Hey y'all. Was told about this place by Rival to ask Zeph about my computer dilemma.

Big question about a computer purchase. Looking for something under about 400-500$ just for the use of computer art programs (photoshop/flash/illustrator/etc.) and online chatting. Any recommendations?

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"Cogito, ergo vos es eggo." A.K.A. "I think, therefore you are a waffle."

Well I like Newegg for buying computers and really most electreconics, but for the best bang for the buck I recomend trolling the black friday sales. You can get a pretty solid machine at a steep discount if you wait till november. If it's for school right now IE fall semester or you simply can't wait.

Here are a couple machines that would likely be what you are looking for.

If you do not need a monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883227314

If you need a monitor or are looking for just a cheaper machine
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883227320

And you can pick up a monitor for about 100 bucks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824254055

Still you can get these (or rough equivilents) for much cheaper or better machines for the same price during black friday sales. I do a lot of my shopping during Black Friday and cyber monday. Black Friday has the better deals usually but sometimes something new comes out cyber monday.

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Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak

Yet again, I'm in need of assistance. Thankfully, the situation is far less dire but I still want this resolved.

I got Fallout 3 for the PC and I suck at using a touchpad and keyboard for that sort of game. The only 360 controller in my possession is wireless and I don't feel like paying upwards to $20-$30 just for a PC gamepad. Luckily, I have a PS3 controller (real one, not some third-party knockoff). Unluckily, when testing it out through the Control Panel it wouldn't respond and apps like Joy2Key are downright confusing to configure (and still won't respond). So I got Motionjoy and got the drivers to that and...

Good news: the Game Controller's calibration test finally responds to the PS3 controller.
Bad news: Fallout 3 STILL doesn't seem to "see" the makeshift gamepad.

At least before I went with Motionjoy it acknowledged its existence while I shuffled through the device settings (not that I could set the buttons). It seems not everyone has this problem. As I mentioned before the laptop runs on Windows Vista, 32 bit.

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The Life and Times of Shad Staydamind PPG fic; finished. part 1/3
Dual Minds Think Alike PPGD fic, part 2/3; finished (trilogy is on an indefinite hiatus)
Hidden Angels Original, ongoing fiction. (also hiated. Stupid college!)

Wow that sounds like a problem with fallout 3. Try another game and see if the controller recognizes and works.

_________________
Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak

I don't have another computer game. My brother on the other hand, has a few MMOs and experimented with the controller so I know it works. Then again, he has Windows 7 and I don't know if he did anything else to get it to work.

Keyboard emulation via the controller seems like a nice bet but again, the programs that govern it aren't exactly self-explanatory.

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The Life and Times of Shad Staydamind PPG fic; finished. part 1/3
Dual Minds Think Alike PPGD fic, part 2/3; finished (trilogy is on an indefinite hiatus)
Hidden Angels Original, ongoing fiction. (also hiated. Stupid college!)

have you tried this? make sure to check it for viruses, but that's what the internet came up with for me.

http://www.gamefront.com/how-to-use-a-p ... r-on-a-pc/

_________________
Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak

Followed the precise directions. Still nothing.

_________________
The Life and Times of Shad Staydamind PPG fic; finished. part 1/3
Dual Minds Think Alike PPGD fic, part 2/3; finished (trilogy is on an indefinite hiatus)
Hidden Angels Original, ongoing fiction. (also hiated. Stupid college!)

well shit.

Try this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O87iLvk5PjA

After that your boned. Get the charger plug in for the 360 controller that plugs into the usb port. Costs 5 bucks from amazon or 10 from walmart for the generic one, but that works on a windows machine without any problems. And if that doesn't work I will contend that fallout 3 hates you.

_________________
Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak

Wait, did the video just say I have to restart TWICE just to get it to work? The comments aren't reassuring either. Something about needing bluetooth, which I don't have. Also, I should have went into a little more detail concerning the 360 controllers. They're the Play-and-Charge type and thus, practically came with the cables you mentioned. Tried it, and it wasn't even recognized as a gamepad. From what I read you need some kind of special receiver.

To think this wouldn't be an issue if the only wired 360 controller didn't suddenly stop working for no reason.

_________________
The Life and Times of Shad Staydamind PPG fic; finished. part 1/3
Dual Minds Think Alike PPGD fic, part 2/3; finished (trilogy is on an indefinite hiatus)
Hidden Angels Original, ongoing fiction. (also hiated. Stupid college!)

Hrmmm. I never had problems with the plug and charge 360 controller.

But yeah he said restart twice. I honestly have no idea if this'll work I'm just guessing. The problem is that your PS3 controller is not supposed to work with a PC. I don't know why sony would do that, but they did. You may be screwed.

