Computer Modding Stage 1

Untitled Document

First, I would like to say you can also read this at http://www.modena135.com. This is my first stage in my current plan to upgrade, mod, and ‘trick out’ my computer.  I started by doing a little general dust removal.  I then removed my old Thermaltake V1 AX CPU Cooler CL-P0508 heatsink and fan unit, pulled out my CPU and removed the old thermal compound that was on the top of the CPU.  This Thermaltake was by no means a slouch of a cooling option providing a marked improvement over the stock Intel cooler that came with the CPU itself.  This Thermaltake cooler is pretty much on par for what one would expect to find installed in an overclocker’s or enthusiast’s computer.

Next I upgraded the way in which I will be attaching my heatsink to the computer/CPU.  There are a number of "normal" ways to attach a heatsink — basically if one is not purchasing a separate item to attach one’s heatsink and just using the items that are included with your heatsink or CPU, then one is not attaching the heatsink in the most optimal way. Which is fine. There is no real need to use a special mounting apparatus unless one is specifically trying to get the absolute lowest CPU temps that one can get. I purchased a Thermalright LGA1366 Bolt-Thru Kit (LGA1366 is my CPU socket, this is the most extreme enthusiast socket specification that Intel makes, which easily eclipses anything AMD offers). To install this, I removed my motherboard, attached a large black base on the backside of the motherboard and attached two metal pieces ont the front on the motherboard.

My third step was to remove the two green 80mm exhaust fans from my system, one of which was only running at about 66% of its optimal output. I left the working green fan out of the computer and will be using it in another stage of my modding and upgrading. I then cut the actual fan apparatus out of the dying green fan leaving just the external frame of the fan (the LEDs were also removed from the fan frame). I attached the green frame to an 80mm to 120mm fan converter (which was something I did not know even existed until a few months ago). Next, a Yate Loon 120mm x 25mm fan was attached to the converter. The Yate Loon fan was my best find for the month of November; in my never ending search for the best PC components on the market, I stumbled upon this rather cheap fan (about $7 which is cheaper than most any other 120mm UV and LED fan on the market). I got the high speed version of the fan (which had an H in the item number) which is listed to have Max Air Flow of 88 CFM – 88 CFM puts this fan in the top 10% for fans of this size however it is significantly quieter than any fan with a higher CFM or a comparable CFM and is 40-350% cheaper. The real kicker is this; it has been benchmarked to show that it actually has a CFM of well over 100, which makes it just about the best 120mm fan on the market. Finally, I attached the whole apparatus that I assembled to lower of the two 80mm exhaust fan spots.

Moving ahead, I applied Tuniq TX-3 thermal compound to my CPU. Ok, TX-3 (I will keep this brief), this is the best thermal compound on the market, hands down. It had the lowest rise over ambient temperature when benchmarked against all other thermal compounds plus you just apply it, install your components and that is it. Many of the other compounds out there, EVEN the popular Arctic Silver, require that you do a burn in period of up to 2 days! I also used a new technique to apply the compound. Normally I used either a baseball card Toploader or a piece of hard credit card shaped plastic covered in a zip-lock bag or saran wrap to spread the thermal compound. Spreading the TX-3 was taking me a long time as it has the consistency of peanut butter (one should always spread one’s compound, the technique of just putting a dot or strip and letting it spread itself after putting the heatsink and CPU together is not fail-proof). At this point I had my mom in the room to assist with the next step which was to hold the heatsink in place while I bolted it down. Seeing that the spreading of the thermal compound was a tedious process, she suggested putting the zip lock bag actually around my finger itself and to spread the compound with my finger. It worked like a charm and I will be using and recommending this technique in the future.

Finally I bolted on the new Cogage True Spirit heatsink to the CPU with two spring loaded screws. Another Yate Loon fan (exactly the same as the one mentioned before) was attached to the front of the heatsink with two UV 9 inch zip ties. Stage 1 is complete!

The Cogage is simply an amazing heatsink. It outperforms pretty much everything there is on the market and is a third of the price of it’s closet competitors. With the Yate Loon fan attached there is no better heatsink or fan out there, it even outperforms many of the liquid cooling options. If you want to read more about the this and see some of the benchmarks, check THIS out. Actually I should say that it is the best LGA1366 air cooler on the market, but since the LGA1366 is the fastest and most demanding socket on the market, it is by default the fastest on the market. Also, check out this review by jonnyguru; my cooler is similar to the Thermalright Ultra-120 although, as indicated in the first review, my Cogage outperforms the Ultra-120 (Jonnyguru is my first stop for anything computer related, they are basically Tom’s Hardware on speed. This is not a diss to Tom’s, I still use that site daily. My main reason for choosing Jonny over Tom is simply that Jonny is now what Tom used to be back in 2001. When I started college in 2000, I always refered to Tom’s when doing anything computer wise as they were an enthusiast first source. They have slowly become more mainstream over the years and I now would label them as a source for mainstream users and your weekend warrior PC tuners. Jonny’s gives a better set of reviews and scores for a true PC enthusiast, I would not recommend their results to mom and dad or to someone that just likes to turn up one’s front side bus and use a Windows based tuner to up one’s GPU clock. Downside to Jonny’s is that they only cover a hanful of components and do not review as may products as Tom’s; they really do something special for what they do cover though, just check out any power supply review, you will be impressed.)

Side note: I heatshrinked and sleeved the cabling on the new fans. This allows the cords to be a bit more ‘tidy’ and gives them a UV glow.

