Zeusthecat

Yeah, on my current computer (built in 2010) I installed an AMD Phenom II 6 core processor that still runs beautifully today and that was about $300 at the time. My totally non-scientific assumption based on that experience is that if I go with a similarly priced CPU on this build, I should be good for at least the next five years. Basically, it sounds like that i7 4970k should fit the bill. Thanks again for all the valuable insight. And especially for saving me all the headaches with having mismatched RAM with my motherboard.

Speaking of which... I have no desire to overclock, but in the past I've always ordered after market coolers out of habit. Is there honestly any noticeable benefit to getting aftermarket cooling stuff aside from getting everything to run super quiet (which probably still makes it worth it in my book)? But yeah, I think on the CPU side I might step it down even further. The more I reason through it, it just kind of seems like a waste.

Excellent post, thank you! I was wondering what they were going to do when they hit the 1000 series. A GTX 1080 does have a nice ring to it so I hope they stick with the current branding.

So, thanks to TheLastBaron's heads up, the i7 6700k is off the table and instead I'm looking at the i7 4790k which seems to be the best option for DDR3 support. But a real question for someone that is more in the know than me: is this just a straight up waste of money and should I just go with a lower end processor? It seems like things have kind of flattened out a lot more over the last several years and it looks like processors from several years ago are still perfectly suited to today's computing needs. My main goal with targeting a higher end CPU is to future proof my system for at least the next 5 years (and hopefully longer) and to make sure I don't end up with a CPU bottleneck in whatever crazy graphics/physics intensive games come out over the next few years. I'm not too concerned with the cost, but at the same time I don't want to waste money on a pricey component that would be completely indistinguishable from a lower end product, even five years down the line.

I did not realize that. Thank you for the heads up!

I've lost track of AMD's nomenclature (and also hated my experience using an AMD card) but Nvidia's GTX line has been pretty easy to follow for a good number of years now. Each new iteration just goes up by 100 from the previous iteration (mostly). GTX 400 series - 2010 GTX 500 series - 2011 GTX 600 series - 2012 GTX 700 series - 2013 GTX 900 series - 2014/2015 (not sure why they skipped 800) From there, taking the 900 series, 950, 960, 970 and 980 are your lower, medium, medium high, and high end cards. Then the TI version of those cards is usually a bit more powerful and has a bit more memory (for the 980 TI it's 6GB vs the usual 4GB for the 980). I pretty much just ignore all other graphic card lines at this point. The GTX series seems to have the most consistent nomenclature lately and has been easiest for me to keep track of.

I didn't mean to undersell Nirwen's Mercy. That gun is definitely sweet. I was more wondering if it was actually going to offer anything higher than 280 light since the last time around that wasn't the case and the only reason to do it was to get that one sweet gun. Sounds much better from what you're saying though. Unfortunately I already have the 310 artifact from completing the raid but it sounds likely that there may be other possible 310 items if that is just what dropped at rank 3. I'll probably dive in and burn through those ranks over the weekend.

Are the rewards actually decent this time? If a Nirwen's Mercy-like item is the only thing it has going for it again I think I'll pass.

That seems like a pretty fair assessment Bjorn.

I feel kind of weird about that for some reason. While she may be an ignorant asshat, I'm just not sure that I agree that people should be stripped of their jobs and livelihoods simply for displaying an ignorant attitude about a pressing social issue. Now if there is a clear history of discriminatory and racist remarks from the professor, that is one thing. And maybe that's the case here. I don't know, at first glance, this seems like it might actually be an example of outrage culture going just a tad too far. I just feel like maybe there is some path forward here that is maybe a step or two below just straight up firing her. Edit: Well I guess if the stuff in that last section is accurate then it sounds like she was a pretty miserable person and maybe has a history of being shitty. So, eh, maybe this is fine then.

The latest thing I learned today is that people actually thought The Soup was a funny show. I watched it a few times and thought all of its humor was corny and super desperate. It was so uncomfortable to watch that I just thought it was some niche show that only managed to stay on the air because kids found it funny or something. But then today, just like with Letterman, I find out that apparently everyone on Earth thought it was the best show ever and the whole internet is in mourning due to the show being canceled. Turns out I'm the idiot and comedy is super fucking weird and subjective.

I guess I decided to go ahead and build a new computer since it's been over 5 years now since I built my current one. So far I've ordered most of the components and am off to a great start with every single piece being at least 40% off: Case - $100 $45 500GB Samsung 850 EVO Solid State Drive (with free AC: Syndicate code) - $270 $162 2 X 1TB 7200 RPM HDDs - $200 $104 2 X 8GB DDR3 2400MHz RAM - $227 $87 850W Power Supply - $140 $70 LG Blu Ray Drive - $117 $52 The only other components I need to get are the motherboard, CPU, and graphics card. Right now I've got my eye on the I7 6700k and the GTX 980TI and will pull the trigger if I see a good deal pop up. I may end up downgrading the CPU since what I'm looking at is overkill but I'm pretty dead set on that 980TI.

I started playing this the other day and it is pretty great! Seeing some of the crazy stuff you guys have talked about doing in this thread though makes me realize just how terrible I am right now. I killed Jebediah Kerman so many times last night. Even when the center of mass/thrust seems perfect and my rocket is totally symmetrical, it still manages to veer sideways and start spinning around violently almost every time I launch. I still have so much to learn.

