Tech Tips and Reviews
Have to sell off a great gaming computer. Plays most of the toughest high graphics games to date.
Custom Pc Image
Xfx 750 a motherboard Black Edition
Amd 3 core 3 gb processor
4 gig pc6400 ddr2 memory
500 gb sata hard drive
Nvidia 250 gts 1gb video card
Slightly custom case with hard drive cooling and front temperature sensor fan speed knob that also doubles as light dimmer
Custom Cooling
No operating system
The Light Weight Ubuntu Operating system designed for people who want to use the least amount of resources possible. It’s a bit like Windows Tiny Vista, Tiny xp and Tiny 7. But legal.
Great for those people who have a small child in their family or household who just wants to log into some small gaming site like nick or pogo, that runs on flash, and you have an old computer that is bloated down with windows bundleware, got so many viruses it can barely boot. Now you can just format that thing, install Lubuntu, and update flash (as with all computers) and Java, hand the machine over to the kid, and you can continue playing your farmville or what ever it is you consider important.
On that note, great for running as many farmville accounts as you can create and as many computers you have just waiting to boot up again.
Wonder if there is a “Live” Version.
So far I don’t see but going to try the Pendrive site and see what can be done. Maybe the kubuntu or xubuntu or Vanilla Ubuntu installer will work for this.
If you do not feel like doing all of this, donate your old computers to On My Front Lawn and the site owner will install Linux to the machine and give it away to a needy family or child.
Reader’s choice (poll)
According to a poll held on TruXter Tech Review earlier this month
The pc game of the year is Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (12%, 158 Votes)
The choices where
* Battlefield: Bad Company 2
* World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
* Starcraft II
* Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
* Call of Duty: Black Ops
* Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City
* Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
* Fallout: New Vegas
* Need for Speed World
* Mass Effect
[poll id=”4″]
Not to have a sided opinion, I just don’t see how Battlefield actually won the vote. Modern Warfare or Black Ops Or Warcraft fanboys or Starcraft fanboys. but it was Battlefield.
We are inviting you guys to participate in the review of Call of Duty Black Ops for PC. There will be a poll at the end.
Minimum System Requirements
- OS: Windows® Vista / XP / 7
- Processor:Intel® Core™2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 or better
- Memory: 2GB
- HDD:12GB
- Video: Shader 3.0 or better 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600GT / ATI Radeon® X1950Pro or better
- Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible
- DirectX: 9.0c
The two computers we tested Call of Duty Black ops for Pc,
Computer 1
cpu – Intell 2200 Dual core 2.2 GHZ
GPU – Nvidia 220 1 gig
MEM – 4 gigs pc6400
OS – Windows 7 Ultimate
Computer 2
cpu – AMD Athlon II X3 440 3.00 GHZ
GPU – Nvidia 250 1 gig
MEM – 4 gigs pc 6400
OS – Windows 7 Ultimate
Call of Duty Black ops Splash
The default video settings for Call of Duty Black ops Was already decent enough for me to start the game, just had to change from 1280×768 to 1440×900. Of course I did not try turning anything up because I wanted to try the game right out of the box at default standards. You know what, I was quite happy with the game-play.
Menu Black Ops Pc
You can move the mouse and look around the room as if you are the head of Mason the main character in Call of Duty Black Ops. You are restrained in a chair, you have blood on your shirt.
First Cut-scene Call Of Duty Black Ops
This of course is the first Cutscene of the single Player version Call of Duty Black Ops for pc.
We Played all three versions of Call of Duty Black Ops, We played Multiplayer We played Zombie and We Played Single player. Gave about one Hour to the Zombie game play. Both computers handled the game very well. We took the game to multiplayer and both computers held up great, even on maps with 16/16 players. No noticeable lag at all. but single player. We played single player mode at veteran level for two Hours. about the second hour, the Intel machine began to lag heavily. Could have been a heating issue.
Best First Person Shooter I have played this year. Nice FPS action, Excellent FPS View
Call of Duty Black Ops, Is now my new favorite First Person Shooter.