I benchmarked my computer before and after this stage of modifications. Before doing these modifications, at startup followed by allowing my computer to sit idle for three minutes at stock speeds on my CPU, GPU and RAM, my CPU temps were in the range of 43-46°C and got up to 56°C during startup; system temps were 40-48°C; GPU temp 70°C; and hard drives temps ranged from 33-39°C.

The results of this stage of modifications blew my mind. I was expecting a moderate decrease in CPU temp, a slight system temp decrease and basically no change in GPU and HD temp. These modifications way over performed my wildest expectations! The results at startup followed by allowing my computer to sit idle for three minutes at stock speeds on my CPU, GPU and RAM were as follows: my CPU temps were in the range of 29-33°C and got up to 36ºC during startup; system temps were 30-33ºC; GPU temp 59ºC; and hard drive temps ranged from 30-34ºC. WOW!

So I did a quick 5 minute stress test on the new setup. I used 64-bit Prime95 (the most intense way to stress one’s CPU, hits all your cores pushing and keeping them at 100% for the entirety of the test; nothing else can make your CPU run as hard as Prime 95). The results: CPU temps ranged from 43-50ºC with two of the cores hitting 54ºC at the onset of the test before dropping back to 49-50ºC; system temps ranged from 32-44ºC; GPU temp 57-58ºC; and hard drives temps ranged from 30-33ºC. These temps were recorded near the end of the five minute test (while the test was still going). I was speechless. I have never on any blog or site seen such low CPU temps while running Prime95 (not that these were uniquely low temps, just I have not seen such low temps). The temps during the test still were basically under the temps while the computer was at idle before the upgrade. This test had all eight of my cores at 100% for five solid minutes while idle means less than 5% on all the eight cores with an average usage across the eight cores of 3%. I do not even have words for this, it is just insane. Also, the GPU and HD temps continued to drop! I mean, this test does not push the GPU at all and is very minimal on the HD’s but normally one would expect a slight increase due to the system itself increasing in temperature. Not the case here; as the fans started spinning faster due to the cores hitting 100% usage, the rest of the system continued to cool down.

Click this sentence to see a screenshot!

I cannot wait to get started on my next stage of mods and upgrades. I have a ton of parts already on hand for my future mods and upgrades; got to start thinking of what will be in stage 2.

Cost: The Cogage True Spirit cost $39, the Bolt-Thru kit was $9, the TX-3 thermal compound was $9 (and I accidently wasted what was left of it so I am counting the whole syringe of it towards the overall price although I actually used only a fraction of it), heatshrink and sleeving material was $0.50, the two Yate Loon fans were $14 total and the 80mm to 120mm fan converter was $7. I should be able to sell my old heatsink/fan on eBay for $45 (that is after shipping, eBay fees and Paypal fees). That gives me a grand total of $33.50, which is pretty cheap and if you consider the results, it was a steal.

Tech for December 10, 2009

IBM SSDs

IBM has pulled the firmware that was most likely causing their SSDs to brick.  The old firmware ended in an ‘A’ and the new firmware ends in ‘D’.  So far everyone has been having success with the newest firmware.

Tech for December 8, 2009

Apple buys Lala

Yesterday, December 7th, Apple purchased the online streaming music company Lala.  In short, Lala allows you to upload a list of your music collection and allows you to play those songs anywhere you have internet access.  A feature that stands out about Lala is the ability to pay 10 cents to ‘rent’ a song (the first listen is free) that is added to your music locker and then can be played anywhere.

Apple purchased this company most likely for several reasons.  They now have the group of engineers that worked at Lala working for them.  They can also make the leap to a cloud music source – Lala will most likely me made into an app by Apple for the iPhone that would bring streaming music of your songs (your iTunes library) plus all your rented songs anywhere you have internet or cell service.  It would also be a lot more feasible to fill up an iPod with 10 cent songs as opposed to $1+ songs.

Check out Lala here.

World of Warcraft – Patch 3.3

World of Warcraft Patch 3.3 (called Fall of the Lich King) was released today.  This patch introduces the new Icecrown Citadel raid as well as the 5 man instances in Frozen Wing.  Another big feature of this patch is the Cross-Realm Dungeon Finder which is found under the User Interface menu.  Many enhancements have been set in place to help speed up the leveling process for lower level characters.

There are a ton of changes in this patch, go check it out here.

Microsoft drops Windows 7 Family Pack Deal

Microsoft, on December 4th, stopped offering their Windows 7 Family Pack Deal.  This deal was for 2 DVD’s (1 for 32-bit and 1 for 64-bit) in a retail box that allowed you to install up to three copies of Windows 7 Home Premium on three computers.  The cost was $150 (and could be easily be found for $140), which was a huge savings.

The deal that I took advantage of was The Ultimate Steal.  This offer allows a student with a valid and current .edu email address (select colleges only) to purchase three different Microsoft products at 75-91% off of retail price.  Those software titles and prices are Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for $59.95, Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 for $55.95, and Windows 7 Professional (32-bit or 64-bit) for $29.99.  I purchased the Windows 7 Pro 64-bit and paid $29.99 plus I opted to include the physical media (they mailed me a DVD) of Win7 Pro as well.  This brought the total to $42.99.

Check out The Ultimate Steal here.

Windows 7 Tip – Notification Area

The notification area is the part of your system bar that is at the very right near your clock.  There is a way to tweak this area although it is not very obvious at first.  What you need to do is to go to the start menu and type “notification area” in the box at the bottom.  This will launch a window that will allow you to choose if you want to display certain programs and systems icons or not.  It is a pretty handy trick, especially if you install a lot of programs that add an icon to the notification area.  Below is a screenshot of what this window looks like.

