bvcbcvbcvbcvbvcbvcbcv

If I were to tell you that I don't have any actual PC games except for the original Diablo, the Diablo HellFire expansion set, Diablo 2, and the Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction expansion set for PC, and that I don't really plan on getting into PC/Windows/Steam/Origin/etc games any time soon, and ONLY plan on using my computer for emulators such as RetroArch, PCSX2, Dolphin, Demul, Model 2 Emulator, etc, and LaunchBox/Big Box, then how long would you say I would have left with this PC until those emulators, and LaunchBox/Big Box DEMANDS of me to upgrade my PC parts, or to just get a whole new PC? How much time do I got left with this thing?

Should I also update the actual BIOS firmware itself to the latest version as well? Some people say you should only do it if you're having problems with compatibility, and other things because it can permanently brick your mobo if it doesn't flash correctly, while others say you should always keep your BIOS firmware up to date.

Hey there, that's not very nice. There's good companies that actually care about their customers more than just making money in the sleeziest ways possible. They're not all dick heads like Dell, and HP, and all of the other industrial companies. The company who told me that is local, meaning private. That's the point, and difference right there. The local, and private businesses are usually generally going to tend to be more for the customer, and honest, and a place you can trust, whereas an industrial company is all full of evil geniuses who think of the next sleezy way to make money, and laugh while thunder booms outside of their windows, and it's the same with WalMart, and Best Buy, so you want to navigate them when you buy a computer from one of them like you're going through a jungle, and always have the assumption that anything, and everything the salesman is telling you is a lie, and look it up yourself to verify. IDK, man. I guess a company, and all of the people within it just automatically loses their soul the moment they go from being local to becoming industrial, and becomes a mega corporation with millions of dollars, and employees, and become just a statistic.

When I do eventually buy a new PC, will they all automatically be 4K capable at that point, or will there still be 1080P ones? I have a 4K TV for the PS4 PRO, but if a new PC I'm looking at isn't automatically 4K capable yet, is it worth going out of my way, and spending extra to get a video card that can do 4K, and HDR?

So is the whole more, and more money thing only for people who can't have anything less than the very newest, and highest top of the line, and constantly upgrades their computers, and parts every second, much like people, and their phones, and constantly signing new contracts? So if I continue to use the approach of buying an expensive, powerful PC for what I need, and then keeping that PC for years, and not buying a new one, or upgrading parts until I'm practically forced to against my will so to speak, then I will always get a good deal, and save money? Kind of like my local PC shop that told me that the best way to save money in computers while still having good specs, and bragging rights is to deliberately stay behind in the race?

I always thought upgrading a PC would always be more than what you paid for the last one. So if I paid $1,200.00 for mine, than my next one would be like $2,000.00, and then more, and more for each new PC I bought and so on, and so forth. But from what you're saying, it looks like I could get something equal, or perhaps even better than mine and have the price not be too much more horribly expensive than the original price I paid for mine, or maybe even CHEAPER than my original price! What sorcery is this?

I paid $1,200.00 for mine back when it was still considered newer, so would $500.00 get me specs as good as the one I currently have right now? I can't see it being possible to pay less than what I paid for mine 5 years ago, and still getting equal, or even better performance than mine.

But none of that will really matter anyway because if I buy a new computer rather than trying to upgrade all the parts in my current one, which I plan on buying a new computer at some point anyway, then all of those newer parts will automatically be in the PC, right? So I won't have to worry about compatibility, or worrying about whether, or not, the new PC will have all of the newer parts in it. I won't have to worry about a new PC still having old RAM, or out dated parts if I get a new PC from like Best Buy as they're guaranteed to always have nothing but the newest as in what's current right now. In fact I shouldn't really even need to do any research at all into what PC I choose to get from a trusted retailer like Best Buy, or WalMart, because all I need to do is look for a PC with the highest specs within reason at the lowest price possible like I always do when I get a new PC, and like I did with this one. So my stuff being outdated shouldn't really matter too much anyway because when I do finally decide to upgrade to a new PC i'll automatically be up to date in hardware, and software since it will also come preinstalled with Windows 10. Question is: How long do I have before emulators, and LaunchBox/Big Box demands of me to upgrade to a new PC?

