Computer enthusiast - what have you learnt over the years

bakes0310

bakes0310

bakes0310

Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2004
Posts
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Saw a thread in the pc gaming section asking what we have learnt from our own experiences, thought it would be interesting to have a general one about our pc hobby.
I'll start:

1. I definitely don't need to upgrade a GPU every other cycle to enjoy my games, high and ultra setting are very similar in looks but big difference in performance.
2. Top end CPUs eg i9/i7 are generally wasted for pc gaming, especially at high resolutions. Save the extra on a better GPU or storage.
3. HDD to ssd is a game changer.
 
1. Latency and bandwidth are the killers of online gaming.
2. The necessary upgrade rate has slowed right down.
3. Fibre broadband is a game-changer.
 
  • Ignore benchmarking as a means to test game performance
  • Always sort cabling out before installing the motherboard
  • Always disconnect all other drives other than the one you want to format/install Windows on (learnt that the hard way)
  • Back up, back up, back up! Again, learnt the hard way
 
So much I barely know where to start.

The value of proper backups and that RAID isn't a backup solution (its value is in uptime convenience when setup properly and performance for certain applications) - I've had to try and help people recover data from failed RAID setups almost as (in)frequently as single drives.
 
Rroff said:
So much I barely know where to start.

The value of proper backups and that RAID isn't a backup solution (its value is in uptime convenience when setup properly and performance for certain applications) - I've had to try and help people recover data from failed RAID setups almost as (in)frequently as single drives.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Raid isn’t a backup.
 
learnt and saw how much intel and nvidia have squeezed every penny out of end users and AIB with AMD joining in recently with Vega chipsets being suck on Reference boards for so long .
The choice to Pull Titan Cards from resellers, then FE cards to come in First whilst AIB left to buy Reference boards from Nvidia for a while and with holding Engineering samples till last possible moment .

Porting from consoles is still bad and dont think it will change to much with next gen consoles even when using ryzen and higher core chips.

When ever buying a DUCKY SHINE limited edition keyboard.. NEVER OPEN IT UP AND HIDE IT AWAY FOREVER!
 
Never get in debt for the latest tech ;) I used to back in the day, going vapochill and the latest everything, now I use a ryzen 3 based laptop and I've never been happier, though I don't game anymore. I used to play Q3 competitively and it absorbed over 7 years of my life.
 
Plec said:
It will still probably run Q3 at a buttery 30FPS, Wij. ;)
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Haha, are you the Plec I remember? :o, I reckon it will run quake live pretty well but having spent some time playing it last its just not the same as the old days...............I'm old and slow which didn't help lol

Edit, it is you! really hope you're well mate :)
 
RAM limitation is usually the reason behind an upgrade, either motherboard/cpu/ram, or also for gpu.
So spending a bit extra to get more RAM makes the whole system last a lot longer, usually.
 
/on topic

Sodding, stroke inducing, Abit motherboards.


/off topic

wiiija said:
Haha, are you the Plec I remember? :o, I reckon it will run quake live pretty well but having spent some time playing it last its just not the same as the old days...............I'm old and slow which didn't help lol
Click to expand...
Yep, tis me, and i feel the same - plus when my son whooped my butt recently in a 1v1 i knew my reflexes had moved on without me.

There's not the same sense of community and i still miss the old guard:
  • Acid Beard, Ketamine, Jeh, Ninja, Timberwolf, Odee, Manc, joneone, aka Creamy, Jinx, Sar etc...
And I miss hanging out in OG's irc, playing on Barry's World, Jolt and Wireplay servers - plus their forum. Great atmosphere/community and probably the best era of online game play.

My wife still plays quake live, but Freeze Tag - she plays under the name of Ooobie now (she became embarrassed playing under the name of bOObs as she got older.). I however have become boring and rarely play games other than strategy games or the occasional survival type game with my son. I still build stupidly overpowered systems though - much to my kids delight.

KoTR got pretty competitive in the end - preferred it when we were underdogs. I still remember that night you, acidbeard and i played all night (rocket arena i think) - i got absolutely hammered, you too i think and acidbeard trounced us while gesturing/roaring all the way.

It was the best, and it really did consume our lives for way too long - back form work, other work done then straight onto Q3...
 
So good to hear from you, Acidbeard was sooooo good, ODEE was my defence partner in ctf, he went on to be the manager of Dignitas, still is I believe, anyway sorry for off topic, feel free to email me plec any time.
 
Gaming wise;
- I am not a pro gamer, and don't need anything other than a mid-range graphics card no matter how good the benchmarks look. A good game is a good game - ultra settings don't change that experience for me.

- A better than console PC gaming experience does not have to cost a lot of money

Generally;
- Bang for buck - AMD wins

- Always have a backup(s)

- FreeNAS rocks, don't skimp on CPU and RAM with it.

- NVME storage is a huge advantage when running too many VM's

- One super spec server is better than more smaller ones and uses less electricity and space.

- Intel NICs are better than Realtek NICs
 
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