PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8nR0
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8nR0/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8nR0/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper N520 43.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($92.69 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($92.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5″ 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5″ 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Intel 320 Series 120GB 2.5″ Solid State Disk ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Intel 320 Series 120GB 2.5″ Solid State Disk ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($212.55 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($212.55 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill RANGER ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SN-208BB DVD/CD Writer ($28.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Acer G235HAbd 23.0″ Monitor ($148.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Hannspree HF225DPB 21.5″ Monitor ($135.74 @ Mwave)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($96.48 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Rosewill RK-9000 Wired Slim Keyboard ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Wired Laser Mouse ($49.94 @ Wolf Camera)
Total: $2088.80
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-18 16:42 EDT-0400)

PICTURES!

A little clarifaction: I started building this machine in October 2011. It took many months of research here and elsewhere to find the system I wanted. I was satisfied initially, until I decided I wanted a SSD based system, and I also wanted to implement Intel Storage Response Technology to cache my games and media. I waited until Black Friday to get a good deal, and Newegg delivered with a sale on the 320s, and Intel upheld their mail-in rebate. Some parts were bought cheap before the hard drive shortage, some were not. Overall it’s a good rough estimate of what went into this system. This parts list does not mention the Koltech USB 3.0 adapter I use to enable my front header USB ports (that’s the fat blue wire above the GPU). When I was buying the system, the motherboard said “USB 3.0 compatable” so in my mind I figured that meant I could use the front headers. I was wrong, but at least a solution existed.

I decided to benchmark this system with my most graphicly intense games at maximum quality with FRAPS. Tribes: Ascend plays at a buttery smooth 60 FPS. Team Fortress 2 with max quality config goes into the triple digits. Total War Shogun 2 displays at 70-90 FPS and at 40-50 FPS when in close combat. Skyrim with high resolution texture packs and many upon many mods runs at 60 FPS with occasional dips into 45-55 FPS. Crysis fluctuates between 50-65 FPS while Crysis 2 holds steady at 60 FPS. Metro 2033 gives FPS up to 100-110 but will sometimes slow down to 35-45 FPS. Battlefield 3 (my main motivation for building this rig in the first place) runs ultra quality at a barely tolerable 25-30 FPS, but I usually disable post-processing effects to get a 60+ FPS boost. The Witcher 2 is my most graphicly taxing game with ubersampling enabled. This is where my primary GPU reached its peak temperature of 78 degrees Celcius. Most gameplay holds between 30-50 FPS, but every so often dips way down to 19 FPS, usually whenever a filter effect is on screen. My entire library is accessable and play at 1080p resolution, and I’m quite pleased with the results.

I learned a ton while building this system, and made more than a few mistakes along the way. The first time I ever tried to boot the machine, nothing happened, then I realized one of the pin connectors of the PSU wasn’t supposed to go into the motherboard. It now powers the side fan that keeps my 560ti’s cooled. I initally didn’t use the motherboard standoffs when I first put this machine together and all was well, but the more I read into it the more I realized how much of a risk I was taking, so I put them in months after the first completed build. I used way too much thermal paste the first time I seated my heatsink. I see a noticeable difference in CPU temperatures after applying a lesser amount of Arctic Silver. Buying the cleaning kit may have also had something to do with it. I had a hell of a time trying to get the cache function to work, reinstalling Windows and fiddling with the BIOS multiple times. But like a caveman beating two rocks together often enough that he makes fire, I got it to work. I consider myself lucky none of the parts I bought were faulty, but there were many times along the way where I made a stupid mistake, I thought to myself “This is it. I’ve fucked this up permanently.” Everything worked out after all was said and done. I’m never buying a pre-built desktop again after this experience. I got exactly the system I wanted that I believe will last me until 2016, depending on where the technology goes. I’d like to try my hand at watercooling and multiple monitor gaming once I’m ready to start building again.

