At least they're playing good games and having a good time though
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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Building the computer was the hobby. The games are incidental to the former
Why bother with new games when you can play old games on max settings and/or mod the ever-loving crap out of them?
The purpose of fancy PCs is to run Minecraft with shaders and a bunch of mods
That's all my gaming laptop is doing, and it was fully worth the money.
I have a 7 year old desktop PC that 3 of the memory slot is dead. So I can only run a 8gb single memory slot.
It has a GTX 2070 and I'm still able to run 90% of the games I want to play.
Forza 5, Split Fiction, BeamNG(this one is def maxing it out).
Maybe I'll just buy a used motherboard, haha
Oh brother 8gb of singe rank memory is killing whatever CPU you got. The amount of stutters it must produce is killing me from around the world
It helps when I run nothing besides the game and shut down all other processes.
The only real trouble I have is with beamng.drive
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Windows, on 8GB, can function with around 1.5GB. If your game only uses 6GB, which most games from a few years ago can do at medium settings, you can actually run that game.
Yes but only 1 stick runs significantly slower and with more stutters than 2 sticks. Same way 2 sticks with SR will run slower than 2 stick of DR
To allow the memory capacitors to recharge between actions there are delays or "timings" set for each type of action, row and bank. Having more available banks will make sure the controller only has to use the short delays set instead of the repeat action long delays.
There is a big difference between being able to start a game and not kneecapping your CPU.
only 1 stick runs significantly slower
Eh, I think that's overhyped. It does matter, but mostly for CPU-bound tasks. If you are CPU bound, you could maybe see 15-20% FPS uplift (quite hype), but if not, it'll be a lot smaller difference.
Definitely prefer dual channel over single channel, but IMO it's not worth buying a new mobo just to get dual channel RAM.
It can be more than 100% in 1% and .1% lows, which is more important than the 20% avg fps. And 20% is basically a cpu upgrade And since its most likely 8gb SR ddr4 its actually 1 rank vs 2x dual rank which can be a bigger difference. A single DR 16gb stick wouldn't be as bad.
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My mom wanted a "laptop that wouldn't freeze or get obsolete fast" and had a 17" screen. Had to direct her to one of Acer's weaker gaming setups. The most demanding stuff she plays are those hidden object games that you also find on phones. Wasted potential, but she's been happy and without a single complaint of it slowing down in 2 years
We got an Alienware R8 then had kids. It's played media center and main computer/storage for our entire house for almost a decade with zero problems and gets used for hours and hours every day. We've even moved it cross country a few times. I don't think anyone has ever played a real game on it.
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I mean, you can’t really overspend on a pc. If you treat ur parts right, that overspending will simply turn to a very long lasting investment into a machine that won’t be obsolete for over a decade to come.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Wait you were serious?
Edit: people are downvoting probably because they... bought into this idea. Price per performance is a thing. These days the higher the price the more expensive the performace gets, because it prices in the premium associated with the extra budget of morons that fill a void in their life buy owning the latest whatever.
Yes price:performance is a thing, but some people are also bad with their money.
Me personally, I only ever come into enough money to build a PC once every 7-10 years, so I will build the best possible machine that money can buy, so that it lasts me as long as possible while I'm surviving on ramen.
Two years ago I built a rig 7700X and a 4090; I plan on hanging onto this machine for well into the 2030s. It's definitely a lot easier to this with an AMD system—that's for sure—given that they have a reputation of supporting CPU sockets for a long time.
There tends to be a correlation between quality, longevity, and price. It's not a perfect fit but it's definitely a thing that exists.
I built a brand new cutting edge PC for a family member in 2011. They wanted to change careers and get into IT and figured they needed the bestest fastest PC they could afford. Anyway, it worked great until they decided it was time for a new one in 2019. I got to keep the 2011 PC in exchange for some assistance with selecting components for the new build. I put in a shiny new SDD, ebayed 16GB of old RAM that was the fastest thing the motherboard could handle, and I'm still using it as my primary server / workstation / web browser / cloud backup automation controller / etc. It cost more upfront but the amount of time that 2 different people have not spent with fucking around building new PCs has more than offset that in my opinion.
So this PC is on its 3rd round of HDDs and 2nd round of RAM but that was only to boost performance, not because of a hardware failure. I haven't lost a power supply, motherboard cap, fan motor, or USB port on it yet. That's pretty remarkable for a 14 year old machine that's been running 24/7. The 2019 build hasn't had a hiccup in almost 6 years now either.
the amount of time
And how much do you value your time?
