The problem will happen even when you spectate a hitscan class. So your friend was probably playing demo, died, and was watching a scout or something during respawn.

Using the latest Nvidia drivers? Try changing the power management mode to "prefer maximum peformance" for the TF2 profile.

For those that don't know, it's an awareness event to raise money for children's hospitals. All you do is try to play video games for as long as you can, and get people to donate. You can do it anytime, but from 8 a.m. today to 8 a.m. tomorrow is the "official" event.

I'm going to try to go as long as I can, but I can't go the full 24 hours because of work. I'll be streaming my gametime for as long as I play. You can watch me at http://www.twitch.tv/cusideabelincoln

And don't forget to donate! My donation page is at http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=131449

Pretty sure all the modems TWC leases are junk. Buy a Motorola Surfboard modem and you should have a more stable connection. And you won't have to pay a monthly lease fee either.

Let's give a hand to Lange for fighting through the cramps.

The only thing you need to change is the motherboard. You need to get a mini ITX socket 1155 motherboard. Everything else should fit, although you won't be able to install your optical drive - you would have to get an external USB one.

However I'd recommend looking at some other ITX cases. It would be best to get something with ventilation on the side for your video card. The Phenom case has no ventilation where the video card sits, so it will get warmer and louder.

Since you're changing motherboards it would be best to reformat your drive and install the OS from a clean slate. So while you're at it, you can go ahead and pick up an SSD which will provide a substantial speed to boost to load times and system responsiveness. 120GB is the minimum size to get.

This website explains the differences in motion blur in correlation to different LCD operating modes.

MGE probalby wouldn't be the best way to quantify performance. The scenario is very controlled and you only have one target to focus on. Reducing motion blur makes it easier to see things that move across the screen - things most likely in the peripheral of your screen and not the center. It's also much easier to make out the animations in Lightboost mode as opposed to 60 Hz because the blurring can be bad enough to obscure these twitchy details, especially if you're panning your crosshair.

So the benefits of higher refresh rates, or strobed modes, are substantial. It's possible to see things you may have missed due to blurring, and the things you were seeing before are easier to see. There is less strain because more focus can be allocated to playing the game rather than trying to figure out what you're seeing. Your reaction time will be quicker to unexpected events because of these things, thus standard game modes would see a bigger benefit than MGE because MGE is a more predictable environment.

http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/59641

Those shouldn't have the problem. The 326 drivers I tried caused my PC to lock up randomly. Haven't tried 327.23, but at this point I'd rather avoid them.

The last few nvidia drivers have been causing computers to lock up. The latest WHQL version just recently came out. Try that, or downgrade to even older WHQL drivers. You didn't specify what hardware you had, so this may not be related to you at all.

Also if you do have an older Nvidia card, like an 8800 series, they are known to stop working.

http://lifehacker.com/5984278/how-to-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-8-with-an-upgrade-disc

I'd still recommend going Intel. Their cheap, dual core, Celeron processors (G1620) would better (quite a bit better) than the AMD A4.

64GB is the bare minimum, but I don't recommend going that small. It'll fill up quicker than you think as time goes on with all the Windows updates and such.

120GB is as small as someone should go these days. 250GB was in that build because it fits in the budget. And bigger drives do perform better, typically, than smaller drives.

I think something like this would be good. An SSD will really impress them.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G2120 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor ($66.50 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($65.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: GeIL Enhance CORSA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Force 500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($30.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: FSP Group 400W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $440.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-09 23:44 EDT-0400)

The 4670K processor is really the must buy because TF2 is extremely CPU intensive, especially pubs. Overclocking will also help, so an aftermarket cooler an Z87 motherboard are other components you should get. An SSD is extremely nice for everyday computing, and if you put TF2 on it you'll get faster load times.

The other parts come down to much gravy or niceness you want. It only takes a $100 video card to max out TF2.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.98 @ Outlet PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($212.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Microcenter)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.88 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1416.75
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-04 15:04 EDT-0400)