Remember when we had this same argument but about hipsters? I feel like there's some kind of connection...

So if you mistakenly call a thing pretentious that does not actually have pretensions towards being or doing a thing that you perceive it is trying to be or do, does that make you pretentious? Can you only not be pretentious when you call something pretentious if it is indeed pretentious?

So Rebirth is the remake and Afterbirth is the expansion to that remake right? I've gotten a little lost on which version is which. When I'm ready to get back into this I'll just ping you and get whatever version you recommend the most.

Pretentious is such a pretentious word. I just don't want to even engage in it.

With Binding of Isaac now completed, I am down to my very last Steam game: Kerbal Space Program. I played for two hours last night and so far the game is super obtuse. Also, I think the flight training mission is bugged because I kept trying to click on that AP symbol in the map view when I was in orbit but never got the 'warp' option like the game told me I should. So I decided to just start up the main career mode and I am just bumbling around like an idiot building shitty ships and launching them, only to have half the components explode when it touches down. I think I need more parachutes or something. I also probably need to spend some time on Google to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to be doing and how to pick up more missions (I picked up one mission but can't seem to get back to that screen to pick up any of the other ones).

Binding of Isaac. I've only beaten Mom once at this point but at 30 hours played, I think that is good enough to call this game completed. I really enjoyed playing this and seeing myself get better and better as time went on. I was close to calling it quits a little earlier on but ended up pushing through and discovering a number of things I was doing wrong that were ending my runs early. Once I figured out how best to spend my money and when/when not to use my keys and bombs it became pretty easy to consistently get to mom. After about three failed attempts I finally beat her, and even managed to do so with only taking 1 1/2 hearts of damage through the whole fight. I'm keeping this one, along with FTL, installed on my computer and I hope to come back to it and delve in some more with other characters. For now though I'm moving on.

Finally got to mom last night but ended up dying. Progress! I've come to realize one of the dumb things I've still been doing that has hampered my progress is that I've been wasting keys on the shop rooms when I only have like 5 cents and then I just buy whatever I can afford. It seems like the better strategy is to wait until I have around 15 coins and buy one of the better items instead of wasting my money on bombs, hearts, and keys. Obviously still some randomness to that so it's not always gonna work out but I've noticed myself doing just a bit better since I've been smarter about what I spend my money on.

Yeah, after watching a few videos, I think I do prefer Northernlion. I watched a couple of his earlier ones and it totally makes me feel better about my current skill level. It's nice to see other people making mistakes that I've actually managed to move past.

I guess I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel yet. I played some more last night and finally managed to get to the sixth area before going down. On my first run I ended up fighting a new boss that unlocked the Little Steven familiar. Then I lucked out again on my next run and got Little Steven right off the bat again. I love that little guy, he's the best! My biggest struggle at this point is still getting through some of the mob rooms in the later areas. The bosses usually aren't too big of a deal and it's been pretty straightforward to learn all of their attack patterns. But man, unless I've gotten a good roll on multiple damage upgrades some of those rooms are still melting me way too fast. I think the ones I hate the most are when it's a small area with little room to maneuver and it is full of those little chubby guys that shoot fish out of their bellies. Also, the guys that you can only hurt by hitting them in the back or side kind of give me trouble too. And tiny rooms with 9 fat flies shooting 2 blood bubbles each.

Please give me some all of that knowledge. Seriously though, this is agonizing. This game really is great but my impatience is getting the better of me and I just want to jump to that point where I've internalized everything and stop making stupid mistakes.

Man, how do you go about internalizing all of this stuff? I've tried to read some Wiki's and there's a few items I've gotten enough times that I've learned how they work but so many of these mechanics and alternate effects of pills are a complete mystery to me. Now I feel like maybe I'm playing this game wrong.

I think I have about 18 hours logged on Binding of Isaac (original with Wrath of the Lamb) and I might be just about done with it. It feels really great to play and the music and atmosphere is something I really like getting lost in but the reliance on good luck to have a good run is just getting to be too much for me. I've definitely gotten a lot better and pretty consistently get to world 5 but I have yet to get a good enough mix of items to make it to the final boss. I either get some good damage upgrades with little to no extra health upgrades or I get a bunch of health upgrades with little to no extra damage upgrades. And then just when I get a good build going I find a bunch of pills and when I eat them one lowers my health, one lowers my shot speed, and one lowers my shot distance. I actually think I've had a higher rate of negative effects from pills than positive. I realize if I really stick with it and perfect my skills some more I would eventually get good enough to clear the boss regardless of how lucky I got with my items, but that just seems like too much of a slog. I think this game would be much more enjoyable to play (for me) if they did two things: Lower the number of pills that drop but remove all negative effects from pills. I fail to see how having some pills with negative effects is at all a desirable thing for this game to have. Scale the room difficulty based on your build. It is bullshit when you have a great run with a full 5 or 6 hearts going into one of the later areas and then hit a room where you are killed in 10 seconds because you didn't get enough damage upgrades to take the enemies out fast enough. I'm so torn on this one. I really really like playing it but the longer I play the more I feel like there is just a whole bunch of annoying game design bullshit to fight against.