Help me understand Steam and Uplay installation

[voxdan]

Just built my first Windows PC in nearly 15 years. Trying to get back into Windows after many moons away. I want to install Steam and Uplay. Subsequently I will want to install various games.

I have a 512 SSD (C) for Windows and my various productivity programs, etc. I have a 1 TB SSD (D) on which I want to install my games.

1. First, how should I understand Steam and Uplay? Are they stores? Something else? How do they relate to the games? Just trying to understand what they are and how they work and avoid any pitfalls.

2. Where should I install Uplay? I have a code for the new Tom Clancy game and it is asking me to install Uplay. I want to understand where to install it and why before I do anything and have to backtrack.

3. What about Steam? The same place? Anything else I should know?

4. Should Uplay and/or Steam be installed to the same drive as the games?

My goal is to understand what these are and how they work in general and in relation to the games. I also want my system to be organized as cleanly and efficiently as possible. I'm pretty OCD that way. I want to get this settled before I start installing things.

Please consider me a total newbie and don't hesitate to oversimplify!
Thanks!

 

[why_wolf]

1. Steam is a generic store and game launcher. Uplay is a Ubisoft specific store and game play launcher. Origin is a EA specific store and game play launcher.

You have no choice but to install Uplay if you want to play any Ubisoft game, same thing for Origin for EA games.

I would install the launchers on your C drive, which should be your SSD. You can then direct any game to install to your D drive, the HDD. You just have to remember to change the default install path when prompted too.

 

[atljsf]

steam offers lots of free games but you can buy games there too, i bought team fortress2 years ago and this year i bought gta v

uplay is the same, there is very few free games so they mostly want you to buy games from them

uplay is just a tool to get what ubisoft offers, so you create a account, install the app, log in and then use the code you mention

the app itself is basically a web broser handling some security based on the user and password created to run the tool with the account you create on each platform

you can install them on the ssd or in the hard disk

since your ssd is bigger than most ssds people have this days, you can install 1 or 2 games in the ssd and the platform too, the platform itself is around 300 megabytes but some games can go up to 80 gigabytes

when you install a game, the platform, uplay or steam will let you tell it where you want the game to be installed

 

[voxdan]

1. Steam is a generic store and game launcher. Uplay is a Ubisoft specific store and game play launcher. Origin is a EA specific store and game play launcher.

You have no choice but to install Uplay if you want to play any Ubisoft game, same thing for Origin for EA games.

I would install the launchers on your C drive, which should be your SSD. You can then direct any game to install to your D drive, the HDD. You just have to remember to change the default install path when prompted too.

Great! Thanks. I will install Uplay, Steam, and Origin on my C drive, and I will install my games on my D drive (remembering to select that drive each time during each install process).

If anyone knows of any additional settings I need to change or tweaks I need to make or things I need to be aware of in Steam or Uplay or Origin to make things go smoothly, please let me know. Thanks!

 

[atljsf]

no, none i can think of apart of the limit of bandwidht if you have internet connection concerns

when the app is downloading a game, it will use all the bandwith it can find, so other people in the house gets nothing or very little internet

in my case, when i downloaded gta v, 65 gbs, it took many days to finish, but i limited download speed to 500 kilobytes per second, so other people in my house could use netflix and youtube

same option exists for uplay, about origin, i haven't used their platform

steam is king here, so others are just trying to catch up with them

 

[voxdan]

no, none i can think of apart of the limit of bandwidht if you have internet connection concerns

when the app is downloading a game, it will use all the bandwith it can find, so other people in the house gets nothing or very little internet

in my case, when i downloaded gta v, 65 gbs, it took many days to finish, but i limited download speed to 500 kilobytes per second, so other people in my house could use netflix and youtube

same option exists for uplay, about origin, i haven't used their platform

steam is king here, so others are just trying to catch up with them

Great. Good to know. I don't really play many games right now, but want to get ARK set up (only played on the XBOX One so far) and I got the new Clancy game for free with the purchase of my GPU, and they want me to install Uplay. Sounds like Origin might come into play sometime, too. We'll see.

Internet shouldn't be a problem here. And I can download when the kids are in bed if need be.

Thanks so much!