New PC up and running

After several years I finally replaced my PC.  Its been on the agenda for ages -- and the debate has been between it and a new iPad.  My iPad 1 is out of date, I can't get the new IOS on it, and after 3 years of recharges the battery can drop like a rock sometimes, making it need its power cord more and more.   My PC on the other hand was a general purpose HP quad core Vista machine.  Fast and good in its day , by now it shows its age.  The last TWO new games I bought for the PC worked only temporarily, and then at fairly low settings only.      And this wasn't something a new graphics card would fix.   I've long wanted to get a new gaming machine.   I settled on one with at least 8GB of memory, a GTX series card, and i7 processor.   There weren't many at the usual haunts to choose from with those criteria.   I could have ordered by mail, but being the holidays I didn't want to have to track it down after they leave it on my Condo doorstep.   They've left stuff before that way.    So I ended up with a MicroCenter PC, one they got from IBUYPOWERPC.   It looks like they changed some of the names around, but so far its got 16GB of memory.   I still need to get a Blue Ray drive in it for later, but so far that can wait.   It does have more than enough room for the expansion.

I tried Champions Online on it first and was startled at the change.   I cranked up all the settings to max and was able to get a good 70+ frames per second out in the city at large, and over 160 frames on any instanced mission.   That is lightyears beyond the old machine.   Further the GTX card made the fire effects on my Atomwave fire ranged character ,most impressive. (I know -- In COH he was an energy melee-- not much options unless I wanted to make him another tank).   On the old machine there was a muddled mess around you if an Arsonist thrown his Molatov at you.   NOT now.  It does make me wonder how City would have looked on it.

I've put several hours into Diablo III finally.  The original run was cut short when it decided it didn't like my graphics card.   I actually started a new Barbarian and am into the second Act with him.  I had tried every character type before but had gotten only one or two into double digit levels.  I suspect my frame rate is pretty good here.   I've had more problems with communications issues causing the game to lag, rubberband, or outright quit on my.   It really makes me wish they still allowed us to do offline play.

I've gotten DCUO & STO loaded on the machine but haven't tried them out again yet.

On the City front I've heard from the MMO group at Dragon*Con and we might be doing something soon.  And just today I got an email to the blog mentioning two things. 

• From the COHTITAN boards someone named CODEWALKER has figured a way to get the old COH installs to allow people to play with the old City character creator offline.   For some people -- this was half the game right there.   Check the thread-- there are instructions toward the end.   Here's hoping you haven't disposed of everything yet.
• One COH site I hadn't heard of is COHTUBE.   It seems to be a site dedicated to COH videos - I was pointed to the latest submission by Angelus Animi.  Another one of the many tribute videos I keep running across.  Take a peek