Back in 2006-2009 I was just starting my adventure in to building PC's, as soon as the price of the new hardware hit my budget I would upgrade.
Nothing was planned. I spent and wasted money.. yes I got experiance in exchange but if I was more organised.. wow I could have done so much more. PC building great and all, but there is a life outside, and going to the cinema every so often should be part of my plans, just for the experience, going into town to a cafe and get a few things at poundland.. just for fun..should be a regular occurrence. remind myself why I do what I do by doing something different.
Builders can upgrade often.. everything can be exchanged to another similar part. and you can do that all the year long. but if you're doing it and not seeing big improvements.. honestly..really.. you're just wasting money. you need a SSD and decent amount of RAM & 4 cores and you'll probably have a good windows experience.
This is where 'planning your hardware refresh' comes in..
Depending on what you like and the games you play.. you probably should be thinking 4 years, when you do a build or re-build, plan for the event of 4 years, but YMMV all the jazz.. I try to every 3 years for good reason, because I buy compound cheap, like I bought 3 SanDisk SSD's cheap.. super cheap, and then found while they were meant to be all SATA3 all the way.. I suspect they have most of the parts but then a SATA2 controller chip inside >_<.. so they needed to be replaced after a year to sata3. my 660ti's great run! value for money! but now dead.. but even if they weren't dead I can't survive on 2gb anymore.. its just not enough vram.
My modded Skyrim is 2556 MB, no wonder i was getting such slow-downs and crashes!
All this means due to my budget, I should plan a hardware refresh every 3 years. Most companies go for four, including silicone manufacturers so you should too. Plan at the start of Nvidia or AMD or Intel's refresh*.. which ever you choose and like the most. if you are also planning a backup rig.. choose the other company to understand why and what they offer too, so your experience is educated with real world knowledge and not just nerd-internet-myths.
hope this was the nail you needed to finish that bookshelf.. a thought in the ether, sensible shoes.
peace.
Dava
* it's actually two years for cards, and four years for chipsets, but the cards are usually older branded ones from the last generation.. so every 4 years.
pretty much.. everyone of you already know this kind of stuff..but if your family don't: trying to explain to them 'what's what' of computing can be a pain in the rear. So to aid you in your quest of easily explaining 'what a computer is' to your family and uninitiated friends..
Here is Dava's guide to computers. enjoy!
Using the traffic analogy means we need vehicles to traverse the World. .. 'World Wide Web' that is.
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Smartphone: bicycle (3" to 7")
neat and speedy, low feature but attractive and easy.
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Tablet : multi speed mountain bicycle (6" to 9")
larger and more rugged, still low feature.
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Netbook: Moped (7" to 12")
very easy operation, convenient design, but too low a power for harder tasks.
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Notebook: Deluxe Motorcycle. (12" to 14")
fully featured, quick, easy to use. but cannot do any heavy lifting.
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Laptop : Ducati Racing Motorcycle (15" to 19" upwards)
ultra featured, usually can game if the specifications are of a premium standard, like the screen. but in many cases still not as powerful as a desktop.
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Nettop : 1.0 L Car.
basic. usually used as a home streaming receiver device. fast browsing. but cannot do the main computing tasks associated with a desktop. high features with low power.
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Home Theater PC : small van.
streaming server. usually high capacity (drives). high feature (full windows). but struggles with the more difficult tasks.
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Desktop Personal Computer : Saloon/Sedan Car.
Fully featured. can complete tasks within an expected time. can do everything the previous computers can. fast browsing. but is loud, unless treated for loudness. can get internally messy if not treated.
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Performance Computer : Ferrari or Lamborghini , Performance SuperCar.
Ultra featured. can do any task quickly, easily. can game.
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Workstation Computer : Mercedes G63 6x6 Super Jeep. Lotus Elise, light-weight and precise.
again they can do everything the previous computers can and more. *some* are lower powered for specific reasons and *some* are given alternate parts for a specific reason.
Sub-styles of workstation.
