What to do when new computer arrives?

[TommyBarnez]

I've not bought a computer in about 12 years and the last one I did buy didn't really get looked after. In antipation of my lovelly new machine arriving I've started pondering what are sensible things to do when I first get it? Here is my list so far including

Plug everything in and get cables tidy straight away
Make sure antivirus up and running
Do some "tests" - not sure what I'm doing here but feel I should figure out how it performs
Work out how the leds work
Take pictures and send to friends who are fed up with me going on about my new computer
Get some games - Steam being the only option I know currently
Play a game that will blow me away
Hibernate
Come on PCS to go on about it to people that care

Anyone fancy helping me flesh out my list? I think it should be arriving Tuesday...

Tom

 

[Oussebon]

Get some games - Steam being the only option I know currently

Check out https://isthereanydeal.com/

It automatically updates prices for games from a range of stores including places like Gamersgate and Bundlestars that are 100% legit and have some great prices. You can set watchlists and price alerts, but it's also useful if you see a game you like on steam but want to check quickly if you can buy it cheaper from a legit source elsewhere.

Do some "tests" - not sure what I'm doing here but feel I should figure out how it performs

As for stress tests, see Spyder's list: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...w-PC-Arrived-)&p=393496&viewfull=1#post393496
And my comments: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...t-my-new-PC-up&p=394384&viewfull=1#post394384

Play a game that will blow me away

Shadow or Mordor: Middle Earth GOTY (~£2.87 on bundlestars with the 10% off coupon on the item listing page). The game is brilliant. It's an action / RPG set in the LOTR world with really slick combat, great graphics, and brilliant atmosphere. Blew me away, anyhow.

 

[Yardem]

I think great value for money will be EA Origin Access. This is similar to EA Access on XBox One.

You pay a subscription, and you get back:
1. a large number of games you can download and play right away. This is called "The Vault" and includes titles such as Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Fifa 17, and many many others. They are not the latest titles, as you can see, but should be very good value for someone who has not played on PC in a long time.
2. you get a discount on new titles from EA.
3. you get playable demos of new games (complete game, but you can only try it for a limited time, 10 hours)
4. a free game every now and then.

Notes:
a) The Vault games (1) can only be played while you are subscribed.
b) The free games (4) are yours to keep, even after you are no longer subscribed.
c) If you play 10 hours of a new title (3) and decide to buy the game, not only do you get a discount (2), but your progress in the game is preserved.

I've had a subscription to EA Access for as long as I had my XB1 console. As soon as my new PC arrives, I will purchase Origin Access too. For 25 euro/year, as long as you find one or two games you fancy in the collection, I think this is a no-brainer. If you want to just try it, you can get the 4 euro/month subscription and see how you like it.

Sorry for the long post, but I've been excited about this service since I found out about it.

 

[Oussebon]

You get free trials of a lot of games on EA without Origin Access too - I'm far to cheap to buy that, but I am downloading Mass Effect Andromeda for a 10h trial which hopefully I'll play this weekend.

 

[TommyBarnez]

I hadn't heard of that Lord of the Rings Game, not a huge fan of LOTR. Would you say it is better than the likes of skyrim or Witcher 3? I've played a lot of skyrim on PS4 so leaning a bit to witcher 3 out of those two - but only cause I don't know better at this stage and just read something in PC gamer mag recently about it being epic. Let me know how you get on with Andromeda - I've not played any of the series but theoretically I should love it from a summary I read however reviews were pretty negative that I came across.

Didn't know about EA Origins so thanks for that! Looks good value to me and was planning on getting battlefield 1 anyway. I dont fully understand the situations with expansion packs. I'm still of the mindset of buy a game and thats it, PC then getting mods, but am I right in thinking you buy extra bits when they come out from official sources?

 

[Oussebon]

Would you say it is better than the likes of skyrim or Witcher 3?

No, but that's because Skyrim is probably my all time favourite and I run multiple installs with different mod sets. It's somewhat different to RPGs like Skyrim, and I wasn't expecting to like it as a result. That's why I was so impressed when it turned out to be awesome.

 

[TommyBarnez]

Yeah I'm sure I'll be getting Skyrim at some point in the next few weeks. I do love the game but I must of put in a few hundred hours on ps4 so it would feel like I'm just doing the same thing all over again. Some of the mods I've seen on youtube look good, was watching a survival one the other day which adds an interesting element. Dumb question btw, but where do people actually get the mods from?

 

[Oussebon]

Frostfall was it?

Main one is http://www.nexusmods.com/games/

There is another site which I won't name that is best known for adult themed mods which also has very expert modders and some collections of important non-adult mods. I've found a lot of the posts there helpful troubleshooting issues. If you visit it, bring an ad-blocker...

You'll also find yourself visiting ENB and Reshade to get the core files to use alongside presets you get off the nexus.

I personally use Mod Organiser (and a beta version of MO2 for Skyrim SE) to manage installations of mods since it doesn't write files into the game folder or overwrite other mod files, using a VFS instead.

 

[TommyBarnez]

Frostfall sounds familiar - was a youtube vid where the guy had put about 10 mods on it.

Planning to avoid anything adult related... think thats what killed my last computer :/