#43 DogHouse Podcast – “A New Podcast in an Old Republic”
by John on Jan.26, 2012, under Podcast
Just another day at the DogHouse Systems office...
We’ve got a new format to the show, starting with this episode! Plus Tech Corner, a SWTOR review, and much more!
Technical Corner
George is confused by the various Internet options available out there and wants to know the best Internet he can get for gaming.
Keith mentions a few options, but basically says that Bandwidth isn’t as important, Latency is the key. Below are the links he mentioned
PC Gaming
It’s time to review the newest entry to the MMO Market, Star Wars: The Old Republic! Read the review here!
We know most of our listeners already have the game already, so we’re going to give away a 60-day game card instead! To win, send us your most creative screenshot from within the game to contest@doghousenetwork.com with “SWTOR contest” in the subject line! Our winner will be announced on the next show!
Computer Tip Of The Week!
In our first new segment, we are happy to pass on a tip from Bryce M! Bryce M wins 2500 Jinx.com gold for sending this to us! If you send us a great tip and we read it on the show, you’ll win 2500 Jinx gold yourself, so send those tips in!
I have a little trick to get you possibly that little bit of extra RAM on those memory heavy games.
All you need to do is right click the short cut for said game, open properties and copy the “Target” line/box. It’ll be an .exe and needed to launch after step 2.
Next, do the age old CTRL ALT DEL and get your task manager. You are going to close explorer.exeunder the Processes tab. Doing so will free up about 300 megs of ram (especially in win7) and give you that little bit of extra memory to play with.
Last, you click File in the top left, New Task and the paste your “Target” that you copy/pasted. hit go and you’ll be all set.
Hope that helps some folks. It worked for me nicely until i was able to get a new rig.
Brandon also reiterates that Windows Security Essentials is an amazing thing and should be installed by everyone, right away.
What’s Up At Doghouse Systems?
We are happy to announce we are now shipping to the UK! Give us your suggestions on how we can make the experience better at sales@doghouse.com
Contests
We got some amazing contributions to our Skyrim “Arrow to the Knee” MS Paint contest! Take a look at them right here.
We had to pick a winner though, and the winner was John C’s amazing comic entry! Congratulations John!
Contact Information
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
#42 DogHouse Podcast – “Games! Games! Games!”
by John on Dec.27, 2011, under Podcast
Technical Corner
No questions this week, but that gives us more time to discuss Skyrim and initial thoughts on SWtOR!
PC Gaming
It’s time to review Skyrim! Read the full review right here!!
Wanna win a copy of this amazing Game Of The Year contender? All ya gotta do is fire up your MS Paint skills and show us your best drawing of an Arrow to the Knee!! Full details are here!
We also give our initial thoughts on the newly released (and up for our next review) Star Wars: The Old Republic! We’re running another contest here in honor of Brandon’s Wookiee impression! Email us an audio file of your best Wookiee impression to contest@doghousenetwork.com! Best one wins A $25 code at jinx.com!!
Contact Information
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
#41 DogHouse Podcast – “A Bad Case of the Void Storage”
by John on Dec.27, 2011, under Podcast
Christmas Builds are in full swing! If you want to have your system by Christmas, you MUST order by December 12th!!
Also, we are proud to announce that at the start of 2012, we will begin shipping to the UK!
Technical Corner
Joel A is wanting to know how to maximize his gaming framerates using Crossfire and multiple monitors. Listen to the show to hear Keith’s suggestions!
PC Gaming
We give our thoughts on WoW’s newest patch, Patch 4.3, as well as more thoughts on Skyrim! Also, why does the SWTOR beta not like Brandon??
Contact Information
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
#40 Doghouse Podcast – “How do ya like yer Warfare: Modern or Extra Crispy?”
by Brandon on Nov.17, 2011, under Podcast
We are proud to announce our partnership with the forthcoming “Game On!” and “Shut Up and Play” shows on the TwiT.TV network!
Plus keep an eye on the site for our Black Friday deals!
Technical Corner
Nate L is looking for help with backup solutions and what the best options are. Listen for Keith’s full recommendations! Below are the links mentioned during the segment
Episode 7 of the cast – Where Darrell recommends SyncToy!
Episode 8 of the cast – Darrell mentions setting up Task Scheduler to automate SyncToy
Plus the ever popular Acronis True Image Home!
PC Gaming
We’ve got two games we’re going to review, and the full reviews are up on the Doghouse Network site! Check em out below!
