Spend, spend, spend!!! - Tell us about the GAMES you've bought, found, or .... whatever! :-)

ABZ the best way to put anything behind you is to stop bringing it to everyones attention.

MM, JA and GB also lock their threads after a certain number of pages and start new threads.

The other questions you asked are for security reasons not for general public view.

Very well ssaid Faust.

hatshepsut

I tried to keep the thread on topic, Hats and Fausts, I really did! Ah well.....

Draclvr your efforts are appreciated I am still oowing and ahhing over your purchases Can't wait to see those pictures.

Yes what are you planning for mouse. keyboard and monitor.

hatshepsut

Draclvr wrote:

I tried to keep the thread on topic, Hats and Fausts, I really did! Ah well.....

No need to apologize ! Matter of fact , you're right on topic ! I'm quite curious as to what the new build will look like myself ! At the risk of asking a potentially silly question , what will your grandson use for sound , keyboard , & mouse ? If Grandma has her way , I bet I could answer the mouse question at least !

Gee, Faust, you know me far too well, don't you! My grandson knows how much I like my Razer gaming mouse. Given the budget constraints, I went for the best basic components I could get and still stay under $1,000. That means for now they will be using the on-board sound - Realtek ALC889 - which is supposed to be pretty good according to gamers. They are going to reuse their existing keyboard, mouse, speakers etc. Those are things they can always upgrade down the line as finances allow. Both my step-son and DIL got nice Christmas bonuses, so this computer build is what they're putting it towards. Grandson will have to start saving up some pennies to help upgrade the peripherals for sure.

I wish I was smart enough to put together a whole computer. I even have to have my husband take apart the lid to my computer. Way to tricky for me.

The last game I bought was Book of Unwritten Tales. I bought the boxed version, as I love looking at the boxes.... and then I don't mind deleting the game after I am finished with it... but this game I am not deleting for a long time. I think I have played it 4 times already and probably will play it again. My grandsons are enjoying it too.

I had made use of the recent Steam sale , and a GOG sale . I got Fahrenheit from GOG , Dark Sector , Brink , Borderlands , & Cryostasis from Steam . Drac , I was being curious about peripherals . I have extras in sound cards and keyboards .

If they upgrade the peripherals, it will be as finances dictate, Faust. The one thing I wish they would upgrade ASAP are the speakers - the ones they have are pretty awful. If you ever want to sell of some of your extras, let me know and I'll pass the word along to them!

I also got The Book of Unwritten Tales and waited for the boxed version just like you did, mbday! I've only played it once, but I'm sure I will be playing it again. Faust, let me know how you like Borderlands - I almost got that one recently.

I love this thread - Spend, Spend, Spend!

Draclvr wrote:

If they upgrade the peripherals, it will be as finances dictate, Faust. The one thing I wish they would upgrade ASAP are the speakers - the ones they have are pretty awful. If you ever want to sell of some of your extras, let me know and I'll pass the word along to them!

I also got The Book of Unwritten Tales and waited for the boxed version just like you did, mbday! I've only played it once, but I'm sure I will be playing it again. Faust, let me know how you like Borderlands - I almost got that one recently.

I love this thread - Spend, Spend, Spend!

I can totally understand about finances Drac !! Awful speakers you say ? How awful ? As for my extras , I would likely let them go for game trades , for the right game . I picked up the Borderlands complete pack when it was on sale at Steam . If I remember correct , I paid lest that $7.00 ! I will definitely let you know what I think of it ! Now that you mention it , I may just go ahead & install the game !

Drac...I think the new computer build sounds terrific....errr...from what I can tell. I'm a bit green when it comes to knowing SDD vs HDD, what does what, what goes where, etc? So I'll take your word for it!

I think of more value, will be the experience your grandson has in building this computer with you! That will be priceless!

Yeah, I think you're right, JK. That will be the main experience with the brand new computer just the added bonus! I hope the build goes smoothly.

A guy on a tech forum where I was asking advice called me a "cool grandma." I replied that I didn't think it was "cool grandma" as much as "weird grandma!"

No...I agree with the tech forum guy. Very cool!!!!

I agree.... really!!! Cool Grandma

Well, thanks! But I still think it's pretty weird...

Draclvr wrote:

Well, thanks! But I still think it's pretty weird...

Not really !!

LOL... don't think you are going to win this one Drac!