Here's the history of my PC:
- 2010 - built PC - ~$500 - Phenom II X4 + onboard graphics
- 2015 - added GTX 960 to play games - <$300
- 2017 - replaced w/ Ryzen 1700 build - ~$800 - new mobo, CPU, RAM, PSU - kept boot drive from OG build
- 2018 - upgraded to NVMe drive - $200 - repurpose old Phenom II x4 build as NAS w/ older drive (SSD) - ~$200 (doesn't count NAS drives)
- 2022 - upgrade CPU to 5600, GPU to 6650XT - $430
- 2024 - moved to ITX case - ~$400 - new mobo and case, kept same PSU - upgraded NAS to old 1700 CPU, better case, etc
So, in 14 years, I've done 5 upgrades, each of which took something like 30 min. Total spent, $2700, so <$200/year. That's less than many pre-builts, which are often replaced after 5 years. Idk about you, but this is a really good tradeoff for time vs money.
PC gaming is a really cheap hobby as far as hobbies go. A good experience is only a few thousand dollar a decade
So I went back and found some receipts, and it turns out that we're pretty much on the same page. This thing was actually about $900 of hardware, which was basically a higher end mid tier build. I remember looking for high quality components but I wasn't grabbing high performance ones. I've probably spent $300 on drives and RAM so cost per year is under $100.
As far as how much I value my time - one does not spend a mere 30 minutes swapping a mainboard out of the everything-box that runs all your shit, so I value hardware stability quite a bit. I moved most of the time-consuming compatibility hacks into docker containers the last time around so hopefully it's a lot easier next time. I have to deal with this stuff all day long at work so my appetite for PC projects at home is very low. If I can throw some more cash at it to stave off the need to swap out a drive or even the whole PC for a couple more years I'll gladly do it.
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I worked in pc sales way back, I used the exact same line that you just used to get people to spend more. "You can't really overspend on a pc, it's a long term investment." Honestly it's bullshit, you definitely overspend and you will if you're not careful.
You can overspend by buying the wrong parts. The classic move is getting the wrong motherboard for your use case (most people don't overclock). Another similar move is getting a flagship processor while not actually needing the extra processing power (most people are better off putting that money in their gpu).
Then there's RGB, designer cases, fancy keyboards and all sorts of other stuff.
I upgraded my GPU from a perfectly slient 2070super that ran all my games. To a 6800xt which is loud as fuck. The only positive is that ive had 0 Wayland issues.
Worth it.
You should check the thermal pads/paste
My gpu used to overheat and turn my pc off until I opened it and realized the paste was legit hardened clay
Gave it a cleaning and replaced all the paste and pads and it works pretty nice now
Its not overheating the fans barely spin but they make an annoying noise when they do.
Hmm might just be an unlucky design. Either that or the fan motor is squeaking from lack of lubricant.
Even if a lot of the games I play don't need a lot of power to get a decent fps, I appreciate the low load times.
Agreed; when you have a modern machine with a fast CPU and a PCIe 5.0 NVME, loading screens no longer exist in ~~any~~ most games that are at least a couple of years old.
It's been at the point for a while where I appreciate loading screens that want a button pressed afterwards because otherwise it's just a frustrating hint of a hint that I don't have time to read.
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My little brother is autistic and plays old school Runeescape on a the craziest rig. Massive 4k ultra wide monitor. The best GPU on the market waiting for the next new GPU to come out. Has the best possible internet package.
All that and hes still going to lose his hardcore to a jagex server DC.
This anecdote brings me a lot of joy for some reason haha.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug
Some of my favorites from back in the day are just so dated by this point that the nostalgia isnt cutting it. Modern games dont hit the same, old games dont play right...
It's me, but I haven't saved up enough yet. Even after having seen this, and understanding it, I still want it. ;-;
I put away $10 a week and do this every 8 years. I don't even notice $10 a week missing. I don't care if it's over kill or wasteful at that point. Probably would have just wasted it anyway.
I also spend the whole 8 years making up random builds that I know will be obsolete by the time I actually buy it.
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only 1000 to play vrchat with a friendly group of masturbating
i do. playing old games on high fps is simply awsome. also new games run like garbage. (aaa, not indie)
They're called "aaa" because that's the sound you make when you find out how bad they run on your new rig.
No thanks, I'll just keep playing Morrowind on my 2009 Toshiba
It has become a sort of tradition for me to play some sort of game that really doesn't need the performance as the first game on any new computer I get.
It's so satisfying to see mangohud jumping into the hundreds of FPS while knowing the game is cranking the highest quality image fidelity it is capable of. It's like taking an apartment dog to a park and releasing the leash. Run baby, run as fast as you can.
Dwarf Fortress (old style ASCII mode) is a good one after buying a new graphics card.
The good news is I can finally get a stable 45fps in the original Crysis. 😃
Only reason I need a new PC is my CPU being too old for POE2 and also too slow for stellaris, that's not a lot
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