PC Gaming & Hardware

For whatever reason I can't ask for suggestions in a video game subreddit so I figured I'd post here.

Did a full build for mother's day and hooked it up to her tv (mostly so I could more easily stream hockey and torrent movies for her). PC gaming has always been a critical part of my life and wanted to share it with mom. Since she's getting older (57) I figured it would be a bonding thing we could do that doesn't involve money or exercise. I wanted to do puzzle games like Outer Wilds, Chants of Sennaar, Baba is You, etc

I fear those may be too hard and frustrating. Any ideas on good starter games that can develop principles like moving your character and camera at the same time and stuff like that? I don't want answers like minesweeper, she's not tech illiterate just has no video game exposure. Anybody who tried to play games with their girlfriend should know the feel or knows Razbuten's video series.

As you can see, my Steam library is a mess… I don’t want my friends to notice that I’ve played Palworld. Is there any way to remove it from my profile or hide it ?

Man, how time has flown and how technology has utterly changed from a quarter of a century ago when I first joined the pre PC master race before it was ever such a thing. Jesus, has it really been that long!??

I was taking my first semester of college to get Associate Degree of Information Systems Management, and since it was a whirlwind of information to learn at the the time, I felt it would help mu studies as well as also get off the slow ass family 1998 Pentium 2 233mhz box downstairs and have my own to learn from and also break after learning that the hard way after I deleted ini files to recover HDD space on family PC only to have my father not be able to finish his companies sales since windows 95 would no longer boot after that.

I spent months reading page after page on the late, great Anandtech website using the school computer labs, finding out what exactly was a "AMD" and why it was a better processor than Intel. Along with new fangle things like "SATA will replace IDE soon, is it worth the cost? " and "Why 56k bauf modem is all the speed you will ever need!" On top of thst, I was also visiting a website called virtual-hideout.net and 2coolTek learning I could make my pc run cooler and faster by modifying the case with a "blowhole" for a 80mm fan and that you can actually buy window kits to be able to see inside and even add a cold cathode light tube just like the sweet tuner cars in Fast and Furious! I was getting more and more excited as I kept going down the digital research rabbit hole reading up on more websites like MadOnion benchmark forum, FiringSquad, HardOCP, Cooler Guys, mwave.com, and old school Tom's Hardware. My parents pc was so slow for internet usage, I read the Brady games How to Build Game PC book instead when I wasn't at school using computer lab for research

After slowing collecting all the essential pieces from a variety of sources and as my part time Walmart paycheck could manage, I finally had everything I needed at long last to build my very first PC! I even used the family's extra wide format kodak film camera to take a picture of all the parts, digital cameras were well beyond my price at that time and I didn't even own a cellphone either, texting was per message and phone call plans were expensive so my parents wouldn't pay for one.

I don't remember much about the building process but I do remeber after finally getting windows 98se to boot and install correctly and getting my dial up modem connected, it forever changed my life, my hobbies, my proffesional career. It began an obessesion that lasted for over a decade for doing dozens of modified computer case projects, hacking up cases with grinders and jig saws, learning how to paint and wire lighting long before LEDS. Doing self upgrades on hardware and going to my first LAN party and experiencing the wonders and joy of T1 internet speeds, meeting new people to play EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot and doing raids until 4 am km the morning! Hours of nonstop unreal tournament, Quake 3, Return to Wolfenstein and so many others. And the pron.....oh the glorious pron I could get from Limewire on the T1 line so fast! And all the free music from Napster that I would play using modified Winamp skins for hours on end!

It feels like yesterday in some ways and yet I feel so very old now in comparison, kids these days have it so freaking easy and have choices that I could never even dream of unless you put time and effort into making it yourself from scratch, but that's what made it so fun and so special, every pc build was totally unique. Hell, we were suspending our HDDz on bungie cords or rubber bands to reduce noise and vibration on our rigs, SSds didn't exist back then! And God help you if you had no idea how to manage thick IDE cables cause SATA devices and mobo's were still in design phase.

Here's hoping I can last another 25 years even though I've greatly slowed down building and playing PC games in my age. I coudln't imagine how much desktop technology would be like. When I see and compare my recent build late last year vs my humble starting days in that sunny summer day of May 2001 back in homestate of Montana, I can't help but smile and cry a little....

May 2001 specs: "Midnight Enlightment"

• AMD Athlon Axia 1.33ghz overclocked to 1.4ghz stock fan
• Abit KT7A Socket 7 VIA chipset motherboard
• Crucial 256meg SDRAM 266mhz
• Western Digital Caviar 40gb 72000rpm IDE
• TDK 16x 10x 40x CDRW IDE drive
• Viewsonic 19inch CRT monitor
• 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000. Replaced shortly after for Visiontek GeForce 3
• Enlight 7237 case
• Soundblaster Live xGamer 5.1
• US Robotics 56.6 pci modem
• Microsoft Intellieye laser mouse
• Microsoft Sidewinder joystick

May 2026 specs: "Fr0stC0re"

• MD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• MSI MPG B850 Edge Ti AM5 socket
• Corsair Vengeance RGB 32GB DDR5 6000mhz
• WD Black 2TB gen5 M.2
• WD Black 4TB gen4 SN850x M.2
• Dell 27" 4k 120hz LCD
• Powercolor Hellhound spectral white AMD 9070XT
• Fractal Design Meshify 3 Pro RGB case
• Thermalright Frozen Warframe 240mm AIO cpu cooler
• SeaSonic 1000w Focus PSU
• Logitech G213 RGB keyboard
• Logitech G403 wireless RGB mouse

Look what I've found on Chinese second hand market. Definitely a scam, but got a laugh from me!