I learned a lot while making this little video. You can see in a few shots I was getting render errors and glitches. I could have gone back and rerecorded all of them but by then I had put a lot of work into it and came to the conclusion I may as well show the world the wacky bug-ridden mess that is Team Fortress 2. I’m surprised the folks at Valve software got it to work in the first place, so I’m not complaining. Towards the end of my recording I managed to capture high quality renders using a combination of the in-game replay system and FRAPS, which records game programs on the fly. It looked a lot better and was faster than waiting for TF2 to render a replay. This is how I’m going to record all my replays from now on for high quality footage. I’m also experimenting recording in other games, so be on the lookout for that. I used a handy utility for capturing all the music used in the video, a program called YouTube HD Downloader that will grab a copy of any video you want off YouTube. All I had to do was plug in the link and a copy was downloaded to my hard drive for use in any editing program.

So what makes a hat special? A hat is a unique status symbol, an individual statement about what kind of player you are. My hats were all acquired through trading, buying from the Mann Co. Store, or they dropped out of thin air while I was playing the game. I also made some deals on a forum called SourceOP that specializes in the buying and selling of more high value items. I also got really into painting hats just to make my TF2 characters stand out more, and it finally pulled through with this video. I have more hats than I know what to do with, but this is almost the entirety of my collection. I’m also a bit of a weapons collector. I would like to have one of each weapon in the game, but Valve keeps adding new stuff all the time and it’s hard to keep up. If you want to see all my goodies, click this link.

This video was a great opportunity to become familiar again with Adobe Premiere, video editing software that I used to work with in high school. Making videos on those old editing stations with multiple effects going on was a huge pain in the rear, which is why I’m so glad I invested in my new PC with 16 GB of RAM. Non-linear editing never felt so smooth. More next month on my rig and what went into it. It’s a beast.

Thanks for watching this video, and stay stylin’ out there!

The Internet never ceases to amaze me how quickly it can spread information and change the hearts and minds of its users. A new piece of social media has been making the rounds detailing the plight of African peoples who are dealing with the tyranny of warlord Joseph Kony. If you want to watch the video produced by non-profit organization (NPO) Invisible Children, all you have to do is Google “Kony 2012” and it will be the second or third hit. The video has been released for just one week and it already has tens of millions of views. A campaign-style documentary clocking in at slightly less than thirty minutes delivers a powerful message that takes cues from the likes of filmmakers Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock where the host, in this case Jason Russell, inserts himself directly into the story in order to make an emotional impact on the audience.

The film opens with the story of Jason Russell’s son’s birth. He affectionately names him Gavin, followed by a montage of Gavin’s short life so far. Russell describes how much he loves his son and wants to leave a better world for him to live in. His desire for a better future is juxtaposed with the past heinous crimes of Joseph Kony, a megalomaniacal serial killer that kidnaps children while their families sleep to unwillingly fight his guerilla wars in Uganda and the surrounding areas of central Africa. Kony’s crimes are particularly brutal, even by Africa standards, which earned him his spot as the number one wanted criminal by the ICC (International Criminal Court). His activities in Uganda have been dormant since 2006, but he is still hiding in the jungle with his child army.

The production values of the Kony 2012 documentary are impressive, sparing no expense at tugging the audience’s heartstrings. Jason Russell has been collecting footage for the movie since 2003, capturing the plight of the Ugandan people living in refugee camps, fearful of the next raid on their homes. He focuses on the story of one child who goes by the name of Jacob. Jacob’s brother became a victim of Kony’s army, murdered at a young age. As Jacob breaks down telling the story of his brother’s demise and what he would say to him if he were still alive, Russell makes a solemn vow to him. He swears he will put an end to Kony’s reign. Russell tries to explain all of this to his son, and Gavin is dumbfounded that one man can impose his will over so many innocent people.

The film goes on to describe Kony’s crimes, like mutilation of his victims and mass rapes used as psychological warfare. Kony’s army, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), claim to be crusaders for Jesus Christ, but like so many religious militant institutions it is merely a front to consolidate his own power. He indoctrinates his “family” of abducted children with violence. The boys are taught how to use firearms while the girls go into the sex trafficking industry, no doubt fueling Kony’s military escapades. The LRA wreck havoc in Uganda, Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It seems their cruelty knows no limits, displacing thousands of children with no families and no place to call home.

