OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

[SoMiss2000]

OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

This better:

https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16883152268

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Not a bad price considering that you'd alone are overpriced.


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[Candyman5]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

Not a bad price considering that you'd alone are overpriced.


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Youd alone? I seen the cards are up in price though.

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[Candyman5]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

I won't deter you away from upgrading Candy, but what I will say is don't get into the routine of throwing your hands up when something goes wrong and bowing out of your current rig.

Reason I say this, with PC gaming you will need to learn to diagnose issues. They don't arise often if you treat your PC right but even if you baby it, they will still pop up. I recently had an issue in which I did nothing to cause it, my sound driver just broke on its own.

I uninstalled the driver, reinstalled new driver, and the problem was still there! That is a moment of "hmmmmmm did the card go out?", but I stuck with it. Uninstalled driver, disconnected all audio cables from card, removed audio card from PCIEx1 slot, reinstalled audio card, installed new driver, lastly connected all audio cables back.....guess what, it works again as it did before. Removing card from the mobo was the main factor I believe, it was still communicating with the mobo & causing some type of hang.

It was a odd issue and one I didn't want to deal with, I only wanted to stream/game, but its part of owning a PC.

I say this not to sway you away from upgrading because if you want a better PC then hell yea do it. My general point is, get in the practice of googling and trying to identify the root of the problem, it will benefit you in the future.

PC gaming is great and its become almost as friendly as consoles in the last 5 years or so, but there is a couple key things all PC gamers should learn.

• Creating a System Image (Very important in my eyes, I do one every couple months.)
• Backing up important files (I use cloud services & physical drivers for redundancy)
• Proper PC security (virus/malware prevention)
• Keeping GPU drivers up-to-date
• Flashing Bios (very seldom needed to be done, but critical to know how)
• Maintaining a clean PC (blowing out case, keep fans clean/balanced, & making sure airflow is obstruction free)

Outside of these couple things, there isn't really much to maintain anymore. Both Nvidia & AMD's GPU software maintain driver updates for you. Steam, Uplay, Origin, etc all automatically update your games. Virus programs will automatically self-update. So 95% of your PC gaming life will be hands free and doing the things you enjoy on it. It's the 5% which can frustrate the hell out of you, just focus on the fact its a small sliver of time. Once it's taken care of, its back to gaming goodness!

Side-Note: **I highly recommend learning how to keep a system image updated monthly to quarterly. It's one of those "make life easier" preventive measures.**

How do I do a system image? Also when I have a solid state and regular harddrive, all my ganes should be on the solid state right?

Also what anti virus and anti malware software does everything recommend? I usually use Windows defender and AVG.

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[Phobia]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

How do I do a system image? Also when I have a solid state and regular harddrive, all my ganes should be on the solid state right?

Also what anti virus and anti malware software does everything recommend? I usually use Windows defender and AVG.

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System Image

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3154713/windows/how-to-create-and-restore-an-image-backup-in-windows-10.html

Hard Drive & Games
You can do it many ways but this is how I do it.

• OS on SSD
• Heavily played games SSD
• Games I play every now and then, HDD #1
• System Image, external HDD #3
• Music, Family Pictures, Important tax docs, HDD #2
• System Backup, external HDD #3

As you can see I have redundancy in my backups & important things I don't want to lose(ex. family pictures). My external drive is used for my file backups of pictures, music, etc. It is also where I house my system image. So that one external drive is very important, but what if that drive fails, so in comes a separate internal drive which I use only for all my important stuff like pictures. This way the things I don't want to lose are on 2 different drives, very unlikely both would fail at the same time.

I then have a separate drive which I use ONLY for my 150+ steam library, I keep half or more of my games installed on this drive, so if I ever get a wild hair up my *** to play something random, its ready to go.

Now my SSD, you naturally want your OS for the fast boot times & performance, but a SSD is also great in certain games, much faster loading times and smoother performance. So only my select 5 or so games I play everyday are on it.

Virus Scanner
Many out there, but I've used Webroot gamer edition for 3 years now and its been great. So I don't see myself changing anytime soon.

https://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/products/gamer-av

Malware

https://www.malwarebytes.com/

[Candyman5]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

System Image

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3154713/windows/how-to-create-and-restore-an-image-backup-in-windows-10.html

Hard Drive & Games
You can do it many ways but this is how I do it.

