Benchmarks comparison with AMD versus Conroe in Crossfire

These two benchmarks from GotFrag disturb me:

Billy's Core 2 Duo "Conroe" E6700 with a 975XBX motherboard, 2GB OCZ DDR2 RAM and a single X1900 XTX ATI videocard gets better frame rates than the E6800 listed here on ultra high quality. True, his max FPS was less, and his average was 53, not 57 (but then, he wasn't doing the exact same things) but his minimum was 38! Not 18!

I took one look at this and I thought "This is because of Nvidia gayness." and I was right. Nvidia Videocards are behind this travesty of justice, this misuse of CPU powerhouses.

Bah! I spit in their general direction.

Deadwood: Suckage

I saw the last episode of Season 3 (series got canned by HBO), and it totally fucking sucked, pardon my French.

"It told us so much about each of the characters."

It contradicted everything that the characters have established. I'm not appealing for a bloodbath, but some preservation of the characters that we have all seen develop through the seasons, even if it was Bullock's use of his badge to thwart Hearst in some way. To see them all buckle tells us that it was all just an act. That they were nothing more than the "bullies" that Bullock lamented about to Hearst. What was this? The author's way of telling us he had us all fooled?

And more generally, when an author foretells of something within a story, and uses lots of devices to build to it, but then doesn't follow through with it, it's very reasonable for an audience to be unsatisfied. The author seems to have indulged a bit too much here for the audience's liking. The conclusion he deprived us of was the hook that kept us coming back, and we feel cheated."

This sums my feelings up. Seth didn't act like Seth, nor Al act like Al, and on down the line. Even Cy seems oddly out of character, although he's been erratic since he nearly died at the ending of the 2nd season.

Fucking stupid, I say, for all the reasons listed above. Limber dick cocksuckers, as the great Ellsworth said. It continues...

"To those people here that mistook people standing down to Hearst as being anticlimactic, what's happened here is that Deadwood has shown itself to be strong by showing itself to be united. "

Bullock loses the election. Ellsworth leaves town. Who knows what will happen to Charlie since Bullock loses. The Doc is dying. What's so united about this? Their futures are all left hanging. We have no idea of what happens next.

I don't even think it's historically accurate. Bullock was the sherrif of the town from it's inception. There is no mention of his defeat so shortly after being appointed sherrif. History places him as the sherrif there for quite a while and that he restored "Law and Order" in the town.

"It's about priority, and learning to adapt. And we see that in everyone's decisions, right down to Charlie accepting the tea instead of coffee. Hearst's departure is worth a fucking lot to everyone in the camp. And Hearst has seen how unpleasant it is for him to be there, the poor put-upon delusional cocksucker. It's win-fucking-win. Everyone's standing up to Hearst, saying "we know you have the power to destroy us but we aren't gonna suck your ass pretending we like you." But they misunderestimate him as much as he misunderestimated them when he showed up in the town. He'll still be a presence, but again, the camp will adapt."

And what exactly is attractive about a story where everyone gives into corrupt power and and conforms? They aren't standing up, to Hearst whatsoever. If you think that Charlie's and Seth's little speaches to Hearst were not pretending, you lend too much weight to hollow words.

Basically, the characters acted contrary not only to their established character:

1. The impulsive, righteous Sheriff not only did nothing, but he didn't even object to an innocent whore being murdered in place of another, as demanded by the Big Bad Guy Hearst.
   
2. The conniving bad guy allied with the good guys bends over for the Big Bad Guy Hearst and kills one of his own whores to placate him - and not even the right one. Supposedly, that was something nice he did - but I object. Even Al didn't think it was "fair."
   
3. Alma sells her claim to Big Bad Guy Hearst because he had her sweet, noble old husband murdered. Nevermind Ellsworth would be thumping and thrashing in his grave at this.
   
4. We had nearly every character in town gunning for Big Bad Guy Hearst and they fucking have him just stroll away with armed Pinkertons. He got all he wanted and everyone in town proved they were wussies, that everything the series had established was a lie.
   

My PureXS from All American Computers

See my Google Page / Shrine on this PC, complete with pictures, a link to every blog post, and thoughts.