Oh wait, I totally missed that DDR2 part. My bad, lol. Quick question: Is DDR4 really "needed" yet, or is DDR3 still fine for the most part?

6 GB of RAM is insufficient? Hell, I have 8 in mine, so is only 2 gigs more that much of a difference? I thought you even said that my RAM was pretty decent from my Windows 10 thread. o_O

I think I just figured out the point to these manufacturers, and Microsoft choosing Balanced (Recommended) over the Maximum Performance Profile, besides just being maybe for laptop users hoping to conserve battery life. It all has to do with them wanting to look good, and get pretty labels next to their brand names when you look at websites, or even shop locally at places such as WalMart, and Best Buy, etc for a new computer. It all comes down to that BS about the environment, and all of that so called Eco Foot Print crap that companies, and organizations want to shove down our throats without a shred of proof backing them up. All of that gimmicky nonsense that they try, and use for marketing schemes so they can up sell you on crap that you don't really need, or premium versions of products that don't really do diddly-doo-doo to better our environment. It's all of those lies they spew to make more money from us. Basically, there's this thing called Energy Star Certified, and other companies of a similar nature that will actually get manufacturers, and Microsoft to automatically set their customer computers to the Balanced (Recommended) option, (some of them even say Balanced Energy Star Recommended, and other variants of it etc), and if they do, they get to have a nice looking Energy Star Certified badge next to their product name to make them look better, and by spewing their Energy sufficient nonsense, they will try, and draw customers into buying their brand, make, and model of PC to make the customer feel a false sense of satisfaction making them think they are actually helping the environment, when in actuality, setting your PC to the Maximum Power Profile doesn't do jack squat to the pollution of our environment. It doesn't do ANYTHING at all bad to the environment, or to our power, or energy. Meaning that setting it to Balanced (Recommended) doesn't help the environment in any way. It's just to make these PC manufacturers more money, and sales, to help them stay ahead of the competition against other competing brands. Microsoft is also of course in on this as well, because they want to look good too. That way, people will want to use their OS because they feel that Microsoft is doing such a noble, and holy thing by enabling more energy efficiency in their OS, and into their manufacturer's hardware, much to our detriment as we wonder why our PC isn't using all of the performance, and power to it's maximum potential that we paid for. There's other companies, and organizations of a similar manner too, but the most popular one I've seen currently is Energy Star. So how it works is that these manufacturers, and Microsoft will make the necessary options default, and perhaps do other things which will then be tested by Energy Star, and others etc to see if they meet their requirements, and if they do, they get to have a Energy Star Certified badge next to their product names, and in turn, if this generates more sales, which it usually does by the ignorant customers who don't know any better about these BS marketing trends, then these so called Energy sufficiency companies, and organizations get sales commission percentages of all of the sales generated by these manufacturers, and by Microsoft who has the Energy Star Certified logos next to their names. This is what I have found from a bit of research, and that's why our PC's are automatically set to the Balanced (Recommended) profiles by default, and require us to manually change it to the correct Power Profile ourselves.

So what is the point of all of the PC manufacturers, and/or Microsoft always selecting Balanced (Recommended) as the default? What are they gaining by not just having it automatically set to the Maximum Performance Profile for us by default? Also, will making this change fix all of those controller issues I was describing in my previous post? And none of that stuff near the bottom of my previous post that I was worried about will happen if I switch over to the Maximum Performance Profile?

Sorry if that came off as too biased towards the zip archives.

@Lordmonkus I just thought of another thing that might make zip archives superior to installers, and that is safety, and security. If you went the zipped archive route for everything that allowed it, wouldn't that eliminate most forms of adware, junkware, and crap bundled software installers that often come with programs these days? Now I'm not saying that a zipped archive can't be infected with real spyware, malware, or worse, viruses, but what I mean by adware, and junkware is that when you use an installer for a program, some of them, or should I say, most of them, have extra bundled crap software that is not good quality at all, and that no one actually wants, but it's in there because software developers are often paid good money by seedy companies to include this dog poop into their software installers to make some easy, and quick cash, and even worse is that they try various forms, and methods to trick you into unwillingly, and unwittingly installing it. The most common things included are free trials of crap antivirus programs, changes to your default home page, changes to your default search engine, and trying to install eleventy billion tool bars into your web browsers, along with other forms of crapware etc. Most people fall into these traps by just blindly clicking Next, Next, Next, Finish. There's programs such as UnChecky, https://unchecky.com/ which runs as a minimal back ground service at all times, and at Windows boot which automatically unchecks any check boxes which it deems to be crapware bundled into the software you actually want, and it get's about 99% of it right, and even has web integration now with their latest update, so it can uncheck boxes on websites as well now that try to give you other installers along with the one you actually want, but for those that don't want to use a separate software for this purpose, wouldn't avoiding installers as much as possible, and using zipped archive versions as much as possible eliminate practically 99% of these problems? No installer = No Next, Next, Next, Finish, which = No bundled crapware, right?

