RETURN OF THE MACK

Welcome to Business as Usual, my weekly dose of gold reports, wow news, etc…

DEALS! DEALS! DEALS!

Recently when shopping at a local Wal Mart, I found something interesting – Star Craft II: Collector’s Edition. Now, these aren’t exactly rare on eBay, but they typically go for something like $150. But Wall Mart decided to dump these on the shelves at a $20 under the retail price. It was the kind of deal I just couldn’t pass up, I wanted to try the game out for a while and since I was building a new computer it seemed like the right time to shelve a copy for the new machine.

Of course, I wouldn’t be much of a Goblin if I didn’t make money off of buying a new game. I bought two copies and eBayed the other, I ended up pocketting $20 after all of the associated expenses…

INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH

On the subject of the new computer, I received most of the parts a week ago. Unfortunately things have been ridiculous here, so I just haven’t had a chance to get the thing running. But today, I’ve got some time off of work so I’m going to see if I can get the wiring buttoned up and install Windows.

The computer itself has as one friend said “a very busy front bezel”, I’ve used a Lamptron FC6 Fan Controller, which so far I love. It has 4 dials for controlling fans, and an LCD panel that gives you fan speed as well as temperature at each fan. Additionally, I’ve added a panel with hot swap bays for SSDs, the panel also acts as a card reader and gives me a couple of extra USB connectors. Then of course there’s the Blue Ray burner and another bay with a pair of LCDs for tracking temps on both my video card and processor. The result is 19 wires running from the front bezel alone!

I’ve gone with a few mild mods, I added some nickel plated, spring loaded handles to the top of the case. They’re cheap, they look good, and it makes moving a heavy case around a lot easier. I also added a couple of extra 120mm fans to the top, originally these were for a water cooler – however after getting a look at the major hardware (namely the video card) I decided on a smaller radiator placed at the back.

■ Case: Lian Li V1200B
■ Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ Gaming Motherboard
■ Processor: AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ Eight-Core Processor
■ Video Card: ASUS Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5
■ Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
■ Power Supply: CORSAIR Professional Series Gold 750W Modular Power Supply
■ Internal Storage: Corsair Force Series GT 60GB SATA III Internal SSD (x2)
■ External Storage: Seagate 2TB External Drive
■ Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series H80 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
■ Fans: COOLER MASTER SickleFlow 120 R4 120mm Silent operation Red LED case fan (x5)

I’ll have more details and pics of the beast next week…

DEVASTATION NEWS

Before I go balls deep in catching up with Khaas and what I’ve been doing in WoW personally, I’d like to take a moment to recognize an old friend of mine: Cybercrack. Cyber is one of a handful of members that has been with us since Wrath, a solid raider that keeps his nose clean when it comes to drama. And above all, loyal to a fault. So, it should come as no surprise that he was awarded the guild’s first caster legendary. It took a little longer than we expected, because frankly we had problems. But this week Cyber completed the quest for Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest, grats Cyber!

On a related note, grats Nephora on being awarded the guild’s first Rogue legendary, now make it happen, I expect to see Batman wings ASAP!

KHAAS NEWS

I made my return to raiding this week, I’m building up our alt raid force and I have to say the guys did well. Right now, the group is raiding only on Weds, while the main raid force raids Tues and Thurs (6-10) for both. We’re on the hunt for more healers and DPS so if you’re interested give us a look (link on the right of the page). Loot was a little sad unfortunately, all of the wrong tier pieces and no tanking plate. I left with a set of DPS boots for my offspec.

I CAN HAS ACHIEVEMENTS

Jeez, it has been a long time since I posted regularly. It’s a mixed bag here this week, some of these achievements are recently added achievements (MiniZep and Red Rider for example) that I had completed a long time ago, and only recently got credit for when the achievements were added. Then there’s the ones I’ve actually completed recently (Siege, Anniversary, and Menagerie). The holiday ones, well… like I said, it’s been a while.

■ Siege of Wyrmrest Temple
■ Red Rider Air Rifle
■ MiniZep Controller
■ WoW’s 7th Anniversary
■ Menagerie
■ Collector’s Edition: Mini Thor
■ A Mask for All Occasions
■ Tricks and Treats of the Cataclysm
■ Tricks and Treats of Northrend

LOOT

Not much to report here, but I have got some fun fluff items.

■ 6x Illusionary Bag
■ Cat Carrier (Black Tabby Cat)
■ Brilliant Kaliri
■ Disgusting Oozeling
■ Captured Firefly
■ Guardian Cub
■ Lil’ Tarecgosa
■ Mini Thor
■ Pandaren Monk
■ Lil’ Phylactery
■ Lil’ Ragnaros
■ Lil’ XT
■ Epic Purple Shirt
■ Celestial Steed
■ Tyrael’s Charger
■ Winged Guardian

THE MONEY SHOT

Much like last week, my focus has been on the holy trinity. I have been doing tailoring too, but I’ve been keeping the profits from that in the SRS Business guild bank. Which will be funding for posting auctions (when I collect profits for the week) and for any alts that I’m leveling on other accounts. As you can see, Gems are still selling like crazy with Inscriptions following closely behind. I’ve been trading decks as well (repping up my Warlock, Madof in the process) which has been a nice bit of supplemental income even after the release of Dragon Soul.

■ 17,409g – Enchanting
■ 45,966g – Inscriptions
■ 74,697g – Jewelcrafting
138,072g – Weekly Total

Thanks for reading, see you next time…