Boo… Hiss… Boo…

Well it’s correction time. I hate it when I make mistakes but it does happen. So now I feel like I need to update a few things I posted previously.

To start I want to correct my overclocking article. I went to a LAN party on saturday over with my boys at GBLAN. It was there in the midst of some gaming (the true test for any platform) that I discovered my system was not 100% stable at 3.4GHz with stock cooling. It was kind of a bummer but the facts are facts. I thought I had done some pretty intense burn in testing with Everest and 3DMark the night before but apparently it still didn’t account for all the varibles actual gaming throws at one’s rig.

I ended up clocking back down to factory settings of 3.0GHz to make it through the LAN as I was having random crashouts and weird random minimizing and then crashing of my games. Once I clocked my baby back down these problems seemed to have disappeared right away. If there is one thing that is important to me in a good system build, it’s stability.

So today after thinking about it long and hard, I decided to clock back up to 3.2GHz. A minor overclock at best, but atleast it’s over the 3GHz mark which is where I want to be. This time instead of the testing regiment I devoloped Friday night, I went straight into the gaming. For comparison purposes I clocked back up to 3.4GHz first and attempted to play Flatout: Ultimate Carnage. Within minutes I had a BSOD. TOTAL FAIL. So I then went in and set to 3.2GHz (aka multiplier of 16 instead of 17) and launched the same game. I was able to play until I was ready to quit with no anomolies. So I decided to play another game that I was having issues with on Saturday. Once again, perfect performance. Looks like that’s where I’ll have to stay until I can afford some better cooling options. Oh well I guess. I’m still 300MHz faster with 2 cores more than I had before. I can’t complain too much.

Also one of the other things I wanted to correct after doing some further reading on is that I proclaimed the AMD Phenom II 940 to be the fastest end user processor availible. I also found out that this is not the case. It is true if stated that it is the fastest AM2+ processor availible. However I discovered that an AM3 processor will run in an AM2+ socket making the Phenom II 955 the fastest availible processor for end users. Unfortunately at this point in time that processor carries a heftier pricetag at $255 and it only clocks at 3.2GHz stock. Since I am running my 940 at 3.2GHz with stock cooling and I paid $65 less for it, I’d say I made out better in the long run.

So there you have it. I made some mistakes and now I’ve corrected them. IF this information is useful to anyone… anyone at all I’d be happy. If not, but it gets read anyways… well I can live with that too. Atleast it will be as correct as I can make it with the information that is availible to me.

Christmas in April?

I finally got it. My AMD Phenom II 940 quad core processor arrived yesterday! I was so excited to receive it I almost couldn’t contain myself. However I had to at least for a short while because I had to drive the family around for an errand. But as soon as we got home and were fed by golly I installed that sucker just as fast as I could.

Now this article/post/entry is going to serve a couple purposes tonight. For one it’s going to highlight some tips for some things to watch out for when you do your own processor upgrades as I ran into some trouble. Also, I have done some research and have in fact overclocked my very overclock-able new processor. I could not afford to purchase an upgraded cooling device so I just wanted to see how far I could get with the stock fan that comes with it. Yes, retail AMD processors apparently once again are shipping with CPU fans. Everyone on-line says they are junk but I am having decent luck with mine this far.

So the first step to installing a new CPU and having it work is to make sure that your motherboard supports said CPU. Mine did, however only in a BIOS revision that I didn’t catch back in December. So before I even installed it I flashed my BIOS to the latest version. Unfortunately, part of this process cost me a pretty hefty price. After I installed the new processor and the DMI updated, I forgot to go back in and re-enable my raid controller (for some reason it’s off by default.) So apparently when my motherboard updated it’s DMI information and attempted to boot, it somehow overwote the MBR on one of my primary hard drives. All of a sudden it was no longer a member of my Raid Array. And in a 0 Strip Raid, there is no “repair”. I had no choice but to reinialize the drives and rebuild the array thus causing me to have to start over from scratch with my entire Vista install. I was not happy. However, thanks to my zippy new processor and there is a very noticable difference, Vista installed in about a half hour and I was able to get most of my utilities and apps reinstalled very quickly considering I was running a ton of Windows Updates at the same time. All in all, I was back to fully operational, minus my games and data of course, by about 11pm and I started the operation at 7pm. I was even able to start downloading my steam games which I let download and install overnight. So it wasn’t a total loss.

