New computer - Part 2 "She's ALIVE"
GlaDOS, our new computer, is running smoothly. (The previous Desktop computer was named Wheatly.) No issues so far except for some excessive heat. I'll be fixing that on Monday with an after market cooler.
I initially ran some burn-in benchmarking tools to really ramp up the temps and make sure that all the cores on the CPU were working. I ran it and got no errors, which is good. But the temps got up to 87C, which is ... not bad, but not good either. This particular processor throttles near 100C, I think. So, I could leave the stock cooler in place and save some money, or I can buy an effective after market cooler for $30 and not have to worry about the heat ever again. So, upgrade it is.
I have to say, PC gaming is pretty. I mean, really, the graphics are gorgeous when you have the hardware to make it happen. I installed the Witcher 3 yesterday, I didn't have a chance to try it out until today, but it is amazing. Just riding your horse and watching the sunset is fun. I think that this really tells me that we won't be buying a console this generation. GlaDOS games better than the current gen consoles by a long way. And by the time that she is starting to feel long in the tooth, the next gen stuff should at least be on the horizon.
Right now the computer is hooked up to the TV, because I use it as a media PC as well as gaming. That means we can use it for couch co-op. We don't have controllers for that yet, but we pre-ordered the Steam controllers, so we'll get those in November. I'll try to get Tanya to play The Binding of Isaac with me. The Afterbirth expansion will be out at the end of this month, so the timing is good.
The big game we're playing right now is Marvel Heroes 2015, it's a free to play Action RPG where you can play as one of your favourite Marvel Heroes. I'm not as into it as Tanya, but she has her favourite (which should be obvious from her Journal) and I have mine. I've been playing as Doctor Strange, my secondary is Emma Frost. Both are fun to play. It's a light-hearted MMO, but I'm not huge into Action RPGs. The last one that I was really into was Diablo 2, and I haven't gotten into any since then. Once GlaDOS is given a clean bill of health I'm doing a minor upgrade on our old machine, then we'll be able to play together. Wheatley runs it okay on minimum settings, but that's it. After the upgrade (30% more powerful processor), it might work a bit better. I'm not concerned about the graphics for this, but anything that can reduce lag will be good.
I initially ran some burn-in benchmarking tools to really ramp up the temps and make sure that all the cores on the CPU were working. I ran it and got no errors, which is good. But the temps got up to 87C, which is ... not bad, but not good either. This particular processor throttles near 100C, I think. So, I could leave the stock cooler in place and save some money, or I can buy an effective after market cooler for $30 and not have to worry about the heat ever again. So, upgrade it is.
I have to say, PC gaming is pretty. I mean, really, the graphics are gorgeous when you have the hardware to make it happen. I installed the Witcher 3 yesterday, I didn't have a chance to try it out until today, but it is amazing. Just riding your horse and watching the sunset is fun. I think that this really tells me that we won't be buying a console this generation. GlaDOS games better than the current gen consoles by a long way. And by the time that she is starting to feel long in the tooth, the next gen stuff should at least be on the horizon.
Right now the computer is hooked up to the TV, because I use it as a media PC as well as gaming. That means we can use it for couch co-op. We don't have controllers for that yet, but we pre-ordered the Steam controllers, so we'll get those in November. I'll try to get Tanya to play The Binding of Isaac with me. The Afterbirth expansion will be out at the end of this month, so the timing is good.
The big game we're playing right now is Marvel Heroes 2015, it's a free to play Action RPG where you can play as one of your favourite Marvel Heroes. I'm not as into it as Tanya, but she has her favourite (which should be obvious from her Journal) and I have mine. I've been playing as Doctor Strange, my secondary is Emma Frost. Both are fun to play. It's a light-hearted MMO, but I'm not huge into Action RPGs. The last one that I was really into was Diablo 2, and I haven't gotten into any since then. Once GlaDOS is given a clean bill of health I'm doing a minor upgrade on our old machine, then we'll be able to play together. Wheatley runs it okay on minimum settings, but that's it. After the upgrade (30% more powerful processor), it might work a bit better. I'm not concerned about the graphics for this, but anything that can reduce lag will be good.