Ruby Fruit Journal

I have made a deal with my son that if he has gotten straight a’s for every report card he has had since middle school To highschool graduation, I would buy him the most hardcore gaming system. The price is unbeliably high…. but i know its worth it. Can you tell me if these specs are good?

Case ( PSI CyborgX Mid Tower Gaming Case – Yellow )
iBUYPOWER Labs – Noise Reduction ( Advanced – iBUYPOWER Harmony SRS Sound Reduction System )
iBUYPOWER Labs – Internal Expansion ( [6-Port] NZXT Internal USB Expansion System + Bluetooth Module )
Case Lighting ( Cold Cathode Neon Light – Green )
Processor ( Intel® Core™ i7 980X Processor Extreme Edition (6x 3.33GHz/12MB L3 Cache) )
iBUYPOWER PowerDrive ( PowerDrive Level 2 – Up to 20% Overclocking )
Processor Cooling ( CoolerMaster V8 CPU Cooling Fan System )
Memory ( 24 GB [4 GB X6] DDR3-1600 – Corsair or Major Brand )
Video Card ( ATI Radeon HD 5970 – 2GB XFX Black Edition – CrossFire Mode (Dual Cards) )
Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA )
Motherboard ( [3-Way SLI] EVGA X58 SLI Classified w/ 2x Gb LAN, 4x PCI-E 2.0 x16 )
Motherboard Add-on ( ASUS U3S6 True USB 3.0 & SATA 3.0 PCI-E x4 Expansion card )
Power Supply ( 1250 Watt — CoolerMaster Real Power Pro 1250W Power Supply – Quad SLI Ready )
Primary Hard Drive ( 2 TB HARD DRIVE — 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s – Dual 2TB Drives(2TB Capacity) – RAID 1 Data Security )
Data Hard Drive ( None )
Optical Drive ( [10X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Re-Writer, DVD±R/±RW Burner Combo Drive – Orange )
2nd Optical Drive ( None )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( 12-In-1 External USB Flash Media Card Reader/Writer )
Meter Display ( NZXT Sentry LX Aluminum Fan Control, Clock, and Temperature Display )
Floppy Drive ( Mitsumi 1.44 MB Internal Floppy Drive – Orange )
Sound Card ( Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series )
Network Card ( **$99 – $20 Instant Rebate!** Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card )
Netbook / Notebook Bundle ( None )
Operating System ( Microsoft Windows Vista Business + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ….) – 64-Bit )
Software/Game ( Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 )
Keyboard ( Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard )
Mouse ( Razer Imperator 5600dpi Ergonomic 3.5G Laser Gaming Mouse )
Monitor ( 27" Widescreen LCD 1920×1080 Sceptre X270W-1080P – Built-in Speaker, DVI & HDMI Input )
2nd Monitor ( None )
Speaker System ( Logitech X-540 5.1 Surround Speakers + Subwoofer – Black )
External Hard Drives [USB 3.0/2.0/eSATA] ( None )
USB Flash Drive ( Corsair 32GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive )
Extras ( [Gaming Gear] Logitech Dual Action Gamepad )
Extras ( Sunbeamtech Lan Party Bag )
Power Protection ( None )
Headset ( Zowie Hammer USB Circumaural Headset – w/ USB Sound Card & Designed for Professional e-Sports )
MP3/MP4 Player ( 2GB MP3/MP4 Digital Audio/Video Player )
Video Camera ( Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 2.0MP USB Interface WebCam )
Advanced Build Options ( iBUYPOWER Specialized Advanced Packaging System – Protect your investment during transportation! )
Advanced Build Options ( Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound – The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks )
Advanced Build Options ( Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower – Achieve exceptional airflow in your chassis )
Warranty ( Standard Warranty Service – Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) – [RUSH !!!], Ship Out in Next Business Day )

OMG! OMG! – ……!!!!!! You absolutely have to be out of your mind to put this thing together for him…this is like so over done it is incredible! What is this, an $8,000 computer? I haven’t tried to put this together in cost, but just looking at some of the parts this could easily run $8,000 – $10,000 for this computer.