So tonight I got the itch. I did buy a Black Edition processor after all and the Phenom II 940 is supposed to be one of the most overclock-able processors of all time. While running benchmarks last night I saw submits from people with them clocked anywhere from stock at 3.0GHz all the way up to an incredible 6GHz! Granted I’m not into water cooling or buying $100 fans but I figured I had such an easy time overclocking my X2 Black Edition 300 MHz with no issues that I thought I should try it out with the new one. Boy I’ll tell ya it was not as easy or as quick as I thought it’d be.

The number one issue I ran into was misinformation. I downloaded a program called “Everest“. This is a benchmarking utility that also includes a stability test. Well as part of this stability test there is a temp monitor. After much research I learned that the absolute top temperature that a 940 can take is 62 degrees Celsius.  While running this stability test at various speeds to check for stability and temperature safety, I was scared off by rapidly rising temps that approached 60 degrees in a matter of 2 minutes or less. After being discouraged and clocking it back down (and suffering through some weird BIOS error and recovery process that set me back several BIOS versions) I did a little more research. I discovered a whole host of complaints in different forums regarding the inaccuracy of Everest’s temperature monitoring. So I decided to check for myself. I went back into my BIOS and set my processor up for 3.4GHz which is the maximum I feel I can run it at with the cooling solution I have considering the voltage jump required.

After getting my processor set at the speed I wanted it at: Multiplier of 17 instead of 15 which is pretty much the only change I made since I left my voltage on auto so the mainboard can decide how much it needs. I booted into Windows just fine as before, only this time instead of going right for the stability test I downloaded Gigabytes Easy Tuner 6 from their support downloads. An older version of this application came with my motherboard so I knew it’s capabilities before I downloaded. This program (amongst other things which I don’t use it for) has a “hardware monitor” interface that reads directly from your Gigabyte motherboards BIOS. So you are getting the actual temperature being reported by the motherboard itself directly. I left this monitoring application open and then proceeded to run Everest. After a couple minutes, Everest was reporting my temp to be near 70 degrees whilst my BIOS was only reporting it to be 51 degrees… which is well within tolerances and this was under 100% CPU load. To make it count, I left that stability program hammering my CPU at 100% for 20 minutes while closely monitoring the temperature. Every CPU has a threshold or a maximum temperature that it will reach under normal circumstances (IE not in a 100 degree room or shoved in a cabinet). I wanted to make sure that 51 degrees was going to be that threshold and sure enough it never went higher. In fact, it even dropped back down to 50 degrees a few times which tells me this is where the cooler is going to keep that processor while it’s under load. So basically… SUCCESS. My stock 3.0GHz Phenom is now a 3.4GHz phenom at no extra charge.

 

 

 

So this is how I ended up with this…

 

So I would like to thanks Tom’s Hardware for their article on their own overclocking experience as it helped give me the courage and the guidance to make this attempt. Also all you random tech forum question askers and especially those those that answer those questions. A lot of us looked to your advice for answers for our own burning questions. The internet is one of my best resources for information on hard to reach little nuggets of information that make the difference.

 

Also I want to stay that though I’ve only had it for slightly more than 24 hours now, I do love this new quad core processor of mine. Even at stock speeds it was incredibly zippy and noticably faster in navigating through Vista and launching and installing applications. I went from 2 cores at 2.9GHz on a larger 65nm die up to 4 cores at 3.4GHz on a 45nm die with a ton more cache and an integrated memory controller on it. The difference is phenominally… Hmm… Phenom… Phenominal… who knows.

I finally got it! Well… Almost.

Just a quick post to exclaim my excitement over the fact that I finally coughed up the dough and ordered an AMD Phenom II 940. No more messing around. This is the best proc AMD has to offer end users like me. Four cores times 3.0GHz! I couldn’t turn down the killer deal that Newegg was offering and I didn’t want to miss out. I picked it up for $189.99 shipped! Just a couple months ago these were listed for $220 + shipping. Not a bad discount. Thank you once again Newegg for helping me afford my habit!

Things to do: Outline next blog entry.

 

 

Okay… this posting is about my tablet. I did mention before that I was going to go a little more in depth on these bad boys so here it is. I know it’s only been a few days but I’ve found some pretty handy stuff to do with mine so I’m going to share. This thing has already become a welcome part of my life and has earned it’s place amongst my computers for being quite useful.

