Chromatic Dragon Pet Video
The Chromatic Dragon pet was updated since the last time we featured it, so here is a new video with the current model and animations. (The dragon's breath at 0:45 may be slightly bugged)



Computers - Setup of the Month (by chaud)
Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!

This month
Even though hard drive prices have come down slightly, now is still a good time to buy a SSD, as the next generation is a good while away and the current prices are fairly flat.

AMD's Bulldozer arrived last month to negative reviews, citing excessive power usage and heat output and very poor single threaded performance. They are working on another stepping which may help the problem slightly, but don't expect any significant improvements on the design until the middle of 2012 with the arrival of Piledriver. There is a glimmer of hope for those of you who purchased one and play games however, a software patch that increases gaming performance by fixing some of the scheduling issues is coming in January.

New mid range AMD GPUs are rumored to be coming in Q1 2012 if you are thinking about upgrading. The new higher end 7900 parts will be here in January, with a press event and NDA lift possibly later this week.

Make sure to keep your AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date.

Don't hesitate to post any feedback in the comments of that news post, and don't forget to visit the Computer Forum for any extra questions! If you are interested in Folding@home, take a look in our team's thread.

Peripherals/Monitors
ComponentPuppy Dolphin
MonitorASUS VW224U 22-Inch Widescreen - $149ASUS VW246H 24-Inch Widescreen - $217
KeyboardMicrosoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000 - $20Cyborg V.5 - $47
MouseLogitech G400 - $35Logitech G500 - $61
SpeakersLogitech S220 2.1 Speaker System - $25Logitech Z313 Speaker System - $44
ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
MonitorASUS VE276Q 27-Inch - $303HP ZR24w 24-inch (IPS Panel) - $400
KeyboardLogitech G110 - $70Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $70 ($112)
MouseRazer Deathadder - $45Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $70
SpeakersCreative Inspire T3130 2.1 Speaker System - $45Logitech Speaker System Z523 - $71



Puppy and Dolphin
Overclocked Puppy will outperform Dolphin when multiple threads are in use (Not WoW) and come close in most other cases.
Mix and match anything but the CPU/Motherboard combo between Puppy and Dolphin. Mix and match anything between Dolphin and Narwhal.
ComponentPuppy Dolphin
CaseNZXT M59 Classic - $50NZXT GAMMA Classic - $40
Power SupplyCorsair CX500 V2 - $41Corsair CX600 V2 - $50
CPUAMD Phenom II X4 960T Black Edition- $125Intel i3-2100 - $124
HeatsinkCooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $21Corsair Air Series A70 - $26
MotherboardASUS M5A97 AM3+ 970 - $95Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $115
Memory4GB PNY Optima DDR3 10600 - $274GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $42
Graphics CardXFX 6770 - $90MSI 6850 or EVGA GTX 560 - $168 / $165
Hard DriveWestern Digital Caviar Black 500GB - $118Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - $170
DVDAsus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20
Total$587$755


Narwhal and Unicorn
All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.
ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
CaseCooler Master HAF 912 - $50Cooler Master HAF932 - $152
Power SupplyCorsair 650TX V2 - $75Corsair 750HX (7 Year Warranty) - $118
CPUIntel i5-2500k - $240Intel i7-2600k - $315
HeatsinkThermaltake Frio - $60Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $83
MotherboardGigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 - $160ASUS Z68 P8Z68-V PRO - $210
Memory4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $428GB G.Skill DDR3 12800 - $54
Graphics CardXFX 6950 1GB OR EVGA GTX 560 Ti- $210 / $220XFX 6970 2GB OR EVGA GTX 570 - $310 / $360
Hard DriveWestern Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $172Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $172
SSDCrucial 128 GB m4 (Review) - $213
OR
Corsair Force Series GT 120 GB - $200
Intel 510 Series 120 GB (Review) - $275
OR
OCZ 120 GB Vertex 3 (Review) - $170
DVDAsus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $20
Total$1029 - $1242$1604 - $1759



Blizzard Art Gallery Update
The World of Warcraft Cataclysm Art gallery has been updated with six pieces representing the Warcraft universe.





The Daily Blink - Zero Sum Games
The Daily Blink reports on a discovery that no one thought was possible.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Chromatic Dragon Pet Video, Setup of the Month, Fan Art, The Daily Blink started by chaud View original post
Comments 92 Comments
  1. McFrotton's Avatar
    Rules dictate that if the pet is shiny, its gonna be on pet store Joke aside I think this will be MoP CE pet.

