HTC Titan 2

The touchscreen on my Samsung Impression stopped working recently so I have been looking for a new phone. I was all set on getting a HTC Titan next week, when they announced the Titan 2 at CES today. I am certainly glad they announced this now instead of next week. The Titan 2 looks pretty good and will probably be my next phone. I just hope I don’t have to wait too long before its available.

Xfire Updating Software

Xfire, the instant messaging/social network service for gamers recently raised $4 Million From Intel Capital, and is now an independent company again. A little over a year ago, Xfire was acquired by Titan Gaming, and since then development on the software has been pretty slow. Client updates have been few and far between, and new game support was outsourced to a team of community volunteers instead of being developed and tested in-house. As a result of the capital injection, Xfire is now flying solo again, and they have some big plans for the software in the future.

They are already testing a beta build of the client that supports in-game rendering for DirectX 10 and 11. This means that Xfire will start working with modern games, allowing you to chat, take screenshots, record video, and broadcast live gameplay all from the Xfire overlay that appears on-top of the game. They are currently testing with World of Warcraft (DX11), The Lord of The Rings Online (DX10/DX11), Dungeons & Dragons (DX10/DX11), and Battlefield 3 (DX10/DX11). If all goes well, expect to see a lot more newer games supporting XIG.

They are also focusing on fixing some of the social network features. Xfire has a network manager feature that allows you to chat on other networks such as AIM, MSN, and Twitter. However since it was first implemented, some of the protocols have changed, creating issues with the Xfire client. Fixes are promised, as well as support for additional networks.

Overall, it seems like it is a good time to be an Xfire user, and they want your feedback. If you currently use Xfire, take a few minutes to complete this survey and let them know how you feel about it.

Now to go download that beta client so I can get Xfire working in Battlefield 3.

Corsair H60 Installed

Got my Corsair H60 today to replace the extremely loud stock air cooling on my Phenom II X4 965. Wow what a difference it made. Before my PC was pretty loud idle, and sounded like a airplane taking off when I played games. Now the thing is very quiet all the time, and the temps while gaming are only slightly higher then what my idle temps were with the stock cooler. Not bad for $59.99 thanks to Amazon and Prime Shipping.

Also a big thank you goes out to the LASERSHIP guy that left my box sitting outside during a tropical storm. Its not that type of water cooler dude.

Now I just need to get my RAM back.

New PC Processor & Case

I got a new processor and PC case over the weekend. I got my parts moved over and the processor installed without any issues. I have to say I really like the Corsair Graphite Series™ 600T Mid-Tower Case. It has some nice cable management options, pretty cool moveable drive bays, and pretty nice cooling. The stock cooler on my new Phenom II X4 965 is pretty loud though, so I am going to replace it with a Corsair H60. I went with the 965 because I did not feel like replacing a motherboard and RAM, and the 965 will run on my Socket AM2+ motherboard. Its not a top of the line processor by any means, but its a nice upgrade over my aging AMD Phenom 9600 Agena.

Now I just need to get my RAM back.

Bad RAM

Don’t you just love it when your memory randomly goes bad? All aboard the RMA Train!