Chp 912. Buying games without spending!

The Steam Summer Sale 2025 just got over, and I did something wild and crazy. For the first time in my life, I bought tons of new games WITHOUT spending a single rupee!

Yup, you read that right.

In fact, I purchased games that came to a whopping total of more than 10,000 rupees (that too, after the Summer sale discount prices), and yet my bank account remained unchanged.

How did I pull this off?

By hacking Steam!

Just kidding.

So, every year, a large chunk of my money would be spent during Steam Sales. I would transfer a substantial amount of funds from my credit card to my Steam wallet, and then spend those funds to purchase all the glorious, deeply discounted games.

However, with my recent misfortune of purchasing a really expensive new rig, only to have it destroyed by lightning and then spending even more on replacements, I was devastated when the Steam Summer Sale started this month, as I realised I couldn't afford to spend more money again. :(

I thought this would be the first Steam Summer Sale where I would not purchase anything, as my Steam wallet had just ₹60/- in it.

Super sad. Poor me. 60 bucks. I couldn't even buy a packet of Farstar ciggies with that. :(

And then it struck me. Heyyyy, why don't I sell some of my rare items on the Community Market?

There was this game I used to play a lot called Team Fortress 2 (TF2). It is a fast-paced, team-based multiplayer FPS, kinda like Counter-Strike, except it is more cartoony and you have different classes, each with their own abilities, advantages and counters. 

The huge success of this game inspired many others like Overwatch, Paladins, Dirty Bomb, Garden Warfare, Marvel Rivals, Valorant, etc., all of which followed the same class-based strategy.

I had played TF2 for more than 500 hours and won many matches, tournaments and rare item drops, but ever since I returned to Mizoram six years ago, I stopped playing, mostly because of the bad internet connection here. Which means that I still had a lot of TF2 items that I no longer used.

Now I’m not gonna bore you with the properties of different items like “quality,” “type,” “grade,” “exterior,” “killstreak,” “unusual effects,” “sheen”, etc., which all affect the rarity and cost of each item. In layman’s terms, let’s just say I have a pretty rare collection that many TF2 players would be envious of.

And so I delved deep into the Community Market and looked at which TF2 items were in demand, how many were being sold, how much they sold for, and which items I was willing to let go of (I still kept the primary weapons and cosmetics of all my main classes in case I do come back to this game one day, lolz).

Finally, I selected the items below and put them up for sale. And boom, they were all sold off within a few days.

Yup, I made a killing in the market. The items I sold were:

Wildwood Revolver (Factory New) - ₹ 611

Coffin Nail Minigun (Factory New) - ₹ 3176

Strange Flash Fryer Flame Thrower - ₹ 805

Strange Half-Zatoichi - ₹ 683

Pyroland Weapons Case x 3 - ₹ 871 each
Warbird Weapons Case x 3 - ₹ 586 each
Warbird Weapons Case x 2 - ₹ 617 each

This came to a grand total of... drumroll please... ₹ 10,877.

KACHING! 10 freaking grand, baby. Bwahahaa.

Hell yeah, it was now time to go on a Steam Summer Sale shopping spreeeee! Let's Goooo. :D

So, the first thing I always do during any Steam Sale (be it Summer Sale, Winter Sale, Autumn Sale, or even Publisher Sale or Bundle Sale) is to visit steamdb.info and log in using my Steam ID.

Once logged in, I look at all my wishlisted games as they're the ones I really want to play. I check their current discounted price, and then compare that with their historical low price. If it’s the lowest it’s ever been, I buy the game. If it’s not, I skip it (unless I really, really want it). Because here’s a trick that some publishers play during big Steam Sales - they don’t give the best discounts because they know people will be spending anyway. They reserve their best discounts during their own Publisher sale or other events.

Once I purchased my wishlisted games, it was time to discover new good games and buy them. :D

For this, again, I use steamdb.info, where I set different filters and criteria, the details of which I will not bore you with, and eventually, these are the games I bought during the recently concluded Steam Summer Sale 2025.

