PatchRowcester

@jasondaplock: What's wrong with the monitor? I am very pleased with it. Also the reason I purchased it was because it has 1920x1200. I also wanted a setup like this:

@Grillbar: I am using a 680, and I really do feel that 690 is an overkill. Unless of course, you are wanting to game on a surround setup with three 30 inch displays!

@Keavy_Rain: That's interesting. You work for Apple...how is that going?

@PillClinton: I have always been a Windows user, so I can't really judge Apple at all, but I always get the feeling they charge too much for the products, and give very limited options to the user. I never found any need switch to anything. Windows 7 is really such an awesome OS.

Windows 8....that's a completely different story...

@Keavy_Rain said:

I bought a new MacMini back in February, $600 for that. Got a MacBook Air for $900.

Planning on building a gaming PC next year and I've budgeted $2,000

I have always been curious about this. I am not an apple hater or anything like. Granted, I don't ever use their products because I am not a fan of the their products work, but what do you like them for? Are you a graphics designer?

It seems as if I am averaging on the high end here. I wonder if there are any PC enthusiasts who can drop in their opinions as well.

Considering that we are living in a world with a very shaky financial foundation, I decided to take a hard look at my ffinances. In that process, I made an inventory of all that computer related stuff I bought since 2009.

I thought I spent close to $2500. The result surprised me.

Check this out:

http://goo.gl/SyMs3

So how much did you guys spend on your computer on an average?

@NTM: I agree that the soundtrack was pretty good, but the game was seriously watered down. I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as the first game.

The AI was just very mediocre, it varied from good to really stupid.

They went from making high quality games to mediocre games really fast.

Click here for pictures

I purchased Battlefield 3 back in November from Amazon. It was one of the few times I bought a game so close to the launch. I played the Alpha and I was very impressed with it.

Having bought the game however, I encountered several problems with it. I am quite sure that the problems were at my end, because my friends were able to log in play just fine. For whatever reason, this was encountered way too often:

Battlefield 3 - Something went wrong with the game error

I returned the game, and Amazon were kind enough to refund the entire money.

For the Memorial Day, there was a sale going on EA, and my fiance suggested that we buy Battlefield 3 and play it together. I was skeptical about it, having purchased it before, but she said she was going to pay for it, and I was very comfortable with the arrangement.

Well, what can I say? Since that day, I have clocked a total of 18 hours, and I ranked up 14 levels. It has been one hell of an experience.

The game seemed vastly improved, and I did not encounter the long load times; I am sure this has more to do with my SSD than the game itself, but my fiance plays on a laptop, and on wireless, and she didn't have any problems either.

Well, I am glad I gave Battlefield 3 another chance. It can be chaotic in the beginning, but once I got the hang of it, its truly awesome.

Here is the link to my profile to those we might be interested in seeing my stats:

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/user/PatchRowcester/

I am also considering buying the expansion.

I will make a blog about tips that might help novice players like myself based on my experience.

Here is a screenshot of me getting better of my fiance! We usually play together, but she ended up in the opposite team, and that gave me a chance to frag her. She wasn't very happy about it!

The day my fiance got pwned in Battlefield 3 :)

The point of this blog is, I truly recommend Battlefield 3 to anyone looking to play an amazing FPS online.

I had my problems with Battlelog, and found the idea of starting the game from within the browser a ridiculous idea, but it has grown on me a lot. I like the features it offers, and if it is given a chance, I am sure the merits are there to be seen.

I also have to say, so far, Origin has been very unobtrusive. I barely ever see it, its just in the background, and its not that memory intensive either, which is what I like from a client. It should be transparent, and so far that is how Origin has been.

So overall, its been a good experience, and I felt I needed to share this with my fellow PC Gamers.

In closing, there is a portrait wallpaper of Battlefield 3 that my fiance just made, so be sure to check the link.

Processor: Intel Core i7-2700K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB SC

Primary monitor: Hannspree HZ281HPB 27.5" 1920x1200 Monitor

Secondary monitor: ACER LCD 24" 2MS DVI P243WAid 1920x1200 Monitor

Tertiary monitor: Acer G215HV Abd 21.5" 5ms 1920x180 Monitor

Keyboard: Saitek PK24 Eclipse III Wired Keyboard

Mouse: Razer DeathAdder 3500DPI

Soundcard: Creative Labs SB0880 PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Sound Card

Speakers: Cyber Acoustics Subwoofer Satellite System (CA-3602)

Headset: Creative Fatal1ty Gaming Headset

Game controller: Saitek Rumble Force P2500

Primary hard drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State

Secondary hard drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB 3.5" 7200RPM

External hard drive: Western Digital Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDE1UBK10000N (Black)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 330 ATX Mid Tower Case

Power supply: Corsair 550W ATX12V Power Supply

Optical drive: LG GH24NS70 OEM DVD/CD Writer

Bias lighting: 16.4 Ft RGB Color Changing Kit with LED Flexible Strip, Controller + Remote and 12 Volt 4 Amp Power Supply By Ledwholesalers, 2034rgb Kit

USB hub: Plugable USB 2.0 10 Port Hub

@rebgav said:

@PatchRowcester said:

To get my mother to switch away from internet explorer to chrome has been an uphill battle. I think those are primarily the kind of users who will be effected by this dumb move.

Those users are not going to be anywhere near an OEM version of Win 8. As has already been said, the pack-in bloat from manufacturers like HP, Dell &Co will surely continue to include DVD codecs because that is the sort of feature that their customers want. Unless you envision consumers like your mother suddenly deciding to build their own PCs or upgrade their own OS, what is the problem?

@PatchRowcester said:

@MrKlorox said:

This is just to confuse people who are not proficient with PCs into spending money on a feature they can get for free.

This is absolutely right.

That was the problem. People getting confused and paying more money for features that are already there. I just think its a bad move by Microsoft. I am not going to affected by it in any way. I do watch DVDs, but I use VLC.