I told you mine was already a little heater - which is real great lately. I just so want to be warmer in all this hot weather - can't get enough of it! Sweat dripping - the works! THe 2 GB of mem, dual core CPU, and my super heater - the x1900XTX, the dual HD's, Triple optical drives, need I go on?

I almost want my older slower computer back!

I have a first Gen Core Duo Centrino in my laptop and I will never go back to a single core processor. Its like night and day when it comes to multitasking...

Those first generation heat pipe HSFs are last years technology, though that's one of the newest and prettier models of that generation. I picked up one of these in February: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/cpu2.php?idx=80&disc=

It is suitably massive and has a nice car radiator look to it that I like, though its actually lighter than it looks and is one of the smaller coolers of this design type (the advantages of this design, aside from the heat pipes, is the orientation of it that pulls cool air from the front through the heat sink then across the capacitors at the edge of the board and out the rear exhaust.

The only probablem I'm having now is that with the hot summer heat and poor case design, my ambient temps inside the case are so high these days (41C case temp when I'm gaming) that even this cooler can't keep my modest 35% OC CPU stable anymore. :cry:

Well, the games have (IMHO) gone downhill for the following reasons:

1. New games require so much code that much of it is recycled from other previous titles, giving most games a similar look & feel to many other games;

2. The market has changed. The major market for PC games used to be the 20+ enthusiast/game crowd, now the market is much bigger and many titles simply pander to the lowest common denominator for the largest masse appeal possible;

3. Related to #2 is the growing share of the console market and desire to port PC titles to the machines, meaning they have to conform to their limitations and appeal to the same audience;

4. The technology has gotten so good that games are getting increasingly realistic, and there is more and more demand for 'realism', but often it seems this translates into superficial eye candy at the expense of actually making the game 'fun' or interesting, let alone novel or unique;

5. All of the above explains why there are dozens and dozens of RTS clones and 3-D shooters, which require only improvements to existing code/graphics, and pander to the widest possible audience so game makers get the maximum return on minimum risk. Doing something different, novel, is risky and potentially much less profitable.