The resolution of the film talks about Jason Russell’s efforts with his NPO Invisible Children raising awareness of Joseph Kony all around the globe. He details his building of an emergency alert system via radio frequencies warning villages when the LRA comes for another raid. He plans for a massive poster and sticker placement campaign on April 20th, 2012 where pictures of Kony’s face will be placed in public spaces in as many cities as possible. The ultimate goal of the film is making Joseph Kony infamous, so much so that governments of the world will have to respond to the demands of the people to bring Kony to justice. This is where the Kony 2012 documentary shows it’s true colors. It’s not just a depiction on the warlord himself. It’s a propaganda piece designed with the far-reaching power of the Internet in mind. The viewer is urged to spread the message of Kony’s atrocities via social networks. Judging by the many millions of hits the video has had already, it’s an incredibly successful piece of propaganda, possibly the defining propaganda piece of the decade.

However the message behind Kony 2012 should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s unanimously agreed that Kony is an evil person who should be put before trial as soon as possible. But it begs the question: why Kony? Why not the many warlords operating within Africa that contribute to human suffering and misery? The government and military of Uganda, under the rule of president Yoweri Museveni, is guilty of committing the same war crimes Kony is accused of. To call the situation in Africa a “clusterfuck” is an understatement. There is no black-and-white clear-cut morality in the complicated political quagmire of the African nations. What motivation is there to single out one human being in a continent filled with sociopathic murderers? Social networks are already abuzz with conspiracy theories regarding the true nature behind Kony 2012. One plausible theory is that Invisible Children is a front for special interest groups looking for an excuse to occupy Uganda for its natural resources, chiefly crude oil. I hope this is not the case. The last thing the United States needs is another war. It would be futile anyways since Kony is hiding somewhere in the Congo jungle, not Uganda. President Obama has already committed 100 military advisors to Uganda in an effort to track down Kony. Any more military commitment would be a mistake. Another theory that came about as a result of this video showing Jason talking about Invisible Children in the context of doing work for God. The LRA also claims to be doing work for God. This boils down the conflict into a fight between soft fundamentalism (Invisible Children and mainstream religion) and hard extremist fundamentalism (the LRA, Al-Qaida, and all militant religious organizations).

2012 is going to be a year of transformative change. Citizens of the world have access to information at a rate never before possible that bypasses the establishment media. I admit I never heard of Joseph Kony before I saw Kony 2012. He’s been getting away with horrible crimes for decades because it doesn’t affect the powers that be. Then again, so have many militant leaders all around the globe. Bringing one person to justice isn’t going to solve the world’s problems. There will still be war, famine, disease and civil unrest even if Kony is captured or killed. Kony 2012 is a narrow-minded effort that turns a Facebook “Like” button into a form of activism. It’s a step in the right direction at least. Kony 2012 proves that the individual can bring great change if an issue sways the masses into believing that something needs to be done. Indeed something needs to be done, but this documentary comes up short on ways how to do it. Buying a “Kony 2012 Action Kit”, as the film implies you should do, won’t solve anything. There are no easy answers. I don’t want to tell you how to think. I ask only that you use your brain, and apply critical thinking to the messages and influences you receive. Question everything and believe nothing you hear or read until you can be sure beyond a shadow of a doubt it is true. If you want to help the people of Africa, find a NPO doing good work there, do your research and come to a conclusion which course of action you should take. Something extraordinary is going to happen as a result of this documentary, but what exactly will happen is anybody’s guess.

In this replay I push the cart only to get stabbed by pro spy Pulse. I’m sure Pulse is a nice guy in real life, but I hate his guts. I bet he’s French too.

That hat with the floating on fire pumpkin is mine. Quite sexy, don’t you think?

Here I show off my other hat, Ze Goggles with green confetti, alongside a heavy sporting a Heavy Duty Rag with circling heart, which player Tracker (who frequents RUGC West TOO) owns. We get in a couple ubers and look good doing it.