DAW: Lotus Elise, light-weight and precise.
Digital Audio Workstation.
RAM is ECC. unbuffered.
high amount of RAM.
often aftermarket or secondary sound card.
VEEW or VidEnc : Mercedes G63 6x6 Super Jeep.
Video Encoding & Editing Workstation.
RAM is ECC. registered.
high amount of RAM.
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Server Computer: 18 wheel Lorry
Can do all the tasks previously if equipped correctly, but is not designed to. manages security, file transfer and ip allocation. can move HUGE amounts of data easily. gets HOT! requires climate controlled area operation.
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all of the above is of course, subject to conditions, and year.. that means a netbook from 2010 will kill out right.. like B in Kill Bill with a sword.. a desktop from 2000. values are relative. much like your family. :)
Do you like nostalgia gaming? I do.. I like the Dreamcast.
I'd like to see Sega re-issue and dev on PC, using Steam as their distribution service. that way they don't have to invest in hardware and we get get all the old Dreamcast games and new ones, without restriction. just use your fav controller and done!
I also think publishers having their own pages on Steam would be great, giving them a storefront on Steam...and I'd like a 'Dreamcast Zone' on their own Sega Steam page. Ultimately 'why not?' is my question.. they just sell games..people buy the games. simple.
I am concerned at pricing though.. as these games should come in at *I feel* around £2.99 each. why? coz you can get a current AAA for a tenner, and these dreamcast games are over a decade old, it like when an indie publisher puts something out and I'm like 'what the flip?? £10, £20??' when what you basically get is an old NES title with an updated story. dont get me wrong some indies are just staggeringly amazing.. and I dont regret buying Stanley Parable at full price..or even when I tried Kairo and thought I got a total bargain.
But what they are selling is nostalgia..and for £2.99 its worth a try even if your memories are golden and your new experience is not.. for £10.. noooo you feel ripped off and handed a bruised ego.
As for hardware.. the Dreamcast is now gone.. and I genuinely feel it shouldn't come back, few years ago I never would have said that.. but I'm a PC gamer now..to me the PC just makes sense as a platform for Sega.. no restrictions, no one tells them to cough up for licenses or you can't do that on our platform its too close to something we do.. etc etc.
Sega has so many titles that could be re-issued.. and when the re-issue is successful ..why not bring out a new game continuing the series? it's simple for them. really.
I wish they would re-issue Shenmue 1 & 2, House of the Dead and Soulcalibur .. where else are we going to get legit Dreamcast games without actually using a Dreamcast?
With the recent and (current) Sega Humble Bundle I now have Dreamcast games as part of my Steam collection and not having to pay full price.. kudos to Sega..'back in the game!' as a publisher!
If you're new to PC gaming or haven't paid attention to how graphics cards work (we've all been there).. or if you say this often; My CPUS seem FASTZ! why no GOOD GRAFIX?? bad feelz! haha
There is a simple way to remember all this graphics card junk.
Shaders.. MOAR shaderz!!
2000+ shaderz + decent other core parts + decent Vram (2GB/3GB/4GB/MOAR!)
Means you can pace at a decent frame rate.. Crossfire and SLI for each card doubles many of these things but not all. SLI scaling is something beautiful these days.. I haven't tried Crossfire but AMD guys seem to keep complaining about the drivers and with my new, 280x I can see why, with gimped features. ...lovin' the 3GB Vram & 2048 shaders though.
Each of the 2048 shader cores has a clock rate just like your CPU.. speed them up and the PC finds it easier to create the game.
These days I would recommend no less than 1024 shaders for any medium 1080p gaming build. but really you should be thinking about trying to get around 1500+ & 2GB of Vram for a medium build.
Rob mentioned James' GTX 660ti 3GB, that's a great card, and he's correct, these days Vram is sooo important for many games, simply put: the shaders and AA (detail) are what you see, the Vram is how quickly it is loaded. there's more about bit bus but thats for another day.
