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Back to Work, But I Probably Need A New PC!
3 years ago1,241 words
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I got back to work on Atonal Dreams this week, which has been... mixed. A slow, frustrating start, and then various obstacles got in the way, so I wasn't able to get as much done as I wanted (a recurring story, that). One big recurring obstacle was my computer being even laggier than usual, so I've been thinking yet again about replacing it! I'm clueless about hardware though...

(I'm posting this on Friday! Gasp!)



I did do some work, at least! I've continued working on the intro bit in Collie's Psychepelago, and I've almost finished it now. I mostly wrote bits of dialogue - I'm getting more familiar writing the characters, so it's less of a strain than it was previously - and added some important but unexciting things like animations, bug fixes, code for particular events triggering properly, etc. Not a huge amount to show for it, really.

I probably could have finished the intro section this week if not for distractions like annoying amounts of computer lag!



I've been thinking for months that I probably need a new computer! I experience lag regularly; Unity takes like half an hour to load Atonal Dreams in the morning, for one thing, which it never used to, then for the first hour or two of the day I get these 10-second freezes every few minutes while trying to work, and it really disrupts my flow and focus. Ugh.

I've had my current PC since late 2017, or something like that? Even though I spend my life at this thing, my mind's more attuned to 'soft' things like art and psychology than 'hard' ones like, well, hardware, so I've always been clueless about that side of things and have never built my own PC. I've been wondering whether to try it this time, but... eh, honestly I don't have the interest and I assume I'll just mess something up if I try. I can't really afford the money or time to develop skills through trial and error.

I got my current PC after writing a similar post on the older version of this site (I think?), and listening to the suggestions of people who do care about hardware. So since that happened before, I'm hoping someone might be able to suggest something this time too since I don't really know what to look for myself.

It seems as if PCs are typically marketed to two groups: average people who just want to use it for office documents, emails, and maybe youtube or something, and hardcore gamers who want ultra-high-powered gaming rigs to play the latest AAA games on the highest settings.

I'm neither of those. I don't care about super-high-graphics games in general, so I'm not interested in extreme performance, but I primarily use my computer for a bunch of different (probably relatively intensive?) creative programs, usually running all at once.

Unity's the main one, and that's where I'm experiencing the most lag at the moment, but I also do 3D modelling in Blender, music composition in Sibelius, and digital art in Krita (I can't afford Photoshop), plus I open a lot of image, music, and video files in Windows' basic file viewers, which typically lag, and I have a couple of different backup services and antivirus things that seem to be fairly resource-hungry. I've been using a free but powerful program called DaVinci Resolve for video editing, but my current PC can barely run it - plus it takes eons just to start up - so it'd be nice if I could use that more smoothly.

I don't even have an SSD at the moment, because when I got this PC they were all either too expensive or too lacking in capacity. Some quick searching shows that 1TB+ ones are common these days, and I've read they're a lot faster than HDDs (or whatever the old alternative are called), so I'm wondering if that alone would lead to significant improvements in program startups (my main concern). I know little though, so if you do know and have experience with both, I'm curious to know how much of a difference it actually makes.

I'd also like something with as many USB ports as possible - I'm currently having to use an extra hub thing to fit everything in this one - and something that could support 3+ hard drives for additional storage would be great... though I'm currently using two (a main ~1TB C drive which is almost full, and a 2.6TB one for extra storage with tons of room left) and that might be enough, hmm.

I'm vaguely aware that the price of parts - especially or exclusively GPUs? - is hugely inflated at the moment due to supply shortages, and it's a terrible time to be buying because of that. I'd wait it out if not for the constant lag interfering with my work! If it's possible to replace a GPU later, I could always get a decent but hardly top-of-the-line one now and upgrade it later if I need to... though I don't know if that's actually possible or not since my hardware knowledge is so lacking.

I'm not planning to keep any parts of this current machine (other than maybe the D drive if I can remove it without damaging it!), just because there's huge psychological appeal in the idea of something wholly fresh and crisp and new.

I'll look into this more myself over the weekend, though I'd greatly appreciate hearing any thoughts about what I should get!

