At 33yrs old I have joined the PC master race.

[skittles]

I've been a gamer as long as I can remember, from the commodore 64 through to where we are now but I've never been pulled into PC gaming until now and I've never been so excited!

 

I have a group of PS gaming friends in Singapore and we've played a number of games together flover the last decade from destiny, overwatch, battlefield to COD but slowly but surely, people have been dropping off to play more PC games. So in a major fomo move, I've bought one too. 

 

Specs and accessories below.

 

Spoiler

 

 

I realise I could have speced up on the accessories but these will do for now. I treated myself to the latest Astro headset last month and have a 29inch curved monitor from a Singapore brand called prism+.

 

I have some serious catching up to do, I can't wait to play Anno 1800 and Valorant with the squad. What else have I missed over the last 20 years? 

 

And finally, any tips for a noob? It should arrive in a few days. What should I install/avoid? I'm guessing I'll need to get steam pretty sharpish.

 

 

[MattyP]

Enjoy the freedom!  PC gaming is like gaming on C64 on steroids :D. Nice choice of hardware BTW should keep you going for a while!

 

Although always had a PC kicking around I played mainly on consoles until late last year. GamePass arrived on the PC so I started gravitating back to my PC again.

 

Anyhow it's great. Keen prices and lots of mods too for your favourite games.

 

Things to put on there of course are Steam. Epic give free games every week so worth putting their client on. Origin by EA looks to be worth investigating - £20 per year for the basic package - lots of content on there and Indeed lots of older things to go through too.

 

Of course GamePass is worth a look as there is plenty of gaming to be had on there too with all MSs exclusive content coming to the PC too as of a year or so ago. Also allows gaming with Xbox gamers on certain titles (usually MS ones). Oh and it's £3.99 a month so great value.

 

Oh the other element of PC gaming to explore is VR it's adds a whole new dimension to gaming and for me it has been transformative and feels like the next gen of gaming right now. As long as you don't suffer from motion sickness of course.

 

Enjoy there is a world out there to explore!

[Marlew]

8k

 

120fps

 

Minesweeper.

 

Spoiler

I'm jealous - enjoy! 

 

[Jamie John]

I've joined this club recently as well, with a PC similar in spec to @skittles, and it is, indeed, great. As mentioned, definitely get the PC version of Game Pass - I've played some great games on it since picking it up and for the £5 per month I've paid for it, it's terrific value for money. I'd also recommend getting an Xbox One controller that you can connect via Bluetooth - a must have for games that you wouldn't normally play with M & K.

 

In fact, since building my PC, I haven't really been playing PC-exclusive games or genres of games traditionally associated with PC gaming, but rather games that have also come out on consoles, albeit at a solid 60FPS or more on my PC. It's great. I just want to play everything on PC now, and will probably only buy exclusives for my PS4 and Switch from now on.

 

The other good thing about it is how it gives a new lease of life to older-gen games, many of which can often be obtained very cheaply. I've picked up a few 360-era games that I've wanted to replay or which I never got round to playing for a few pounds each, and they still tend to look very good at a high resolution and high FPS, or certainly a lot better than they would on my old 360 if I could be bothered to get it out of storage and set it all up, which I can't.

 

All in all, it's an expensive investment initially, but for a machine that plays 95% of the games I want to play, plays lots of older games and can obviously be used for all manner of different things apart from gaming, it's been worth it.

[BeeJay]

I always feel this way at the end of console generations but right now I do 95%+ of my gaming on pc. There is little reason not to at the moment apart from a few Sony/Nintendo exclusives, if those are your thing.

 

I'm sure as soon as the next console gen kicks in, things will change but for the next 12 months at least, PC is the place to be.

[Unofficial Who]

Essential bits of advice.

 

Set up an Epic Games store account. Get two games a week for free.

 

Set up a GOG account and grab a lot of classic era PC games for free. (Also it's the goto place for old DOS games that just work on modern systems.)

 

Set up a Steam account and wait for the amazing sales. There's one on now.

 

Keep an eye on Humble Bundle for free games and hard to resist bundles.

 

You'll be swimming in games by years end.

