Simple Gamer

Kingston SSDNow V100 128GB Impressions

Having been impressed with the performance increase in my work laptop, I decided to give my MacBook a much needed upgrade. I browsed around a fair bit and finally found the Kingston SSDNow V100 128GB drive at YoYo Tech. I did a fair bit of research to find something for a decent price which also had good specifications. There were a few 80GB drives that I considered, however the read and write speeds weren’t too fast on those. I didn’t really need 128GB, however more hard disk space never hurts and the specifications on this drive definitely justifies the purchase!

The main thing to note when looking at SSD’s are the read and write speeds. For this Kingston drive, they’re 250MB/s and 230MB/s respectively, a lot faster than drives of smaller capacities. That’s something worth bearing in mind when purchasing an SSD – if you want something cheap, then it may not actually be worth the purchase since the read and write speeds aren’t going to be that great. You might as well go for a slightly more expensive drive since you’ll be a lot more bang for your buck.

I first started looking at 80GB drives or similar, and most of these were in the price range of £120-130. The read and write speeds varied greatly – almost always the write speed was below 100MB/s. The Kingston drive that I purchased only cost £150ish, so you’re paying £20-30 for about 60GB more and much faster read and write speeds. Definitely worth putting that extra money in!

The process of switching drives is pretty pain free on Macs. I popped off the battery, screwed off the L-shaped panel which also hides the RAM, and slid out the SATA drive. I think removed the small enclosure and fitted the SSD drive in, slid it back in and closed up the MacBook. I had backed up my laptop on to an external drive using Time Machine before, so when I started up with the new SSD, I put the Mac OS X disc in where it gives a prompt to recover from a Time Machine backup. I selected that and had to wait an hour for everything to be recovered on to the new SSD.

There was about 60GB worth of stuff to recover, and once it was done, it rebooted my laptop with exactly the same configuration as I had before switching the drives. I didn’t have to change a single thing once it was finished, it felt like I hadn’t even changed drives at all since that’s how easy the transition was!

Now on to performance. Boot time on the old SATA drive was probably a couple of minutes. It would go past the Apple logo and load my wallpaper, only to take a bit of time loading the icons in the bar at the top. Now, everything is rapid, and it boots up in about 30 seconds. Applications respond much quicker, opening up and being ready to use in a matter of seconds (such as Chrome, Thunderbird, Adium, Twitter, iTunes, etc.) The performance increase is a huge jump from the old SATA drive!

If I had the cash, I’d definitely consider upgrading my Alienware M11x to SSD too, but I had too many games on there and would need a 250GB or thereabouts drive, which are not exactly cheap at the moment! However, for the MacBook it’s been an extremely worthwhile upgrade and much cheaper than purchasing a MacBook with SSD preinstalled, as the price goes through the roof for those.

Chrome breathes new life into my MacBook!

Safari has been my default browser on my MacBook for ages now. I’ve just never felt the need to change, however my MacBook is 4 years old this summer and with the constant updates to Safari, it’s far from being a lightweight browser. It was getting pretty slow so I decided to go for a change. I don’t consider Firefox to be lightweight, even though I use it as my primary browser on my Alienware M11x and my work laptop, so I decided to give Chrome an extended go.

I’ve used Chrome quite a bit before, and have always been pleased with its performance. I know it does a lot of caching, which is good and bad. Good for faster browsing on websites you visit regularly, bad for web developers who need to see changes on their website – they’re forced to constantly do hard refreshes as I’ve experienced tons of times.

One thing that gets on my nerves in both Firefox and Safari is how slow it is to move tabs around and rearrange them! Chrome seems to do this extremely smoothly with no problems at all. I don’t know why Firefox and Safari aren’t capable of doing it as smoothly as Chrome does. Another nice feature of Chrome is the main page with the Most Visited and Recently Closed pages on, I find this to be a great landing page and like the way it looks – clean.

Next step for my laptop, SSD drive and possibly a new battery! Stay tuned!

XCode 4 (£2.99 on Mac App Store)

I’ve been so used to programming in XCode 3, that XCode 4 seems like a huge jump. The installation is pretty lengthy, since rather than doing a normal upgrade, it does a fresh install. But once I had downloaded and installed it through the Mac App Store, I was in for a little surprise.

XCode 4 makes everything integrated within the IDE. Now, rather than opening up Interface Builder separately, it opens it all up within the XCode IDE. I much rather prefer this, and don’t know why they didn’t try to do this earlier. It makes working on iPhone applications a lot easier in my opinion. I didn’t enjoy having loads of windows open all over the place every time I had to make an interface change or link something from the interface to the code, it got messy very quickly. It’s good to see that Apple took note of it and just made the whole experience easier by integrating it all.

For those who haven’t used XCode but are planning to, there’s something to be aware of. Firstly, it costs £2.99, which is extremely cheap for a development software. However, if you are planning on definitely creating an app to release, then you can subscribe for $99 (per annum) for a proper Developer account with Apple, where you can download XCode 4 for free. The choice is yours – if you’re not planning on releasing an app soon and can’t justify the $99, £2.99 really isn’t too bad to fork out for a comprehensive development environment.