In this replay I’m the pyro. I think I’m capping the last point on cp_badlands when Blu team tries to stop me, so I freak out with a ring of fire. This was executed using a script called “Pyro Panic Button” I found on TF2Wiki. It looks like I’m swaying side to side but I’m actually moving in a continuous circle. The movement is too fast for the replay system to catch up on it. It’s a handy thing to have when death is imminent.

Here I have a bit of spawn camping fun at the start of a round, swiftly ended by a scout. Scouts are the bane of my existence while I play demoman. I also ran into another demoman with an unusual hat.

This is where I have a good long rampage on ctf_turbine. In total I made 11 kills thanks to getting some team support from the medic. Thanks ShigityShank!

Nothing too special here, just defending the intelligence from thieving scouts.

In case you haven’t guessed by now, demoman is my favorite class to play. I managed to get a two-for-one ullapool caber kill here (which is smacking someone in the face with a grenade, good times).

That’s all for now. Looking forward to this years Saxxys!

Hollywood corporate interests have made their influence well known in Washington thanks to two pieces of legislation that are the equivalent of treating a foot fungus by cutting off the foot. SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act is the version of the bill working its way through the House, and PIPA or Protect Intellectual Property Act is making its way through the Senate. Both versions of these bills want to put American internet on the same level as how it’s treated in China, Syria, Iran, and all those other fascist totalitarian countries that put up a huge firewall to keep it’s citizens in the dark. I’ve been an American all my life, and one thing I know for sure is that Americans don’t put a cap on the amount of knowledge we are allowed to ingest in our own free time. By having a free internet, everything we have ever known as a species is available just by having a distributed computing data network. This applies to history, culture, technology, everything we hold dear as a society can be looked up at the click of a mouse. Now the US government wants to restrict the free and open Internet just to please the MPAA and the RIAA, none of whom understand how the Internet works.

See that image I just posted there? According to SOPA, if Fox Entertainment ever got wind that I was using this image of Peter Griffin as a hilarious example of what I’m doing right now, they could shut my whole website down. The government firewall would tell my host provider to pull the plug on LurchWorld.com and I would be shit out of luck. One copyrighted image could ruin websites, and that would mean hell for crowd-sourced websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook, etc. My article “I Heart Music Mashups”, which still gets new comments after all this time, would be a thing of the past. That’s not the kind of world I want to live in. My civil liberties have been infringed bit by bit as time goes on, and I don’t think I’m alone in seeing that’s the road we are all heading towards. I thought this issue was resolved when President Obama said he supported Net Neutrality, dictating that all Internet Service Providers couldn’t favor which type of traffic travels through their networks. We have a free and open Internet and everybody is happy. I was wrong.

The obvious target of these bills is The Pirate Bay, that Swiss torrent website that gives users access to whatever people want to share on their hard drives inside their computers. The other target is Wikileaks, a rogue whistler blower organization giving people an anonymous avenue to reveal corruption in government. Another possible target is Anonymous, a loose left-wing organization of “hackivists” who are synonymous with the Occupy Wall Street movement. All three of these organizations must scare the hell out of whoever is pulling the strings behind SOPA and PIPA, and they all share one goal: the free and uninterrupted flow of information and knowledge that the Internet provides. The government must also be paranoid about cyber terrorists hacking our systems, a la the movie Wargames. But come on, you don’t think the CIA and FBI has a host of former script kiddies working day and night to make sure that doesn’t happen?

This is all about self-serving corporate greed influencing politics. The entertainment industry wants to paint themselves as victims of the Internet, their old business models are crumbling under the weight of the speed and convenience of the Internet. Here’s an interesting thought: maybe instead of equating piracy as a lost sale and thinking of it as a copyright infringement problem, take a look at how you deliver content to your audience and see it as a service problem. If you want to compete with pirates you have to make it even more convenient to buy it rather than download it off The Pirate Bay. iTunes is a good example of how to do it. I don’t understand why all the major studios have released their own distribution platforms on the Internet to let people download their movies and TV shows. What’s holding them back? Hollywood dinosaurs who refuse to change. They want people to buy overpriced CDs and DVDs from Walmart because that’s how it’s always been done. You want to download the latest Hollywood blockbuster you can watch on your Playstation or iPad at a fraction of the cost? No way Jose, buy our crap! We invested a lot of money into this crap and we expect you to buy it! Another simple way to bring in more revenue: stop charging so much for movie theater tickets. Compared to going to Redbox or using iTunes, the movie theater is an expensive waste of money after you have to buy the tickets, the popcorn, snacks and drinks, and in some cases pay for parking. It’s not worth it anymore to most people. I’d go to the movies more often if they weren’t so expensive.