Screenshot of the Notification Area window

Random Tech 1

First and foremost – It is a Woot Off!! www.woot.com

So I have decided to use my blog a little more often and to put some of my random Twitter update info (which is also posted at Facebook) here.  Basically I can go into a little more depth than 140/160 characters and might keep my Twitter/Facebook posts to a more modest amount through the day.

IBM SSD’s are Bricking

It is pretty commonly known in the computer nerd world that for normal IDE and SATA drives, Seagate drives ‘brick’ more often than the other big manufacturers of hard drives (my personal favorite maker of hard drives is Western Digital, for many reasons).  To ‘brick’ basically means to become totally useless and provide no other service than to be used as a brick or a paper weight.

Recently, a new type of hard drive has been released called an SSD – Solid State drive.  An SSD is a hard drive that is similar to a piece of flash memory (like an SD card for a camera).  An SSD, unlike IDE or SATA HD’s, essentially have no moving parts.  SSD’s are starting to become increasingly popular in lightweight applications such as laptops and notebooks (the new Google Chrome OS will only be factory installed on netbooks that use SSDs).  A key feature of SSDs is their quickness in their read and write speeds.  A drawback is that they are still too pricey to be used by consumers.

Why this story is important – In case you are in the market for an SSD or if you will be in the coming months, I would warn you to stay away from IBM SSDs.  They are bricking at a very high rate; some sites indicating a bad drive occurring as high as 1 in 8 drives.  That is a lot of money to waste on something that could just completely fail when there are many other options out there.

Furthermore, this is not even really about the money.  Although you would not be using an SSD as a drive on which you would be storing your pictures, movies, music or important documents (SSDs would be a boot drive where you would have your OS, applications, and games installed and NOT for mass storage), the average user has a week to 2 week backlog for ‘archiving’ their files.  That is, the amount of time the average user takes to move new pictures, media, etc. to a storage drive from their boot drive is about 10 days.  If your SSD drive bricks (or any type of drive for that matter) you would essentially lose everything you had on that drive.  That could definitely out way the lost money factor.  And in closing, no amount of warranty on said drive can ever bring back those files.  This is why I could not care less about a hard drive warranty, if it fails, and I lose everything, the last thing I am going to worry about is getting another hard drive and really, do I really want to replace a failed hard drive with another identical drive?

Google Goggle

A new application fresh from the Google Labs, Google Goggle.  It is basically a way to search the web using images and pictures.  It is definitely worth a look, check it out here.

Another bit of Google news:

Google also just released a new type of search called ‘real-time search’.  When you do a Google search, it will now also search current Facebook, Myspace and Twitter posts as well as fresh answers from Yahoo! Answers and fresh news articles.  This is similar to what Bing is trying to accomplish.

GrooveShark (thanks to Ashley Miller for this story)

This is an internet streaming music site.  It is similar to Pandora (which I love) with some features of Finetune mixed in.  I have only used it briefly as it was just shown to be this evening by my sister.  You can create and save playlists of almost any song you can imagine; your list will be saved for future logins.  There is also a feature of finding new music through their ‘People’ option – more or less finding people who have similar songs on their lists as you do and then recommending to you songs they have that you don’t have on your list.  I plan to revisit this for a more thorough review in the near future after I have used it a little more.  Give it a try here.

Social Media Flash Games

I am going to keep this rather short as the details about this are just now starting to flesh out and this is just my prediction here.  Games on social media sites (Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, etc.) are going to start to come under some fire.  These games, like games by Zygna (Farmville, Yoville, Café World), Mafia Wars, Mobster, etc. allow you to pay real money to get more in-game ‘credits’.  These credits allow you to purchase fancier items and level up faster as well as many other things.  However most people do not want to pay for this in-game stuff.  Thus companies like Zygna have partnered with companies that allow you to sign up for free and trial subscriptions of things like Blockbuster, IQ tests to you mobile phone, horoscopes, etc. to get more in-game credit.  However, the fine, and I mean very fine print on many of these free/trial offers allow the third-party companies to start charging upwards of $10 a month for whatever service you sign up for, without your knowledge of it.  I just have a feeling that either Facebook or a class action suit is going to put a stop to this type of in-game currency purchase very soon.

Intuit

Intuit, the online personal finance site, has pretty much fully killed off its online Intuit site and moved everything to Mint.com.  I have been a Mint fan from very early on.  It is a very easy to use and simple way to track your personal finances.  It is good for beginners as well as those who have spent years tracking their finances.  They are still regularly adding new features, banks and services.  Mint is completely free; check them out here.  Get the iPhone app here.

Blount Force Trauma

In case you missed it, the college football game that kicked off this season ended with a bang or shall I say, a punch!

Oregon (#16) traveled to play Boise State (#14) Thursday evening in what should have been a great game to start the season and the game itself was a good game.  Boise State clearly outplayed the Ducks but it was far from a blowout; Boise St. won with a score of 19-8.

One of Oregon’s better players, running back LeGarrette Blount, entered the game as a 1,000 yard rusher after his first season with the team and high hopes of being selected in the first few rounds of the NFL draft (ensuring himself probably a million dollars, if not way more, in signing bonuses plus a lucrative contract over several years).  Blount now is sitting somewhere no longer a 1,000 yard rusher and will be looking for a miracle to even be signed as a free agent sometime after the NFL draft (and being paid the league minimum for a 1 year contract with no signing bonuses).