I don't think it's weird. I think it is very cool

hatshepsut

Echo what Ang said! Drac, I tip my hat to you, very nice thing to do with your grandson.

As for recent purchases, I took adventage of the GOG sale and bought up a number of the classic RPGs they have on discount.

jkeerie wrote:

Drac...I think the new computer build sounds terrific....errr...from what I can tell. I'm a bit green when it comes to knowing SDD vs HDD, what does what, what goes where, etc?

@Drac, why don't you post some photos of you and your grandson putting that computer together - why not photograph the whole assembly and take the photos to a local walmart or walgreen's and have a memory book made of these photos? That might be something you'll always treasure.

@JK, FYI, a SDD is actually a "SSD," which is a "solid state drive" - this is another kind of hard drive that goes inside of the computer, it has no moving parts, and it can be used in place of a "HDD," which is "your normal, regular hard drive," which also goes inside of the computer (although there are external hard drives) and this kind of hard drive does have moving parts - these are spinning platters that have retractible arms that extend both above and underneath each platter which reads and writes to these platters. Hard drives are what you put your games on (i.e. when you install a game) in a computer b/c hard drives are where the computer stores stuff that you put into it.

OK, Pointers, let's see what neat stuff you all got for Santa Day -

I got these:

OK, as promised here is a picture of the "Spend, Spend, Spend" where Mom and Dad paid and Grandma shopped! All my grandson could say when he walked in was, "Oh. My. God. Are you kidding me? Oh. My. God." The look on his face was priceless! His dad brought him out yesterday morning and we started putting it together. It all went together quite well. I let Ray do as much of it as possible with some guidance. I did install the $300 processor and the $260 video card though!! They make ME nervous!! When we got it all together, I said, "Well, it's time for the moment of truth. Would you like to do the honors?" "Oh, yeah," was the response. When he pressed the button and we had fans and lights, the grin on his face was from ear to ear. We did a big old high five.

I quickly got into the BIOS to enable a RAID setting to allow the solid state drive (SSD) and the hard disk drive (HDD) to be connected. This allowed us to use the small 60 GB SSD as a cache to store the information needed to access frequently used programs which greatly speeds things up. Then I popped in the Windows 7 disk and closed the door. We held our breaths, but then the Windows 7 installation screen popped up! Woo hoo! That deserved another big old high five!

Everything was going so well, when all of a sudden the SSD dropped out of the RAID array. Got it back and then the HDD dropped out. Egads. Finally got it back, but couldn't get them to RAID together any more. Finally was just installing stuff on the HDD. Ray had to go home. I kept working, but all of a sudden during one of the restarts when installing drivers, it went into a boot loop. Nothing I did could stop it. I unplugged the power supply 24-pin connector from the motherboard and took out the CMOS battery to completely drain the charge on the board. Nothing. I flashed the BIOS to a newer version. Nothing. Still boot looping. I finally shut if off about midnight.

The next morning I attacked it with a fresh cup of strong coffee in hand. To be honest I have no idea what I did because I did so damned much stuff, but I think it had something to do with disabling "acceleration" on the HDD which was something we did when it was working beautifully. I swear I could do that BIOS in my sleep now!! That and the THIRD time I installed Windows 7 finally did it. I was able to RAID the two drives plus the boot loops stopped!!

I had called him the night before and told him I was going to have to return the motherboard because I couldn't get it to stop the boot loops. So I called him about 9:30 yesterday morning and told him it was working and I would bring it in that afternoon. He was so excited. We've still got an issue with no sound in Windows Media Player, but we'll figure that one out.

All this also included $110 worth of free games. He got a free download of Batman Arkham City and a free download of Battlefield 3. Grandson is one happy boy!

Looks like it was an adventure , for both of you ! In the end , as long as everything is up & running , that's all that matters . Looks like a pretty sweet setup !

It definitely is. That 800 watt Cooler Master Pro 80+ Gold power supply is massive overkill, but I just couldn't pass it up for the price. You don't even know it's on, it's so quiet. I had to work down at Longmeadow today, so I'm going to call tomorrow to see if he put the Core i7 processor and GTX 560 Ti video care through their paces with any games. I'm going to have to go in and do some finishing touches on it this week. I'm not at all happy with my cable management, but that's something I can do any time.

Wowsers Drac that is one nice looking setup. What a lucky boy your grandson is to get a hands on computer building experience with you.

hatshepsut

The look on his face when we did that first high-five was worth it all, hatsheput!