I joined the PC Master Race. Was it all sweetness and unicorns? .....

[190pja]

So. In march last year, I started my quest to join the PC Master Race. Seemed like a great place to be. I had a good laptop in the form of a Surface Book 2. i7, 16gb of RAM and 1060 GPU. Not bought for gaming, however I felt the gpu would be 'good enough' to play most games - WRONG
Thankfully. I had an Xbox X. Plays everything well.

I then started buying PC Gamer (mostly because my other hobby of motorbiking was on hold due to lockdowns etc). My head was turned. After finally pressing buy, it was Oct. I ordered a build from PCS with a 3080. Turned out (unbeknown to me), they were in short supply. After a bit of back and forth. I ended up with this build.

Summary
NZXT H511 case
X570 Plus Motorboard
CPU 3600x
GPU 3070 (no idea what make model it is, however loving the lights!)
1tb 970 evo plus
H115i Plat RGB
850w Corsair Ultra Quiet
Wifi 6 card

So what has PC gaming been like thus far? Well. Since Dec.
1. I've re-installed windows twice as the latest GeForce driver doesn't play nice....that was. Lets say. annoying!
2. Since using my surface / work laptop (ThinkPad), I am so accustom to silent machines, I find the build very loud. It's not super loud in reality, its simply got those fans spinning. Meaning I'm using my surface book for studying and my PC build for gaming. Annoying!

The newbie PC master race user, 'thought' whilst not PCI4.0 SSD and the 3600x is the lower end of the performance envelope, every day I'd turn it on, and dazzled by the 'speeeeeeed'
And...it is probably not the case. Files downloading / programmes opening. Not noticeably different. If anything my PC build is slower to boot up (task manager 12sec, vs Surface 2sec), and just generally open stuff isn't all that....

So then, why? And I think it's a case of 'what do I honesty use my PC / Laptop for'
The odd video edit - Very basic...the odd title, some transitions. I'm using Filmora. Which is hardly Adobe levels of technical awesomeness.
Some photo editing, if using the crop function and maybe adding a filter. Ok. I do some of that too.
And for ease. I just put everything into my onedrive folder, therefore taking 'zero' advantage of the speedy Pro Evo 970 SSD

The SSD it turns out is probably overkill, as would I have noticed the difference of a 'less speedy' one?. And less said about the stupidity of ordering awesome RGB Lights on the cooler, and due to the case, not being able to see them (facepalm emoji!). 3600x, could I have ordered the 3600? Probably

And then gaming. This is a (burn me), I have a 1080p. So everyone tells me, get a 2060 super that will be fine. And this is a lessons learnt. Wanna play Cypberpunk 2077 on High locked 60 with Ray Tracing. Nope. Control. Nope. Gears 5. Just about. I hear my CPU is too 'weak' who knows. And here I am surprised. I 'hoped that my build was as powerful as the new Xbox Series X, PS5. Is it? It certainly doesn't feel that way.

But. And this is, the best bit about being a PC owner I guess......

1. Fans. Too loud, I'll order some Noctua NF-S12B Redux 1200 ones to replace the rear and top case mounted ones. Takes £20 ish to fix
2. SSD, if I 'need' a PCI 4.0 one to take advantage of direct storage next year, I have slots available.
3. WiFi 6, no idea if I am taking advantage of it, but I know I can look into it, tweak, change, add, takeaway.

 

[Zloth]

I don't know what you've got going on that machine but something is seriously wrong if Task Manager takes 12 seconds to start up. I just did the control-shift-ESC to start it up and it was showing before I got my fingers off the keys. I've been into PC gaming since before Windows showed up and I have never needed to re-install Windows on any of my machines.

The noise from fans is a white noise. I have no idea how that would affect your studying.

Wait a second... you say you put EVERYTHING on OneDrive?? Did you install your games to a OneDrive folder so you're playing it off a network drive instead of your SSD!?!?

 

[190pja]

I don't know what you've got going on that machine but something is seriously wrong if Task Manager takes 12 seconds to start up. I just did the control-shift-ESC to start it up and it was showing before I got my fingers off the keys. I've been into PC gaming since before Windows showed up and I have never needed to re-install Windows on any of my machines.

The noise from fans is a white noise. I have no idea how that would affect your studying.

Wait a second... you say you put EVERYTHING on OneDrive?? Did you install your games to a OneDrive folder so you're playing it off a network drive instead of your SSD!?!?

So. Some poorly worded comments on my post ;-)
'In Task Manager, Start Up' it states it takes 12secs to the machine to boot up (rather than task manager appearing!)
SSD - ok, not everything. Docs / photos
Fans. Probably subjective. White noise to some, loud to others maybe. And I say loud - just louder than a silent laptop with zero fan noise

 

[Scaramouche]

I like strategy games, so I play on PC. But the whole PC Master Race stuff is something to fill a void for unhappy people. They get the best hardware and then buy games to see how many frames per second they get. That's what it's about, they no longer enjoy games, they're just screaming at poor optimization and fap to the little FPS counter in the bottom. Don't become a PC gamer, they're not a happy bunch.

A PC is a machine to play games with. Imagine spending so much time reading up about which motor is the best for your fridge, but then also after you buy a fridge still read about it and feel sad that someone else got a better motor and now you have to upgrade your fridge.

 

[190pja]

Really good reply! So this week I actually played 'PC Games' - Desperados 3. And. It was enjoyable. I'm not too worried about frame rates or graphics settings (helped in fairness because everything to high and 244fps...), saying that. I can't really see the fps counter and that helps. As you are rate -

Playing Gears 5, or Cyberpunk transfixed on the 60fps "WHY ISN'T IT A LOCKED 60?!" has taken the fun away.

I play Red Dead on my Xbox X - I assume its 4k at 30fps. I don't know. Don't really care. Just it's a great game.

 

[Brian Boru]

Summary

How much RAM?

I felt the gpu would be 'good enough' to play most games - WRONG

No, you were right. That's the GPU I have & it can play tens of thousands of games, incl those I throw at it. It probably won't play recent releases at highest settings.

Since Dec I've re-installed windows twice as the latest GeForce driver doesn't play nice

If it happens again, take 5 mins to roll back the GeForce driver—no need to disturb Windows.

PC build is slower to boot up (task manager 12sec, vs Surface 2sec)

12 sec is very fast. Surface isn't booting up, it's waking up—ie it was never shut off.

'speeeeeeed' … Files downloading

That's due to internet connection, not the machine.

for ease. I just put everything into my onedrive folder

How is that easier?
You're subjecting yourself to dealing with internet speeds, connection interrupts etc—a lot slower than keeping the files locally.
Use OneDrive for backup and syncing, not your main store.

Don't become a PC gamer, they're not a happy bunch

Oh yes we are!
The Master Race types you describe are a small loud minority—the rest of us get on with enjoying life, incl gaming.

New to PC

Without a doubt, PC is more difficult than console—that's one of the disadvantages. So there's a learning curve—hang in there, you'll reap the benefits after a while