Do you expect to get $450 and steady sex for a while? Cause you might be screwed. (pardon the pun).
red panda red panda red panda!
Yeah, the 3 computer upgrades really makes that a much better deal than it looks at first doesn't it.
I almost want to do it myself, but it wouldn't be as significant...
Tower: Phenom II X4 955 -> i5 2500K
Main server: C2D E8400 -> Phenom II X4 955
ISA server: Pentium E5200 -> C2D E8400
red panda red panda red panda!
i wouldnt go for option 2. There is an option in vent, that allows you to view the name that is speaking on the screen.
So whenever someone activates his mic, you will see that name appear in the top of the screen. Really handy and not worth $150 imo.
i would go for an SSD, that is the best speed upgrade that you can buy .
What a second monitor does for me:
- See vent and who's talking/connecting/what channels they are in.
- See what's playing on Winamp.
- See who's online on Steam/IM, and who's talking to me, who sends me a new message, etc.
- Can watch movies, tv, hockey while playing WoW.
- Have a full perspective window separate from linear views (top/front/side) in 3DS Max/Maya
- Plug it into PS3 to watch BluRay or play games without leaving tower with no monitor.
What an SSD does for me:
- Decreases boot times by a few seconds (unnoticable due to really long POST time, and the fact that I rarely reboot)
- Decreases WoW load times by a few seconds.
- Makes space management once again a pain in the ass due to actually having to pay attention to free space on C:\ again.
....
red panda red panda red panda!
All of what Asera said... and the Ventrilo Overlay is horrendously coded and horrific to look at. I also don't really want to lose that much screen real estate while raiding. I keep a fairly clean UI and don't need a huge chunk taken out of the side.
So I talk to my wife about our upgrade options last night. This morning she IMs me asking if I'd be more interested in a new flat screen TV for the living room. /sigh