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customer support.

So a few years ago my dad bought an mp3 player, the yp-t7.. so now he doesnt want it anymore so he gave it to me.

The sound quality was great, and i liked the overall design but the problem was that my PC wasnt able to detect the hardware after I plugged it in. After much frustration, I called samsung tech support... the answer I got was that the mp3 player doesnt support vista and according to the guy Samsung isnt going to do anything about it since its an old model.

Like seriously, my dad paid good money for that thing and these guys cant even make a 5mb vista driver for it.

Fuck Samsung, Im going sony next time.

...and I'll be cheering for SKT1 in PL finals.

So basically I need advice on speakers, headphones and PC audio in general.... right now I own a set of Altec Lansing 4121 (2 years old I think) and im using an on board sound card to power it, Realtek HD if Im not mistaken. So right now i feel that I want to upgrade my entire sound system in general, and btw I use my PC mostly for games, music, and movies... So recently I got interested in seenheiser headphones and planning to buy a HD555 to be used on my PC. So doing some research about the headphones on the web I learned that in order to get good performance out of the HD555 you need to have a good sound card, on board just doesnt cut it. So now, Im facing the dilemma of either purchasing a sound card first, or a the HD555 first. So being the nub I am, I want you guys to clarify a few things for me.. how much diference would it make between a "real" soundcard and an onboard realtek? And maybe can someone tell me how much diference in sound quality is there between the HD555 and my Vs4121 speakers. Hope you guys can help me out here.

So if you've been reading my last blog post you should know how my old krait was in a dying state despite only being used for around 1 year(im an avid gamer btw). So after a few weeks finally I lost all patience with the damn thing and decided that it was time to actually withdraw some precious money from my bank account, and purchase a new mouse. The only criterias that I had was;

a)it had to be better than my old krait(performance wise) b)looks damn cool.
c)not a goddamn laser piece of shit.



My choice? The razer deathadder. So without much thought I went to my nearest IT mall and got it for a bargain price of $54 USD(did I get ripped off?). After feeling a bit guilty for spending so much money on a PC peripheral, I ran back home as fast as my asian legs could carry me.

Reaching home, I removed the packaging and found the usual stuff you would find in a razer box, the mouse(duh), a few pieces of paper and the driver CD. I wasn't interested with the rest, I just grabbed the rodent out and plugged the thing into my USB port. The moment I saw the blue light glowing out of the damn thing almost made me orgasm, ok.. j/k, but it was still pretty damn cool. I had a bit of problems installing the newest drivers and firmware.. but nvm that, on with my comparison....

Size

I've been using small mices all my life, razer krait and logitech mini optical just to name a few. I've tried using my friend's MX518 before and damn, I hated the thing(no offense to logitech fans!). My hands are indeed small, the bigger the mouse, the harder is it for me to move the thing thus makes my aim less accurate. So when I first gripped my new DA I felt quite uncomfortable... ok It felt QUITE big to be honest, maybe not bigger than the MX518 but still big enough for me to have a bad first impression the thing. The mouse itself doesn't look bad though, I guess looks are one of its strong points but definitely I would have prefered if it was slightly smaller. Definitely in ergonomics I would give the krait higher marks.

Performance

1600dpi vs 1800dpi, DA wins hands down. I fired up COD4 on PC to test the thing out, despite not being used to the shape of the mouse yet, I actually managed to do quite well with a 2:1 or 3:1 death ratio each round, I've done better with my krait but that was during a time when my life was dedicated to COD. Just for the record, my overall k/d ratio is about 2.5/1(I could printscreen to prove it). Anyway, this just shows that the mouse is more than capable of owning the majority of people on the internetz. Its amazing how little you could move this thing and see your cursor move by that amount on the screen, this was indeed something you cannot do with the krait. +1 point DA.

Buttons

Both mouses have indeed a large diference in size, this is true for almost every feature noticable (buttons, mouse wheel, etc.) One of the few reasons I had trouble adjusting to the DA was because I had to SPREAD my 2 fingers apart much further on it due to its "ergonomic" design. The main right/left buttons were indeed big(no complaints there), so were the thumb buttons located on the left side of the mouse. One complain I have about the side buttons though were how they make a loud "clicking" sound. Other than that everything else just feels right. I just can't stop bitching about the size of the thing, sry guys. krait +1.

Conclusion

So overall Im actually quite happy with my DA, but I do feel its a bit overpriced since you can get 2 entry level gaming mice for the price of 1 DA. For the size and ergonomics, I guess its a matter of preference and i'll probably get more used to it in the future(hopefully). Spec wise and looks, I have no complaints for this product, it indeeds looks pretty.

Just some advice for those who prefer smaller mice out there, if your planning to buy the DA try it out first before purchasing it.. you do not want to spend THIS much money on something that you dont feel comfortable with. For those who never purchased a gaming mouse before, I would still recommend the krait for its simplicity and kickass price/performance ratio, a gaming mouse will indeed improve your performance, but you still need some degree of skill to pwn people.

DeathAdder
+cool looks
+better performance
+more buttons
-pricey
-ergonomics/size (depends on personal preference though)
-thumb button produces a damn loud click sound.

Krait
+cheap
+good performance
+small design(again, its a personal preference)
-short life span..
-doesnt exactly look that cool

JUST MY HUMBLE OPINION. So what does tl.net have to say?

So around a year ago I bought myself a new mouse, the razer krait 1600dpi to replace my old MS optical.I was quite happy with the performance and price of it. So recently I just realized the mouse is having some problems, when I play COD4, SC or WC3 the mouse tends to jam sometimes, like once every 15-30 minutes. Its really annoying when your basically 1-2 clicks away from a kill and your mouse dies for a moment. The problem also tends to occur when im surfing or just browsing my files in windows, an error usually pops up saying the USB device has malfunctioned, once I even got the blue screen of death.. ON VISTA. :D

So I need advice; first of all has anyone ever had the same problem with any kind of razer mice? Secondly, if I cant fix the problem I probably would need to purchase a new mouse, any recommendations?

Ok.. so basically im a poor gamer, and I dont want to waste money on shit games, the only reason I will buy a valid copy is if the multiplayer is any good.

So recently Ubisoft released Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the 360, and will be coming to the PC shortly.. Compared to COD4 which was marketed heavily on its multiplayer aspect, little is known about vegas's. So the question is for you guys who played/bought vegas 1 or 2, how was the overall multiplayer aspect of the game? How easy was it to get into a game? Can you compare the addictiveness to COD4? and finally, do they have dedicated servers? or do we have to hop into a game hosted by some other guy on the net?

I know its a bunch of silly questions, but it would help me a ton if any of you guys can answer them. Thanks in advance.

btw, im planning to buy the PC version.

So SC2 will be coming out in August and most of you will probably buy this for sure when it comes out. As a gamer, i've been always excited when a new game comes out but sadly most of the time I cant afford to buy original copies of a game.

Im a university student living on barely $150 USD a month(I live with my parents though), So unless a game gets like a ton of 10/10 perfect reviews I definitely wont buy it. Another thing i keep in mind before purchasing an original copy is the online multiplayer aspect of it, I live in Malaysia so most of the time im able to play with people from eastern asian countries(korea, china, japan) to countries south of me like singapore and Australia. So for those of you who know, how popular is SC1 or WC3 in these countries? and do they share the same server? how much lag is acceptable for these games? According to COD4 I get like below 200ms to places like australia or japan, so is this acceptable for an RTS? and how congested is asian server and is the lag on it acceptable most of the time?

I know these are a ton of silly question, but they would definitely help me a lot if anyone bothers answering them.

Thanks in advance!