• CPU:
  INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6700 2.66GHZ 4MB CACHE
• MOTHERBOARD:
  INTEL D975XBX 1066FSB CF CORE 2 MB
• RAM:
  OCZ 800MHZ DDR2 2X1024MB GOLD XTC DIMMS
• CASE:
  LIAN LI PC-V1000 B BLACK ALUMINUM CASE
  CLEAR SIDE PANEL
• FANS:
  120MM RED LED CASE FAN (TWO)
• POWER SUPPLY:
  620 WATT ENERMAX LIBERTY POWER SUPPLY
• VIDEOCARDS:
  ATI 512MB X1900 XT PCI-E CROSSFIRE CARD
  ATI 512MB X1900 XT PCI-E CARD
• HARD DRIVES (RAID 0):
  SEAGATE 320 GIG 7200 RPM SERIAL ATA HD
  SEAGATE 320 GIG 7200 RPM SERIAL ATA HD
• DVD/CD DRIVE:
  NEC ND-3550AGBP DVD+/-RW DUAL LAYER BK
• OPERATING SYSTEM:
  MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION
• SOUNDCARD:
  CREATIVE X-FI XTREME MUSIC EDITION
• SPEAKERS:
  1X-530 Logitech 5.1 Speaker set
  
• WARRANTY & SUPPORT:
  SYSTEM / 1 YEAR PART-3 YEAR LABOR WARR.

Mmmmmm... E6700 with Crossfire...
I should have this next week.

I have a lot of friends who want to see this rig (7 of them). An old high-school buddy invited me to Kissimmee to see it! I can remember when his Silicon Graphics (SGI) Indigo 2 was incredible - saw bump-mapping in hardware on a then $20,000 SGI workstation, 8 copies of non-multithreaded Unix DOOM ran on it. Now even my old gaming rig outperforms it for video (but not rendering, I think).

I digress. That is normal.

Paul (cousin), Billy (the Pitbull), Brandon, Dennis, Chris (Kissimmee), Jock & Christian!

I'm being Stalked!

My good friend, Chris Brown, found me. Actually he already knew everything - he had seen www.GamersGoneBad.com, my Blog (which is linked from there) and Google Home Page (with pictures of me & mine).

Drastically cool to be back in contact with him.

Darn it, he lives all the way down in Kissimmee though.

My PC: What I'm about to order

This is what I plan to order later today from All American Computers.

E6700 (2667 C2)
INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6700 2.66GHZ 4MB CACHE

MB 975XBX
INTEL D975XBX 1066FSB CF CORE 2 MB

2x DIMM 2GB 800MHZ
GEIL 800MHZ DDR2 2X1024MB VALUE DIMMS

CASE LL V1000B
LIAN LI PC-V1000 B BLACK ALUMINUM CASE

CLEAR SIDE PANEL

2x FAN 120MM RED
120MM RED LED CASE FAN

PWR ATX LIB620
620 WATT ENERMAX LIBERTY POWER SUPPLY

VID 512 X19XT
ATI 512MB X1900 XT PCI-E CARD

HD 320 SEA SATA
SEAGATE 320 GIG 7200 RPM SERIAL ATA HD

DVDR 3500AGBP
NEC ND-3550AGBP DVD+/-RW DUAL LAYER BK

SOFT MS WINXP H
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION

SETUP & CFG
SYSTEM / 1 YEAR PART-3 YEAR LABOR WARR.

The soundcard isn't listed here because I'm not sure what I'm getting - Audigy SE (5.1, EAX, all hardware, but no extra features) or something juicier.

I also want a 2nd hard drive for RAID 0, but I'm not sure I can afford it, which also affects the soundcard.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

Britney Spears - White Trash

What a wonderful example this girl puts on for the youthful daughters of America.

And her boyfriend, who is no mental giant himself, displays how much smarter he thinks he is than her in his voice. He must think he's real big to be able to talk down to an unarmed opponent who happens to be a celebrity.

Jose Francisco's Fear Response

Jose Francisco is my 15 month-old baby boy. [pictures]

Jose Francisco climbed up into the rocking chair, which was padded on the seat and back, and proceeded to rock it. Maria, my wife, heard the noise and turned just in time to see him roll the chair over backwards and BANG! the whole house heard the crack on the kitchen floor. Jose, who was now on his hands and knees on the back of the chair, immediately exclaimed "Oh!" and then growled at the chair, gripping it with his little hands and shaking it.

He was mad at it, probably for scaring him.

Curious, I tried a game. Jose Francisco came up to me whilst I was sitting on the couch and I watched him and suddenly shouted "AARH!" and reached as if to grab him painfully. He startled and then laughed at me.