[Danster]

2 hours ago, skittles said:

I'm guessing I'll need to get steam pretty sharpish.

Steam summer sale is on now! 

 

I picked up a decent gaming PC a couple of years ago, after being out of the loop for quite some time and haven't looked back. You might want to look at getting Discord with your mates tho, in game voice can be hit and miss, whereas Discord just works (99% of the time)

[HarryBizzle]

I’ve never understood PC gaming’s apparent obsession with tacky LED lighting, but a £50 mouse mat with built in lighting is certainly an interesting choice. 

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Popping heads with M+K is a complete revelation compared to joypad. Enjoy.

[bm]

I'm thinking of getting a new gaming laptop. Aiming for an RTX 2060 but a little confused by the CPU demands. How much of a difference is there between a Ryzen 7 and 9? Is it likely to be noticeable or make much of a difference? Laptop screen will be 1080p, though may output to 4k TV at home.

 

Sorry for the n00b question. 

[Jamie John]

43 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

I’ve never understood PC gaming’s apparent obsession with tacky LED lighting, but a £50 mouse mat with built in lighting is certainly an interesting choice. 

 

A lot of it caters to the teenage Fortnite crowd. I've got a few RGB bits but I've set them up to just be one colour, or sometimes fading between two colours, depending on what mood I'm in. You don't have to have the garish rainbow effect.

[Thwomp]

I used to find the RGB lighting tacky, but the older I get the more I like it. As many lights as possible now. 

[HarryBizzle]

11 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

 

A lot of it caters to the teenage Fortnite crowd. I've got a few RGB bits but I've set them up to just be one colour, or sometimes fading between two colours, depending on what mood I'm in. You don't have to have the garish rainbow effect.

 

It’s always been around, though, long before YouTube or fortnite were a thing, I had a giant plexiglass window and blinding neon blue tube light shining out of my PC’s innards. This would be nearly 20 years ago, now. 

 

I think the only thing that has changed is twitch/YouTube has popularised all the absolute junk streamers collect for visual interest (or sponsored items) so people feel it’s normal to have one of those idiotic gamer chairs, random lighting on the walls and a Kallax unit full of nonsense.

[Jamie John]

7 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

 

It’s always been around, though, long before YouTube or fortnite were a thing, I had a giant plexiglass window and blinding neon blue tube light shining out of my PC’s innards. This would be nearly 20 years ago, now. 

 

I think the only thing that has changed is twitch/YouTube has popularised all the absolute junk streamers collect for visual interest (or sponsored items) so people feel it’s normal to have one of those idiotic gamer chairs, random lighting on the walls and a Kallax unit full of nonsense.

 

Like anything, some of it can look shit and some of it can be pretty cool. Check out the r/battlestations subreddit. Some nice setups there.

[Unofficial Who]

57 minutes ago, Opinionated Ham Scarecrow said:

Popping heads with M+K is a complete revelation compared to joypad. Enjoy.

 

Still worth having a joypad on hand though, especially if you are like me and use mouse/keyboard a lot at work. A controller might not be near the best way to play Wolfenstein but it might be preferable to screwing up your fingers and wrists.

[JoeK]

7 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

 

Like anything, some of it can look shit and some of it can be pretty cool. Check out the r/battlestations subreddit. Some nice setups there.

 

I have no truck with shiny lights and other such gubbins. 

 

I have an all black case (it's a little like the monolith in 2001 Space Odyssey), and no-one would ever know that inside said case is a giant amongst machines (well, at least for a few more months before the new graphics cards come out ). 

 

Quite honestly, I get most upset when the damn PS4 controller light refuses to turn off, so god knows what I'd be like watching fans zip around in millions of colours.

[FozZ]

If you have Amazon Prime, keep an eye on the free Twitch games you get. I've had more than a few good freebies that way.

 

I recently returned to my PC for gaming and I cannot recommend installing GOG Galaxy 2.0 highly enough. Install it, connect all your other services to it (Steam, Origin, uPlay, Twitch, Rockstar, Epic, Blizzard, PlayStation, xbox - and probably others I've forgotten), and enjoy having all your games visible from one place. You can even add games as 'owned' if you want to catalogue your physical collection, or link to an exe if it's from somewhere obscure and still see all the images/info.