SSD Drives

I haven’t been drawn into the hype around SSD (Solid State Drive) drives, until I actually got to try one out. Over the last couple of days, my work laptop had its drive replaced with a brand spanking new SSD drive, and I’ve instantly noticed the difference. It did cause a few other issues, mainly recovering data from the previous hard drive when a caddy supposedly didn’t work, but once that was all sorted, I was noticing faster load times for pretty much everything. General response time has increased too, which is great.

With the experience of trying out an SSD at work, I’m not considering giving my 3 year old MacBook a much needed upgrade with an SSD of its own. Compared to my Alienware M11x, it’s considerably slow and normal applications such as my web browser and email client take a bit of time to load that I’m now growing out of with faster technologies.

I’m currently browsing around on Overclockers as they have some pretty well priced SSDs there, but I’ll continue to look around for a good price before diving in and getting one. I’ll have to transfer everything over, but recently I got a 2TB external drive which has a partition for Time Machine backups, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

Roccat Pyra Wired Mouse Impressions

I finally caved in and decided to purchase a new mouse. My old trusty Logitech VX Revolution wireless mouse for laptops has lasted me for 3 years, however it’s pretty much on it’s last legs now.

The wireless aspect of it is still really good, and works well, however the main left-click button has become faulty and way too sensitive. Clicking it once will often initiate a double-click, which can be extremely annoying when doing pretty much anything. I therefore decided that my next purchase must be a mouse and have been looking at quite a few.

I looked around quite a bit and finally found one that fitted my requirements. I wanted a pretty portable mouse, wired, nothing too fancy (certainly not one with too many buttons), and nice aesthetics. I took a bit of a gamble of going for the Roccat Pyra wired mouse, since I hadn’t actually tried it in person and just decided to order it from Amazon.

The Roccat Pyra mouse is really compact, I wasn’t expecting it to be so small at first. It’s a similar size to my previous Logitech VX Revolution wireless mouse. The Logitech had a bit more weight to it, however the Pyra doesn’t feel too light and flimsy. I’ve read that the wireless version of the same mouse feels a bit too weighted due to the battery, but I haven’t tried it myself.

I did try out two mice when I went to YoYo Tech last week. One was the Razer Abyssus, which I was really tempted to buy if only it had a couple of side buttons. The mouse literally just has left-click, right-click and the mousewheel, so very simplified. However, the weight felt really good and it definitely felt solid with a nice finish. The second mouse that I was looking at was the ThermalTake eSports mouse. This was a lot bigger than the Razer one, and did have a nice finish. I didn’t like the feel of the mousewheel however – I like having distinct clicks and not having the mousewheel be loose. This one certainly felt that way.

I therefore decided to look online a bit more. I had already seen the Roccat Pyra mouse, both wireless and wired, and just decided to go for it. It came in pretty nice packaging and was included with a quick start guide, driver mini-CD, and a carry pouch. Since my Alienware M11x doesn’t have a CD drive, I downloaded the software from Roccat’s website and installed it from there. The driver has a nice control panel to customise button behaviour and sensitivity, including toggling the DPI between 400, 800 and 1600. I left it on the default 800dpi, as it felt pretty good for me.

The Roccat Pyra uses a button called EasyShift. By keeping the button on your left thumb (side button) pressed down, it allows you to then click another button for extra functionality. This means you can program up to 6 additional button behaviours. At the moment, I haven’t played around with this, but I can see myself using different settings in different games. The control panel allows saving different profiles, so I can easily set up a profile for different games, e.g. one for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and maybe another for Team Fortress 2. It’s definitely useful and something I’ll give a go at a later date.

I haven’t got much else to say, except that I’m definitely happy with my purchase. Oh, the optical laser underneath emits a blue light, and along the top, there is a slight line gap which again, emits a pulsing blue light. The “Roccat” text is engraved on the right hand of the face of the mouse with a glossy finish, however this doesn’t get in the way of usage at all since usually my finger sits past that right on the button.

Summing up, if you’re a laptop gamer, then this is definitely a good purchase to go for. The mouse comes with a carry case to take around with you, is extremely portable and still delivers very good performance. Clicks are solid, mousewheel clicks are extremely solid, and the control panel is useful to configure button behaviour and set up profiles. At just over £30, it’s a very good deal.

SteelSeries Xai Laser Mouse Impressions

Gaming Zap have been very kind enough to send me a SteelSeries Xai Laser PC gaming mouse, with which I’ve been playing a ton of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 online! I’ll save the Battlefield talk for another time, however I really want to talk about the mouse. I’ve been using it thoroughly over the last couple of weeks, and have to say it’s a great mouse. Here are some official photos:

The mouse is of a good size to fit the average hand. The buttons aren’t distinct, but rather part of the top surface. In the past, I’ve experienced that this can lead to poor click feedback, however the buttons have good tactile response and have just the right depth. There are two buttons on both the left and right side of the mouse. In a browser, these are typically used for back and forward, but can be customised. There is also a responsive mouse wheel, which can be clicked, and another button just before the wheel. Again, these buttons are programmable.

