McPhee

Deus Ex is one of those "you had to be there" things. Like most FPS titles, it hasn't aged well. It's quite common for people new to the game to not 'get' it.

Try a BT i-Plate. Worked wonders here, we had constant disconnects and sluggish speeds which as it turns out were all down to dodgy wiring/electrical interference. As most places don't have Ethernet installed in the walls the best alternative is a Homeplug kit. Use the electrical wires instead

Seems to be the year of the western RPG. The Witcher 2, Deus Ex: HE, TES: Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2 and Guild Wars 2. Has there been a better year for RPGs like... ever?

For a bit of price comparison: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=1917&sortby=priceAsc http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ If the video editing you're planning on doing is particularly intense then the i7 2600 (either regular or 'K' edition) would probably be worth the extra. The 2500 is plenty powerful, but the addition of hyperthreading will make quite a big difference in some programs. Same goes for buying 8GB RAM. 4GB is generally plenty, 8GB for specialist applications. Then again, DDR3 prices have dropped so hard that it's almost rude not to go 8GB.

Looks immense! Annoying about the Gears 3 beta though, makes the choice between PC and 360 version more difficult. I think I'll wait and see what the co-op/multiplayer is like and who is getting in, rather than pre-order.

You need a power supply. By 'Fan' do you mean a CPU cooler? 'Retail' boxed processors come with one, and these days they're pretty good. You only tend to need to buy one if you're going to overclock. Sound cards are no longer needed. Motherboards come with on-board sound, usually up to 7.1 channel surround. Only people who are really anal about audio pick them up these days, and even then it's better to buy the system, see how the on-board sound fares and then buy a sound card if it doesn't cut the mustard. USB3 is one of those "Why not?" sort of things. It doesn't add much to the price of motherboards these days and by the end of the year should be common in new devices/peripherals that need the extra bandwidth. EDIT: Figured these threads might be useful: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18046396 http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17185358 http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18156654

Choosing a monitor is a PITA at the moment. The 120Hz (3D) ones are just that little bit (£50-£100) more than their regular 60Hz brethren. It makes sense to buy the 120Hz monitor really, but the 3D Vision kit is £110 on top and you need an Nvidia graphics card. It also won't do 3D from any other source, just the PC. Just put my order in for an Asus P8H67-M Pro, Asus GTX460 and BeQuiet 530W PSU from Scan and i5 2400 from Overclockers. Should arrive Tuesday. Just need to sell the rest of my old gear now...

Cheers for the head's up. Prime example of why I normally avoid NVidia, they have a habit of making buying a graphics card complicated (see 8800GTS/9800GTX/GTS250). Sadly, I've got sucked in to the 3D thing and fancy trying out 3D Vision. Yup, it's as bad as it looks. The cables are a pain in the ass. Still, wouldn't want everything to be easy, would you? With the power cables the PSU manual will help you tell which cable is which and the motherboard manual will tell you where to plug them. Same goes for the case manual for front panel lights/usb connectors etc. Not the most fun job, but it's difficult to go wrong with the power supply and the case cabling doesn't matter too much (you won't blow anything up). My first build I forgot to hook up the power switch to the motherboard. Fun times. Took me an hour to work that out. I'd gone through everything else and was beginning to convince myself one of the components were knackered Picking a case that looks cool is mostly the point. The more expensive the case the better quality the finish and the more marketing bull you'll get about how cool it'll keep your system. Bare in mind the motherboard sizes the case will hold though. A Micro ATX case won't hold an ATX motherboard (but an ATX case can hold either an ATX or a Micro ATX board). Personally I quite like smaller cases (which is a shame because I'm about to go from my SG05 back to my Antec 900 ). These days you can get a lot of graphics card for not a lot of cash. ATi and NVidia are advancing their tech too quickly, the games industry can't keep up. The side effect of this is where you used to need an expensive card to run the latest games well, you can now do it on a £120 card. As for going for something more powerful, working up from the GTX460 we have: GTX 460 768MB - £120 ATi 6850 - £150, GTX 460 1GB - £140, ATi 5850 - £140 ATi 6870 - £180 ATi 6950 -£220 ... There's more, but you start loosing value for money as you go up. Two years ago a 4870x2 was £400. All of the above cards are faster than it. Buying cheaper cards often is generally better than "investing" in a more powerful card now with a view to it lasting years. NVidia card). Running two cards is a possibility, two 460 768MB cards will be faster than one 6950, but you do get compatibility problems with running two at once. In one game you might get 190% of the performance of one card, in another you might only get 120%.

A little out of date on the components front, but good advice and the build process is still the same. Just take it as what it is, a rough demo rather than a walkthrough. EDIT: I used Scan to build the basket. Can't get much cheaper, buying the 2400, motherboard, graphics card and PSU myself and can only shave a few quid off shopping around. The motherboard is a couple of quid cheaper at eBuyer, and the CPU a few quid less at Overclockers, other than that those are the best prices about. Double Edit: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-zotac-gtx-460-se-3400mhz-gddr5-gpu-680mhz-shader-clock-1360mhz-336-cores-dl-dvi-mhdmi-dp Probably worth the extra few quid.

There's a starting point for you To be honest that rig is rediculously powerful as it is, there's no real need to go for anything higher unless you want to overclock or run the most demanding games on the market at 1080p with all the eye candy turned on.

