Haha, I don't know a huge amount about computers but it was custom made so I did make a couple of changes above their recommendations. Getting a 240GB SSD drive to go with my existing 240GB HDD from this PC and the 4TB external I just bought. 16MB RAM, ATI Radeon graphics that can run 3 monitors, i7 3.4Ghz processor, and Windows 8.

Pics will be incoming but only once I get everything set up exactly how I want. My PC setup/entertainment setup are really the only things in my tiny apartment so it's basically my pride and joy right now, lol. Not gonna show it off unless it looks right!

As for FTP, IDK really. It's pretty soft during miniFTOPS I think, but I think the most accurate way to describe it would be that there are significantly fewer outright fish (guys playing 41/7 or 56/28), but that the quality of regs overall is significantly lower too. A lot of good midstakes and highstakes regs seem to skip FTP, which means if you're pretty decent at exploiting bad regs (which I like to think I am, when playing my best), then it's still good value. Fields are fairly small and structures are great, too, so it's not too high variance.

You won't have any speed problems with that setup in the foreseeable future. Nice buy.

How much did it cost?

I would assume 500-600 pounds for the PC without monitors and external drive?

£835 actually, and about another £220 for the external drive and monitor. Got the monitor off eBay but it still hasn't ****ing arrived, am so tilted by that :@

What monitor did you go for and what comprises your 'entertainment setup'? Been thinking of setting up a media pc purely for tv/movies/music but not sure where to start.

Hey Ginger, what would be your suggestion if I had to subscribe to one of thoses sites mainly for regspeed tournaments training? Thanks and keep crushing!

I actually had to shop around as I wanted a monitor that matched my existing two, which in turn is the model I got with the PC I bought 2 years ago. They're pretty decent for what they are, 22 inch AOC 2236Swa ones. I'm super OCD about stuff so I didn't want three different ones haha.

My entertainment setup is just my TV and games consoles on top of a cabinet for storing all my DVDs and games, nothing special.
Tournament Poker Edge is the best value, but Run It Once has the best content. GL

New PC just arrived after a mix-up with the delivery guy, not sure I can resist getting my teeth into it right away haha. Bad news is the guy I bought from on eBay says the delivery company say the monitor 'went missing in their network', so I basically have to find somewhere to get another one of those monitors, which will be ****ing difficult. GAAAAAAAAAH.

EDIT: Found one for the same price which should be here by Thursday, that's lucky. Still annoying though.

Also before I forget I want to say a huge congrats to my boy Danny 'DannyN13' Noseworthy of #TeamFoldto2nd and TPE fame for shipping $40k, the Canada Cup and a PCA main event seat yesterday! Danny is an amazing player and a big influence on my game over the last 6 months or so since he joined the team and I got to know him. Huge start to a huge year for him I'm sure.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/pca/20...ad-125582.html

yeah, the SSD, processor and graphics card were definitely quite expensive. Is your graphics card a Radeon HD 7xxx? I have a Radeon for 3 years now but I am not really satisfied with it :/ I would like to upgrade my PC some time this year, I am aiming at Intel i5/i7, 12-16GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 5xx or 6xx with Display port + dual monitors (one 30"). Obv for playing poker, but I want to play some new games from time to time too

Yeah mine's a Radeon 7750. I probably could have gotten the whole thing cheaper if I'd bought individual parts, but I don't have the knowledge to put a computer together myself and I was happy to pay for the convenience of it being custom made. Although £72 for Windows 8 seems a bit steep regardless - would have been the same price even for Windows 7!

New computer seems good so far, still working out some kinks and getting used to Windows 8 though. Monitor should be here Thursday, will probably skip tomorrow's grind session as I'm only on one monitor for the time being until I sort out some graphics/VGA port issues.

Everybody has a computer guy, wtf dude, WTF

ezy game man

Lol yeah I have totally spewed money over the last month or so since I binked the Big 109. After everything is sorted over the next few days I am gonna be really knuckling down and grinding out that profit to make up for it.

Alright so after a couple mix-ups involving my graphics card and the PITA that is the fact I have VGA monitors, it looks like I'll be running only one monitor for a little while until I can get the specific part I need. It's in an Ebay auction that ends on Saturday, so hopefully I can snap it up there and get it by midway through next week in time for TCOOP. If not, I should at least have it by the end of next week.

Have been playing around with HM2 today after finally importing all my hands (over 2.4 million hands played since December 2010) and discovered some really interesting stats. I like the look of them overall, but for anyone who's wondering about how big an impact variance can really have, I discovered I'm running 0.5bb/100 hands under EV over that sample. That's a sample of 2.4 million hands, in which there are probably >1M all-in situations given how many turbos I play. Even over that sample, variance doesn't completely even out.

Played a few SNGs tonight to test my new HUD. Works good. I love HM2. That's about it. Still kinda sputtering into the new year with all these computer troubles, but I'll work the kinks out soon enough. Gotta get my ass in gear and watch some videos though.

Games played: 216
Videos watched: 6

That seems like a good deal to me.

What kind of SSD do you have?

Best of luck this year Matt, awesome player & grind ethic!

GL this year ging, see u at the tables all year round!

Corsair 240GB. Can already tell the difference in terms of speed.
Thanks bro, big year in store for you too, clear that makeup!
Haha I'm sure you will! Thanks mate, will be following your thread too. GLGL

computergasm :P how much faster would you say it is?

Erm...a lot? Haha. My previous one was pretty terrible. I'd guess it's maybe 8-10x the speed? I have no real way of knowing other than how fast HEM processes stuff, really.

Played a decent number of games today but I struggled with multiple sites on one monitor. Gonna stick to PokerStars (with maybe the odd miniFTOPS) until I can get myself a second graphics card to run my other two monitors. I have all three set up here, just need the last piece of the jigsaw! I'll probably just play some intense sessions of 180s etc to get myself back into the groove. Not happy with this year so far but it's not really been avoidable.

Games played: 248
Videos watched: 8

What's up Matt, do you watch videos when grinding or how exactly do you manage to watch 50 a month?

Hey mate. Well, it's not for certain yet that I can actually do that haha. In general though I try to just watch one or two towards the end of the day, before I go to bed or maybe earlier on while I'm having lunch or something. So,e of them I'll really focus on, some I just absorb.

Kinda tilted today, I have all sorts of weird stuff going on with my PC like FTP resetting all my preferences once I log out and HM2 not showing the right default HUD. Probably better to wrap up early than just play while tilted, so that's what I'm doing.

Today was kinda annoying, had to sit out the mid-late stages of my last four remaining Stars tables as something came up. Gotta make up for that lost equity tomorrow.

Games played: 269
Videos watched: 8