First of all, have YOU DONE ANY PRICE COMPARISONS? Have you run the prices on these things against Newegg.Com and TigerDirect.Com? Who is going to put this thing together?

Listen, Windows Vista is a HUGE MISTAKE! You don’t want to put Vista on this computer…Vista has too many driver problems and restrictions. If you are going to build this MONSTER, you need to have Windows 7 Ultimate Edition as a minimum.

I think that 24 Gigabytes of memory is WAY TOO MUCH! No game on Planet Earth is going to require that much memory – and in fact, if you have that much memory on this thing, it may well slow this computer down! I would recommend backing OFF on the memory to 12 Gigs Maximum.
I don’t know a single game on the planet that needs such an exhorbitant amount of memory – unless he happens to want to play War Games with the Pentagon.

Did he put this thing together? It must have one of everything on Planet Earth on here – and the new Intel 6 Core i7 980x cannot really be taken advantage of – there are no games I know of that will access all 6 cores due to a lack of multithreading in the code of the games. It is certainly NOT worth $1000 to buy that CPU!

My opinion is that you could well get along with a high end gamer computer for about $1800 maximum…that is where almost every other high end game player is at, unless of course, you just have to throw money away on purpose because you like to burn it up. This computer is not being built for gaming friend, this thing is total bragging rights – he may be the ONLY kid in the United States to own such a rig. But if the whole point is just to have the very VERY best of everything that exists right now at this instant in computing is the point, well, maybe that is the point.

The problem is, that in 6 months, this computer will no longer be top of the line. Some other things will come along to take its place. And in 2-1/2 years, this computer will be "OLD" technology. Computers are not an investment, they are a depreciable item and that means, like a car, when you drive it off the lot, it jus dropped by 1/2 the value that you just paid out.

There is no point in putting this computer together as far as I am concerned, it is TOTALLY overkill and TOTALLY unnecessary to build this in order to even play Crysis on the very highest settings that exist. He could well get along with a computer less than 1/4 of the cost of these parts and still have bragging rights – this computer is just plain overkill…why do it?

My recommendation is to completely back off of this this and to re-evaluate. Do some really hard study on some gamer sites and get recommendations for a realistic rig. Straight "A" or not, this computer is worth more than a car is in terms of parts cost alone.

Whatever you do, DO NOT INSTALL VISTA! INSTALL WINDOWS 7.

Hello there

I am in need of a mouse

I have a notebook computer…
I Would like a wireless mouse without that huge reciever!
I prefer those little USB thingoes..

I know that notebook mice are very small compared to ordinary desktop ones, but I would really prefer one of a normal size Without the huge reciever.

Are their any models out there like that?

something i DOnt mind having is the Ergonomic design. but it is not essential.

I have llooked at the Microsoft Notebook Laser Mouse 6000, but that is still a little small..

I have this Belkin mini mouse. (for half that price)

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=135438

Better price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826169007

In an age where touch-based computing is becoming more popular, do you guys ever see the death of the keyboard and/or mouse in the future, or at all?

I know where some companies stand on this, for example Apple calling it an ergonomic nightmare, despite their abundance of touchscreen in their products, while some companies have developed touch-based desktops.

I for one have always been fine with both the keyboard and mouse, while touching is probably more intuitive, it just isn’t practical for some devices.

What do you think?

Probably someday, but I don’t see it in the next generation. A few years ago, like the 80′s, someone tried to foist off the Dvorak keyboard. The problem is that I learned to touch type in high school in a commercial typing class. Of course Dvorak keeps you from typing hte for "the", but I’ll bet there are other bad things that would crop up

Anyway, the keyboard is tough to replace, the mouse or some other pointer device has always been in change. Remember the rubber eraser on laptops? My personal favorite is the Signature Capture device….A little work and it would make a great pointing device along with Sig Cap.

Here’s a little about the Dvorak keyboard layout.

http://dvorak.mwbrooks.com/layout.html

17INCH LCD Widescreen moniter.

Windows Vista Home Basic
AMD Sempron(TM) Processor LE-1250 2.2GHZ
2.00 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeFroce 6150SE nForce 430 128MBs of ram, with shader 3.0 support Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 Support
Ensures top-notch compatibility and performance for all DirectX 9.0 applications, including Shader Model 3.0 titles.