They launched at Midnight this morning. The letters after the product numbers mean that chip isn't a bog-standard Sandy Bridge. The 'K' models are enthusiast chips, unlocked for overclocking and with a better in-built GPU (though at present you can only overclock or use the GPU, depending on motherboard). The 'S' models are low-power, built with energy efficiency in mind. I can't remember what 'T' is, but I think it's only for the corporate market anyways. There shouldn't be any problem getting the whole lot in for under a grand including a decent monitor, keyboard and mouse. Will have a dig around and see what I can come up with (do you want prices for building it yourself? Or just for pre-built?).

It's impressive, but motherboard prices and the lack of Quickscan on the enthusiast boards have taken the shine off things somewhat. Still tempting though, should be a huge upgrade from an E5200!

I'll wait for the game to come down in price. Paying £39.99 for the game, then £9.99/month is a bit steep really. If I don't like it then I stand to loose a good £20-£25 selling it on because the initial 30-day sub will be gone.

No, they're always down south because there's jack shit to do in most northern cities other than drink. Personally I think that's a good thing, the beer up here is better, much cheaper and there's less stuff to distract you from drinking it. The tee-totalers wouldn't like it though

Orange San Francisco without any shadow of a doubt. Unlock it using; http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blade-blade-modaco-com/322848/free-sim-unlock-codes-for-orange-san-francisco-and-zte-blade/

Dead State has me intrigued. It'll probably be shit (it's from the guy behind 'Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines') but it's an interesting concept. Pretty sure I'll be picking up this lot before the year is out: PC DCU Online/SW: The Old Republic/AoE Online (not all 3, too much MMO!) Bulletstorm Crysis 2 Dragon Age 2 Deus Ex: Human Revolution The Witcher 2 TES: Skyrim (unless there's co-op, in which case I'll get it on 360) Batman: Arkham Asylum Guild Wars 2 DiRT 3 360 Marvel vs Capcom 3 Ghost Recon Portal 2 Hitman 5 Mass Effect 3 Gears of War 3 Duke Nukem Forever (got faith in this one now Gearbox have bought it) La Noir Plus others if they turn out to be any good (Darkspore, Warhammer, Alice, Diablo 3, Children of Eden, anything else that crops up over the year). So tempted by a PS3 looking at it's 2011 line-up, but don't think I'll have the time/money for this lot without adding more (plus I'd have to play through the first two Uncharted and Resistance games to get up to speed).

Saw this article over at Hexus.net and found it quite interesting (as someone who doesn't keep up with what's coming any more). Looks like a good year for the PC and PS3, not so great for the 360 (not surprising really given the number of closures at Microsoft Game Studios in 2008/2009). Had pretty much given up on PC gaming, the only notable release in 2010 was Starcraft 2, but 2011 looks packed! http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=28159&page=1

This is actually quite a scary thought. I wonder how much of my life so far I've spent playing video games? Months? Years? The most time spent playing one game has to be pretty close between Team Fortress 2, Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, Perfect Dark, Smash Bros. Melee, Timesplitters 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 (can use the work excuse on the last one though, earned my place at uni through the mods I worked on). Most completed is definitely Super Mario Bros. 3. Got All Stars for Christmas 1993 and Mario 3 quickly became my favourite. No idea how many times I'd completed it by the time I got my N64 in 1999 but I gather it was a lot.

Top 5 albums for me were; 1. Brothers - The Black Keys 2. How I Got Over - The Roots 3. This Is Happening - LCD Soundsystem 4. Only Revolutions - Biffy Clyro 5. Le Noise - Neil Young Plenty of other quality ones this year though, along with two in particular that I'm yet to get (Spoon and Arcade Fire - thought I was getting them for Christmas but it seems no). Oddly I've not been to a single gig this year. Picked up tickets to see BRMC and LCD/Hot Chip but missed both due to flu

It's tomorrow's 12 Days of Christmas download so grab it quick, will prob only be free for 48 hours.

Yup. Should be in the Control Panel. Network and Sharing settings or something? Been a long time since I last used XP (first Vista beta, so over 5 years ago now!) so I can't remember the exact menu layout, but it should be something like that.

Some cracking tunes on this album. Downloaded it a while ago but only just got around to listening to it. Not sure if I prefer it to How I Got Over by The Roots though, one of the two is definitely my Hip-Hop album of the year.

I'm just after Left 4 Dead/2 and Team Fortress 2 for gifts, not too bothered about anything else at the moment. Too much to play and I don't use the PC much any more. Still, been some cracking bargains! Was really tempted by Dead Rising 2 and Borderlands GOTY.

I picked up Gears 2 recently to give multiplayer another go. Imagine my annoyance when I found out that I can't play multiplayer because I don't have the map packs! Suddenly that cheap (4 for £20) game is either no longer cheap, or it's worthless. I'm not against DLC, but stuff like that really annoys me. Had a similar problem with CoD:WaW, got booted back to the main menu every time a DLC map came up. I bought it about a month before MW2 came out so there was no way I was about to part with money for multiplayer DLC.

I've kinda mellowed lately. I used to drink a lot and wouldn't say no to a spot of weed if it was there. Don't really bother these days though. Different circles. The people I knew who smoked heavily are a bit fucked up now (to varying degrees) so I'm glad I never really got caught up in it. The drinking habbit has been cut down massively too, I buy good quality stuff and drink it because I like the taste, rather than because I want to get drunk.