First of all. I want to say again that Tablets are not the most practical computers. I think Laptops are definitely much more functional and better suited. Either that or there is a new style of tablet out that is really just a laptop with a swivel digitized screen on it so that it can be set up like a laptop with a fully functional keyboard or the screen can be folded down hiding the keyboard completely making it into a tablet. But in terms of the price you are going to pay for a piece of equipment like that (anywhere from $1500 to $2500 brand new) you’re much better off getting a regular old laptop for functionality. One of the main reasons I can rave about my tablet so much is because it was free to me. Well mostly free. I received it as payment for restoring two other tablets to factory condition and removing a customer’s data from them per their request. Not a bad deal at all if you ask me.

So here is a list of software that I have found incredibly useful on my tablet. One of the remarkable things to note is that it does run Windows XP. Newer machines run Vista. These OS’s are fully functional so the only limitations on software are how you can interface with that software. In my case it can be difficult as I don’t have a keyboard and am relying heavily on the virtual keyboard. I’ll get more in that later. Here’s the list.

MS One Note - This software was included with the tablet. In-fact I received a copy completely unopened and I believe never installed! The way I describe it is to compare it to one of those tabbed and heavily organized college notebooks. Only with this software you get to completely customize your notebook. That is the program that is running in my header picture. I have fallen in love with the ability to write on my computer!

Digsby- Digsby is essentially an IM/Social Networking client. It works great for consolidating all of your buddy-lists and social networking sites into a friendly and miniaturized client. The miniaturized part is important considering the limited screen real estate available at only having a 12.5″ screen in which an entire third can be taken up by the virtual keyboard when “typing.” This software allows me to keep track of Twitter, Facebook, and all of my IM services from anywhere in the house in real-time. It is very functional software and best yet it is free!

Netflix- Okay… Netflix isn’t really software. It does install a small piece of movie decoding software but that’s beside the point. The main point is that I can use Netflix to watch movies instantly on my tablet. That rocks for two reasons. Reason number one, I can roam around the house taking my movie with me. That is handy when you have a 3yr old running around from room to room causing you to flee any room at any particular time to escape the noise and destruction. Reason number two, both my tablet and my docking station have VGA out. Guess what… my TV has VGA in. That means I can hook my tablet up to my TV and watch movies in full 32″ glory. No the quality is not the greatest. It resembles VHS in terms of picture quality but it’s still better than having to watch on a 23″, 19″, or 12″ screen.

Social Networking- Again… not actual software here either but it is nice to be able to pull up my social networking sites from anywhere in the house and keep tabs on who is online or throw out some quick tweets. Usually what I end up doing is checking to see if anyone is on-line and then running downstairs to my main PC to actually chat/interact with them as it’s much easier on an actual keyboard. However it does work just fine for Twitter or for updating status posts on Facebook as long as your not in any sort of hurry.

One thing I think I could definitely use this for is for work. At my job as a PC Tech/IT Guru guy (not so self proclaimed… I claim no above average abilities) I carry around a binder with business cards and a legal pad in it. This legal pad is my catch all for anything I need to write down. Phone numbers, contacts, IP address on particular machines, IP ranges of said networks, usernames, passwords, etc… Basically anything I might need to reference to do my job in any particular situation. The problem with this method is that my organization of all this information is a sheet of paper. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. It just gets jotted down. The beauty of Microsoft’s One Note is that it can be completely customized to suite any organizational needs. I think it would be a huge benefit to me in helping me organize my information better as well as giving me a digital copy of it all instead of relying on a physical piece of paper which can be lost, torn, spilled on, etc. I am however hesitant to do so simply because it’s a piece of personal property and I’m sort of afraid of losing it, dropping it, leaving it somewhere (as I do with my binder from time to time.)

In this section I’ve decided to do some pros and cons of tablets versus regular PC’s or laptops.

Pros:

• You can totally write on the screen like a piece of paper. This is awesome.
• It’s capable of streaming/playing videos. Can you say very portable movie player?
• The Stylus or Pen can be much more precisely controlled. This makes drawing and writing with the “mouse” much more effective
• The battery life is phenomenal on this thing. For being four years old, I get about 3-4 hours out of the battery. Brand new it’s advertised as running for up to 6 hours. Also it should be noted that I am a tool and I turn off all power saving features on any computer I touch. I hate throttled down processors and screens that go to sleep on me while I’m doing stuff that might not be actually moving the mouse around.

