Of course, it’s only 80GB vs 500GB for the Seagate.

That being said, after I cleared off my HDD, did some creative backing up, moved all my media files over to the HDD, I still have 24GB free. This is with all my apps installed, Windows 7 64-bit, and enough games to keep me occupied for a long time.

The most impressive thing about this is speed. With the specs that my computer has, I don’t think there’s any other upgrade I could have purchased that would have given me such a noticeable increase in speed. I already have a quad-core 3.1ghz processor and 4GB of RAM, but I suppose I could have bought a new processor. The price would have been huge as it would have necessitated new RAM, a new motherboard, etc. And I don’t think it would have made the whole OS as snappy as the SSD has.

To give you an idea of how snappy, from off to my Win7 desktop, it takes 21 seconds. 9 of that was staring at my POST. So we’re talking a 12 second boot. That is crazy-fast.  Everything else has sped up as well; all my apps start in record time, compared to previously. Open Office starts in less than a second, without running the ‘speed start’ program at boot.

What a fantastic tech. Here’s hoping the price will come down enough and the sizes will enlarge enough for them to go mainstream.

For those inclined to care, here’s a quick benchmark in AS SSD. This was done in IDE drive mode as I installed Win7 without switching this over the AHCI and I got a pretty BSOD when I tried to switch it afterwards.

Why, yes please!

Since we’re all geeks here, you know that more RAM is always better. If you want to get your husband a wonderful father’s day gift, a hermetically sealed plastic helping o’RAM is always going to make his heart leap with joy.

Thank God Seagate understands this. I’ve not had a Seagate drive in many moons, but it does appear that one two are in my future. They announced this drive last week or so, with much fanfare. It appears, that for once, a new hard drive deserves it, completely shocking the entire tech community. These days, the only time techies getting excited seems to be when a new Call of Duty get gets announced. Who woulda thunkit?

So, what’s so special about this new yet old-fashioned spinning platter of love? Well, Seagate up and stapled a buncha RAM to it. 4Giggybytes, to be exact. And that seems to be the crucial icing on the cake as far as making it be oh-so-much more than just a reg’lar old hard drive. It apparently makes it awesome.

There’s many reviews out on the web, but to get a true sense of how awesome this drive has the potential to be, check out the Overclocker’s Club review where they have plenty of colored graphs showing why you should buy two of these right now and install them in RAID 0.

That’s why I’m so excited about em – by doing that, you get a 1TB drive that’s all but indistinguishable speed-wise from a miserly 128GB SSD. Oh, and you get it for $300.

I wish I were a dorky 18 year old so I could be as f’awesome as Scott Pilgrim. Oh, waitasecond… I think I was.

The mad scientists at Samsung have come up with something cool. No, not a time machine, though that would be super-cool. It’s an LCD monitor that’s powered by USB. Yes, I know it’s been done, but I’m not talking about one that’s the size of your dad’s first TV. I’m talking about one that’s nearly of drooling size. Drooling size being anything over 22 inches. This one below is 19 inches, which is nothing to sneeze at. Here’s hoping it’ll sell like hotcakes so that every manufacturer will have to do it.

Then we’ll see ‘em in 22+ inches. Drool.

Another pic can be found over at Tech-on! (exclamation point theirs)

Hegemony: Philip of Macedon.  Okay, so the title could use some work. Too late for that, I guess. But hey, the game plays great! That’s something, at least. I tried the demo and thought it was a really cool mix of empire building, RTS, and board gaming. I liked it enough to recommend it to my dad, who really enjoys his historical wargames.

And not just him! I recommend it to you, too. You can find the demo at the above-linked site, or just go ahead and buy it half-off this weekend over here on Impulse.

And if I haven’t yet convinced you of it’s pure awesomeness, here’s a video and a review on James Allen’s excellent Out of Eight Reviews. See, I did all the work for you… all you have to do is pony up fifteen smackers. And that fifteen bumps back up to it’s normal thirty smackers at midnight on Sunday.

From the featureset below, it sounds pretty cool. I might have to sign up for a month again or just do a trial to check it out.

Griffins in Butcherblock await to transport travelers eager to explore the lands of New Halas. Dangers and rewards await those who are willing to step into the icy unknown of Halas.

• New premium designed content from level 1-20. A unique starting zone unlike anything available in EQII. Ideal for both new players and alt-characters.
• Progress through Norrath in a whole new way through the Storyteller UI Guide. A visual adventure journal that displays your exploration.
• New and improved character progression featuring new creatures and quests experienced through the Golden Path.

Get your fix over here at the EQ2 Halas Reborn site.

Yeah, but it looks like Crimson Skies, no? I played the heck outta that game on my 360 and loved it, in spite of the stretched 4:3 ratio.  This looks like more of the same except it’s not mission-based.. hardcore deathmatch dogfightin’ only.

S’okay by me. More bi/triplanes in games is always a good thing.

You can’t get it yet – it’ll apparently be on Steam on June 14th for a lowly, measly $10.  Check out the official site here.

More flying type Indie goodness, also on Steam after the jump.

Altitude

K, this one is decidedly more old-school, but if you like the idea of a 2D arcade shooter for your tenner, this one’s for you.

Guns of Icarus

Yeah, I know, it’s a 3rd person shooter. But it’s just so steampunkish I had to include it. There’s planes in it. Really. It’s also only $10. How could you go wrong?

Man, this chicken makes me laugh.