My baby girls, when they were his age, would have cried instantly.

I did it again. He startled, and laughed. Before I could do it again, Jose Francisco said "ah!" at me and motioned his little hands at me. I pretended to be scared, and he laughed some more. This went on for 5 minutes until dad had gotten tired of the game.

A week later I was taking my daughters to bed, tucked them in and turned out the light. Jose Francisco stood at the doorway, the hallway lit only by the television in his mother's room (and mine). I lurked back inside slowly and moaned like a zombie. Jose Francisco followed and tried to see me.

I lunged at him and growled and Jose Francisco squealed in scared delight, turn and ran. We repeated this - each time I would descend deeper into the room and lure him farther, and if I could catch up to him I would tickle the small of his back with my fingernails, and he thought this was wonderful. Three times he fell and bonked his head on something, twice the bed, once the wall. He never cried, he'd just get back up and scramble out of the room, like that was the only thing he had time to worry about.

Then I'd creep back into the room, and moan, and he'd come in again. I'd moan longer, make him come in farther into the black room, and repeat the whole process.

I must admit, having grown up in an abusive household where I got to know the local Alachua County Sheriff Deputies who'd come to visit, I find myself fascinated with my son's fear response, and have a strong desire to let him explore his natural strengths in a controlled environment before he grows 4 (at which point, psychologically, our core personalities are set).

Well the other day I went to the bathroom and didn't bother to turn on the light. Jose Francisco loves to follow me into the bathroom because he wants to watch the toilet and have me help him wash his hands and brush his teeth. If I miss the hand washing he'll complain ("uhn uhhhn!") and try to close the door until I remember. With a Mexican mother and a father grown up on a ranch, he doesn't get his own way when it's bad, but when he's right - he's right.

Well this day he came into the pitch black unlit bathroom and had no idea I was there. He went straight for the counter and started trying to reach for something to grab. I got up and "AAARHH!" shouted at him.

"AH!" he exclaimed and then immediately yelled back at me "ARRH!" and his little body lunged forward with his arms up - obviously still terrified in the instant but his response lacked any thought to it.

I turned on the light and he saw me and gave me this look, like I had just betrayed him in some small way - the look he gives me when I pick him up because he asks, and then I realize he wants me to take me with him in the van and I can't, so I hand him off to his mother, whom he can't break free of as he can with his sisters. I apologized and held him for a bit. Then it was off to play.

"If you're going to make yourself available dad, I have something else I'd like to do."

I understood him, completely.

The last line of the Bushido Creed reads:
"I have no sword; I make No Mind my Sword."

I think of Jose Francisco's reaction and marvel at him. With proper training (I plan on introducing him to Jujitsu at 5) he'll have all the confidence he needs in life. He is 15 months old and he already growls at me if I admonish his sisters in front of him, or any other thing he feels protective about.

I wonder, what will he do when he's 18.

Jones'ing

I want my E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz with 2GB RAM and an ATI X1900 XT custom built and loved by All American Computers / AAC Direct so badly.

It will have a clear side panel with lighted fans and, depending on how much cash I can save, maybe two hard drives running RAID 0 (striped).

My 21" Hitachi Perfect-Flat CRT has two VGA ports, and a button for each input on the front. When I want the Web, I will press a button on my monitor, juggle a keyboard and mouse (that's the only hard part) and I shall be satiated.

My gaming rig, while able to see what my wife's future PC (Clara, my 4 year-old gaming rig) has downloaded for her, will not have any shares of her own. Nay, other than authentic Microsoft Windows updates, she may not even know the sinful pleasures of a Web Browser (though, I'll still install Firefox).

Oblivion is already mine. Victor let me play it, and F.E.A.R., on his PC last Sunday. FEAR was cool, because the AI really try to flank you - run for cover, duck, shoot, and use teamwork. Victor said "You did all right" but to me, playing this AI was great. It was like Day of Defeat without all of the online assholes. These assholes had only one purpose in life: to work together and either die or force me to reload. Unfortunately, FEAR is linear, so the only thing there is to do is skulk about looking for where the next ambush area is. If you are careful enough, you get to be the ambusher.

I also have Rise of Legends as of today, which I may install on my aging PC.