Why?  Well there are two parts to that question.  First, he was held to -5 yards rushing on the day dropping him from 1,002 career yards to 997 career yards.  Second, that was his last college football game ever (and maybe last football game at either the college or NFL level).  It was his last game due to his after-game rage that he went into.

After the game as Blount walked by Boise State’s Byron Hout, Hout said some words to taunt or heckle Blount.  Well it worked; just as a Boise St. coach stepped in between Hout and Blount, Blount came racing back and sucker punched Hout, dropping him instantly.  Blount then went on to chasing after some fans and then still continued to fight and  pull away from several police tried as they tried to hold him back and escort him to the locker room.  Basically, he went on a Hulk style rage for 2-3 minutes on live television and sucker punched an opponent, took swings at his own players and at fans, and fought with police officers.

Blount’s punishment was a season long suspension.  If you think it seems a little harsh, you might want to watch the video of it.

If you are interested in more on this story, check out these 3 articles; http://bit.ly/A0HgN, http://bit.ly/2pAh13, and http://bit.ly/sDLXn.

Just a side note:  In my post about the preseason rankings, I used the USA Today rankings as the AP Top 25 rankings were not available.  I will now be using the AP Top 25 rankings for all of my college football related posts until the BCS rankings are available.

CPU Math!

Thought this would just be a fun little math problem that incorporates CPU clock speeds.  Hope you enjoy!  (and if you do like it let me know with a post!)

I will update this post, beneath the question (poll) itself, with the correct answer in a few days.

A Preseaon Look at the College Football Rankings

Penn State on the Cover of Sports Illustrated - I am not using SI rankings for this blog post however.

I cannot wait until the College Football season begins.  The first game of the season kicks off at 7:00 PM EDT on Thursday, September 3^rd, and I will be flipping back and forth between the 9:00 PM matchup pitting Utah (18) against Utah State and the 10:15 PM game featuring Oregon (14) and Boise State (16).  I will, for all intensive purposes, need to wait 40 more hours until the season ‘really’ kicks off for me; that will be the opening kickoff of the Penn State versus Akron game (played in Beaver Stadium) at noon on Saturday.

Pre-season rankings; they are a love ‘em or hate ‘em type of thing.  Either your team is ranked high and you are happy and beginning your hunt for tickets to the National Championship or your team is ranked low (or not ranked at all) and you are left scratching your head but either way, do these pre-season polls really matter?  I would say yes, but you cannot take them out of context.  They simply are evaluations of what the team should look like this year which is primarily molded by what players are returning, what their schedule looks like, and to some degree, how the team faired the previous year.  Unfortunately, these polls have no game data, as not one team has played a real game since January 7, 2009.

That being said, I have taken the USA Today poll (although the AP Top 25 poll is equally as good but was not available as early as the USA Today poll) and evaluated the top 25 teams.  I looked at returning players and schedules primarily.  I also pulled some historical data out such as a team’s inability to beat a certain team no matter the rankings.  I attempted to make a case for why teams were ranked a certain way and what they would have to do to keep that rank until the end of the season.  I also noted my opinion on whether I thought the team in question could end up being ranked at the end of the season similarly to what they were ranked in these pre-season polls.  Furthermore, I speculated on some ‘what-if’ situations and how that might shake up the rankings.

The Rankings:

