You might remember I recently built a new PC to use as a media centre to hook up to the TV. You also might remember I thought I would try Ubuntu Linux instead of adding even more to Microsoft's balance sheet.
Well my company owner came into work to day with his home PC in a fluster because it no longer worked. He knows theres not much I cant do with comps so he brought it in so I could take a look at it. So to cut a long story short I quickly figured out it was just the graphics card that was fried rather than the whole computer so I took an hour out of work to go and get a replacement for him. I got him a 1 gig Nvidia 9500 GT for only £55 ( $88 ). Even better it came with an onboard HDMi socket to hook up to the TV which I know he fancied doing after I mentioned the PC to TV thing.
So I thought "f*ck it" and bought me one too lol. Im amazed with this graphics card actually. My TV would only run at 1024 x 768 using the DSub but with HDMi and this card it boosts up to 1920 x 1080. Thats 1080i and Im well pleased. My TV was quite expensive at the time if Im honest and I always knew it was "HD Ready" although the cabinet was never badged as such unlike so many models that proclaimed this in large letters. The manufacturer never hyped the HD thing and I never paid too much attention to the specs either as there was no HD hardware around to worry about anyway. It wasnt cheap at the time but as it is 3 years old I always presumed it would be 720p. Well I guess not. I need to check this out further as that resolution is also 1080i but that might be pushing my luck slightly. I need to find the TV manual and figure out just what this TV can actually do.
The thing is though. Although this computer may not be the latest state of the art gaming machine it is now crying out to be used as one because the specs seem wasted for a multimedia centre. Geeez I feel windows coming on despite the sour taste that leaves in my mouth. As much as I like Ubuntu you just cant play games on it and this computer is wasted to just be used to watch movies etc. Im taking a couple of weeks of at the end of next week so I will give it some serious thought. That 9500GT is begging to be used to its full potential lol. At £55 I couldnt go wrong. What a bargain that had to be.
You see the thought of giving Flight Simulator a whirl on a big screen at 1920 x 1080 seems to good an opportunity to miss.
