Dual Voodoo2 man, those were the days (of paying a ton of money for mediocre-at-best visuals).
AI think I read something today that SLI and Crossfire were both gonna go the way of the Dodo soon because of lack of dev action. On the one hand I don’t see it because if manufacturers can convince you to spend twice the money on your practice they are going to do that because of corporate shenanigans.
On the other, it sounded legit because few people were buying into the need to pay for two cards.
AWelp, I couldn’t locate whatever it was I thought I read so it must have been a fever dream because it makes no sense that manufacturers wouldn’t push buying two cards.
So anyway… On to setting up my PC when it arrives. Suggestions on what to DL first? I found this article which appears to have some things I will definitely be adding to it.
I will also be installing DS4Windows for my PS4 controller(got my bluetooth/USB dongle on the way as well) and also OBS so I can possibly stream.
What else besides the Blizzard launcher and Steam?
It’s dull but LibreOffice is a really good free alternative to MS Office if you need that kind of thing. If you are going to store media on it, Plex Server is great for home and remote access.
SLI is dying. A lot of AAA games - Assassin’s Creed Origins, as a recent example - don’t have dual GPU support.
Which, as someone with two 1080 Tis, sucks.
AMonitor arrived. Now I have to stare at it for two days while I wait for the PC.
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This is probably a crossover from “tired shit” but as a relative neophyte when it comes to PCs, I have been struggling to figure out how to install the fixes or mitigants for this big Spectre and Meltdown vulnerability. Windows appears to have updated, but apparently one of the things you have to do is to update your BIOS. Like I know what that means.
So far I have established it has something to do with the motherboard. I downloaded the MSI live updater tool and that is signalling that I have a whole host of updates which haven’t been done, and my motherboard system is still what it was when I bought it a year ago. Some of the updates look serious, so I am waiting until the morning until I can speak with someone at the outfit I bought my PC from who can hopefully hold my hand, give me a proverbial cup of tea and tell me everything is going to be okay.
So, a word to the wise Tzu, either get up to speed on a suitable level of technical awareness or have a phone number of a decent support outfit nearby. I have a feeling that PC ownership requires something mroe than the “point and click” and “it just works” mentality that I, for one, was blissfully unaware was insufficient.
Meltdown and Specter bugs: It’s not as huge a deal at the moment for us normal home users, plus the patches are still breaking stuff, so don’t worry too much if you’re not patched. As far as we know, an actual working exploit isn’t in the wild yet anyway.
New PC installs: On Windows 10, add a shortcut to the old Control Panel on your task bar. Then go to Programs and Features, and uninstall any bloatware that shipped with the PC.
For installations - VLC media player is a must. Browser of your choice, I still prefer Chrome.
There’s a pretty great site for this stuff, and explains it all better than I can: https://decentsecurity.com/
AYeah, a couple of the reviews said that Win 10 wasn’t booting correctly from the SSD and they had to go into the BIOS to get it doing so. So I have been trying to read up what that means and how to get into said BIOS. I believe motherboard updates are first on my list of things to do.
I may dick around with my work Dell to see about how to get into this stuff.
ASo I started watching some How to Build a PC videos on YouTube to begin familiarizing myself with how to upgrade the PC when the time comes. Found a video posted yesterday where the guy says building in 2018 has reached a point where it is now cheaper to buy a pre-built computer. He actually compares the PC on Amazon that I just purchased albeit an 8GB version whereas mine is 16GB.
It sounds like to me, from what he is saying, that cryptocurrency mining in addition to SLI have pushed the cost of GPUs to about twice what they should cost due to scarcity of production.
He says memory prices are outrageous currently at well.
He “built” the computer on PC Parts Picker like y’all suggested I did and he too came in about $200 over the Amazon price when he says the build should easily be $400-500 less than what Amazon has it for.
AI built a comp last month off Black Friday sales and it was much cheaper compared to anything pre built. Plus if you build it yourself you can be sure it’s nice and easy to upgrade. Pre built can be a horror show when you open them up.
Plus I found out you don’t need to pay for Windows to use it fully, as long as you can deal with a watermark…
AOh, shit… What is the game sharing situation on PC? We have multiple people in the house who would like to play the same games. Do we have to have licenses for each name playing or is it like Office where is long as it is on the machine different users can use the software?
Will I be able to play OW on my Blizzard name and the wife on hers or will we have to buy two licenses?
Separate licenses for pretty much anything game-wise. Steam often offers deals on co-op type games with 4 copies for a low price.
ASounds like Fortnite and D2 will be played on my account and OW may need two. Other stuff we’ll have to see.
ATzu’s balls deep into pc gaming?
I had no idea cryptomining was still a problem for parts. Lol, I just sold my $300 msrp 1060 gpu for $650 last night. I want to chase that feeling and sell one of my 1080 Ti’s for $1400.
SLI is shit. It’s barely supported, eats up all your electricity, and is frankly not worth it if you also invest in a proper Gsync/Freesync monitor (dependent on if you bought Nvidia/AMD). A good 1080 Ti is enough to handle 4k gaming right now or 21:9 gaming.
You’ll only need SLI if you only play garbage unoptimized trash like Ark.
Congrats man.
Yeah I just did a nearly complete rebuild off of Black Friday sales and got away pretty nicely, price wise. Ryzen 1700x with an AIO watercooler, 16 GB DDR4, 500 GB SSD. Got Windows 10 for free via the Accessibility Upgrade which I think is still available even though it was supposed to end at the end of last year.
Now that it looks like bitcoin might finally be crashing hopefully video cards will start to both be on store shelves and at non-insane prices and I can upgrade my 380x.
A[quote name=“mongycore” url=“/community/t/159448/tzudohnihm-joins-the-pc-master-race/30#post_4452698”]SLI is shit. It’s barely supported, eats up all your electricity, and is frankly not worth it if you also invest in a proper Gsync/Freesync monitor (dependent on if you bought Nvidia/AMD). A good 1080 Ti is enough to handle 4k gaming right now or 21:9 gaming.
Congrats man.[/quote]
Thanks. Although I did notice a problem with the bundle I purchased today after reading some more. The PC has an NVIDIA card yet the bundled monitor is an AMD Freesync.
I began to look around about maybe returning the monitor to Amazon and getting the correct type but it appeared all the comparable Gsync monitors were $200 more than the one I got.
*EDIT* Just found this one. May return the one I got and have them send this one instead to make sure I have the optimum setup.
AIf you’re not picky about TN vs IPS panels that should be fine. 144hz adaptive sync monitor feels good man.
APanels make a difference? Jesus… I’m going back to my PS4! /s
No, I don’t think I have an opinion and it appears both monitors are TN, just the Acer is good for an AMD and the ASUS is good for NVIDIA.