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The Joys of PC Ownership

Crashes, lock-ups, blue screens of death and a surprise
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted October 5, 2012
- 2
It started with Guild Wars 2: Random crashes, seemingly unconnected. Then it spread to other games. After a few hours with Black Mesa, a crash to the desktop. Occasionally, the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen of Death).
No amount of driver updates fixed the issue. On the GW 2 tech forums the problem seemed widespread. When an Arena Net employee would bother to respond to one of the many threads about the same issue, they always just said, “Check your RAM.”
Yeah, right. In 20 years of fixing and building computers, not once had I ever had a problem with RAM.
So what could it be?

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HTPC Update #4: Buying a Home Theater PC

And what to get if you want to build your own
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted August 27, 2012
- 5
I’m ashamed. I must embarrassingly hand in my nerd card.
This month, for only the second time in my adult life, I purchased a computer. No longer can I haughtily proclaim “well, I build my own PCs.” Gone is the geek-cred I felt enshrined me as an elitist in the elitist world of PC gaming. But it had to be done, and I’ll tell you, it’s awesome.
So let me save you some money, and go through the various bits of the PC I bought, so you know where to spend your money on a PC you might buy, or want to build yourself.

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HTPC Update #3: My Favorite Upgrade, the Video Card

The most cost-effective way to make your PC better.
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted October 11, 2011
- 1
I gave in. Battlefield 3 had reduced my HTPC to a smoldering, weeping mess that begged me to put it out of its misery.
Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.
And to that end, I started with, well the anthropomorphic spin kinda fails here. It's a new video card, that's what I'm getting at.

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HTPC Update #2: Of Mice and Mousepads

Overcoming the biggest obstacle to HTPC gaming
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted September 26, 2011
If you've been following my progress integrating an HTPC into my theater, you'll recall my frustration with getting fluid and precise control.

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HTPC Update #1: Hardware Headaches and Menu Tweaking

Making the best of my current system — and figuring out what needs replacing ASAP.
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted September 12, 2011
- 6
I've been living with my HTPC for just over a month now, and I've come up with enough new observations to warrant a new installment (well, maybe enough to fill a bunch of articles) so. . . behold!
Been setting up your own living-room computer? Read on for my latest tips, tricks, and plain old complaints. I think most of you will find some of these useful. And some of you — I hope — will find most.

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Asus' wireless Eee Keyboard coming in October
- By sandv blog
- Posted September 14, 2009
Most home theater PCs are either big bricks or tiny set-top gadgets, always tethered to your system.
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Maingear's HTPC is a serious gaming machine

Home Theater PCs and high-end gaming rigs generally sit on two opposite ends of the expensive computer spectrum. Maingear, however, has created a pretty impressive machine that can ably handle both.
- By sandv blog
- Posted June 18, 2009
Home Theater PCs and high-end gaming rigs generally sit on two opposite ends of the expensive computer spectrum. Maingear, however, has created a pretty impressive machine that can ably handle both.

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Niveus gets in the ZONE
- By sandv blog
- Posted April 1, 2009
Niveus Media has announced the ZONE multi-room media player, a compact media system that can play music and movies served from any networked media PC. At just 6" by 6" by 2", it's slightly smaller than a Mac Mini, with more home theater-friendly features.

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