What's a decent gaming PC cost these days?

drbretto

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SoSH Member
Apr 10, 2009
12,072
Concord, NH
Stopped at a store to get some blank DVD's to burn windows. Went to go start putting everything together. Did not buy a DVD drive. lol...

It's fine, I know i can create a bootable flash drive. Just wanted to share how dumb I am. I was too tired to be putting anything together anyway, so I'll do it tonight or tomorrow.

But, the real reason I'm posting... I need bluetooth. I'm intending to use my PS4 controller for both systems and I have no intention of being tethered. I know it's doable because I've done the same with my PS3 controller for my laptop, and that's a much bigger pain in the ass. However, when I picked up the bluetooth adapter for that project, I learned that bluetooth adapters are absolutely not all the same. I ran into all kinds of compatibility and quality issues.

I want the cheapest adapter I can find that will not give me any compatibility issues and won't crap out on me in a week. Any recommendations? I will be definitely using it for the PS4 controller, and I may or may not use it to connect my soundbar (I can probably wire that without any problems, though, so optional), but who knows what else I may use it on down the line.

If no one has any solid recommendations, I can just compare reviews online, so it's all good. Just like the rest though, figured I'd defer to people with more experience in the matter just in case there's a reason to.

Edit: NM, seems to be fairly straightforward.
 
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Couperin47

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When last tested, the major variable for PCIe bluetooth cards, was the placement and orientation of the antennas on the back of the box (keep in mind that big steel box does an excellent job of blocking radio signals). As for USB, again...location of that tiny stub.

Newegg tends to have some decent DVD burner on sale for $13-$15 virtually every week. Til 2/17 it's this LG model
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136276&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL021116&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL021116-_-EMC-021116-Index-_-CDDVDBurners-_-27136276-S1A7B

Use promo code EMCEGFF48 and it's $14 with free shipping.
 
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drbretto

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 10, 2009
12,072
Concord, NH
Thanks. I ended up jumping the gun already, though :)

I followed a link from an article about what to look for in a bluetooth adapter (USB is fine for my purposes) and it linked a well-reviewed bluetooth 4.0 dongle for $14 on amazon. I wasn't even going to bother with a DVD burner until I absolutely, positively needed one, but there was one for about $20, 4+ stars and a tag that said number 1 best seller (ASUS), so I threw it in there to get the pair to qualify for free shipping and said fugg it.

I was actually expecting both to be more expensive than they were, so as long as they do the job, I'm fine with that. I was rattling off things in my head that I'll use either of them for. For the bluetooth, pretty much just the PS4 controller, and for the DVD, probably nothing ever, but it'll be good to have just in case.
 
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drbretto

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SoSH Member
Apr 10, 2009
12,072
Concord, NH
OK. Put it all together. Was a little bit more of a pain in the ass than I was hoping, but I ended up following the video in the building guide to a T. At least I think so, a couple of the parts aren't the exact model they used.

But, I put it together, turned it on, everything powered up, fans are moving, lights are lighting, etc. Nothing on the screen.

Im hoping it's because I'm using and HDMI cable on my TV and that it needs to, like connect with a vga cable until I load it up the first time? It's either that or I have to take it all apart and put it back together again. I can borrow a monitor tomorrow if that's what I need to do, but I'm hoping someone here with experience can reassure me that that's normal tonight, lol.
 

drbretto

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SoSH Member
Apr 10, 2009
12,072
Concord, NH
I plugged the fuckin thing into the onboard HDMI instead of the graphics card, duh. But it works! Yes! I did good, lol!
 

drbretto

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 10, 2009
12,072
Concord, NH
Feel free to skip this profanity-laden spoiler.

This is why the FUCK I switched to the fucking PS4. You can't fucking just DO anything on a PC. Every fucking thing needs to have 2 fucking hours of setup, where inevitably some stupid fucking thing that goes wrong, fucking up an already fucking annoying process. Whole fucking morning wasted, after wasting a while fucking night thinking the reason I could get the goddamn USB boot drive to work was because I had to do a long form formatting of the stick that took 6 hours to complete. If I had any fucking hair left, I'd be pulling it out right now!!

Anyway, so fresh, perfect install of windows 7, installed the network driver, gets online no problem.

Windows update is stuck on checking for updates, forever. I've googled every thread, run every fixit, system restored, new install, read every overzealous internet nerd that skips the obvious simple solution and dives right into the most complicated possible solution. Nothing.

What. The. Fuck.

One of the fixuts appears to help, or at least like it wants to, says there's a service missing or corrupted, but says its fixed. Keeps finding the same problem, keeps fixing it, but nothing changes.

I was going to upgrade to Windows 10 anyway, so I thought maybe jumping right to that would help, but it checks for updates, and that's where its hung up now. Also currently hung up is the windows update standalone installer I downloaded from Microsoft.

What the hell is going on?
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
Feel free to skip this profanity-laden spoiler.

This is why the FUCK I switched to the fucking PS4. You can't fucking just DO anything on a PC. Every fucking thing needs to have 2 fucking hours of setup, where inevitably some stupid fucking thing that goes wrong, fucking up an already fucking annoying process. Whole fucking morning wasted, after wasting a while fucking night thinking the reason I could get the goddamn USB boot drive to work was because I had to do a long form formatting of the stick that took 6 hours to complete. If I had any fucking hair left, I'd be pulling it out right now!!

Anyway, so fresh, perfect install of windows 7, installed the network driver, gets online no problem.

Windows update is stuck on checking for updates, forever. I've googled every thread, run every fixit, system restored, new install, read every overzealous internet nerd that skips the obvious simple solution and dives right into the most complicated possible solution. Nothing.

What. The. Fuck.

One of the fixuts appears to help, or at least like it wants to, says there's a service missing or corrupted, but says its fixed. Keeps finding the same problem, keeps fixing it, but nothing changes.

I was going to upgrade to Windows 10 anyway, so I thought maybe jumping right to that would help, but it checks for updates, and that's where its hung up now. Also currently hung up is the windows update standalone installer I downloaded from Microsoft.

What the hell is going on?
Go to Control Panel > System. What version of Win 7 is installed and, particularly, does it say Service Pack 1 ?
Without SP1 as a starting point, nothing related to updating is going to work properly, sounds like where you might be at....
 

drbretto

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 10, 2009
12,072
Concord, NH
It is service pack 1.

And now, whatever happened has broken my router, because its not even trying to put out WiFi.

I'm sure that leads you to suspect it's a problem with the router, but I tried everything with it directly connected to the modem.

I fucking hate computers. This is why I haven't had anything but a shitty Toshiba laptop for years.


Anyway, just now reinstalled. Again. Installed the network driver. Went to Windows update, it had to install a new installer (did the same thing last time), and now stick again on check for updates.

That is literally all I have done. I can get online no problem. Browse the web, everything is cool. WiFi is still broken, no idea why. But can't update. Can't update fucking anything.
 

drbretto

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 10, 2009
12,072
Concord, NH
OK. Solved the WiFi problem. My cat stepped on a practically invisible button that turns off WiFi, because it apparently makes sense for that button to exist.

I am so far beyond frustrated at this point. The hardware was supposed to be the hard part. I have installed windows literally thousands of times.

WSUS seems to be working but I'm still concerned the normal update doesn't work.


Edit: didn't wanna bump it, but I got everything working. Seeing Witcher 3 in ultra everything at 60fps did make this all worth it. Portal 2 looks better than I thought it would and looks like its running at about 200 fps. This is better than I was expecting, and everyone here who helped is awesome as fuck.
 
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