I should probably get a good one since I do spend my life at the thing, and it's for work rather than just a luxury. But I'm hardly rolling in money here, so I'd say my budget is something like, uh... £2000, maybe? ($2750US, apparently.) That's more than I've ever paid for a computer before, though, and I'm not exactly eager to spend a ton...



Other than that, I've also been struggling with time management recently. I've been meaning to reply to messages, post on Reddit, etc for ages, but I never actually do because I can't find the time for it. I keep wondering whether I need to just assign some slot on my timetable where I force myself to actually engage with the world, but I can never decide what time would work best with all the other stuff I try to cram in (which depression prevents me from sticking to very well anyway). So that's something I'm working on. I should probably be fitting in more time to play games too!

(I still need to write a post about Kingdom Heart: Chain of Memories...)

Speaking of engaging socially, ∞ I saw this r/gamedev thread - "Dealing with Toxic Fans" ∞ this morning, which reminded me of past experiences. It's usually a handful of deranged and persistent individuals that cause most of the issues even if the community overall is fine. Reassuring to know it's not just me being uniquely awful at community management, I suppose, though it adds to the reluctance I already have about building another community if this kind of thing is par for the course... Hmm.

But yes. Getting back into it's been difficult, but I'm getting somewhere, slowly but surely. And I'd appreciate any suggestions about computer stuff from those of you who know about such things!

10 COMMENTS

Maniafig222~3Y
It's good to hear you've been getting some progress done on Atonal Dreams! Writing characters is always difficult until their voice starts to click together.

I like the Beast's dramatic pose. Very dramatic!

I do vaguely remember when you asked for advice on constructing a PC years ago. Sadly I don't have any more advice to give now than I did back then! My parents seem to believe I must know a lot about PCs since I use them so much, but I really don't.

I looked a bit further at that Roseblight thing, I noticed the game itself only has a paltry 5 reviews, 1 of which is an insane rant by one of those toxic fans about how the game is problematic because a character is trans and it's not really delved into more beyond a simple acknowledgement. And then some more weird stuff...

"I feel so, so terribly betrayed by this. These were the characters I sought comfort in, and to be this discontinuous DISTRESSES me, fills me with a pain that only others who have lost comfort characters in this manner can know."

"There is a scene of dialogue about a "stalker from chemistry class" that is an extremely thinly veiled vent-post about a personal feud between the two of us. But he doesen't develop this thread into its own story, and its sheer passive-aggression infuriates me and everyone from his old fanbase who knew what happened."

Bizarre!

I can only imagine the dev (who is still in school) got some people he already knew somehow to beta test the game, and then they latched on to it to an absurd degree and got butthurt over a difference in vision. On closer inspection a lot of this looks more like personal drama between atypical group of socially inept teenage 'friends'.

Looking at the trailer itself, I have no idea what kind of game it is trying to be. The gameplay seems to be all over the place, and there's no accompanying text!
3
Tobias 1115~3Y
Interesting; I didn't even bother looking into the specific game or dev or situation or anything myself! I just saw something that reminded me of my own situation and made a ton of assumptions. Maybe if this is just a case of teenage drama then, perhaps this kind of community drama isn't as common as I dread it is?

Also, weird that teenagers in school are getting their games on Steam!
3
kidupiscean37~3Y
Perhaps you could consider buying a second-hand computer so it would be cheaper?
1
Tobias 1115~3Y
Ha, this to me feels like getting a second-hand, uh... toothbrush, or something? (Fleshlight?)

I'm more concerned with the feeling of having 'a new computer' than about spending too much, since it is something I use all day every day and how it feels to use is important.
3
MontyCallay101~3Y
Yeah, time management sucks - I wish I was better at it as well! I usually either have work that needs to be done or long-term stuff (planning, making appointments, studying) and I find myself putting off the long-term stuff as long as I possibly can if it's unpleasant. Not a very sustainable way to approach things!!

