Author Archives: Justin Fox

PC Build: NZXT S340 Elite White & Sony X850D LED TV

Finally putting a gaming PC together! I’ve had Ved’s media PC (his old gaming rig) on and off for almost a year now, it’s been amazing (graphics are so much more amazing than console!), but I want to run shit in ultra, and I’ve gone from wanting a gaming laptop, to wanting a PC connected to the TV (makes sense as I play games on the PC with a controller).

I’m a mac guy, so I’m in the deep end a bit. Good thing is Ved’s nuts about building gaming rigs and he’s helped out massively by giving me a base build, which I then took and went bonkers on. I posted my shopping list on Facebook and had lots of Facebook friends chime in with great advice, so a few tweaks later and my build is a thousand dollars more than what I thought it was going to cost me, but the end result will be amazing and should last me a couple of years easy.

PROCESOR
Intel i7-7700K 4.2GHz 8MB Kaby Lake

MOTHERBOARD
Gigabyte Z270X Gaming 7

RAM
2 x (2X8GB) Corsair Vengeance Black 16GB 3000Mhz

GRAPHICS CARD
8GB GTX 1080 Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming Premium Pack

WATER COOLED CPU FAN
Corsair H115i Hydro High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

POWER SUPPLY
Corsair 1000Watt Digital 80Plus Platinum Full Modular ATX

DRIVES
Windows 10
Samsung 960 EVO 500GB M.2 SSD
WD 3.5″ Black 2TB SATA3 7200rpm HDD
External ASUS DVD Writer

CASE
NZXT S340 Elite Matte White

KEY/MOUSE
Logitech MK520r Wireless

SOUND/TV
Sony X850D LED TV
Logitech Z906 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers

NZXT-S340-Elite-Matte-White
Alright in white (still no mac though!).

The first thing I committed to was the case (once I hit the buy it now button I knew I couldn’t go back!). Initially I thought all hope was over when I checked out what was out there. So much vomit. In the end I just went for the most basic looking thing I could find in white, turns out this NZXT S340 Elite case (I got it through PC Case Gear, a site suggested by a lot of guys on my facebook post) is a decent quality product and much loved out there in the PC community.

thin
Super thin.

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Clean (enough) design. Stand is minimalist but quite ugly IMHO.

Next I got a new TV. I’ve always had hand-me-down TV’s and when the last one broke I bought a cheap (but huge 55′) Kogan LED TV (cardboard, basically). I thought I’d test Ved’s PC on my current TV and yup, 100% no go. Jaggies everywhere which had me super nervous. I did a lot of research though, and true enough LED TV’s have advanced a lot since I bought the Kogan (2011-12-ish).

I ended up going for a Sony X850D in 65′ based off technical reviews that whilst it wasn’t the best TV for movies, it has the lest input lag of all current LED TV’s which makes it perfect for gaming (Sony’s new PS4 Pro would suit the 4K screen nicely too!). Won’t lie, pretty excited as it’s my first legit TV purchase. It’s super thin, quite light too, looking at it in situ it’s no bigger than my old 55′, but the 55′ had a huge frame where this TV almost has none. I instantly thought I could have gone bigger! Then again, budget didn’t allow in any case so 65′ it is.

I’ve since plugged it into Ved’s PC, and booyah! It’s fucking amazing! I spent a little time with my MacBook Pro on the couch tuning the TV’s colours to the Mac’s colours and now I’m set.

The rest of the PC order should come in tomorrow!

Posted in Games, House | 8 Comments

#SORCERY

star

Follow: https://www.facebook.com/SRCRY/

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iPhone 7 Plus

7plus
Continuing the BLK theme…

Won’t lie, life’s been pretty awesome without a phone for a couple of months (!!!), but I semi-lamentably made the steps to reconnect again. Question was: iPhone 7, or 7 Plus?! I asked Facebook and most suggested the Plus.

I’m not a fan of the camera on the 7, but pretty damn impressed with the tricky fake bokeh the plus’ camera pulls off in “portrait mode”. I ended up hovering over the 7 buy now button for ages, but in the end I just hit the buy now button on the Plus.

Free Shipping, availability read next day, but then on checkout (after payment) I get a message to say shipping is free but will take a week OR I could go pick it up the next day. Lame Apple! Definitely a little misleading!

I ended up waiting a day for the phone to be delivered to a local newsagent down the road, then I headed in to Vodafone to see if I could get my old number back, turns out it was a painless 2 minute job!

Looking forward to being able to internet bank again (damn banking web site sends confirmation codes to my phone!), kinda miss Instagram too tbh!

Posted in Toys | 2 Comments

Zen Graff Snapback – BLK Edition.

zen_graff_snapback_BLK_Edition

I’m pretty excited about this hat. Yup. This hat gets me excited! I’ve been wanting to make an all black on black version of our Zen Graff Snapback for years now (along side our hoodie, it’s our best selling item), just haven’t had the funds (hey we’re grass roots and keeping up with stock demands on our staple Zen range is hard enough as it is!).

LESS IS MORE. Going all black was perhaps the easiest way to further refine a product that up until now, sells so well (and continues to do so). The Zen Graff Snapback has largely been unaltered since 2011 (the first 100 ever made didn’t feature the teal under-brim the snapback has today). I wanted this hat for me, but we’ve had to make a few to make it a reality, so they’re most likely going to make their way to the Zen SHOP soon (we added a new trucker hat design earlier today!).

