The Responsibilities of Having a Gaming PC?

[ericestrella]

So I know about the basic responsibilities of having a gaming pc, like updating drivers, updating your parts, cleaning out the rig once in a while, defragging the hard-drive. But what I want to know is, what else is there that I should worry about. What is a good antivirus program that I can use? What is a good PC Tuneup program that I can use? Any help would be appreciated.

[vesseblah]

Windows' automatic updater covers all drivers unless you specifically want to download beta grade drivers so you can forget about that. Defragmenting HDDs is getting more irrelevant as time goes by with modern discs, and SSDs you never defragment anyway.

Any antivirus program is basically equally effective, main differences are in customer support and ease of use when changing settings. Any special tuneup programs aren't really needed, especially paid ones are pretty much a rip-off.

[Maruka]

Just clean the dust is really the most essential part imo.

[Majesticii]

Gaming PC should be used for gaming. Generally not requiring any form of tune-up, anti-adware of antivirus.

[vesseblah]

Gaming PC should be used for gaming. Generally not requiring any form of tune-up, anti-adware of antivirus.

Anything plugged into public internet needs some form of antivirus.

That's why the latest hot thing on hacker circles is attacking wifi/bluetooth enabled cameras and printers to get into private networks because those devices have nearly zero security.

[Punisher]

Anything plugged into public internet needs some form of antivirus.

That's why the latest hot thing on hacker circles is attacking wifi/bluetooth enabled cameras and printers .

Crap! A hacker is printing document on my printer! Screw him!

On topic: Only dust cleaning and that's okay

[The One Percent]

My gaming PC is only for playing games. All web browsing, media playing, torrenting, ect I do on laptop next to my gaming system. I still keep antivirus on my system because you never know what form of attack will come up next.

[Tehterokkar]

You DO want an Anti-Virus or Firewall(or why not both) program. There's no telling what might happen. It's the same as Car insurance, most people don't need it, but when your car gets damaged that one day, you will have to pay that bill yourself.

Other than that, never keep Windows updates ON, I've had bad experiences with them screwing up a lot(Mouse unresponsiveness, graphical glitches), after I just reverted the updates, everything returned back to normal.

[vesseblah]

Other than that, never keep Windows updates ON, I've had bad experiences with them screwing up a lot(Mouse unresponsiveness, graphical glitches), after I just reverted the updates, everything returned back to normal.

Worst idea of the thread. You really do want to keep updates on so that all security holes in the OS gets patched as soon as possible.

It's user fault if you forget to configure the update so that it asks before installing the update instead of doing it blindly while gaming.

[ebah]

Windows own firewall and updating windows is enough.

[Killora]

clean out dust, really, just dont defrag an SSD if you have one (auto defragging is turned off for SSD's in windows but you can manually do it still)

Malwarebytes and MSE/windows firewall should be fine security wise. Keep windows updated (i generally turn automatic updates off and just check it frequently.) I personally use firefox with noscript/adblock for some extra security.

Otherwise, no, not really. I'm pretty OCD though and i have an in game overlay/G15 LCD to monitor temperatures closely.

[Deleted]

Out of curiousity, what applet are you using for temps Killora? I'm finding it harder and harder to find decent applets for my oldie G15. (Coretemp, I guess?)

OT: Most important responsibility is to show the graphics / performance of your machine to your gaming-on-console-only friends.

[mercutiouk]

I'd add windows security essentials to the "worth having" list. It's a pretty light/non annoying antivirus.

[Killora]

Out of curiousity, what applet are you using for temps Killora? I'm finding it harder and harder to find decent applets for my oldie G15. (Coretemp, I guess?)

OT: Most important responsibility is to show the graphics / performance of your machine to your gaming-on-console-only friends.

HWinfo for CPU, Rivatuner (MSI afterburner) for GPU. HWinfo also supports integrating selected sensors into rivatuner.

But both of these do support the G15 LCD.

P.S. Rivatuner is the in-game overlay, MSI afterburner itself allows integrating into the G15 LCD.

P.P.S. I'd also get LCDSirReal's applet. It's very useful for showing CPU usage, bandwidth utilization (up and down) and session bandwidth usage. Though sleeping your PC will bug out the bandwidth usage portion and make it display double what it is (it doubles it every time you sleep and unsleep :P)

[Alaira]

Any antivirus program is basically equally effective, main differences are in customer support and ease of use when changing settings.

I can understand where the opinion on this comes from, but not all antivirus products are created equal.
http://av-comparatives.org/