1. Florida – I think they have a really decent chance of being #1 again this year.  They are returning Tim Tebow (QB) and a total of 20 starters from last year’s national championship team (7 offense, 11 defense, 1 punter, and 1 kicker).  They had no problem beating Tennessee early in the season last year winning 30-6 and they essentially steamrolled every other team except for Ole Miss, who handed Florida their only loss of the season (30-31).  The loss was partly due to a bad game by Tebow; he had a costly fumble, did not pass very well and was stopped short on a decisive fourth down run.
   This year the only ranked teams at season’s start that they face are LSU (9), Georgia (13) and Florida State (19).  They had no problem with any of these teams last year, and they get to play Georgia and Florida State at home.  I would be surprised (if the Gators come out to play every game) if they had any trouble with any of these three teams.
2. Texas – First off, they still have Colt McCoy at QB and this is a huge plus.  All but three players on their starting offensive and defensive lines are returning players.  I feel that #2 is appropriate for Texas – normally a team would need to go unbeaten to be in the top 2 or 3 teams in the nation (at the end of the season), but like last year, I think the only good team that has a real chance at being undefeated is Florida.  Texas’s sole lose last year came at the hands of Texas Tech, on the very last play of the game, at a game played at Texas Tech.  Only seconds away from being the only undefeated team last year, but stories like this are nearly commonplace in college football.  Texas plays both Texas Tech (honorable mention) and Oklahoma (3) at home this year and then follow up the Oklahoma game with back to back road games against Missouri and Oklahoma State (11).  I would pick Texas to beat Texas Tech and I think they will edge out Oklahoma for a few factors.  The game is at home for Texas and I feel that Texas will still be fired up about the Championship controversy in the Big 12 last year.  The Oklahoma, Missouri, and Oklahoma State 3 game stretch will be tough and I think Missouri will be better than the polls show (I think they will make their way into the Top 25).  If they lose to Oklahoma, and then win out, they will still be highly ranked, although they may be ranked #3 as opposed to #2.  But if they lose to one of the other two I think that will destroy their chance at a run at the National Championship.
3. Oklahoma – Oklahoma is another team returning their star quarterback, Sam Bradford.  They are also returning a good portion of their starting core including Chris Brown, who rushed for over 1000 yards and Austin English, a very good DE.  Oklahoma opens their season against Brigham Young (24) at home and follows that with 4 games against inferior opponents.  They play Texas (2) in Austin on October 17, which I think they will lose.  The Sooners follow that game with a game @ Kansas and then Kansas State at home; one of these two teams I think could be ranked at the time Oklahoma plays them.  Oklahoma finishes out the season with a game @ Texas Tech and a home game against Oklahoma State.  I think they can finish out the season in the top 5 if they only lose to Texas, which I think is a real possibility although their game against Texas Tech could end their dreams of a title run.
4. USC – I think USC ending the season at #4 will not happen.  They have a new freshman QB, Matt Barkley and they are replacing eight starters on their defensive line.  Their biggest game is against Ohio State in early September which will be played in Columbus.  They beat Ohio St. pretty easily last year; but I do not think that will be the case this year.  It should be a decently close game, however Pryor will prevail and Ohio St., (I think) will win.  USC also plays back to back games against ranked Oregon State (25) and Oregon (14).  These will be tough games, especially against Oregon, as it will be a home game for Oregon.  USC also plays @ California, @ Notre Dame, Stanford, and UCLA, all of which they have stumbled against in the recent past.  USC has a way of not showing up to play, at times, against under matched opponents (as was the case of their only loss last year).  I think USC will lose two games and be lower ranked than fourth at season’s close.
5. Alabama – Strong defense.  Alabama had a great defense last year and is returning 9 starters on defense (15 total starters for the team).  Nick Saban is toting the defense as better than last year.  ‘Bama finished their regular season last year with a perfect 12-0 and spent a few weeks ranked #1 (until they got beat by Florida in the SEC Championship game).  Alabama plays three ranked opponents this year; they start their season against Virginia Tech (7) (played at the Georgia Dome) and have a mid season game @ Mississippi (10).  I think their first game of the year against VT will be the most vital and telling game of their season.  If they can win this game, which I think they can by a small margin, the rest of the season holds no surprises (they play LSU (9) at home which I think will be a win for Alabama).  I think Ole Miss is a little over ranked and their only other game worth mentioning is their last game against Auburn, which will be played in Auburn.  This is a pretty big rivalry and it is away for Alabama; I think the Crimson Tide will prevail and if they are undefeated at this point, they will finish the season that way.  If Alabama loses the first game of their season to VT and then wins out, they will end the season ranked about #5; if they go undefeated, they will be either #1 or #2 (although I do not think they are the best or second best team this year).
6. Ohio State – Terrelle Pryor will be entering his second season as starting QB for the Buckeye’s and I feel he will be making a point of removing the cloud of question marks that surround him.  They are not returning all that many established players, but Ohio State is always a fairly good team with a strong defense.  They play three ranked opponents; home against USC (4), away against Penn State (8), and home against Iowa (21).  I think Iowa will not present any type of problem for Ohio State.  I also think they can edge out USC.  The Penn State game might be their biggest question mark.  The game will be at PSU and Beaver Stadium is an extremely hard place to play.  I want to throw out there that I am a PSU fan but I think the PSU will beat Ohio State; Daryll Clark will outshine Pryor.  If the Buckeye’s lose to PSU or USC, they will finish the season about #6; if they lose to both, I think they will be outside the top 10 (maybe #10 at best).  If they can beat USC and PSU look for Ohio State at the top of the rankings.
7. Virginia Tech – The Hokie’s just lost a key defensive player Darren Evans with an ACL injury putting a sizable hole in their depth chart; they are however returning 17 starters.  VT opens their season against Alabama; I think this could be a very good game but I am not sure if VT’s offensive weapons can overpower ‘Bama’s defense.  Two weeks later they play #22 Nebraska at home, which could prove to be more of a challenging game then the rankings let on.  They have a mid season game against Georgia Tech (15), which is away.  The Hokie’s close out their season with a rivalry game @ Virginia.  I think it is reasonable, by looking at their schedule, to say VT will end the season ranked #7.  They will more than likely take a lose at the hands of the Crimson Tide but if they can win out after that, a top ten finish is certain.  If they stumble and lose against any other team, they will drop to #10 or lower.
