NewScrapper

Is it worth it to put CoX on a Solid State Drive? If so, what's the minimum size drive I should get? The drive would just be for the OS and Internet Explorer (I guess) and CoX. Heck, practically the whole PC would be for that, although I'm thinking of trying out...shhhh...DCU Online. Would be nice if I had room for that, too, when the time came. Or should I just say screw it and keep it all on a 1TB plain jane hard drive? SSDs are still pretty costly from what I can tell. I can afford it, just don't know if it's worth it.

I just got this from friend and thought, "How is this not everything I need?"

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0354874

Only thing that leaps out at me is the 500W power supply seems a little low, but that's just my gut feel talking, not any real knowledge on my part.

I don't do much with DVDs, so the fact that the DVD-RW is only 22x doesn't bother me.

Any glaring holes? I work pretty close to a Microcenter store so I could pick this up today if I wanted (and assuming they have any left).

Thanks for the input, Father Xmas!

Running into a stumbling block with Mwave in that their $80 flat fee only includes installation of a stock cooler, so I guess that wouldn't include the Arctic Silver compound and CoolerMaster cooling fan on Father Xmas' high-end build. But I'm wondering if the CPU that I had to sub in for the out-of-stock CPU recommended by Father Xmas really needs that extra cooling, or if the stock cooler will do.

Note: I took the cue about Mwave and just posted a new thread with what I was able to make of Father Xmas' builds on there, with substitutions for items that are either not sold there or out of stock. Would appreciate your input!

Father Xmas builds on Mwave?
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=3419203

Note: Some of the prices I listed require you to register for free with the Mwave "MClub."

Here's what I was able to put together from Father Xmas' high-end list:

Case
ANTEC THREE HUNDRED (black) ATX tower case no power supply 3x5.25" 6x3.5"(hidden) w/front i/o connectors, 140mm fan x 1 & 120mm case fan x 1
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BA25453
58.99
(Note: This is supposed to be COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, but it's out of stock. I don't know what compares, so I just went with the same Antec as the low-end build. Any better substitutions?)

Power Supply
ANTEC TP-750 750W Continuous power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=35120BA
99.00

Mobo
MSI P55A-GD65 USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch...iteria=BD11464
163.00

CPU
Intel BX80605I5750 Core i5 i5-750 2.66GHz CPU/Processor, Quad-Core, 45 nm, 1 MB L2 Cache, 8 MB L3 Cache, Socket 1156, 95W, Retail, Boxed w/Cooling Fan
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=AA76366
209.00
(Note: This is supposed to be Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760, and this is one part where I'm afraid I might have hosed up this build. Is there a big difference between 2.66GHz and 2.8GHz?)

Memory
Kingston KHX1600C9D3K4/8GX 8GB (4 x 2GB) - 1600MHz DDR3-1600/PC3-12800 - Non-ECC - 240-pin DIMM
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=AB02413
113.66
(Note: This is supposed to be G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBRM, but Mwave doesn't sell G.SKILL, which is a shame especially since the Kingston uses up 2 more memory slots.)

Vid Card
Sapphire 100314-2SR HD6870 Video Card, 1GB DDR5, PCI-E, DVI, HDMI, Mini-Display Port
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=AA98980
242.00

Solid State Drive
Crucial RealSSD C300 2.5" SATA 64GB Solid State Drive
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BA39759
129.99
(Note: Father Xmas' build doesn't actually come with an SSD, but my friend said I should really consider it because of the fast boot times. You tell me -- is it worth it? And what about having CoH reside on the SSD along with Windows?)

Harddrive
WESTERN DIGITAL WD1002FAEX Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" internal hard drive
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=AA78035
86.99

Optical
LITE ON IHAS124-04 Black SATA 24x dvd drives internal DVD+/-RW dual layer drive
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=AA75599
18.99
(Note: This is supposed to be Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7260S-0B - OEM, but a friend of mine recommended the similarly specced Lite-On variety, which doesn't seem to have generated the same noise complaints I've seen for the Sony, and it's the same price.)

OS
Microsoft GFC-00599 Windows 7 Home Premium 64BIT English DSP OEM 1-Pack
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BA36224
94.99

Cooling
COOLER MASTER RR-B10-212P-G1 Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long life sleeve CPU Cooler
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BD11524
26.99

Thermal
Arctic Silver AA-14G Arctic Alumina Premium Ceramic Thermal Compound
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BD11331
4.99
(Note: This is supposed to be Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM, but it's out of stock, so I went with what I hope was the next best thing, but I don't know.)

Assemble&Test
Assembly & Testing - add to cart w/selected components Please allow 5-7 working days for assembly. No refunds on assembly/testing.
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...eria=ASSEMTEST
79.99

Total of all items: $1,328.58, which is still under Father Xmas' $1375 maximum, even with a Solid State Drive and assembly & testing thrown in! However, the CPU, memory, and case substitutions trouble me. I'd appreciate anyone's input -- especially Father Xmas!

