Loathe and Love: My New PC

I had my new PC for a couple days now, and having it is a double-edge sword since it can be both awesome and irksome. Here are the reasons why I loathe and love my new PC.

Loathe

• Software Deletion

The thing I detest about buying a branded computer are the bloatware, useless and crappy software that you don't need but are already installed in the PC. These software chokes up your hard drive, and some of them are even resource hogs. So I usually spend an eternity removing them from my hard drive and cleaning their traces in the registry files in order for my PC to run smoothly.

Some of the many software and games I installed today.

• Software Installation

Since all the cool and important software are usually not included on a new PC, you'll have to manually install them yourself, one by one. That's what I did the whole day today. I've installed three games (Spore, The Witcher and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) and a lot of various software such as Ad-Aware and Firefox 3. In addition, I also defraged my computer after each installation to avoid fragmentation of files and reduce the loading time of applications, especially the games.

• Software and Driver Update

Another important, but irksome, part of having a new PC. After you install all your favorite software, you also need to update them to fix all the bugs they have. Updating the drivers of all your hardware will also fix some technical problems and improve the performance of your computer. I had to download a plethora of patches and drivers, since my softwares are newly installed and my drivers are outdated, and install them all. What a pain.

Love

• Better Performance and Storage

What I like about my new PC is that, beside its updated hardware, there's still not much "dirt" to drag it down. I've been running a lot of things, simultaneously (scanning with an anti-spyware, anti-virus and trojan scanner while defragmenting), in this computer and its memory can still stand it. Plus, with my bigger hard drive space, I can also install a lot of my games.

The dilapidated atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., in hi-res and max settings.

• Playing Games in Hi-Res and Max Graphics

Perhaps my favorite part, and the reasong why I got a new PC, is to be able to enjoy my games with great graphics. I'm not a graphic whore, mind you, I just like to run my games without hassle. But since I already got the goods, why not use it. That's why I re-installed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and The Witcher (I'll also install BioShock tomorrow). I've played these games last year but I had to set their graphics to the lowest possible setting. So, now, with my new PC, I'll be able to play and enjoy these games with an invigorated visual experience.

Well, those are my reasons why I loathe and love getting a new PC. A lot of people will probably think me a dork for going through this arduous steps of setting up my computer when I could just plug it n' play it. But ever since I've read the articles at Tweak Guides, doing these procedures just became a habit. Happily enough, I also never had any major crash since I did so.

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