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!
