3〈=en

Buying a i7 930, 6GB DDR3 1333, and a X58 Gigabyte board. Will be replacing a Q9550, and 8GB DDR2 1066. Will also be picking up another 4870 1GB for Crossfire.

There aren't any for Emperor. There was some editing awhile back to MAKE it run widescreen, but it messed up the locations of the icons/where you clicked for the icons, so that was a no-go. Just going to have to deal with standard resolution, unfortunately.

I believe the dynamic of the entire Fed2k as a whole has radically altered. By not seeing any new Dune games we've lost the flow of traffic to the forums that we once had. This helped to bring fan fiction a steady slew of new posters that were eager to contribute. But that has changed. I think another issue is that many of the more well-known posters have either shifted away from these boards or the forum as a whole. Many of the posters that were once contributing quite frequently now find themselves occupied with school or new jobs/lifestyles and careers. I don't want to sound pessimistic because I still have a love for this board and the creativity and potential it has. I'm just saying for the moment we face tough times where we'll have to think of creative and new ways to bring a spark to these boards.

Finally finished my new tower: - Antec 300 case (don't like the 900 for some reason) - 5 120mm fans - Intel Core 2 E7200 overclocked to 3.0Ghz - 8GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 1066 - ATi 4870 - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion - Logitech Z-5500 5.1 surround sound - Samsung 2693HM 26'' LCD (1920x1200) - 650W Antec PSU - 2 Hard drives: (Primary) - 300GB 10,000rpm WD VelociRaptor, (Second) - WD 320GB HD with 16mb cache - Dual fan PCI slot cooler underneath GPU - Samsung SATA optical drive - Logitech MX3200 wireless keyboard/mouse - Microsoft Trackball Optical 1.0 That should be it for the moment. I built this computer to last one year; going off to college next year and expect to replace board/CPU with whatever is out at the time. Pictures (sorry, only had blackberry): Desktop: Actual pictures:

If you have any other questions feel free to PM/IM me - I work with every brand on a daily basis so I can give you a heads up and would love to be any help

Lenovo (or IBM) is the most reliable notebook out there, surpassing even Apple's. There's nothing else built better or that has better reliability (mainstream at least) than those. They're faster, constructed better, and reinforced through things like roll cages for the LCD, motherboard, and a additional one for the hard drive. They include active monitoring programs to turn off the hard drive if angled in a certain direction as to prevent possible data loss. They're the best laptops for Windows-based platforms period. They are however, more expensive on average and even the ones with the discrete nVidia quadro cards might not be enough for what you're discussing - just to give you an idea. HP just released a new line-up for their mainstream notebooks. They incorporate (on the 15'' at least; I'd really shy away from a 17'' if you're going to college) a nVidia 9300 or 9600 which would be plenty. Dell's do the same. Great notebooks with a slew of graphic options, particularly the XPS line-up. A few other things to mention is you need to look at 3-4GB of RAM on Vista. Period. And go with an Intel processor. They just released the Santa Rosa chipset on the T5000 and up series, but you'll probably want a processor that's within the T8000 or T9000 line-up.

See that's the thing, I think if we had any major influence around us to really start exploring and taking advantage of the sea besides simply food, then we might actually be more involved with it, or hell, maybe living underwater to some degree

Try it. But probably not. The lens and the area in which the lens is exposed is completely open on optical drives for computers. Meaning if something were to shatter there's probably traces that scratched the lens, or are sticking in that hole not allowing the tray to properly come out, or cut the small band that the drives actually use to retract in and out. Basically if anything goes wrong on optical drives just get a new one; they work or they don't. If the tray doesn't open off the bat try using the emergency release (a little hole on the front of the drive that you can fit a paper clip in that ejects the tray manually) and see if you can clear any traces out. But don't hold your breath to be honest.

It's the format everything new is starting to change to. Higher transfer rates. Most wireless cards won't have an express variant because a laptop with express will have a wireless card.

I'm willing to enter.