125 new games as well as 3 DLCs. Notable mentions: House Flipper, Borderlands 3, Kerbal Space Program, Tiny Glade, Schedule I, Cloud Gardens, and Path of Giants, just to name a few.

Ahhh, these will keep me busy for the next few months. The perks of not being able to find a girlfriend, I guess.

These purchases had also bumped up my number of Games Owned to 2586. :D

Anyway, now that the sale is over, I have unlisted some of my items from the Community Market (the ones that weren't bought) since I don't need the money that badly now. Some of them, like my Balloonicorn Sniper Rifle (Factory New), are currently selling at around ₹ 6500, lolz. Maybe I'll list them again before the next sale, by which time the price could be even higher. I'm loving this.

So I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and remember to sell off your rare items, especially if you no longer play those games. And do comment on the new games I bought. Cheers, everyone.

EDIT: Since I got a couple of messages from people asking me how I ended up with so many rare (meaning expensive) items in TF2, the trick is to play as "Medic".

TF2 is a game about shooting or sniping or chopping your opponents. Everybody loves to play those roles. And they all need healing during a battle too, but if they all play those roles, then there's nobody to heal them. And so I would usually play as Medic (even though my main is Pyro).

I really enjoyed playing as Medic, running around in the thick of the battle and healing teammates with my Kritzkrieg or shooting a health dart at an injured teammate running at a far distance with my Crusader's Crossbow (FPS skills) or ÜberCharging a Heavy at the perfect moment to win that final push. I may not get many kills, but the satisfaction of knowing you played a very crucial role in your team's victory is amazing.

And so, usually after many sessions of winnings, some of these top global players would sometimes gift me something to show their appreciation. And that's how I ended up with a lot of rare items. In fact, the "Strange RoBro 3000" that I got as a gift from a user called "Mylva" is currently selling for more than ₹ 13,000/- in the Community Market right now. :D

Chp 911. Lightning attack... again!

I had just started enjoying my new computer setup for barely 3 weeks, which I wrote about in my previous blog post, when lightning struck my farm and fried it!

I suppose you could say my build was so epic that the God of Thunder himself got jealous and smited me. Or at least that's what it felt like.

Now I actually have a long and stormy relationship with lightning here at the farm. I've been living here for five years now, and let’s just say this isn’t my first rodeo with high-voltage drama.

Every year, I end up replacing something, be it my inverter, inverter batteries, fridge, CCTV cameras, or whatever didn’t get unplugged in time. I’ve grounded my system, taken all the precautions, and still, lightning finds a way. 

So then… how did it strike me again? Well, it was partly ignorance on my part, and a classic freak-of-nature.

Here's what happened.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was enjoying a good session of Age of Empires IV (with the 4K HDR video pack that my new config now supports with ease) when I heard the first rumble of thunder. It wasn't a big deal because the monsoon season was still going on, and so I calmly saved my campaign, exited the game, and shut down my system.

Then the thunder kept rolling in... louder, closer.

So I did the usual - switched off my UPS and CCTV and unplugged them, then did the same with the main inverter.

But here's the strange part… even though I could see lightning flashes above, it wasn’t even raining properly. Just a gentle pitter-patter on my farmhouse tin roof. Birds were still chirping. The clouds weren’t even that dark. I figured, Eh, probably a false alarm. Or... maybe someone up there is shooting blanks, if you know what I mean. :D :P

And that, dear readers, was a BIG MISTAKE. I should have taken it more seriously.

Suddenly, BOOM! A blinding white flash lit up my room, followed by an instantaneous, deafening blast right next to me. It felt like a grenade had gone off inside my CCTV box (you know, that metal DVR unit where all the camera feeds come in). The explosion had this high-pitched metallic screech that went straight into my eardrums, "kiiiiiiiiiiii!", and my new computer, which was peacefully shut down, gave off a tremendous spark!

