This Year's Haul: 2021

[gamevet]

My old PC in the living room has a cheap LEPA 240mm AIO water cooler. While playing Cyberpunk 2077, the fans on that cooler would kick into high gear, making them produce obnoxious rattling noises. I had to put an end to that, so I went to MicroCenter on Wednesday, to pick up a couple of 120mm Corsair fans. I was hoping to get their ML120s, that use a magnetic floating fan, but they were out of stock in the 120mm size. I ended up getting these red AF120s instead. It really wasn't looking for LED fans, but they complement the red RAM sticks on the gold motherboard.




It sort of has a Cyberpunk look to it, with the red case glow.The flash of my camera sort of drowns out the look.

[gamevet]

Picked up a few PS4 games from the Walmart bargain bin.

I also decided to get another cleaning kit, after pulling out my old kit and noticing how worn out some of the pads are. I managed the find the same kit I already had for $29. It was a bit steep, but it'll last a couple of decades.

[gameoverDude]

I bought an Alienware Aurora with a 10-core i9-10900KF 3.7-5.3 GHz CPU, RTX 3080 (I originally planned to get one for my 2016 Alienware, but these are still hard to find retail, and I guessed I'd be better off buying a whole new machine, so I gave in), and 32 GB RAM. It came out to around $3800 with a service plan. It can take Control well with max settings, 1440p, RTX, and DLSS. Serious Sam 4 now runs fine for me when cranked to full Ultra settings. BTW, the best API for SS4 at this time is DX11. Vulkan seems broke for now, with a lot of hitching and crashes.

Your computer case looks good. I like the red glow.

[gamevet]

Thanks!

You’re near future proof with that CPU. You can definitely play Cyberpunk @1440p RT Ultra with that GPU!

[gameoverDude]

True, and that CPU has what it takes to get 60 FPS with OG Crysis/Crysis Warhead at max settings. Crysis gives so many people a lot of trouble because it doesn't really utilize multiple cores... it cares more about how many GHz the processor does. I think I should be able to get Crysis Remastered going at a baseline of very high, with the "Can it run Crysis?" textures and raytracing. I'm all set for the next 4-6 years with this.

Quake 2 RTX is nice, also.

[kingoffighters]

Legacy of Ys Books I & II, courtesy of Bonuskun

[BonusKun]

Legacy of Ys Books I & II, courtesy of Bonuskun

[gamevet]

I got a $500 Best Buy gift card from my wife for Christmas, with the idea that I could buy a PS5 when it was more available. Obviously, that's not happening anytime soon. I made a trade with BonusKun for the spare physical copy Grandia collection he had and I decided I might as well get a Switch, since I probably won't be able to get a PS5 for another 6 months. I also picked up a Pro Controller and this cool Switch Zelda protective carry pouch.

[BonusKun]

Link's Awakening is a must have.

[kingoffighters]

Xenoblade Chronicles 1/2 (and the expansion) are great.