WahooSteeler

Well Badger, not real sure how that wasn't directed at Eagle, but you still managed to insult a couple of us. I'd agree that most of the people working at a Game Stop etc. are more likely users of PS3, Xbox or Wii, but since most of the games for consoles can also be bought to play on the computer, I'd say it was a realistic suggestion they may be able to offer some direction. As far as reading the box though, while you were flaming on a couple of us you failed to realize the faults of your own suggestion, to just see what the "MINIMUM system requirements" are. Two problems, IMO, with your obviously superior idea there. Eagle clearly has asked for input because he's not sure what's needed. So, (1) min. requirements could be very different from game to game, and (2) as minimums, if he spec'd his upgrades or a new tower soley based on that info, he could be in the same situation in a year when his granddaughter goes to a new level of games or new games come out with greater tech requirements. Eagle's responses have not said "just tell me the cheapest/easiest way to fix the problem", so it sounds like he's willing to do more than the minimum if, in his own words, it is cost effective. Nobody here has claimed to be an expert, we're just throwing out friendly ideas.

forgot to mention, if you go new another advantage of building to spec with dell is they let you still choose XP as your OS if you want, and as noted before Vista has issues and is just sucking RAM dry, and therefore speed. HP does not offer XP on their website but maybe if you called them they could do it. I spec'd one out real quick on HP with 1MB cache on the processor, 2GB of RAM, the best video card they offered on the basic model tower, 160GB of hard drive, etc for $550, similar on Dell was over $600. Not cheap but a lot of speed and memory at that price.

ironically i've been specing out some towers the last couple of weeks. my mother n law may buy our desktop for cheap because the one she bought from us 5 years just can't keep up anymore. you can build a heck of a tower on dell.com or hp.com for $400 right now, but that doesn't have the big gaming upgrades. you may want to check out good ol' wal-mart too. but, as previously noted, the 2 keys for good game performance, to my knowledge, are a lot of RAM and a good video card. add to that however, as much cache as you can if you build a new one. cache and RAM are basically short term memory, so the more you have of that, the less it slows down the computer. in fact, from what i've learned, you don't need to worry about processor speed as much as you used to. So, as long as you have an Intel P4 chip or AMD Athlon chip from the last few years, you may be able to upgrade easy and cheap with just a RAM and video card upgrade, and they are pretty easy to swap out yourself, especially the RAM chip (you can't just "upgrade" cache, you'd have to replace the processor chip$$$). one of the guys mentioned making sure you have a intel duo core chip if you buy a new computer. but, and i can't say for sure on this, to my knowledge a duo core chip (AMD has them too) is more suited to someone who is running multiple programs at once, so it may not be as important if you buy one almost exclusively for her to game on. one other thing i've learned in the last few years is that AMD chips run a LOT cooler than Intels, and gaming definitely is known to push a processor hard, so you may want to consider that, especially if you end up buying a laptop. Think of it this way, your processor chip is the engine of your computer and when gaming it's like it's wheelin' hard or towing the whole time, so the cooler you can keep the engine running the better it will perform and not blow up on you. Anyway, final suggestion I have is to go to a game retailer such as Game Stop etc. and ask them what specs you should have based on the games she plays. I don't know enough about video cards to suggest anything, heck, a quick look on bestbuy.com and thew were priced from $70-$900!!! But, if you go with new vs. upgrading your current, I'd think you want at least 1MB of cache on your processor and 2GB of RAM, 256 or 512MB on your video card, and that will keep you up to date for a good while on speed technology. Your hard drive memory is not as important, most come with an overkill of GB's now and unless you store tons of photos and music or do any desktop publishing you won't come close to using it all. Good luck.......

Grizzly: 1. Great looking truck, impressive work! 2. Hopefully I speak for all of us, thanks for your admiration of our country 3. Uhh, nice view off the driveway, your country is beautiful, as already noted 4. Welcome to the club, again, but if you don't mind, I'd like to join you for a beer out of YOUR fridge, I don't think you'd like the watered down stuff in ours!

tkgibbs, nice find on the article. very interesting...........

deziped, love that color!

