Question The things a PC gamer should know ?

[Sully_my_games]

The things a PC gamer should know about computers seems endless. Before switching to PC from console, I researched what a PC gamer should be familiar with in order to maintain a healthy computer. The three prominent pieces of advice are:

​

1. know what the hardware is,​

2. keep everything up to date, and​

3. learn by solving problems.​

The first two are not much of a problem; however, I am not comfortable with the third piece of advice. Of course I will ask questions when I have problems, but this is reactive learning. I want to also incorporate proactive learning, such as books, lectures, videos, etc. Would you be able to suggest educational tools to help me learn computers?

 

[Lafong]

"Learn computers"........

Are you referring to PC hardware assembly and maintenance?

To Windows?

To software generally?

Do you have access to classes at a junior college?

 

[Sully_my_games]

"Learn computers"........

Are you referring to PC hardware assembly and maintenance?

To Windows?

To software generally?

Do you have access to classes at a junior college?

Great questions. I have no idea what I should be learning and when. I am guessing there are things I should know now and then build upon, but what?? Basically, I just want to make sure my PC is running optimally to play games. What do I need to know to do this?

 

[hotaru.hino]

I don't think there's anything about computers per se that a PC gamer should know. It may give them a slight edge in how their own computer works. But for something like professional gaming, the person isn't going to use their own computer anyway. This is more in the field of a computer hardware enthusiast or whatnot.

As far as learning about computers, most of my knowledge came from simply reading. Either from magazines, website articles, or outright textbooks/reference books. While I have a formal education in computer engineering, this doesn't really help with the day-to-day usage.

When it comes to say troubleshooting something, I'd argue it's important to not simply know what the solution is. It's important to know what caused the problem and why the solution fixes it. Of course, this is a little harder when you're only allowed a surface level of view, but the more you can learn about the issue and the solution, the more this widens your perspective and can help you with solving related issues.

Another thing that's important to learn is what tools you have available, what those tools can do, and if those tools report something, what that data actually means. Keep in mind the data from the computer from such tools isn't wrong, because that data has to come from somewhere in the computer. For example, people get confused all the time in Task Manager when they're in the "Processes" tab because the numerical memory usage doesn't add up to the % used. While I wish Microsoft would change this, the numerical memory data you see in that tab is from the "Private Working Set" value which is data in RAM that only that application has access to. The % used is the accumulation of "Working Set," which is data in RAM that includes shared libraries the application is using.

But in any case, Google is your friend. And probably Stack Exchange (or whatever the more appropriate sub category is)

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

You could also look at a short course, like Comptia A++, which is meant for those looking to assemble PC's, but also you learn about the interaction with Windows. Gives you an idea of how to troubleshoot, and diagnose PC issues,

 

[USAFRet]

#4 - Be very very careful of where you get your software.
Games and game mods from unknown sources can be a major vector of malware.

 

[Sully_my_games]

I don't think there's anything about computers per se that a PC gamer should know. It may give them a slight edge in how their own computer works. But for something like professional gaming, the person isn't going to use their own computer anyway. This is more in the field of a computer hardware enthusiast or whatnot.

As far as learning about computers, most of my knowledge came from simply reading. Either from magazines, website articles, or outright textbooks/reference books. While I have a formal education in computer engineering, this doesn't really help with the day-to-day usage.

When it comes to say troubleshooting something, I'd argue it's important to not simply know what the solution is. It's important to know what caused the problem and why the solution fixes it. Of course, this is a little harder when you're only allowed a surface level of view, but the more you can learn about the issue and the solution, the more this widens your perspective and can help you with solving related issues.

Another thing that's important to learn is what tools you have available, what those tools can do, and if those tools report something, what that data actually means. Keep in mind the data from the computer from such tools isn't wrong, because that data has to come from somewhere in the computer. For example, people get confused all the time in Task Manager when they're in the "Processes" tab because the numerical memory usage doesn't add up to the % used. While I wish Microsoft would change this, the numerical memory data you see in that tab is from the "Private Working Set" value which is data in RAM that only that application has access to. The % used is the accumulation of "Working Set," which is data in RAM that includes shared libraries the application is using.

But in any case, Google is your friend. And probably Stack Exchange (or whatever the more appropriate sub category is)

Thank you for your advice. Google has been a pretty good friend so far. I realize now that as long as my PC is not throwing errors at me all the time, I must be doing something right. And when errors, questions, curiosities, or other issues arise, that is the time for me to best learn.

 

[Sully_my_games]

You could also look at a short course, like Comptia A++, which is meant for those looking to assemble PC's, but also you learn about the interaction with Windows. Gives you an idea of how to troubleshoot, and diagnose PC issues,

Fantastic! I will look into it.

 

[Ralston18]

And I will add that one important thing is to be able to get detailed information about your computer.

If you are interested in such things, Microsoft's Powershell literally permits doing so via Get cmdlets.

Many are very simple and less than a line long.

For example: Get-ComputerInfo

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/p...nagement/get-computerinfo?view=powershell-7.3

Many, many Get's available.

If you are interested in some aspect of your computer's hardware (Disk drives for example) then Google " Powershell Get Disk".

However there are more advanced ways that provide even more information.

WMI and CMI

Reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/p...ps101/07-working-with-wmi?view=powershell-7.3

Be careful though. Stay with Get.

Other verbs may do things that you do not want to have done.....

 

[Sully_my_games]

And I will add that one important thing is to be able to get detailed information about your computer.

If you are interested in such things, Microsoft's Powershell literally permits doing so via Get cmdlets.

Many are very simple and less than a line long.

For example: Get-ComputerInfo

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/p...nagement/get-computerinfo?view=powershell-7.3

Many, many Get's available.

If you are interested in some aspect of your computer's hardware (Disk drives for example) then Google " Powershell Get Disk".

However there are more advanced ways that provide even more information.

WMI and CMI

Reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/p...ps101/07-working-with-wmi?view=powershell-7.3

Be careful though. Stay with Get.

Other verbs may do things that you do not want to have done.....

Interesting. This sounds a little dangerous for a novice, but I will certainly check out the links. Thank you very much.