I've read about and tried out a few time management advice things in my time, but guess what - you need to plan to do those as well! Is that pleasant?? No! So I struggle to carry those out for very long. Oh well. I'm going to start studying for my German bar exam soon, which is going to take some planning, since the actual exams are two years away - so I'm going to have to figure out something!!

But heey, I remember being one of those people who cared about hardware! Even suggested your PC in 2017, if I remember correctly ^^
In my personal estimation, switching to SSD will significantly improve things for you. It's like night and day. I've known people with pretty old machines or laptops who have had vastly better experiences after installing SSDs. If you wanted to, and could exclude your CPU being the problem, you could try switching out your drive for an SSD on your current machine (this should be dead easy to do) but I'm assuming you want to go for that whole psychological appeal of the new computer thing ^^

So a new machine is not a bad idea! £2000 pounds should have you covered. Considering that you're now into some more CPU-intensive stuff as well (rather than mostly VR-gaming, back in 2017) you'd want to be covered on that front too.

Taking to Amazon get you something like this -[LINK] would have you covered easily. 10-core(!) Intel processor, 32 GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and RTX 3070 GPU. On the higher end of what you'd need, but that seems to be what you're going for! Amazon has a ton of similar PCs, this one even lets you customise some of the components to see what you can get for a given price point.

Alternatively, if you want to go for something fancier, there's always Dell: [LINK] which is quite a bit more expensive, but has a top of the line processor as well as what we can assume would be better support.

If you want something less gaming-branded (perish the thought!) Dell has a website "for businesses" also, where they have a somewhat better selection (prices shown are without VAT though, so you'd have to factor that in). This [LINK] one, I would imagine, would present a nice middle ground. 1GB SSD and HDD, 32 GB RAM, great processor and GPU as well. It's still not as expensive for what you get as, say, the Alienware one - all that RGB lighting must weigh quite heavily on the price!

It's tough to say how many empty SATA (Hard drive) slots any given prebuilt has, since it's rarely stated, and prebuilts don't usually come with more than two drives. That's something where you're venturing into build-your-own PC territory. If you just want extra storage but don't care about having it at high speeds, you can always buy an external hard drive (which you might even be able to use your current drive with) which is fairly inexpensive. GPU is something you can switch out fairly easily if you want, often all it takes is a screwdriver to open the case and unscrew the old one, though this may depend on the case.

Though I'd be happy to answer any other questions about components and the like!
1
phsc57~3Y
I think building your own computer is a great idea! I don't think you should judge hardware as a "hard" thing instead of a "soft" one, it can be very relaxing and chill, there is a lot of personal opinion to it and such, and with a bit of luck and a lot of knowledge you can end up with some really good cheap computer!
I built my computer in 2015 and it still works fine, can even run some of the AAA titles releasing (not on peak performance of course), and it has been slowly dying (mostly hard-drive problems), but I am still amazed that my computer has lasted this long!

Anyway, a tip that I think is good but you probably won't follow (and I also do not! but it makes sense), Linux is actually way more efficient performance-wise, with a lot of free-software and such, of course you have to learn a lot of obscure things and that takes a lot of time and effort and that can be extremely boring, and it is even better if you are a programmer because of how you can customize things, and then you become one of those computer wizards who shit on Windows apparently? anyway, Windows itself really makes performance bad and uses a lot of resources and that makes multitasking way worse in my experience, I don't switch because I am just too used to Windows and because of a few other things that I don't think would run on a Linux system even using Wine and such.

Also I saw that post on r/gamedev and it reminded me of you, that review the dude left on his game was terrible, I mean seeing some reviews people made on MARDEK's steam page got me mad - of course people can dislike a game but some of the reasons people do that and the way they express that is really pathetic - one dude complaining you cannot turn off sounds? when you can... turn the sound off using your operational system??? and he said the music is terrible when I personally think it is very good??? what amazes me is how people don't explain the WHY of something, and just say it, what is so bad about the music and sounds? but then I doubt that sort of person really thinks a lot and does something other than following their impulses and intuition like an animal, then there are people complaining about misogyny and racism (while MARDEK sort of criticizes misogyny and racism??? it really went over his head?????), but at least the other reviews sort of explained why they disliked it, instead of insulting you can calling you Yanderedev, this is something I'm used to because of other things I've done in life but it is really annoying and frustrating.