Item number: 180202880369 same guy will do a completed one for $105 including shipping (i think) has other colors too

Man, I forgot how long the Brute has actually been around. First shown at the 2002 SEMA show. If you haven't been to AEV's site before, you gotta check out some of their other show vehicles. Very cool stuff.

I meant to mention the Brute before, you can buy that vehicle right now. http://www.aev-conversions.com/products/brute/ Notice the article on Edmunds is a year old, the Brute has had a lot of press since then. Comments made in the article, I think, confirm some of my comments on the Gladiator, mainly that as a low production vehicle mfr'ing costs would be too high since it would require its own platform and therefore could not share enough parts to make it profitable. I like the Brute better anyway, except for the high rise roof. And the Scrambler fan in me would like to see a one piece tub if it's built on the Wrangler platform. Like one of other guys said, stretch the Unlimited another 18 inches and bulk up the frame. Done.

As mentioned before, that truck is a concept vehicle Jeep built and put on the show circuit over 2 yrs ago. Usually there are 3 types of vehicles put on the auto show circuit. The wild and crazy, more often seen from the asian builders, that mfr's build simply to let their engineers run wild with an idea (inside the industry they say it's basically a reward for engineers to do what they want vs. constantly designing something for the mainstream, which to the designer, is boring), usually they don't have any practical use at all and are never intended to be considered for production. The mainstream variation, which is usually a revamped model, say, Chevy's new Malibu, new model introduction etc. And then the "what if" category, which, again, may be a new variation of a car/truck such as the Avalanche (which clearly is just a step beyond the Explorer SportTrac, which also was built because of public response when it was a concept vehicle), or a vehicle they would be willing to build if public response begs for it. Two perfect examples are the Viper and Prowler. The Prowler is the best example because Chrysler did not put it on the show circuit with the intent to build it, but the public went crazy over it and after some re-tooling on the design (i.e. what could they steal from the parts bin) they knew they could build it and make a buck. The Gladiator obviously fits in this last category. It's not off the wall, it wouldn't be hard to build, it would have a lot of shared parts, so I think they would build it if they thought they could sell a ton of them. But it's quite clear the public response has shown they would NOT sell a lot. Another deciding factor for a mfr is whether or not the car/truck makes a statement for them that provides other value. Again, take the Prowler. I would bet they did not make a lot of money off it by itself, if at all, but what they got in public attention BECAUSE of the Prowler sold a hell of a lot of their other cars. Keep in mind, this has nothing to do whether the Prowler was a good car, a good deal, or any of that. The point is just enough of the general public wanted one and more importantly it set Chysler apart for awhile. You could argue that the Viper and the Prowler officially wiped the K-car out of the public's mind forever. The Gladiator, IMO, would not make enough of an impact on the Jeep brand to offset what would likely be very small sales figures. So, the article and talk of production is not necessarily a hoax. In fact, don't be surprised if Jeep started the rumor again theirselves just so the mags would write about it again and Jeep could see if the public response has changed any. You know the mags are letting the mfr know if their readers are ringing the phone off the hook wanting to know more about it! Well, sorry to post a(nother) long winded viewpoint. I was in the auto and med. duty truck industry for 13 yrs so I guess I just like to wax poetic about this kind of stuff.

That Gladiator has been on the auto show circuit for over a year. The Scrambler fans have claimed it as their replacement, since it's named Gladiator the old J-truck fans claim it as theirs, and now the Comanche fanatics are staking their claim on it. I could see Jeep taking a swing at it. The Compass is pathetic, the Patriot not much better, and the new liberty is a Dodge Nitro w/jeep front end. I think they are losing some of their identity with 2 crossovers in their lineup, and this would definitely up the "ruggedness" of the line, IMO.

