Be Excellent To Each Other

Hmm, bollocks. Just backed up my Steam folder and shut my machine down in preparation for switching over to my new SSD. After taking the old drive out I realise that I've got no way to mount the new 2.5 inch SSD inside my case and I'll need to buy some kind of mounting brackets first. Arse.

You can literally just sellotape them to the inside of the case or something like that.

Mine is held in place on one side only with two screws in a standard hard drive bay.

There's no weight to them, no moving parts, just fix the thing into place wherever you want, however you want.

I ordered a drive caddy for mine at the same time. They were only a couple of quid on Amazon but like AE said, it's not the end of the world if you don't have one.

Ach, I've spent a few quid on a mounting bracket thing from Amazon so I'll just wait until that turns up. If I didn't I'd always be worrying about it dislodging, as ridiculous as that might seem.

So I emailed Chillblast yesterday (about 10pm) a polite message asking for an update and before 9am today someone had replied already with just that. What nice people.

And now the postage peeps have got my machine which is being delivered tomorrow! How exciting.

I apologise in advance for the torrent of stupid questions that will invariably follow.

My SSD is bluetacked to the inside of the case...

I'm sure you'll be fine but there's plenty of help here should you need it. Have you got any games lined up for when you're all set up?

The first thing you'll want to do is install a Mac on it... That's right, isn't it?

Heh. Technically I could've just placed it on top of the other drive that's in there but then it'd be skiting around every time I took the side off and lay it down which would just end up annoying me.

Hmm, I wonder how you spelling 'skiting'?

I can't decide whether to get someone quick and quirky to play or jump into DayZ. I'm mindful that I've got Dark Souls 2 on the go but I'm quite excited about DayZ.

One problem that can crop up is that some slightly older games on Steam might not work right away. Frustratingly, often simply nothing happens when you try to start them. Usually the solution is just a Google search away, though.

If it was me, I'd struggle to split my attention properly across two games like DayZ and DS2 at the same time and would probably start with something more lightweight on the PC side while finishing off DS2. That's just me though.

How 'slightly' is 'slightly older' here though? Windows 7 is over four years old now and I wouldn't be expecting any hassle with stuff that was released to be compatible with that, or really stuff from quite a few years before that either.

Fallout 3 requires you to install the Games for Windows Live client, for example.

Edit: Another example: Batman: Arkham Asylum requires you to install .Net framework 3.5 or something like that.

Valve seem to have deliberately gone out of their way to not support windows 8.

I could help with that actually! I have a Mavericks Server running at home - on a box I made myself. It's actually my old gaming PC, though I haven't shoved Windows back on it yet. I've been making do with the cross-platform stuff I've got via Steam in the meantime - it's quite nice having a Mac that actually holds up reasonably well with games!



Heh, to be fair I'd probably buy an Audi over a VW, given the choice! In fact, I have done - a few years back I was looking for a cheap motor and ended up spending a grand on a 14-year old Audi A3, when I could've probably got a much younger Golf or Polo with my money. Was a fucking awesome car though!

Maybe. I wouldn't start it for reals, I'd just have a mess around to see what the fuss was about and learn how to handcuff myp to a radiator.

Not any more:

http://digitaljournal.com/tech/gaming/f ... cle/365187

I take your general point there, but presumably you'd at least get prompted to install whatever nonsense GfWL needed rather then just being left with a stubbornly non-working game?



In my personal experience Steam has always handled that sort of pre-req on first launch; does it often just fail silently then for people?

Fallout 3 no longer requires the service, but the client still has to be installed.

And in neither case were there any indication from Steam regarding what had to be done to make it work.

Here are a couple of links so you can see I'm not making this up:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/22370/dis ... 572153405/

http://steamcommunity.com/app/35140/dis ... 292465260/

My ssd is sat on the desk next to the server it runs, connected to it by an esata/usb cable.

I should.probably get around to wedging it inside the case somewhere but its been happy for more than a year now.

I didn't think you were making it up, apologies if my tone suggested that. I tend to use Steam for more indie titles rather than AAA stuff, and certainly nothing that's used fucking GfWL, so that probably explains why I've had no hassle. I do have GfWL installed but I haven't launched it for years and can't even remember what I had to install it for.

Not that I think you think I am making it up. I think.

It might well be the problems are limited to Windows 8/8.1.

It. Has. Arrived.

(at home)

This thing is a bloody monster. Honestly, it's massive. Briefcase size. Like, a weekend away briefcase size.

*cough*shouldhavegotamac *cough*

My TV ain't displaying ote! It's hooked by HDMI, it's turned on but nothing is happening!? What is (not) happening!?

Fuck sake.

Is there more than one HDMI socket on the back of the PC? The motherboard might have its own and the graphics card its own.

It should be configured in the BIOS to use the graphics card's HDMI instead of the motherboard's, which I'm sure Chillblast will have done.

I got the wrong one... crisis averted.

This is going to end badly isn't it...

I'm doing it though. I've picked a colour for my background already.

The default one.

Noooooo.... If you don't pick Purple, nothing will work.

Don't you know anything?

I've downloaded steam. Bit rubbish in a browser but The Big Picture makes it seem like it's a new console.

Also, DayZ downloading baby!

NVidia have announced a new card the GeForce GTX Titan Z.

Its basically 2 GTX Titans on one card

12GB of Ram on a graphics card and it will cost £1800.

That is just mental money for a graphics card, I have already had the CADD people at work asking when I can get 4 and install them in the monster PC we built for them with 4 GTX titans.

Hang on a minute... if you've only just bought a PC, what have you been using up till now to post on the forum?

My phone. Natch.

Well you useless fuckers were no use but the sloth like simpleton that does our IT here actually came up trumps for once.

If you use http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ you can find the install keys for your current software should you need them.

I've also got me a Windows 7 premium CD and my drive should get delivered today so I'm good to go for operation "ooh that's a bit quick innit?"

Might depend on how often that keys been used. Give it a whirl though. Think you get a couple of activations out of it.

If you have any trouble just tell them the original hard drive was destroyed in a flood and this is a new one in the same PC on the phone number they provide.

I must have done it about twenty times now, they clearly don't keep records.

He he

No it pulls your own activation key from your registry so it was totally legit. Worked fine.

I installed Windows last night and oh my word it is indeed fast. I hibernated it about 5 times just because it was so unfeasibly quick.

Only bummer is I didn't backup my existing HDD because I have an external SATA caddy. Only that seems to be dicking about when I plug it in connecting then disconnecting as a device in windows.

So can I be arsed to plug the old drive in again or do I just do the lazy thing and pay for another external HDD caddy?

Why on earth has no one questioned this extremely localised flooding? That's amazing.

Especially before he moved.

Why would you need to do this? OEM license? Even then though; why can't you just tell them the original drive died? Why the elaborate lies? ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!

He did tell them. It died in a flood... 20 times.

My SSD is here but my internet is broke. Pah. I'll have to install it next week.

You want to see my beast of a monster box. BOOM.

By the way, that's a PC not a paper shredder.

Is that a toast rack on top?

Yup, 26 slices.

That's fucking ridiculous. I thought you wanted something small to go under the telly?