OT: Sens Lounge XCX +1: NO POLITICS DAMNIT! edition.

[Smash88]

Does that factor in the cost of an OS and any software that you want with the PC? Such as Office products.
Just curious as I want a PC at home to do very very light gaming and work and I found one for like $500 on newegg that interests me. I also have so many other projects going on I really don't feel like really wanting to build a PC.

That doesn't include any software. Windows, I think I paid around $20 for a licence. But even then, you can get Windows 10 for free, and add the licence later.

I've never really looked into Office, but I figure, you can get that fairly cheap also if you look around on the net.

If you are only doing light gaming, I suggest you buy an older office PC and just add a GPU to it. You're in the US, prices there are much better than here, you could probably find an office PC for about $150 and then buy the GT1030 GPU, it can be found sometimes for under $100 now.

It's what I had for about 3 years. The intense graphic games I couldn't run (Assassin's Creed, most first person shooter games), but it could run basically anything else. Civilization 6 ran no problem, as well as games like Fortnite and CS:GO. I play Magic Arena quite a bit and it handled that with no issues as well.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

That doesn't include any software. Windows, I think I paid around $20 for a licence. But even then, you can get Windows 10 for free, and add the licence later.

I've never really looked inot Office, but I figure, you can get that fairly cheap also if you look around on the net.

If you are only doing light gaming, I suggest you buy an older office PC and just add a GPU to it. You're in the US, prices there are much better than here, you could probably find an office PC for about $150 and then buy the GT1030 GPU, it can be found sometimes for under $100 now.

It's what I had for about 3 years. The intense graphic games I couldn't run (Assassin's Creed, most first person shooter games), but it could run basically anything else. Civilization 6 ran no problem, as well as games like Fortnite and CS:GO. I play Magic Arena quite a bit and it handled that with no issues as well.

Gotcha, yeah it wont be graphics heavy games something like Civilization and whatnot.

 

[Smash88]

Gotcha, yeah it wont be graphics heavy games something like Civilization and whatnot.

Yeah then for sure go down the office PC route. It's surprising how a lot of those PC's have actually really good CPU's.

Adding a GPU, especially the GT1030, takes literally less than 5 minutes.

For Civilization, it will run great.

 

[Caeldan]

Basically put in a decent ssd, get a good gpu, decent amount of ram and a mid range cpu.

That covers you for most all games.

Thanks to consoles bottlenecking performance, you really don't need much power for PCs at the moment relative to what's available. Just need ram and an ssd to handle lazy developers that don't bother compressing stuff, and a solid gpu to handle the processing that has been offloaded from the cpu these days (at least they are better about multithreading now).

Even this new generation of consoles I don't think will push PC requirements too much.

 

[Harbinger]

How is windows 10 these days?

 

[Knave]

How is windows 10 these days?

"How do you like your Google chrome experience? Would you recommend it to others?"

 

[branch]

How is windows 10 these days?

Worth the free upgrade if your PC can handle it.

 

[DrEasy]

How is windows 10 these days?

- If you leave your machine unattended for a day you might find that it rebooted, and you lost your work.
- has an old control panel and a new control panel, and you'll be confused as to where to look when you want to change something
- Start menu is useless
- Cortana *really* wants you to use it/him/her/zey, yet is useless
- lots of notifications that you'll have to disable, if you don't want to be constantly beeping
- Windows Defender runs by default, still didn't stop some virus from getting on my machine (detected it though), and I still had to install other stuff to finally get rid of the virus.
- it's robust, haven't seen it crash yet.

 

[Stylizer1]

How is windows 10 these days?

The all seeing eye on steroids.

 

[2CHAINZ]

- If you leave your machine unattended for a day you might find that it rebooted, and you lost your work.
- has an old control panel and a new control panel, and you'll be confused as to where to look when you want to change something
- Start menu is useless
- Cortana *really* wants you to use it/him/her/zey, yet is useless
- lots of notifications that you'll have to disable, if you don't want to be constantly beeping
- Windows Defender runs by default, still didn't stop some virus from getting on my machine (detected it though), and I still had to install other stuff to finally get rid of the virus.
- it's robust, haven't seen it crash yet.

I use windows 10 and none of this has happened to me. Also you can disable Cortana and just use it for searches and it works fast and easy to find anything on your computer its actually been by far the best navigating experience I have ever had. If you get viruses you shouldn't blame windows you should ask yourself what you did wrong.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I'm a big fan of Windows 10. Works great but the auto-updates can be annoying.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

 

[saskriders]

I have from the 10th of August to the 1st of September to go from Amsterdam to Oslo. Any recommendations for where to go in Benelux, Northern Germany, Denmark and Sweden?

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I have from the 10th of August to the 1st of September to go from Amsterdam to Oslo. Any recommendations for where to go in Benelux, Northern Germany, Denmark and Sweden?

Bruges and Brussels are pretty great.

Anderlecht if you want to see where I was born

Rotterdam is ugly but that is because of WWII, I always recommend anyone going by there to go and see. I can't say I found the Netherlands to be very memorable in terms of travelling, Belgium was way better. I guess there is Ann Frank's house, never did anything for me but it is a good reminder of how messed up war is.