 

Cons:

• There is no physical keyboard. One can be plugged in via USB but that sorta kills the portability.
• The Virtual Keyboard is a pain in the ass to use. I have sorta gotten used to it but it’s definitely not IM worthy. Especially considering I can type somewhere around 60-70 wpm on a standard keyboard.
• The pen, while it can be controlled more precisely can also be trickier to use. The way the machine digitized the movement of the pen can be a bit flaky at times making it difficult to grab the edge of things for expanding them or for clicking on smaller buttons. I do suffer through quite a few “mis-clicks.”
• The screen on mine is a TFT and the refresh rate is horrid. I’m sure this has been addressed on newer models but it’s still a con considering I like to watch movies on it.
• This particular machine is a 1.1GHz with 1GB of ram with integrated graphics. Sometimes programs and movies just sorta crap out in the middle of stuff. Again, I’m sure that’s been addressed with newer models, especially now that dual core machines are available.
• Also, what’s really annoying is that when something is eatting up my clock cycles, it makes it impossible to type or move the mouse pointer around as that is all software driven.
• Another con is that since you are writing on the thing and holding it in your hands, carrying it around, or whatever, the screen tends to smudge up really quickly. It doesn’t seem to affect the view-ability too much yet but I do tend to carry a microfiber cloth around with me so I clean it frequently.

So there you have. My indepth view of my free tablet PC and a sort of insight on tablets in general. I still think they are completely impractical for 95% of all applications but using them sure can be cool if you can tolerate a lot of adjustments from your average PC. One of the things I am doing with mine is I am using MS One Note to start a personal journal. I’ve always wanted to do that anyways but writing in a journal book can be kind of a pain. With the tablet, it just seems easier and feels more natural. I’ve always loved to write. By that I mean pen and paper writing. The tablet allows me to do that and yet still make it digital. I like this.

Because I can… and I like it.

Okay this is a weird thing of mine but I enjoy comparing technology prices from yester-year to today’s prices. I’m not sure if it’s because I used to work in retail and tracking that kinda stuff was important back then or what. So every once in awhile I come across a website, or a catalog that has ads for computer equipment from however many years ago. Infact, one of my favorite websites (that I lost because I stupidly didn’t back up my favorites back when I did my Vista transition) was a site that had ads from the 70’s and 80’s for the computers of the time. Nothing like paying $2500 to get 640K of ram with a 4MHz processor.

So in that grand tradition, and because I came across an old CDW catalog that was in the box with the tablet PC’s I brought home the other day, I decided to post such an example. Also for dramatic effect, I used Vista’s new (and almost forgotten about) snipping tool which rocks by the way. My blogging life is about to get easier now that I’ve remembered how to snip. It was shown to me in one of those mobile “Vista Rocks” demonstration seminars that I crashed. So without further ado… my handiwork.

 

So these pages were scanned out of a catalog from 2005. Just 4 years ago. Notice that a cheapie 19″ LCD ran for $340! Also since you can’t see it because I cut it out with my shitty scanning skills, a 20.1″ in this catalog goes for $750. Now here is a snip from CDW’s current webpage.

So there you have it folks. Alittle nostalgia for you. As I mentioned previously in my blog, prices are falling. Sometimes you just need a little perspective to see just how far we’ve come. LCD’s are cheaper than ever so for the love of Pete, if you are still running a dinky CRT monitor, UPGRADE. If you refuse, don’t ask me to come over there and squint at it if it needs fixing. That’s all and for what it’s worth… Happy Easter.

Tablet PC’s and Me…

So the other day I scored a free tablet PC. Not a brand new one of course but it’s hard to argue with free right? I would go into more detail on the offer but I’m attempting to blog from said Tablet and typing with a pen is a pain in the ass.

That being said, lacking any kind of functional keyboard, I have been trying to find some kind of practical use for the  thing. So far I haven’t come up with much. About the coolest thing I’ve done with it is watch an instant netflix movie on it. With a 12″ display, that makes this one of the biggest portable movie players I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately using it for only that purpose seems like a huge waste to me. I have to add though that the integrated VGA port does make it easy to hook up to my TV eliminating the need for a dedicated Netflix PC or device.

So maybe the problem is that this is an earlier version of the tablet at 4 years old but atleast it runs Windows XP. It seems like I could find some use for it. Because its a new toy for me and I’ve always sorta wanted one to play with, I’ll keep looking.

