Cruncheons 50th Episode Spectacle

[Eel O'Brian]

http://cruncheons.podbean.com/mf/web/c4fp8d/Cruncheons50.mp3

In celebration of our Golden Anniversary episode let us Pamper you, our cherished listeners, with tales of Apple iPads, Fall Windows 8.1 tablets, Next-Generation PC Hardware, Pokemons and other games, and an Indefensible from beyond.

[Eel O'Brian]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=703678

[Rufus]

Mh, yes, right into my ears. 

[pilonv1]

that opening

[Rufus]

Yeah, didn't see that one coming.

[Brehvolution]

[hampster]

Good episode but I would have subbed in Lt. Torolf for Pamperchu at the beginning. I need more of that time traveler

I'm with Kevin (I think ) on iOS. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss gaming on iOS when picking a tablet. I picked up an android tablet and gaming is lackluster in some respects. The selection is pretty good but I'm mostly thinking about the store (google play is terrible for browsing, no genres, really?) and the community is poor (just compare gaf's ios gaming thread with the android equivalent). Just some of the things I wish were there. Is it worth $150+ though, ehh probably not

[pilonv1]

Was hoping for Indefensible: iTunes

[border]

The Dell Venue 8 Pro looks pretty cool - thanks for bringing it to my attention. 

For $300 though I gotta imagine it will be a pretty janky experience, but we shall see.

[hampster]

The Dell Venue 8 Pro looks pretty cool - thanks for bringing it to my attention. 

For $300 though I gotta imagine it will be a pretty janky experience, but we shall see.

Thankfully Eel has poor impulse control and will have one (or an equivilant) soon enough to tell us about it

Hopefully it turns out better than his recent kindle adventure

[Van Cruncheon]

i ordered one, will review

[Brehvolution]

I kept forgetting to ask:

Frag, where did you find a 7950 3gb for $200?

[Eel O'Brian]

The Dell Venue 8 Pro looks pretty cool - thanks for bringing it to my attention. 

For $300 though I gotta imagine it will be a pretty janky experience, but we shall see.

Thankfully Eel has poor impulse control and will have one (or an equivilant) soon enough to tell us about it

Hopefully it turns out better than his recent kindle adventure

It did!

[Fragamemnon]

I kept forgetting to ask:

Frag, where did you find a 7950 3gb for $200?

It was on amazon, but it was actually $230, not $200. My bad.  Was a while ago though.

[Eel O'Brian]

Ugh, spoke too soon. Every time I wake this up it shows my Wifi as "limited," and I have to disconnect/reconnect.

[Brehvolution]

I kept forgetting to ask:

Frag, where did you find a 7950 3gb for $200?

It was on amazon, but it was actually $230, not $200. My bad.  Was a while ago though.

That's still quite a bit cheaper than newegg. Thanks for answering!

[Rufus]

If my PSU hadn't died I could have gotten an MSI Twin Frozr 7950 3GB for about 210€ a couple of months ago. They're sold out now and all that is left are dodgy looking brands for more than 210€ and non-boost versions from PowerColor for around 180€. I might just grab one of those... The benches don't seem too different between the boost and non-boost versions.

[border]

Any reviews or impressions on the Dell Venue Pro?

TigerDirect retail stores will have it for $229 on Black Friday, which is super-tempting. 

[Human Snorenado]

It's going to be revued (ha) in the next podcast, which should in theory be recorded and out before Thanksgiving.  All in theory.

Consensus seems to be: 6 boners out of 5, though

[Eel O'Brian]

It's awesome, much better performance than I expected. You'll want to tweak it out a bit and definitely use some sort of stylus or mouse on desktop programs, though, as that shit is micro.

[Brehvolution]

So a new Cruncheons by Wednesday?!

[hampster]

New consoles, Windows 8 tablets, the Wii U's comeback Mario 3D World... so much to cover. Should be a good episode

[Human Snorenado]

So a new Cruncheons by Wednesday?!

We use the Blizzard method.  When it's ready.

[Brehvolution]

So a new Cruncheons by Wednesday?!

We use the Blizzard method.  When it's ready.

 
According to the last episode, it's when eel has it ready.

[Eel O'Brian]

Should be up sometime next Tuesday if the Sunday recording goes as planned

[border]

It's awesome, much better performance than I expected. You'll want to tweak it out a bit and definitely use some sort of stylus or mouse on desktop programs, though, as that shit is micro.

What games can you reasonably play on it?  30fps+ only.

[Eel O'Brian]

Games I have tested:

Half-Life: Ran fine

Call of Juarez: Runs on DX10 with lower framerate, very slow loading of levels, levels loaded much faster and game ran better on DX9, very playable at around 30 fps

Spelunky: Ran fine

Eldritch: Ran fine

The binding of Isaac: some weird glitches when in the options at first, but once everything was set it ran fine

Aliens Vs Predator Classic: Ran fine

System Shock 2: gave an error about card not being supported, but reboot and ran okay

Alpha Prime: ran at 30ish with dips into teens at full quality, 40ish with some effects turned down or off

Serious Sam 2 - Framerate in the 20s at max settings, in the 40s-50s at medium with some settings turned low/off

Serious Sam Classic 1st encounter - framerate all over the place, from the 100s to the 40s

Call of Duty 2: can hit 30+ on low at 1280x800, but dips into the 20s. Steadier fps at 1024x768

[Eel O'Brian]

Here's what I wrote in the thread we have about it:

http://www.thebore.com/forum/index.php?topic=40934.0

Yeah, I agree with most of that. Screen auto-brightness is an odd complaint, as you can easily turn it off.  It really comes down to what you expect out of it, and what you're going to use it for. I sold my iPad Mini yesterday evening, as I didn't really have a use for it after I bought this, but it won't be a replacement for some folks.

I'll save extended talk for the next Cruncheons, but since that might be a while (after PS4 launch), I'll mention a couple of things here.

First of all, the desktop is tiny, so if you're going to be using desktop programs a lot without a KB/M you might want to get a stylus and save yourself quite a bit of frustration. I'm gonna order that $35 "active" stylus off Dell's website.

Secondly, curb your expectations for the gaming. Yeah, it runs some surprising stuff, but graphics-intensive games will make it run pretty hot. You're not going to be playing those for any length of time. Indie stuff and old PC games are fine, some make it get a bit warm but not uncomfortably so.

Battery life is pretty good, considering the size of this thing and that it's running a full desktop operating system. It's going to fluctuate moreso than an iPad or Android tablet, of course. From a 100% charge last night, it's at 58% right now with around 3 1/2 hours of active normal use (web browsing, downloading and installing updates and programs).

Also, remember to update your BIOS and drivers. The latest versions are on Dell's website.