Emasher

Finished pre-loading now. Even though I played through the game already on the PS3 last year, I'm still pretty excited for this. On the other hand, I'm now down to 40 GBs left on my hard drive.

I suppose it could make some difference for Dolphin if you're playing more intensive games, but if this is meant to be a gaming machine, I'd definitely recommend going for the best i5 + 970 over i7-4790k + 960. For most games, a better GPU is going to be what makes the difference. Most games don't use multiple cores that well either, so really, the main advantage the i7 has is the higher clock speed, and it doesn't make that much difference for most games. My 4790k idles around 36 degrees Celsius, and I've rarely seen it reach dangerously high temperatures (and only ever when doing non-game stuff), so I'd say don't bother with the cooler for now to save money and only buy one later on if you end up having issues. I've never used a 960, so I have no idea about coil whine on those. Coil whine can happen with any card though, it's just been more common on some of the newer Nvidia cards, particularly the 970. The coil whine I do get on my 970 only seems to occur when the card is under heavy load (eg. playing Cities Skylines with DSR and Ambient Occlusion mods installed--that's when I first noticed it anyway). I normally use headphones when I play games, and I don't even notice it unless I take them off. The coil whine I do get is more of a clicking noise. Coil whine is harmless though, it won't do any damage to your components. It just can be annoying if you can hear it.

The last stats I saw were that one third of Canadian (I don't have UK stats, but I imagine they'd be similar) Netflix subscribers use some method of accessing US Netflix. I seriously doubt they're going to start banning people for this. I suspect the terms of service was just changed to appease the local content distributors.

Definitely add in an SSD if you can afford it. That power supply isn't powerful enough for your graphics card. Nvidia recommends at least a 400W one for a 960, and you should always go for more than you need, so go for at least a 500W. Make sure you get a modular one (this is very important). Stick with Corsair though, they're a pretty good brand for PSUs, and you don't want to go off brand for a PSU or you'll either burn down your house or fry all your other components. Also, if you can afford it, perhaps consider upgrading from a 960 to a 970.

Your motherboard will work with any modern graphics card, don't worry about that. The first question I have to ask is, do you absolutely need the i7? I have a 4790k, and it's an excellent processor, but if this build is for gaming, and you don't have some other need for an i7, you'd be better off going with the best i5 and putting the money you save into the graphics card. You won't see any noticeable performance improvement in games with the i7 over a good i5. Even if you've ordered it already, you can probably return it if you decide to. Also, unless you're planning on overclocking the CPU (and given the sort of questions you're asking, I doubt you will be), there's no reason to user an aftermarket CPU cooler, let alone a liquid one. I'd strongly recommend you return/don't order the cooler, and put the money you save towards a better graphics card. Now, if the CPU and cooler are absolutely set in stone, you should consider the Nvidia GTX 960. Amazon currently has one on sale: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00SKWIISQ If you decide to take my advice regarding the CPU and cooler, and have a little extra cash, the GTX 970 is the best value for your money. The memory issue really isn't a big deal unless you're using a few of them in SLI for 4k resolutions. The only real complaint I've had with mine is that it has coil whine when under a significant load, but this isn't an issue with all 970s. I can't comment on recent AMD cards.

Assuming they do stick with the Power architecture and don't switch to x86_64, there isn't as big a barrier to downloadable Gamecube games as you might think. It's already possible to run Gamecube games on the Wii U via homebrew (no emulation necessary). Even if they do switch, if the NX is as powerful as the PS4 or Xbox One, emulating Gamecube and Wii games isn't out of the question technically, just probably not realistic from a business perspective.

The 970 is a great performing card, and the memory issue isn't really a big deal, but the one thing you should be aware of is that they tend to be very prone to coil whine. Mine being no exception.

I'm surprised there wasn't a thread for this already. http://www.introversion.co.uk/prisonarchitect/ Prison Architect is an excellent management game, currently in alpha/early access. Essentially, you build and manage a prison. The developers have paid extraordinary attention to detail and you have an amazing amount of control over how your prison operates. My understanding is the game is very close to its 1.0 release, but it's not only playable at this point, it's one of the few early access games that is worth your money already. It even was back when I bought it last summer, and the developers have been adding significant content quite frequently.

I've really been enjoying this game. It's especially good if you're waiting for something to happen at 4 in the morning or so. The modding community seems to be pretty active too, and they've added pretty much everything the game has been missing. I originally posted these in the screenshots thread, but they're probably appropriate here as well:

What I'd like to see is: Competitive in terms of 'power' (processor speed, cores, memory, etc.) with its competitors. x86_64 architecture. Free development tools (The Wii U already sort of has this in the form of Unity, but they could do better). 1080p 60 FPS as a standard in 1st party titles (Nintendo already seems to understand the benefit of this, and some of their Wii U games already have this). All virtual console purchases from both the Wii U and Wii transfer over. None of this Wii menu or re-purchase for a discount garbage. This includes N64 games. Downloadable Gamecube and Wii games (although, if they go with x86_64 instead of the Power architecture, this is very unlikely). If they do go with the Power architecture, backwards compatibility with Wii U games, including the transfer of online purchases including downloadable Wii games. All online purchases (including any transferred from previous systems) are tied just to an account and not tied to specific hardware. I don't want to have to worry about loosing all my purchases if my console is stolen. No gimmicks with the controller. Supporting legacy controllers for specific games is fine, but the controller that ships with the console and is used for the majority of games should be a standard game pad with the right analog stick below the face buttons, and the triggers should be analog to support racing games. Proper 3D and 2D Mario games, Mario Kart, Paper Mario, Smash Bros., 3D Zelda, and some form of Metroid (either 2D, or like the prime games) at some point during the console's life. About half of this is wishful thinking though.

