Posted 10/22/08 at 09:00:00 AM by Benson Hong
For the past few weeks we have presented you with our $1500 Budget Badass and $2500 Power User PC. This week we’re bringing to the table our picks for a $2500 Pro Gaming PC. With significant price cuts since our last Pro Gaming PC build-it guide, we were able to give our gaming PC some extra juice so system lag can no longer be blamed for missing a crucial headshot. Many parts have not changed since the last update, but with new hardware technology coming soon to the computer industry, be prepared for some significant tweaks next month. But for now, here’s what we got.
Would you build it differently? If so, we would love to hear how you would do it in the comments!
Posted 10/10/08 at 12:30:08 PM by Benson Hong
Last week we updated our Budget Badass to reflect the current price drops and made some improvements in hardware. This week we are shifting our focus to the power user. Shifting our focus also means shifting our cost up, but a higher budget means better hardware and faster performance. We've made a couple of adjustments to the video card and CPU as well as adding a second hard drive while taking your suggestions into consideration. While the final cost of this build exceeds a little past the $2500 mark, we believe the extra performance gain is well worth it. Keep in mind this is a Power User's PC, where our main focus is on utilizing the power of the processor through multitasking and multimedia programs. Read on to see our new setup for this Power User beast.
Posted 08/06/08 at 11:07:36 AM by Gordon Mah Ung
It’s the worst kept secret in the industry: Intel’s next-generation Penryn killer, codenamed Nehalem is just around the corner. We’ve been seeing leaked benchmarks based on early silicon for months, and Nehalem’s Wikipedia page is already packed with unconfirmed specifications. All indications – and this is with more optimizations to come, mind you – is that Nehalem may be a bad mother worthy of having Isaac Hayes pound out a theme song for it.
OK, we get it. It’s going to be fast, but just how difficult is it to build a Nehalem rig? What are the catches? Will the new motherboard and socket require some silly new BTX form factor? To find out, we convinced one of our hardware contacts (who’ll remain unnamed) to let us into its lab so we could finally get our hands on the new chip. There, we were provided with the desktop version of Nehalem – called Bloomfield – and an Intel D58XSO “Smackover” board.
Read on to see how we built the Nehalem rig, and what surprises we encountered along the way!
Posted 07/29/08 at 06:15:10 PM by Norman Chan
Last week, we showed you which parts you would want to buy to construct a killer $2500 PC. The purpose of that machine was power computing – serious audio/video editing and high-bitrate media transcoding. We got a lot of flak about a few of our choices (most noticeably the CPU), but we stand by our picks. That PC configuration was meant for Power Users, and not hardcore gamers (though we recognize that those aren’t mutually-exclusive groups). For someone who primarily uses their PC for gaming, and won’t accept framerate dips in 120Hz games, we have different recommendations. The following components make up our ideal $2500 hardcore gaming rig (prices as listed on Newegg). If it’s not what you’d buy, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!
Click through the jump for the full list
Posted 07/28/08 at 11:00:00 AM by Norman Chan
It was a herculean task. Team Maximum PC at this year’s Comic-Con International consisted of only two people, and there was no way we could attend every packed panel at the event. So instead of bringing you movie and television panel reports you’ve probably already read on SlashFilm or AintitCoolNews, we wanted to be your eyes on the show floor. And that meant showing you what stood out most in the 500,000sq ft space of the main exhibit hall: the cosplayers. Our quest to document as many unabashed costumed geeks as we could find yielding 400 photographs of comic-book, anime, fantasy, science fiction, and film characters. We saw dozens of jokers and batmen, numerous video game-inspired outfits, and even steampunk-era Ghostbusters. The impressive level of creativity and enthusiasm that we saw in these cosplayers was an awesome reminder of why we love geek culture. We hope you can appreciate it as well.
Click through for, yes, all four hundred photos -- each in thumbnail and full-rez formats. Can you name all of the characters?
Posted 07/26/08 at 02:15:00 AM by Norman Chan
Here’s something I noticed today while snapping up photos hundreds of cosplayers: they each have a unique pose prepared when other attendees or photojournalists ask to take their picture. It’s actually quite entertaining to watch, really. A dressed-up costumer will just be walking by, casually chatting away with their friends, and then they’ll suddenly execute a unique pose and mug for the camera if they anticipate a shutter click. I’d like to imagine that these cosplayers practice modeling their poses in front of a mirror before stepping foot in public.
But on to the kick-ass sights I saw today. Warner Brothers held a large panel to promote the upcoming Watchmen movie; director Zack Snyder brought the entire starring cast to answer questions from fans and show off never-before-seen footage. The cast really looked and sounded like they loved the material and immersed themselves into their roles. Confirmed: Patrick Wilson’s Nite Owl will indeed be balding, fat, and impotent when he’s out of costume. Matthew Goode, who plays Ozymandias, also pointed out that he played the character with the idea that Veidt was the son of Nazis.
Click the jump to see more awesome costumes, and to find out who I bumped into on the show floor today.
Posted 07/25/08 at 01:58:35 PM by Paul Lilly
When was the last time you updated your bookmarks? We're betting it's been awhile, and if you've been truly neglectful, you'll probably find several broken links as you scroll through your favorites. Like your underwear, it doesn't hurt to change things up every now and again, if for nothing else than to keep things interesting. Your personal hygiene may not be at stake, but your pride as a power user is.
With that in mind, we've scoured the web to bring you seven unique bookmarks that run the gamut from useful to wacky, along with a couple of old favorites that never go stale. Change your skivvies if it's been a few days since you last did, then hit the jump to breathe new life into your daily online routine.
Posted 07/25/08 at 02:37:04 AM by Norman Chan
Who knew geeking out could be so tiring. The first full day of Comic-Con is over, and our legs are already worn out. But before we collapse in fatigue, we wanted to share with your some more awesome sights from the show floor. We spotted hundreds of cosplayers (don't worry, we'll be posting photos of them ALL after the event), B and C-grade celebrities (Captain Sisko from Deep Space Nine!), and even some surprise announcements from the movie presentations (Tron 2 is in the works, starring Jeff Bridges). Some quick impressions of the Max Payne footage shown today at the 20th Century Fox panel: the movie looks like it's taking the story seriously, and bullet-time shots are definitely different from what you've seen in the Matrix or John Woo films. The film apparently utilizes a camera that can shoot at 1000 frames per second -- one scene we saw slowed the firing of a single shot down to over half a minute. Another big surprise from that panel: Hugh Jackman made an unannounced appearance to show off the first footage from the Gavid Hood directed Wolverine movie. Gambit and Deadpool are confirmed to appear. Awesome!
These ladies can barely contain their excitement for Ghostbusters. Click through the jump for more geek-out photos.
