After 4 years i finally upgraded my monitor, and with it i went ahead and nerded out on a new video card. So the following are for sale (basing prices on used value median off of ebay):

Samsung 2233rz 120hz 22 inch monitor - perfect working condition, i am only owner. Screen is flawless. The left nut of the DVI port won't screw in..i believe it's stripped and has been like that for as long as i can remember...however it in no way affects the monitor since the cable stays snug on it. Power cord and dual dvi cord included. $100 + cost of shipping (most likely $15-$20 bucks)

EVGA Geforce 680 GTX - perfect working condition. I am the only owner and was purchased in April 2012. I'll include original box and whatever contents are still inside. $265 + cost of shipping (most likely $10-$15).

If you're interested in either let me know, if someone wants them both i'll knock an additional $15 off.

EDIT: Both have sold, thanks!

For closed back, Sennheiser HD 380 ($200) or Shure SRH940 ($300) are both great bang for the buck, and they fit your price range. Don't need an amp for either of those to get awesome sound.

If you are looking for open back headset..for $400 you can get Sennheiser HD600's, but you'll need an amp as well unless you have an ASUS Xonar card with the built in amp. Good open headsets after this get considerably pricey (Audeze, Gradio, and the top end Hi-Fi and Senneheiser's).

I worked several years in a studio as a side job in my early 20's and got to test a lot of cool audiophile gear out. From personal experience, closed back are the overall better choice if your primary use is going to be games. No sound leak, good isolation, and you still get great overall sound. Open back are more for a natural music experience, large sound stage, and more accurate instrument separation.

My 2233rz is still going strong...love this monitor, had it since it's release in 09 and it's a beast. If you don't absolutely need 1080p or higher, and just want a solid 120hz monitor, it's well worth the money.

Looking for a team to backup on - was on an IM team backing up (We Love Anime), but team died due to people getting tired of TF2, so here i am. Can play scout or soldier - will be more than happy to spec scrims and help with strats and improvements. Prefer to be on another IM team if possible.

Video Game Resume below

http://static.dyp.im/jZtqvVOrzf/3fd3d7818faa120aecee94b1782a4da0.JPG

Literally the truest statement in this thread. People get way too caught up in stats...stats are useful, but don't always tell the true tale. A lot of times people get called out for low stats only when a team loses, but not if they win. Low dmg / frags doesn't mean you had a bad game. I'd rather be the low dpm roamer who makes the smart plays on the winning team, then the high dpm roamer who looks to pad stats on the losing team. There are very few elite roamers who consistently have high dpm while playing to win...don't compare yourself to them. Play the best style that works for you. If you feel you have faults, or if your playstle (more than stats) are causing yourself not to be effective, watch your demos and see what you can improve on.

Competitively:

All of the great friends I've made. Playing with a group of people you enjoy talking with and understands your play-style can make a world of difference. That's the main reason i still play in leagues from time to time. There is still a satisfaction winning a game with a group of people that really feel like a team. Also i'm old, but i still love to have a competitive drive - since i don't play sports anymore, i can channel that through games whenever i want. For me, TF2 has been more satisfying in that aspect than any other recent game I've played over the past 7 years.

For Funsies:

Seriously, 32 man instant respawn pubs will never get old to me. I will do this until the game dies. It's just fun...the chaos and constant targets just make for a good time. Plus playing engineer is the best thing ever.

I had a BMW X3 and it was awful. The only good thing was it was still under warranty, though service on a BMW still sucks ass. If you're out of warranty you better be loaded or willing to drive it off a cliff. If something goes wrong with the computer say goodbye to your wallet...even with the warranty, labor costs on a BMW will rape you. There was nothing at all impressive about it...in fact it drove worse than my old ass Saturn VUE i used to own 10 years ago.

I have a Lexus IS250 now and love it. I test drove a ton of cars in the same class (both luxury and standard), and the only car that i feel was as good was a higher end Subaru impreza. Oddly enough, the impreza cost more than the used fully loaded AWD 2011 IS250 i bought...even after i extended the warranty. To me this purchase was justified since i actually did my research, and it met everything i was looking for. It wasn't just to have a luxury car.

Honestly if my Saturn VUE had literally not been falling apart i would still be driving that. Best advice is test drive and find what fits your needs. While luxury cars are nice on the eyes, don't buy something just for show or because you think it's cool. I could kick my own ass for buying that X3 because i bought it for all the wrong reasons, and it ended up backfiring horribly.

Why would you even question installing TFC?!?! Just do it - it's still fun as hell even in 4v4 format. Or just go to drippy's 2fort server (or whatever it's called) and pop some heads.

No leagues that i know of, but Wheaties and his crew still run an active 4v4 pickup...they play all the time. It's essentially the same group of 20 or so guys with some old schoolers now and then. I jumped in a few times for the nostalgia factor and it's still fun as hell. The active US competitive community died around '05, which is when most of the major teams quit. ae came back briefly to challenge us (TDA), and we had some incredible matches. Other than each other, there was no real competition. A lot of us, at that time, were just graduating from college and were getting into jobs etc. There was still a short time after that for competitive leagues, but that was the end of the big team era.

Hit wheaties up on steam though, he'll get you the server/irc info so you can join in.

That new sniper rifle is completely useless, but that sound brings back...so many feels.

Still hoping one day for the TFC "Hunted" game mode to come into TF2. For now, bread.

The older Asus G53 series would be a good fit. You would have to buy used at this point, but you can get them on ebay for around 600-700. i7 processors, 6GB memory, 15' screen (there is a 120hz model as well), Geforce 460m gtx cards...dota 2 should run fine on that. Mine had pretty decent battery life if i remember correctly.

If he wants to buy new, look into the Sager NP7358, they start around $1000 and you can customize further past that if necessary. 15' screen, latest gen i7, 800m series graphics card, and these are supposed to average over 2 hours on battery...which is pretty impressive considering the hardware it's running.

hahaha...unfortunately my laptop collection is no more, you snagged the last one pine :-). I stand by what i said earlier though. I've owned alienwares, asus, msi, and sagers (clevo/malibal etc)...sager hands down performed the best and was priced very reasonable.

Sager/Clevo make the best gaming laptops imo. You can get a used 9170 for typically around 1000. If you are patient enough, you can find the one's with the 120hz screen which is a huge plus. 9170's have i7 CPU's, start with around 8gm memory and typically have a 580m or higher gfx cards..which play source games with ease.

A friend of mine carries a Verizon mifi around with him 24/7 as he's a traveling consultant. We tested it out a while back from 2 different laptops. The area we live in (right outside Pittsburgh) gets a great, and very consistent 4G/LTE signal. For the most part, the ping was very stable - (hovered mostly between 50-70 with some servers going in the low 30's at best). The one thing we noticed every couple of minutes there would be a 2-4 freeze (sort of like when a server dies). After turning net-graph on we noticed choke shooting up to insane rates....but then quickly corrects itself. I would assume this is the same thing cobra mentioned above. I don't know if this is a common issue or not, or maybe a limitation to the mifi device we were using but it was really annoying after a while...it would totally ruin a competitive experience if it was a common occurrence.

Also the hour or so we pubbed, it ate a decent chunk of data (i think around 200mb or so..can't remember exactly). So keep that in mind if you have a limited data plan.