Addicted to tech

Since exploration changes, now that you can do all k-space and low level wormhole Data/Relic sites in a scanning frigate, there has been a huge influx of explorers. And why not, the entry barrier is basically nonexistent. As one would expect, exploration prices crashed to oblivion. I remember that day well. Zero disappeared from prices of exploration items such as Decryptors. Literally. What used to be 9.000.000 in two days became 900.000. It was the day when exploration, my main activity I did since the start, became dead to me. I don't like the direction it has taken. Some people might feel different, but I think that initial design, when you had to fight to take the loot from the cans was more rewarding. Want to get those juicy sites in low and null? Better bring god damn ship that can shoot. Instead, now we have every noob in "dangerous" places, risking almost nothing.

Yes, I'm looking at you, Heron pilot that did not rename his ship in w-space. Time to go home. In the end, I love new players going out from high-sec, but I also think, that there should be something to look forward, like using battlecruiser in the sites. To this day, I feel nostalgic about times, when I explored low-sec with mwd+cloak fitted battlecruiser, being chased by pirates, trying to take away all that loot I worked so hard for. This was my EVE childhood.

But who cares about a bitter vet speaking fondly of old days. Certainly not my computer. As luck would have it, my motherboard gave out. All of a sudden everything froze, including sound. Monitor started showing gibberish. That can't be good. I did not panic, because I had few similar issues when started playing battlefield 4 again. I had pc freeze on me and had to hard reboot a couple of times. I thought it was fixed after reinstalling sound drivers. This time, however, was different. It froze during EVE. Thank god I had only my probes out at the time. If this happened during the fight, that would have been the worst.

Anyway, I do a reset and go take a drink. Only when I get back I see my monitors still black. That's strange, with SSD it usually boots in no time. Then I hear pc in this endless loop, trying to start the booting sequence. Shit. After several failed restarts, I realize something is very wrong. I'm not sure what is wrong, but I suspect video card or motherboard. I start debugging process.

I started taking pc apart, but it didn't take long to determine that PCIe slot went dead. Which is not that surprising, because a month ago I had my primary PCIe slot die on me. I did not pay much attention, because I just reallocated my gpu to a secondary slot and have been using just fine for more than a month. I've read somewhere that it was only a matter of time for the second slot to go rogue on me. I hoped it wasn't true, but it happened anyway.

I went on a quest to look for a new motherboard, only to find out that cpu is two generations old and it's either hard to find a motherboard with the right socket, or it cost similar to a new one. Fuck it, I'm getting new cpu too.

Of course browsing pc hardware store is a dangerous game. I was talking to my friend and he casually mentions how there's this nice gpu called GTX 980 Ti for quite "affordable" price. Affordable as in it doesn't cost 1k euro like Titanium, but still gives similar performance. Then I am spammed with bunch of benchmark and performance graphs. God damn it. Then I see that a once top end gpu that I bought 3 years ago, is slower than gpu in latest laptops. I also "conveniently" remember that my gpu can't actually process 3 screens and 4 eve clients that well and is loud as fuck with it's single midget size cooler. I take a look.

I read nothing but good things and already see where this is going. I bought a new motherboard, new cpu so might as well buy a new gpu, right? I mean, it's only 3 parts. It's not like I'm replacing whole pc. Well... besides power supply unit, case and hard drives, there's really not much else. I put all the stuff in the basket and look at the price. It's big.

Before checking out, I ask my girlfriend for advice. She suggests that  I can just buy new motherboard and cpu and could upgrade to a new video card later on, should I still feel a need. Fuck that, that perfectly reasonable and logical advice. I'm not listening to it. I do the checkout.

I bought stuff on Wednesday and it arrived Friday afternoon. I couldn't have asked for a better timing. Since I had to disassemble my pc, I used the opportunity and did some cleaning. I actually got quite excited. Last time assembling my pc for the first time, I was cursing at so much time spent and at my failed attempt at cable management. I have sworn to never do it again. But that was then and now I'm actually looking forward to it.

Saturday morning I have spent assembling the pc and I loved every minute of it. I'm glad I took upon the challenge and did it. It was a second time and it went much more smoothly than the first try. What about purchase? Couldn't be more happy (not what my wallet would say). One thing I really like is that fans don't turn until gpu is at least 60°C hot, which makes it really quiet when in windows. I can barely hear it. Compared to my previous card, which was so loud under the same load that it was distracting when watching TV. Not to mention that fps doesn't drop. It runs 4 accounts as smooth as if it was single client in full screen. I probably will not be able to resist and get some of the new high-end games to play. Wormhole people can catch a break. Or can they? Turns out, EVE can run in the background with no problems.