So now I’m back on my PC so I can type much more effectively. I guess the tablet is cool in a pinch for twitter updates and keeping track of who’s online and things like that. Trying to have an IM conversation is nearly impossible though. That’s why I ended up running down here to my beloved keyboard. I started a rather involved IM converstation with someone and simply couldn’t keep up with the stylus. Thinks like that are why I think at work 90% of all tablets sold are returned.

So if anyone out there has a functional use for an aging tablet PC let me know. If you are looking for one, let me know. I know of someone who has two to sell that are identical to the one that I recieved. They are Fujitsu Stylistic ST5022’s. I would post pictures but I don’t have any at the moment and I’m too lazy to run upstairs and get my camera. So you’ll have to try and look it up yourself I suppose. The are sorta stylish machines and pretty lightweight for their specs.

Killer Steals right now…

Prices have been falling my friends and that is a good thing for me. My wife and I, through the help of our huge tax return this year, managed to take advantage of some of these fallen prices. Now what I use for my price comparison is mainly Best Buy. They are the perfect big box store to reflect retail pricing. The other source for prices I typically use is Newegg.com. I prefer Newegg over anything else because I’ve used them for years and have never had a bad experience from them. Also their prices are almost always below retail and shipping often times is free.

For Example:

My wife wanted one of these…

Now of course I objected. The last time I heard anything about them they were going for $400. Well, wait a second. Didn’t my parents say they just my brother one for x-mas for half of what they paid for my mom’s? And my brothers in a 2nd Gen so it has the built in speaker and full iPhone application compatibility? Maybe we can look at those. So look we did. The absolute cheapest place we found one online was at the Apple refurb site. I can’t seem to locate that site at the moment but the price was somewhere around $175 for a refurbed generation one unit. No dice on that. I want the cool one if we have to get one.

So we head out to our friendly local neighborhood spiderman Best Buy. The iPod price is obviously very carefully controlled by Apple so it’s not exactly like they can rip us off on it. Also I have a rewardzone account so it’s mucho points for me. So this is what we bought for $229.99.

 

Next I decided that my wife needs a cellphone. She’s been more active and outgoing lately because her health has been better. Also she’s notorious for getting lost and ending up way out of her way trying to turn around or find a phone. Also, I’ve been considering dropping my long distance plan with my landline company for awhile now. So it was worth a shot to atleast check out the plans.

Problem number one is that I (we) don’t have the greatest credit score in the world. I figured a plan would almost certainly not approve us. Especially considering that we just bought a house. Then I found out I get an employee discount for AT&T because that’s who my company uses apparently. So I had some “premiere” offers to consider but knowing I’d probably not be approved for any. So then we started looking at prepaid plans.

Here’s AT&T’s idea of a prepaid plan. Basically you can either pay 10 cents per minute and be charged $1 per day for a service charge, or you can pay 25 cents per minute and forgo those charges. Plus you don’t get to text and only calls to other AT&T cellphones are free. So This one was pretty much out.

We looked at several more but I want to get to the point on this one. What we ended up going with was Boost Mobile. They have this awesome monthly unlimited plan for $50. All you do is pay $50 a month via their website and you get unlimited minutes for both voice, text, and data! The downsides are that for one, the phone selection is very limited. We picked ours up at Best Buy for $99.99. We ended up with the i776.

 

Next I am moving on to Monitors. Speaking of which, why the heck am I blogging on my small monitor? Grr… There fixed. This new monitor rocks. I’ve been wanting to get a new widescreen monitor for awhile. I’ve just been waiting for the price break to drop again. I’ve had my sites set on a 22″ WS of indeterminate brand. For a long time Newegg was having atleast one 22″ monitor on their website for $150. So one day I was feeling a little jealous of my wife getting the new iPod and the new Phone, I decided I needed alittle electronic pick me up. I figured I could bring home a decent 22″ monitor for around $300 and I wanted it right away. Well I get to Best Buy and head straight back to their Monitor display and I am almost shocked. Here, in the store where two years ago I paid $270 for a 20.1″ standard monitor, are 22″ monitors marked for $150-$250. Holy crap! When did those prices come down so much? Wait a second, what’s this over here on the shelf next to the 22″? Why it’s the 23″ model and it’s only $230. OMG! a 24″ for $299. Didn’t that guy I game with say he paid over $600 for his? Damn.