I'm in the market for a new PC, and someone told me you can purchase all your PC components from www.mwave.com, and for an extra $80 they'll assemble and test your PC for you. Armed with that knowledge, I took Father Xmas' two builds and tried to price them out at Mwave to see how they do. Unfortunately, there are certain items of Father Xmas' lists that are out of stock, and there are certain items that Mwave doesn't sell, but I did the best I could and came up with what I hope are fairly faithful builds.

Here's what I was able to put together from Father Xmas' low-end list:

Case
ANTEC THREE HUNDRED (black) ATX tower case no power supply 3x5.25" 6x3.5"(hidden) w/front i/o connectors, 140mm fan x 1 & 120mm case fan x 1
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BA25453
58.99

Power Supply
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-430D Green 430W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=AB00047
56.99
(Note: This is supposed to be SeaSonic S12II 430B 430W ATX12V V2.3/EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply.)

Mobo
GIGABYTE GA-770T-USB3 AM3 AMD 770 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BD11287
79.99

CPU
AMD ADX445WFGMBOX Athlon II X3 445 3.10 GHz Processor - Tri-core - 2000 MHz HT - 1.50 MB L2 - Socket AM3 PGA-941
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BA39931
70.99
(Note: This is supposed to be AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX450WFGMBOX.)

Memory
AVEXIR AVD3U13330902G-2SW Standard 4GB kit (2GB x 2) dual channel 240-pin pc3-10600 DDR3 1333mhz DIMM 9-9-9-24 desktop memory module
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BA42027
39.95
(Note: This is supposed to be G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK, but Mwave doesn't sell the G.SKILL brand. Also, I picked up this AVEXIR memory under the "DDR3 Standard" subgrouping instead of the "DDR3 Gaming" subgrouping -- I couldn't tell what the difference is between the two subgroupings?)

Vid Card
XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 juniper xt 1GB GDDR5 pci-e 2.0 x16 hdcp ready Crossfire supported video card
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=3005602
156.06

Harddrive
SAMSUNG HD501LJ Spinpoint F1 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" internal hard drive (Bare Drive)
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=AA78012
34.99
(Note: This is supposed to be SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive, but the F1 was the closest thing Mwave had, and I couldn't see a difference in the specs?)

Optical
LITE ON IHAS124-04 Black SATA 24x dvd drives internal DVD+/-RW dual layer drive
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=AA75599
18.99
(Note: This is supposed to be Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7260S-0B - OEM, but a friend of mine recommended the similarly specced Lite-On variety, which doesn't seem to have generated the same noise complaints I've seen for the Sony, and it's the same price.)

OS
Microsoft GFC-00599 Windows 7 Home Premium 64BIT English DSP OEM 1-Pack
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...iteria=BA36224
94.99

Assemble&Test
Assembly & Testing - add to cart w/selected components Please allow 5-7 working days for assembly. No refunds on assembly/testing.
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch...eria=ASSEMTEST
79.99

Total of all items: $691.93, which is amazingly close to where Father Xmas' total hits ($684.91), even with Mwave's assembly and testing thrown in. But then, that might be because of the substitutions I had to make, so if this looks like a tempting build, make sure I'm not tempting you into the wrong decision.

(Will follow up shortly with a post on Father Xmas' high-end list!)

Anyone ever use www.pugetsystems.com? They're expensive...maybe hella-so...but they get consistent rave reviews from customers with regard to shipping, customer service, and whether what you get actually works.

Considering that my current PC is a 6-year-old Dell, I'm not particularly Dell-averse, except for the fact that getting a new power supply required me to literally take a hacksaw to the back of my case to get it to fit. I was told Alienware avoids such issues.

Not really wanting to put one together myself (even if a friend puts in the labor). Pre-built computers are fairly cheap now, and I would at least like to have something that comes with a year or more of customer support in case something goes wrong. Think I should just find a good computer store in the area? Best Buy, or something like that? Or are there better deals online?

I'm in the market for a new computer, and naturally I'd like to have one that will play whatever CoH can crank out not only now but for years down the road. A couple of my friends at the office recommended Alienware, but another friend says I should just buy myself a <$500 standard PC and upgrade it with a good graphics card. I'm prepared to shell out as much as $2,000 for a new Alienware PC if it's going to last and do well, but is that overdoing it?

Question: In the early levels of the game, before I mess around with any set IOs, is it better to slot Reconstruction (on an Elec/Regen Stalker) with Heal enhancements or Recharge enhancements?

