My Ridiculously Inexpensive Dedicated KICK*** Home Theater! - Page 23

Actually you could buy a Mac Pro which is a very high end and expandable system. So while I understand the points you are making, Apple does have a system for the other 5%.

I don't know either. I am simply saying it is a power system that appeals to the power user. I am sure that if Bioshock were available on the Mac (is it?)that you could get a video card capable of running it with all the options turned on. The Mac Pro has a LOT of horsepower.

Newest developments:

Leopard arrives next Friday, that is only a little less than 9 days away! I'll be attending the local launch party and installing it on my iMac immediately.

I have begun thinking about high definition DVD again and I am starting to formulate a plan to get on board with that. If only the PS3 were quiet, what an awesome device that is otherwise.

Stilll enjoying the HT immensely, latest movie viewed in there was Evil Aliens-1 star out of 5, not recommended. Next movie on the agenda is Transformers. I missed it in the theater so I am looking forward to that one alot.

Transformers was INCREDIBLE! It exceeded my expectations by a wide margin, I can only imagine how incredible it would be on an HD DVD format.

Cox cable began HD movies on demand here either yesterday or today because it wasn't there 2 days ago when I was channel surfing. Looking forward to giving t hat a try very shortly.

kfoster79: I have already purchased and returned a PS3 because the fan noise was unbearable. At first it is quiet but once a DVD is playing the fans ramp up to intolerable levels. If they could fix that I would be 1000% on board as I found the device to be brilliant otherwise.

Sound dropouts: I have not experienced any hiss on my setup at all.

Wow I wish I got a whisper quiet PS3. I absolutely loved that piece of hardware, I literally thought it was amazing. But I could not keep my focus off the fan it was just too distracting. Maybe recent PS3's have fixed this? I remember hearing something about them moving to a different chip process, maybe 45nm? Perhaps the heat output has decreased and therefore fan noise has as well?

I am ready to make the jump, I would really like to do it with a PS3. But have they addressed the fan noise issue at all?

How is HD DVD doing compared to Blu-ray? Is anyone winning the war? The price of the HD DVD players is very tempting. I could practically pay nothing for an HD DVD player if I eBay my Oppo 971.

Wow perspective indeed. I really want the PS3, that thing is absolutely awesome. If not for the fan noise!

I am totally a PS3 fanboy but I do have a few complaints:

1-I HATE glossy black gear-fingerprint magnet! You know a device attracts fingerprints if you end up fingerprinting it by the simple act of removing it from the box and setting it up. I literally handled mine with a soft cloth to avoid this when I had one.

2-Of course the fan noise.

3-Well that's really about it :-)

If the new PS3 is quieter during intensive use than I might be tempted to try one again. Can we confirm that the new PS3 and I assume we are talking about the 40GB model uses a new chip process? If the new one is 65nm what did the older models use? I thought the new chips were 45nm?

I read one report about a week ago that claimed the new one was no quieter. Is the 40GB new model available yet and if so has anyone tried it?

On the computer front: I installed Leopard on my 24" iMac and WOW is it elegant. Apple has really hit a homerun with this one. I ordered a bluetooth mouse to replace the Mighty mouse (finally). I cannot stand the mighty mouse. its right click functionality is ridiculously implemented. Since it only has one physical button you have to touch the side of the mouse that you want to theoretically click. In other words to left click you click the left side of the mouse with your left finger, ot right click your left finger must be totally lifted off the mouse surface and you click on the right side of the mouse with your right finger. I hated that, 80% of the time I ended up getting the wrong click or no click at all. My new Logitech V270 has 2 hardware mouse buttons and a third button if you press down the scroll wheel. What a pleasure! In addition to working great it is bluetooth so no wires or dongles are required which frees up another USB 2.0 port on my keyboard. As a bonus it is silver and matched my iMac nicely.

Well after some research it turns out that the new 40GB PS3 does use the 65nm chip which runs a lot cooler and uses a lot less electricity. Reports I read said that the noise level has been cut in half or more! Energy consumption was down by about 30% too so that should make for less heat output. I think I am going to pick one of these up tomorrow if I can find them in stock somewhere.