BTGBullseye

Not too bad... You can get an aftermarket cooler for around $20 that will drop your temps, but it's most likely the thermal compound you're using. I suggest any of the Prolimatech brand thermal pastes, they don't dry out, and they are very inexpensive for some of the best compound available. You might have a noticeable speed increase if you up your RAM to a pair of 4-8GB sticks @1800MHz+. (should improve frame rates by 4-10 FPS if the game is really large, or uses a lot of RAM)

Actually, percussion repairs were incredibly common for older systems, as it can cause poorly seated components to regain connection. It is my go-to fix for any problem I can't immediately place the source of. (and it works 9 times out of 10) I can't believe I never mentioned this before... I used to have a stick of DDR2 333MHz RAM that could be used to permanently turn any RAM slot into a RAM stick killer. Just insert the stick, start the system, turn off the system, and insert any RAM sticks you want permanently destroyed. Worked on all Intel and AMD systems that I tested it on, and I have never even heard of anyone that knew what caused it. Still have the stick floating around my junk component bin somewhere.

All it takes is a couple drops of light machine oil in the bearing, and it should become nice and quiet. (and start contributing more to airflow) Might want to clean the PSU then. If it's got too much dust in it, it can have issues with the thermal sensors or other things. It could be a more serious issue for the PSU as well, so you might want to look into a new PSU for your system, just in case.

One more instance of dead games that can never be played again.

Not bad at all... Should be able to do almost any game maxed 1080p@60Hz. (a few exceptions, but then again there are always exceptions)

Nice air cooler, nice wifi card... Make sure you replace that Arctic Silver every 6 months when it dries out. (when it dries it loses a LOT of its thermal conductivity) Prolimatech thermal compounds are actually way better than AS5, they don't dry out, and they're generally less expensive per-ounce.

Until it's a state government that is threatening to secede, there is no risk of civil war. (Cali wouldn't dare try without at least a 95% popular support, and 2 more states with the same opinion)

One major reason that this won't start a civil war: The 'protesters' would rather destroy some innocent's car than do anything against the government. They talk loud, and destroy private property, but they aren't even close to a "resistance". Back with the last Obama election we were very close to a real civil war, as many states were threatening to leave the Union if certain federal laws were used to supercede existing state laws. (those threatened applications of federal law have since stopped being a threat)

Pretty close to my opinion on respect as well, though I don't see how this applies to the topic.

Not bad, should be able to do any modern game for the next 5 years. (unless some serious tech breakthroughs occur)

My opinion: We're here to figure out why we're here... If we can figure that out, then we'll be happy, and it won't matter anymore. Most people don't bother searching for why they're here themselves, instead turning to other people's opinions of why they're here, (secularism: to have more things than other people, buddhism: to be as passive as possible and meditate until you die, islam: to make everyone else share your belief or die, etc.) and this is the main reason why so many people are miserable in their lives. (they do what others want them to do, instead of what they were meant to do)

I do think that personality types should be used far more than they currently are, as it makes it incredibly difficult for some of us to get jobs when the employers are expecting a far more common personality type. If those common types were to act like I do in an interview, they would be extremely undesirable for employment in most jobs.

Not bad... I'd recommend upgrading the processor and motherboard before anything else though. (those are OLD)

The thing is, the vast majority of cityfolk would probably end up ignoring the problems until it's way too late, resulting in mass death on a global scale. My guess is that the world's population at that point would be at or under 2 billion, which would allow for 'wild west' style living without issues. (global population first hit the 2B mark in 1927) Bear in mind that issues such as oil depletion will result in massive wars, so that's one of the major population depletion sources I'm using for my estimates. (over 50% of the world's population lives in cities that would be prime targets for military strikes)

IOMMU isn't really as obscure as it may seem, it's just not important enough to put on a spec sheet since only about 0.0001% of users will ever even think about something that requires it outside of custom business machines and very expensive custom gaming rigs. (and those machines aren't built by people that would ever use ARK as a primary source for CPU specs)

When the tutorial includes a suggestion to recompile the OS, it's not for the average user. lol

Because Wine sucks for playing games... It's moody, clunky, and does significantly impact framerates on the few games it can run.

