A few days ago I received my new Razer Barracuda HP-1 headset, which as you may now is Razer’s high quality 5.1 surround gaming headset. I had used a Barracuda before as well, so I thought I knew what to expect when opening the box… nothing could’ve been further from the truth. You see, Razer has been secretly listening in on what little criticisms were cast in their direction for this headset - and has quietly launched a new and improved version (going by exactly the same name).

Having already used it I knew this headset was one of excellent quality, particularly in it’s intended purpose of generating surround sound. Utilizing 6 speakers - 3 on each side - for front, rear and mid sound as well as a fourth unit for bass, surround sound in this headset easily rivals powerful surround sound speaker-sets. The original design had very few flaws, and what flaws it had where trivial at best. As such it seems strange for Razer to release a new version - and particularly odd for them to do it without any announcements or press statements. Maybe Razer wants to push it’s new stereo headset - the Razer Piranha - instead… who knows.

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As of last weekend I finally made the jump from oldschool CRT monitor goodness to a more modern-day TFT screen. I had always held off on the purchase, because my godly 19″ CRT delivered awesome image quality… and to be honest, the TFT screens I had seen my friends use looked horrid in comparison, or displayed a lot of ghosting and tearing. However, in recent years TFT screens have improved a lot, which prompted me to get one anyway - alongside recommendations from a few of my colleagues.

So say hello to my new 22″ monster, the wellknown HP W2207 TFT Widescreen monitor, well… once I upload some pictures that is. Anyway, the difference with my old iiyama CRT monitor is immediately noticeable. Not only is it lighter and thinner, but it seems about twice as big because it takes up so much horizontal space… which is great! The widescreen format feels much more natural than the regular old square blob and the visual quality is beyond a shadow of a doubt completely superior to my previous CRT monitor.

If you thought my soundcard upgrade two months ago was amazing, then you’ve seen nothing yet. Now you’d be hard-pressed not to mistake my PC for a fullblown home cinema set! So by all means, scroll through for my experience with visual (near-)perfection!

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As a present for my twentieth birthday I received a Logitech G15 Keyboard yesterday. While I’ve heard some people complain about this keyboard, thus far it’s proven to be great! I like the blue backlight, which means I can see my keys at all times… and contrary to my previous keyboard the WASD keys have yet to fade, which is another big plus. Anyway, it’s pretty cool and all - although it doesn’t come with a manual for some reason - and I’m sure I’ll talk some more about it once I’ve gotten some time quality time in with it’s LCD display and Macro Keys.

Thus far I’ve simply been too addicted to Unreal Tournament 3’s beta demo to really try any of the G15 features. At least the keyboard functions flawlessly under the stressful conditions of a hardcore UT3 DeathMatch game. The game mode switch is absolutely awesome, because it means no more accidental switches to Windows when playing a game and trying to hit that Ctrl or Alt button. That game - UT 3 - is awesome by the way… and you’ll definitely want to give it a try if you haven’t already. It’s going to be the best shooter, and possibly best game, of 2007 for sure.

Today I also headed out and purchased Half Life 2: The Orange Box, which is a definite must-have this winter. There’s simply no reason to pass up on a package containing five games for the price of one! I’ve yet to actually play any of the games (although I did play Half Life 2 previously), but I’ve heard a lot of good things about Portal and Team Fortress 2… and Half Life 2: Episode 2 seems to be doing well in the reviews as well. Well then… I’ll be off to finish up Episode one and two, then I’ll report back with my impressions.

Have a nice weekend!

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For my brand new gaming system I decided against purchasing a sound card, instead opting to try out Realtek’s onboard ‘HD Audio’ solution. This was a fairly decent experience, offering sound quality mostly on-par with my former Audigy 2 sound card… until recently that is. As of late I had been experiencing a lot of crackling sound, particularly in games like Settlers VI and World in Conflict. So, in a desperate attempt to get rid of the annoying pops and creaks - I went on a leap and bought a fairly inexpensive - 69 euro - Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer card, which arrived today.

Heading into this expecting merely to solve my crackling problem and otherwise offer up largely similar audio, even though reviews indicated otherwise… I was very ill-prepared indeed for what this upgrade would truly mean to my PC. Installing was easy enough - a monkey could do it… no really! - and after altering some driver and application settings everything was working properly. Then I fired up my first video and was welcomed by an explosion of aural goodness: this went way beyond fixing some pops and creaks, or slightly improving my sound experience. It’s completely revolutionized my PC gaming/media experience and instantly became the most impressive feature on my brand new rig (including a Geforce 8800 GTX video card).

Read on for an epic tale of genuine aural bliss!

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In recent years the cost of nearly all computer hardware has plummeted. When you can get a powerful quad core processor (Intel Core 2 Duo Q6600) for a mere 260 euros, then you know the time must be right to upgrade! And not just processors have become inexpensive, but the same goes for hard disks, RAM strips, DVD drives, etc. With computer hardware prices at an all-time low, I decided to assemble a new PC gaming system of my own: a state of the art computer with some of the best processing power hardware available today. And all it cost me was 800 euros!

In this entry I’ll highlight the hardware I have purchased and the precise reasons for the low cost of this system. Perhaps more importantly, I’ll explore how you can assemble a system for this kind of price yourself. I’ll also include a slight theoretical cost comparison of this kind of new PC gaming system versus a ‘next-gen’ console. Read on for the full load!

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