Got my new PC. A few questions.

[Vympel]

Man, Windows 7 is weird. I had trouble installing Media Player Classic because Windows Media Player refused to shut down. I actually had to end the task twice to get it to install, and it'd immediately pop back after. WTF?

Also, can anyone recommend a good program to watch Blu-Rays on, which is also capable of taking screenshots? MPC is incapable without a shitload of fiddling that I'm unwilling to do.

[Dillon]

I ditched MPC long ago for VLC. It didn't give annoying delays every time I tried to jump around in a video like MPC did.

I'm almost certain that VLC can take screenshots. As for Blu-ray compatibility, check here. I can't personally vouch for for libbluray however, not having a blu-ray drive in my computer and all.

EDIT: I took a glance at the FAQ, and you can indeed take screen shots.

[Vympel]

Thanks dude. Man, everyone who gets a new PC should run the OS off an SSD. Its fucking awesome, and so worth the price.

[Tritio]

SSD as in Solid State Drive? Wow, what model/brand is yours and how much did it cost? Did you build your PC or was it a neatly packaged purchse from a well known brand?

[Stofsk]

You should list what components you've got.

[Ubiquitous]

Can it run Crysis?

[sorry].

Also, prices would be good. I'm interested in what top spec PC's cost these days.

[Mr Bean]

Can it run Crysis?

[sorry].

Also, prices would be good. I'm interested in what top spec PC's cost these days.

Unless your running pure SSD's or inculde the cost of a huge monitor your talking under 1,200$(American) for any super high end PC build. A 2500k(220$), 8 gigs of ram(89$) a 6970(280$), case(100$), 1 TB storage HD + Win 7(150$) a 120G SSD(280$) plus aftermarket cooler and mouse/keyboard (70$) your talking 1,189 plus shipping. That's for a very high end system. For an ultra high system your be hard pressed to spend over 2000$ and even then that comes with buying another video card for SLI, upgrading to sixteen gigs of ram, a 2600k instead of 2500k, and another SSD or three plus an external HD. Drop the SSD requirement and your looking at 1000$ for a high end system and 1500 for top of the line your just spending money to spend money for anything else.

[Vympel]

SSD as in Solid State Drive? Wow, what model/brand is yours and how much did it cost? Did you build your PC or was it a neatly packaged purchse from a well known brand?

Chose the parts with a friend and he built it for me as a favour for legal work I did for him. The SSD is a OCZ Vertex IIE 120GB. It cost $250.00 and was worth every penny - in a couple of years I might consider replacing all my old HDDs with multi-TB SSDs, which woudl be awesome, but for now the SSD serves to make everyday use and simply turning on the PC blindingly fast.

You should list what components you've got.

Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced (very cool case design, but not overly pimped)
CPU: i7 2600k (might overclock in the future, who knows)
Motherboard: P8P67 Deluxe
Graphics: Nvidia GTX570
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengenace 1600mhz
PSU: Silverstone Strider 850W (for later expansions)
Soundcard: Creative X-Fi Titanium (yeah, I know I didn't need it but what the hell)
HDD: the SSD, plus 2x 2tb Caviar Blacks (also added in my 500GB Caviar Green from my old PC which replaced one of its dead original HDDs, and the not-yet-broken old 320GB HDD is connected to the intergral dock on top of the case, for the timebeing)

Total cost was ~$2500

Can it run Crysis?

[sorry].

First thing I did was install Crysis Warhead. Flawless

Also, it runs Just Cause 2 flawlessly (though the game does have a tendency to crash)

[Xon]

I ditched MPC long ago for VLC. It didn't give annoying delays every time I tried to jump around in a video like MPC did.

VLC is a buggy POS. It historially has had 'rebuilding font cache' issues for a while now which if you are affected the only 'solution' is is to delete the font cache and let it try to rebuild again. This means if you are watching anything with subtitles it's very hit and miss on if the thing will even work, because it blocks playing video untill the fucking font cache is fully populated.

VLC also has a very horrible UI, and some realyl braindead defaults.

[Executor32]

Assuming you've got your RAM running at its rated speed, you're already overclocked, Vympel. I have the same CPU/mobo/RAM as you, and the CPU runs at 4.3 GHz when the RAM is at 1600 MHz, versus the factory speed of 3.4 GHz.

[Vympel]

Assuming you've got your RAM running at its rated speed, you're already overclocked, Vympel. I have the same CPU/mobo/RAM as you, and the CPU runs at 4.3 GHz when the RAM is at 1600 MHz, versus the factory speed of 3.4 GHz.

The more you know, then

VLC is a buggy POS. It historially has had 'rebuilding font cache' issues for a while now which if you are affected the only 'solution' is is to delete the font cache and let it try to rebuild again. This means if you are watching anything with subtitles it's very hit and miss on if the thing will even work, because it blocks playing video untill the fucking font cache is fully populated.

VLC also has a very horrible UI, and some realyl braindead defaults.

I used to use VLC before using MPC, and I found it just rubbish. Taking screenshots especially was an exercise in frustration - advance a frame and you've got an even chance of the image turning to pixellated shit - but for blu-rays it might be worth checking out ...

[Dillon]

I ditched MPC long ago for VLC. It didn't give annoying delays every time I tried to jump around in a video like MPC did.

VLC is a buggy POS. It historially has had 'rebuilding font cache' issues for a while now which if you are affected the only 'solution' is is to delete the font cache and let it try to rebuild again. This means if you are watching anything with subtitles it's very hit and miss on if the thing will even work, because it blocks playing video untill the fucking font cache is fully populated.

VLC also has a very horrible UI, and some realyl braindead defaults.

It's never given me any real trouble. What are some good alternatives though?