I was more responding to "It's weird that" than anything else. It would be a difficult sort of law to write though. How do you account for the fact that circumstances could have changed? What happens if a promise made isn't possible to keep for whatever reason? What constitutes making a promise in the first place?

You're thinking from the perspective of a voter, not from the perspective of a politician.

Not really. Who makes the laws? If politicians were actually held accountable for election promises, they'd also have to be more specific about how they'd pay for the promises they make, and they'd have to start thinking about details and making sure what they promise is actually possible, and won't cause more problems than it solves. If you have to start talking about how you're going to pay for things during an election in more detail, you're going to have to end up proposing either more deficit spending, cutting the budget of something else, or raising/creating new taxes. None of which make you look particularly good during an election.

Haven't moved all that much.

May did. Hammond didn't, unless he changed it again already. Not being in the UK (and thus having questionable access to non-BBC British television), I'm really hoping the Netflix rumors are true. It would definitely make a lot of sense for Netflix to pick them up at this point.

Cities Skylines:

I'm probably a little late here, but there are a few things I thought I should mention. While 8GB of ram might be enough for editing 1080p video, going much above that though, you're going to want a little bit more. Frame buffers get very big very fast when you start increasing the resolution. Extra RAM is even more important if you're doing any sort of compositing or any other situation where the amount of data stored per-pixel is increased. Fortunately RAM is VERY easy to upgrade later on, so if you're just doing 1080p now, 8GB will probably be fine. As far as GPU goes, it depends a bit on what software you're using. Certain applications are going to rely on the GPU more than others. You should look at the system requirements for the video editing software you're running and buy something a little bit better than the recommended specifications (if you can afford it). Looking and Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas, they recommend 1GB and 512MB - 1GB of video memory respectively, but I'd recommend going with at least a 2GB card. 4GB if you're going to use it for any serious gaming as well. The graphics card is fairly easy to replace later, but also quite expensive. The CPU is going to be a lot more important than the GPU. Basically, go with the best i7 you can afford. i5's are great for budget gaming rigs, but for video editing, you want something with a little more power. The most important thing about the motherboard is that it has the right socket to support your CPU. You should also get one that has a PCI Express 3.0 port for your video card, although, that's most of them these days. Beyond that, just look for one that has the features you want, and make sure the form factor (eg. ATX) is supported by the case you buy. The motherboard is a huge pain to replace since everything's connected to it, so don't cheap out. Buy from a decent brand like ASUS. The case isn't all that important (as long as it will fit your other components), but don't buy one with a built in power supply. The power supply, although not as sexy as some of the other components is one of the most crucial things to get right. At worst, a bad power supply (PSU) will burn your house down, or fry all your other components. It's absolutely crucial that you buy from a reputable brand (eg. Corsair), and read the custom reviews, since even good companies make bad products. Make sure you get a modular one if you don't want a tangled mess of unused cables inside your case, and make sure the wattage is sufficient for your CPU and GPU. You're probably going to want a ton of hard drives to store videos on. These days, you should also strongly consider putting in an SSD. Installing your OS and commonly used applications on an SSD will significantly speed up start-up and launching applications. It's a very noticeable difference. If you can afford it, go with at least a 250GB one. 128 will do on a budget though. Speaking of operating systems, make sure you get a 64 bit copy of windows (go for the OEM version since it's cheaper, but that copy will be tied to the motherboard).

Well. That sucks. A major part of the appeal of the show has always been the fact that the presenters (especially Clarkson) weren't afraid to be a little out of line. I understand that actually punching someone is a little different than making a comment, but I'd be interested to know WHY he did it. After all, he has a bit of a history of punching people who have very much deserved it.

Yeah, no response at all. Not the first time it's happened, and others I know have similar stories. I can understand it before actually meeting with someone, but once you've put in that time going on a date, you kind of expect at least a quick message saying "No thanks". I met her on a dating site, as I have most of the women I've dated.

Looks like I was right. I texted her over a day and a half ago with a friendly "Hey. How's your week been going. :)" (or something like that), and got no response. You would think after a fairly long coffee date a courtesy rejection wouldn't be too much to ask for. Maybe the women I've been dating recently have just been cowards. At any rate, I've fortunately learned by now that it's not worth getting invested in someone after only a single date, so not a huge loss. Time to start over again I guess.

Not to the point of being in a straight jacket, but pretty damn messed up when I actually got to know her. Anyway, my date got double booked and ended up showing up half an hour late (she did let me know though and was very apologetic when she did get there). We talked in the coffee shop for a couple of hours and then departed after briefly discussing the possibility of a second date. I have a feeling she wasn't really interested and just didn't want to say it to my face, but I've been wrong about that before, so I'll see what happens when I text her in a few days.

Haha, well, we'll see. I've dated a few women in the past who turned out to be literally insane (fortunately I got out before any real damage was done), so I'm not too worried about this one.

A little over a year ago I met a girl on a dating site. We talked about meeting up, but then fell out of contact before setting anything up. Anyway, I ran into her a week ago or so on the same dating site and now I've got a coffee date with her on Saturday. I'm having trouble reading her from her texts, which isn't making me incredibly optimistic, but we'll see how it goes.

Finally. Here's hoping the port is decent.

I've been getting back into Minecraft as well lately. This time I'm sticking to just magic themed mods which is turning out to be a very different experience from the sets of mods I've played with in the past that were mostly made up of tech mods. In particular Witchery is starting to get pretty interesting. I'm still not quite motivated enough to finish updating Engineer's Toolbox to 1.7 (it is sort of working, just unplayable due to bugs), but I might get around to that in May when I have more time again.