Hardware

There are lots of great options if you want to improve your life in 3D nowadays.  Prices seem to be dropping in anticipation of the holidays, and I decided to write this so you'd be ready for any deals that might come a long. 

nVidia 8600GTS

I normally hate to say a gaming bargain is something that comes with a rebate.  I hate rebates myself, and have never gotten one back.  From what others have told me though, Newegg is better at this process, and helps you get your money back.  Right now, they have a 8600GTS at Newegg.com for $129.99 after rebate.  This is a good price for a card that is about 20% faster than a 8600GT which cost around $110.  It won't be enough to see Crysis in all of it's glory on full settings, but you get decent graphics at a decent price. 

Sapphire Radeon 2900 GT

This is a new card out from ATI that was released without much fanfare.  In fact, very few benchmarks exist for this card.  From those I have seen, it does better than the 8600GTS, and I've heard it compared to the 8800GT which runs about $220.  Right now, this card is at Newegg.com for $169.99.  Another good price for this DirectX 10 upgrade.  

If your looking to upgrade from that 6600GT or even 7600GT, then these two mid-range cards will probably do you well. 

Wow, forget waiting for Christmas, GoGamer.com has the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 4000 on sale for only $19.99.  The regular price runs between $40-$60.  This includes a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse. 

This is a part of their 48-hour madness sale, which includes Tabula Rasa at only $29.99 and Heroes of Might & Magic V: Tribes of the East for only $19.99.

ZBoard, the customized PC gaming keyboard, is on sale over at GoGamer.com for a low $39.99.  You can usually find it for around $45-$50, but this deal also comes with a World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade keyset, which would normally be an extra $20.  This basically means that keys like targeting friends, looking at maps, and opening bags are already set up and labeled for you.  So you get the gaming keyset, a normal keyboard keyset, and a Burning Crusade keyset in this package.  You can also swap out other keysets made especially for games like Counter-Strike, Call of Duty 2, and Age of Empires 3.  It also has a lot of other features you'd expect in a PC gaming keyboard like:

USB Hub
Your Zboard Base is equipped with 2 USB (BUS powered) connectors. This HUB supports low voltage devices (up to 100mA) such as mice, joystick or memory sticks.

Now you can plug devices directly to your Zboard without the hassle of crawling down to your PC.

Hot Keys
A set of nine hot keys launch common functions such as E-Mail, Calculator and My Computer or allow you to instantly return to a pre-selected destination, such as a file, folder, program or web page.

Multimedia Controls
A set of 7 one-touch multimedia control buttons including play and pause, stop, next and previous track, volume and mute.

Additional LED Indicators
In addition to the standard 3 LED (Caps, Scroll and Num lock) Zboard has additional 3 LEDs to indicate Zboard enhanced functionality (Pad Lock, Bar Lock and Enable)

Macro Enabled Keys
Perform multiple actions and reveal emotions like laughing and roaring in victory at the push of a button.

Group Commands into Two Zones
The Game Window Zone and Chat command Zone... yell or whisper, your Spell Book and access to Character interface commands are all within easy reach.

Custom Labeled Commands
Make it easy to interact with a detailed world. Easily select weapons, cast spells and target who will feel your wrath or goodwill.

This offer is only good for this week, so pick yours up today over at GoGamer. 

ZBoard PC Gaming Keyboard Plus Burning Crusade Keyset

Future Media, the same company behind big name magazines like PC Gamer and Maximum PC, is starting up a media offering of another kind, a social media site.  The Mod Shop is a place where gamers can submit their PC mods and battle against other mods for a monthly prize of $2,000.  If you love to mod PC's, then this would be a great place to get some ideas, but even if you don't, some of the computers on display will really impress you with what can be done to a normal desktop box. 

Inside the Mod Shop, you can share and promote your own creations with photos, work logs, how-to articles, and more. Whether your modding hacks are simple or insane, performance-oriented or aesthetic, we invite you to contribute by chronicling your work-in-progress on your rig’s very own profile page. Thermodynamically impossible chip cooling? Body-shop-caliber case painting? Origami-like wiring jobs? Bring it on! But we’re just as interested in seeing more modest mod jobs and how they evolve month by month into works of creative genius. The site is about your machine, whoever you happen to be!

I'm sure at some point, if it becomes popular enough, this will be integrated into Maximum PC magazine.  Ohh, good luck to all the contestants entering this month, it looks like a tough competition!

ExtremeTech has a graphics card upgrade guide up in response to all the great PC games that have been released and are going to be released this fall.  If your looking to upgrade soon, you might want to read through this guide.  I just upgraded to a EVGA GeForce 8600GT this week, and I must say that I am impressed with the performance you can get out of a card you can get around $100.  I got mine for $110 and it had no problems running the Call of Duty 4 demo at 1280x1024 with 4x antialiasing turned on. 

In addition, you should also check out the Tom's Hardware article, best gaming graphics cards for the money in October.  With high-definition games like Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3, and Assassin's Creed coming out soon, and with graphics cards taking a price cut recently, it's a great time to upgrade.  The Extreme Tech guide does mention a new nVidia card rumored to come out around November that will be in the $200 range.  You may want to wait around to as close to Christmas as possible before finally deciding on a card if that's your price range.