Marco's RTG

Anytime there is a massive LAN party going on filled with hardcore enthusiasts and avid PC gamers, you can always expect a wide assortment of heavily modded systems to be on display. Of course, with the GeForce LAN going on within the NVISION 08 conference in San Jose this past week, there were a ton of modded systems at the event.  While there, I snapped a few pictures of some of the amazing creations that were part of CPU Magazine's Ultimate Case Mod Challenge...

   
NVISION 08 Case Mod Gallery

You may have seen a few of these rigs on the cover of CPU Magazine in the past. As you can see, the creativity and craftsmanship of these rigs are second to none. I especially liked the Battlestar Galactica mod with the five, small screens on the front--I couldn't believe those were working displays. And the TRS-80 mod is just plain cool for a long-time geek like me.
 

I love technology.  I know that's probably pretty obvious to anyone who comes to a site named "HotHardware", but I just had to say it.

So, what has inspired me to state the obvious in this blog post?  The Olympics.  As my partners in crime here on the site can attest, I'm not much of a sports guy.  Save for idolizing Roy Jones Jr. and following boxing and a little bit of MMA, I don't stay on top of any other sport.  But when the Olympics roll around, for some reason, I watch daily--no matter the event.  Perhaps it's because I feel a sense of pride and want to root for my countrymen whenever they compete.  Or maybe it's because I recognize the greatness in some of the competitors.  Whatever the reason, the Olympics suck me in every time.

This particular Olympics, however, has really gotten me excited.  And it's not because Michael Phelps kicked so much ass or that Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took the gold and silver in the women's all-around.  That helped.  But it's because watching the events in HD on a flat screen TV is a totally different experience than was possible on a clunky, old, standard def CRT.  And I don't even have an elaborate home theater set up (yet).  The put it simply, the HD experience is just plain better.

In addition to enjoying the games in much higher resolution, with more vivid color, and better audio, I also enjoyed seeing how technology had enhanced the games in so many ways.  The digital overlays on the water made it much easier to track the swimmers as they made their way across the pool (eating Michael Phelps' wake).  The "world record line" that showed the exact position the swimmers and runners needed to be in to break a record was just plain cool.  And the myriad of different floating, flying, or rolling cameras that gave viewers clear shots of the athletes from almost any angle--without detracting from the events--were also great.  The laptops and digital video that helped judges pick out deficiencies in a gymnast's routine.  Out of bounds sensors.  Pressure pads that could discern the touch of an athlete with .001 second resolution.  Touch sensors in the protective fencing suits.  Great, Great, Great, and Great.

All of the people involved, from the athletes, to the cameramen, to the laborers that built such top notch facilities should be commended.  My opinion may not be indicative of everyone, but these Olympic games have been my favorite so far.  The drama certainly helped.  But, for me, all of the great technology on display did as well.

Or maybe it was just Alicia Sacramone.

Everyone that has dared enter my office / lab over the last couple of years has noticed that I burn through input devices like Joey Chestnut through a pile of Nathan's Hot Dogs on the Fourth of July. It is not because I am particularly hard on them, it's just that I have a bit of OCD and can't (or don't want to) tolerate imperfections, whether they be aesthetic or performance related. Being the true geek that I am, I also like to experiment with the latest and greatest mice and keyboards, so needless to say Microsoft, Logitech, and Razer have all gotten their fair share of my disposable income.

Over the past year and a half or so, I have had three or four different mice installed on my personal machine, and six different keyboards. The wireless devices in this group were all retired fairly quickly--I can't stand keyboard lag and hate fighting with a cordless mouse that goes to "sleep" too quickly, especially when doing fine work, like trying to select a single pixel in Photoshop for example. Annoying!

Up to this point, my favorite keyboard has been a Unicomp Customizer. The Customizer is a vintage looking clicky keyboard that's built like the old IBM model M or Northgate Omnikey keyboards of days past. The Customizer was great to work with, but the loud, clicky keys were somewhat annoying to those around me, so it was relegated to one of my test platforms, which doesn't get nearly as much use daily. I also liked my Razer Tarantula, but wasn't too fond of its tactile feedback--the keys felt a little mushy to me. And Logitech's Wave and Microsoft's Comfort Curve were OK too, but they just didn't quite hit the mark.

Then recently I was given the opportunity to try a couple of keyboards from Enermax and think I may have a new overall favorite. Many of you probably know Enermax for their popular line of power supplies, but they also make a myriad of PC accessories and peripherals. I specifically had a chance to try their Aurora Premium and Caesar keyboards. What make these keyboards standout from many others is their diamond cut, brushed and anodized aluminum construction, with scissor key switches, and pseudo-notebook style keys. The aluminum construction of the Caesar and Aurora give them a very sturdy feel and also make them heavy enough to stay put when gaming or typing (think ~3lbs.). The scissor style key switches, which reside under a rubber membrane, give the keys excellent tactile feedback and provide enough of an audible click to make users realize they have actually pressed a key. The shorter, notebook-like keys took some getting used to, but as someone who switches between a desktop and notebook constantly, I found the keys easier to get re-acclimated to after road trips or extended sessions with my notebook. Other useful features of these Enermax keyboard are their built in USB 2.0 hubs, USB audio controllers for the headphone and microphone jacks, and three height adjustable stands. And the Caesar also has 10 media keys that have come in handy under Windows Vista.