[Jamie John]

6 minutes ago, JoeK said:

 

I have no truck with shiny lights and other such gubbins. 

 

I have an all black case (it's a little like the monolith in 2001 Space Odyssey), and no-one would ever know that inside said case is a giant amongst machines (well, at least for a few more months before the new graphics cards come out ). 

 

Quite honestly, I get most upset when the damn PS4 controller light refuses to turn off, so god knows what I'd be like watching fans zip around in millions of colours.

 

I keep my case, with its white fans, beneath my glass desk, so when the PC's on it glows up from beneath 

 

Lights shining on the screen are annoying, though, definitely, although the worst is the glowing white X button on the XBone controller that is a constant distraction if the controller is held at chest/belly height, which it is when I'm playing games leant back. No way to turn it off or dim it, either.

[Stevie]

Congratulations on your ascension!!!

 

 

 

 

[Siri]

I'd like to add on to Unofficial Who's excellent recommendations:

- Don't ignore the Free To Play market on PC, although you will experience it with Valorant. It can be seen as a dirty term due to the mobile gaming industry, but there's some legitimately wonderful games that are completely free, or have reasonable means to play without spending money. I've spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours on Path of Exile, Warframe and Phantasy Star Online 2 alone.

- If you start delving into older PC gaming titles (say anything up to 2010), have a look at PCGamingWiki before you buy, in case some shitty old DRM has broken it somehow and you need to do something to fix it. Games from GOG won't have this issue, but it's very possible for Steam games.

- Always shop around for the best deals outside of Steam, but also be aware of grey market key sites - If any site is after selling you an account with a game attached to it, it's probably not worth the risk as it's likely bought in another, vastly cheaper region of the world and selling you the entire account is to attempt circumventing Terms of Service. Fanatical, Humble Store and Greenmangaming should be in your bookmarks. 

- Drop the 'Master Race' nonsense, it's a gross term. PC Gaming's probably the most inclusive gaming environment out there - It's the platform with the most cross-play titles by default, there's no subscribed online play as of writing, and if people want to replace Mr. X in RE2 with Thomas the Tank Engine, it's going to fucking happen on PC. Also, learn to love junker builds, and admire the ingenuity and hustle. For every schmuck rocking Trident Z RGB Memory, there's another 10 dudes blowing them up with little more than an office PC with a 750ti jerry rigged to it , or cheaper. PC Gaming is, in every sense of the word, for everyone - Any price, any genre, any year of the back catalogue.
 

47 minutes ago, bm said:

I'm thinking of getting a new gaming laptop. Aiming for an RTX 2060 but a little confused by the CPU demands. How much of a difference is there between a Ryzen 7 and 9? Is it likely to be noticeable or make much of a difference? Laptop screen will be 1080p, though may output to 4k TV at home.

 

Sorry for the n00b question. 

Laptops could have very different definitions of Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9, but on desktop systems the difference between them is mostly how many cores and threads the CPU has, and maybe a very, very minor increase in speed. Games taking advantage of multi-core CPUs is happening, and will likely become the norm when Series X and PS5 arrive, but by that time you'll find the 2060 taking more of the strain. For modern gaming titles, a 2060 will likely hold you back more than the CPU will, more so at 4K - 1080p should be fine through the first half of the next gen, but if you opt for a lot of bells and whistles (Global Lighting, Supersampling that doubles resolution to smooth out rough edges), it can be a workout for many cards, so keep that in mind when buying.
 

[Uzi]

3 hours ago, HarryBizzle said:

I’ve never understood PC gaming’s apparent obsession with tacky LED lighting, but a £50 mouse mat with built in lighting is certainly an interesting choice. 

 

Let your eyes enjoy!

 

 

(they stay off most of the time)

[Flub]

2 hours ago, Jamie John said:

 

A lot of it caters to the teenage Fortnite crowd. I've got a few RGB bits but I've set them up to just be one colour, or sometimes fading between two colours, depending on what mood I'm in. You don't have to have the garish rainbow effect.

 

When I launch Star Trek Online it makes my keyboard lights change into a Star Fleet logo.

