Instead of spending up to or over $1,000 to upgrade my motherboard, processor, and power supply in order to buy the latest generation of PCI-e cards, I decided to stay with my current system and get the latest and fastest AGP solution available. Since ATI just released their new Radeon X1950 Pro cards which supports AGP, I decided to give one a spin.

This is where the Visiontek XGE Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB card (MSRP: $300) comes in.  It has AGP, has a bit of legroom for future gaming, and it allows me to get instant gaming satisfaction until I can come up with the funds to get a whole new system.  So is the X1950 Pro AGP the answer to gamers who want to stay with AGP for a bit longer?  Read on to find out in this review of Visiontek’s XGE X1950 Pro 256MB video card.

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Living with two roommates who don’t share my movie, music, and gaming enthusiasm means I have to use headphones at all times. You could say I have a mild headphone fetish, and over the years, I’ve tried a dozen of them. From the humble beginnings of generic Wal-mart Sony earphones, then the Shure E2C earphones, the venerable Grado SD60’s, and the Audio Technica ATH-A500. Audio quality, comfort, and build quality are all top criterias I look into when checking out headphones/earphones.

Now I am trying out the Icemat Siberia Headset, which retails for $80. Icemat has the luxury of creating gamer-approved mousepads in an industry where there aren’t many competitors. With headphones, however, it’s a saturated market. Aiming them at gamers means you not only have to have features that gamers crave (like being affordable, durable, and have a great soundstage — more on this later), but it must also exhibit superb sound quality.

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There’s been a number of new applications and services recently that are looking to extend the usefulness and fun of iTunes. I’m always looking for new ways to have a better iTunes experience. With that in mind, I thought I’d provide my thoughts on these new iTunes extensions. After the jump, you’ll find my thoughts on Qloud, The Filter, and Qloud.

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When shopping for a MP3 player, I originally wanted a tiny flash-based one for when I go on early morning runs, since hard drive-based ones tend to skip when there are sudden movements.  However, when I saw the iRiver Clix, I realized that I won’t be running all the time, so I might as well be able to enjoy it for when I’m not exercising.

The iRiver Clix (MSRP $199.99) features the ability to play music in these formats: .mp3, .ogg, and .wma.  On top of that, it features the ability to play video, show pictures, and let you play Flash Lite games.  It has a rather large (for a MP3 player) 2.2″ LCD screen that is quite bright, and which can display 260,000 colors.  Additionally it has a built-in FM tuner, so you can listen to local FM radio stations.

It charges up the lithium-poly battery via the USB 2.0 cord, and a single charge can bring you between 10-20 hours (20 hours if you’re listening in the worst possible audio quality, don’t use the LCD screen much, and other best-case scenario variables.)  You can expect around 13 hours of playtime for the average listener, less if you watch videos often and use an aggressive equalizer setting.

It supports all of the online music stores that isn’t called iTunes Music Store.  So it supports URGE, eMusic, MSN Music, Rhapsody, Napster, and other PlaysForSure verified services.

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This review was originally posted on foogaming.com - but since that site is no longer up, I decided to repost it here for anyone looking for feedback on these excellent headphones.

My old earphones, Shure E2c, gave up the ghost after 2 years of extensive use. It served me well, but I want headphones that actually last. So thus my research on the net brought me to the purchase of the Audio Technica ATH-A500, which is only made in Japan. Word is that it is great for gaming, having a soundstage that is great for closed circumaural headphones. Along with the headphones, I also invested in the Headroom Total Airhead headphone amp.

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One thing I pride myself for is making informed decisions when buying stuff I want. Having the internet at my disposal, I can find what is the best bang for my buck. With that said, here’s a number of products I’ve bought that has made a difference in my life, and has me very appreciative of them.

• Audio-Technica ATH-A500 headphones - These hi-fi headphones truly make music, games, and movies pure auditory bliss. Everytime I put the soft velvety strap over my head, I’m so impressed with the sound and impact these cans have on my ears. Music sounds crisp, games are more visceral and immersive, and explosions in movies rattle my skull oh-so-sweetly. Only available in Japan, it’s worth importing and plugging it into a quality headphone amp for maximum glee.
• Microsoft Ergonomic 4000 keyboard - I’m a typing mofo. Conventional keyboards are fine, but the ergonomic shape and feel of this Microsoft keyboard has given me more comfort, and speed than any other traditional keyboard can do. Well worth the investment, especially in the long run to prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
• Icemat glass mousepad - I’ve worn out to death so many mousepads; whether it’s made of cloth, plastic, or metal. Cloth pads don’t track that well and have too much friction. Plastic wears out too quick, and metal has an adverse effect on optical mice. The Icemat is made of glass, never wears down, and is super-slick. Since it’s black glass, optical mouse don’t have a problem with it. Sure, it’s a little pricey for a mousepad, but I’m going to have this pad forever. That’s well worth the investment in the long run, if you ask me.
• Dell 2005FPW 20.1″ Widescreen LCD monitor - (Now updated by Dell to the 2007FP) It’s huge, it’s bright, feeds me eye candy, and goddamn if widescreen movies don’t look so glorious on it. It blows away most any HDTV on the market today, plus gaming in widescreen is the icing on the cake. For productivity, I can have more windows open, more data presented, and design websites faster due to all the extra space. Colors are vivid and bright, text is easier to read, and the USB ports on the side are very handy. I don’t see myself upgrading to a bigger/better monitor as long as this baby is alive.
• Wusthof Grand Prix II knives - For cooking, chopping up veggies and slicing meat is much easier than any other knives I’ve used. They stay sharp longer, so they require less sharpening in the long run. Also the Grand Prix II series have very comfortable handles, and are well balanced. I don’t see myself needing any other knives for as long as I have these knives in my collection. Even cutting the tough acorn squash isn’t an exercise in frustration and sweat anymore. Not to mention if you accidentally nick yourself, you’re more likely to heal up faster due to the knives cutting cleanly (dull knives leave nasty, painful jagged cuts.)
• Swedish Penis Pump - Hold on, wait a tic … what the … ?? Honestly, that’s not mine!

My roommate’s computer broke a few days ago, and after diagnostic testing, discovered it was the motherboard that died. No surprise there, considering it was my old computer and it was pushed to the limit since the day I got it. So I did some research and tried to get new parts (motherboard, CPU, memory) that are faster, but still on a tight budget. I spent $200, and got her a system that is twice as fast, and should hopefully last a long time. Here’s the parts that I got: AMD Sempron 2800+ processor, MSI K8MM-V motherboard, and 512MB PC3200 Kingston DDR2 memory.

Well today while putting it together, I ran into one problem after another. First the stupid heatsink/fan retention mechanism was a pure bitch trying to secure over the processor. While using force on it, I had to be careful not to apply too much pressure, otherwise it’d crack the processor core, and that’d be $75 down the drain. Then when I got that on, the hard drive kept being recognized as a slave, rather than a master. It took 2 hours of diagnostic tests to figure out I should just pop in another hard drive, transfer the data from the old hard drive to the replaced one, and ditch the old one.

Okay, fine, got that set up, but then the video card gives me a fit. Not my fault though, ATI has some asstacular drivers, so I just went with the on-board video, which works just as well. Finally, the wireless network card software kept BSOD’ing the system, so I had to uninstall that and install generic drivers for it. Total time: 7 hours. Seven bloody hours for such a simple job, but it seems Murphy’s Law was in a harassing mood for me today.