So far, the only drawbacks to the Enermax Aurora and Caesar keyboards have been their small backspace and backslash keys and oversized enter keys, and the quality of the finish on each key. These keyboards mimic older keyboard layouts that had jumbo, backwards L-shaped enter keys, which definitely took some getting used to. And the finish on the keys as already begin getting shiny from use, which is somewhat disappointing considering they are only a couple of weeks old. Ultimately though, at least for me, the positives outweigh the negatives, so I don't foresee a keyboard update anytime soon. If, however, Enermax updates these units with a new layout that features a standard enter key, and the keys get treated to an anti-shine coating ala HP's 2133 Mini-Note, I'll be all over 'em.
 

So, late yesterday a couple of in-game screenshots landed in my inbox of id software's upcoming game Rage. Normally, I don't get overly excited when news of a hot, new gaming title first hits. Maybe it's because I've been a computer gamer since the early days of the Commodore 64 and I'm somewhat desensitized to the whole thing after all of these years. Or maybe it's because I get to see so many A-list titles during their development cycle working here at HotHardware that I immediately begin to compare one to another. Whatever the case may be, I have to admit Rage has me intrigued.

 
Acutal In-Game Screenshots from id's upcoming game Rage

I am the type of gamer that can't get into games that are overly cerebral. I will make exceptions for some of the more outstanding titles, but generally I like to fire up a game and get into the action right away--with as little thought as possible. Just to give you a bit of insight, most of my current game time is filled with short spurts of Unreal Tournament 3 mixed in with some GRID here and there for good measure. Call of Duty 4 also sucked me in right away and I tried to get into Crysis, but it crashed on me too often when it was first released and I haven't given it another chance yet.

I think I'm excited by Rage because it mixes my two favorite types of games, first person shooters and racing simulations. In addition to that though, I'm also anticipating this title more than many others because even at this relatively early stage of its development, it's obvious that id has put an extraordinary amount of effort into the finer visual details. And I'm not talking about John Carmack's obvious gifts when it comes to developing game engines. I'm talking about the team of talented folks behind him that pick up on the myriad of subtle details that enhance the realism of imagery that is obviously out of the realm of reality.

Source: Shacknews

If you haven't already done so, check out the extended trailer for Rage that was posted over at Shacknews. Forget for a second who is coding the game, or its genre, and just try to pick out some of the subtle details throughout. At the :32 mark, listen to the sound of the engine revving in relation to the buggy's motion. Note the high quality, cinematic use of Depth of Field effects during the FPS sequences, the realistic skin tones of the character at 1:13 mark and the subtle, tentative movements of the creature right after. Also note the physics properties employed at the 1:47 mark and the excellent explosions and dust trails. Those are the types of little things that really help suspend reality in my opinion, and suck people into certain games. Of course, the actual game-play is of the utmost importance, but I have confidence in id's abilities in this area as well. Perhaps the only part of that video that struck me as being a bit off are the lip movements and synchronization of the woman in the bar at the :55 mark, but even then they are still pretty good.

id hasn't given an expected release date and has only stated that Rage will be out "when it's fun and when it's done". Some have speculated that it could be released as far out as the 2011 time-frame, but I think that's pushing it. And id's Tim Willits has stated the game "isn't that far out" anyway. If you remember, the Doom 3 multi-player demo was featured at QuakeCon 2003, and the full game release came about a year later in August '04. If we use Doom 3's history as an indicator and consider that we first saw a trailer at last year's QuakeCon, and that this year id showed off an extended trailer and released the first set of actual in-game screenshots, we suspect the game is probably a year away, give or take a few months. Perhaps id will release the game in time for next year's QuakeCon. Or if we can speculate a bit, maybe the next QuakeCon will feature a Rage Demo with the full release to come just in time for the holidays. With so much of the game being shown off already, we suspect Rage is closer to release than id has let on.

By now, I'm sure most of you have seen many of Apple's excellent "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ads--I'm particularly fond of the "Yoga" ad myself (Judy Greer...meow).  Over about the last year and a half or so, those ads have been a great success for Apple.  Mac Pros, iMacs, and MacBooks, not to mention companion devices like the iPod and iPhone, have been selling at a very good clip, and according to recent market research Apple is now the third largest PC vendor in the U.S.