• OS on SSD
• Heavily played games SSD
• Games I play every now and then, HDD #1
• System Image, external HDD #3
• Music, Family Pictures, Important tax docs, HDD #2
• System Backup, external HDD #3

Virus Scanner

https://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/products/gamer-av

Malware
https://www.malwarebytes.com/

I only have 2 drives.

256 SSD and a 1 TB standard

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[ODogg]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

I only have 2 drives.

256 SSD and a 1 TB standard

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Most people just do like Phobia and put their most played/worst loading games on their SSD and the rest go on the regular drive.

I'd like to know when the tech will advance enough where we can quit fooling with 256gb drives and start getting some big 1tb ssd drives for a reasonable price though!

[Phobia]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

I only have 2 drives.

256 SSD and a 1 TB standard

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First I'd highly recommend getting a 1TB external HDD. You can pick them up for around $50 to 60 bucks. Set it as your windows backup & system image location. Once its set, you can forget about it, just come back every 3 months or so and do your system image.

Then use your 1TB internal drive for variety of games you play every now and then. Use it to store games which don't benefit from an SSD very much or singleplayer games where a few extra seconds won't matter. In many competitive multiplayer games, loading in later than everyone else can get you killed. So that's your drive for overflow games.

Lastly, OS on SSD & the 4 to 5 games you play almost every night. Mainly multiplayer games like PUBG, H1Z1Kotk, CS:GO, RB6, etc. which loading in late really puts you at a disadvantage.

You would then be set.

[Phobia]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

Most people just do like Phobia and put their most played/worst loading games on their SSD and the rest go on the regular drive.

I'd like to know when the tech will advance enough where we can quit fooling with 256gb drives and start getting some big 1tb ssd drives for a reasonable price though!

I agree, SSD's really need to start falling in price. They have plateaued at their current price point vs size. $350 bucks for 1TB SSD is a bit redonkulas and I don't understand the pricing to begin with, how is a product with less internal parts, less moving parts, and smaller/less material needed almost 6 times the price for an older platter based drive.

[Candyman5]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

First I'd highly recommend getting a 1TB external HDD. You can pick them up for around $50 to 60 bucks. Set it as your windows backup & system image location. Once its set, you can forget about it, just come back every 3 months or so and do your system image.

Then use your 1TB internal drive for variety of games you play every now and then. Use it to store games which don't benefit from an SSD very much or singleplayer games where a few extra seconds won't matter. In many competitive multiplayer games, loading in later than everyone else can get you killed. So that's your drive for overflow games.

Lastly, OS on SSD & the 4 to 5 games you play almost every night. Mainly multiplayer games like PUBG, H1Z1Kotk, CS:GO, RB6, etc. which loading in late really puts you at a disadvantage.

You would then be set.

I have a huge one I use for my xbox. Like I think 3 TB. I could use that for my PC while still having sone space specifically for my xbox one.

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[ODogg]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

I have a huge one I use for my xbox. Like I think 3 TB. I could use that for my PC while still having sone space specifically for my xbox one.

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You can't just move it between PC and Xbox One though without reformatting it.

[Candyman5]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

You can't just move it between PC and Xbox One though without reformatting it.

Cant you choose to partially reformat it?

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[Phobia]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

Cant you choose to partially reformat it?

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I know literally nothing on how the Xbox One accesses storage space. Separate partitions is a thing, but will it work that way on Xbox One, your guess is as good as mine.

I'd be inclined to say no it wouldn't work, but I'd find out from someone who knows for certain.

[ODogg]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

Cant you choose to partially reformat it?

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I know literally nothing on how the Xbox One accesses storage space. Separate partitions is a thing, but will it work that way on Xbox One, your guess is as good as mine.

I'd be inclined to say no it wouldn't work, but I'd find out from someone who knows for certain.

No, that won't work, you're talking about partitioning it and that doesn't work because when the Xbox gets media ready to utilize it will repartition and format the entire drive. There's no partial way to do it.

[SoMiss2000]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

Youd alone? I seen the cards are up in price though.

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lol meant GPU prices.

[SoMiss2000]

Re: OS Steam and Computer Gaming Thread

I agree, SSD's really need to start falling in price. They have plateaued at their current price point vs size. $350 bucks for 1TB SSD is a bit redonkulas and I don't understand the pricing to begin with, how is a product with less internal parts, less moving parts, and smaller/less material needed almost 6 times the price for an older platter based drive.

I want an m.2 drive so bad. The prices are just ridiculous.