Sunday, February 14, 2010

Gaming rig - Fresh 2010 Load!

After all the HDD turmoil of 2009 and what with new games not running at high resolution on my PC, it was time to get a new machine... I was waiting for the new LGA 1156 architecture to go mainstream so that I could get a non-prohibitively priced system for myself.. and 2010 was the time to do it!

These are the specs on my new rig!

Intel Core-i5-750 @ 2.66GHz
4GB DDR3 @ 1333MHz
DP55WB Intel original MB (with DMI)
GeForce 9800GT with 1GB DDR5 memory (mid-range substitute till Dx11 cards go mainstream)
1TB Seagate HDd (yeah.. Seagate - even after my last post.. there are no real options)
BenQ 22 inch LCD monitor with full HD (1080p) support
.. and the other usual stuff (I still have the 5.1 Creative speaker system from last time)..

And just like that, I am all set to play the latest games at very high resolutions :)

So, after a bit of free time which led to this blog frenzy (yeah, 3 posts is quite something), I will be back into my favorite pasttime..

So, until the next post, whenever that happens, keep fragging.. get a life!!

Seagate HDD woes

2009 was made a bit woeful for me by Seagate, though I dont think it was their specific intention to target me...

Early in the year (or it was end 2008 - the memories are so tragic that I probably blocked them out!), my old 200GB HDD crashed.. fair enough.. it had been heavily abused for about 4 years..

So, I went out and got a shiny (hmmm.. just a figure of speech) new 500GB drive.. the 200GB drive was full of unrecoverable sectors, but at least it was still detected on the BIOS.. so, I revved up some data recovery tools and after a painful 1 month, got back almost all the data I needed to recover from that HDD..

Then, after about 9 event-free months, the big bolt happened.. the 500GB drive crashed.. and this time it was not even detected on the BIOS.. which means I had a dead piece of magnetic storage in my hands.. there was no backup available.. I googled, in vain.. the only new piece of information I got was that the Seagate 500G drives had an alarmingly high failure rate (~18%) around the 1 year mark in case they didnt get a firmware update!

I went to the service center (my reseller, not Seagate direct).. and Seagate policy is : "we will replace/repair the drive with some other drive.. no data warranty".. what??!! "in select geographies, you can pay extra money for data recovery, but not in India".. this was my primary HDD - there is so much data on it that I can never get back.. but Seagate couldn't care less.. "get a USB solution for backup"... now, I can see where this is going.. more business for the company.. I was so frustrated I became a conspiracy theorist... "put out some faulty drives in the market and drive the backup solutions business to big bucks"..

Well, in Seagate's favor, all of these policies which shocked me are clearly stated right when the product is announced... its just something which very few people will bother to find out.. it would be nice if they had atleast auto-rolled out the firmware update for the faulty drives.. this is the age when Toyota is recalling cars.. the least Seagate can do is roll out a software patch..

So, all said and done.. I got a "repaired" 500GB HDD which was wiped clean (full format)... this time, I was more savvy and after the initial OS setup, I started running tests on the drive.. and sure enough, this was a "damaged" drive which someone else had returned... (aaaaaaaaaarghhhh!!)

so, back I went, with evidence of what the Seagate guys had done... its been over a month now and I still haven't got a replacement.. 2 months of downtime, tons of data lost and the travails are not over yet...

I got a new system in the interim, so I atleast have a computer now.. but will there ever be a day when hardware and software companies can be held accountable for "unrecoverable losses" in time and data? Ever?

Some of the games of 2009..

Once again, after a looong gap, an update about the games I played in 2009 (& unlike what the title seems to say, this is not a list of games released in 2009)..

.. the "some" comes about because of some hard disk woes, which I will detail in a separate blog entry..

as always, this is a "summary" review.. contact me if you are interested in more details..

Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box : 86 - Nice racer, with challenges popping up at every street corner. Impressive graphics and car collection. Can get a bit tedious having to drive to every single challenge, especially when only a few are left to do.

Manhunt : 80 - The Old GTA engine is used to setup a simple game which requires violent killings and stealth elements. Can get repetitive after a while once all the killing "styles" are discovered.

Sherlock Holmes - The Awakened : 84 - Complex puzzles in a very good 3D environment make for a very good detective game. Well worth all the frustrating minutes spent looking for that one clue which would take Holmes to the next step.

Prince Of Persia 2008 : 85 - Another classic PoP game, this time in the company of a princess who keeps things very lively. The stunning graphics gameplay as we eliminate the darkness is very satisfying. Has the usual minor glitches in terms of combat and use of console controls in a keyboard.

Fallout 3 : 92 - Post-apocalypse, Washington DC is the setting for an engaging game with the protoganist going in search of his father. Great graphics and gameplay elements in a wide-open world make for hours of engrossing gameplay. The DLC's are above average and add a few more elements to the game.

Resident Evil 4 : 87 - Has a very simple concept of "zombies" attacking the lead character wherever he/she goes. Add in a huge number of diverse and exciting gameplay elements and we have this great game in hand. Interesting storyline progress also helps keep things moving.

Batman - Arkham Asylum : 90 - Wonderful use of Batman's strengths means having a game with the lead character sans a gun, yet provides top notch combat with the escaped prisoners of Arkham. The Bat swoop from high altitudes is an exhilarating graphical experience. The story is also strong and the gadgets get more and more interesting. Dont miss!

Crysis : 85 - Starts off slowly, like a normal FPS but with gorgeous graphics in an open world, and then picks up pace towards the middle as aliens enter to make things interesting. Solid entertainer.

Crysis Warhead : 86 - A parallel story to the main Crysis game, with better managed graphics, faster action and more "cool" dialogues to keep the game moving. It is also a bit easier, and so can be completed in a much shorter timeframe.

Dead Space : 89 - Simple setting of a spaceship which gets infested with alien life, but very well utilised with a futuristic "projection on visor" HUD and an interesting selection of powers and puzzles.