I finally finished ordering all of my PC components today. Well, actually, I ordered my last parts yesterday, but I ordered the OS today. So, because I have nothing better to do and I want to make you feel jealous, I'm going to list all of the different parts that I got. I'll start with the basics.

Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core (the new Penryn dual-core processor)

GPU: EVGA 512-P3-N841-A3 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface

RAM: 2x1 GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel + 2x1 GB of some garbage-looking HP RAM I got from James (hoping it actually works; if not, I'll just pick up two more sticks of the Corsair)

Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

Optical Drive:  SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe

I think that's everything. I'll just be putting these parts into my current Alienware Aurora chassis, and I'll take the parts that are currently in my Alienware to build a second machine, which means I need to buy a case for that.

I decided to go with Vista Home Premium 64-bit, mainly because of the fact that 32-bit can only support up to 3.2 GB of RAM.

I'll be sticking with my current sound system, which is some 5.1 Logitech system that came with my Alienware. It's a nice setup for how cheap it was, and then of course I have my 22'' Samsung 226BW monitor which I love. I'm really looking forward to getting this thing set up. I expect the parts will arrive around Thursday, but I probably won't have time to get it built until Friday or even Saturday. I have some gaming to do once I get it built: my graphics card comes with Crysis and I've had Unreal Tournament III sitting around for some time.

Speaking of gaming, I downloaded this Half-Life 2 mod that someone told me about called Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat. It's really cool. Pretty much, it's a hardcore military sim-type game. You play as either the USMC or Iraqi insurgents. There's no crosshair, health, or anything. There's not even really a HUD at all. You basically have to aim with your iron sights or scope, and it's ultra-realistic. It's kind of like Red Orchestra, which is a WWII sim, but in modern-day Iraq. You pretty much die in 1-2 shots. It takes A LOT of teamwork, and thankfully, since the mod's community is pretty small right now, there's a lot of cool people that play it. It hasn't been infested with ass clowns like CS or other mainstream mods. Anyways, I suggest you check it out.

That's all I have for now. 

I saw Cloverfield today. (Note: I'll try to keep out any spoilers, but you have been warned). I went into the movie with slightly low expectations, knowing that it wouldn't meet its hype. Fortunately, because I went in not expecting much, I came out pretty happy. The movie was decent. It wasn't amazing and lacked an original story and character development, but it was entertaining to say the least. Now that I saw the movie, I'm not at all surprised at how Cloverfield's antagonist was kept such a secret: simply because there isn't a secret. It's something that was entirely expected.

I thought the whole use of the hand camera thing might be annoying, but in fact, it wasn't really. It worked out well, and they used the gimmick nicely using flashbacks (because he accidentally recorded over an old tape). This provided some backstory, but nothing significant enough to make the movie good in terms of storyline. The simple fact is is that it's a monster movie--nothing more, nothing less. My suggestion to you (if you haven't seen it yet) is to do what I did and go in with slightly low expectations. A lot of people seemed disappointed with the ending, but honestly, without giving too much away, how else would it end? Giving it a sad ending or a happy ending, people would have been disappointed regardless. I think many people felt there wasn't enough closure, but I figure any more tacked on to the end would be pointless and just detract from the movie. God knows they'll make a prequel and a videogame for this movie.

 In something totally unrelated, I've been playing a ton of Call of Duty 4 on PC, and I must say, it's like 100x better on PC than on Xbox 360. It's better in pretty much every aspect. I've also been playing quite a bit of Team Fortress 2 on PC, which is like 200x better than its 360 counterpart. I've played a bit of Garry's Mod 10 lately too. They just updated it and now it includes a whole bunch of new stuff and it runs on the updated Source engine (from Orange Box).

The only Xbox 360 game that I've been playing on and off recently is Rock Band. With me being a big Oasis and Smashing Pumpkins fan, I'm looking forward to the downloadable content that was recently announced:

Week of Jan. 22: Oasis Pack (440 MS points/ $5.50)

• Don't Look Back in Anger (160 MS points/ $2)


• Live Forever (160 MS points/ $2)


• Wonderwall (160 MS Points / $2)

• Siva - Smashing Pumpkins (160 MS points/ $2)


• Working Man - Rush *Cover* (160 MS points/ $2)


• Ten Speed (Of God's Blood and Burial) - Coheed and Cambria *Cover* (160 MS Points / $2)

According to the vice president of MTV Games, over 2.5 million Rock Band DLC tracks have been downloaded, and there are over 200 tracks in the pipeline for 2008.