If you dial up the settings to maxout, everything's going to slow down becuase that takes a lot more work.. so less shaders means you put lower settings and everything will work as it should. or overclock the shaders you have..but be careful you don't burn down your house or fry the card or go on holiday to the seaside for a decorative hat.
left the PC on battlefield!
paused!
Of course there's loads more factors but these days as long are you have a reasonable CPU (current gen for AMD and Intel) and 8 to 32GB of RAM (I recommend 16GB @ 1866mhz) you should be G2G.. SSD doesn't hurt either. but HDD 7200rpm yes will run games fine.
External Power Supplies & Secondary PSU's have been in demand for around a decade now.. but as yet, no one company has stepped up to the challenge; With the exception of NesteQ, which is altogether ugly solution, I still commend them for trying.
Where is FSP? Where is NZXT? Where is Zalman? Where is EVGA?
Have you too many optical bays?? I do too.. if we could get a extra PSU to fit within these extra bays, and a power header cable to connect that would be great! instead of the case power switch connecting straight to the motherboard it could have its own recessed slot in the secondary PSU, which then has a similar cable leading to the motherboard to trip the primary PSU via the normal motherboard method.
WHY would anyone want these.. I think manuf. think 'this is crazy, these guys spend a fortune on their rigs and don't want to buy a higher wattage PSU??' to reply, sometimes, it's just far too much hassle to disassemble your rig*, especially if you're on water, other times, it becomes totally impractical, for instance if you were to buy a PSU and only need another 200w for a third graphics card, speaking from experience there.. and in my situation right now.. I have a HP* proprietary PSU, non-standard ATX with pins the wrong way round. its £120 for the 600w version, which is just insulting.
If I could buy a Secondary 500w 80plus bronze PSU for £60, that would solve my problem.. I could have as many cards as I wish in my PC. to be clear, that's what I feel many want that ability for; to power all their cards and a few drives.. that's it.
The big ugly cable problem.. well I thought of a solution to that problem..have a clip for one of the back card slots and once the cable is inside the PC.. it doesn't need to be big and ugly anymore huh? just a normal slim one with very generous slack enabling us to cable tidy. individual wires still somewhat thick and each can be routed to the power in port which no longer needs to be a kettle plug, but could be for each power wire.
The PCIE and drive power cables could be very flat and be ready to to be hidden. sleeving could be another option, but now more and more retailers are selling sleeving, which is frankly superb!
Sometimes companies are dumb.. they see a market but for whatever reason they don't take advantage of it.. this is ten years of people asking for secondary and external PSU's.. so I guess who is first to this market will clean up.. and then THEY will be the ones in the need of a calculator not us! :D
peace
Dava
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*if I have my PC settled and I dont want to mess with it and just make a slight upgrade, this becomes first choice!
*Don't get me wrong HP are coming along these days, the old HP I hope is changing. Buying their products at times is little like buying Mac, but then they had that nightmare of a website for many many years.
I have a HP Z400/W3550 then w/X5650 Xeon upgraded .. got this PC a three weeks ago, very happy.
In my last post I wrote about Bethesda's release schedule & Development for future Devs but I also mentioned their sister studio Zenimax Online in the notes.. this reminded me of a pet hate I have, that I have not had to think about for many many years.. advertising campaigns; ones that are so far from the reality of the playing experiance it ruins the game. ..seriously.
To let the corps know.. give your ad dept half a chance and they will ruin your game.. full stop. It is widely known in the advertising industry, biggest liar wins if they fool their corp heads. for games the biggest liars are the renderers.. they render a cartoon of something, because they do not feel the game is strong enough for 'in-game footage only' or they are inexperienced in the particular industry they are promoting the product to.
I am not going to be unkind to those guys.. they are just doing a job, but if you watch the movie 'crazy people' there was a revolution in the advertising industry around 25 years ago. This movie is a parody of the quite real revolution.. which was started by the people who advertised 'Ronseal', this was the first advert to tell customers the truth, and they responded in droves. Ronseal is a wood and metal sealer, to protect your outside structures from the weather.