I did not do much Scandinavia or Germany unfortunately.

 

[Harbinger]

my experience with winows 10 has been quite negative. my parents' both run 10 on their devices and I thoroughly hate it.

 

[MakeOttawaGreatAgain]

I have from the 10th of August to the 1st of September to go from Amsterdam to Oslo. Any recommendations for where to go in Benelux, Northern Germany, Denmark and Sweden?

What about going to Northern Poland and visiting Gdansk / Malbork?

 

[Do Make Say Think]

What about going to Northern Poland and visiting Gdansk / Malbork?

Agreed!

Eastern Europe doesn't get the love it deserves! Prague is one of the few must-see cities in the world.

 

[DrEasy]

I have from the 10th of August to the 1st of September to go from Amsterdam to Oslo. Any recommendations for where to go in Benelux, Northern Germany, Denmark and Sweden?

- I second Bruges, the Venice of the North!
- Amsterdam also beautiful for its canals; just beware that you might run into the red light district! The van Gogh museum is great. The Reijksmuseum was boring for my taste, maybe I'd appreciate it more if I visited now that I'm older.
- in Northern Germany, Sylt is a nice island where the Germans go for their vacation. Beautiful wind-swept island, heaven for windsurfing (not that I partook).
- the whole Jutland peninsula in Denmark is nice: Aarhus, Aalborg, and especially Skagen (the city that a brand of very nice and thin watches is named after) come to mind, with fjords along the way. Skagen is where two seas meet. There's also Billund, home to the original Legoland.
- can't go wrong in Sweden: the lakes and forests are beautiful (maybe boring for us spoiled Canadians). Stockholm is stunning with its medieval downtown (very touristy though).

 

[Do Make Say Think]

my experience with winows 10 has been quite negative. my parents' both run 10 on their devices and I thoroughly hate it.

I have to ask what makes you hate it?

I don't fiddle around PCs as much as I used to but Windows 10 has been great. Perfect? Of course not, the lack of complete control is annoying for sure but not to the point of hating it and wanting to go back to 7.

 

[saskriders]

Bruges and Brussels are pretty great.

Anderlecht if you want to see where I was born

Rotterdam is ugly but that is because of WWII, I always recommend anyone going by there to go and see. I can't say I found the Netherlands to be very memorable in terms of travelling, Belgium was way better. I guess there is Ann Frank's house, never did anything for me but it is a good reminder of how messed up war is.

I did not do much Scandinavia or Germany unfortunately.

My thought was to get a eurail pass that gives me 10 travel days and to take the basic path of:

Bruges
Brussels
Luxembourg
Cologne
Berlin
Copenhagen
Stockholm
Oslo

So that gives me two more days to travel. Rotterdam was one I was considering so I think I will go there if others are suggesting it.

What about going to Northern Poland and visiting Gdansk / Malbork?

Definitely want to go there, but it fits in better with my 2020 plans so it will have to wait until next summer.

- I second Bruges, the Venice of the North!
- Amsterdam also beautiful for its canals; just beware that you might run into the red light district! The van Gogh museum is great. The Reijksmuseum was boring for my taste, maybe I'd appreciate it more if I visited now that I'm older.
- in Northern Germany, Sylt is a nice island where the Germans go for their vacation. Beautiful wind-swept island, heaven for windsurfing (not that I partook).
- the whole Jutland peninsula in Denmark is nice: Aarhus, Aalborg, and especially Skagen (the city that a brand of very nice and thin watches is named after) come to mind, with fjords along the way. Skagen is where two seas meet. There's also Billund, home to the original Legoland.
- can't go wrong in Sweden: the lakes and forests are beautiful (maybe boring for us spoiled Canadians). Stockholm is stunning with its medieval downtown (very touristy though).

Someone I met in New Zealand lives on the peninsula in Denmark so I might head out that way.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Rotterdam is also one of the biggest ports in the whole world. If you like big boats, definitely check it out!

 

[Senscore]

- I second Bruges, the Venice of the North!

It's like a f***ing fairy tale or something.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

It's like a ****ing fairy tale or something.

My favourite quote has to be

*Ralph Fines smashes the phone against the desk*
Ralph's wive: it is an inanimate object
Ralph: YOU'RE A f***ING INANIMATE OBJECT

He doesn't get enough love that man.

 

[DrEasy]

My thought was to get a eurail pass that gives me 10 travel days and to take the basic path of:

Bruges
Brussels
Luxembourg
Cologne
Berlin
Copenhagen
Stockholm
Oslo

So that gives me two more days to travel. Rotterdam was one I was considering so I think I will go there if others are suggesting it.



Definitely want to go there, but it fits in better with my 2020 plans so it will have to wait until next summer.



Someone I met in New Zealand lives on the peninsula in Denmark so I might head out that way.

Cologne is nice too; first German city I every visited! Famous for its twin-domed cathedral. Have a currywurst on my behalf when you get there!

Haven't been to Berlin or Oslo yet: both definitely on my list!

I don't know if there's much to see in Luxembourg, then again I haven't been there.

 

[DrEasy]

If you time it well, there's an annual parade in Bruges in the summer that is worth seeing. I was lucky that I was there during the medieval parade that only happens every 4 years apparently.