Hello all!

I know It's been a long time, I have been on a "Vacation" so to speak. For a time I thought it might be permanent, but Rob refused to accept my resignation, and told me to take my time and return when I was ready (Over 450 new threads since my last visit!)

A brief explination is in order, there was a bit of friction between me and Zenn (Sorry Bro, I guess the wheels fell off after all huh?) that eventualy lead to a bit of a blow out. Then I had all kinds of weird hardware and software failures with almost every one of my 4 rigs that damn near had me throwin everything in the dumpster.

I beleive I was on the recieving end of the wrath of the OC Gods, something that has not reared it's ugly head since the unfortunate and early demise of my NF-7 through careless hardware handling, and subsequent self imposed 3 month stint in K6-2 Hell as pennace for angering them.
I am still not quite sure they are happy with me yet though, I feel as if there may be more hardware sacrifices in order to please them this time round.

After weeks of sorting through everything, I believe I have most of the kinks worked out, so far the worse damage apears to be a dead bios chip on my old NFORCE 3-250 DFI LP, although I still need to retest my GSKILL PC4800 in another rig, one of them may have been damaged, they will only run at DDR 333 on my current main rig (XP2500+ DFI LP) with 3.2v!!!!

Yeah, I was ready to throw in the towel, but what would I do with myself then? I searched deep within myself, and found that I could not think of anything else that I enjoy more as a hobby, so I decided to wait it out and see if the "Need for Speed" would ever come back.

Well it hasn't yet, although my naughty parts felt a little tingly after seeing that the 7800GTX's are out!

I have become a fragmonster in the mean time, I decided to go back to my roots and game hardcore again (averaging 35+ hours a week!) There have been nights I have racked up 100+ kills in a 20 minute round, compared to my usual highs in the 60's, I have become one with my Panzerfaust again

That gave me time to recover without thinking to much about what had gone wrong, cause it hurt me deeply. Time does not always heal the wounds, but it can stop the bleeding.

There were some other things that made my life a living hell, 3+ weeks of not seeing my Daughter, including Fathers Day (Wich is the day after the anniversary of my Fathers death, so I realy needed some chearing up that day)

Along the way I was laid off from my job at the Safety Labs, another devastating blow that blindsided me. Let me tell ya, you don't realise how much your daily routine at work means to having a stable life until it's gone (When you realy like your job and co-workers that is )

There is some light in the darkness though, I was able to transition to another facilty (Allen Park Test Labs) I am now a "Dyno Tech" so to speak, running emmisions tests. I kinda smiled when I grabbed a few gears on a 05 Mustang (3 valve 5spd) last week, I forgot how good 300 HP can sound

Today I spent over 5 hours of Daddy Daughter time, including a trip to McDonalds where she demonstrated the art of making a Chicken Nugget sandwich (You take 2 nuggets, spread a generous coat of Ranch Dresing with your finger on one, then place the other on top)

We also took a trip to Meijers where I bought her a new bike with training wheels!
Unfortunately, the pink "Princess" model we picked out turned out to be a bit small according to the ex-wife, so back it went, and the right size model was found with her help

Plans have been made for a trip to Cedar Point with over the 4th of July holiday, so things are looking up in that Dept.

Nothing makes me happier than spending time with my little one, and it was just the thing I needed to kickstart my soul, returning me to life... a long overdue injection of love straight into your heart can do wonders for healing the soul.

Oh, and P.S. my new San Diego Rev "E" 4000+ is running quite happily at over 2.9GHZ (On Air) with "Hot" ambient temps in the 70's, the best the old 4000+ ever ran was 2880MHZ with ambient temps down in the 20's last winter.

Glad to see you back necro. I hope things get better for ya bro ill be pullin for ya.

Welcome back, my brother. It's been a long time coming.

Rob

Sweeeeeeet.....Glad to have you back with the Pimps

Welcome back!

Welcome back $SOLID$!

My only let down is that from the title of the post, I thought this was going to be some bull$hit thread by Kayin trying to make is great comeback... I'm glad I was wrong!

Thanks all!

Glad to disappoint you Feral, It does have that kinda feel huh?

EDIT: Remind me to NEVER do that again!

I had considered going straight into a tech type of post, but I was afraid that would leave to many unanswered questions, and I don't want to have to field them in that type of thread.

So I thought I would try ease back into it, and get this knocked out right away, I don't like leaving "Skeletons" in the closet, they have always come back to haunt me in the past if left alone.

ADD: After your comment bounced around in my head for a while, it struck me as odd, I have no religous beliefs at all, if anything I would say I lean towards the scientific explination of the creation of the universe, ya know..Big Bang and Darwinism trains of thought, but I have never closed my mind to the "Grand Designer" theory either.

It must have come from being raised in a mostly Polish/Italian Catholic Suburban Detroit neighborhood, a bit awkward to fit in when your an Irish kid that doesn't go to church, so some of it must have snuck in my subconcious somewhere along the line...

Welcome back Necro, good to see ya around again.

Welcome back man! So any plans for the 7800's? I know somethin is in the back of your head that has to do with those.

Quote: Originally Posted by SpikeShot Thank the gods, lord this place aint the same without you bro! I am SO VERY much pleased you are back, and when you sign onto MSN be sure to say hello! We gots to talk...I want to know all about everything. (PM could be in order )

Good to be back for sure, I caught a few guys earlier on MSN, then got a PM from godffot to meet him over at =SHIiTSTORM EXTREME= for a few rounds of carnage...yeah, I got a few stories for ya Bro, catch ya on IM

And yeah Sparky, those 7800's in SLI would be nice but at 600$ a peice, I'd have to unload some stuff first..anyone need a matched pair of BFG PCIE 6800U's for a good price?

I have a 3000+ Winchester and a 4000+ Clawhammer ( BothSocket 939) collecting dust too

Great to see you back Necro, your input has been missed

Hope you get all that shiz sorted, sounds like you've had a pretty hard time recently.

I have to agree with you on the 7800GTXs, my girlfriend thought i was pleased to see her

how much for the 6800's

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro I have a 3000+ Winchester and a 4000+ Clawhammer ( BothSocket 939) collecting dust too

Hmm, I am in need of an A64 upgrade soon, I'll get back to you if you still have either of these later.

Well, I'm a bit out of the loop as far as what they go for currently, they were 540$ new less than 6 months ago, they have AS-Ceramique under the stock memory heatsink, Drop me a PM and maybe we can work something out.

They have only been Bios modded to run with differnt memory timings (GT's settings are faster) and also to use 1.5v (1.4 stock) However, I can flash them back to stock if you wish. This was strictly a benchmarking rig, I never used anything but the stock air cooling.

It was not run 24-7 so they don't have a lot of running time on them, at one point it was the 7th fastest rig (and probably the fastest on air cooling) in the 3DMARK hall of fame (April-May??)
They have not been in use for the last few months, but everything was running fine last week when I ran a few benchies at 80F (Summer fun! ) just to see how bad it killed the OC.

They have clocked as high as 480+ core and 1.3ghz memory when the ambient air temp was around 30c for benchmarking, but they apear to be stable for daily use at around 450core/1.2mem, I have never actually played a game with them!

Welcome back $SOLID$ Necro! Glad to see you come back to the PR stompin' ground! Bet that new bike is given loads of smiles!

Good to see you back!

Great to see you back $SOLID$...........and that everything is getting better......

'Bout damn time. You ready for reviews again?

Welcome back. Your presence has been missed.
Taking a sabbatical from time to time is a good thing.