Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Game Review

This is one of the most beautifully detailed games I’ve seen in a while. It basically like a milestone in RPG and MMORPG games, definitely a game that should inspire others.

PC Upgrade!

Long time, no post! Oh well, I now have a good reason to post about something a bit interesting.

I upgraded my CPU from an Intel Pentium D935 3,2 ghz(2007) to an Intel Pentium E6500 2,93ghz(2009). I also bought an Arcting Cooling Accelero Pro for my Gigabyte Ati Radeon HD4850 video card. The results are astonishing.

Let me first talk about the initial configuration:

Intel Pentium D935 3,2 ghz
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 rev 3.3
4x Kingston Hyper-X 1GB DDR2-800mhz
Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD4850(512 MB)
Sirtec 560W

I believe I have a pretty decent rig for these days, even though it’s still on the good ol’ LGA775 socket. Everything ran smoothly, with the exception of CPU-intensive applications. Such as 3D renderings or mapping for half-life. Well, there were even games that had a significant drop in performance because of the CPU. GTA4 is a good example.

Since the budget is not a bright part when it comes to upgrading, I had to think well my next upgrade. I originally intended to save money for an i7 860 platform. I came to the conclusion this is not a viable option for me at this time, so instead I researched for a modern LGA775 CPU that is compatible with my motherboard. I found the E6500 intel processor, released in 2009. I had to upgrade my BIOS to the latest version, and that was the part that gave me emotions. A simple power fluctuation and I could kiss my mobo goodbye!

Anyway, everything was alright. I was impressed by the size of the stock cooler the E6500 has. I mean, it’s a lot smaller and light-weight than the other one. I was also impressed by how well the new GPU cooler cools it. A drop of 30 degrees celsius is something! So anyway, I’ll cut the story here and show you the results:

• the pc now consumes 83w in idle, as opposed to 120w. It turns out the old CPU was rather inefficient.

• the new CPU has an awesome increase of performance, consumes a lot less and it’s less hot( same temperatures with the other, but remember that its stock cooler isn’t as massive as the D935′s, and it doesn’t have a copper bottom(the old one had))

• SuperPI 1M calculation now takes 19,5 seconds, as opposed to 41 seconds for the old CPU

• overall system performance is increased: from a score of 5688 3Dmark06 now reports 10708 !!

• since I installed the new cooler on the video card, it sits below 40C (~38C). With the original cooler it sat at 79C, which is damn hot for idle! in Full Load it doesn’t exceeds a bit 60C( max 65C). Well, with the old cooler it was ~90C in Full Load. I have to specify that now the cooler is very quiet.

Here’s a general look to my system and the benchmarks. Everything runs at default settings( no OverClocking).

Right click on the image and select "view image" to see it at full res

 

Pictures showing the installation of the Accelero Pro cooler on the Gigabyte Ati Radeon HD4850 card:

 

 

 

Minecraft

http://www.minecraft.net/

I’ve been recently testing a cool new game that’s called “Minecraft“. It’s a sandbox game were you can alter everything in the world and extract certain resources to produce different tools that will allow you to extract even more resources, or the same resources but faster.

The game is still in its alpha stages, and it currently costs about 10 euros, but after it’s finished it’ll cost 20 euros.

You may be thinking “well, ok, but this seems to be rather old”. No, it’s still being developed, the project started in 2009. It looks like this because the “world” this game generate is huge, if those blocks(even poorly textured) were… well.. not blocks, you wouldn’t be able to play the game on a normal computer. I saw there are some mods though, like highdef textures.

It’s both browser-based and downloadable, and you can play it in multiplayer.

Oh, did I say it also features rail tracks and mine carts?

It’s a fun little game that can be a good time waster .

Here’s a fun minecraft rollercoaster somebody built:

 

Frets on Fire

I was anyway lacking any ideas of what to post, so I made a video presentation for an open-source game I like: Frets on Fire.

Youtube link

It’s a fun game to play when you’re bored, and it’s meant to be customizable: it comes with only 3 tracks for some training, but after that you can go to http://www.fretsonfiresongs.com/ and download whatever you enjoy.

Enjoy!

How to make a cheap microphone windscreen

Well, I was talking with a friend of mine about a method to cancel out the “breath” when you speak into a microphone, especially because I can’t afford a professional microphone.

He gave me a link to a video. It’s very cheap and practical, and although this is for a computer mike, it could wonderfully work on a microphone while recording something in the nature.

USB LED Glow Stick Tutorial

Am facut un tutorial pentru un concurs in care se cere sa ai durata maxima de 30 de secunde. N-am putut altcumva decat sa accelerez vorbitul intr-un program, veti da pauza de cate ori vreti sa observati ceva in detaliu .

Din pacate tutorialul este in engleza, dar majoritatea stiti limba engleza

Pc Coolers !!!

Today I bought myself a 12 cm cooler. Wow ! This baby’s like an airplane ! , it will surely make some good airflow in my case.

I uploaded some pictures with it, and also with my pc

Here’s the gallery :

Bun venit pe blogul meu !

Salut , imi pare bine sa vad ca am vizitatori deja . Blogul e in “constructie” . Adica trebuie sa-l finisez , sa-l fac mai “custom” .

Nu pot sa spun exact pe ce teme se vor axa articolele mele . E greu de spus ….  Dar hai sa vedem pasiunile mele mai intai ca sa va faceti o idee :

• Natura si Spatiul ( nu prea le am cu cunostintele dar imi place sa citesc despre ele )

• Stiinta ( pot sa categorisesc putin )

1. Electricitate
2. Calculatorul ( lol , ceva normal )
3. Aproape tot ? =))

• Imi place mappingul de half-life 1 dar in ultima vreme am lasat-o mai moale din cauza ca mi-am luat o placa video Ati si am probleme cu hammer editorul
• [EDIT 27 septembrie 2009] M-am cam reprofilat pe Source mapping (hl2 )
  
• Jocurile ( cui nu-i plac ? …. )
• ETC …..

Deci articolele mele se vor avea teme de gen DIY ( sub forma de tutoriale ) si “prostiile” care le fac eu …. umm “experiente” cum imi place sa le numesc