I recently called my congressmen, and I’m happy to report that Rep. Todd Akin and Sen. Roy Blunt do not support SOPA and PIPA. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer hasn’t made a stance yet, and when I called Sen. Claire McCaskill her office lines were busy. They get a pass for now. I urge everyone who even slightly cares about the issue to make the call. Many websites have been on an Internet blackout today and lead you straight to your congresspeople’s phone numbers via zip code. For all you foreign readers, sorry about your luck, but we’re fighting on your behalf.

A computer is an infinite copying machine, and the government wants to tell you what you can and can’t do with one of the greatest inventions of mankind. Don’t let them do it.

KEEP THE INTERNET FREE.

Disc: 1
1. Brandenburg Gate
2. The View
3. Pumping Blood
4. Mistress Dread
5. Iced Honey
6. Cheat On Me

Disc: 2
1. Frustration
2. Little Dog
3. Dragon
4. Junior Dad

The musicians involved in this album are Lou Reed who wrote the lyrics and the members of Metallica (singer and guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo) who wrote the music. The basis for these songs comes from one of Lou Reed’s side projects for a concept album based on plays by Frank Wedekind. I am not familiar with this source material, but the only logical explanation as to why Lou Reed chose to write music based on weird sexual imagery and gory macabre in a William Shatner-esque sing-talking tone of voice–with Metallica backing him up–is because he was really high. It’s the same explanation for why his album Metal Machine Music exists. The combination of boring riffs and sudden drum rolls over Reed’s deadpan delivery of tales of castration and violent fetishes makes for a very strange listening experience. I’m not suggesting Lou Reed chose a bad source of inspiration for Lulu, but his mind-boggling decision to have it set to the tune of heavy metal makes one wonder aloud, “What the fuck was he thinking when he did this?!”

The songs in Lulu range from slow ballad jams to thrash metal paced tempos to strange atmospheric noises with guitars and violins. The ending track “Junior Dad” ends the album on a whimper, but not just any whimper, but almost ten minutes of solid nails-on-chalkboard stringed instrument noises. No melodies, no harmonies, just endless droning, much like the rest of the riff-based songs of Lulu. There is absolutely no justification for a double album of Lou Reed and Metallica sucking so badly, half of this album could have been cut and it would have been marginally better. But what makes this album fascinating is how well it thoroughly alienates Lou Reed and Metallica’s respective audiences. If you are a Lou Reed fan, you are going to hate the head banging rhythms of Metallica and James Hetfield ofttimes unintentionally hilarious backing vocals. If you are a Metallica fan, you are going to hate Lou Reed’s aging voice and angsty poetry. It brings into question why the people at Warner Bros. and Vertigo Records believed this recording would make money. Perhaps they thought the polar opposites of the two juxtaposed artists would pay off with the general public. This music is not made for the mainstream, and the established fan bases are pissed off. Lou Reed has already received the death threats treatment from die hard Metallica fans.

However I can’t completely discredit this album as a piece of shit printed onto a disc. The fact that this album was even made, the massive balls required of Lou Reed and Metallica to release such an unconventional album is admirable. It has its moments of glory, like the track “The View” where James Hetfield repeatedly confirms his status as The Table. The fast guitars of “Mistress Dread” make an excellent groove. The Black Sabbath style heavy jams of “Dragon” are also great jams despite the goofy Lou Reed bits. Even guitar solos are back in style, a feature of Metallica that has been sorely missing in recent years. Lulu is much better than Metallica’s latest album Death Magnetic, which was plagued with awful overproduced mastering and compression resulting in an intolerably loud record. I can actually imagine myself putting on Lulu in the background when I, let’s say, paint a fence or cook my eggs for breakfast. Something to listen to when it doesn’t matter what you’re listening to.