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Single player is very hard, graphics are amazing. Ai is a bit repetitive non intuitive. But Ai is very hard.
Multyplayer is small space hardly any place to camp as a sniper. Rounds are short like 10 minutes cap. Multyplayer is fast paced extreme action. Weapons are earned. That’s kind of cool, but those who make it to the good weapons first, keep the others from upgrading.
Straight to the scoring I give, but you can give yours below.
multiplayer fun 9/10
Graphics 10/10
single player fun 8/10
Sound 10/10
control 10/10
Final Score over all 9/10
[poll id=”3″]
If you are like me and do not like bloating your computer with virus scanners and anti virus programs that run the whole time your computer is on. Then you at least need to scan every now and again to make sure you do not have a computer virus or some sort of spy ware. Most people just call it malware.So for you , the better bet is to use an online scanner to help locate and remove the virus or spyware you may obtain in a regular day’s computer use.
See I have a funny little phrase that describes the usage of a search engine. It’s like playing mine sweeper, Some times you get a nice good run, sometimes you get nailed left and right. BOOM. ” You may be infected” I hate that dang fake virus scanner. So it’s all about CTRL ALT DELETE and pray your web browser does not re-open the same dang page again.
So in my years of computer repair and internet fun I have found a few sites that do not charge you to use their online virus scanner. and they are not a trap or have any special usage clause. Also sometimes your installed virus scanner gets a virus that attaches it’s self to the virus scanner, so now you can’t remove the virus because the virus scanner is not self destructive. (would help if they had a self back up and repaired such issues on reboot).
I now share these with the readers of the TruXtertech.Com Site.
Here is a list of Online Virus scanners that work. For Free
A-Squared online Scanner a very good scanner that seems to be the strongest I know of . I also use the Emergency kit, I keep that malware scanner on a thumb drive.
BitDefender The longest running online malware scanner I know of. This malware scanner has removed a virus from every single computer I have ever used/repaired. Bitdefender also sells a copy of their virus scanner from their site. But it runs like all antivirus programs. Constantly.
Eset Online Virus Scanner. Menu to select the type of scan and actions you would like it to take.
Panda– online scanner
CA– Formerly InnoculateIT formerly Etrust now just CA. I love their virus scanner and performance tools. but again they are constant so I use the online scanner and that’s plenty for me. Their virus scanner is worth a buy though. So if you know someone who needs protection and they aren’t as OCD as me when it comes to keeping the pc fast, do it, get them CA for their birthday or Christmas or just for the heck of it.
Single file Virus Scanners. For scanning something you just downloaded to make sure it doesn’t have a Trojan in it or any other type of malware.
Virus Chief – Uses a few other online single file virus scanners, so you get a large number of virus scanners at one time.
Virus Total – same as above, mostly the same virus scanners.
Jotti– this one is the one that has been around the longest. The guy used to list the “latest in the wild” which would show what cooties have recently been caught, It was fun to watch that page. I guess he got sick of the wasted bandwidth because of people refreshing the page constantly.
Virscan.org – online single file virus scanner. Scans with like 30 virus scanners at once like the others. Takes a bit longer but it gets confirmed by 30 scanners that you do or do not have a virus in your hands.
Try the list, go through it and scan for a virus see what you get. you may, you may not have malware.
I did a virus scanner comparison using a well known virus and all of these scanners listed. come see how they scored. My test was just to see what virus scanners couldn’t detect it. From that point on, I consider those virus scanners that did not detect the virus, garbage and useless.
Let’s say the offer was there, if the guys at Apple decided to offer you a computer at the exact value of all of your parts for your custom computer all tallied up to get a total value at full perfect value. Would you take this deal? Would you feel as if you are at a gain? or would you feel as if you are at a loss in performance, security, ability, creativity? Would this migration cause you any grief/ Could you make a an easy transfer to the Mac, Apple operating system ?
