Best products from r/Planetside

Performance wise, it looks pretty good! As others have said in this thread, the only thing that you can improve would be your cooling paste and removing your kind of pointless wired network adapter.

Now, for a bit of personal input on your pheripherals ;

Please, for the love of god don't buy the Devestator bundle. CM storm has really good products but the devestator isn't one of them. You'd better buy a CM storm Quickfire (I have the Ultimate one myself) and a mouse of your choice (G502 seems like a good option)

You may also want to have a mousepad but you probably have on of those. If not, just buy a Qck from Steelseries, they're very cheap & popular.

I also don't really recommend buying a headest ; all these popular 'gaming' brands are really pushing them recently but your best option is to pick some headphones and then attach a microphone on it yourself (HD668B and a ModMic/BoomMic)

However, there is one headset I know that's probably your best bet if you don't want to do all that, the HyperX Cloud II.

I realise these alternatives may be pretty costly to you, but either way I hope I helped!

If you don't want to pay for anything(Most bolded text should be clickable, otherwise google it):

Recording software: MSI Afterburners Recording feature to record. I suggest looking up youtube guides for it.

Livestreaming: OpenBroadcaster is a fantastic streaming program. Completely free with a lot of features.

Video Editing: Windows movie maker for simple stuff to put stuff and clips together.


-Now for what I use-

My Recording software: Dxtory. I use it because I have a ton more options than Fraps. Not to mention Fraps takes a lot more CPU than Dxtory does. Which for Planetside 2 is a god send. I also use a lagarith Lossless Codec with it. I suggest [THIS] video tutorial to get you a similar setup I have.

Video Editing: I use Sony Vegas Pro 11 because I won a legit copy from TGN ages ago. The latest is Sony vegas 12 (Which I'm sure a lot of people pirated. Which I don't blame em' it's tons of cash). I don't feel like buying the new version since it's practically a "big" patch with each new version.

Microphone: Any "decent" turtle beach microphone will do excellent when starting off. But, I use a C01U USB condenser microphone on a studio arm with a hand made pop filter. Sounds great for my type of voice.

Making videos, depending on what the video is. Takes a looooooong time, or just a few minutes. If you just wanna throw some clips together to show friends your MLG pro skills. My free option will do you nicely.

Assuming price isn't an object, I'd highly recommend these two for gaming monitors:

If you have an AMD video card: https://www.amazon.com/LG-34UC79G-B-34-Inch-21-UltraWide/dp/B01LW5CGIS

If you have an NVIDIA video card: https://www.amazon.com/LG-34UC89G-B-34-Inch-21-UltraWide/dp/B0728JH3RQ

Both are 34-inch, 21:9 ratio, 2560x1080, 144Hz monitors with IPS panels. So they're large, wide, fast and gorgeous.

Trust me, once you play games on a 21:9 monitor, anything less feels like tunnel vision. 21:9 works flawlessly in PS2 and looks incredible.

Both monitors will also sync your refresh rate to your in-game framerate to minimize lag. But they are vid card brand specific. The first one will sync only with AMD vid cards, and the 2nd one will only sync w/ NVIDIA. But even without the frame sync they are extremely fast. Not quite as fast as the fastest TN panels, but VERY close.

Here's a good review of the AMD-tailored monitor so you can get a good idea of how it performs. It's what I use (I own an Nvidia card but it came out 1 year earlier than the Nvidia monitor and I couldn't wait). http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/lg_34uc79g.htm

EDIT: To answer your questions:

• Yes, 144Hz is important, it's one of the main reasons I chose the monitor I did. It was the first 34-inch, 21:9 ratio, 2560x1080, 144Hz monitor with IPS panel. Although anything above 120Hz is "good enough" for most people.
  
  
• Response time and input lag are both important. Read the TFTcentral review for more info on why.
  
  
• IMO 2560x1080 is the sweet spot for gaming. You get the 21:9 ratio but the hardware requirements to run 21:9 at decent framrates is much lower than if you went with 3440x1440.
  
  
• Panel type comes down to TN vs IPS for gaming. TN is the absolute fastest but IPS is right on its heels. And IPS panels have better colors and wider viewing angles. They just look better.
  
  
• Nvidia G-Sync / AMD FreeSync are important since as stated above they sync your refresh rate to your in-game framerate, potentially greatly reducing your input lag.

