McPhee

My bet is still on TS4 not turning out very well. They'd have had a publisher if any publisher thought there was any money behind it. Free Radical will go bust, that new developer will buy the rights to their franchises and start again with a more streamlined (read: more profitable and more skilled) team. It's not like these guys haven't done similar before

Neither of those will happen. Virgin media are building their network at a faster rate than BT are upgrading their lines. In 10 years time both will likely still be operating, unless one manages to buy out the other. Apple aren't going to overtake Microsoft. Sure, Apple are gaining consumer base but it'll take a lot longer than 10 years for them to gain market leader. People are brought up on Windows, it's Windows that is taught in schools etc. An increasing number are moving to OS X, but for the majority it's too much effort to migrate to a new OS. You'd have to start teaching OS X in every school in the country and then wait a generation or two for the market switch to occur.

WM's UI is terrible. WM skinned with a custom UI can be pretty good, but once you get in to the menus you remember that you're using WM. That said, it's also the most complete mobile OS i've used. If they can sort the UI problems in 6.5 and 7 then it'll be the best mobile OS out there, the complicated UI is the only thing i can really fault. As for the second bit, have you seen/used this handset? Most of the panels are brushed metal, it has a good weight and the build quality is very solid. To say it doesn't look professional is nieve, it's one of the best pieces of hardware i've ever laid my hands on. I've got over my upset about the issues with WM and the lack of Musicstation now, finding myself actually debating whether to keep the phone or not now...

In stark contrast to my earlier comments the phone is going back. It's taken since Tuesday for me to get connected to Vodafone because of various screw-ups, then i had to configure the internet myself (none of CS's suggestions worked) using the bare minumum info (settings, but no instructions as to where to put them). I finally get online and... Musicstation isn't compatable with my handset. I was sold it on the basis that it was, Musicstation was supposed to take some of the pain out of doubling my monthly bill. Oh, and there's lovely backlight bleed in the top right corner. Really bad back light bleed. I still like the phone and i might pick it up again if i can get it sub-£30/month. Maybe T-Mobile will give me a cheap upgrade, they're due the handset in January!

Fuck You. I give plenty of my hard-earned cash to charity each month, if i want to buy a song with 79p of it then that's my choice. I like the song and didn't own it. I bought it because i wanted it, i bought it now because of the campaign. If you're playing the charity card then i take it you give every spare penny to charity? Or are you being hypocritical?

The Americans managed it, so why can't we? Buckley beat their flash in the pan game-show winner back in March. Honestly, if everyone who said "i'm not buying it because there's no chance of it winning!" bought the song things might be a little closer... Anyhow, it doesn't matter if it places 2nd. It's taken YEARS of brand-building, millions of pounds and a 16 week TV show to get Alex at #1. It's taken a handful of people with a facebook account 10 days of work to get a forgotten song in to the charts and up to the number 2 slot. Which is the real achievement? Which one is the real winner? The best example being that this year's X Factor single had the most pre-orders ever... ...before anyone knew what the song was or who was going to be singing it

I've always found the best way to build a spec is to start by choosing the Case and PSU, then deduct the amount for the HDD, DVD and RAM (as these 3 are pretty fixed amounts). Look at what's left, find an appropriate motherboard for that amount and then split the rest 60/40 in favour of the graphics card. The case and PSU are the bits that will still be with you in five years time, the rest will likely get upgraded. It's great, in fact it's the one i suggested earlier :p What conclusion have you come to on the graphics/cpu front?

Nah, it's a common overclock with that chip. The BE series clock quite well, i use 2.5GHz though day-to-day because at 3GHz the chip is using a quite a bit of power and is running very hot. Here's a benchmark with the same CPU/Mobo combo as mine: http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3051 IIRC the highest anyone has got is 3.2GHz

Budget restraints, i decided to cheap out on the CPU and spend more on the bits that last (mainly case and PSU, i'm unlikely to upgrade these for a long, long time). Still, it's pretty good for £40. It'll run at just over 3GHz (up from 1.9Ghz) on air

Could always stick a BE 2300 in there and then hope the Phenom II is more powerful than Core2... ...Oh wait, that's the mistake i made 15 months ago Got high hopes for Phenom II though, mainly because it's my cheapest upgrade route :p I NEED something good by the time Empire: TW comes out!