Also, DaVinci Resolve is really great! but yeah it is extreme on using resources, anyway, why do you use Krita? I've never heard of it, did you ever use something like GIMP? I am curious because it seems like a well made program but I've never heard of it and I wonder if it is superior to the GNU competitor to Photoshop which I use which is GIMP.
2
Falcon64~3Y
While building a computer may seem overwhelming when you know nothing about it, it's not actually particularly difficult; not much different from, say, assembling a chair. Any case you get will come with clear instructions on how to attach all the parts, so don't worry so much about the assembling process. Removing your hard drive without damaging it should also be easy; it'd probably be harder to damage it somehow!

The programs you use are, in some ways, even more resource-intensive than AAA games. While games often need a powerful GPU, your primary bottlenecks are likely your CPU and RAM. You probably want a powerful CPU with multiple cores, and at least 32GB of RAM. A decent-but-not-top-tier GPU should be sufficient. SSDs are a standard nowadays and heartily recommended—using one will certainly improve loading times *very* measurably (seriously, you won't be able to go back to HDDs once you start using one)

There are a number of sites designed to help you build a PC, like [LINK]
You can of course also buy a prebuilt one if you'd rather avoid the hassle, just make sure to look at the specs for what you need. You could also round up some IRL tech guy to help you out (maybe your parents know someone?). There's no avoiding learning at least *something* about how computers work if you want to make sure you're getting what you need, but it shouldn't take a lot of time. If you have any more specific questions, you can of course also ask them here! I'm sure me and other people will be willing to help you.
2
arnold5975~3Y
I would suggest looking at companies like Artesian Builds or MetaPCs who build custom computers for people! I don't know what international shipping costs are like, but I have a feeling it would be well within your budget. A $2000 USD computer is on the higher end of what they can do! The only drawback is since they are custom built, it might be a month or two after ordering before you actually receive the computer.
1
LightAcolyte22~3Y
...Well...I do have quite a bit of experience with computer building, but only silent ones because despite being functionally unable to use sound, noise really hurts! I prefer my computer to make an imperceptible level of sound. If you are also interested in a very quiet or completely silent computer, then I would be more than happy to provide guidance on the components to make one yourself! (I understand you've indicated interest may be the issue, but throwing it out there nonetheless.) If you wanted a silent laptop, I can offer a list of suggestions. If not, here's some people in the UK that I know can help you out if you wanted a silent-running model as off-the-shelf as it gets in desktop-land: [LINK]

I do think swapping out your hard drive for a SSD could improve all of the problems you're experiencing, so if you want to try, it's pretty easy to swap even in the most ultra-portable (a.k.a.: ultra-cramped) laptops. Can you let me know what form of PC you have now so I can determine what kind of SSD size/mounting would work for you? It sounds like you may have a Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) model: if so, please let me know the model number and I'd be able to determine everything I need from that to help.

Here's something that may feed your anxiety, but that I feel compelled to state in relation to your perception of "used" PC's: if you didn't build it yourself with virgin components, any COTS model unit or custom-built PC is going to be previously "used" in terms of someone else having full access to it to do whatever they wanted...no one sells PC's that doesn't at least do a boot check, and most of them have a diagnostic check they do on the OS shipped too before setting it to "factory default" settings so the computer looks like it is booting up for "first use" when you first turn it on. There is no telling what has been done to the PC before you receive it, and techs are usually encouraged to engage in "standard use" of a PC for a while during and after diagnostics are run to break it in.

Unless you know how to do a complete software and hardware forensic evaluation yourself...every big name PC manufacturer in the past two decades have at some point got themselves into hot water for their role in corporate espionage and/or security breach incidents for hardware installed on COTS models (i.e.: DELL, Lenovo, Toshiba, HP, Sony, Samsung, Asus, Alphabet), so there's going to be that. That said, for SSD and other components, there is a limited life in terms of cycling as well: so with "new" computers you won't have to be concerned with much of that being used up, though.
1
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