Build a Gaming Computer for less than $600?!

I've been looking at posts saying you can build a gaming computer for $600.00 so I had to put that to the test. Now I did supply some items for the build and bought the other items from Micro Center.

Here is what I had on hand for the build:

1) Power Supply (eXtreme Power Plus 500 Watt ATX 12V Power Supply) $55.00
2) Graphics Card (Radeon HD 5750 1024MB DDR5 PCIe 2.0 x16 Graphics Card) $125.00
3) Hard Drive (200gig, 7200rpm) $25.00 (yeah you can find it for that price if not cheaper)

Here is what I ended up buying:

1) Mother Board (Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3) $160.00
2) Processor (Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition) $99.00
3) Case (AZZA Spartan 101 Mid Tower ATX Case) $50.00 (after mail in rebate)
4) Ram (Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 $100.00 (after mail in rebate)

Total build = $614.00
Ok, I went $14.00 over my budget. If I would have orderd the parts from off the web I'm sure it would have been under budget but I wanted to get the build out of the way and decided to buy from the retail store.

This mother board is made for overclocking! Not only over clocking, with this motherboard you can easily unlock 2 cores on the Processor which now makes it a 4 core processor. When unlocked it is equal to (or comes close to) the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. Now you can't beat that for the price! You can over clock this processor, you CAN over clock this processor (I had to say it twice)! Just google it and you'll see what I'm talking about!

the case is nice and comes with 3 fans. It has plenty of room on the inside, so much room that I had to get an extension so that the top headphone wire could be connected to the mobo.

On this build I run Win 7 Ultimate with dual monitors. I experience no lag on high settings when playing World of Warcraft, Allods Online, Crysis, Halo, and other games. Multitasking is a breeze. Boot up is quick.

Later I am going to add another Video card for CrossFire and 4 more gigs of ram. And that should complete the build.

For anyone looking to build there own gaming computer, I would with out a doubt recommend this build!

I'm a WoW addict...again

I took a break from WoW and now I'm back playing it... again. I tried Aion, Warhammer, Allods and a few others not worth mentioning (lol) but I ended up coming back to WoW, no other game plays like it or offers the ability to customize the way your screen looks.

I no longer played Horde, ditched my Hunter which I've been playing since the game was released. I'm Alliance... yeah... an Alliance Night Elf SP.

I do recommend the following trade skills: Skinning and Mining! A great way to make gold.

Allods - Finally A Spam Filter

The patch was last night and they have added a spam filter. Although I like the game I actually stopped playing because of the massive amount of spam. I hope this works in killing the spam (Spam must die!). I'll have to log in and check it out.

Want to find out more about the spam filter? Click here!

Allods - Win a Razer Megalodon Headset!

Are you the master of one-liners? Are you the Captain of Captions? Come up with an awesome caption for the daily screenshot for a chance to win a Razer Megalodon Headset!

Each day the player who tweets the best caption will be named the Captain of Captions and be awarded a stack of 5 Mega Awesome Megaphones (total of 50 shouts!). One of these 7 captains will then be selected as the Grand Prize winner of the Razer Megalodon Headset!

Go here for more information!

Contest to have your Allods Character Immortalized

How would you like to be the proud owner of a Miss_Sadie original toy? Even better, how would you like that toy to be modeled after your Allods Online character? You could brag to all your friends and show them exactly how cool you are! Over the next two weeks you will have the opportunity to create a piece of Allods fan work about your character and you could win a customized toy, created by our very own Miss_Sadie!

Contest: Immortalized By Sadie

Date: March 5th through March 19th

Go here for more details

Win a Alienware M11x from ECA

Want a gaming rig that weighs under 4.5 lbs., has over 8.5 hours of battery life and still plays today's best games at over 30 Frames per Second?

Want a free membership to the organization that gives gamers a collective voice and discounts? Enter for a chance to win the newest Alienware M11x, a PS3 and more!

Contest instructions

Once you have registered, you will be sent to a confirmation page and an email will be sent out with the phrase that pay's written in alien language. Look for the clues and decode the phrase by translating into English. Once you have decoded this phrase please email to contest (at) theeca.com. ECA will randomly pick 3 winners.

Prizes

• 1st prize* is an Alienware M11x Laptop ($999.00 USD value)
• 2nd prize* is a PS3
• 3rd prize* is an ECA Visa $50.00 gift card and a $50.00 ThinkGeek gift card

*includes free membersip in the ECA

Look for the clues

• March 1st look for the first clue on the ECA home page.
• March 5th look for the second clue on the ECA forums.
• March 18th on Alienware site
• March 22nd on ECA's sites
• March 26th on Alienware sites

Go here for more info

Allods is now live

This may be a little late but about 3 weeks ago Allods went "live". You can now can Download the client and play this F2P game. You'll find the play much like WoW (I know people are tired of hearing other games compared to WoW but O'well!). They have updated the web page so check it out, download the game and start playing. If you like mmorpgs that are smiler to WoW then you will most likely enjoy this one.

