this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Reminder that you can put in whatever you want in a PC. And that you can get a decent gaming machine for 1k (700+PS plus).
CD Drive? No problem. DVD? Of course. Another SSD? Get some random 50$ thing and throw it in there. Floppy? Harvest some old PC and voila.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (3 children)

The real point is that you can upgrade it incrementally, you don't have to throw it away, and upgrading will allow you to play all your old games from generation to generation without having to rebuy them for the latest Gen.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Depends how old you get. After 30 years some games just don't work like they used to!

Thankfully we do have modern solutions for old fashioned problems now.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Even if you give a shit about upgrading, binding yourself to sony or whatever company.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Within limits though. E.g. If your mainboard only supports old CPUs that is a huge limiting factor and we saw MS messing with older CPUs just not being supported at all by Win 11.

Now i made the switch to Linux myself too and i am very happy, but for people who want to start somewhere, maybe starting with their own linux gaming PC is a bit much for the start.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I think that's overkill, but a Steam Deck is on par with a PS5, but portable, and for a cheap dock and a ps5 controller you can play it like a console.

Linux has made such leaps though, have a container with lutris and vulkan and it can handle most basic gaming that doesn't deal with modern AAA titles.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

I got a Steam Deck because it's a little computer. I can put my own OS on it, that's awesome. The marketing page was talking about DIY repairs and offering spare parts, too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I mean i am fully in support of PC gaming and in particular Linux gaming. It is just not as easy to keep upgrading PCs component by component. Eventually there is limits, mostly from the mainboards limits.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Meh, gaming pc of theseus, you replace the mobo less often than a console Gen, more if you want.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I was using the same board and CPU I started with back in 2016 up until last year. My bottleneck wasnt even the CPU it was the fucken RAM.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (1 children)

While this is true, consoles still manage to have a way more convenient experience. Its the only reason why they exist (today)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think that's mainly a relic from the past. I didn't have compability or driver issues for a long time.

Once the PC is set up, it's as comfortable as a console. Setting the PC up to console standards is reduced to installing steam.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Looks like you never played on a computer on a TV screen. The experience is plaged by pad connection problems (Bluetooth), windows popups, random no full screen issues, sound suddenly on the wrong channel, microphone not working, mouse cursor in the middle of the screen (often reset to the middle after launching the game, even when you are playing with a pad) and so on. You still need a keyboard and a mouse near your couch and there is always something. For sure iam still not paying the markup for a console, but i get why there is a big market.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

What are you on about? I use my PC on my TV all the times and I don't have a single issue you describe. I just have it connected with Hdmi. The TV even turns on and off automatic if function activate.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

I've definitely had some of those issues. I won't count an old issue where my GPU needed a special connection to attach audio to its DVI output (rare oddity). Some others:

  • Most computers would need to swap default audio device between whatever you use at a desk, and the TV registered as an HDMI audio device.
  • Bluetooth connections to arbitrary controllers have gotten better, but they had often needed manual enablement each time through mouse-based menus or a number of firmware updates to work with Windows/SteamOS.
  • My Steam Deck, even in its current iteration, takes some time to recognize the connected TV and swap resolution.
  • The mouse cursor issue can come up if you had to do any mouse-based option swapping, like that thing with audio devices.

I've definitely gotten it working and had a blast, but the number of button presses to get to starting the game can sometimes be hard to predict. Even when I had a computer dedicated to the TV (a long time ago when SteamOS was fledgling) it was pretty unreliable about having all the right updates and not needing a mouse.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

You're doing something wrong. I've been playing PC games on my couch for a decade and haven't had any of those issues.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The only problem with optical drives for PC is that most modern case no longer support them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A surprising amount of Fractal Design's cases do.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I've checked it, and yes. Also some of the lower-end of Be Quiet!.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They make pull out cup holders to put in the CD rom rive slot. There are so many goofy fun things a computer can have in it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Having a pull out cup holder seems insane to me, my personal rule is no drinks near my pc at all.

That said, I have a drawer in place of my cd drive that holds all my small peripherals (thumb drives, usb to sd card adapter, stuff like that) and it's great.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

I was just trying to say something absurd that I've seen being sold for PCs lol

I work in IT, the rule for me, closed lid drinks around PCs, no food or drinks in the server room. Unless you are me...the system/network engineer

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

LGR did a great video on crazy expansion slot PC accessories. One of them was a pull out ashtray with a push plug lighter like cars used to have. https://youtu.be/_ErL39wqO-c?si=zWyVR6m_LqE6SBE0

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In what universe do you live? Ps plus is $80, not $300

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So you use your PC or console for only a year?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I can use it as long as I like. Ps plus just gives you 3 "free" games a month and let's you play online with games that require ps plus. Imo the three games a month for six bucks and change is already worth it. And you keep those games for as long as you have your account, even if you don't renew your subscription. You can also just get games that don't require an online component, though those are becoming harder to find.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Eh, on PC you can keep your games forever as long as you don't lose the drive they're stored on. And you don't need to pay extra to access online features.

And you can play any generation of games going back to pong.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

You definitely lose access to your “free” games if you don’t have PS+ anymore.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

If we're talking raw capabilities... Piracy is subscriptionless and grants you access to virtually 99% of all games from all time and across all consoles. I'm going to say that PC is the clear winner here...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm not justifying console vs PC. I'm just pointing out that the $300 on the original comment I replied to for ps plus is insane. $80 a year for a positively moderated, optimized gaming experience the vast majority of the time is worth the money imo.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I’m just pointing out that the $300 on the original comment I replied to for ps plus is insane.

And you justify the value of it based on the 3 "free" games a month. To which I'm arguing against. $80 a year for the life of the console will almost certainly be more than $300. With console generations lasting nearly 5 years on average each that's actually $400 in subscriptions, keep in mind that generations have been getting longer, and seventh and eighth gen consoles lasted for 8 and 7 years respectively... So closer to $600 in cost.

I’m not justifying console vs PC.

But that's the context of the whole thread...

positively moderated, optimized gaming experience

bwuahahahah. Sure. Cause console lobbies aren't filled with kids screaming racial slurs. And it's so positively moderated that all your data including credit cards leak (https://firewalltimes.com/sony-data-breach-timeline/).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Floppy drives connect to the PC via ATA. I don't have that connector in my computer

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Do you mean IDE? I'm confident your PC has S-ATA.

There's IDE to SATA cards available for eight bucks.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It was standardized as ATA, some people calling it PATA or IDE to distinguish it from the newer SATA standard

https://web.archive.org/web/20120716041146/http://www.harddrivereport.com/pata_vs_ata_vs_sata_vs_ide.html

But I remembered wrong, it was a similar IDC connector for the floppies with a different amount of pins

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

There's always some a usb-converter for 10$ around.