Need some help with teh PC Geeks

[Dodd Formeianna]

Hey everyone,

Hope all is well. Myr and I are still kicking around, albeit our web presence has been pretty much null these days. I need your halp, especially those knowledgeable in the PC realm.

My PC is taking forever to boot these days, and the hard drive is making painful audible noises whenever I boot up software. I think the power supply is toast, because every time I turn off my PC, I need to unplug it 2-3 times and count to 10 before it willfully turns back on. And when I reset my home network router, my PC automatically shuts off (a really cool new feature, I might add). I've owned it since 2007-2008 (I can't remember exactly when I bought it), and in speaking with some knowledgeable people, the components are dated, excepting an SSD and gfx card, which I bought fairly recently for in my SWTOR stint. I'm thinking of taking advantage of some boxing day sales next week to procure a new PC.

What are the going specs these days for a mid-level gaming PC? I don't care about high end, just something that will last me another 4-5 years and I can slowly swap components, if needed. I'll probably line up at tigerdirect next Thursday in the morning, since I have one relatively close by. I don't really want to build a new PC, just take a base build model and swap a few odds and ends. I have no idea what the sales will be next week, but here's there current gaming line offering:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... ming%20PCs

Cheers, and thanks...

d

[Bulwark]

Honestly, these days the biggest thing for a gaming PC is going to be your graphics card. As long as you get a multi-core 64 bit processor, 8 gigs ram and an SSD, everything else is gravy. Tom's Hardware usually has a pretty good guide for graphics cards at various price ranges. You can probably find one in the category you are looking at on discount at NewEgg.

[Staris]

If your not wanting to build it yourself the systems you showed on tigerdirect aren't bad. My only complain, it is more or less a personal preference, is that there is only one hard drive in the systems I looked at and I would rather have the operating system on a separate hard-drive preferably ssd with enough room to hold a couple of my important games and then a large storage for everything else.

Another place to look where I got my current system and am completely satisfied with would be http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/. They do start around the same range as tiger on the low end but It can be pretty easy to go much higher with the customization options.

Just as an example http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1FP0HB. I didn't pick the best in slots, I did upgrade the video card to a good middle tier so that could be improved or downgraded as desired, but was picking some free upgrades which are obviously not going to still be available long term.

[Dodd Formeianna]

Thanks guys - I currently have a 20GB SSD, which I was using for gaming, and intending on swapping to the new PC. Should I add more SSD disk space? I've heard that ideally, an o/s install on an SSD makes bootups super fast.

[Marrkin]

Honestly I wouldn't go with anything less than a 120gb SSD. I have one installed with 2 games on that drive and I only have ~30gb free at any given time.

Everything else I place on my other HDD drives.

Recently there have been tons of sales on 1tb and 2tb HDD's at Newegg.com... plug one of those in with a 120ssd and you should be pretty set.

Sent using smoke signals from my campfire.

[Maizan]

Dido on all of the above.

if you need a hand, give me a call offline.

Maizan

[Fynn]

[Furiel]

I just want to vouch for what Starel said about Cyberpower. I bought a gaming laptop from them years ago and the only problem I've ever had with it was when the CPU fan died about 5 years after I got it. I actually still have that laptop and I use it as a netbook at work occasionally, and it's gotta be 7 years old at least and still runs like a champ.

[Blackferne]

J.D.: If my heart could write songs, they'd sound like these.

[Dodd Formeianna]

Hai guyz.
This may be the one...
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... -101777752
Thoughts?

Will likely add a 120 GB SSD.

[Staris]

not bad with the additional harddrive, only complain would be windows 8, the only question I would have is if your plan is to put the operating system on the ssd is if they would include the disks to actually do that is everything already set up with out the ability to reformat without their recovery.

Might be worth while to see if IBUY allows for customizations on their store to set it so the ssd is that main thus operating system on it as well as the potential for getting 7 instead. The one draw back would be having to wait longer to get it since its not a stock system at that point.