NVIDIA® PureVideo™ Technology*
The combination of the GeForce 6150 GPU’s high-definition video processor and software delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for all video content to turn your PC into a high-end home theater.
Feature only available for GeForce 6150/nForce 430 and GeForce 6150 LE/ nForce 430.

High-Definition MPEG-2 and WMV Hardware Acceleration*
Smoothly playback all MPEG-2 and WMV video with minimal CPU usage so the PC is free to do other work.
Feature only available for GeForce 6150/nForce 430 and GeForce 6150 LE/ nForce 430.

Advanced Motion Adaptive De-Interlacing*
Smoothes video and DVD playback on progressive displays to deliver a crisp, clear picture that rivals high-end home theater systems.
Feature only available for GeForce 6150/nForce 430 and GeForce 6150 LE/ nForce 430.

Video Scaling and Filtering
Scaling and filtering technology delivers a clear, clean image at any window size. Including full-screen HDTV resolutions for GeForce 6150/ nForce 430 and GeForce 6150 LE/nForce 430 models.

Integrated HDTV Encoder
Provides world-class HDTV-out functionality up to and including 1920x1080i resolutions. Includes RCA, S-video and component output support.
Feature only available for GeForce 6150/nForce 430 and GeForce 6150 LE/ nForce 430.

Video Color Correction*
Color temperature correction makes actors’ faces appear natural, rather than washed out and pale, when playing videos on LCD and CRT displays. Display gamma correction ensures videos are not too dark, overly bright, or washed out regardless of the video format or display.

NVIDIA® CineFX™ 3.0 Engine
Powers the next generation of cinematic realism. Full support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 enables stunning and complex special effects. Next-generation shader architecture delivers faster and smoother gameplay.

NVIDIA® Intellisample™ 3.0 Technology**
The industry’s fastest antialiasing delivers ultra-realistic visuals, with no jagged edges, at lightning-fast speeds. Visual quality is taken to new heights through a new rotated grid sampling pattern.

NVIDIA® nView™ Multi-Display Technology
Advanced technology provides the ultimate in viewing flexibility and control for multiple monitors.

Full-Speed 32-Bit Color Precision
Delivers increased image quality with no performance compromise.

NVIDIA® Digital Vibrance Control™ 3.0 Technology
Allows the user to adjust color controls digitally to compensate for the lighting conditions of their workspace, in order to achieve accurate, bright colors in all conditions.

OpenGL® 1.5 Optimizations and Support
Ensures top-notch compatibility and performance for all OpenGL applications.

300 MHz RAMDAC
Blazing-fast RAMDAC supports display with high, ergonomic refresh rates up to and including 1920×1440@75Hz.

Single-Link DVI Support
Able to drive flat-panel displays up to and including 1600×1200.
Feature only available for GeForce 6150/nForce 430 and GeForce 6150 LE/ nForce 430.

SDVO Interface
In conjunction with SDVO to TV-Out conversion chip on the motherboard or on the riser card in the PCI-Express slot enables analog TV-Output. In conjunction with SDVO to DVI-Out conversion chip on the motherboard or on the riser card in the PCI-Express slot enables DVI-Out connectivity to flat-panel monitors.
Feature only available for GeForce 6100/nForce 430 and GeForce 6150SE/nForce 430 Motherboards manufactured after August 2006.

HyperTransport™ Technology
A state-of-the-art I/O bus interface delivering high continuous throughput—up to 8.0GB/s—between the GeForce 6150 and the AMD Athlon 64 processor and between the GeForce 6150 and the NVIDIA nForce 430 MCP. Ensures data and information are relayed through the system as quickly as possible for incredible performance.

PCI Express
Designed to run with the next-generation PCI Express bus architecture.
Refer to GPU motherboard solutions technical specifications for supported configurations.

NVIDIA nForce Storage
Safeguards your most important digital media assets; always reliable, scalable, and accessible. Includes NVIDIA RAID and drive support.