I'd start by making sure to disable by default any services you aren't going to use, and do a lot of research into the files and settings before you disable/delete anything. Also, make sure you slipstream in any updates available that don't include the GWX crap. (it'll help a lot)

Pain is just one small part of suffering. Pain and suffering are not just physical, but emotional, mental, and spiritual as well. Suffering is a major part of what makes you grow as a person, even if you don't realize it. If you don't suffer, there's no reason to grow, you become stagnant. Just like pruning a bush to make it grow. Pain is a huge part of life, to deny it is to deny your own existence. I feel pain, but I refuse to allow it to cloud my judgement like I did as a small child. I learned this lesson very early, and it has helped me immeasurably throughout my life. It has also harmed me in many ways, because I react much as an old person would, and that tends to scare people when you're 1/3 the age of those expected to react that way to pain.

Vapy, what you fail to realize is that many vigilantes don't kill their foes, they merely incapacitate them for the authorities to apprehend. These vigilantes I fully support if they bother to do the research needed to determine who is really guilty.

I honestly think all life should be preserved as much as possible... Death is irreversible, so we shouldn't end it without a VERY good reason. However, if it's someone who has proven that they will repeat their murderous actions if ever released, and have a tendency towards escaping, then death may be the only reasonable course of action available. (an unrepentant murderer wouldn't fit this category, even a mass murderer, if they never escape from prison)

My understanding is HEVC makes a bigger difference at low bitrates and high resolutions compared to h.264, with it not being as substantial for the bitrate range I'm working at. I might switch to it eventually, but I'd rather let it become a highly standardized thing first. Actually, I just did a full comparison between x264 and x265 at the same settings for a blu-ray video, (at 1080p, 720p and 480p resolutions) and x265 was less than half the size. Also did a short lossless RGB with Fraps of just some random stuff I did on my desktop, and the same results occurred with the compression. You might be using old information from when x265 was still in alpha/beta.

Question for the next video chat, if someone will pass this on to the reddit that would be appreciated. Ross, would you consider using the HL2 Cinematic Mod? (a version that doesn't change the look of the original actor models, CM doesn't require Steam after the first run of the game and it patches a lot of bugs) P.S.: I can even put together the older models with the newer Cinematic Mod for you if you want. http://cinematicmod.com/

The problem with that is that modern versions of Windows, despite doing just fine starting with lower RAM, ends up with a significant performance impact after a few months post-upgrading the RAM. (I've seen as much as a 10% RAM performance drop) It probably isn't an intentional thing, (who really knows for sure?) but Microsoft has deleted several reports of this issue from their report sections, and it hasn't been fixed since W7 SP1 came out. (that was the first time I noticed it) With multi-channel sets, you definitely want to get the full set all at the same time, as the set sticks are specifically chosen to be of identical performance. Single sticks can vary significantly, and even conflict with each other in rare circumstances. (the performance impact can vary from 0%-100% performance drop, and in extremely rare circumstances one stick can actually permanently kill other sticks attached to the system) If you don't mind the risks, (they are relatively small, though I'm one of the fortunate ones that manages to hit all of them at some point) then by all means, do what you are going to do. I'm providing as much helpful info as possible, not trying to push you to do something you don't want to.

4x4 is faster only if the motherboard is specifically designed to run a quad-channel RAM set, otherwise a 2x8 set will perform identically to a 4x4, and the 2x8 is less expensive right now. That first link you gave is $8 more expensive than the link to the Patriot RAM that I gave... $16 + tax difference in final purchase price. The second link is $13 more expensive than the Team brand RAM here... $26 + tax difference in price. It is a very low likelihood that you will notice the difference between 13 and 15, unless you are transcoding a very long video. The same could be said about 2 or 4 sticks of RAM difference, provided your motherboard has a RAM controller that does quad-channel properly. That said, here is what I recommend for making the most bang for your buck for 16GB of RAM... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226745 Mushkin Enhanced Blackline @2400MHz. If side-by-side, you would notice a difference between 2400 and 2133 RAM, it will reduce the time it takes to do stuff with large files, (like videos) and even if your motherboard can't handle the 2400MHz natively, the RAM can handle the underclocking to 2133 just fine. (all RAM is fine with being underclocked)