Found some extra money in the last paycheck...

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Partly due to my traveling so much and getting a nice per diem (about 200 dollars worth this time, and 250 on my next reimbursement). And it was partly due to me having to adjust my withholding for my income taxes. I'll have a tiny surplus, which is better than the last two years (paying 800 then 1700). So I went ahead and got a couple of things:

Radeon X1950 XT
It's a decent card from the reviews and customer feedback.

Cooler for the beast above

Some RAM, which I found I am severely lacking



And I've been keeping my eye on combo deals for motherboards and CPUs. I already picked up a new PS a while back because my old one was on the fritz.

I'm thinking of just staying with a socket 939 cpu and mb at the moment. Most of the AM2 MBs that I have seen seem to take DDR2 RAM.

It's one of those balancing acts this time around, I think.



I still have to find a case to put all of this in. My koolance one is great, but its setup might not be suitable for these other parts and that cooler/video card combo.

My fiance really wants an LCD, even though this 8 year old CRT is working just fine (and with pretty good image quality, I might add). But I can see her point about desk space. And I can see the point of radiation leakage (you'd be suprised with one of the guns on the back of these things!) But dangit, this thing has seen me all through college, to LAN parties, across two states, been rained on (left the window open my first winter here in the desert), and it still works flawlessly!

[XMEN Gambit]

Advantages CRT has over LCD:

Cost
Refresh speed
Color depth
Works well with multiple resolutions


Advantages LCD has over CRT

Size
Super-crisp at native resolution
Power consumption
Radiation/magnetic field


So, as with so many other things, it depends on what you want.

[DarkKnife]

Radiation?

I have changed your screen settings to slowly change your DNA to that of a perimecium.

[Spinning Hat]

I'm surprised you can spell perimecium Dk.. I've got a 17" LCD, and I love it. And with your new card, you may *May* be able to play most games at 1280 x 1024 with a decent framerate.

[BlackRider]

I still play EVERYTHING at 1024x768... idk why...

[XMEN Gambit]

I'm surprised you can spell perimecium Dk..

He can't. It's paramecium.

[Spinning Hat]

hahaha.. Leave it to Gambit...

[DarkKnife]

And I was feeling pretty good about myself.
THANKS FOR NOTHING ICE!!!(edit)eeerrr I ment Gambit.
THANKS FOR NOTHING GAMBIT!!!!!(/edit)

Hey I was pretty close.
TTTHHHHPPPTTTTT!!!! (Little spittle on that one)

–noun, plural -ci‧a /-ʃiə, -siə/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[-shee-uh, -see-uh] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation. any ciliated freshwater protozoan of the genus Paramecium, having an oval body and a long, deep oral groove.

hehehe oral groove.

[XMEN Iceman]

Me???? I said nothing!

That was Gambit!

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Yes. Radiation.

The backside of your CRT monitor (the unshielded side), is a great source of soft x-rays.


Though it's not any bigger of a dose than you get flying in an airplane.

The reason why is that you are accelerating electrons. And some of those accelerated electrons spontaneously emit radiation and slow down. You are shielded relatively well by the screen of your CRT.


I'm not too worried about the radiation stuff though. I probably get irradiated by higher doses at work from the radar towers.
And hey, at least the CRT's backside is not pointed at my nads or anything. (No, I don't try to "have my way" with my monitor...)

[DarkKnife]

Hey I just like blaming stuff on Ice.
You know mortar in the small of my back...
Nuclear Weapon Proliferation....
The Destruction of the Space-Time Continium.....
Gambits excellent spelling Skills...
etc.
etc..
etc...