I've got a Creative Sound Blaster Z card (or something like that) which simulates surround sound even on stereo headphones. Works brilliantly. Can pinpoint vehicles and infantry exactly.

Great fun going infiltrator hunting with it.

Had no issues and works great with every game I've tried.

Creative Sound Blaster Z PCI Express Sound Card https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009S1NTUU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_tqTWzb32YG1H6

Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet, I picked up one of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IAACWH6?pc_redir=1406686496&robot_redir=1

In particular I bought it because A) It's ASUS, B) It reviewed well, C) It had an 880M GPU D) Good size SSD and traditional drive E) The cooling system it uses. So far I'm enjoying it a lot, though 8.1 took a bit of getting used to. (I work in IT, and I'm used to hearing people complain about new interfaces, but since I remember doing everything in DOS, so I try to give new interfaces a chance.. but the 8.1 Metro.. yeah I couldn't last a day before I installed Start8 to get the start menu back. )

Also since I mentioned I work in IT, and you don't know enough about computers. Let me just stress the importance of reviews from sources you trust. Fact is even though I know my stuff, and I could look at stats and get a general idea how something might work, benchmarks of performance are the best way to determine if something will meet your needs, and things like build quality, keyboads, etc. Are even more important on a laptop and you won't get all that information until someone gets their hands on it and puts it through it's paces.

I got a used one of these for $2 on ebay. Works great for flight games, although I haven't gotten to play PS2 yet. It's built extremely solid, so consider this an thumbs-up for the cheap Saitek joysticks.

Although, more often I find myself using a Nyko PS3 controller. For $15, I don't think you can find a better gamepad. The joysticks are pretty good, and the triggers oddly feel more like Xbox ones than Playstation ones. Pressure-sensitive face buttons and d-pad are sweet, too. And, of course, it's USB.

you know so far its been great i guess, the improvement on arma 3 is through the roof but the improvement in fps in planetside isnt as high as i thought it might be, but i did some research and i feel that fps issues are just something that will forever plague a game with a possible 400 man battle going on, even with an intel cpu, i doubt theyre doing much better than 25-30 fps in huge battles. my new cpu has gotten down to 20 and below in massive battles but mostly its doing great and hitting my gpu (radeon 7770) alot at about 50-60. looking back i dont regret it, because i did it myself, and it was rather simple to swap just the cpu, where as a whole motherboard would be quite extensive i imagine and would probably need some help, and hopefully it would all be compatible. i doubled my score on 3dmark 11 to 6352 for cpu score, now i feel i need to upgrade my gpu :p,

also the 8350 just dropped 15 bucks to $179

What takes you 10 steps in 3DS can take 3 in Maya sometimes. It really is that good. That said the skills you learn in any 3d program are nvr wasted as no matter how different the program the basic concepts are usually quite similar. Get Maya.

As for tutorials. Just like everything else there are massive pools of knowledge for any program out there on the net. The issues with youtube vids is the production quality differes so much. I'm sure you can find countless examples and tutorials to help get you started. But as you progress I would suggest looking for pdf versions of hard copy references material and published tutorials. stuff like...
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Autodesk-Official-Training-Guide/dp/1897177380/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205702548&sr=1-2

I mean you can probably get a pdf version online for free but if you want the hardcopy (sometimes it just nice to have the 700 page book)with DVD so you feel all legit it will cost you about 4 bucks used and ~30 brand new.

Happy Modeling!

"...rapidly become..." I stated.

If you really knew anything about how software like games function - other than in very general terms - you'd know that memory manipulation is will ultimately always beat detection directed at memory.

Which is why anti-cheat features gravitate towards scans of source files too. But these too are ultimately always beatable by memory manipulation.

Which is why anti-cheat features gravitate towards heuristics scanning too, ie. appraisal of user behaviour. At this level, the lines between fit-for-purpose features and spying on you begin to get blurry. They can get very blurred and easily crossed completely if the engineers - or the profiteers under which they work - undergo a lapse in moral fortitude; a spike in greed.

Just take a quick look at the license agreements for things. The provision there for 'whoops' should scare the shit out of you.

Or not. And the crux of this issue is always ultimately psychological. What does a person consider unfair/invasive/immoral/unnecessary/malicious/nefarious?