[bm]

58 minutes ago, Siri said:

I'd like to add on to Unofficial Who's excellent recommendations:

- Don't ignore the Free To Play market on PC, although you will experience it with Valorant. It can be seen as a dirty term due to the mobile gaming industry, but there's some legitimately wonderful games that are completely free, or have reasonable means to play without spending money. I've spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours on Path of Exile, Warframe and Phantasy Star Online 2 alone.

- If you start delving into older PC gaming titles (say anything up to 2010), have a look at PCGamingWiki before you buy, in case some shitty old DRM has broken it somehow and you need to do something to fix it. Games from GOG won't have this issue, but it's very possible for Steam games.

- Always shop around for the best deals outside of Steam, but also be aware of grey market key sites - If any site is after selling you an account with a game attached to it, it's probably not worth the risk as it's likely bought in another, vastly cheaper region of the world and selling you the entire account is to attempt circumventing Terms of Service. Fanatical, Humble Store and Greenmangaming should be in your bookmarks. 

- Drop the 'Master Race' nonsense, it's a gross term. PC Gaming's probably the most inclusive gaming environment out there - It's the platform with the most cross-play titles by default, there's no subscribed online play as of writing, and if people want to replace Mr. X in RE2 with Thomas the Tank Engine, it's going to fucking happen on PC. Also, learn to love junker builds, and admire the ingenuity and hustle. For every schmuck rocking Trident Z RGB Memory, there's another 10 dudes blowing them up with little more than an office PC with a 750ti jerry rigged to it , or cheaper. PC Gaming is, in every sense of the word, for everyone - Any price, any genre, any year of the back catalogue.
 

Laptops could have very different definitions of Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9, but on desktop systems the difference between them is mostly how many cores and threads the CPU has, and maybe a very, very minor increase in speed. Games taking advantage of multi-core CPUs is happening, and will likely become the norm when Series X and PS5 arrive, but by that time you'll find the 2060 taking more of the strain. For modern gaming titles, a 2060 will likely hold you back more than the CPU will, more so at 4K - 1080p should be fine through the first half of the next gen, but if you opt for a lot of bells and whistles (Global Lighting, Supersampling that doubles resolution to smooth out rough edges), it can be a workout for many cards, so keep that in mind when buying.
 

 

 

Really useful, thank you. 

[simms]

1 hour ago, Siri said:

- Drop the 'Master Race' nonsense, it's a gross term.

 

I must admit I've never felt comfortable with this term and never use it.

 

Quote

if people want to replace Mr. X in RE2 with Thomas the Tank Engine, it's going to fucking happen on PC. 

 

 Fantastic, this what I love about PC gaming.  You choose the experience you want and not have it dictated by a platform holder.

[Charliemouse]

2 hours ago, Thwomp said:

I used to find the RGB lighting tacky, but the older I get the more I like it. As many lights as possible now. 

I built a PC last week for my partners Father and he fucking loved the RGB lights on the memory, especially as I set them as the colours of his favourite Rugby League team.

 

He is 62 btw so I don’t think you can ever be too old to enjoy some pretty colours in your PC.

[simms]

I went for a pre-built system and it came with the RGB lights.  *strugs*
 

 

 

[Uzi]

@skittles

 

what res is your monitor?

 

Also get Control to enjoy some DLSS 2.0 and RTX on your new PC. It's good shit

[MattyP]

1 hour ago, Siri said:

- Drop the 'Master Race' nonsense, it's a gross term. 

Agree 110%. Why people still use this is beyond me. Never really heard it until some consoles got released a while back.

 

PC is the most flexible gaming device you can buy.

 

Recently got some mods for Assetto Corsa that allowed me to drive around a now non existent Brooklands race circuit in a 1930s Auto Union race car. With VR and wheel. Just awesome. You want an experience your way there is always something out there that will get you it.

[layten]

1 hour ago, Siri said:

- Drop the 'Master Race' nonsense, it's a gross term.

 

[Stevie]

1 hour ago, Siri said:

- Drop the 'Master Race' nonsense, it's a gross term.
 

 

Its banter, and not ment to be taken seriously.