8. Penn State – Daryll Clark (QB) and Evan Royster (RB) will have to shine to allow an inexperienced offensive line and a young receiving core to become consistent. The defense should be among the best in the nation. PSU has two key games, both of which are at home; a September 26^th game against Iowa (21) and a November 7^th game against Ohio State (6).  Penn State lost to Iowa last year in their only loss of the season; the Nittany Lion’s came out slow and by the time they started putting points on the board, the game was over. Do not expect a repeat this year; the crowd will see to that. The Ohio State game will be a nail biter. I think PSU can win but I am not certain. If they lose being ranked #8 is about right; if they win, expect them to be higher. PSU has a mid season game against Michigan (in Ann Arbor) and this should not present any problems for Penn State, although I know I will be holding my breath until halftime. They close out their season with a game @ Michigan State who I think could sneak into the rankings at some point during the season, although PSU (as the past shows) will not have a problem in handling the Spartans.
9. LSU – The team is coming off one of their worst seasons of this century with a record of 8-5 last year.  They struggled defensively but reportedly have gotten some talent to improve the lackluster defense.  John Chavis (Defensive Coordinator for LSU) stated that if the defense still fails to perform, he will not be blaming the talent they have.  Last year, LSU lost to @ Florida (21-51), Georgia (38-52), Alabama (21-27), Mississippi (13-31), and @ Arkansas (30-31).  This year, they play each one of those five teams with Florida (1), Georgia (13), Alabama (6), and Mississippi (14) being ranked for the current year.  They only get two of those five opponents at home, Florida and Arkansas.  They also play Auburn at home, which will not be an easy game, even though Auburn is not currently ranked.  To ensure they end the season at number 9 LSU can not suffer more than 2 loses.  They will lose to Florida and I am almost certain they cannot beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  They also play Georgia in Athens which will make this an extremely tough game.  If they can beat Georgia at home and only suffer the 2 loses to the Crimson Tide and the Gators, I think that #9 is a far estimate for how their season will unwind.  I think they will, however, suffer more than 2 loses.
10. Mississippi – The Rebels finished last season with seven straight wins including a convincing Cotton Bowl win over Texas Tech.  Fifty of last year’s 69 letter winners are returning for this season which includes six offensive starters and eight defensive starters.  Their QB, Jevan Snead, is accomplished but he is no Tim Tebow.  Ole Miss has a rather easy schedule with their only true hurdle bring their game against Alabama, which they will lose.  They also face both Tennessee and LSU (9) at home late in the season.  It is hard to say at this point how the game against LSU will fair as either team could be hot with a win streak at the time or be face down in the mud thinking about next year.  I think Ole Miss could be a touch over ranked in these polls.
11. Oklahoma State – There is a decent amount of talk about Oklahoma State being able to play for the national championship but I honestly do not see how this could happen.  They open the season against Georgia (13).  In the second half of the season they play Missouri (unranked), Texas (2), Texas Tech (unranked), and @ Oklahoma (3).  They will not beat Texas and Oklahoma.  Missouri and Texas Tech will be better than the rankings show.  If Ok St. Cowboys can lose to only the Longhorns and the Sooners, they should be able to squeak into the top 10.  If they also lose to either one of the following three teams they will be ranked worse than #11; Georgia, Texas Tech, or Missouri.  They play all three of those teams at home, which is their saving grace.  I think the Cowboys will end the season 9-3 at best.
12. California – California needs to lose only two games this year to be a strong candidate for #12 in the rankings.  They play USC (4) at home and will most likely lose this game.  Prior to that game they play @ Oregon (14) and are home against Oregon State (25) in early November.  If they lose to Oregon and USC in back to back weeks that early in the season, and can beat Oregon State (and suffer no other losses) look for the Golden Bears to wrap up the season ranked about 12^th.  Obviously if they can edge out Oregon, a top ten finish is possible (but no Pac-10 title due to the loss to USC).  If they lose three games, they should be in the 20’s.
13. Georgia – Last year was supposed to be the Bulldogs big year, being lead by QB Matthew Stafford and RB Knowshon Moreno; both players have left the team in the first round of the NFL Draft.  Georgia suffered losses to Alabama, Florida, and rival Georgia Tech last year.  Notable games for Georgia will be their season opener @ Oklahoma State (11), an early October match up against LSU (9), a spooky Halloween game @ Florida (1), and, to close out the season, a game at Georgia Tech (15).  Georgia will undoubtedly lose to Tim Tebow and the Gators in the Swamp.  The matchup against LSU will be a great game and the home field advantage could be the difference.  Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech will both be respectable adversaries.  If Georgia can finish the season with two loses, they should be ranked in the 11 to 13 range.  A third loss will probably set them outside of the top 15.  I am expecting a 9-3 season for the Bulldogs.
14. Oregon – One key change the Ducks will be experiencing this year is a new head coach; not necessarily a bad thing, although there is always some sort of a transition period (sometimes it can really hurt a team, look a Michigan recently under a new head coach).  Oregon opens there season @ Boise State (16).  This will be a huge game that can make or break the season for both teams.  If Oregon was facing Boise St. at home, I would say they would have an edge, but since the game will be played in Boise, I think it will be an evenly matched game.  Other notable games are a September 19^th contest against Utah (18), a follow up game against California (12),  a game against USC (4) to close out the month of October and their final game of the season is against in state rival Oregon State (25).  Two loses on the season for Oregon will ensure a ranking of #14.  I would put money on a loss in their game against USC.  I would also think that they should be able to beat Oregon State.  The real meat of their season will be the Boise St., Cal., and Utah games.  If I had to pick outcomes for those three games, I would pick them to lose to California and beat Utah.  The Boise St. game is a tossup.  If they can win expect them at #12-#14.  If they lose look for them closer to #17-#20.
15. Georgia Tech – The Yellow Jackets have 17 returning starters, which include all their offensive weapons.  Josh Nesbitt (QB) is supposed to be 100% healthy and has improved his throwing mechanics.  Key matchups for Georgia Tech are back to back games against @ Florida State (19) and Virginia Tech (7) and their last regular game of the season against Georgia (13).  They should be able to defeat Florida State and I think they can put up a good fight against VT.  I am not sure what to expect in their game against Georgia; if either of them can make it to the final game with zero or one loss, look for that team to win.  All in all, GT will probably drop 2 games this season and end up around #15.
16. Boise State – The Bronco’s are returning 14 starters; 6 on offense and 6 on defense.  Included in the returning players is their standout QB Kellen Moore.  Boise St. has probably the most boring and easiest of all the top 25 team’s schedules.  Their only ranked opponent is Oregon, who they open the season against, at home, on the third of September.  I think their game against Oregon is too close to call.  I wrote the section on Oregon State before Boise State; in it, I mentioned I was not sure who would win this game.  A ‘gun to my head’ pick is Oregon.  If Boise State losses to Oregon and no one else, they should be able to end the season a little higher than #16.  A second lose will knock them lower than #16 and if they go undefeated, they will be in the top ten, maybe even as high as #5.  I do not think they can pass USC (4), Oklahoma (3), Texas (2), or Florida (1) in the rankings, even if each of those teams lose and Boise St is 13-0 – nor do I think they should pass any of them.