There's actually one other thing that I forgot to ask. When you said that I didn't need to do any tweaks because my PC is powerful enough as it is, then does this mean that I can just leave all of the PC settings at default, or is there any that I should change? A really good example is this: Should I do anything with the Power Options in the Control Panel, or should I just leave them at default? Now the reason why I ask this is because in that option section is something called Power Plans, and there is 3 to choose from: Balanced (Recommended), Power Saver, and High Performance which is hidden under a Show Additional Plans drop down for whatever strange reason. On clean installs this is always automatically set to Balanced (Recommended) by default, at least on my PC anyway. Since you said that I didn't need to do any tweaks to my PC, then does this mean that I can just leave it at it's default setting of Balanced (Recommended), or should I set it to High Performance anyway? The main reason why I ask this in particular is because I use a PS4 controller on my PC since I don't have, or like Xbox controllers, and I use a program called DS4Windows to emulate an Xbox 360 controller on my PC. http://ds4windows.com/ Now the problem is that I noticed that my controller is constantly dropping like A LOT when it is connected via USB, and it especially drops randomly, and unpredictably when I'm using LaunchBox/Big Box, and RetroArch, and other emulators etc, and then it reconnects, but sometimes UAC comes up for DS4Windows, and makes me push allow several times, and a lot of times it won't even reconnect at all, and I have to go to the hardware section of the Control Panel, and it will show my PS4 controller listed as Wireless Controller which is normal, but it will show a yellow triangle exclamation point next to it, and when I right click on it, and select troubleshoot, it says that the HID Controller, or whatever it's called has been disabled, and I have to click enable for it to turn it back on, and reconnect my PS4 controller again, but even then, sometimes a mere minute later, it will be disabled again, and then I have to keep doing that all over again. Not only that, but sometimes my controller will be perfectly fine sitting on my bed, but then as soon as I go to move it, accidentally bump it, or actually use it, it will flash red for a few seconds, and then back to the normal color, (which I chose green BTW), and when I looked this all up, it all comes down to what DS4Windows calls Latency Issues. People have told us to try different solutions such as right clicking on the USB devices, and opening up their advance settings, and selecting the check box to prevent the PC from putting this device to sleep, etc, but have reported that these only kind of worked, but not really, so it wasn't a real solution. Then came the Power Plan Options solution. They claimed that changing it from Balanced (Recommended) to High Performance would eliminate all of these problems, and keep the controller connected at all times without dropping randomly, and erratically, and without Latency Issues, but I haven't tried it yet. So the question is this: Do I really need to? Isn't Balanced (Recommended) called that, and chosen as the default for a reason? Will the High Performance option really do anything noticeable, enough to be worth switching over to it? Will it really get rid of all of these problems with the controller that I constantly seem to be having? It won't shorten the lifespan of my PC components by needlessly over working them constantly for nothing will it? Is it like over clocking? Will it eat up my resources? Will it generate more electricity running in that mode all the time?

Update: EmuMovies is back up, and running.