So here’s what I ended up with. I decided not to stress the budget more than necessary to appease myself with having spent as little as possible on a decent upgrade. So I picked up an Acer H233H 23″ Widescreen @ 5MS with a 40000 to 1 Contrast ratio for $229.99. My 20″ only has a 5000 to 1 contrast ratio. When the two are running side by side the difference is astounding.

Check out this bad boy here for $229.99! Don’t forget to check out those prices. I think the LCD size standards may be changing. The best part is, as I often do after buying things at Best Buy just to see how stupid I was, I checked out Newegg and bam. There price is only $10 cheaper and I didn’t have to wait for it! Also, Best Buy had even matched them by having a cheapie 22″ for $150! That almost never happens.

So if your in the market for an iPod, a Cellphone, or a bigger LCD monitor so you don’t have to squint at your dim 17″ anymore, now is the time to take advantage. Money willing and spouse approved of course. My wife just happens to be cool like that.

Game Review Time…

This blog is a little bit of everything. Since I’m a gamer, I have to talk about the games. Nothing too special, just my insignificant opinions on a handful of titles that has caught my attention lately. So without further ado…

Flatout: Ultimate Carnage!

 

This game is “flatout” awesome! It seems like they have taken the best of both Flatout and Flatout 2 and recompiled them into this masterpiece. Flatout 2 has long since been a favorite game of mine. I like the down and dirty racing. I’m not so big on rules and customizing my cars so the simplistic choose a car and race it really appeals to me. In this game, there are no warning laps. If you smash someone’s car on the road you better be watching for it mext time you come around the bend. It’s details like that that really pull me in. The realistic crumping and smashing of the parts of your car as it suffers the abuse.

On top of that, this game has some other cool features not availible in most car games. There are two demolition derby modes and an assortment of stunts to perform in. With up to 8 player multiplayer you can race and demolish your friends or challenge each other to the best points in the stunts. Also new to this title is the beat the bomb mode where you have to race the count down of a bomb in your car to the next checkpoint where it’ll give you more time. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve reached a checkpoint to have my car explode right in front of it.

Another plus for this title I feel is the music. I don’t know if I’m just off the scene or what but I don’t reconize any of the names of the bands this time. In Flatout 2 there was music from a whole host of popular bands. However, just because I don’t know the bands, doesn’t make them bad. I actually enjoy every song on this games soundtrack. I may not know these guys, but their songs blend in perfectly with the action on the track. Yes okay… I’m moving on now.

Left4Dead

 

Okay if you haven’t heard of this game by now you’re pretty lame. This game is mad fun. I don’t know about you, but I love Zombie movies. I don’t care how terrible it is, I will watch any movie that has zombies in it. Well this game trumps that by actually putting me into a Zombie movie. While being an online cooperative play game, L4D manages to include enough story, though left vaguely open, to keep you interested in what’s going as you play it again and again. And the crazy simple action is complex it enough for straegies yet is as easy to operate as point and click.

My only complaint is the limited ability to LAN this game. The biggest match is 4X4 which makes it tough to play at a LAN with 10 people or more. Though surprisingly enough the 2 on 2 kept four of us rather entertained during a lull in the LAN action. It’s definately a great back up game or awesome for mini-LANs in basements if the host has good highspeed.

Well that’s all I have for reviews at the moment. Let me know how you feel about these games if you’ve played them. Let me know if there is a fun game that you are playing and think is really good. I am always looking for new games to try.

Finally… because I just caught up to 12yr olds in terms of utilizing the net, the premiere of my first YouTube upload which I did specifically for this blog. And it’s not that I thought I couldn’t use YouTube, it’s just that I never really had a purpose for it before now. So here is my little game play demo of Flat Out: Ultimate Carnage. ***Please note that I used X-Fire to record the video during gameplay and my performance took a huge hit. When I’m not recording video the game runs immaculately smooth.

 

Also to follow up I just wanted to mention that since I am on a budget and I like to help people get the best deals, it’s hard to find Left4Dead for less than $50. I did however manage to get a brand new copy of Flat Out: Ultimate Carnage for $11 shipped on Amazon. I kinda took my chance with a 50/50 rated distributer but I figured since it was a $7 game I wouldn’t be too worried about it.  So gaming doesn’t have to cost a small fortune.