What operating system would you be changing from ? Windows? Linux? BSD ? Please say which version also ex: windows 98, windows xp, windows vista, windows 7 , fedora, xandros etc.
If Mac announced that they are looking to expand their hardware range by trading your pc and studying your personal combination of devices so they can better write the Apple Operating system for a new assortment of apple computers. Would your participate?
would you offer more money after mac evaluates and fair trades, so that you can get an even better and even newer apple computer?
Would be able to give a fair review of the apple computer you get in swap for your pc ?
[poll id=”11″]
We request you leave a response below as to what you think is good or bad about this. And your take.
AVA Free First Person Shooter – FPS of 2010 is out now.
One video game I have been waiting quite some time for.
First person shooters, Good, Free games, Good. Free First personshooters.. Freaking awesome. Free first person shooters that killer graphics, nu worthy.
Runs on Unreal 3 engine.
As good if not better graphics as call of duty Modern Warfare 2.
Down load free game page http://www2.ijji.com/downloads.nhn
actual page with previews http://ava.ijji.com/index.nhn
A.V.A. System Requirements
Your computer must meet certain minimum requirements in order
to play Alliance of Valiant Arms.
Before you download and install Alliance of Valiant Arms, please verify your system specifications.meet or exceed the following.
| Minimum Requirements | Recommended Requirements | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | P4 2.4GHZ | P4 3.0GHZ |
| Graphics Card | Geforce 6600 | Geforce 7600GT |
| Memory | 1GB | 1GB |
| OS | Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 | |
| Direct X | Direct X 9.0C | |
This could get the vote for best free first person shooter of the year, on TruXter Tech Review.
This is in every since a video game made completely for pc gaming. all games should be released as a pc game and then ported to console. Simply because the console port would be easier than the port to pc game. So when a game comes out for pc game first, we are certainly sure it will be a good game. This first person shooter will be the number one Pc game FPS of the year. (by all expectations). I am certain you can not buy a pc game this good.
Best ofs always come in January of the following year. We make sure every game released in a year time gets a chance.
Ten or so years ago, Blizzard put put out Starcraft. The game was so well designed so well built, that some countries actually held tournaments playing as the Zerg, Terran and Protoss species/races. The game in some Asian countries was more popular than the Olympics.
After ten years of dormancy, it has come back to challenge us again.
Here is my first day with Starcraft II (I wrap it up with a full review)
Bought My Startcraft II today.
Install took a while but nothing major. Just felt like forever. but what the heck is 5-10 minutes when I have been waiting ten years.
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After install was a download of a patch.
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Then came the video we all saw in the teaser. Seemed there wasn’t a lady talking in the teaser. so… listen closely you might hear something you haven’t heard.
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Oh, video card crashed at the end. It’s okay I have another :-)
On first Install of the game, the cenematics, Really good. This is what I have been waiting for. The cigar is back ( the thing that seemed to have the best detail in SCI).
The Blizzard people really know how to do CGI.
That little ps2/ record player thing with the Hologram . Cool effect.
Difficulty selection for Starcraft II
Casual Normal Hard Brutal
I selected Casual. Come on. I’m learning.
Huge selection for hotkeys.
I can’t imagine I memorized that many keys with the first Starcraft.
Menu Selection for Starcraft II
Video Resolution didn’t go as high as I wanted. Seemed to be a bit of an anti-aliasing issue going on. Kind of wavy. No lag or nothing just an occasional wave in the video and some broken lines.
After finishing the first mission you go back to bar.
They put plenty of items for you to click on and get curious about. I looked at everything. because I want to know all of it.
End of third mission in the game.
it took me 20 minutes to do that. and I had it set on the lowest difficulty.
On board a battle cruiser.
Your bar from the first is now a Battle cruiser. Back Starcraft I, we just called them “BC” gotta type fast mid game.
You can click a lot of stuff there also. You learn a few things that way. It’s not like the first diablo where people just babbled random useless stuff and then the same stuff all the time. They actually change their phrases after each mission.
if you click around enough, you learn tricks about the game, study abilities that you can’t have unless you learn them by clicking stuff and buy better weapons.
