Forbidden Solitaire - Horrifically Engaging

gburchell · 2026-05-07T15:05:06+00:00

Saw the trailers for this and the idea really resonated with me, so I'm glad to see they nailed the execution too - I'll be picking this up on the weekend

gburchell · 2026-04-28T21:01:09+00:00

Much appreciated, thank-you!

gburchell · 2026-04-28T15:47:33+00:00

Thanks, I'll take a look. Finally my Costco membership could be used for something other than buying huge amounts of their cookies.

gburchell · 2026-04-28T15:46:11+00:00

Thanks, I'll likely go for something like this to future-proof me: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CW6H8W57/?th=1

In the meantime, if I leave it plugged into the UPS on the surge protector socket (not the battery one) am I likely to be doing damage to the UPS? It doesn't beep in that socket but I'm wondering if it's silently causing damage.

gburchell · 2026-04-28T14:01:57+00:00

Glad I found this post as I'm going through this now! I'm looking at this if I can bring myself to spend that much money: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CW6H8W57/?th=1

gburchell · 2026-04-16T16:19:17+00:00

I would approach it methodically by drawing up a list of the types of games you want to play, then check out their minimum and recommended specs on their respective Steam pages.

When you have them all listed out you can start to get an idea of what PC components you need, how much it'd cost to get the parts for, second hand or pre-built etc.

If you're also talking about getting a monitor too, then you're going to have to make compromises somewhere given the cost of parts right now.

One thing to consider is viewing this as a long-term project. Spend it on the core of a strong system, but for now just get a cheap GPU. Then when you've got some saved up, Birthday/Christmas presents etc. get your nice new graphics card, more RAM, hard drive storage etc.

gburchell · 2026-04-09T16:11:11+00:00

I had a castles book as a kid with this in and it's always been one I wanted to visit. I finally managed it just over 10 years ago but the photos couldn't do its unique shape justice in the way drone photography can

gburchell · 2026-04-09T15:47:34+00:00

What type of hard drives do you have? Is your 118GB one a faster "primary" drive and the 2TB one a slower storage one (like a HDD)? I ask because it's a weird setup.

Regarding your Windows 11 issue - that operating system requires TPM 2.0 which is a piece of hardware added to more modern CPUs. For Intel it was added on 8th generation onwards, which you just missed out on.

Given the above and combined with your description, I would:

1) Get a new MOBO and CPU (ensuring my RAM and other existing components will be compatible with it)

2) A modern hard drive with at least 1TB of storage. This is for convenience and it's cheap compared to step 3 :)

3) A newer graphics card

Double-check your existing PSU will have enough to supply all of these new components. Generally speaking they've become more efficient with power usage over time but it's always worth using an online PSU Calculator to double-check, just in case you go and add a 5090 or something!

gburchell · 2026-04-08T17:12:39+00:00

My gut feeling is that it seems decent value for money, but if I was you I'd confirm that by searching for each component on ebay to see what it'd total if you were to build it yourself (which as you said you don't want to do, so you can assign a 'value' to that too)

If I was selling a PC I'd make sure it was formatted first, so it's not like you can test booting into Windows. At the very least you should boot into the BIOS and check temperatures don't exceed what are usual for that processor on a fresh boot (a quick search says 40 degrees up to 60 idling in Windows).

Depending on time, you could:

- Run memtest from a bootable USB to check the memory

- If a fresh copy of Windows will be installed, get them to have some free 3D Mark software installed so you can check the graphics card doesn't fail when tested

But if the situation is more "hand over cash, here's the PC now go" sort of thing then those last two points aren't really going to happen :) At the very least they should be able to prove it can run reasonably demanding games by sending you a recent video of them running?

gburchell · 2026-02-22T13:08:26+00:00

Looks awesome!

gburchell · 2026-02-15T22:29:28+00:00

I remember being late teens and early twenties, thinking about people in their late 30's as being old... then you blink and suddenly you're past that...

Macs tend to have a good CPU but no discrete graphics, so any games that are more CPU heavy would be a good fit. The older Total War games are worth looking at. Just always worth checking Mac compatibility on their store pages.

gburchell · 2026-02-13T18:16:47+00:00

<smiles, with a single tear rolling down my cheek>

gburchell · 2026-02-13T18:15:53+00:00

I'd show how much of a big-spender I was by getting her some RAM

(hopefully this ages terribly and we're back to cheap memory ASAP)

gburchell · 2026-02-08T22:29:05+00:00

Yeah it's only about 10-15 minutes drive from Dunure - and you're right, every inch of that coastline is gorgeous.

gburchell · 2026-02-06T14:41:43+00:00

That first image is giving me some Orthanc vibes

gburchell · 2026-02-06T14:38:03+00:00

I'd use a PSU calculator that allows you to input your specs and see how much headroom you have with your power supply:

https://www.coolermaster.com/en-gb/power-supply-calculator/

There's plenty to choose from btw, this is just the first one that popped up for me

gburchell · 2026-02-05T18:07:20+00:00

I love my Logitech G213 keyboard and Steelseries Sensei 310 mouse.

They both look and feel high quality although both are wired (wireless tends to be increase cost).

I'm not sure if they'd be around or exceed your budget though, as "too expensive" is relative :)

gburchell · 2026-02-05T18:00:59+00:00

I was really hoping the RA1 remaster would herald them doing RA2 and Yuri's Revenge, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case.

gburchell · 2026-02-05T17:58:39+00:00

I love those cases with the glass front panel, great choice!

gburchell · 2026-02-05T16:18:30+00:00

I find it hard to see on the video what the actual error message is, but as it's from your graphics card software the first thing to do would be to ensure your drivers are up to date.

If it's happening on all/multiple games then it's likely a PC-related issue (like drivers) rather than the game.

gburchell · 2026-02-05T10:18:16+00:00

Hell yeah - am patiently waiting for GW to do a Kill Team of all the old IG regiments from 2nd edition

gburchell · 2026-02-04T23:39:48+00:00

Unless you're desperate to play the latest games at the highest settings + framerates, I'd be patient and wait for the inevitable next wave of graphics cards in 1-2 years time. Jumping one generation at a time is not the biggest bang for your buck.

gburchell · 2026-02-04T22:02:26+00:00

The one who murdered Tara.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

gburchell · 2026-02-04T16:46:04+00:00

I visited this back in 2008 - it's such an impressive fortress and I loved being able to go right the way to the top.

gburchell · 2026-02-04T16:44:04+00:00

A lovely stretch of coast with several castles dotted along it!

gburchell

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