i've seen one pic of a manche on here somewhere with this color, but I love the current GM rust/orange color, which you see a lot on vettes and avalanches. would look outstanding with black trim and/or rockers (1bolt, you beat me to it and you're starting a trend.......a cool one!) and also matches up nice with grey interiors like you already have. to take it a bit further, i think a manche would look hot as balls in the GM rust/orange, 32/11 fittys on brushed aluminum bullet wheels with black beadlocks, black out trim everywhere, and 1bolts black hood stripe, but leave that little indentation between the two sides of the hood the rust color (no scoop for me personally, but i DO like it), serious black undercoating on all the driveline and underside, spray in bedliner over the rails and gate (of course), and i could go either way on a roll bar or not. grey buckets interior fully loaded, and oh yeah, i'm a long bed fan, especially when lifted because it's more proportional. :chillin: ok, just described my dream. if anybody has already done this, i'll pay syndication rights fees, if nobody has, i'll take an RC and Banana Moon Pie to release my design rights! :brows:

1bolt, i've got your perfect candidate. 87 2wd longbed laredo, 4cyl (with issues), ax5, d35, body is 99% perfect. pwr windows, locks, full gauges, tilt, cruise, a/c (not sure if works), 5 spoke factory alloys.......... buy it before i post it next week!

It is a 4 cyl, so that's why I thought it would swap over being your dad's is an 86 etc. I understand on the funds issue. I am going to post it here, jeepforum, and on ebay to see if I can sell it local. If for some crazy reason it doesn't, we'll see if we can work something out.

Wow! That is one of the best looking MJs I've seen, hands down. I have the Laredo two-tone maroon and gray on the rockers (and flares) and i want to paint them black so that is why i wanted to see yours done so bad, and it confirms the look i want. Also, I've always been surprised that I had not seen an MJ with Icons yet because I think they look great on XJs, and they look great on your truck too. Man, if you did the 97+ sw/out on the front clip, I guarantee you somebody would ask you if Jeep made pickups again. Excellent work. Did you do all the body and paint yourself?

shouldn't all the 4x4 swap right over? mine has an ax5 also. i'd love for this thing to go to a true manche lover. i've been known to do some crazy things, and i've never been to chi-town, so don't make me put it on a trailer and come up that way!

Pat, is your Dad's TD a 4x2 or 4x4? What are you doing to fix/replace the body? Any thoughts on buying the 87 2WD Laredo I am getting? The body is near perfect.

I have to say, I think the GT rims look pretty damn good. Even if they're used reps, I can't believe you got them so cheap. And that truck is too cool looking to go flat black IMO. I think it would look hot in a gloss black with either the rockers painted or a 4" GT stripe just above the rockers, in a matching metallic grey to the wheels.

the same seller has kits of material and backer for only $23 Buy It Now, he just started listing "ready to install" headliners.

wow, that's a super impressive piece of work. if there was a way to have a direct funnel from the grill area or even a cutout in the fender, then seal the bottom edge of the box, you'd truly have a "cooler" air intake. as pete mentioned, unless you section off the intake with some sort of heat shield, you're gonna draw hot air. but with your setup, a couple extra steps, if you didn't already do so, and you would likely draw in air much cooler than just from the engine bay and gain some measurable performance. and, if your a serious wheeler, it looks like it would be a snap for you to build a second mandrel that shoots up through a spare hood and becomes a snorkel. that way, you'd have both on and off road performance. just a thought, like you need any with those kind of mad skillz!

pong, what else is close to middlesex, i know that i know where it is but i can't seem to place it. i was curious where this yard is you are referring to. i need to find some close to me. i know there is one in the charlottesville area, cosner's, but i need to map out all the others w/in 1 hour radius. i think there is a good source in the lynchburg area, but that's a little further. jt, i went to hampden-sydney college outside of farmville, fyi. sorry to get off topic guys..........

goatee, do you have pics of your blue one on here anywhere? from a distance that thing looks pretty sweet.

ping pong, where in va are you?

hey 1bolt, can you post some better pics of the side with the blackouts below the beltline? i am thinking of doing the same and want to see a good look of one done. Thanks....

mine did the same thing after i bought it, i got one off of car-parts.com for $40. Haven't put it on yet, but it appears to be in decent shape.