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That guy sounds just like Chris Pirillo. He has plenty of videos on youtube. Just type his name. you will see. Kinda looks like him also.
FYI His Name is “Steadman”
Now all of the media is presented. Sorry I didn’t want to install fraps… I’m on strike. So my pics are via cam on my cell.
Game play
At first I was upset because the buildings didn’t lay out in straight lines like they did before in the first Starcraft. I kept getting my SCV stuck between buildings. That is of course until I found the button that allows me to sink the supply depot underground. After seven missions i haven’t seen if that prevents attacks on them. I am sure a Zerg can attack it… Right ? All of the old buildings look the same, just you get a better look at them now. They seem to do all of the same stuff and the costs and upgrades are still the same. There are a few additions to equipment and to units. I don’t want to ruin to much. Just there is something that looks like a flying vulcher. That thing has some awesome artillery. Turret Lasers :-D !!!! Fire bats are bigger, but still have low range ground attack weapons only. but they can be upgraded pretty good.
You know, I don’t think I want to ruin it for you . So I will not go into it. Kinda hard to talk about Starcraft ii and not same the names of the units. They are all listed on Blizzard’s site with Starcraft unit name next to it. But you just don’t know what it all means till you play. So I don’t want to ruin the surprise for when you buy your copy of Starcraft II.
This game is a 100% must buy for any person who enjoyed Starcraft or Starcraft Brood Wars. They reference so much. The familiarity is there.
If you are a console gamer who has never played a PC game, a game that was created for pc and played on pc only, you will not get the fun in watching the videos. The videos are all very important. This is not a RUSH-RUSH-RUSH-RUSH-complete the game kind of game. This game is not for the console kiddies.
Online play, I think they scrapped the idea of the chatroom. How can you talk smack and get your butt handed to you after? There is a forum option and a community option, but the community option just sends you to Starcraft II website.
I didn’t dig much into the online play at all. I just want to finish teh game first and get the hotkeys memorized before I do all that.
Ladder matches are back.
Everyone is huge Muscular except the women and the scientists.
Jim looks different and voice sounds different. Many return roles. Different voices but similar. could be the same people, it has been ten years and all.
Also they removed the community. I find it hard to make a challenge when you can’t talk crap. So here is the community of Starcraft II Clans.
Scoring is on a 1-10 scale. 10 being best and 1 is sucky.
Resolution 9
Cinematic 10
Game play 10
Audio 10
If you want to understand a pc gamer and how we are a breed apart.
Split Second for pc
The graphics are really nice. Fire looks brilliant. Car skin looks like fresh real paint. All of the cars are beautiful and fast. From the street to the tops of buildings, the city looks amazing and real. This is a pretty game. I mean it in the sense of it looks great and is built to fit today’s computer world. This is in every sense, a Racing Video Game. Menu area is a pretty cool new looking format. They went all out on this racing game.
On the down side, this was a game that was created for a console. Clearly. You have limited control mapping. You have limited Resolution adjustments and tons of current gen console “motion blur”. On the upside, for this high end of resolution, it is very light weight on your hardware. I never once felt lag or lack of response with my 3 gig tri core AMD, Nvidia 250 and 4 gigs of ddr2 pc6400 memory.
I did sense this game looks and feels a lot like Need For Speed Most Wanted with better textures and slight engine add on mod. Added gun thingy and some sort of change to the slow motion . Drafting is there like in Need For Speed Carbon and Undercover. I love all three of those games and wish there was more to them, so this is perfect.
I will be wasting many hours completing this game, even though I have no idea what the story is. Is there a story?
I finished first race hit escape. Totally lost my win. Re-started game and had to enter my user name again. Had to do most of my video settings. Screen resolution stayed but not video quality. Had to enter all of that again.
Not much to the steering. Can’t explain much but will say, you can smash them buttons, you aint turning any sharper.