Wait, is that all you need for disabling Telemetry is that one program? Because most of the people who were reporting issues were using about 6, or more other anti telemetry programs in addition to the one you just linked in your post at the same time. https://www.geckoandfly.com/25083/free-tools-disable-stop-windows-spying-tracking-you/ https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.winprivacy.de/english-home/ https://www.safer-networking.org/products/spybot-anti-beacon/ https://github.com/10se1ucgo/DisableWinTracking https://www.securilla.com/privacy-repairer https://www.ashampoo.com/en/eur/pin/1004/security-software/Antispy-for-Windows-10 https://github.com/Nummer/Destroy-Windows-10-Spying

I actually just read some pretty bad things about disabling Telemetry in Windows 10, and in fact, How To Geek suggested against it for Windows 10 specifically because they claimed that the Telemetry is so integrated, and inter weaved into Windows 10 that disabling Telemetry on it will actually break many components, and other things in Windows 10, and could cause huge instability with the OS. A good example is that the most important function of Windows, being the Windows Update feature, will break if you disable Telemetry, and you won't even be able to do a manual scan until you re enable Telemetry again, and even then, things might still be broken requiring a restore point, or a fresh re install. And Windows Update should be set to automatically download, install, and configure all updates for you in the background at all times to ensure maximum performance, stability, and security. So I don't know what you think about all of that stuff I just discovered, but that's what they're claiming.

#1. So I'll skip most of the manufacturer drivers for non important things, but for my mobo in particular, do you recommend INF Update Utility, Intel Management Engine Components, and Intel Rapid Storage Technology, since those 3 drivers seem to be mainly for my chipset which people claim is super important, or would I still be fine with just letting Windows install their drivers? And as for Nvidia which drivers out of the bundle would you recommend? It comes with Graphics Driver, HD Audio Driver, Physx System Software, 3D Vision Controller Driver, 3D Vision Driver, Miricast Virtual Audio Driver, and GeForce Experience. Do I need ALL of those drivers from Nvidia to get the best out of my graphics card, or should I only install certain ones? #2. I'll just use OS only updates, and tear out all of the metro modern apps then. #3. So if it doesn't even effect performance at all anyway, then what is the big deal, and hype for it then? What does UEFI actually DO that Legacy doesn't? Is it just a gimmick, a fad? #4. So I probably won't disable Telemetry, or do any Special Tweaks then. I'll just nuke the OS of all of the bundled apps.

Thanks for the answers, but I have a few more questions. #1 What makes manufacturer video card drivers so much more important, and necessary than things like motherboard chipset drivers, and drivers for everything else etc? #2. I don't know if I use other MS products, or not. When I install Windows 10, I'm not sure what will come bundled in with the OS, but I plan on just doing a fresh, clean install, and trying to keep my PC as "virginized" as possible, and installing only what I need for my needs, such as Chrome, or FireFox (don't know which one is better), and emulator stuff with LaunchBox. Maybe Kodi as well. #3. What do you mean by it doesn't matter? Are you saying that Big Box won't see ANY performance differences either way based on which installation I choose? So all of the supposed new features, and enhancements that come with UEFI over Legacy won't effect Big Box in any way? That still doesn't tell me which one is recommended just in general though. #4. My specs are as follows: OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Home 64 bit, will soon be Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 bit. Gaming Case: Xpevia X-Cruiser 3 Gaming Case. CD/DVD Drive: LG CD/DVD reader/writer 24x read/write speed. Motherboard: AsRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0 UEFI Version: P1.20 Vendor: American Mega Trends Inc. Power Supply: ATNG 600 Watt PSU. RAM: DyNet 8 GB DDR3 SD RAM Processor: Intel Devil's Canyon i7-4790K Quad Core Hyper Threaded 4.4 GHZ CPU. Graphics/Video Card: MSI Nvidia GTX GeForce 750 Ti GPU. Hard Disk Drive: Sea Gate 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD. Solid State Drive: Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB SSD. So, do I need to do any of the steps in #4 with those specs? P.S. Thanks for beautifying my posts BTW.

@Jason Carr Thanks. Also, what's the community poll, and how do I join? I'm still new here.

