Computer Tech: Final

I originally was going to do a multipart series on the latest computer technology but decided to just sum up my thoughts in one update. Reason being is that you really can't separate different components in the same generation. They tend to go hand in hand.

For example, Intel's latest 9xx series motherboard chipsets all support the very latest DDR2 memory, SATA hard drives, LGA775 processors using the latest 90nm technology and PCI Express video cards. This is bleeding edge stuff and on paper looks a lot better than the "old" 8xx series chipset which only supports AGP 8X video cards, mPGA478 processors (based on 130nm technology) and regular DDR memory.

AMD based systems have similar characteristics. The "legacy" systems support 130nm processors and AGP 8X video cards while the latest chipsets from NVIDIA (nForce 4) support 90nm processors, PCI Express video cards (even with dual PCIe support) and the fastest 3Gb/s SATA hard drives.

Since I plan to build a new system from scratch without using any components from my old system (other than my legacy ATA hard drive) I immediately thought of going with the latest and greatest. So I did my usual internet based research on prices and performance. It turns out that currently there isn't much of a performance difference between the "old" tech and the new. If fact in some cases like DDR vs. DDR2 memory for example, the latest DDR2 performed worse than DDR because of high latency issues. Other technologies like PCI Express video cards are superior on paper but perform no better than their AGP 8X counterparts. Nonetheless for a brand new system I still didn't see any reason to go with the older tech especially since upgrading in the future will be easier if you have the latest standards.

After more research I decided to go with an AMD Athlon 64 based system because it is the highest performing processor when it comes to game playing. Currently Intel can't match it on performance unless you choose the super expensive Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors which currently runs between $900 - $1000 for each CPU.

For the motherboard chipset I decided to go with the NVIDIA nForce 4 because it supports all the latest technologies for a reasonable price. The only remaining issue I had was with availability, not just with the motherboards themselves (which are rumored to hit retail in December) but with high end PCI Express video cards. It seems like both ATI and NVIDIA are having serious yield problems with the high end cards so they only seem to produce the mid to low end PCI Express units. This means that I may have to wait until January for my dream system. This article from GamePC describes the card that I'm looking for, the PCI Express version of the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT. It seems to offer great performance for the money with the type of games I want to play (Doom 3, Half Life 2 and Far Cry).

Hopefully by this Christmas I will have the makings for one killer system. I've waited this long, what's another month or two?

Emi at Universal

Starting the day.

Rika's little sister, Emi, is visiting us this week (overall her third trip to Southern California) so Rika and I are playing tourist with her. Here they are at the entrance of Universal Studios. I never realized how close this L.A. attraction is to us- only 30 mins away travelling past Beverly Hills and Hollywood.

Yesterday was a great day to go as we had the park all to ourselves. We went straight to the Mummy the Ride thinking that would be our longest wait. I think that was the first time I ever walked straight into an E ticket attraction without waiting one second in line. The queue is extremely detailed and impressive with various dark holes and cubbies to put wandering hands into for suprise effects. The ride itself has a unique feature which I won't spoil for you but the biggest reaction at the end of it was "it's over?" It's extremely short! For all the money and effort Universal put into this, I swear it seemed no longer than 30 seconds. I wonder if the physical limitations of the lot size was a factor in this. Overall I liked it although I don't feel I have to go back anytime soon.

More on everything later. Off to Disneyland now.

Halo 2 Unleashed

Master Chief in all his high polygon glory


Although Halo 2 was officially released yesterday, I decided to wait for the crowds to die down and pick up my copy today at Best Buy. I expected tons of copies to be available but it turns out there were only 2 left. One man had the first copy left and I had the last copy. It wasn't until I went home and found on the net that Halo 2 made over $125 million dollars in sales, just on the first day alone. That's quite an accomplishment and explains why my local Best Buy is completely sold out.

As far as the game goes, I had the chance to play a little bit before I turned in for the night. The graphics are much improved from the original Halo (which were very good to begin with) and I'm sure it uses every ounce of power from the custom Nvidia video chip the Xbox contains.

The online reviews are all positive with special emphasis on the great multiplayer aspect of it using the Microsoft Live! service. The only negative I read about is that the single player campaign can be completed in a short 10 hours. I always wondered who are these people that fly through the latest games just to have bragging rights on how fast they could finish it. As for me, I'm going to take my time and enjoy it. Hopefully Rob can make it down a few times to help out in co-op mode.

Blur reels

I noticed a few new trailers from the creative folks at Blur Studios. I have been following these guys for some time, especially since they are located so close to where I live (Venice, CA) and are big supporters of 3DS Max. Their unique style and dynamic approach to animation make their work highly entertaining to watch. The first two reels are from game cinematics- one from a game called Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War by THQ and the other from Blizzard's upcoming World of WarCraft. The third is a short film called Rockfish. You'll need to register for CGTalk to view the Warhammer trailer but it's a pretty quick and painless process and well worth the trouble.


Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War


World of WarCraft


Rockfish

Turkey "Emu" Legs

Emu burgers anyone?

I first heard of these huge Turkey Legs being sold at Walt Disney World during our first trip in 2000 however I never did get a chance to try them (I must have been busy eating all the great food from the International Food and Wine Festival at Epcot!). Years later I found out they were selling them at Frontierland, Disneyland at an Outdoor Vending Cart. Curious about all the rave reviews I wanted to make a special attempt to try one on my next trip. I must have mentioned something about them the other night because Kruddler overheard and said they weren't actually turkey but were made from Emu. Emu???... yuck!!!

Honestly I didn't really know what an Emu was so I had to look it up on the internet. It turns out to be a very large bird native to Australia (similar to an ostrich). I did some more internet searching looking for some official confirmation on the makeup of Disney's Turkey Legs and amazingly over 90% of the Disney fan websites mentioned they were made from Emu. I keep digging and came across this MouseFunFacts link which stated they are indeed real Turkey legs. Apparently Disney gets them raised specifically for their large size and then injects them with a special brine to make them taste so good. The final confirmation came when I watched the Food Network channel show, Unwrapped, which recently had a Disney World Resort Special on the secrets behind the food of WDW. Yes its all real turkey meat.

So how did this rumor get started? Well like most legends, no one really knows but it doesn't take much imagination to think these huge legs came from a naturally large bird. I mean who has seen a 50 lb turkey in real life? In addition, both emu and the ostrich are sometimeseaten for their meat so I could understand how this piece of misinformation could have survived for so long. As for me, I'm happy I did some research as I look forward to trying my first turkey leg during my next trip to Disneyland. As for the legend of the Emu Legs, we can safely relegate it to the trash bin of urban legends like McDonald's "worm burgers" which innocently Rob and I believed when we were kids. We even made our parents buy us Filet-O-Fish sandwiches instead of hamburgers during those couple of months.