Check the game out here

FFXIVCORE Giveaway! From Curse.com

For those that are into Xbox360 or PS3 and like (or should I say love) the FF series may want to get in on this! The rules seem simple enough so what the heck, what do you have to loose except for some lost brain cells... but seriously get in on this from curse.com



Well folks, the non-Japanese launch of FFXIII is around the corner and while many of us are eagerly awaiting FFXIII itself this will also officially set FFXIV as the next numbered final fantasy title to release (well, unless somehow Versus releases first).

Anyway, to celebrate FFXIII's upcoming release and the unannounced FFXIV treat at Vana'Fest 2010 FFXVCore is having a giveaway! All the information you need is below, but keep in mind that you have from now, February 20, until March 1st to enter.

{--How to Enter--}

This contest is open to all members of FFXIVCORE with the exception of the staff.

Entering is extremely simple. It is a giveaway, after all. All you have to do is make a post in the topic located at this link that's less than 50 words no more than once. Whatever you post must be PG13 and related to either Vana'Fest, FFXIII, or FFXIV. You could be a bore and post something uninteresting, but we'll be forced to yawn from lack of interest. You don't want that.

Ok, you got me. I just flat out lied to you. It doesn't really matter as long as it's below 50 words and you've only posted once. Numbers will be drawn based on the total number of posts and if your post number matches the one drawn you get a prize! Places will be decided by the order of winners, so the first drawn number is the first place winner and so on. Now then, for what you no doubt care the most about..

{--Prizes--}

Prizes may be subject to change depending on availability, but please refer below for the current list of prizes.

• First Place: A copy of FFXIII for either Xbox360 or PS3
• Second Place: $40 Amazon Gift Card
• 5 Third Placers: Curse Premium Subscription
• 10 Last Placers: Custom forum title of your choice

Winners will be announced sometime after the giveaway ends on March 1st. An announcement will be made and winners will be contacted via PM (at FFXIVCore). Winners must respond to this PM (at FFXIVCore) within four days or else they will forfeit their prize to another contestant.

{--Disclaimer--}

All prizes are offered as is. Winning the giveaway does not guarantee reception of a prize and prizes are subject to change without prior notice. All contest participants must be over the age of 18 to enter and are assumed to be so. Void where prohibited. By entering this contest you assert that you are over the age of 18 and legally able to receive such items as listed in the prize list and to legally take part in such events as this FFXIVCORE giveaway.

Morviack - Book Draft

I am in the process of writing 3 books. Here is a draft for the beginning of this book:

Morviack sat on the edge of the abyss inhaling the sulfur and rotten burning flesh. He was happy to be away from his master and enjoyed the freedom granted to him for this short period of time. He found his assignments simple and enjoyable. Messing with human lives was a joy to Morviack. It would take him 2 days to get to his assigned victim, his heart beat with anticipation. Morviack especially loved the holy men he got assigned to corrupt. Their soured souls tasted like bliss.
He stood up and proceeded to walk through the layers of hell towards his destination. He loved going to Washington DC which was also known as the belly of the beast. His assignment was to collect a debt on a debtor and remind his intended victim about the agreement that was made. Two days would be enough time for him to allow the lesser demons to torment John Ashton. Morviack thought on how he should persuade his victim to make good on his agreement. John Ashton was a man who sold his soul to become a well known professional Jazz saxophonist but started playing in churches and began turning his back on his debt. Corrupting his victim would be exciting. What was more exciting was the thought of destroying the church that John Ashton attended. He would use John to rip the church apart at the seams. Morviack all ready new the pastor’s wife found John Ashton attractive and John secretly fantasized about her. That would seem like the most likely rout Morviack would take, if that did not work out there were other things he could do.
Morviack began changing shapes as he walked. First a young Asian girl in a Sunday dress, then a young black teen age male, an elderly Jewish lady, a drug addicted Mexican hooker with tracks going up her arm, a transvestite white male, then finally into the pastors wife, a sexy middle aged black woman dressed in her Sunday best with just enough flesh showing to hint at an undercover freak. He was a shape changer and enjoyed exploring different forms he could take. He passed other demons as he walked acknowledging them with a head node. Every once and a while he would pass demons dragging a poor unfortunate soul to hell to burn in the eternal fire.
Worm holes that were made up of wind demons that resembled twisters moved from place to place stretching from the abyss to different points on the earth. That is the way demons were able to get around quickly and mass on a certain area of the earth. Morviack smiled as he watched the poor souls scream in anguish as they went unwillingly down the worm holes to the pits of hell. Each wind demon touching the soul guiding it down to its final destination. There was nothing like watching a soul ripped from a body, the threads of life trying to hold on to the earthly shell. Morviack had to do that more than once in his lifetime to an unwilling human and looked forward to doing it again. He wondered how the lesser demons were playing with John Ashton.

Allods – Character gone?

A strange thing happened when I logged on to Allods CB4 last night… my character was gone. Keep in mind I have not had a chance to catch up on the forums or gpotato news, but I was just wondering… has anyone else had that problem and if so can you let me know what's up? I am looking forward to open beta!