On the underside of the mouse, there’s a small screen which can be used to customise the mouse with a variety of settings. These don’t usually bother me, however for a hardcore gamer, I’m sure these are important to configure. I haven’t seen a mouse before that has a screen on the bottom, and at first I didn’t even notice it! It’s a pretty nice feature to have though.

The wire of the mouse, rather than being of the usual plastic/rubber material, is fabric and very sturdy. I imagine this has been done for durability and to avoid it being cut or damaged easily. It does feel very nice, and definitely feels more rugged than most other wires from a mouse.

A unique feature of the SteelSeries Xai Laser mouse, due to its symmetrical design, is that it’s suitable for both right-handed and left-handed gamers. Quite a lot of gaming mice these days have quite funky designs and forget about the left-handed gamer, so it’s nice to see that this product keeps that in mind. Thanks to the two pairs of buttons on either side, functionality doesn’t change no matter what hand you use.

On the whole, the SteelSeries Xai Laser PC Gaming Mouse is a very solid mouse. It doesn’t do a massive amount, however it does enough in all departments and has a lot of nice touches to make it a justifiable purchase. It is fairly expensive for a gaming mouse at £60, however this will go the distance and thanks to its solid finish, it should certainly last quite a while.

LogMeIn Goodness

Remote access is certainly starting to play a bigger part in my computing world. The ease of being able to leave my laptop at home or at work, and then access it from even my iPhone is just amazing. I first used LogMeIn as a little test years ago when it was relatively new, and found it to stutter. It was pretty much pointless to use due to performance issues. I’m sure it was a combination of slow connection speeds back then combined with a not-so-great infrastructure that LogMeIn used.

I started using LogMeIn again a few months ago for work, to access my work laptop from home in the evenings when needed rather than carry the beast home. It’s certainly easier and probably more efficient, since building code is a lot quicker on the work local network rather than attempting to connect to the VPN.

With that, I thought let me try LogMeIn the other way – access my home laptop from work during my lunch break. That worked really well too, especially when I had to download and install large updates. I left my laptop downloading in the morning and checked it during lunch, installing the updates and completing the setup.

The final step was to try out the iPhone application. It’s expensive, £15 – the price of a lot of desktop applications these days. It does however work extremely well. I even tried it on a 3G connection, and I was amazed at how well it worked and rendered everything. You have the same options as LogMeIn through a browser. It sticks the mouse pointer right in the middle of the screen, and you drag the screen around. To click, you tap, to double click, you tap with two fingers. It may sound complex, but it works really well surprisingly.

New Xbox 360 Controller Impressions

I got my hands quite fortunately on one of the new Xbox 360 controllers, which feature the transforming D-pads, courtesy of Gaming Zap. I’m going to write a bit of a mini-review of it, and get straight into it. First off, here are some official photos from Gaming Zap as well as a few photos of mine:

First off, the new colour scheme works very well. It gives it a smooth sleek look and feel. It actually has a black panel along the top along with black trigger buttons on the shoulders. Compared to the white default Xbox 360 controller, this certainly looks more futuristic thanks to its colour scheme. The change of colours can also be seen on the face buttons, instead of using the red, green, blue and yellow, all we have here are different shades of grey. I think this is more suitable for this controller, the colours would most likely have looked out of place.

This particular controller package came with the play and charge kit, which lets the controller be charged while playing. I used my existing battery pack to play as I couldn’t really be bothered to charge, however I think Microsoft should try make all their wireless controller comes with a charger.

When I first picked up the controller, it had a much more solid build compared to my current wireless controller. The weight was quite nice and the smooth finish provided good grip. The analog sticks felt smaller, however upon closer inspection it turns out the engravings are actually smaller, which I wasn’t quite a fan of. It would have been better if they kept the surface area larger to use. All the other buttons function the same, except the D-pad, which has had a complete re-do.

The D-pad can now be twisted to allow for a more traditional styled D-pad, where it sticks out more. However, if you prefer the default 360 style D-pad, then that can also be used. I haven’t used it with many games, as most 360 games generally make use of just the analog sticks rather than the D-pad, however for people who play a lot of XBLA game, I’m sure this will be a pretty big feature.

Overall, the pad is very nice and the solid built and sleek finish make it very attractive. It’s definitely a premium controller and it’s good that it comes packed with the play and charge USB kit. It’s slightly pricey however at around £50, so I would be tempted to wait a bit until the price comes down. If you’re a hardcore gamer who needs an excellent quality controller, then this one would be for you.

You can find the new Silver Xbox Controller at Gaming Zap, who specialise in a range of gaming accessories including Xbox Headsets.