Hi, I have some questions about Windows 10 for LaunchBox performance as I'm still on Windows 8.1. #1. When I install Windows 10, should I install all of the manufacturer drivers for all of my hardware, and components, and pretty much everything that Windows uses etc, or should I just let Microsoft install all of their generic Windows drivers for me with their updates since with Windows 10, it can configure everything for you, and install all of the basic drivers it comes with, and get everything up, and running out of the box without installing almost anything whereas with Windows 7, and earlier, nothing worked unless you installed every single manufacturer driver for every single piece of hardware you plugged in, and for every single component that you had inside of your computer? So for example, when I plug in my Belkin WiFi USB adapter, and my RocketFish BlueTooth USB adapter, should I just let Windows install their drivers for them, or should I install the manufacturer drivers from their websites? Do I still need to install the manufacturer drivers for my mother board such as Intel INF Update Utility (AKA Chipset), Intel Management Engine Components, Intel Rapid Storage Technology, Intel HD Graphics Driver, Realtek HD Audio Driver, Realtek LAN Driver etc and all of the mother board apps, and softwares it offers on the site, or can I just let Windows install their own drivers for all of that stuff? Do I need to install the manufacturer drivers from Nvidia's website for my graphics card such as Nvidia Graphics Driver, HD Audio Driver, Phsyx System Software, 3D Vision Controller Driver, 3D Vision Driver, Miricast Virtual Audio Driver, GeForce Experience, etc, or can I just let Windows install their own drivers for that as well? Do I need Samsung Magician, and Samsung Data Migration for my Samsung SSD? Do I need Corsair Utility Engine (ICUE) for my Corsaire gaming mouse, and keyboard set? Because people have told me before that I only need to install manufacturer drivers for things if there is any yellow triangle exclamation points in my Device Manager. So will Big Box performance be effected based on these choices? #2. For the Microsoft Windows Update function, should I enable the option to install "Other Updates For Other Microsoft Products" or whatever it's called, or should I just have it install Windows Updates only? Will Big Box performance be effected based on that choice #3. Should I install Windows 10 in the new UEFI/EFI mode with a GPT partitioning, or should I continue to use the old Legacy/BIOS mode with a MBR Partitioning that we're all still used to for more compatibility? Will I get any more speed, or performance, or stability using UEFI over Legacy, or is it still too new, and still comes with a butt load of problems? Would Big Box performance be effected by that choice? If I do go the UEFI route, should I also enable Secure Boot under the UEFI options in the BIOS settings? #4. Should I be doing any "Special Tweaks" of any kind to Windows 10 in the name of boosting performance, and speed? Should I enable Ultra Fast Boot in the BIOS settings? Should I enable Rapid Mode in Samsung Magician? Should I follow this guide 100% https://www.askvg.com/master-tutorial-to-make-windows-10-super-fast/, and all of their other Windows 10 tweaking guides, or are they dangerous? Should I use any Windows Tweaking software such as the ones that disable all Telemetry in Windows 10, and disable background services, and that tear out all of the new modern Metro apps out of Windows 10 so that I can install more traditional, and better software in their place, or are those dangerous to use? Would Big Box performance be effected by any of those "Special Tweaks"? Any thing else I missed in this list of questions that I should be doing to make Windows 10 more performant, fast, and stable which will in turn make Big Box more performant, and fast, or did I pretty much cover it all? Whew! That was a lot of questions. I hope it's not too much for you all. Edited by Lordmonkus to format it a little to make it less eye bleedy.

Hi, I was wondering, is there any way that I can get the sounds that HyperSpin has for their scroll wheels, and implement it into LaunchBox to go with the Unified theme? Someone already made a HyperSpin sound pack here for that but it only has the sounds for back, forward, and select, but on actual HyperSpin itself, when you scroll through the wheels for the consoles, and the games it makes a random arcade sound effect for each one of them much like what you would hear on those arcade machines in actual arcades called The UltraCade, and other variants which had like a bunch of games from separate arcades bundled into one machine. I like to refer to the sounds as the bells, whistles, and dings.

Is EmuMovies.com down for anybody else right now or just me? It is currently 7:03 PM Tuesday, 9/11/2018 at my time of typing this post, and I cannot gain access to it at all neither on their website, or even from LaunchBox itself. When I go on EmuMovies.com it just shows a white background with text, and links on the left, like all messed up looking, and when I click on any of them, none of them even work, and just take me to a blank page, but now it's even worse though, because now the website won't even load at all. Now it's just saying that the site cannot be displayed etc, and when I tested the login on LaunchBox itself, it says unable to login which means no scraping any metadata from them until this is fixed. So is this on my end, or on theirs? UPDATE: EmuMovies is back up, and running!

You forgot the rest of the sounds though. What about all the dings, whistles, and whatever other random loud sounds it makes as you scroll through the actual emulators, and games themselves?