It seems the majority of Steam issues are the user's fault...forgotten password much?

That's why I like to use the same password for all of my games...the ONLY game where I switched (because I had two copies) was Far Cry and I forgot that one...

Use the same password for all of your games!

Also if you pre-purchase you should be able to pre-download and just activate the game exactly when it comes out. That's what I did with HL2. I had it sitting on my HD for about a month before the game came out.

D9-THC

Sure, if you want a better chance of having your account's password guessed through brute forcing. For better security, you'd want to have different pws for everything, save them somewhere in an encrypted file.

[QUOTE="Unstoppable_1"]

[QUOTE="neom22"]They've canceled my acc cause i mistyped a game cd key in case the CSS and the said that my cd key were baned so my acc got canceledAcidRep

Pfft that sounds bogus. You cheated and you know it :P.

But you didn't get banned by mistyping the CD key, did you? (because neom22's story sounds like pure bs)...

It happens the VAC makes mistakes, but it isn't right you got banned for no reason whatsoever. Don't anti-virus scanners make mistakes too? Norton AV is known for giving false alarms, even detected XP files as viruses, it's pure crap. Maybe VAC must have thought a file in your system was probably a cheat script and mistaken it for that.

I really do prefer buying it from a store cause i dont trust in steam, they've canceled 2 accs with lots of games and i lose it all. And evey time you unistall it youll have to download it again and you will spend hours to donwload itneom22

They didn't cancel it for any reason...if you used cheats you were caught by VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat).

If you have a 64-bit OS it can handle 4GB I was simply saying you might as well get what you can becuase programs are getting bigger. DEFINITELY get more than 1GB. I have 1GB and have moments where I want to low my PC up when I have all those pesky background programs running.BirdofP

Yes, I know 64-bit OS's can handle more but like you said with the quad core CPU's nothing takes advantage of that much RAM or processing horse power at the moment, so it would be a waste of money. Those pesky un-needed programs can be disabled using System Configuration Utility (start > run > msconfig).

[QUOTE="sepheronX"]

Only downfall, is the 1mb total ram.

BirdofP

I built my own PC by just shopping around I didn't use any of those we build it places becuase they will take twice as much money as the thing actually costs. You will want to do some research. Remeber that the highest of the high end items are only marginally better that componets half their cost in some cases.

Some examples would be: You don't need a quad core processor since nothing is optimized for it yet. That $400videocard isn't much different than the $600 one. The $600 card is better but I doubt you will notice the difference.

A last note is the ammount of memory is on of the most important aspects. If you can afford it get 4GB of memory you will notice difference. I wouldn't go lower than 2GB of memory.

4GB is too extreme...won't even work in a 32-bit environment since 32-bit OS's detect up to 3.5GB and 4GB may cause problems.

3GB is optimal and good enough for Vista, 2GB is enough for XP as of now.

I know at NCIX, you just select what parts you want, even the real good ones on sale, then you can also add in the "build for me" or whatever, and they will put it all together for you.

If you want, I can set up a decent PC gaming machine for 800 and have a build option so you don't have to put it together.

DelItem DescriptionInStockPart#QTYPriceExt.Price Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-5400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC2-5400 DDR2-667 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel MemoryLimit to 4 per customer.In Stock18582 $65.98 $65.98 EVGA E-GEFORCE 8600GTS 675MHZ 256MB 2.0GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV Out DIRECTX10 Video CardIn Stock23716 $169.76 $169.76 Antec Sonata III Black ATX 16IN Mid Tower Quiet Case 3X5.25 2X3.5 4X3.5IN 500W 120MM FanIn Stock24294 $117.06 $117.06 Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R ATX LGA775 Conroe P35 DDR2 1PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 SATA RAID Sound GBLAN Motherboard* Please Note that this item is currently backordered but will be charged to your account during order processing and will ship when stock arrives. Order can be cancelled and charges reversed in full upon request before shipment.Backorder24650 $133.03 $133.03 Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB ATA100 7200RPM 8MB 8.5MS Hard Drive OEM RoHS 5YEAR MFR WarrantyIn Stock16407 $56.82 $56.82 Pioneer DVR-112D Black DVD-RW 18X6X18 DVD+RW 18X8X18 DL 10X IDE OEM DVD Burner No SoftwareIn Stock22862 $32.43 $32.43 Logitech Office Pro Keyboard Black PS/2 W/ Multimedia Keys & Detachable Palm Rest OEMIn Stock15923 $12.03 $12.03 OCZ X-750 Equalizer Laser Gaming Mouse 2500DPI USB Dual Laser EngineIn Stock22874 $26.68 $26.68 Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 Dual Core Processor LGA775 1.8GHZ 800FSB 1MB RetailIn Stock24577 $86.11 $86.11 Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro LGA775 2500RPM 45CFMIn Stock17225 $22.04 $22.04 Check to delete an itemYOUR TOTAL$721.94

All that + 50 or 25 bucks for them to build it for you. And there you go, a good overclocking/gaming machine. Get rid of keyboard and mouse (if you already have them) and then processor to upgrade to the E6550 if you want a good system without overclock.

But a true gamer, would find more intertainment if they tweaked and overclocked their system. Not to mention, the 8600gts has a lot of overclock potential. As the system is not gonna play all upcoming games on highest (due to video card), it will be enough to play titles like Crysis, and GEARS of war on resolutions such as 1280x1024 and or widescreen like 1440x768 or whatever, with decent frame rates, at mid-high details.

Do not worry, motherboard and ram I selected, would be more then enough to get that bad boy processor, to at least 2.5ghz without hassle, and a good 1200 or more FSB, so you get more performance at the end. Only downfall, is the 1mb total ram.

sepheronX

Let's say he's not very experienced and doesn't do overclocking, you don't need expensive RAM, value RAM would do fine being cheaper. Those tight timings don't mean spit in real world performance.

To answer the topic question about the best customizeable Gaming PCs I would recommend Falcon Northwest. Best PCs I've ever seen! They've even have parts that aren't avaliable to the general public yet...like the Radion card that can beat the 8800 ultra. No lie see for yourself!Mondars37

I believe the guy asked for a PC between the ranges of $500-800, no way would Falcon NW build you anything good for that price, they are luxury PC builders like Voodoo PC with their 24k gold Omen case released a while back.

try this site.....

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/r05/ri05.asp

or even this one.....

http://www.tigerdirect.com/ or newegg.com

ferret837

Forget CyberPower, they are bad. Ever check their BBB ratings? They use to have an F rating of how many complaints they got. Bad experience with them.

1024x768. Im a frame rate whore so i wont take anything below 60 fps or 50 fps.Master_Kev

1680x1050 for me. With a nice system like that you could go higher with not much performance drop. I mean we're talking about a 768MB card, that's why there's more memory on those high-end cards for higher resolutions.

I'm the opposite of you, I'm a graphics whore, so I wouldn't mind 30fps, it's still smooth and alright for me.