Textures- 10
sound-10
control-7
entertainment- 8
I wrote Is Pc Gaming Dead 2 years ago, Now I recap.
I actually got tons of hate-mail from pc gamers. There was a ton of messages from console gamers saying stuff like “go buy a ps3/360 you cheap %%^#). but to get hate mail from pc gamers on a subject that bothers me. To get called a scare monger or fear monger or a poor writer with scare tactics. It threw me for a curve. So for two years I stayed off the topic. Now the consoles are a few years old. No news on a new Xbox or the next playstation. I do feel like I am cheating because this is a bad time to do an assessment. Then again, people are fanboys of stuff for a good long while. I am certain the fanboyism has petered out now that pc gamers have slapped the console kiddies down with “Nice out dated machinery, still calling it next gen?”
Okay lol that was so wrong of me. but it was right. Very right.
Ok to the work at hand.
I took a trip to the local gamestop to see if I could find a fun new game for my pc. I mean I did just upgrade my video card to dual Nvida gts 250 cards toting 1g memory, and I just upgraded my processor from a dual core 2.9g cpu to a tri core 3.0g processor. and I added two gigs memory to my motherboard. So you can see I am ready to game a bit. I get into the game store and look what I found.
Game stop Pc gaming
Pc gaming went from a small shelf, down to one of the outer edges of a small shelf. A small 4 foot shelf end-cap. so I was was shocked. all of the games so old and outdated, I tried to laugh at it but it came out distorted. It was disturbing. I was outraged. I walked to the cashier and said ” What the %^^&%^ is this %^$%^” or something really close. The cashier pointed at the pieces of paper hanging over the side.
It was three pages I think, front to back listed with hundreds of pc games they have in the back. I was excited. I bought some games from the list and left there happy. Then I got all the way home and realized ‘dude, we are pc gamers, not paper gamers.” They could just go ahead and remove that whole dang rack and that notebook on the side and just put us a computer there to select our purchase from. i could go for that.
a week or so later, I was shopping in Walmart for some screws or something. It was late and no hardware stores were open. So wally world was all I had. After I finally found something that might work, I walked to the electronics department so I can look at the fading pc games there and sulk at the three shelves of 9.99 games and a few two year old games. The pc games were gone. I mean completely and entirely gone from the spot they have slowly dwindled down to. They were gone. I broke out my cellphone to take a picture. I back up and bumped into some guy. I turned to apoligize. As i turned I winced because of the huge long glass cabinet of console games. My eyes moved from the furthest end. Nintendo stuff had to have had 300 different games. Counting hand helds and stuff. Then the next case xbox. Well over 100 games. Then playstation 200 or so. Then….. wait…. What????? IT’S A HUGE RACK OF PC GAMES AT THE END OF THE LINE. MORE PC GAMES THAN ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Walmart Pc Gaming
The Humble Walmart has more pc games than Gamestop of Spring (on 45 and cypresswood).
so what the heck happened? is pc game dying? Is it on it’s last breath? Is it getting it’s second wind? It looks like pc gaming is coming to the forefront again. Quietly making it’s march forward.
What i am worried about is that most pc gamers are let down enough, they have been buying online only. so they may never even notice that this is going on. and by the time they find out about it, the games will be pulled off the shelf because it was a failed attempt.
Or someone will get the news out as well as they can that pc gaming is not dead or dying, we just have to find it and make sure the guy who sales knows he has what we want and that we will be there for him to profit from.
******Update*****
Well I talked to Gamestop.
Got the answer we needed to hear.
GAMEstop (lol their name says it all.)
Gamestop is reducing their pc games because gamestop tends to sell used games. Pc games, even though they do not get pirated any more or any less than Xbox and Playstation games, they have great deals of protection methods on them that prevent the RE-SELL of Pc Games.
Since GAMEstop sells a lot of used games, and you can’t use cd keys like you used to by “unregistering a cdkey”. Games now come with a limited amount of installs.
The pc gaming industry is killing it’s self