I was playing a game online with a workmate recently and realised that while I was still waiting for my game to even launch to start the loading sequence, he was already in game, playing!

After a little discussion it made me realise that aside from doing tiny upgrades over the years, I hadn’t upgraded any of the components in my gaming PC for about 10 - 11 years!

What a realisation!

I’ve gone from the guy who would upgrade annually to be able to play the latest games at max detail and FPS, to well, everyone else.

My gaming PC is still running an older Intel Core i5 processor, 20GB of DDR3 memory (2x 8GB + 2x 2GB), a GTX270 graphics card, a 300GB SSD as an OS drive and a smattering of extra mechanical drives for storage. It’s become a bit of a Frankenstein of a PC as since having kids, I’ve never really had the funds to do a proper upgrade and just threw in bits and pieces when I could.

Out of touch

Probably the most concerning thing has been realising how out of touch I’ve become with the consumer PC market. With all of my time spent focused on Enterprise hardware, I’ve completely failed to stay in the know with the kit available for us at home.

I can’t believe how tricky it’s been to try and get back into it. PC Magazines aren’t what I remember (wow I feel old saying that!) and I just don’t know what site is trustworthy given there are so many out there.

Thanks to two of my workmates though who stay up to date, I was able to start reading up and with their help, piece together a new rig (in another post).

Magazines

I used to get a magazine called PC Authority as well as Atomic. I remember them merging into one which I thought was sad but also cool! What I didn’t expect to find out was that PC Authority (now PC & Tech Authority) merged with APC back in 2018.

I’ve always enjoyed reading magazines, probably for the same reason I prefer a real book over a Kindle. My bookshelf always reminds me that print media may not be the way forward though. I thought for sure my recycling bin was going to break when I threw out all of my PC Authority magazines!

I’m glad to see more and more of these magazines creating virtual editions in apps like Zinio or Newstand. I’m tempted to take up a sub just to save me browsing around every day to try and pick up whatever scraps I can from the net.

It is sad though to think that in Australia we really only have one Technology magazine left - APC. It must just be that hard to compete!

Keeping up to date

This whole experience has reminded me how quickly the tech world changes and that if you tune out, just for a second, you’ll miss something. Normally I’d just accept that I’m out of touch but technology has always had a special place in my heart and it’s been pretty frustrating realising how far behind my knowledge of the current market is.

I don’t have the time to browse the depths of the Internet though looking for updates so I think it’s time for me to grab myself a subscription and get back on this wagon.