Modern Warfare 3
Mass Effect 2
Plus we have early thoughts on the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!
Contact Information
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
#39 Doghouse Podcast – “Pandaspandaspandas!”
by Brandon on Nov.02, 2011, under Podcast
We are proud to announce Clark Petri, longtime contributor to the podcast, will be joining us as the new permanent 4th cohost of the Doghouse Podcast!
We recap Blizzcon, all the amazing things we saw, the new expansion, and the great folks we met!
Also, don’t forget that DogHouse Systems, in partnership with Racehard.com, iRacing.com, and several others, will have a pair of our Racing Rigs at the Performance Racing Industry tradeshow on December 1-3!
Technical Corner
Jacob’s having a bit of trouble with a PC that won’t boot under some very strange circumstances. It seems that when he has 2 memory DIMMS plugged into his motherboard, the machine refuses to work, but with a single DIMM in either channel, it works just fine. Here are his specs that he provided.
MOBO: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO
Memory: 2x GSkill 4 GB (2 x 2GB Set) Desktop Memory F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK
PSU: Corsair 750 watt
CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz
Listen in to hear Keith’s recommended process for determining where the error lies! If you would like to read Jacob’s forum post that we took this question from, and maybe offer your own solution, click here!
PC Gaming
Our review of Dead Island! Head over here to read the full review!
We also had three contest winners! The winner of our Dirt 3 contest was Angelique Y, who is not only a girl gamer that loves racing titles, she also loves some Star Trek! Congrats Angelique!
For our Flash Drive contest, the winner was Miles C! He had a ton of awesome suggestions, here is his entry in full!
What should the perfect flash drive have?
First off, your flash drive should never have the only copy of anything. If you only have 1 copy of a file, it’s not safe.
Second, a handful of your favorite photos, family gathering or party where you wanted to tell that story or share that visual; you’ve got it.
Third, a password file, preferably in a password protected zip file or trucrypt volume, or at least named “temp.log”
Copy the “Mozilla Firefox” folder from your “Program Files”, it’s sometimes handy to have another web browser to test something on, or for use on another computer.
Having a bootable flash drive can help in a lot of troubleshooting situations, too numerous to name here.
A movie (or two) you’ve heard was good, but haven’t seen yet; or maybe old episodes of a podcast you discovered half way through it’s run. Why? Just in case you get into a “waiting room” scenario.
Those one or two programs that you find yourself installing on every computer.
Ideally. Everything I’ve mentioned should be able to fit into a small percentage of your flash drive, leaving you plenty of room to shuffle files around.
In addition to the 32gig flash drive I carry around for work, I also carry a 256 MB older flash drive, because every so often you need to physically give away a small electronic file, and it’s perfect for those situations; or if you need a blank flash drive for some troubleshooting thing, you certainly don’t want to have to wipe your 32gig drive!
Thanks Miles C! In addition, we had an honorable mention that was just too funny to pass up! Chet T chimed in with this gem!
What would I put on the perfect flash drive? Well, it’s probably to small to hold my coffee cup, without it tipping over. Although, I may be able to balance it on there if I were careful. I could put a iPad on it, to prop the iPad up for better viewing. Or, maybe even using it as a hat rack. If I got on it, it would most likely break. But, the very best thing to put on it would be…what…what do you mean not ON it…oh…well…in that case maybe just some pictures of cats.
Congrats to all of our winners!
Contact Information
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
#38 DogHouse Podcast – “Listen to Win!”
by Brandon on Oct.14, 2011, under Podcast
We’ve got a ton of news on this episode, and a lot of questions from fans! Also be sure to listen all the way to the very end of the show as we have 3 different giveaways in this episode!
First of all, we are sad to report that, due to needing to focus on personal issues, Jeff will no longer be able to be a part of the DogHouse Podcast. We want to thank Jeff for all of his contributions to the show and wish him the best of luck.
John will be at BlizzCon representing DogHouse Systems, and we’re very proud to announce that we have been able to sponsor Mark “Turpster” Turpin’s trip to BlizzCon! Turpster will be shooting some video with us, so if you’ll be at Blizzcon, find John and say hi!!
DogHouse Systems, in partnership with Racehard.com, iRacing.com, and several others, will have a pair of our Racing Rigs at the Performance Racing Industry tradeshow on December 1-3!