17. TCU – Texas Christian is returning 13 starters this year; 6 on offense, 5 on defense and both of their kickers.  Key games are limited to an October 24^th matchup @ BYU (24) and a mid November showdown against Utah (18).  TCU was the favored team in the Mountain West Conference but managed to lose (by 3 points) to Utah.  I think TCU will beat Utah this year; it is revenge and their home crowd will be there for support.  I think the BYU game is a tossup; I honestly have no idea who will win that game although I would side with TCU winning.  I do not think TCU will go undefeated but if they do they should not be playing for the National Championship but they will probably crack the top ten.  One loss on the season should put them at #15-17.
18. Utah – Utah had a perfect season last year and a big win in the Sugar Bowl over Alabama (31-17).  So why are they projected at #18?  Well I am not convinced they are THAT great and it would be more than a small miracle if they could come close to the success they had last year.  Games to watch:  a September 19^th matchup @ Oregon (14), a mid November game @ TCU (17) and they close out the season against Brigham Young (24).  I think losses will come at the hands of Oregon and TCU.  If they do go 10-2 a # 16-18 ranking is appropriate.  If they loss to BYU as well, they will be at the bottom of the top 25.  If they lose to any of the other fodder on their schedule they will end the season unranked.
19. Florida State – Bowden says he wants another National Championship but I can’t see that happening this year.  Going into the season, the Seminoles play 3 ranked opponents; @ BYU (24), Georgia Tech (15), and @ Florida (1).  They will lose to Florida and, even with home field advantage I would pick Georgia Tech to beat them as well.  Other than that, they could easily win the rest of the games, making a ranking of #16-19 doable.
20. North Carolina – I thought the Tar Heels were only good at basketball but as last year has shown, they are decent at football too.  They had 8 wins last year and this year could be pretty good as well as they return 15 starters.  Their offense will need to get into a rhythm quickly and the defense will be their key to getting close to double digit wins (which they have not done in 12 years).  Key games include a game @ Georgia Tech (15), back to back games against Florida State (19) and @ Virginia Tech (7).  Last year they were able to beat a ranked Georgia Tech at home by 21 points and lost a close game at home against VT (17-20).  This year, I expect them to lose to VT again and, it will probably be a close and good game, but I also suspect they will lose to Georgia Tech.  I am unsure as to whether they can beat Florida State or not.  That would put them at 2 or 3 loses.  Another game to mention is their last game of the season in which they travel to in state rival North Carolina State.  The Tar Heels were destroyed, at home, last year against NC State.  I do not expect a repeat of this, but it is college football so nothing is certain.  Two loses on the season would put them in the #15-20 range in the rankings, a third loss would put them at about #20 and a fourth loss would more than likely knock them out of the rankings.
21. Iowa – The Hawkeye’s have a very tough road schedule this year with games against Iowa State, Penn State (8), Wisconsin, Michigan State and Ohio State (6).  Even though Wisconsin is not ranked, the Badgers seem to present problems for Iowa and probably will do the same this year.  Iowa’s trip to face the Spartans in East Lansing will not be an easy game either.  I expect losses to both PSU and Ohio State.  I would be more than surprise if they can win all their games besides those two.  I would predict an additional loss or two at the hands of the following; @ Iowa State, Michigan, @ Wisconsin, or @ Michigan State.  Luckily they face Northwestern and Minnesota at home or those could be very interesting games.  I would say 9-3 would be the best Iowa can hope to finish with a ranking of approximately #21.
22. Nebraska – Nebraska has been shaky at best the past few years, but last year seemed to be an upswing for them under new head coach Bo Pelini.  The Cornhuskers could end up ranked #22 with four loses although I think four losses will place them closer to 25 then 22.  Important games for Nebraska start on September 19 when they travel to Virginia Tech (7).  If VT wins their season opener against Alabama (5), VT should have the momentum to trounce Nebraska.  If VT losses to ‘Bama and cannot regain composure, Nebraska could have a chance.  I would pick the Hokies to beat the Cornhuskers.  Nebraska plays back to back games in early October against @ Missouri (unranked) and Texas Tech (unranked).  Texas Tech will, I believe, be decidedly better than the polls indicate and I would not be surprised to see Mizzou ranked at some point in the season.  Both games will be tough and playing the Missouri game at Missouri will not make things any easier.  Nebraska also gets to be destroyed by Oklahoma (3) in early November and they follow that game up with a road game against Kansas and a home game against Kansas State (both of which have a chance of having a pretty good season).  To sum it up, they will loss to Virginia Tech and Oklahoma.  Best bet, they win one, lose one in their games against Missouri and Texas Tech (or they could lose both).  Kansas and Kansas State will not be walks in the park.  And, oh yea, they close out the season @ Colorado.  I do not think we will see Nebraska in the top 25 at the end of the season.  If they do end up ranked, look for them to be holding up 24 other teams.
23. Notre Dame – If they cannot win 9 or 10 games at least this year, Charlie Weis is gone.  So that being said, there is some real incentive to pull out all the stops and win.  They have a pretty easy schedule but do not hope for more than 10 wins.  The Irish play Michigan at Ann Arbor and although the Wolverines are at their just about worst ever, they always seem to be able to perform against ND (the game is also played in the Big House which will make it all the harder for ND).  The Irish follow that game up with a home game against Michigan State.  They will most likely take a beating from USC (4) in mid October.  If they can overcome the loss and maintain composure, they can wind up being ranked at season’s close; I will not, for one, be holding my breath.
24. BYU – I do not know a lot about the BYU Cougars team.  They open the season at Oklahoma (3).  They also play Florida State (19), TCU (17), and Utah (18); all of these games are at home.  They should be able to win one of those three games and if they end up playing well, maybe even two out of three.  No one else on their schedule is really worthy of mentioning.  If they lose three games, a rank of 24 is correct.  I do not think they will only lose two games, but if they do (like Oregon State) look for BYU in the top 20.  I think head to head, they would lose to Oregon State (25) if they played during the season (in either stadium).
25. Oregon State – The last three seasons have been good to Oregon State; they are the second winning-est team in the Pac-10 (behind USC) with a record of 28-12.  Their schedule is not too demanding; their games to note are against Cincinnati, @ USC (4), and @ Oregon (14).  I would bet they will lose to USC and Oregon.  They could possibly suffer a loss to either UCLA or @ California.  If they only lose to USC and Oregon, look for Oregon St. in the top 20.  If they lose a third game to one of these other games, then a ranking of 25 sounds about right.

