Help me buy something by fighting about it!

[Yegolev]

Wow.  Let's see how I can desecrate your list.

[PS2] Shining Force EXA
[PSP] Puzzle Quest: Challenge of WarLords (don't scoff, going to be awesome me thinks)
[360] Tetris Evolution
[360] TMNT (new one)
[360] Armored Core 4 (or PS3 if you're an achievement, online hating nazi)
[360] Virtua Tennis 3 (see Armored Core 4)
[360] Earth Defense Force 2017 (YES YES YES YES YES YES YES)
[PS3] Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (miss it the first time?)
[WII] Cooking Mama: Cook Off
[WII] Kororinpa: Marble Madness mania
[WII] Wing Island (if you're a fan of shitty games)

No more Tetris.  I'm serial.  You might as well try to sell me a Rubik's Cube or a Simon.  Also, I don't see a PSP on the horizon.  Sho shorry.  I'm going to put TMNT in the same basket as Tetris; you can call it chronism if you like, there's no law against it.  Also: no sports games, it's a policy that has served me well over the years.

The thing about Oblivion for PS3 (or 360 for that matter) is that my wife wants to play it but apparently WASD is "retarded" or maybe just "hard", plus she likes playing on the TV.  She pointed out to me that The Sims is almost-completely mouse-driven, to which I did not comment.  I'm not convinced that she will like it, but there it is.  She let me play GoWII all weekend, so I'm not going to say anything discouraging.

[voodoolily]

i am very much looking forward to Cooking Mama for the Wii.

[Yegolev]

Here is an update on the PC-building saga.  It's been down for quite a while, at first so I could cut a new hole in the case for that second PSU (pictures forthcoming, waiting on the machine to come alive).  I took care of that today and I started putting the pieces together.  Two things went wrong.  First, I installed the drive bay before plugging in the PSU to the mobo and I should have known that wasn't going to work.  Second, I noticed the mainboard has a 24-pin socket.  Someone snuck a power standard change by me.

Bought one of these just now.  I'll put that one in where the 480W is now and move the 480W up to where the 400W is sitting.  If it won't fit in the hole, well... might be some rage.

[Trippy]

Here is an update on the PC-building saga.  It's been down for quite a while, at first so I could cut a new hole in the case for that second PSU (pictures forthcoming, waiting on the machine to come alive).  I took care of that today and I started putting the pieces together.  Two things went wrong.  First, I installed the drive bay before plugging in the PSU to the mobo and I should have known that wasn't going to work.  Second, I noticed the mainboard has a 24-pin socket.  Someone snuck a power standard change by me.

Bought one of these just now.  I'll put that one in where the 480W is now and move the 480W up to where the 400W is sitting.  If it won't fit in the hole, well... might be some rage.

Are you sure your old power supply doesn't have a square 4 pin aux power connector on it?

[Yegolev]

Sorta does, a 12V AUX plug, but the square ones and the beveled ones don't line up, and I don't really feel like frying anything right now.  I stared at it for quite a bit before I decided against it.

[Yegolev]

You made me go look at the sockets again.  I verified they won't both fit without some "modification".  I have used up my "modification" points with the chassis, now I'm just going to throw money at the problem.  A man's got to know his limitations.

[Trippy]

Sorta does, a 12V AUX plug, but the square ones and the beveled ones don't line up, and I don't really feel like frying anything right now.  I stared at it for quite a bit before I decided against it.

If it's a 4x1 Molex connector instead of a 2x2 square connector you don't want to plug that next to the 20-pin connector even if you had some sort of adapter for it.

[Yegolev]

It is a 2x2 with square and beveled plugs just like the 2x10 main.  Really, if the plugs matched up then I'd have probably given it a shot.  You're talking to the guy who filed the notch in some DDR RAM and tried to use it in a DDR2 slot; I think I have learned my lesson.  Maybe.

[Yegolev]

I feel much, much better now that I am looking at a BIOS screen.  I want a quick opinion: what is the minimum size for a C: partition when using WinXP?  I have both 64 and 32 but the adult in me likes working drivers, so I'll be installing 32-bit XP.