I've got a character I've been holding at lvl 9 by keeping "No XP" turned on. I've played through what I think is all the content that's available through lvl 9, so I'm about to switch the XP back on, lvl to 14, and put it on hold again. But before I do that, are there any easter eggs or some such hidden content on the City of Heroes side that I should do before I turn 10? And is 14 the right lvl to put the brakes on once more, or is there a better lvl? The objective is for me to play through as much, if not all, of the content as I can on a single character (without having to flashback unless absolutely necessary).

My PC is six years old, 1-2 GB of memory, okay graphics card, yadda yadda. And I've got the basic cable modem package from Time Warner RoadRunner.

Last night while playing CoH, something really weird happened rather consistently. After playing for a while, I would collect a bunch of enhancements, and then I'd ask if anyone needed any -- this was at really low levels where training enhancement gifts are still nice. So someone would say, "Sure! I'll take your lvl 7 accuracy!" and I would hand it to them...

...and then my PC would freeze for a good minute.

Later I did some more handoffs after a mission, and the first handoff would freeze my PC for about 10 seconds. Later handoffs were okay.

Just really weird...never had that happen before. I've experienced the usual annoyances of rubberbanding while running or leaping, and having the game freeze while getting close to a new batch of players so that their skins will load, but this is the first time I've ever had problems just handing over an enhancement to somebody.

So I was wondering...are the problems I'm having -- especially this new one -- PC related or internet related? I'd hate to buy a brand new PC only to find that it's my internet that needed upgrading. Are there any tools where I can see whether my PC's performance and my internet performance are up to snuff.

Back in the old days, a Supergroup was just a bunch of people who enjoyed playing together. There were no bases to be pay rent for and no Prestige to be earned. So there was basically no impetus for wearing your SG colors unless that's what you wanted to do. My personal preference was always, "If you're teamed with another SG member, then wear your SG colors. Otherwise wear your own colors." So whenever I was teamed with another SG member, I'd pop into SG mode to show team spirit, and whenever I was by myself, I'd wear my normal clothes.

Now, from the beginning there's always been the option to play in SG mode but retain your normal looks, and I've made use of that. However, I would also like to play in SG colors whenever I'm teamed up with another SG member, and presently to do that means I have to go to my SG settings and manually change my SG mode costume over to what looks good on my character. That's workaround #1, and it's kind of irritating. Workaround #2 would be to store my SG mode costume in one of my extra costume slots -- more convenient, but still irritating that I have to use up a costume slot.

What I would prefer is that within the SG settings, where you have the ability to customize your SG looks, there would be a setting that basically says, "Wear SG costume while in SG mode." If the setting is enabled (the default), then whenever you turned on SG mode, your costume would change in the way you have configured on the SG settings page. But if the setting is disabled, then whenever you turn on SG mode, your costume stays as-is (i.e., without your having to go into your SG costume design and say, "Keep my costume as-is.")

More detailed example: For my current character, SG mode changes my character's basic color scheme to black and orange. However, I don't like the way my characters's hair and jacket look with everything set to the default black and orange config, so I switch the secondary colors on the hair and the jacket. Simple enough, right? But usually I play solo or with non-SG members, and in those cases, even though I'm playing in SG mode for the sake of earning Prestige, I would prefer my character to wear his original outfit...which means I have to go into the SG mode settings and wipe out the SG color config I've set up. And then, the next time I get into SG mode, I have to go back into my SG settings and try to remember my config again so that I can look like an SG member again. That's a hassle. What would be nicer is if instead I could just keep the SG color customizations as-is all the time, but have a checkbox or option that allowed me to turn on or off at will whether those customizations were actually applied to my character. I'm playing with an SG member? Go into SG settings and enable "Wear SG colors." I'm playing solo? Go into SG settings and disable "Wear SG colors." So much simpler.

If I were to describe this option in shorthand, then, I guess I would basically say, "I'm looking for 'SG Mode' and 'SG Costume' to be two separate options, instead of SG Mode automatically invoking SG Costume like it does now."

Okay, I just picked up the Going Rogue Complete Collection from Best Buy, and I've got the DVD sitting here and the serial code on the quick reference card. Couple of questions:

1) Do I need to actually put in the DVD and install the program? (I already have CoH/CoV on my PC and am actively playing it.) Or do I just need to upgrade my account with the serial code?

2) I plan on upgrading to the Holiday Bonus 14-month plan. I don't think that the free month included with the GRCC interferes any with the bonus, but to be on the safe side, should I install (or punch in the code for) GRCC before or after I put myself on the 14-month plan?

Well, I guess I'm just lucky today, or maybe it's because I left on the checkbox that says, "Save credit card info" (though it didn't), or maybe it's my Capital One credit card FTW, but I was able to buy all 4 of the items I wanted from the NCSoft store, in this order: Magic Booster, Superscience Booster, Cyborg Booster, and Wedding Pack.

Also will make a note not to buy my next 14 months of game time today. Better to wait till tomorrow.