[Dodd Formeianna]

I got my PC over the holidays. I threw on a 120GB SSD. After much pain and heartache, I successfully reinstalled Windows 8.1 on the SSD and reformatted the other hard drive. Then changed the BIOS settings. The thing now takes less than 10 seconds to boot up. Sweet.

My only complaint is that while I have most of the firmware updated and my antivirus running off the SSD, Win 8.1 seems to want to throw everything else on the primary drive as well (which is my SSD), most notably all my user data, which I can't seem to remap (photos, videos, music, etc. - only my documents). Yay for Microsoft, and their awesome forward thinking. Seeing as I only have about 85GB left to spare, I suspect this could get eaten up quickly if not managed properly. I've remapped my itunes successfully to my network, and for the most part all my photos and vids get stored on my home network anyway, so it's not the end of the world.

I secured another 120GB SSD as a secondary drive (for games, etc.) - hopefully will arrive today, and will have my regular 1TB hard drive remapped as a tertiary for all my work stuff. Add to that I'll have my new Razer gaming keyboard. All in all, it was a super deal for under a grand.

Thanks guys!!!

Now...if I could only find a fun game to play, and maybe even team up with a good guild to play with...

[Maizan]

If you go into libraries and expand each of the libraries to show the folders. Under the properties (right click on documents etc and select properties), there is a location tab so that you can move the default folders someplace else.

Happy moving and happy nude year.

Maizan

[Bulwark]

Now...if I could only find a fun game to play, and maybe even team up with a good guild to play with...

I've been playing Mech Warrior Online with some friends every Monday night. It's well implemented, good eye candy and FTP (not P2W).
http://mwomercs.com

[Blackferne]

Now...if I could only find a fun game to play, and maybe even team up with a good guild to play with...

I've been playing Mech Warrior Online with some friends every Monday night. It's well implemented, good eye candy and FTP (not P2W).
http://mwomercs.com

Is it like TF2 in that you choose a mech for a class (some minor tweaking like in TF2 with items)?

[Bulwark]

Is it like TF2 in that you choose a mech for a class (some minor tweaking like in TF2 with items)?

Not exactly. You choose a Chassis. Each Chassis has 4 or so variants. each variant allows different weapon types is different places on your mech. For example, One of the Spyder varients allows 2 laser weapons in the left arm and 1 in the center torso, while another variant allows 2 ballistic weapons in each arm and a single laser in the torso. Each mech has a max weight it supports. Lighter mechs move faster, but can hold less armor and weapons. Heavier mechs are the opposite. Also, each variant has a limit to the max engine size it can support (this is not necessarily related to the weight of the mech). So you can have 2 50 ton mechs where one has a max engine size of 220 and another at 300. This all gives each mech it's own "personality". Each weapon has their own personality as well. Laser weapons have no ammo, but create a lot of heat (necessitating adding heat sinks to your mech). Ballistic weapons have reduced heat and pinpoint damage, but require ammunition. Nothing sucks like being at the end of a match, but having no ammo left. Missile weapons have high damage and do not require line of sight, but have a slow reload time as well as heat and ammo. The game has 4 "trial" mechs that everyone can play with to get a feel for mechs of different weights and weapon loadouts.

There is also experience you gain from playing games that you can use to improve the performance of your mech (faster speed, reduced heat, faster turning, etc). You also earn cash for each match that you can use to buy different weapons and mechs. Matches generally last less than 10 minutes, so it is an easy game to pick up and play for a bit and doesn't require any real time commitment. And while you can spend your in game cash to customize your mechs, the benefits are not enough to gimp someone starting with a stock mech.

There is a good mechlab site that lets you play around with customizations and see what you like: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/

[Furiel]

Hrm, I might have to check that out, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Mechwarrior. I loved the games and I actually have a ton of the books and map sets from college when I spent a summer playing the PNP version.