'does exactly what is says on the tin'
Very famous lines, and a practicality that meant people knew they were not lied to.
Zenimax Online's ESO advert, was appalling compared to the actual in game event, which from what I have seen was nothing more than a small place with a few NPC's fighting.
To Zenimax Online, you are a new studio, so mistakes will be made, that's just life, but I'm sure you know and accept this. However, you need to keep a very tight rein on your ad department from now on.. it's a little like, the 'cock of the walk' biggest liar wins works in many industries, they are taught this..but not in the games industry.. and ESPECIALLY in sub-based MMO's as you have now found out regarding all the hate fans poured out for you. 'cagey'.. is not even a sufficient word for a new MMO advert.. you will make already dedicated fans into crazy fans quite easily with even a small shift change in the format of the game..RENDERING a advert is suicide. Blizzard/WoW Valve/DoTA get away with slight rendering because their fans already know what to expect, you were launching a new game, oh man!
please keep in mind, for MMO's, the ad dept is like a seagull and you have a sandwich.. the seagull wants the sandwich and if you let your guard down, it will take it from you, and all you're left with is a mess on the ground. Finding Nemo; 'MINE!'.
Of course, you can do mixes of rendering and in-game footage for single player games.. gamers in-general HATE it, but yeah it can be done..we ONLY like in game footage.. it makes us happy.
Gearbox/2k advertised 'A BAZILLION GUNS' all with in-game footage.. were we disappointed? no! fans still flock to that game. that was smart. that was truthful.
Sony did an excellent job controlling the hype of DCUO, at first its just a render cartoon, and while you are watching you're thinking 'ohw man it's never going to be *this* good.. they probably won't including flying, the powers will be limited and the girls much less sexy'.. well.. that was, wrong, wrong and wrong. And while it sounds hypocritical, once you can fly around the TWO full cities at leisure, you start to see the beauty of what they were doing, but not just any cities, these are ones I have known since childhood, Metropolis and Gotham... rem DCUO is Free2Play too, and only a £5 purchase means you get a slight upgrade to membership permanently, without subscription.
But what Sony really did correctly is how they structured your involvement in said cartoon, you were the answer to their (the Justice League's) problem, I'm finding this hard to explain this without you knowing the specifics, but you were the answer and in this they DID NOT lie. and they didn't gimp the powers either, neither for free or premium or Sub-based (Legendary).. you have access to all Superman's powers right from the start, to Batman's, to Wonder Womans.
So you are about to tell a child there is no Santa.. how can you be so cruel to formally tell them they are about to receive their true wish, 'if you good and are on the good list and buy our game'; knowing all along it is a lie.
YOU just can't do that with MMO's. the hate will haunt Zenimax and the employees for a few years yet. And that's a shame coz for *some* moronic reason, the ad dept did NOT focus on the truly awesome size of ESO, which in itself is a HUGE selling point for fans. whyyy?? just be honest..there was no reason to render a lie when you have already a MASSIVE selling point.. ESO is a continent.. Tamriel. showing this in adverts( again in-game only), at least would have controlled the hype, and not lead to disappointment, and much nerd-rage..tbh WELL deserved nerd-rage.
Here is games reviewer Angry Joe's vid on ESO.
I heartily agree with him on many many points.
You can't milk a long term investment without hurting your long-term credibility as a company.
MMO's are 'drip-drip' not 'cash-cash'.
So yesterday I saw a mention of Tango & Bethesda's 'The Evil Within' instantly I knew it was a remake of Silent Hill, looks well done after watching the vid. yes, Capcom* will be mad haha.
What they are doing is smart business.. they are expanding their portfolio..they are a big hitter now, and have both a weight on their shoulders, and great opportunities. But with that comes 'Great Expectations'...
I am a huge Fallout fan.. having around 3000 hours play*.. I am waiting for Fallout 4, but I realise they are milking while waiting, but like I said that's smart business practice.. what I don't appreciate is the schedule.
Here is hopefully peacefully*, a schedule that I feel is fair to both devs and players.
