Come back to PC gaming, is there anything I need to know?

Hey,

I used to be heavily into PC gaming, modding, overclocking etc, however, overtime I fell out of the loop and have missed a good 8 years of PC news, talk and experience.

I recently (and lazily) purchased a Scan 3XS system which arrived yesterday. I've been trying to get myself back on track with everything, but 8 years is a long time. So my question is, has much changed? Is there anything I should definitely know about? Any crazy drivers I need to install for a quad core CPU thats a necessity for great performance? Any software that I need to crucially install that's a necessity? Any benchmarking software I should use to check all my gear is running as it should be?

I see BIOS' are a lot fancier looking now.

I'll list my spec below, does it seem like a good build? I did some research before buying the thing, but I don't know nearly as much as I used to.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Spec:

Intel Core i5 4690K s1150
HR-02 Macho INTEL/AMD COOLER
Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 4GB 2133 x2
4GB Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming stock clock
Corsair Carbide 330R Quiet
550W Corsair RM, Modular, Silent,
3XS ASUS Z97-K MOTHERBOARD
256GB Crucial MX100 2.5 7mm
1TB WD10EZRX SATA3 HDD 64MB

I'm getting 9900 in Firestrike with a 12050 GFX score and 4900 in Passmark.

 

That's a fine system, and no there are no drivers,programs,etc that are a necessity.

 

Man a blast from the past. Remember me? My screen name used to be tommyk2005. Those cam sessions were epic.

 

Well, obviously 8 years is a long time to be out of the loop...
still, basic principles are the same still PCwise I suppose.

No, there aren't any magic software you should have, CPUs work out-of-the-box as they used to.
Make sure however you run a 64-bit OS tho.

3DMark etc. are just as fine as they were before for measuring performance.

However, IMO one thing that has changed a bit is benchmark scores vs. realtime performance.
Don't look too much at your scores, instead try running your favorite games.
If you like what you see, then you're set.

 

haha no way! Blast from the past indeed!I've forgotten what cam is! :'(

Thanks for the help guys. 8 years is a really long time! Does anyone know what temp my cpu should be under load and idle? At Idle it's about 35C and under load between 55 - 60.

Sound about right?

 

Sounds ok what cpu cooler u got? Are u oc?

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ther...r-inc-140mm-silent-fan-for-intel-and-amd-cpus

Yeah, from 3.9 to 4.6.

 

Hehe welcome back to PC gaming then. What changed to 8 years back?

Consoles are now the lead platform. Console ports have improved a little bit. PC exclusives are hard to find in the FPS and RPG genres, and the newest spleen is to drop series numbers (Win8.1 - Win10, GeForce 780 - Geforce 980).

Besides that, what the other's said. Benchmarks are nice but always stress your gear more/different then your games, and you need a 64bit OS these days (still wondering why they still produce 32bit only OSs). Besides that help yourself to Steam / Uplay / Origin accounts, since almost every game released needs either of those, and sometimes two (like Heroes of Might and Magic, first you buy it on Steam then you need to setup Uplay... such crap). Also, don't fall for those Season Pass things, better think twice about those.

 

Download and install Afterburner from Guru3d. Great program. Shows you CPU/GPU usage and fps on screen in game.

Also try Color Profile Keeper from here:
http://goebish.free.fr/cpk/

Keeps your .ICC profiles in game.

 

Looks like fine choices in that new rig. 8 years of rust cleans up pretty quick.

Next time you swap out an Intel CPU, you're going to love what they've done with the pins.

 

Good time to jump back in, and a good system to do it with!

Enjoy

 

Color Sustainer

 

I was going to mention your great program but I forgot the name this morning lol

 

yep, beats color profile keeper on every level.

@OP - solid build.

 

Welcome back buddy. Nice little system you have got there too. Things have gotten a lot easier these days. Enjoy the steam sales GOG also and savygamer is great for finding those deals.

 

Not a bad system for being out of the computer tech picture for 8 years. I bet you will get back into the swing of things it is like riding a bike or tying your shoes it something that you will never forget how to do.

 

Thanks for the help guys. Shame to see Console's are leading the line now.

Trying to find some to set it all up and install latest drivers etc but real life is getting in the way :'(.

Thanks again!

 

The worst thing: Online DRM.

Steam, Origin, etc.

Data mining, invasion of privacy, possible botnet, whatever...

Ah, for the good old days of SecuRom, Tages, etc.

 

Oh don't even compare SecuRom to the online DRM of today at least with Steam, Origin etc at least after purchasing a game you can play it. Unlike SecuRom where if it detected a virtual optical drive program like Daemon tools or 2 optical drives in the same system the game wouldn't even run.

 

This nVidia GeForce Experince thing. Is it any good? It's recommending me settings and installing drivers on the fly. My instinct is telling me to configure the settings on my own, and that I should be running some sort of driver cleaner before installing any over the top.

Am I just paranoid? Or am I stoned...?