AMLinington

The most we've done here is share funny news stories. Apparently according to the Student Rag we're re-introducing 8am lectures... Lame.

3 words are all that are required here: 'Best. Courier. Ever' Seriously, I love DPD. Half the reason I still fork out for Amazon prime is how frequently they use DPD to deliver my stuff.

I turned off the Qslide menu bar and TBH don't really notice any lag as such. Best bet is to find someone who has one and have a play.

Well. Out the box the interface has a bunch of junk but this is all removable and you can customise the interface to your little hearts content. There are very few 'mandatory' apps (you know, the ones you never use but which are included because of various deals with people) and Lollipop has tidied up a bunch of stuff so all in all it's really nice. When you say 'weighed down' what sorts of things are you specifically looking to avoid?

I think it's a great use of resource to include postal workers in the 'look out' teams as few other professions are in the position to be out and about with the general public and walking down lesser-used residential streets, although I think there are other professions that are ideally placed to be on the lookout too: Bus Drivers, Rail employees and Taxi drivers to name a few.

I recently purchased an LG G3 on GiffGaff and am loving every second of it.

I've registered with One.com for my own domain which I'm currently using for my wedding website. I'm quite pleased with it.

Still playing. On Azjol-Nerub. LOVING WoD and really enjoying the Garrison stuff. It really adds variety to gameplay choices.

This ^ To me, if a company has so little attention to detail that they send out MARKETING literature that hasn't been properly proof read then it's not a company I want to deal with. They clearly don't care about their image. As an aside, it saddens me that standards of education are so poor that I see applicants for jobs who can't tell the difference between your and you're. I know a Midwife who was trained the old school way from SRN and SCN etc etc blah blah and she was telling me about the mistakes in spelling, grammar and MATHS that entry-level midwives make. It horrified me. These are HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS. I'm not sure I can trust them not to kill me with an inappropriate dose of medication.

Yes but this is the same town that boasts a holiday destination called 'Sandy Balls'...

In our house I plan to set up a separate SSID for the kids. I may even go so far as to set up a filtered subnet (although double NAT-ing is nasty so I may just use netmasking). Once their chores/homework/responsibilities are taken care of they will get that days WiFi password. To encourage collaborative working and preventing complaints about unfair work distribution (assuming I have more than one child) the WiFi password will only be distributed when all children have done their chores. That way they're encouraged to help each other out to benefit themselves.

If you have a 'Bradbeers' near you I heartily recommend them

If these are primary school age children, I think some of the ideas here are a little advanced. The Lego avatar is a good idea. When I did my PGCE one of my mentors and I disagreed REALLY strongly about pedagogy but she had a philosophy about doing a practical EVERY SINGLE LESSON. I disagreed with her in many instances but I can't deny that the pupils were engaged. I remember in primary school back in the olden days of BBC Micros and early lego programs and I loved playing with things. Lego Technics used to be a thing, perhaps it still is. Every January a bunch of new make-your-own-something magazines come out and one of them is a 3D printer. Ultimately when you calculate how much it will cost it'll be something like £900 which is INSANE money, but what about getting the kids building a 3D printer to print models and toys? There are plenty of open source projects for the software and I'm sure you can raid popular gaming install directories for model archives (I have a program that extracts World of Warcraft character and item files and turns them into paper models). As an extracurricular club, you want to engage the kids and get them having fun - toys all the way. Borrow a games console and have them play games - it's a good learning opportunity to discuss online safety. Get them understanding graphics processing etc.

It's about 15 years old and it's been periodically dying over the 3 years we've lived in the house but each time we've managed to revive it and it's lived on for another year. We thought we might get lucky with the mild winter but since the weather has turned cold and demand on it has increased, it's been sounding more dodgy as the week goes on lol

I've been looking at all the recommended items and really appreciate all the advice and opinions. Might have to put the full rebuild on hold for the time being and just buy a cheap gfx card for 'ol limpy as our boiler might explode soon (it sounds very sick). We shall see. I looked at the machine @abillybob recommended and would have gone for it if it had a low end G9 instead of a G7.

It's getting worse - got a bunch of critical errors last night that traced back to the Graphics 3d engine. I reinstalled my graphics drivers and made sure they were up to date - no dice. :-( Looks like it is gfx.

As the host of the party I, too, would be pretty peeved if 10 children replied in the affirmative, I paid £150 or whatever it was for the cost of the 10 children, then one didn't turn up. However issuing an invoice is the sort of thing you see in those 'Overheard in Waitrose' posts: "Jemima didn't turn up to little Tarquin's party on Saturday, I've invoiced her parents for the cost of the caviar and lobster tail I wasted." I think @truebluesteve hits the nail on the head. Before going to court, though, the plaintive will need to complete pre-action protocols - they can't just summon someone to court. I really think this is going to backfire on her badly and by reflection, her son - who will no longer be invited or included for fear of her litigious nature - heaven forbid little Tarquin should fall over and skin his knee whilst at another childs birthday party. Will she require proof of liability insurance? Will she sue for negligence? Not worth the hassle IMO. If the party was a 'pay on arrival' then in most cases the venue would only require a deposit, not full payment, surely? Either way I hope the judge tears her a new one for being so spiteful and petty.