Lou Reed and Metallica are both guilty of producing turds for records in their careers, but this time they decided to produce a turd so different, so dazzlingly stupefying it sets it apart from all previous turds. Lulu is an arty and avant-garde album, but its search for new meaning in unfamiliar territory makes it significant. Its thought-provoking, mind-numbing, all around confusing cacophonies make it the most unique album of 2011. Lulu is better than 90% of the crap you can find on iTunes by a long-shot. However I’m partial to non-formulaic and strange music, so take this advice with a grain of salt. Lulu is worth your time if you want something different, something that challenges your musical sensibilities. If you’re set in your ways and you fear change, you can safely ignore this album.

**/***** (2 out of 5 stars)

This is called the Nimmo Bay Experience, and it’s a wild ride, and fantastically well produced. I can’t wrap my head around how they even got this to work as an interactive web-based application, but it’s a fine example of augmented reality. Pretty soon everything will be in interactive panoramic vision.

LurchWorld from Paul Fannon on Vimeo.

I’ve also made another video thanks to the folks at Valve who have made recording replays of Team Fortress 2 sessions better and easier than ever. I made a replay of me and both RED and BLU team joining forces to fight the most terrible of demons: THE MONOCULUS! It shoots rockets made of eyeballs at you!

And it was the best Halloween ever.

On an unrelated note, if anybody out there plays Battlefield 3 for PC, add me on Battlelog! I need squadmates to help me blow shit up!

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/user/lurchworld/

Let’s team up!

Here’s a list of the final specifications:

Case: Rosewill RANGER Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68
GPU: MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
PSU: Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
Monitor: HANNspree By Hanns-G HF225DPB Black 21.5″ Full HD WideScreen LCD Monitor
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

I’m very satisfied with how this build turned out. It crunches data really fast compared to the off-the-shelf PCs I’m used to. If I wanted the same build from Best Buy, there would have been at least a 100% markup. I’m also surprised that I could actually pull it off, but once you solve the numbers game behind what equipment you should get (that takes the most time to do), putting it together is like Legos. There’s instructions that come with the parts, and over the Internet, that outlines exactly what needs to be done to build your own computer. It’s very intuitive, and despite the risk of not knowing whether all this time and effort would pay off, I enjoyed watching my creation boot for the first time. The first time I flipped the power switch, I was greeted with sputtering and a lack of functionality. The system didn’t even go into POST (Power On Self Test). I sat there wondering if I was stuck with a $1000 paperweight, and then I found a common troubleshooting technique: unplug devices one by one until the culprit is found. Turns out I had a power cable plugged somewhere into the motherboard it didn’t belong. After disconnecting that and putting the rest of the cables back in, voila! It’s processing stuff!

Although this hurdle has been cleared, I’ve got more plans for this piece of circuitry.

To do list:
Add a couple of SSD drives to the rig to use the Intel Smart Response technology in the Z68 motherboard. This should make a fast computer even faster and should get done ASAP.
Add a second GTX560TI for extra awesome-sauce.
Add a new fancy CPU cooler for extra overclocking. I don’t trust any liquids in my rig, so it will have to be a fan.
Add a couple more fans to the case for extra cooling.
Add more monitors, for the fun of it.
Convert this rig into a functional Digital Audio Workstation. I’ve got MIDI controllers, but no M-Box to connect them to the PC.
Make more videos.

This is a really rough model, but basically it’s a double barreled sawed off shotgun for the Engineer. It will be similar to the Force-A-Nature, but I’m going to give it a southwestern American feel and look to it. I’m learning a lot about 3D modeling, for example you should never extrude an object into itself, because it will look weird once you start sculpting it. I’ve had to restart twice now modeling this, but hopefully it will be worth it. I’m going to model four weapons and two hats (hats are where the money’s at). I’d be honored if they ever get added to the game, but the extra income would be a nice perk.

In other news, I’ve secured the funds to build the Intel PC I’ve wanted, so look out for that next month. I’ve also made an entertaining TF2 replay, which you can watch here.