I have ordered some of the parts for the new PC I will be building. So far, I have 4GB of RAM, a CD/DVD drive/burner and a 700W power supply. I'll probably be ordering the motherboard, video card , processor and hard drive over the course of the next couple weeks. I also will probably need to get another sound card as well, and I'll have to pick up Windows Vista Home Premium. The video card I'm getting comes with Crysis, so I'm looking forward to running that on high settings. Depending on the price difference, I may use EVGA's "step up" program to upgrade to the 9800 once it releases around March.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. 

So it's December 23rd, meaning tomorrow will be Christmas Eve with Christmas following that the next day, of course. Usually the holidays are a time for relaxation and hanging out with your family, but so far this has not been the case.

Last night, I was up until 3:30 AM getting Game-Spectrum's 2007 awards list up. I'm happy to announce that it is up (if you didn't see already). Check it out here and feel free to voice your opinion by leaving a comment. The Game of the Year category was argued over considerably. The Orange Box, BioShock and Call of Duty 4 were all contenders for the award, but ultimately The Orange Box won out because of its incredible value.

Yesterday also marked the wrap up of the Three for Free Giveaway. The winner was Scott Curfman, and he'll receive three free games of his choice from www.sprocketidea.com.

Other than what's going on around GS, nothing very interesting is going on in my life at the moment. Whether or not that's a good thing, I don't know. So, to not bore you any further, I'll keep this post short. Anyways, I hope you all have a merry Christmas or just simply a happy holidays, whatever you're into.

It's been a long time since my last blog entry. We've been hard at work tweaking the new GS and adding new features. The latest of which (and probably the coolest) is the brand new video section. Check it out by clicking here or just click the "Videos" link above in the menu.

Also, I got that Samsung LCD display I was talking about a while ago (the 226BW). All I have to say is that it's great. If you're looking for a good monitor, look no further. It has amazing picture, resolution and not to mention it's 22''. I hooked up my old monitor as well, so now I have a dual-monitor setup, which is really nice. I still want to try hooking up my Xbox 360 to the new monitor just for kicks.

I've been playing Mass Effect quite a bit lately (actually on-and-off since I don't have a lot of time to even play) . I'm getting pretty close to beating it. I'm on the last level I think. The game was good, but to be honest, I was expecting a little more.

I downloaded the Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack today and I'm somewhat disappointed. Not only were the maps a little on the expensive side (800 MS Points to be exact), but they were kind of mediocre. Standoff was the only one that really stood out to me. It's a great map. Foundry is okay, but I guess it will only show its true value once people start getting creative with it in the Forge. Rats Nest, on the other hand, pretty much sucks, and it's quickly becoming apparent throughout the Halo 3 community. If you don't feel like shelling out the 800 Points, you can wait until this Spring to download them for free. Bungie also made clear that this is around the time that the next map pack would release.

I'm also planning on upgrading my PC pretty soon. I made a list of my current specs and of the stuff that I plan on upgrading to in the forum. Check it out here. I'm planning on getting the new 8800GTS that NVIDIA just dropped. I might even SLI a couple down the road. I'll also be picking up a quad core to go along with that. Crysis, here I come!

I just wanted to test the use of images in blog postings.

Apparently, the upload image function isn't working properly. It says file exceeds size limit even though it doesn't. I'll see if we can get it fixed soon. It looks like adding images from other URL's still works though.

Wow, it's been a really long week. The GS team has been working tirelessly day and night to get the new website up, and it finally went live today. We're really excited about the new features and plans we have for down the road. My personal favorite of the shiny new features is the blog system.

I'm sure some people will be upset that everything was lost (mainly their post count for the forum), but we felt that it was a necessary sacrafice and that this will be much better in the long run. There are still some bugs left to squash both in the forum and in the website itself, so we need everyone's help to report them in the Report Bugs thread. My main concern right now is that the "mark all topics read" button in the forum function properly.

For something completely off topic, I picked up Mass Effect last Tuesday, and honestly, I haven't had much of a chance to really get into it (getting the new site up was my primary concern). However, from what I've played, it's fantastic. I'm not a huge RPG fan aside from a few games like Oblivion, but this game is definitely my kind of RPG. It's focus on dialog is really cool with how you can choose everything your character says, and each choice has a different impact. I'm looking forward to getting deeper into the game. I still have to beat Call of Duty 4 as well (which is also a really good game), but I don't think I have much left to finish.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow (...looks at clock...) today, and I'm looking forward to that. Thanksgiving is always one of my favorite holidays, for reasons only known to fat Americans.

Oh, I almost forgot. I plan on ordering this Samsung monitor I saw on Newegg for my PC soon (as in before the end of November, so I can get the $40 rebate). It's the Samsung 226BW . It's 22'', has a 2 ms response time and a dynamic contrast ratio of 3000:1. I think it looks pretty good, and it's received very good reviews. Can't wait to get it.

Anyways, enjoy the new GS and happy Thanksgiving!