Battlestation Components (2)

You remember this guy, huh?

Speaking of things that could only store one game, does anyone remember those demo discs that came with issues of PC Gamer magazine? You know, those CDs that had game demos on 'em? The first discs I have (I'll post a pic if I can find where I put the stash) contain at least 10 demos on them. That's 10 different games you can sample! Then over the years you can see the number of games per disc shrink as the game files get bigger. You can only fit so much data on a damn CD, eh? The latest one I have has only 4 games on it, 5 tops, if I recall. I'm pretty sure they simply stopped issuing demo discs before they ended up with only one game to try out. These days I'm pretty sure you can just download any game demos you wish from their website. But then, do people still play demos even? I sure don't. I just read the reviews from other people who play the game and decide if I'm going to buy the full thing based on the consensus.

My face. (Accoutrements not included)

Anyway, here are more pictures of my stuff. Pretty much EVERYTHING ELSE I'd ordered came in at the same time. Amazon Prime and ShopRunner oughta pay me to advertise for them. Hell, I'll do it for free. Actually, it's more like I'm paying them... Anyhoo, I'm a patient guy but I've never liked waiting for stuff I've ordered and I know you don't either. Now I don't have to and never will (as long as I order all my stuff from Amazon and ShopRunner affiliate sites. And as long as it's Prime eligible). Unfortunately this has had a side-effect: I can't wait weeks to get my packages anymore. I can't go back. (。≧≦)

Moving on. 

GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD5H

A pic of the actual motherboard inside it's anti-static bag. Look at those golden heatsinks, man!

That thar is a gen-u-wine copy of Window 8.1. This one might seem a little pedestrian and out of place but this is actually the first full price legit copy of Windows OS I've ever bought myself. Before this I'd only ever bought a Student-discounted copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. So this is something of a novel purchase. By the way, if you're a student it's one of the cheapest ways to get a genuine copy of Windows. They sold them in the UVA university bookstore for a steep discount, but only with presentation of student ID. As far as I know, Microsoft runs this discount program for all college students in the U.S.

Noctua NH-U12S

A Noctua-brand CPU heatsink. This one came with rave reviews. The only con most people had was the unusual colour scheme. Earth tones aren't normally used in the PC parts world.















Side profile view. Personally, I don't really care about the colours of the parts that much. Back in my day computer cases were opaque steel boxes. We didn't have side panel windows and superfluous LED lights on everything. My Thor V2 doesn't have a window either. Once I install everything and close it up I'm not going to be spending my time staring at the innards.

That's just rude. (⌐ ⌐__)

Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4) DDR3-1866

Speaking of looks, I don't really like this trend towards gaudy, peacock-esque heatspreaders that RAM manufacturers are moving towards. I'm 80% sure they don't really have that much effect on cooling.

ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVD Writer

It's just a regular optical drive, pay no attention to that. Pay your attention to that novel bubble wrap, man! It's made of rows of long tubular bubbles instead of a sheet of tiny disc-shaped ones.

Another angle. It feels way more protective than standard bubble wrap. This thing feels like it's made for more than just a fun activity.













I'll save the last two for tomorrow. This post is getting long.