Current Preseason Rankings

From Blizzcon: World of Warcraft Cataclysm

I honestly can not believe I have at least a year to wait for the Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft.  I will spare you all the details of what is coming in the expansion as you can find all the bits of detail you need on the specifics of the expansion at WoWInsider.  Some of the particulars that I am looking forward to are the changes that are coming to the first two continents of Azeroth, the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor; being able to fly in the two aforementioned continents; the introduction of the two new classes (Goblin and Worgen, which I will be rolling a Worgen Druid); being able to level Modena five more levels to level 85; the new secondary skill Archeology and the paths that come with it; and finally the guild leveling and achievements.

Jenna and I both had a chance to try out various aspects of the expansion, but we mainly focused on creating a Worgen character and doing some of the Worgen specific quests.  The demo we played started you at level 6 in Gilneas and you found yourself bound in constraints awaiting to be cured (well not cured exactly, but you are administered a treatment) of being just an evil Worgen.  Once you are administered the antidote by a NPC, you begin a series of quest which I while be a scant on details for two reasons.  It was a really fun set of quests but nothing groundbreaking that you would really need to know and I do not want to ruin the experience for any of my readers, especially Rytek!  There was a fairly new format of a quest were you looted barrels filled with explosives that your hurled at Stitches style enemies in order to kill them.

Again, from the demo of the expansion that we played and from everything that we heard in the discussion panels that was being developed for the Cataclysm expansion, we are both more than excited for this expansion than anything that has come previous in the game.  This will be another gem from Blizzard and it will be very difficult to split time betwen this expansion, Starcraft 2 (which the first campaign should be out when Cataclysm goes live) and Diablo 3 (which should have a solid release date by then).

The following two videos were taken of the demo for World of Warcraft Cataclysm.  The first video is of Jcore as a Worgen fighting a foe and then my character transforming from Worgen to human form.  The second video is of me running in Worgen form to find Jcore, who is looting an object for a quest.

The following three pictures are of the following; the first two are of the character selection screen and the third picture is my Worgen about to receive the treatment.

Character Selection and Name Creation of a Worgen

Character Selection Screen post Name Selection of a Worgen

Bound and Ready to Recieve the Treatment

An image of of my Blizzcon pass and the Grunty pet card as well as a few images of Gruny fighting the Zergling pet in Ironforge.

Blizzcon ID and Grunty card

About to FIGHT!

The Battle

Grunty dying

Grunty is dead

Zergling taking damage

The Zerling is dead (behind Noli)

Lastly I just wanted to a give a thanks to 2 members of the Twilight Order guild (my guild), Noli and Lochli, for helping with the Grunty and Zergling battle.

From Blizzcon: Starcraft 2

While at Blizzcon, I had the opportunity to play Starcraft 2 a couple of times.  From what I could tell, Starcraft 2 should definetly fill the 11 year void in the Starcraft line since the Brood War expansion for the original Starcraft game.  I honestly think that this game will have the following and lasting power that Starcraft had; it seems to have a lot of the best features and play style that made Starcraft one of the most popular games of all time.  The graphics, obviously, have been updated and the game looks great; it is one of the sharpest looking games I have ever seen (even more so than Diablo 3 or the new World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm).  The comptuer’s AI seems to have been more than tweaked and should have be advanced enough for even seasoned veterans of either the psionic Protoss, the adaptable Terrans, or the insectoid Zerg to find a challenge in single player free for all games.

Starting area for Protoss

A Protoss Carrier

Protoss main building upgraded to a Mothership; flying to a new location!

From Blizzcon: Diablo 3

I am just going to do a short review of Diablo 3 (also want to recommend checking out this site for an unofficial site for Diablo 3, which was recommended to me by a good friend, Dustin) and showcase some of my pictures, videos and sound clips I have of the game.

This is going to be a work in progress so check back regularly over the next few days for more updates, pics, vids and sound clips!

The character selection screen

Using Frozen Orb

Getting mauled

Sorc Skill Tree

Jenna and I playing Diablo 3 together

Jenna and I playing Diablo 3 together

And I died.