Both my farmhouse fuse and the chowkidar's house fuse tripped immediately as well. Just like that, everything went dead. All my dogs too yelped in terror and scrambled under the bed to hide. Yup. I’d been struck by lightning. Again.

So what went wrong?

Turns out, even though I’d unplugged everything, I didn’t unplug the individual CCTV camera cables connected to the DVR unit, since there wasn’t any heavy rain or lightning yet. And through those long exposed wires running around my compound, lightning found its path straight into my office desk (even with the power supply off). Boom!

I learnt two important lessons that day.

1. Dry thunderstorms are way more dangerous than heavy rain ones. Because when there’s no proper rain, there’s no moisture to help discharge the built-up static. The air stays dry, and that makes it supercharged, perfect for lightning to do maximum damage!

2. Lightning travels through Ethernet cables. Yup, if you’re thinking, “Okay, that explains your CCTV setup getting fried. But what about your new PC? You unplugged everything. How was it affected?" Well, the culprit was the LAN cable. I totally forgot to unplug the external line bringing internet into my system from outside. Aaarggh.

So, what was the damage report?

Well, the CCTV system was completely toast. No surprise there after that explosion. A few other appliances like my electric kettle and toaster didn’t make it either (thankfully, my fridge, deep freezer, microwave, and washing machine all survived!).

But the one I was most heartbroken about was my brand-new computer. I had just assembled it less than three weeks ago, after saving nearly five months’ worth of salary to buy all the parts.

Check out the LAN cable fuse that blew up my computer!

Yup. My brand-new computer wouldn’t turn on anymore. That night, I had a long (and rather emotional) heart-to-heart chat with GPT, pouring out every little detail of the incident. It told me that in most lightning strike cases, the PSU is usually the first casualty, but it often acts like a sacrificial goat, absorbing the damage and sparing the rest of the components.

But, in my case, the lightning didn’t enter through the power line, it freaking came through the LAN cable. Which meant the surge probably bypassed the PSU entirely and could have fried everything in its path. Not great at all.

GPT then guided me through the next steps: checking each component one by one using my old system. So I dug out my ancient i3 CPU, unhooked its dusty PSU, and connected my new PSU to it.

The fan spun and started up my old system, meaning, my PSU was fine!

Which, funnily enough, was bad news, because it confirmed the PSU wasn’t the issue. It was something worse. Most likely the motherboard. I also tested my internal drives on the old system, and thankfully, they were all safe.

Then GPT told me to check my GPU using something called a paperclip test, and I was like... bruh. :D

With no other choice, I booked an appointment with Hmingthana, my Montfort senior and the owner of GI Infotech. I also booked a cab to pick me (and my wounded computer) from the farm. Tried sleeping that night, but my dreams were full of sparks and fried circuits.

The next morning, my cab arrived, and I made the long, bumpy journey to Aizawl, clutching my rig like a parent taking their child to the hospital. 

We went straight to GI Infotech, Zarkawt, where Hmingthana's technicians were all over my system immediately, ripping it to pieces and testing each component one by one.

My processor was fine. Phew.

My cooling tower was fine. Phew.

My internal NVMe SSD was fine. Phew.

Both my DDR5s were also fine. Phew.

They also reconfirmed that my PSU was fine. Phew.

And finally... my GPU was fine too! Phew.

So, after a loooong diagnosis that took almost the entire day, turned out, only my motherboard was the casualty. I mean, it's still bloody expensive, but at least all those other components were not affected.

Since I needed to head back to my farm the same day, I decided to get a replacement motherboard right there at GI Infotech. Hmingthana didn’t have the exact model I was using (the MSI PRO Z790-P), but he offered me the next best thing he got: the Gigabyte B760M Gaming AX.

It’s still a solid gaming motherboard, but yeah, a bit of a downgrade. It has only two DDR5 RAM slots instead of four, fewer NVMe slots, and a couple of missing features compared to the Z790-P. But honestly, I was just relieved I didn’t have to replace my CPU or GPU, so I took the deal.