_________________
Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak

PS3 controllers transmit all information on bluetooth, all the usb cable does is charge and help in tethering to a different console.

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CAUTION: Would anyone tell me if I was getting stupider?

So I either take the plunge with that or save up for a controller for the sake of one game. Thing is, I saw a Youtube video where using PS3 controllers on PCs CAN be done! Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D-Ft8AZtvk

I say we go with Fallout 3 not liking controllers that aren't branded my Microsoft.

_________________
The Life and Times of Shad Staydamind PPG fic; finished. part 1/3
Dual Minds Think Alike PPGD fic, part 2/3; finished (trilogy is on an indefinite hiatus)
Hidden Angels Original, ongoing fiction. (also hiated. Stupid college!)

Anyone else getting this stupid "no hotlinking" message when they try to view images hosted on Turboimagehost? Somehow, an earlier version of Firefox isn't afflicted yet the one I'm using (3.6.23) won't let me see any. As usual, solutions please.

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The Life and Times of Shad Staydamind PPG fic; finished. part 1/3
Dual Minds Think Alike PPGD fic, part 2/3; finished (trilogy is on an indefinite hiatus)
Hidden Angels Original, ongoing fiction. (also hiated. Stupid college!)

Having issues with my linux system. Every so often the keys lock on my board like if I'm holding the ctrl button (making it impossible to type until I reboot), but it's not the button itself. I've plugged in an alternate keyboard, so it's something in the computer doing it. I've tried a few tricks found on the internet, but I'm wondering if anyone here has any ideas.

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"Cogito, ergo vos es eggo." A.K.A. "I think, therefore you are a waffle."

3.6.23? that's an odd numbering for firefox. I'm using 7.0.1. I fucking hate those no hotlinking messages, what's the fuck is the point of having an image host if you can't allow hotlinking?

_________________
Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak

What's the go to program you guys usually you to monitor temperature in your PC?

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Twitter | Transistor Glamor | Tumblr | MAL

RAM help. Am I seeing this right? I'm using just a fraction of my RAM? How do you optimize RAM output?

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That's right http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978610

_________________
Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak

Thanks, zeph. I tweaked my PC a little, and did some defragging but still can't get the remaining 3.5 gb on the RAM. On the plus side, my PC is a bit faster now

I was able to play Battlefield 3 a bit better. Worst. Graphics. Ever. 640x480 res and the settings are all at their lowest. I wanna cry. At least, the NVIDIA Geforce 9400 ( w/ lasted driver) I have in my comp played it... graphic mightly sucked. TT~TT

I just hope I won't have the same problems in AC: Revaltions

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No your ram is right. You have 3.5 gig available, that is the ram you can use. the .5 gig of ram is currently in use.

Your problem is your CPU and probably your video card are slow. Your running a E5200 duel core 2.5 ghz. The bare minimum is duel core 2.4 ghz. You barely meet min requirements.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations has lower system requirements so it will likely play better.

_________________
Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak

I'm being told I need to buy a new laptop, and I was wondering if you guys could suggest something from PC world, I'd be uncomfortable spending more than £400.

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“One day you wake up and realize the world can be conquered.”

Zeph, so that mean two things(?):

Either I buy a better graphics card or better processor? Or should I buy both?

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Does the UK offer good specials on Black Friday or Cyber Monday in the UK, because if you can hold out till then you'll get more bang for the buck.


What video card do you have, and keep in mind with any upgrade it is about alleviating bottlenecks so it will only be as fast as your slowest component, and I don't know enough about your machine to know if you can meaningfully upgrade your cpu.

_________________
Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak

I have a NVIDIA Geforce 9400 ( w/ updated driver). What else do you need to know? :]

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You could use a new video card and processor. The problem is that it starts getting costly, because your motherboard doesn't support the higher end processors, so you'll want a mobo cpu, and video card, and maybe ram if the slots are not right. It can get expensive fast. I suggest you wait for black friday and see if you can get a combo deal.

Actually anyone looking to upgrade I suggest the same.

_________________
Zeph do you ever tire of being perfect? ~Dave
Zeph is still awesome though. ~Rival
I love you so much right now Zeph. ~Yoshi
I love you Zeph. You and your simple yet humorous topic-breakers. ~Coos
Zeph has left me inspired. ~Mathias
Zeph is so awesome even soulless bits of binary worship him. ~Wizard
Curse YOU ZEPH! CURSE YOU! ~JesusChrist
WE ARE SORRY THAT WE ARE NOT AS PERFECT AS YOU, ZEPH! ~Stufflikehearts
Zepherin for forum queen and writer of the best seller "how to screw your brethen up for dummies". ~ The Mirak