NVIDIA RAID and MediaShield™ technology
Provides a simple point and click wizard-based interface for creating and managing multi-disk storage configurations. Allows multi-disk designs to be set up for maximum performance (RAID 0), for data protection (RAID 1), and for select models a combination of both performance and protection (RAID 0+1 and RAID 5). Also allows RAID volumes to be converted from one config

Yes it will run on this setup, not at 100% full resolution, shadows and all graphic effects, but yes it will run. The Nvidia 6150 is an on-board video card, and though 128M is the base, it will share/steal memory up to 512M from your ram.

Listing all the 6150′s specs was pointless. The moment you mentioned 6150 most people know its an onboard memory hogger. The only good thing about this card, is it grabs memory as needed, and doesn’t when it does not need it. If you want a cheap boost to the 6150, get another 1G of ram. Its cheaper than buying a 512M+ video card with the current pricing of ram.

But the better solution would be to use a separate video card, 512M or more. Ram at 4G or more will allow you to run everything at full resolution and full effects.

My new Dell desktop came with this lightweight little keyboard that feels like a toy and flies all over the desk when I try to type. I’m looking for something big, solid and with standard keys. None of those weird ergonomic shapes or keyboards with the keys all wavy. I also don’t like the new style of keyboards that have big, flat, shallow keys like a laptop. Since I don’t play games, I just need a good, solid thing to type on. Any suggestions?

lol How big are your hands? I have a normal Dell keyboard and it works perfectly fine for me. I am a creative writer myself. I really can’t offer any suggestions because I don’t have a problem with mine.

If any, Microsoft made a wireless one that was quiet to the touch, solid in weight but not obese, no sunken keys, and "user friendly" – the best thing to do is probably visit a store and use various ones until you find what fits your needs best.

I have a left over keyboard from my old desktop and I was wondering if I can replace keyboard keys on my laptop with these keys from my desktop? They’re a bit bigger and stick out like this: http://www.unbc.ca/assets/safety/ergonomics/straight_keyboard.jpg as opposed to this: http://www.laptopbattery-usa.com/images/HP_Compaq_Presario_CQ60_Keyboard.jpg

What do you all think?

um, I don’t think that is going to work since laptop keys have a shorter "throw" than desktop keys. Have you thought about just using the desktop keyboard as an external keyboard for the laptop?

resources that are required to create desktop published documents. What are the ergonomic, energy and environmental considerations?

Huh? Just push print. You use paper and need a power source and and room for a printer and computer.

its Microsoft Silver USB Bluetooth Wireless Ergonomics Entertainment Desktop 7000 – oem .. from newegg.com .

in most cases they don’t come with any packaging. The packaging cost more so it’s a cheaper method for them to sell them.

warranty wise it’s usually only 90days.

where retail is 1yr or more depending on the manufactures.

The product is a Microsoft B7T-00001 OEM Silver/Gray 102 Normal Keys 17 Function Keys PS/2 RF Wireless Ergonomics Laser Desktop 6000 Mouse Included – OEM. I want to be able to use all the features on both the keyboard and the mouse, such as the extra button both of them have. Could anyone advise me please?
Thanks E1 for your asnwers! You helped a lot!

As previously noted, OEM equipment will come with a driver.

The primary difference between OEM and retail equipment is that OEM equipment generally does not carry a manufacturer’s warranty; it’s expected that the retailer will provide warranty coverage.

In re: extra buttons, the devices should come with a driver disk. If not, because they are Microsoft products, so long as your copy of Windows is up to date, simply plugging the devices in should remove the need to even install the drivers; Windows XP / Vista should have the drivers preinstalled.

I used to have a regular PC keyboard and I would tap "scroll lock" twice to toggle between systems. Now I have a Goldtouch keyboard (ergonomic!) in the Mac version but there is no "scroll lock" key. Does anyone know how I can switch between the 2 systems using the same keyboard?

I had trouble with control-alt-delete too since there is no alt key, but was told to use option key instead and it worked. I’m hoping there is an alternative for scroll lock as well.

There is not a substitute I’ve found for the scroll lock key that will work with a KVM switch. You need a new KVM that has an actual button on it that will switch between the machines and does not rely on the scroll lock key, or else get another keyboard that has it.