Posted in Design, Zen Garage | Leave a comment

HNY 2017

Had a rad night with a few crazy peeps over at mine for the count down, hope everyone had a rad night too. Blasted my own tunes at some point, was awesome! I’ve put a playlist together of the tracks Star and I have created (and a couple of remixes too). We’ll be sure to create more music this year (psyched!). Especially keen to work on the first track; “By My Side” which we left unfinished last month.

Listen: https://soundcloud.com/zengarage/sets/zen-tracks

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Xmas 2016

view

dance3

dance1

dance2

oco

mum

group2

Posted in Pets | 1 Comment

Firewatch – a walking simulator

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The game starts with words and music. When there’s words on a screen, you read. Within 10 minutes I was hooked.

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No guns, just a walkie talkie and a compass.

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SO refreshing to not be in a game where I’m not focussing on the latest and most realistic graphics available. Style is king when it comes to Firewatch. It’s stylistically beautiful in motion.

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I have a better sense of direction after playing this game! The compass and map are essential to getting around in the game. They’re such a pleasure to use too.

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A static screen grab just doesn’t do this game justice. In-game immersion is where it’s at.

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At the end of the game you’re given an exploration gameplay mode with just you, and the world to discover (a really nice touch!).

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As usual, I’m late to the party. I played a game called MYST (and Riven, the sequel), many years ago and I truly loved both games. They were more interactive art, than game. More related to the CD-ROM art/exploration era of the late 90’s. I’ve not played anything like MYST since, but I stumbled upon a genre of games titled “walking simulators”, horrible genre description, but it had me intrigued. I googled a bit and found links to a game called “Firewatch”. Turns out Lewis had already reviewed it on Zen, which rung a bell straight away so without hesitation I ended up buying the game on Steam for $20 US.

It’s smart, witty, emotional, and full of great moments. It’ll take you around 4-5 hours to complete. Save it for a rainy day. Savour it. It’s like a good book. I truly loved it.

PS: If you’re still in doubt about spending the $20 to buy the game, check out this video review, hopefully it’ll motivate you to download (PC, or buy on PS4) and play it!

Posted in Games | 2 Comments

Fallout 4 on PC with MODS

textures
I’ve upgraded all the textures in the game with VIVID Textures, and God Daym! Look at it now!

I’ve got Ved’s PC back to play The Division, but SO many people have come back to play The Division due to the new SURVIVAL DLC being launched, that we can’t even load into a server to play a game (bad Massive, BAD!)! Ved and I then thought we’d try Watch Dogs 2 multi-player, only to find we couldn’t do the main story co-op (that would have been awesome!), and the multiplayer action just wasn’t engaging us in the same way that The Division does, primarily because the shooting mechanics just weren’t up to par in Watch Dogs 2.

I couldn’t resist buying Fallout 4 on the PC (through Steam). It was damn expensive for an old game, but I knew MODS would make it new again, and holy shit now I know what PS4 guys have been missing out on!

I’ve discovered Nexus, and using the Nexus Mod Manager makes modding the game crazy easy. I’m up to 80 mods now, each and every one of them are awesome, and have changed the game for the better (some small changes, some epic ones!). I’ve also completed a few new quests made by fans, a couple of which took hours to finish, and were just as good in quality as Bethesda’s own quests (blows my mind!).

I’m now contemplating buying the most modded game of all time, Skyrim for PC, because there’s so much more you can do with that, due to the HUGE modding community, than Fallout 4! Enjoy some of the screen grabs below.

getinsuit
Watching the awesome animation of getting into and out of Power Armour will never get old, it’s even better now when you command your naked companions to do it.

bridges
Everything looks amazing now, flying over to that bridge, etc, it’s all about discovery and the boost in graphics quality has upped the immersion, big time.

lootroom

loot
And yup, every item is lootable in Fallout 4. So cool, wish The Division did the same (such a shame to waste all that detail in the world!).

road
The textures change SO much. The roads especially. I’ve also added a whole lot of greenery to the entire world, not over the top like some mods, keeping within lore, just enough to make it feel like time has passed on and everything is starting to grow back.

skyrim
Skyrim inspired Power Armour! You can mod it at the PA Station with the remains of animals you’ve slain. It also comes with a sword and battle axe.

prime
Optimus Prime Power Armour, then there’s Batman, Superman. Yup, you can pretty much be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do with mods!

ironman
The Iron Man armour lets me fly, which has been the best way to re-discover The Commonwealth.

weed
So much fun to be had! I’ve got a weed farm going on now.

If you’ve not played Fallout 4, or Skyrim, consider buying either one through Steam, then the Nexus Mod Manager and get busy modding! You might regret it?!

Posted in Games | 3 Comments

Blazed

jamon

Star and I are blazed as fuck and we’ve got what we think is an awesome start to a new track (but we’ll save judgement for when we’re sober tomorrow lol!). #mondayfundays

Have a listen: https://soundcloud.com/zengarage/shank/s-5xQVW

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Fallout 4 PS4 MODS are here!

fallout_4_PS4_mods

I downloaded a new update on the PS4 for Fallout 4 and it’s looking like Bethesda has made mods available in this update! The mods can be downloaded via the main menu in the game, there’s quite a few mods in there already (all clean as it’s PlayStation here, not PC), some look to be game breaking, but I’ll start with a few simple ones like visual mods for Piper, opening up more dialogue for Piper as well as a developer room which will give me access to every single item in the game all in the one cave close to home.

Check out the mods here: https://mods.bethesda.net/#en/workshop/fallout4

PS: Man the music is just such a huge hook in this game for me. Hanging out for Fallout 5 more than any other game right now. In love with this game, in love with Bethesda!

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