I'm not speaking as some casual enthusiast, I've been a CS infsec for 15 years now, working for international banks. About half of the software packages I inspect log the shit out of ~everything. As people get used to it - without complaining (through ascent or ignorance) - so the vendors feel more free to expand on the activity.

The thing is, if we were living in The Culture, I'd not have a problem living with mass monitoring of everything as I'd trust those with power over me not to fuck me in a sociopathic/psychopathic/irrational/greedy way. But we live in a world where those with power over us are crazy apes.

I wouldn't recommend the 650. The cheapest 650 I can find is $102, while the cheapest 750 is only $18 more at $120. Meanwhile, the 750Ti is a much better card than the other two -- about twice as fast -- and is another $30 on top of that at $150.

Now, obviously your means are quite limited as the price difference between the vanilla 650 and the Ti was by itself enough to deter you. But by my reckoning this also means you're not really in a position to spend $100 to upgrade a 6670 to a card that's not all that much better.

It's the boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness:

I think you should wait, save up to the extra $50 and go for the 750Ti. It'll last you much longer and give you a more pleasing gameplay experience throughout its lifetime. It would also give you more value out of your CPU in other games, as a 650 represents a serious bottleneck to a 3.8GHz quad core.

http://www.amazon.com/Perixx-MX-1800B-Programmable-Gaming-Mouse/dp/B00ESESQAA

$20. Metal frame, interchangeable side panels. It uses the ADNS-3090 optical sensor, which is somewhat older than current high end optical sensors, but still miles better than laser. Here's a video from Logitech talking about Optical vs. Laser sensors.

http://www.amazon.com/Allsop-Mouse-Pad-Raindrop-Blue/dp/B000XUW8IY

with this mousepad for $10, you should be able to lower your sensitivity enough to take advantage of the extra space.


>Even lower than 800 DPI? I imagine turning quickly enough becomes an issue...I'm not doubting your reputability but play styles certainly vary.

DPI isn't how sensitivity is measured, nor does high dpi equate to more accurate tracking. (long video from a Logitech engineer explaining why is here) Most sensors have a native dpi that they perform the best at. Sensitivity is calculated as a function of mouse dpi combined with in-game sensitivity, and is measured in centimeters for a 360 turn. For example, my hipfire is ~28cm while my ADS is ~44cm. You can calculate this at www.mouse-sensitivity.com.

Turning isn't an issue as you get used to it. An overwhelming majority of high skill/competitive FPS players use low mouse sensitivity. Here's some over the shoulder footage of cypher, a pro Quake player. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEwfFBaCEio

I have the Redragon Mammoth, and I highly recommend it for people looking to spend less than $30 on a mouse. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GU4F4OM/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_gYqywbRNXFGEC

The mouse is perfect for wider hands, it has 5 different profiles you can switch between, and you can set up 5 or 6 preset DPI settings for as well as different keybindings for each profile... DPI goes up to 16,400, though I'll probably never use it that high. The mouse has a "three click macro button" on the upper left hand side of the left mouse button, and it has three thumb buttons.

I've had this mouse for almost a year now and it's easily surpassed my expectations. I'll never go back to an expensive Razer or Logitech mouse.

Robert Buettner: Orphanage series.

Good for those who like hard sci-fi, right up until the last book.

The Kite Runner, and its companion: A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Rips your heart out.

Please don't attempt to OC with the built-in utility, especially not on the stock cooler. It may unnecessarily increase voltage, and it most certainly won't be stable. Try this cooler, or similar: https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-RR-212E-20PK-R2-Direct-Contact/dp/B01KBXKP8W and then Linus TechTips has a nice, detailed OC guide, which you could use with your current CPU or an i7 upgrade here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CHs5_TdpXE. What PSU do you have, also? Your power supply can cause instability when overclocking, if it can't output an adequate amount of power with sufficient voltage stability.

I don't think you'll regret it, it made a huge difference for me. You can get a 128gb SSD w/free shipping (prime) on Amazon for $62.99.

Oh, and you can setup Steam so that you can choose where to install games, so you can save your SSD for the games that really need it.

Barebones basic, but good quality/brand, to run your OS and a few games, you're looking at $70: http://amzn.com/B00KFAGD88

$40 more for double the space.

THere's still 3 hours as of right now: AMD FX 8350 for $129.99

pretty solid price for this processer.