I thought it might be an addon issue but it's not FPS dropping, the whole PC literally freezes up - the whole thing just goes non-responsive. I can get back to desktop and kill the process so I know the computer itself isn't crashing, it's just the game. Which leads me to believe it's either the GPU or RAM that's dying - both would demonstrate those symptoms under stress. I'm thinking it could be GPU because when it recovers, the graphics often have to totally reload and it usually happens when I transition to a new area, hearthstone, phase or zone into an instance. In theory, I could pop some of the budget on a low end R9 270 (because HELLO the benchmarks), but it would literally be like putting a diamond necklace on a tramp.

Thinking about it, I need to check what my processor is as I might be able to transplant this, too, giving me more in the budget for RAM and GPU - I'll have to have a look. Edit: I'm pretty sure it's a Core2 Quad. It could be a Duo but I'm pretty sure it's a Quad.

That is basically it tbh. I also do some remote desktop work from home but that's not exactly graphics intensive. I play Diablo and Hearthstone too, and have been known to enjoy some Tomb Raider from time to time. With an XBox360 and an XBoxONE in the house, along with a 3DS and a Wii I don't lack for gaming equipment lol. I will take a look at all the suggestions, thanks all - @abillybob I like the suggested box, I'll take a look. @sonofsanta I will put some bits in a basket and see if I can jiggle the values around - ty.

I know. Honestly if I can get a GFX card that is somewhere in the 'Medium' list I'll be happy. I know my budget is limiting but I have PSU and more HDDs than you can shake a stick at, so really I'm just looking CPU, RAM, MoBo and GFX. If I look around the £75 mark for GFX I won't be getting top notch but it really doesn't have to be. I'm not a 'hardcore pro' gamer at all. I just like to potter about. I already have all the software I need - I own a copy of Win7 which is more than sufficient. Considering the MoBo is about 10 years old and spent a few years under someones bed (OUT of the anti-static bag), I have 4GB of RAM and to buy more is stupidly expensive for the age, and if the GFX card is gonna pop there is nothing I can do about that, it seemed that rather than throw good money after bad I'd be better off replacing with modest components - I'm not looking to build a bad-ass gaming rig, just something to 'get me by'. I plan to move the older bits that still work into a smaller case and use it as a server. I'll probably put Zentyal on it. Habit? I don't have a habit! I can stop any time I like! See? See? I'm not on it NOW! *Checks Mobile AH app*

LOL no. Sadly I've done that, too.

Well, almost. So, backstory: My home PC is a bit of a Frankensteins monster. I was given an Intel Quad core and some RAM by a friend, bought a posh Gigabit Mobo and a faulty power management module wiped out one of my sticks of high performance RAM. End result? Borrowed a mobo that had been under a friends bed covered in dust, installed everything, worked fine. Bought a new graphics card a while later (Radon 4770 I believe), installed it, all fine. Computer has been working beautifully for about 5 years (albeit with half the intended RAM) but is showing it's poor Frankenstein-like age and is now limping along like something out of the Naxxramas Plague wing. Over the last week or so I've noticed that performance in WoW is really bad but over the weekend things went from bad to worse - the game is unplayable - I try to move or cast and the whole thing freezes up for 10 minutes. I tried to log out the other night and the game froze. I went to dinner, watched some TV, faffed about for a bit, came back 2 hours later and it was STILL IN THE SAME PLACE. Bottom line? 1 of 3 of the Frankenstein bits is going - RAM, Graphics or the HDD the game is installed on. Graphics drivers are up to date and the HDD isn't making any scary noises so my money is on the already slightly fragile and overworked RAM. Given the backstory above and the age of the components, I don't think it's worth troubleshooting/fixing. I have been meaning to buy some new bits for a while but house stuff got in the way. So now I have a legit reason to build a shiny new PC and am looking for recommendations. I am a bit out of the loop on the 'latest and greatest' but basically I am looking for the whole kit and caboodle. I'm looking for a Mobo/Processor/Ram bundle, a new GFX card, a QUIET case. A Wireless card isn't essential (nor is onboard wireless) as I have my gaming PC wired to an access point. Onboard sound preferred. I have an adequate Power Supply - I think I have a 700W jobbie and more than enough hard drives - I have somewhere in the region of 4 stacked up in there. So really it's just the Gut bundle and the GFX card. I'd like a Radeon as I think value-for-money is good but I've had nVidia before and like them too so I'm not a purest - I'm open to suggestions. Basically I'm looking for the best benchmarked for the money (without overclocking, or pre-clocked - I don't want to have to do it myself). I'm not keen on second hand - been burned one too many times so I'm not interested in buying anyone's old kit or post-crypto-currency-frenzy cast offs. My budget is £200 give or take £50 as reasonable. Like I say - I'm not after top performance. I just want to get the best I can for the money I can afford. So over to you, guys, any recommendations? Bundles you've seen advertised?

LOL As a veteran of the Grandvalira I, too, can attest to the whole herds of tiny children zooming fearlessly down the piste. Kids have a lot less distance to fall so they tend to be a bit kamikaze about the whole thing. Seriously, ski-ing cautiously down a challenging Red run it's embarrassing to be overtaken by a a ski instructor with a bunch of kids zooming along behind her like little brightly coloured ducklings.

I swear Argos STILL has the largest selection of clocks. It's hard to get a decent selection of alarm clocks anywhere else. lol