Finally, we are happy to announce that DogHouse Systems is now an official sponsor of professional Le Mans driver, Gunnar Jeannette!
Technical Corner
John R is having some performance issues, ranging from framerate slowdown to outright disconnects. He thinks the problem might be with his video cards, two HD5770 cards in crossfire, but he’s not sure. He’s wondering what the best option would be for an upgrade, since he’s on a budget of about $450. His specs are listed below
CPU: Intel Core i5 750, 2.66GHz
Motherboard: Intel BOXDP55WG LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX
RAM: G.Skull 8GB 4x2GB 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Video Card: 2 in CrossFire – XFX HD-577A-ZNDC Radeon HD 5770 XXX Edition 1 GB 129-bit DDR5 PCI Express
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit
Monitor: Acer P235Hbmid Black 23″ 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD
Boot Drive: Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW160G3K5 2.5” 160gb SATA II MLC SSD
2nd Hard Drive: WD20EADS 2TB 32MB Cache
Power Supply: Antec NeoPower 550 or 650(can’t remember)
Keith thinks this might be software related, and recommends first updating all your drivers, including the application profiles for the 2 video cards. If that doesn’t work, honestly, check to see if you have a virus! Make sure you only have one Anti-Virus system, and we recommend Windows Security Essentials, since it runs very nice and tight. If that doesn’t resolve it, do a full system backup using Acronis or Windows itself and do a full reinstall. Launch WoW with no addons, and slowly add them back in until you discover the problem one!
If all the software solutions check out, the next step is to check your video cards, and then your memory. Here are the links Keith mentioned in the show for helping out with this process:
Oscar H is also having some slowdown issues, but he’s not sure where the issue could lie. He posits three possible solutions
1. Having installed a ton of games, drivers, programs, etc, over the last year, he wonders if the PC might be too “full” of junk
2. Cataclysm’s increased graphics might be too much demand for his cards, especially in DX11
3. The stock Intel Cooler might not be doing the job it should be, especially after some experimental overclocking.
Here are Oscar’s system specs
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3-B3 Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5 750 @ 2.63 GHz (stock speed)
8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM
Nvidia GeForce GTX 470
Keith recommends that Oscar go through the same steps to uncover his problem location. Brandon also recommends a few software cleaning options, linked below
CCleaner: http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER
Startup Program Checklist: http://www.lafn.org/webconnect/mentor/startup/PENINDEX.HTM
Finally, Mark L just got a new Flash drive, and wants to know what we think the “perfect” flash drive should contain. We gave our ideas, but we want to hear yours! Send an email to contest@doghousenetwork.com with the subject “Flash Drive” and you could win one of 2 Kingstone 8GB Flash Drives if your response is the most creative!!
PC Gaming
John’s son Matthew and former guest cohost Clark have a co-review of Portal 2 Multiplayer!
We’re also modifying our Dirt 3 contest in light of upcoming events that will keep us busy! All you have to do is email contest@doghousenetwork.com with “Dirt 3″ in the subject line to be entered for a chance to win! Be sure you include your SteamID or the email associated with your Steam account in the subject line! We’ll announce the winner on the next show, so get your entries in!
Contact Information
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
#37 Doghouse Podcast – “Insert Engine Noises Here”
by Brandon on Sep.22, 2011, under Podcast
It’s another jam packed episode!
We’re proud to introduce the new Mobius VS “entry level” laptop!
John’s daughter Allison is a member of the 2011 DCI World Champions, The Cadets. They had two videographers travel with them over the summer and they put together an incredible video near the end of the season. Check it out!
Technical Corner
As promised from last week, Keith goes in depth on the topic of RAID! Thanks to Christian L for submitting an excellent question! Here are the links John and Keith mentioned during this segment
Wikipedia article on RAID
Link to Acronis Home Edition
PC Gaming
With Jeff unavailable, the three remaining cohosts give their reviews on DiRT 3! You can read their full reviews right here!
To win a copy of this great game, well, you’ll need to do something a little different. At some point we will be getting together along with some possible additional parties and compete in a series of 5 races. We will post the final list of the competitors on our Facebook fan page. Your task will be to guess who won! All the correct entries will be placed in a random drawing to determine the winner of our DiRT 3 giveaway! Good luck and watch the Facebook page for details!
Under the Hood
Under the Hood will return next episode!