    ---------- Post added 2011-12-19 at 09:28 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Chip Sodahoof View Post
    I think that comic is full proof that The Daily Blink is utter BS. This goes against everything we know. They have NO PROOF TO BACK THIS CLAIM. They just make the claims and run off hoping we believe them. There is NO SCIENTIFICALLY POSSIBLE WAY to prove that 2 games can be simultaneously good.Seriously, I used to respect TDB, but after this "discovery" it's clear that I can't rely on them for PROPER news../satiresincesomebodiesgoingtotakemeseriously
    You realise this is a joke post right ? Hope you were sarcastic...
  1. F-Minus's Avatar
    Windows has problems assigning treads to 'Dozers faux 16 cores. There was a leaked update from Microsoft, that has since been removed, increasing 'Dozers performance by roughly 7%.
  1. Nexdominus's Avatar
    Daiy Blink is lolololololololololololol right on the nuts today!
  1. videotape's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by McFrotton View Post
    Rules dictate that if the pet is shiny, its gonna be on pet store Joke aside I think this will be MoP CE pet.

    ---------- Post added 2011-12-19 at 09:28 AM ----------

    You realise this is a joke post right ? Hope you were sarcastic...
    Trollception?

    <3 TDB, though I really do not like TOR. Maybe it got better since beta and I have to give it another chance. Sigh, money.

    Ah well, have fun everyone.
  1. NimEzTwyst's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bigamie View Post
    They did that on purpose. Maybe you do not play for that long or simply never noticed it, but in some patch notes Blizzard screwed up and wrote rouge instead of rogue.
    You know they do that just to irk us. /LOVE Daily Blink
  1. Graviteh's Avatar
    Too bad neither of them are good! Hua hua hua!
  1. mmocea55eb06e6's Avatar
    That Pet is really thrusting its arms down as if humping the air, isn't it?
  1. Taiknee's Avatar
    The chromatic dragon's motions are AMAZING!
  1. TrapTime's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bigamie View Post
    They did that on purpose. Maybe you do not play for that long or simply never noticed it, but in some patch notes Blizzard screwed up and wrote rouge instead of rogue.



    So aion, rift, warhammer, other mmo have killed wow? No? Just play swtor for few months and see how many QQ fill up in community and seeing ppl crawling back.
  1. Eleveneleven's Avatar
    SWTOR IS WOW. That's why it can co-exist.
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    People need to realise that these 2 games WILL exist together...hoping for WoW to die will not give you purpose or happiness, or even fun. Screaming that SWTOR is a copy and as such shouldn't exist, is not going to make it less of a source of joy for those enjoying it.I'm so damned tired of all fanboys screaming from every corner, and ESPECIALLY of the morons hoping and wishing for WoW to die just because they themselves grew tired but are too stupid to really leave it behind and move on with other hobbies/games.
  1. mmoc02b1a189f4's Avatar
    Definately gonna get me one of those pets!
  1. Rennadrel's Avatar
    I find the trashing of AMD's Bulldozer chips to be rather hilarious. You do know that when you start to overclock the FX-8150 chips, you get substantially more performance out of it over an Intel i7 overclock, and like usual AMD dominates in multithreaded applications which in the next year or so will matter more as more and more games make use of multicore technology (as to why everything is designed around single threads is beyond me, lazy developers I guess). Stock speeds the 8150 falls short against the i7 2600k, but overclocked at 4.5Ghz it puts it on the level with a stock i7. I'd think that if you could get it around 6Ghz or so the i7 would look inferior even while overclocked to it's max.
  1. Agoonga's Avatar
    "Blood Elf ROUGE"? Academics can't spell, lololol.
  1. Gavan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rennadrel View Post
    I find the trashing of AMD's Bulldozer chips to be rather hilarious. You do know that when you start to overclock the FX-8150 chips, you get substantially more performance out of it over an Intel i7 overclock, and like usual AMD dominates in multithreaded applications which in the next year or so will matter more as more and more games make use of multicore technology (as to why everything is designed around single threads is beyond me, lazy developers I guess). Stock speeds the 8150 falls short against the i7 2600k, but overclocked at 4.5Ghz it puts it on the level with a stock i7. I'd think that if you could get it around 6Ghz or so the i7 would look inferior even while overclocked to it's max.
    Well, the sad thing is that AMD did a good job with their chip set this time around for the initial model. Even the 6100 is pretty solid. The hate is coming from a very volitile viral marketing campaign against them. It started the second the first Passmark tests were released. Tests that were on the wrong MB with terribad RAM, coupled with software not ready for how these things are optimized.

    Luckily, people aren't buying into it and the chips are selling at a good clip. The masses are sick of handing Intel a check every two to three years for over priced, hamstrung, underperforming CPUs that can easily work even more amazing than they already do, if they'd just uncuff them.
  1. Naturae's Avatar
    Waiting for Bose speakers to be put on the list of PC stuff to buy.
  1. Hobb's Avatar
    Meh, the dragon pet is just another rehash of old animation. The pet was originally released back in TBC for the Summer Olympics held in China. They just painted it gold and attached another head onto it.
  1. mmoc80ea7ba33a's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hobb View Post
    Meh, the dragon pet is just another rehash of old animation. The pet was originally released back in TBC for the Summer Olympics held in China. They just painted it gold and attached another head onto it.
    So because they decided to rehash it now, for the first time. It is not epic?
  1. alacast's Avatar
    Happy Holly daze
  1. Kayman's Avatar
    Happy Hollydays

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