Dev's have 4 years to make a main game, with a 2 year schedule for a second tier, second tier doesn't mean 'second rate' it is the experimental branch of the main series given to a similar studio, with similar ideas for a release 2 years after the main title*, this alleviates the gamers desires. boosts profits, and builds the series into a franchise. also I feel, just smart business practise.
As a company if you get a lot of 'Shut up and take my money' from fans, then they have unsated desires, and you have business opportunity*, Beth is amazing with fans, really, the GECK with an all out stoke of genius, shows a kind side in a business where that is hard to do without putting work into something and giving it away for free, the exception being the kit itself, but then the ten's of thousands of mods users get mods for free from ModDevs.. who Beth are again being the leader of the industry in encouraging the new talent to code and texture from grass roots.. again genius, beneficent.
I want a new Fallout.. flip I think there are people in the arctic who want a new fallout..its been too long, the GECK takes the pressure off for now, and we have Skyrim to play with and pretend its Fallout..but I can't help feeling Beth could have asked Obsidian to put out another Fallout in the meantime.. even approaching Dev Teams* and suggesting funding and direction, seeing the skill and sharing the skill between both. Dev Teams have real-life jobs, OB could provide a future to such teams..saying if you're in, then we will re-hire you for our second tier. And while the project was being finished, hire & pay them for the duration. that's good stuff on your resume.. hired by Obsidian..wow.
tbh I'd have paid for Project Brazil.. around £5 sounds fair. mini-quel three-parter easy money, why? because the devs love what they are doing.. you really think they clock off at 5?* haha.
Skyrim's engine supports HDT physics, this makes me think that if these engines are/were in some way modular, why not all engines, why do we need multiple engines.. couldn't the industry as a whole come together in a initiative, and make ONE game engine, that is FULLY modular, like browsers are these days, when skyrim came out, there was no physics, now with a simple* plug-in and the coding of the game from the ground up.. it's possible.. ANYTHING is possible, textures can always be added, so as long as the engine can handle what is going on, it won't crash, so a *highly* stable engine under a myriad of conditional plug-ins. We Beth fans oft joke about Beth's coding (well for fallout hehe)..but they have improved drastically in the last ten years..
Fallout was 2007 but like the weather 'feels like 2004'.
but they have improved drastically in the last 7 years. :))
Is this a trite whine for Fallout 4..?..?... YOU BET!
You are amazing but now you are disparaging people who obviously believe in you. myself included. .. 7 years is not good enough and no amount of Silent Hill's will make that to a professional release standard.
here's some music I was listening to while writing.. I found it apt.
yes she has boobs.. but shhh.. she might not notice.
peace.
Dava
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* update: (oops Konami.. Capcom was Res. Evil)
*3 Xbox plays inc. my brothers + PC
* (even though I'm pretty nerd-raged haha)
*with each main title come an updated/upgraded engine/graphics & physics scheme, and the main game can contain the choicest picks from the second tier ideas that were liked, and ditch the unpopular ones. it's win win!
* (Project Brazil unfinished )
* I hear on youtube, many are displeased with Zenimax Studios/ ESO, while they are a new studio, they broke the cardinal rule: never overhype.
if a online MMO doesn't do hype well.. believe me it gets talked about coz of the subscription based nature.. this is something I feel Sony avoided with DCUO, they did exactly what it said on the tin..keeps the crazy fans calm..you are telling a child there is no Santa, try it again without the crystal meth. that comment is aimed at the advert Zenimax Online had; that 'Angry Joe' a games reviewer, so succinctly demonstrated, was not only far from advertised, was poor for inde devs, nevermind a company with funding. ..much funding. rem to keep a tight leash on the ad dept, they will ruin your game given half a chance. IF your game is NOT good enough for 'in game footage only' then there is something wrong with the game. period.
* ease of use for end users
*I DO NOT endorse overworking though, as with the legend of Bondi studios.. what was revealed, was truly shocking, and I commend R* for stepping in and being merciful to those workers.