With all of the bad press Microsoft has received since the introduction of Windows Vista, it's no wonder Apple went on the offensive and besmirched the PC and Windows in the way that it has.  The company saw a golden opportunity and seized it--plain and simple.  I would have done the same thing.  With the exception of a few trade events and the odd interview, however, Microsoft remained relatively silent during the whole ordeal considering the company's size, and have said little more than Vista was steadily improving and was selling much better than the negative news would lead you to believe.   And all the while, Apple just kept on cranking out ads for the Get a Mac campaign, winning over more and more users.

But as they say, the times, they are a changin'.  Microsoft now feels Vista has been polished to the point that they'll soon be launching a reported $500 million marketing campaign designed to improve the OS' image.  The first hints at the upcoming campaign are already live on Microsoft's site...

"When Windows Vista debuted in January 2007, we declared it the best operating system we had ever made. "Windows Vista is beautiful," The New York Times raved. It's humbling that millions of you agree.

But we know a few of you were disappointed by your early encounter. Printers didn't work. Games felt sluggish. You told us—loudly at times—that the latest Windows wasn't always living up to your high expectations for a Microsoft product."

The page also goes on to say, "While we're at it, we'd like to clear up some confusion and lingering misunderstandings about Windows Vista—and our plans for its predecessor, Windows XP."

How's that for candid?  Although the above image is not part of the upcoming campaign, it probably gives a little insight into the direction Microsoft is headed.  We haven't seen any of the ads just yet, but we suspect there will be a mix of fun and exciting content, mixed in with practical examples of how Vista is "right for you".  What MS has said publicly is that they won't directly address or refute Apple's ads for fear of coming across as lame and unfunny in comparison.  That's probably a smart move--I could just see the parodies now.

While I agree they shouldn't lend any credence to Apple by acknowledging the Get a Mac ads, they should stick it to Apple in any way they can.  "Got overpriced hardware?"  "Here's a mammoth 8-core powerhouse, featuring a $49 graphics card.  Nice!"

I also agree, it's time to start clearing some of the FUD and polishing Vista's image in the marketplace.   To be blunt, the OS is simply not as bad as many so-called experts make it out to be.  To give a few real world examples, all of my test machines here in BW Labs 3.0 are running Vista SP1 and I haven't experienced any major OS-related issues whatsoever, and that includes when testing some of the most cutting edge hardware with beta drives and newly released games.  My personal rig has also been running Vista Ultimate 64-bit for over a year now as well and I have not experienced any major issues on that rig either.  I am a bit of a stickler about running the latest drivers and newest versions of my applications though.

Perhaps the most interesting story, at least for me, is how my wife's aging laptop and mid-range desktop systems have handled Vista.  Her laptop is a Compaq Presario with an Athlon XP 3000+, 1.25GB of RAM, and a GeForce 4 420M GPU.  That was actually the first system I ever installed Vista on at the end of '06.  And to this day it has been perfectly stable, it hasn't been infested with Malware, and in general it runs quite well.  Although admittedly, it can't run Aero.

My wife's personal machine is also a Vista success story.  The system is powered by an Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 2GB of RAM, and a GeForce 7600 GT.  That system was upgraded to Vista in January '07 and it too has been running great.  With the amount of use the PCs in our house get, and all of the experimentation we put them through (I'm a bit of a software hoarder), there was no way an XP install would have lasted that long without needing some form of overhaul.  At least in our home, Vista has served us well.

So, bring it Microsoft!  Get everyone excited to run Vista and hopefully update their hardware in the process.  We'll tell all those users what upgrades to buy--no problem at all.

As I'm sure you're all well aware, Hollywood has a long history of producing sub-par (way sub-par) movies based on popular video game franchises.  With a few rare exceptions, just about every movie based on a video game, from Super Mario Brothers to Doom, has stunk on multiple different levels.  We'll give Mortal Kombat a pass because Bridget Wilson was in tights practically the whole movie, and a Resident Evil sort of worked, but you get the point.

From the looks of the Max Payne trailer that was just posted today, however, it appears Hollywood may actually get this one right.  And I really hope they do because, well, Max Payne rules.  From the first moment I used bullet time to wax a couple of bad guys, to the random wierdness of the dream sequences, I knew Max Payne was my type of game.

Max Payne Movie Trailer, Courtesy of ShackNews

I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but the trailer actually looks pretty cool.  Mark Walberg (who I tried to beat up, along with the rest of the funky bunch, when I was a teenager) is totally believable as Max Payne.  And although you only get a glimpse of her, Mila Kunis can't help but be hot throughout.  Seeing Ludacris in there though.  Hmmm.  Not sure about that one, but then again he was kinda cool in 2 Fast 2 Furious.

I guess other than Nehalem, it looks like us geeks have something else to look forward to in Q4 '08. The move is due to hit on October 18.  I'll be there.  Hopefully, I won't leave making that "do you smell something funny" face that the digital Max was known for...