Oblivion? What can I say about it? It's Oblivion. That's like saying - it's sex. What more can be said about sex? Other than at some level, we all want it. And Oblivion is like a happy marriage - you know it won't end, and it's there for you every single night, and you can't stop loving that. Kind of like - well okay! Enough about me.

I want my computer.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

More on my conversation with Kyle with AAC Direct

This is part two of a blog post. See part one.

I quote Kyle, owner of AAC Direct, as best I can from memory. I am not Plato, and I do not have photographic/eidetic memory.

Summary:
The purpose of this text is to show Kyle's enthusiasm for gaming PC's, his strategies and generally, why I liked what I was hearing.

PureXS versus LiquidXS:
The LiquidXS is what put them on the map on the Internet, near as I can tell. Each clear "see through" case is custom-built (not pre-fabricated) and laser-etched. Everything is water-cooled, and as Kyle said "No expense is spared (depending on the budget of the customer - Dave)." He went on to say "But while the LiquidXS makes a statement... the PureXS is about packing the best hardware we can into a case and giving our customers a PC that just works. We're interested in performance measurement per dollar. A system like the one you're ordering should be around 10,000 points on 3dMark2006. 2006! (his emphasis - Dave)"

Now I know that number is impressive, because I've read about a guy building a Quad SLI system using two power supplies, two Nvidia 7950 GX2's, everything watercooled, just to get that score.

Related to the 3dMark score, we got into a big discussion about Conroe technology, why he was packing an E6700 CPU instead of two X1900 XT's in my system (for true Crossfire, rather than Crossfire ready), and it boiled down to the fact that the CPU was more important than doubling up the videocards. "Without that CPU, you'll never realize the potential of Crossfire." Well, I'd see a difference, but he was right. Most people get that wrong.

Lights as Artwork:
I'm also getting a window side-panel and lighted fans. Kyle asked me what color I wanted, and I told him "I'm an artist. I like almost every color. And as an artist, I'm not going to tell another artist what to draw - you put together what looks good to you." He didn't get it at first, and I explained further "Artists are used to looking at things other people want to draw and finding the value in it. So when I get the computer, I'll think 'This is what AAC feels looks good for the parts they had to work with.' and I'll be happy. Why tell you what I think should be in it? (as far as lights & layout) I don't make computer art every day, you do."

He got it, and apparently it impressed him. He got all enthused about having the freedom to put the case together because he started talking about how a lot of customers demand this or that and - they have to put it in, but it's not a good idea in his mind. So I knew what he was getting at.

Cheaper Shops:
"Places like CyberPower will sell you a cheaper system, but they don't put in quality parts like we do (and they don't test their systems - Dave). In our LiquidXS systems, I use $20 solid steel switches - two of them. That's $40 - for switches. So that just goes to show what we put into a LiquidXS."

Horror Story:
He went on with a horror story, "I hate to tell you this before you place an order, but we had one client that wanted Quad SLI, and that is very hard to configure, works on only a few games and we really don't recommend it. But if the customer wants it... so anyway, we were using the (Nvidia 7800 series if memory serves - Dave) and they had a lot of problems. We built his system and tested it with our burn-in and it died. So we kept replacing parts. Eventually we got the system working, but it had graphical gliches in one of the games we tried. So we went through 5 sets of videocards - 10 cards, before we got it right. It took us much longer than anticipated, but when we shipped him the system, it ran every game we put on it without problems."

"Now, we could have just shipped him the PC as soon as it got working. Maybe he'd never play those games." But Kyle and his team apparently couldn't bring themselves to do that.

AAC Direct's Modus Operandi:
And that, in a nutshell, is Kyle's modus operandi. He talked to me about his business strategy a bit, namely "I think there is a place between the Falcon Northwest computers and the cheap gaming rigs of CyberPower. I want the PureXS to be that alternative to an overly costly system and a system that's (a roll of the dice)."

He understood the cost of materials, how much the silver, gold, and metals cost. The lead-free system compliancy.

The most important point I found was that Kyle believed if he provided a great product that showed a personal touch "I never want (my company) to get as big as Falcon Northwest", that word of mouth and reviews would sell systems and they would always have business. Without saying it, the inverse was implied - selling systems that weren't fully tested would kill his Internet "street cred." He knows that.

To AAC Direct, getting it right isn't a percentage value because they are small and intend to stay small. Getting it right is the reason their customers come to them.

That's Kosher Computing.

If you like, take an inside look at their operation.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers