Just took delivery of my Champaign Transformer Prime delivered all the way from B&H in the states and I must say I am mightily impressed.  When I first got the box from the UPS courier, I couldn't believe how light it was - surely the contents were inside?

Ripping open the box revealed the tiny ASUS box and two bits of tube packing , all in good condition.

Once I Turned the Prime on and configured the Wireless network settings, it wanted to do a firmware update which took about 2 minutes and is probably the quickest booting Android device I have used.   The back of the Prime appears to be more Stainless steel at first glance, its only when it hits various light sources it gives off its subtle champaign gold tones - the camera picks up quite nicely as you can see in the pics below.  The transformer Prime is indeed a slick looking gadget.

On with the obligatory Geeky Unboxing Pics:

Transformer Prime Package has arrived!

Inside the Box

The Transformer Prime Box

Inside the Box 1

Inside the Box 2

Feature Sticker

Back Of the Champaign Transformer Prime

The Transformer Primes SD Card Slot.

Hello!

30% Charge level out of the box.

Firmware Update!

Finally, Play Time.

Transformer Wifi vs HTC Desire

Recently I just bought the Sony HX9V compact camera to replace my broken Samsung and I have to say, for a compact, this thing is incredible.  When searching for a replacement the one feature that seemed to set this camera apart was the HD video mode and believe me, the 1080p 60hz video from this Sony HX9V is mindblowing and probably the biggest differential in this price range.

The HQ9X Package

The bubblewrap

The HX9V Box

Opening the Box

The Sony HX9V Box Contents

The Sony HX9V!

I also grabbed a Patriot 32 gigabyte class 10 SD card from MSY for $44.  It handles the 1080p AVC video just fine.

A class 10 32 GB SD card from MSY

Now for a video sample from this camera, I edited the following in Sony Vegas 10  as a complete noob and the results came out surprisingly good.  Silvan is not the most exciting place in the world though it gives you a good idea what the Sony HX9V is capable of:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUCl-QlYui0

The following pictures were taken shortly after buying (more noob shots) most at auto or superior auto and some with background defocus:

With my current system struggling with The Witcher 2, I have decided to upgrade my PC with the latest and greatest Bang for Buck Gaming and media orientated hardware.  Here is what I have selected and some reasons for doing so:

Intel Core i7 2600K $319.00

I was deciding on this or the 2500k, probably won't make that much difference to be honest but at least the 2600k will have some decent longevity.  The 2500k and 2600k are currently the gamers CPU due to being able to easily hit overclocks of 4.9ghz on Air cooling.

ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Motherboard $199

To go the Extreme 4 or Extreme 3, that is the question. Further inspection revealed the Gen 3 doesn't gave USB3 pins on the mobo so I grabbed the gen 4.  It costs an extra $50 in Australia though its worth it to have the front mountable USB faceplate.

CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ CPU Cooler $33.00

Appears to be the best AIR bang for buck overclocking option in order to achieve those 4.5 - 5ghz speeds with the i2600k.

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ $69.00

Will be using my current hard drives with this as an added extra, may just use this for my Steam install. I was tempted to go SSD though other than windows starting up quicker I cant really see that much of a benefit. My current Steam games load in a timely manner – maybe in the future.  I have an existing Seagate Barracuda ST3320613AS which averages 120ms read for my OS install.

G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 $65.00

Most suggestions for a gaming config suggest buying the cheapest possible ram option at 1333mhz though I decided on the 1600mhz at $7 more, I could have also gone for lower latency for about $20 more but the performance advantages hardly seem worth it looking at available benchmarks.

Silverstone Strider Plus 750W ST75F-P $145.00

Gives me room for SLI in the future without overdoing it.

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit with SP1 OEM $105.00

A second copy will come in handy.

Silverstone Fortress FT02B with Window USB 3.0 $259.00

My Silverstone HTPC case was the deciding factor in purchasing a premium case design – yes it costs a premium but the build quality over the $100 over dollar cases is justification enough.  Hopefully unlike the last few dodgy cases I have, this will last me quite a few years of PC upgrading.

