I have a number of machines running integrated graphics for numerous reasons. Least of which is the kids machines - you sure as hell don't need a discrete graphics card to play stupid little flash games and do homework.

Machines that are for checking email and surfing the web... don't really need discrete graphics either.

Plenty of reasons to use integrated graphics.

That's nice and everything, but I would just wait for Haswell, which is due in 2013.

So yeah, just hang on for the die shrink from Sandy Bridge if you care about performance and power consumption. My next system will definitely be Haswell based.

That's nice and everything, but I would just wait for Broadwell, which is due in 2014.

So yeah, just hang on for the die shrink if you care about performance and power consumption. My next system will definitely be Broadwell based.

It is false because of these two statements:

[quote]The controller is fine for FPS[/quote]

It's not "fine" for FPS gaming. It may be "adequate", "marginally acceptable," or possibly even "workable." But it is not "fine." Fine implies that does everything required of it, and being as it has almost no precision, it falls short in that area (as well as others, but you only need one area to be less than "fine")

[quote]games and HDTVs have the same amount of lag that PC monitors do.[/quote]

HDTVs do not have the same amount of lag that PC monitors do. SOME HDTVs may have the same amount of lag as some monitors, but I have yet to see an HDTV that has the same or less lag than the best monitors for gaming. I'm not saying they don't exist, I've just never heard of nor seen them.

I'm not making any statements either way on he rest of your post, so don't take what I write next as a condemnation of the rest of your post:

The guy IS a religious nut. He believes in an imaginary man in the sky that watches everything he does. That is pretty much the definition of a nut. It's not a "quick to label" thing - it's simply a statement of fact.

Oye... I take it you've not actually played the game if you think it's a BC sequel. It is definitely a BF2 sequel. Is it the greatest game ever in the BF universe? I dunno, that's a judement call I suppose... but BF3 is definitely far more like BF2 than anything like BC/BC2.

Lots and lots (and lots!) of bugs to work out, for sure... but certainly no more bugs than BF2 had when it launched. At least I can play it for more than 10 - 15 minutes at a time without something going tits up like BF2 was on release day. The classes are actually reasonably balanced from the start (surprise!), though they can use tweaking. It's not a perfect game, but it's certainly not a BC sequel.
   

Um... no. No, and also, no. If you think a controller is fine for FPS gaming, you are not very good at FPS games. This is a fact, not an opinion. The controller does not offer the precision that a KB/Mouse offers, plain and simple. The best console player in the world of any given FPS game will get schooled by an average PC KB/Mouse player. The speed and precision just aren't there with a controller.

Anyone who has progressed beyond just sitting down to a quick game of deathmatch to something resembling competitive play will tell you straight out that a controller is a joke for serious play. The fact that you think an controller is fine for FPS indicates you've not progressed beyond the occasional game with your friends on a Saturday night, therefore, you aren't really qualified to make a judgement call as to whether or not a controller is "fine for FPS."

Many HDTVs introduce a lot more lag than a monitor, so your argument there is also false. Although, many PC monitors do have quite a bit of lag. Again, if you're buying a monitor for gaming, you should make sure you get one with low latency.

Really? The first device you've ever seen doing this? I guess you've never see a bathroom stall in a public place with a SLIDE TO LOCK. Or maybe you've never flown on an airliner and use the lavatory with a SLIDE TO LOCK.

I mean, you can be forgiven for that, since locks on doors and other devices that SLIDE TO LOCK & UNLOCK have only been around a few thousand years.

Since the OP is intending to run DD-WRT on it, it doesn't really matter... but this router is a piece o' crap with the stock firmware. The external drive function has never worked properly, Netgear has known about the bug and never bothered to fix it. The drive(s) will go offline for no explicable reason and require a power cycle. If you aren't using that portion of the router, it's probably fine, but since I purchased this router for my parents house and purchased it explicitly for the extra drive connectivity, I am rather displeased. A quick scan of the Netgear forums reveals that it's a known issue, many people have it, Netgear just doesn't care and won't issue a fix for it.

Netgear can go piss up a pole.

Wow, really? Synaptics might have a few things to say about that, since I was using their products and experimenting with multiple touchs on their touchpads in 2003, a full 4 years before it was even a gleam in Apples eye. If I were Synaptics, I'd be suing the shit out of Apple for patent infringement... even though a touch pad and a smart phone are two different things, Apple can sue Samsung for making their tablet, you know.. rectangular! Why not sue Apple for making their phone rectangular, just like a touch pad!

Hey dipshit, I have a newsflash for you: They have 500 GB SSD drives. 128GB SSD drives are under a $100 now a days.

Buy a clue before posting, idiot. You fucking moron.

But that is not what you said. Let me requote you again:

Your assertion is that an American accent is not absolutely necessary to teach children. Your argument makes no mention of moral or ethical implications, only that a neutral American accent is not absolutely necessary. I pointed out that the argument for it is based off what is most efficacious, not what is ethical or moral. You were not arguing the moral or ethical implications in your post, only what is absolutely necessary.

But, if you want to bring the moral and ethical side into it, what is the definition of absolutely necessary? I would say the efficiency of learning and providing the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people would qualify as "absolutely necessary." If your definition of "absolutely necessary" is "whatever works well enough to get by," then I would like to point out that is exactly the reason our education system is in such decline. It is exactly that line of reasoning that our public school system is in such sorry, pathetic shape.

No child left behind.
Cater to the lowest common denominator.
Teach to the test.
Etc...

We hamstring and neuter our education system so that we do not trample on the sensitive feelings of those that can't or won't keep up or make accommodations for the culture they have decided to be a part of. When I move to other countries (or even just travel) I make every effort to conform to local customs, traditions and even language. I do not (Yeah, I know, rare for an American) try to force my language or ideals on my host culture. I listen to how they speak and I try to imitate it as best I can. I very seriously dislike the "polite" people that will not correct me when I make a mistake - I want to be corrected, I want to understand and I want to be understood. No person in a foreign (to them) culture should strive for anything less. To not do so is not only rude but the height of arrogance.

Umm... no... that is a contraction of "would have," thus the " 've " and not "would'f."

I don't think this is about what is absolutely necessary, but what is the most efficacious. There can really be no argument that teaching in a neutral "accent" is the most efficacious for the most number of people. Other issues not withstanding.

Yes there would, we'd have already used up all the supply of vowels buried in the ground. We're really close to peak vowel consumption now... if we had been using the Queens English from the get-go, all those extra vowels we'd have been using would have consumed the supply long ago.

You Limey's should be thanking us for allowing you to continue in your wanton use of superfluous vowels. Letting you live in the lap of vowel luxury while we labor under the sharp lash of the consonant, with no soft, fluffy vowels to make our lives as easy as yours.

This doesn't help you when you need:

1: Access to a file or files totaling more than 64 GB (or however much ram you have for caching)
2: Files not yet cached

Mostly I'm thinking games is where FS caching is less than optimum, since some of the resource files can easily exceed the amount of system memory available and if you like being competitive, the faster you load the game the better... and the FS cache won't help you there.

You also run into the problem of most motherboards don't support more than 8 GB (for older MB's), 16 GB for semi-newer MB or 32GB for some of the newest boards. Only a select few will support more than 64GB and those are the expensive boards, but to be fair most anyone considering an SSD purchase and/or 64 GB of RAM is likely to have a board like that anyway.

I run 24 GB on my system, and I don't see the FS cache filling up available RAM like I think it should. I'm not sure if that means I'm using less than 24 GB of data regularly (unlikely, since I play a lot of games and do large photo work), or the FS caching isn't designed around caching that much data and kind of tapers off after 8 or 10 GB.