I just wish they would come out with a Shadowrun MMO someday. But I can see where that would be too dark and dystopian for most mainstream tastes to accept.

[Bulwark]

It's pretty fun. They have close to 30 mechs in the game now, with 1 or 2 new ones showing up every month. Also, the Clan invasion starts this summer, so clan mechs and tech will hit then. They have a render of a madcat on their website and it has a very nice design.
They put a lot of effort into balance so that no mech is overpowered by any other. There is a lot of rock paper scissors to it. In a light mech, I can easily out maneuver an assault mech and take it down without getting killed, but the Assault is murder to Heavy and Medium mechs because of it's insane armor values. They also did a nice job of making the Heavy mechs have more firepower and the Assaults be more armored, so they all play a role.

[Happyclam]

I got a Maingear laptop a couple of months ago and it's actually pretty good. Custom laptops can be a bit pricey though, but so far it's holding up well and plays games great.

As for MWO, I play that. I got into it way back when, in alpha and such. It is pretty decent and has the capability of just being a drop in casual game you don't have to spend tons of time in to wait to play and such.

[Dodd Formeianna]

I got a Maingear laptop a couple of months ago and it's actually pretty good. Custom laptops can be a bit pricey though, but so far it's holding up well and plays games great.

As for MWO, I play that. I got into it way back when, in alpha and such. It is pretty decent and has the capability of just being a drop in casual game you don't have to spend tons of time in to wait to play and such.

Sounds like the makings of a church picnic?

I installed MWO yesterday and promptly got my ass handed to me when attempting to play it.

[Happyclam]

I got a Maingear laptop a couple of months ago and it's actually pretty good. Custom laptops can be a bit pricey though, but so far it's holding up well and plays games great.

As for MWO, I play that. I got into it way back when, in alpha and such. It is pretty decent and has the capability of just being a drop in casual game you don't have to spend tons of time in to wait to play and such.

Sounds like the makings of a church picnic?

I installed MWO yesterday and promptly got my ass handed to me when attempting to play it.

Hahah. NOOB!

You actually need to do some research as to the mech you're piloting and such. They've done well to reflect damage and such, so you need to know how many hits you can take from what weapons. Also, if you're in a light mech, speed is your advantage, because one shot will pretty much cripple you almost, so you gotta pay attention to the map and such. As far as assault, try not to get ganged and concentrate on one mech at a time. With voice, it's a lot easier to coordinate.

[Furiel]

I got a Maingear laptop a couple of months ago and it's actually pretty good. Custom laptops can be a bit pricey though, but so far it's holding up well and plays games great.

As for MWO, I play that. I got into it way back when, in alpha and such. It is pretty decent and has the capability of just being a drop in casual game you don't have to spend tons of time in to wait to play and such.

Sounds like the makings of a church picnic?

I installed MWO yesterday and promptly got my ass handed to me when attempting to play it.

I installed it the other day, haven't played yet. I've been reading the forums a lot trying to find tips and tricks and one of the biggest ones I found was how to game the system a bit to get some extra cash up front.

1) they have what's called a cadet bonus, which is you get bonus cash for your first 25 matches
2) when you first start your account you get a free day of premium access, premium access means you get increased xp and cash per match, but you have to redeem your premium day through the client download screen
3) so conventional thinking is that if you can jam your 25 cadet bonus matches into your 1 day of premium access even if you get your ass handed to you in each and every match you still should walk away with over 10 mil in cash, which is enough to buy and gear out a good medium or heavy mech with some money left over

I'm planning on doing that next sunday, so 8 days from now and from the reading I've done I have my eye on a Hunchback 4SP as my first mech since it's a little cheaper and I can use it to learn how to get in close and slug it out since that's how I generally preferred to play the Mechwarrior games, was get into an Heavy or Assault mech and overwhelm everything.

[Happyclam]

Well, I'm up for it. We can get a team together and field it. I have several mechs of various types.