[Strazos]

From experience, 10.7GB is too small, but I put all my drivers, firewalls, and other system tools in that partition as well. I would say 15GB should be plenty when you account for the added size of SP2 and the other downloaded fixes.

[Yegolev]

The one I am replacing was 4GB.  I had to relocate the directory that My Documents pointed to.  I'm thinking 20GB should be plenty.

[Yegolev]

I went with the 20GB C: partition, with the remaining 220(?) into another.  I started to reinstall shit, but put the brakes on since I really need to reorganize my data.  Two developments.

A: My monitor is starting to crap out, or has some problem with the new card.  I know it is the monitor since I tried adjusting color paramters and it still looks like dog shit, then I plugged in a 15" monitor from Ye Olde Days and it looked great... other than the monitor had some issues with the resolution but, you know.  Looked sharp and colors weren't nasty.
2: Something that I was actually surprised to discover is that an ATX power supply will not spin up when not plugged into a mainboard.  This is the 480W that I had used just prior to the upgrade, so I am very sure it is in working order.  Good thing I sprung for the 700W OCZ.  I am currently pondering a solution.

I love my consoles.

[Furiously]

It will spin up if you short out a couple of pins. Forget which two you have to jumper.

Well - here you go.... http://www.frozencpu.com/products/3223/psu-173/FrozenCPU_20-pin_Power_Supply_Jump_Start_Connector.html?tl=g11

[Strazos]

I still don't know why you have 2 PSUs in the box...

[Trippy]

I still don't know why you have 2 PSUs in the box...

His old one doesn't work with his new motherboard.

[Yegolev]

Actually I was going to run two PSU so that I would not have to buy a new one.  I have several laying around, and the idea was to run the PCBs off of the 480W and at least some of the media drives and fans off of a 400W.  The change in pinouts for the main connector dashed that hope, but of course I have already done a stellar job of modifying my case to fit two PSU so I might as well use it.  Or: Because I can.

@Furiously: I owe you some booze.

Now that I have spent money on a new PSU, I'm even more reluctant to drop change on a new monitor even though the SyncMaster 700p appears to be on its last legs.  I have not ruled out lack-of-voltage as the root cause, but I don't know how I would go about fixing that.  I figure about eight years is a good run for a monitor, but I'll miss the CRT.

In other news, I have "fixed" my unannounced sound issues.  BIOS flip from "HD" to AC97 fixed it, saving me from buying a separate sound card.

Lastly, I have reinstalled AIM but I don't remember my password.  I used the forgot-my-password thingy but it apparently sends the reset to some email address to which I don't have access, which is weird since I only really use two of the four I have.

Really lastly, my rig now has lots of blue glow.  The mobo has blue/purple and the OCZ PSU is very blue.  At least it matches my blue Razer mouse, but I can't criticize other people for having metrosexual computers without being a hypocrite.

[Sky]

I like that my case is totally opaque. You can't see my metrosexual components. They're safely in the closet!

[Yegolev]

My case is wide open, but even so the PSU lights up out its ass like a 700W firefly.  Actually it helps me find my chair without turning on the overheads, but still makes me feel like George Plimpton in an Intellivision commercial.

[Sky]

I'm wearing a glow-in-the-dark SpongeBob bandage. And I just turned 37 today.

[Yegolev]

My wife cut her finger last night and I put a Hot Wheels bandage on it.

[Signe]

For Furiously:

[Furiously]

Yum!

Sorry for anyone who read my previous version...

[Sky]

Those bacon strips are splendid.

I'd probably just gnaw on my finger, though.

[voodoolily]

I'm wearing a glow-in-the-dark SpongeBob bandage. And I just turned 37 today.

HAppy Birthday, Sky!

[Sky]

 :-D

[Furiously]

That means your life is like statistically 1/2 over! Happy birthday...

[Signe]

Hippo Berated Bird-day to Sky! 

Here is a picture of the hat I imagine myself giving you for your birthday:

[Sky]

I would totally wear that splendid chapeau.

My mother actually put 37 candles on the damn cake. Luckily I'm lungy.

[Yegolev]

I'd be afraid to do that if I had an enormous beard.