I am going to try see how my existing 9800gtx goes with this system in the meantime as I really want to hold out for one of the next gen video cards. If it is too much of a bottle neck I'll go and buy a 9950 at MSY or similar.

Future plans:

AMD Radeon 7000 series

Due out between now and the end of the year, Can I hold out that long with my ageing overclocked 98000gtx?

Samsung S27A950 $500

A 1080p 120hz 3D monitor, not sure about this though it is hugely popular - in fact it is sold out everywhere.  No nvidia 3D though it makes use of AMD's variant AMD HD3D.  Not too fussed about the 3D aspect though 120hz is definitely where it is at in regards to gaming.

As per usual, my current unused PC hardware will be integrated into my HTPC bringing it up to a gaming spec system. (once I remove the current overclocking profile)  Will post some unboxing pics when I get this delivered.

Here are my entries for the Overclockers Australia MSI contest.

The contest asks to see some MSI products amusingly or cleverly inserted into iconic or famous pictures, or famous places, historic moments, scenes from movies, etc with the following high res pics:

Z68A-GD80; http://media.msi.com/main.php?g2_itemId=64090
580 Lightning: http://media.msi.com/main.php?g2_itemId=62586
6970 Lightning; http://media.msi.com/main.php?g2_itemId=62532
Big Bang Marshal: http://media.msi.com/main.php?g2_itemId=59752

These are rough.

Behold the mighty MSI N580GTX Lightning

Introducing the New MSI Type R6970 Daleks

Choose Life, Choose MSI

I came top 5 which was a pleasant surprise!

Here are some pics of the prizes:

The MSI Chopper

The MSI Gamer Bag

Prepare for Take Off

Mog Hunting

How good is this game looking?  Deus Ex is probably my all time favourite game on any platform and it appears to be getting getting the sequel/Prequel it truly deserves:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=73GqUqRetxY

There was always a certain complexity with Deus Ex which has been lacking in recent years,  No! I am not going to mention Invisible War or the farce that was Dragon Age 2 but with gaming mechanics in general,  Developers seem to think the mainstream audience wants every game to be a pick up and play mind numbing borefest and will go out of their way making sure every subsequent game gets increasingly more streamlined.

If I want games like these I'll just watch a Blu-Ray!  I want the satisfaction of an in depth game, I want to be frustrated and then be rewarded for being awesome, I don't want the entire arsenal of the US army in my backpack at my every whim, I would much prefer stabbing some guy in the back with his dinner fork in order to hack his security system than be presented with a massive RPG in order to blast my way through a map.

Maybe its just me...

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Found this on Bethesda's official  Brink Forum and thought it was a worthwhile laugh.

Why Console gamers and pretend reviewers like Joystick and IGN don't get Brink!

Brink Console Walkthrough

I pre-ordered Portal 2 a month ago from the UK and it finally arrived last Friday.

Unfortunately due to PSN being brought to its knees by insecurity I am unable to use the supplied PC code and activate it.  I had really no intention of playing it on the PS3 other than to check out steam on it and maybe let my son play it with me.

I bet valve is none too happy about the issue because as of now:

• Steam is not working on the PS3.
• Possible Steam Account information leaked for those that activated before PSN went belly up.
• Valve previously praising the PS3 for being the definitive console version for 3 now having to eat their words.

Not much has been said (nothing really) about potential Steam account information being leaked but I guess now would be a good time to change your Steam password and to enable Steam Guard.

The Witcher 2 is the second instalment in the epic RPG saga about the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia.  Created by Polish developers CD Projekt, The Witcher 2 features a thoroughly engrossing, mature storyline defining new standards for thought-provoking, non-linear game narration.

These phenomenal looking Screenshots are from NeoGAF, The Official Witcher 2 website and gamekult.com

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