Contact Information
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
#36 DogHouse Podcast – “Just the PAX, Ma’am”
by Brandon on Sep.05, 2011, under Podcast
It’s all about the experiences of the Doghouse crew at PAX today! We bring in Doghouse customer and longtime fan Clark to join us and rundown all the amazing things we saw! Skyrim, Star Wars: TOR, Logitech’s new peripherals and much much more are all discussed! Get the show to hear the scoop on PAX 2011, and you can also go to Clark’s website to see his write ups of PAX at ClarkandTovah.com!
Technical Corner
Christian sent in a really good question about RAID. In the interest of time, we’re going to delay going in depth on this topic until next show when we can go into the real depth the topic deserves. In the meantime, we invite our listeners to get a bit of a primer on the topic by reading the Wikipedia article on RAID
Finally we got a final followup from Trevor L! His solution to get his framerates up was to increase the GPU memory clock as well as the Shader clock. It did the trick and his frames have gone up 25-30%
PC Gaming
Nicholas K is the winner of our Portal 2 contest! His creative response as to the question of what he would do with a Portal gun earned him a free copy of the game!
Next week is our review of Dirt 3!
Under the Hood
Jeff takes the opportunity to talk all about overclocking your video card. Here are the links he referenced during the show.
Bit-Tech’s how-to on Overclocking your video card
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
#35 DogHouse Podcast – “Thinking With Excursion Funnels”
by Brandon on Aug.10, 2011, under Podcast
A Left/Right Brain review of Portal 2, a follow up from Trevor, and Overclocking in Under The Hood. Now you’re thinking with….Repulsion Gel. And Aerial Faith Plates. And Thermal Discouragement Beams. You get the idea.
Technical Corner
Trevor L sent us a followup about his system, including what he did to get the results he did. He ran a very taxing scenario in SC2 with the graphics cranked up to the extreme settings. You’ll want to listen to the show for Keith and Jeff’s suggestions, you may be able to maximize your own performance from their info.
PC Gaming
Jeff and Brandon review Portal 2! You can read their full reviews right here!
To win a copy of this awesome PC title, you’ll want to enter our contest! All you have to do is Send us an email with 2 things
1. “Portal 2″ must be in the subject line
2. In the body of the email, tell us what YOU would do if you had your very own working Portal gun! The most creative response will be read on the next show and win a copy of Portal 2 for the PC!
Under the Hood
Jeff talks about Overclocking, looking to clear up some of the misconceptions about it. Here are the links he mentioned during the show:
JohnnyGuru reference
GPU-Z reference
Furmark reference
Contact Information
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
#34 DogHouse Podcast – The Gang’s All Here
by Brandon on Jul.19, 2011, under Podcast
We announce our winner of the Dragon Age 2 contest, and spend the rest of the time talking tech! A meaty Tech Corner question and the return of Under the Hood!
Technical Corner
Trevor L wants to find the bottleneck in his system while playing Starcraft 2. Here’s the specs.
- AMD Phenom 955
- GTX 460 with 768 MB
- 1TB 7,200 rpm hard drive
Neither his CPU or GPU are running at capacity, but his FPS aren’t going up. He tried overclocking the processor, but that did not help. Keith and Jeff suggested a number of potential solutions, including updating the drivers for the video card, and using Task Manager and Performance Monitor (search for “Perfmon”) to further diagnose the problem by tracking memory, both of your GPU cores, Disk Queue Length, and Memory Pages. Jeff also suggests that the GPU memory may be at fault.
PC Gaming
Steven S is the winner of our Dragon Age 2 giveaway! Congrats to him, and thanks to all for participating! Portal 2 is up for review next show, so be ready for the giveaway!
Under the Hood
Jeff has a discussion about Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards. Here is the link he mentioned during the show: Notebookcheck.com’s list
Jeff also reminds listeners that when dealing with benchmark data, always cross-check everything. Never trust just one site as an authority.
Contact Information
We welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions! If you would like to submit a question for a future podcast you can leave a message for us at our NEW number, (214) 810-4347 . We are no longer under the 1 minute voicemail cap! Feel free to leave your message and we look forward to using it on the next show We can also be reached by email: podcast@doghousenetwork.com. And don’t forget, we’re giving away free PC games every Friday, and your only way to win is to follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!
And be sure you check out Eric van Skyhawk’s album, “Function”. Skyhawk is the composer of our theme song, as well as the themes for several other shows like Ladies of Leet. You can get it via iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.
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Welcome to the DogHouse Podcast
