Sealing Wax And String

Mrs Bhagpuss's PC has been having issues with GW2 for a while, stuttering and freezing even when little seems to be happening on screen. For a while we fixed it by swapping the graphic cards over between our two PCs but the problem came back after a couple of weeks.

This weekend it became unplayable and I spent many hours trying just about everything from different graphic cards to new drivers to a complete, clean install of Windows 10. Nothing made any difference and in the end I gave her my machine and took hers on the grounds that I had many other MMOs to play and maybe it would be happier with some of those.

Naturally I tried playing GW2 anyway, just to see what would happen. I played around with every in-game setting to no effect. I decided to give up so I got ready to put everything away and screw the sides back on the case. As I was tidying up all the old graphic cards boxes I'd left strewn about I noticed a spare, never-used power adaptor. On a whim I unplugged the GPU from the connector it was attached to and used the new cable to connect it to one of the other kinds flapping around in the case.

And guess what? Now it runs GW2 just fine. I spent all last night and most of today playing, including some massive zerg fights in WvW and the Octavine event in Auric Basin with no problems at all. Typical! I have no idea if the original cable itself was faulty or whether something in the act of replacing nudged something else somewhere along the line but whatever, I'll take it.

The whole incident finally tipped the balance over the issue of whether and when to replace both these elderly machines. As far as I can remember we have had these PCs for the entire five-year life of this blog. Longer, in fact. I think we bought them six years ago.

That's a very good innings, especially for machines that were, at best, mid-range gaming PCs when we got them. I upgraded them significantly two or three years back but they are now bottle-necked by the capabilities of the Motherboard and while I'm reasonably confident with the interiors of a PC case I draw the line at replacing the mobo.

I spent a few hours looking online for replacements. My go to source is the same supplier I've used for the previous two generations but, as with the Tablet I bought last month, I did do some comparison shopping. There were quite a few deals from a couple of suppliers front-ending their stores on Amazon that looked better value but in the end I was suspicious of their authority and their customer service so I went with what I know.

This is what I ordered: times two.

Case Kolink Octagon Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black

Processor Intel Core i5-6600 3.30GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 

Memory Team Group Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz 

Graphics Card GeForce GTX 960 OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 

Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 64-Bit DVD

Primary Hard Drive Seagate 7200RPM 3.5" 1TB SSHD Hybrid Drive 

I originally ordered 16GB of ram and a graphics card from a different manufacturer but I got an email saying the ram would delay delivery by a few days and the GPU was out of stock indefinitely. A quick phone call got that sorted out, dropping the ram back to 8GB and agreeing an alternative GPU that's a slight upgrade at the same price as the one that's not available.

They should turn up sometime around the middle of next week, almost certainly at the most inconvenient time possible, just as I've returned to work. We will see how different the experience is. Given the size of the upgrade I would expect it to be really noticeable but then again, given the relatively low demands we place on our gaming that might not be the case.

It also means we will now have two more fully functioning PCs sitting around the house to go with the six or so mostly non-functioning relics. I really need to get them all broken down into parts and onto EBay or down to the tip!

The most interesting part for me will be finding out what Black Desert actually looks like and whether Landmark is indeed playable with a system that meets the recommended specs. We should also be future-proofed at least as far as MMOs go for a few more years.

Fingers crossed everything gets here safely and works straight out of the box!