Once the techies assembled everything in and powered it up, they also reinstalled Windows 10 with a proper licensed copy. I had to go through the usual drill of reinstalling all my software, but luckily, it wasn’t much as this PC was only 3 weeks old.

As for my Steam games? All safe and sound on a separate SSD. Bless that little drive.

Hmingthana charged me only for the motherboard and no servicing charge as I'm not just his junior from school but also a regular customer as well, having bought many parts from him in the past. What a great guy.

And that, my friends, is the tale of how I got struck by lightning… again.

Once the new system was up and running, I packed up and headed back to the farm

After reaching farm, I plugged everything in (a little more cautiously this time). Still can’t believe it happened barely three weeks after my upgrade. I also looked up a few LAN surge protectors on Amazon and will be buying them.

In the meantime, I am connecting to the internet using my built-in WIFI only from now on, no more LAN cables to my PC, which begs the question, even my previous motherboard had that feature, why the frick didn't I do that then? Aaarrghh.

Anyhoo, I’m just glad most of my parts survived, and now I’m a bit older and (hopefully) wiser.

Thunderstorms? Bad.

Dry thunderstorms? Even Badder.

LAN cable plugged in during a dry thunderstorm? Super Baddest.

I hope you were able to learn something from my experience and maybe take a few precautions of your own. Until the next post, cheers.

Chp 910. New Rig, Who Dis?

I realised I still have two more reunion blog posts to update, but I'll get back to that later as I've ordered a photo scanner from Amazon to scan some of our wild school days photos, which I want to include in those posts.

So in the meantime, I'll get back to regular blogging.

One notable event that took place recently was when I finally decided to upgrade my computer! 

It was the year 2010, when I was firmly established as a prominent copywriter at Webchutney, that I decided to buy a new PC. What excited me the most (I still remember that day like it was yesterday) was that I was finally going to use a DDR3 RAM instead of my previous DDR2s. Yup, I drooled at the thought of all the better games I could play, lolz.

It was an i3-2100 processor, considered high-end at that time. It didn’t even need a graphics card, and I basked in the glory of having such a good setup.

As the years rolled by, of course, things started getting defunct. I needed better graphics power to play some of the new game releases, so I bought my first-ever GPU - the GTX 750 Ti, and that took me to a whole new playing field. I also bought more HDDs for extra storage and replaced the PSU a couple of times whenever it conked out. And that was it. That’s how I’ve been using the same system for 15 years now.

And then I looked at my Steam games and realised there were so many titles I owned but couldn’t play, lolz. Even the ones I could play gave me issues like slo-mo dashes to kill enemies and frame-rate drops everywhere. Some had different outcomes. For example, when I played Cities:Skylines, I couldn’t fast-forward the game to speed up building and population growth due to my system limitations, lolz. And so I had to play at the slow-ass minimum speed. Can you imagine how freaking long it took me to reach Megalopolis like that? Ahhh, I have so much patience, lolz. (If you’re single, do know this is a good quality in a guy, ahemz...)

So finally, during my recent office trip to Pune, I sat with Tanishq, one of our developers at Ronin Labs and a complete tech nerd, and he helped me select the best parts for my new setup. Here are the things we got.

First up, I went for the i7 14th-gen processor. Yup, that’s a humongous leap from my i3 2nd-generation, lelz.

I also bought a separate processor cooling gel, not knowing that the new processor comes with its own tube of cooling gel. :D

For the motherboard, I went for the MSI PRO Z790-P with built-in WIFI.

Just look at this beauty. It supports 13th and 14th gen Intel processors, has 4 DDR5 compatibility, and excellent heat dissipation. Oh, and it even has four NVMe slots! To be very honest, I didn't even know about the existence of NVMe SSDs before this, lolzzz. For those of you who are uninformed like me, NVMe SSDs apparently plug directly into the motherboard, so there is no need for separate SATA or power cables. Nice.