You should, it's ruddy brilliant! Also, just found out there's a hacked version of Android out for it. Trying to find out if dual boot is possible, it'd be quality to have both OSs on the phone

This phone is teh sex! Just upgraded to it from an E90. First thing that struck me is how small it is! Compared to the E90 it's tiny! Given it has pretty much the same features list that's really quite impressive! Build quality is really good and the phone looks really posh with loads of brushed aluminium all over the place. Windows mobile is suprisingly OK. I was concerned and it definitely needs work, but i'm not hating it yet and know it'll improve once i've updated and made some tweaks. The UI is very slick Got a really good deal, free phone, £40/month for 18-months and £90 cashback (effectively making it £35/month). For that i'm getting 600 mins, unlimited texts, unlimited data and unlimited downloads from Vodafone Musicstation I have one major problem at the moment though, the tit at Phones4U put a PAYG sim in the phone. A PAYG sim with no credit...

Swap to this stuff then: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142403 Won't notice any difference at all, it just doesn't have nice shiny heat spreaders :p One thing to remember with eBuyer, they charge for delivery by default. For their free "Super Saver" delivery you need to change the delivery options in the checkout. Sure, it's not next day. It's well worth it to save a tenner though

Going AMD isn't worth it above the 6000+ so bare that in mind. The E7300 tares the 6400+ and 8750 to pieces and is slightly cheaper than both of them. I'd really recommend not going AMD really, no upgrade route (and that's coming from someone running all AMD parts, even my RAM is branded by the big Red :p) Gigabyte have been shipping these for months now with the 45nm update pre-installed. Unless Mr Fish is very, very unlucky then there won't be an update needed.

This is why i recommended that Gigabyte board, it does 45nm out of the box... The 4850 will fit, but it's a tight fit if you pop a fan on the HDD enclosure. Same goes for the 8800GTS though, in fact i believe they're about the same size.

You'd have no trouble running that system on that PSU, i'm getting 332W or 370W with a 4GHz overclock using the calculator. That, the number of people running more powerfull systems on the same PSU (specifically the 4870 with a more powerfull CPU or even GFX 280's!) and the fact that i have no trouble despite running one of the most power hungry GPUs of all time (x1950 XTX) on a similar PSU make me pretty certain there'd be no problem there. Hardware is getting more power efficient as well, so there shouldn't be any future head aches. Buy the Coolermaster PSU on the other hand and it'll need replacing within a year, it's a very cheap and basic power supply that is stretching the truth a bit by calling itself a 460W PSU.

£40k for the 100" version, or it was when they launched it anyhow. Not sure about now. I remember being absolutely gob-smacked!

Just done a bit of shopping for you Fish to see just how much flexibility there is in £500. See what you think of this; CPU: Intel Core2Duo E7300 - £90.94 @ eBuyer Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L - £70.46 @ Scan GPU: Sapphire Radeon 4870 512MB - £158.90 @ Pixmania RAM: 4GB OCZ DDR2 800MHz - £35.99 @ eBuyer DVD: Samsung DVD-RW - £14.81 @ Scan HDD: 500GB Western Digital AAKS - £44.25 @ Scan Case: Antec Sonata III inc 500W PSU (the PSU is a pretty good one in this set, retails seperately for just under £50) All in: £495.34 excl Del. Shipping on Pixmania is a little steep, but they are significantly cheaper than anywhere else for this card. Free super saver delivery available at eBuyer and Hexus.net forum and AVForums members can register for free delivery with Scan. That's the most bang for buck you can get with £500, pretty confident that it can't be beaten

Drop the CPU to an E7300 and up the GPU to a 4870. Even with the WD HDD you'll be under the £500 mark, you'll also get a HUGE performance boost in games There's just that Case/PSU combo to tackle then, will look in to it for you and see if there's a way to squeeze something better in.

Why an 8800GTS?

I had that same thought. I feel better for them losing though, i'd like to think it's because they did a better job of ruining a great song than the girl.

That passing through thing (upconversion) isn't available in most lower end models sadly, you'd be looking at £300+ for an amp that can do that. It's only really essential for projector set-ups though, on a TV it's just a nice bonus.

Yup. You plug the HDMI cable from the PS3 in to the unit, along with all the rest of your kit (best to use an optical cable for the 360, only way to get surround sound out of it) and then run a single HDMI cable from the unit to your TV. You can buy speaker stands to solve the other problem, easy to get a hold of and there's a HUGE selection It's a PlayTrade listing, subwoofer only and it's a little damaged.

I love Buckley's version of the song and this reminded me that i don't have it. Result? I bought it, then the whole of Grace after. If it gets in the top 5 i'll be happy If not then i've not lost anything, only gained an album that i wanted any way. It might even bring his music to people who haven't heard it before. The slim possibility that the X Factor might not bag the number one slot for the first time in years is an added bonus

I just think they need to figure out the canon for the series and stick to it. It's all over the place and full of contradictions. It's like they use a different writer for each episode (or block of episodes), there's so many different ideas floating around with little connection or purpose.