To cool my powerful processor, I picked up a CoolerMaster tower fan. Do keep in mind that my old system didn't even have a CPU cooler, other than that sad exhaust fan at the back. :D

Coming to the RAM, I ordered two 16GB DDR5 sticks, 5200MHz each, giving me a total of 32 Gigs. Imagine jumping straight from a single 4GB DDR3 stick to this, lolz. The monstrosity!

Now, the GPU took me a long time to finalise, not because I didn’t know what I wanted, but because I didn't know what price I could afford, lolz. 

I debated heavily between the RTX 4060 and 4070 (the 4080 and 4090 are wayyy out of my league, a ₹2,00,000 GPU, are you kidding me?), and finally settled on something in the middle - the RTX 4060 Ti. A good mix of power and future-proofing, without burning a hole the size of a wormhole in my wallet.

I actually ordered the 4060 Ti 16GB initially, but somehow, after reaching Mizoram, the product got "returned" automatically even before reaching my doorstep. No idea why. I got refunded, and so I ordered the same 4060 Ti again immediately, this time going for the slightly cheaper 8GB variant instead of 16GB.

For the power supply, I went with the MAG A650BN, delivering a solid 650W. It’s 80 Plus Bronze certified and perfectly suited for my setup.

For storage, since my motherboard supports four NVMe drives, I decided to test the waters with my very first 1TB Gen 4 NVMe. I’ll be using this drive purely for Windows and software installations only.

I also got a 1TB SATA SSD just for my Steam games. SSDs load games much faster than traditional HDDs, so no more waiting forever on splash screens or level load times.

Finally, the case to house it all, a GALAX gaming cabinet. Sleek, spacious, and, most importantly, deep enough to fit my skyscraper of a CPU cooler. Plus, it came with enough jhing-jhang RGB lights to make it look like the front of a North Indian night supply truck, lolz.

As a final accessory, I picked up the Kreo OWL webcam for client calls and team brainstorming sessions. It comes with Full HD 1080p support, dual mics, auto-focus, and even low-light correction, perfect for late-night meetings or sudden video calls in dim farm lighting.

And with that, my setup was complete!

All the parts took about a month to arrive in Mizoram (including my GPU that was returned and reordered). I prayed every day that none of them got damaged during the long transit. Once everything was finally here, my good friend Sanga (aka blogger BlackestRed) came over to my farm, and we got to work assembling it. We kept my laptop open the whole time, watching tech YouTubers step-by-step as they guided us on how to plug in and install each component.

Aaaand finally, we were done! 

So here is my new PC. Hello, you monster!

All the cables were neatly managed, and I tucked in my three internal 4TB HDDs at the back, along with the new 1TB SSD. I also connected my external 18TB HDD, and counting the 1TB NVMe, I now have 32 Terabyte of storage. :D

I think overall, it is quite an upgrade from this. :D

The total cost of this entire config came to ₹ 1,42,358/- after product discounts, Amazon Prime offers and Amazon Pay credit card benefits, and though that's still a lot, I think it's worth it, especially if you consider the condition of my old system above. This is an investment that can last for a long time.

The biggest insight I learnt from Tanishq while selecting my config was that you should always set two limits for yourself when you are shopping for parts. A "Do Not Cross" limit, and a "DO NOT BLOODY CROSS, FINAL WARNING, DEFCON 1" limit. In my case, I set my first limit as 1 lakh, and the second limit as 1.5 lakh. Because trust me, you will easily cross your first limit. That's just how nature works, lolz.

As the great Confucius once said, "If a man cannot find a girlfriend, at least get a new computer", I will now bask in the company of my shiny new companion for the next 10 to 15 years, by which it would be time to upgrade again, so hopefully I'll see you around by then too.

Cheers, everyone. Hope you like my new config and feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments!