McNasty

@Greboth Looks like I ended up with specs that were really similar to what you were suggesting, which is quite encouraging given I just took the sales guys word for it and bought his recommendation.  I normally don't do that at all lol.  Also cool to hear the graphics card is that much more of an improvement over the 480 I didn't research this stuff at all but I'd imagine he's going to see a huge improvement.  Personally I think GTA V and Witcher 3 look incredible on what I have now so I'm excited to see what 4x improvement looks like.  
 
Couple of other questions though.  I can always take out the 6650XT from that system to replace the 480, and buy a much nicer card if he wants it.  Are there considerations with how the GPU "fits" with the CPU?  The 12400F that this new setup comes with isn't very expensive, so will I not get much bang for the buck with an expensive GPU and limited CPU?  I don't know if you're supposed to keep CPU and GPU at similar price/performance levels or if it doesn't matter at all.  
 

I went to Micro Center yesterday and impulse bought this guy.  I did some more reading and ultimately decided something that was pre-built was the way to go.  It's been 10 years since I built the other one and I just went with convenience this time around.  I'm already enjoying not feeling the need to spend hours upon hours researching every stupid little thing, which is basically what I do any time I buy anything. 
 
If my son really gets into gaming/PC stuff he can always build his own later on, so I figured this would be a solid intermediate step that would be a good replacement for our house PC if it bites the dust.  Or a good hand me down to son #2 and then son #3.  The guy at the store was pretty helpful with narrowing down the stuff I needed vs the stuff that doesn't really matter.  It's a smaller frame and not much room to add anything else but I don't see myself doing that anyway.  
 
I priced out the parts individually this morning and overall it seems like a good deal especially with OS included and a 1 year warranty.  Will hopefully seem like a major upgrade in graphics/performance for my son.  I don't expect it to blow anyone away but given what he currently plays on is over 10 years old I think he should see a noticeable improvement.  I'm starting to look at monitors now.  
 
 
PowerSpec G232 Gaming PC; Intel Core i5 12th Gen 12400F 2.5GHz Processor; AMD Radeon RX 6650XT 8GB GDDR6; 16GB DDR4-2666 - Micro Center
WWW.MICROCENTER.COM Get it now! The PowerSpec G232 desktop computer is a step-up level gaming machine featuring the Intel Core i5 12400F processor, an...  
 

@Greboth Looks like I ended up with specs that were really similar to what you were suggesting, which is quite encouraging given I just took the sales guys word for it and bought his recommendation.  I normally don't do that at all lol.  Also cool to hear the graphics card is that much more of an improvement over the 480 I didn't research this stuff at all but I'd imagine he's going to see a huge improvement.  Personally I think GTA V and Witcher 3 look incredible on what I have now so I'm excited to see what 4x improvement looks like.  
 
Couple of other questions though.  I can always take out the 6650XT from that system to replace the 480, and buy a much nicer card if he wants it.  Are there considerations with how the GPU "fits" with the CPU?  The 12400F that this new setup comes with isn't very expensive, so will I not get much bang for the buck with an expensive GPU and limited CPU?  I don't know if you're supposed to keep CPU and GPU at similar price/performance levels or if it doesn't matter at all.  
 

I went to Micro Center yesterday and impulse bought this guy.  I did some more reading and ultimately decided something that was pre-built was the way to go.  It's been 10 years since I built the other one and I just went with convenience this time around.  I'm already enjoying not feeling the need to spend hours upon hours researching every stupid little thing, which is basically what I do any time I buy anything. 
 
If my son really gets into gaming/PC stuff he can always build his own later on, so I figured this would be a solid intermediate step that would be a good replacement for our house PC if it bites the dust.  Or a good hand me down to son #2 and then son #3.  The guy at the store was pretty helpful with narrowing down the stuff I needed vs the stuff that doesn't really matter.  It's a smaller frame and not much room to add anything else but I don't see myself doing that anyway.  
 
I priced out the parts individually this morning and overall it seems like a good deal especially with OS included and a 1 year warranty.  Will hopefully seem like a major upgrade in graphics/performance for my son.  I don't expect it to blow anyone away but given what he currently plays on is over 10 years old I think he should see a noticeable improvement.  I'm starting to look at monitors now.  
 
 
PowerSpec G232 Gaming PC; Intel Core i5 12th Gen 12400F 2.5GHz Processor; AMD Radeon RX 6650XT 8GB GDDR6; 16GB DDR4-2666 - Micro Center
WWW.MICROCENTER.COM Get it now! The PowerSpec G232 desktop computer is a step-up level gaming machine featuring the Intel Core i5 12400F processor, an...  
 

Sup fellas
 
I got a $500 gift card from some work stuff, and spent a few days looking for crap to buy and couldn't come with anything that wasn't just spending to spend.  My son is pretty into PC gaming and has a bunch of friends on discord that play together.  Currently our setup is a rig that I built about 10 years ago - i7-2600k, GTX 480, 8gb, a few SSDs and SATA drives, Sabertooth p67 board, dual monitors.  Not anything fancy in today's terms but it was a big chunk of money 10 years ago and thankfully it's still working really well.  I had the store build it for me originally but I've taken it apart and cleaned it a couple of times so I'm not opposed to buying everything separate and building it with my son so he can learn.  
 
Given all he knows is that 10 year old rig, I don't see any reason to go crazy on budget and buy top of the line stuff so I'm thinking a max budget of like $1k USD.  I would think I could get at least the same specs as my current setup 10 years later for that budget amount.  I think I spent around $2500 for the original setup and hopefully Moores law gets me better than that for this budget.  I do want to future proof this a little bit but I don't know how much is too much in terms of device specs and I don't want to go overboard for no reason.  He can use his own money later on to upgrade this as he wants.
 
I don't know anything about todays current standards for gaming requirements, so just looking for advice on what you would buy if I handed you $1k.  Everything he plays now has zero issues on our current setup but thats mostly minecraft and he's getting into mods and fancy stuff.  If the budget needs to go up that's fine, I just figured this was a good starting point and with the gift card it would only cost me $500.  I'm not including monitors in this, I have a bunch of good ones collecting dust and we can make that birthday presents or he can buy them if he wants.
 
Appreciate any suggestions!
 

Sup fellas
 
I got a $500 gift card from some work stuff, and spent a few days looking for crap to buy and couldn't come with anything that wasn't just spending to spend.  My son is pretty into PC gaming and has a bunch of friends on discord that play together.  Currently our setup is a rig that I built about 10 years ago - i7-2600k, GTX 480, 8gb, a few SSDs and SATA drives, Sabertooth p67 board, dual monitors.  Not anything fancy in today's terms but it was a big chunk of money 10 years ago and thankfully it's still working really well.  I had the store build it for me originally but I've taken it apart and cleaned it a couple of times so I'm not opposed to buying everything separate and building it with my son so he can learn.  
 
Given all he knows is that 10 year old rig, I don't see any reason to go crazy on budget and buy top of the line stuff so I'm thinking a max budget of like $1k USD.  I would think I could get at least the same specs as my current setup 10 years later for that budget amount.  I think I spent around $2500 for the original setup and hopefully Moores law gets me better than that for this budget.  I do want to future proof this a little bit but I don't know how much is too much in terms of device specs and I don't want to go overboard for no reason.  He can use his own money later on to upgrade this as he wants.
 
I don't know anything about todays current standards for gaming requirements, so just looking for advice on what you would buy if I handed you $1k.  Everything he plays now has zero issues on our current setup but thats mostly minecraft and he's getting into mods and fancy stuff.  If the budget needs to go up that's fine, I just figured this was a good starting point and with the gift card it would only cost me $500.  I'm not including monitors in this, I have a bunch of good ones collecting dust and we can make that birthday presents or he can buy them if he wants.
 
Appreciate any suggestions!
 

Sup fellas
 
I got a $500 gift card from some work stuff, and spent a few days looking for crap to buy and couldn't come with anything that wasn't just spending to spend.  My son is pretty into PC gaming and has a bunch of friends on discord that play together.  Currently our setup is a rig that I built about 10 years ago - i7-2600k, GTX 480, 8gb, a few SSDs and SATA drives, Sabertooth p67 board, dual monitors.  Not anything fancy in today's terms but it was a big chunk of money 10 years ago and thankfully it's still working really well.  I had the store build it for me originally but I've taken it apart and cleaned it a couple of times so I'm not opposed to buying everything separate and building it with my son so he can learn.  
 
Given all he knows is that 10 year old rig, I don't see any reason to go crazy on budget and buy top of the line stuff so I'm thinking a max budget of like $1k USD.  I would think I could get at least the same specs as my current setup 10 years later for that budget amount.  I think I spent around $2500 for the original setup and hopefully Moores law gets me better than that for this budget.  I do want to future proof this a little bit but I don't know how much is too much in terms of device specs and I don't want to go overboard for no reason.  He can use his own money later on to upgrade this as he wants.
 
I don't know anything about todays current standards for gaming requirements, so just looking for advice on what you would buy if I handed you $1k.  Everything he plays now has zero issues on our current setup but thats mostly minecraft and he's getting into mods and fancy stuff.  If the budget needs to go up that's fine, I just figured this was a good starting point and with the gift card it would only cost me $500.  I'm not including monitors in this, I have a bunch of good ones collecting dust and we can make that birthday presents or he can buy them if he wants.
 
Appreciate any suggestions!
 

Picked this up for a whopping $6 after touring a retro videogame store with my oldest.  I remember people here taking about it and didn’t want to check youtube for spoilers and such.  I’m maybe 1 hr into the game and it’s sluggish but I can see a story getting developed.  Question is - Is
this game just going to make me depressed?  I have 3 littles and I don’t need added drama in my life because that’s just not fun for me.  Seems like Last of Us is the same way which is why I haven’t
tried that one either.  I like games for fun and don’t mind some drama but I don’t want to play through an experience where my kids die and shit.  Is this game worth continuing or should I pass?
 
PS3 is the new retro btw.  We’re old now, gotta accept it.  

Picked this up for a whopping $6 after touring a retro videogame store with my oldest.  I remember people here taking about it and didn’t want to check youtube for spoilers and such.  I’m maybe 1 hr into the game and it’s sluggish but I can see a story getting developed.  Question is - Is
this game just going to make me depressed?  I have 3 littles and I don’t need added drama in my life because that’s just not fun for me.  Seems like Last of Us is the same way which is why I haven’t
tried that one either.  I like games for fun and don’t mind some drama but I don’t want to play through an experience where my kids die and shit.  Is this game worth continuing or should I pass?
 
PS3 is the new retro btw.  We’re old now, gotta accept it.  

@techno I also crushed S5 the past 2-3 days.  This was one of the better seasons IMO because it got away from all the teeny bopper drama stuff.  It's still in there, but not as bad as other seasons.  I can't get enough of this show it sucks so much ass but it's also awesome at the same time.  Sort of reminds me of The Ranch on Netflix.  Just awful but for some reason I couldn't stop watching and that didn't even have nostalgia going for it.

Picked this up for a whopping $6 after touring a retro videogame store with my oldest.  I remember people here taking about it and didn’t want to check youtube for spoilers and such.  I’m maybe 1 hr into the game and it’s sluggish but I can see a story getting developed.  Question is - Is
this game just going to make me depressed?  I have 3 littles and I don’t need added drama in my life because that’s just not fun for me.  Seems like Last of Us is the same way which is why I haven’t
tried that one either.  I like games for fun and don’t mind some drama but I don’t want to play through an experience where my kids die and shit.  Is this game worth continuing or should I pass?
 
PS3 is the new retro btw.  We’re old now, gotta accept it.  

@techno I also crushed S5 the past 2-3 days.  This was one of the better seasons IMO because it got away from all the teeny bopper drama stuff.  It's still in there, but not as bad as other seasons.  I can't get enough of this show it sucks so much ass but it's also awesome at the same time.  Sort of reminds me of The Ranch on Netflix.  Just awful but for some reason I couldn't stop watching and that didn't even have nostalgia going for it.

First off, hope everyone is doing well it's been a minute!
 
I am out of my element here and hoping that someone knows enough to point me in the right direction and make all of my dreams come true.  I want to take this image below and turn it into something that I can take to a print shop and turn it into a massive canvas print or really any type of print that I can have framed and put on my wall.  I talked to the person who created this and it was done with 2ft by 3ft dimensions, but he wasn't familiar with how this can be upscaled to a larger size while maintaining a quality image.  I want to make this enormous and take up an entire wall in my game room.  Something like 6ft x 8ft.  I have been searching for the largest LTTP maps for years and across every online platform I can find I see nothing bigger than poster size.  Is it possible to take something like this to a print shop and have them blow it up where it's not really blurry and distorted?  If you click on the picture below it takes you to a flickr page that has a bunch of different dimensions but I don't know what any of that means or how that translates to what I want to do.  Suggestions or ideas appreciated!
 

  

First off, hope everyone is doing well it's been a minute!
 
I am out of my element here and hoping that someone knows enough to point me in the right direction and make all of my dreams come true.  I want to take this image below and turn it into something that I can take to a print shop and turn it into a massive canvas print or really any type of print that I can have framed and put on my wall.  I talked to the person who created this and it was done with 2ft by 3ft dimensions, but he wasn't familiar with how this can be upscaled to a larger size while maintaining a quality image.  I want to make this enormous and take up an entire wall in my game room.  Something like 6ft x 8ft.  I have been searching for the largest LTTP maps for years and across every online platform I can find I see nothing bigger than poster size.  Is it possible to take something like this to a print shop and have them blow it up where it's not really blurry and distorted?  If you click on the picture below it takes you to a flickr page that has a bunch of different dimensions but I don't know what any of that means or how that translates to what I want to do.  Suggestions or ideas appreciated!
 

  

First off, hope everyone is doing well it's been a minute!
 
I am out of my element here and hoping that someone knows enough to point me in the right direction and make all of my dreams come true.  I want to take this image below and turn it into something that I can take to a print shop and turn it into a massive canvas print or really any type of print that I can have framed and put on my wall.  I talked to the person who created this and it was done with 2ft by 3ft dimensions, but he wasn't familiar with how this can be upscaled to a larger size while maintaining a quality image.  I want to make this enormous and take up an entire wall in my game room.  Something like 6ft x 8ft.  I have been searching for the largest LTTP maps for years and across every online platform I can find I see nothing bigger than poster size.  Is it possible to take something like this to a print shop and have them blow it up where it's not really blurry and distorted?  If you click on the picture below it takes you to a flickr page that has a bunch of different dimensions but I don't know what any of that means or how that translates to what I want to do.  Suggestions or ideas appreciated!
 

  

First off, hope everyone is doing well it's been a minute!
 
I am out of my element here and hoping that someone knows enough to point me in the right direction and make all of my dreams come true.  I want to take this image below and turn it into something that I can take to a print shop and turn it into a massive canvas print or really any type of print that I can have framed and put on my wall.  I talked to the person who created this and it was done with 2ft by 3ft dimensions, but he wasn't familiar with how this can be upscaled to a larger size while maintaining a quality image.  I want to make this enormous and take up an entire wall in my game room.  Something like 6ft x 8ft.  I have been searching for the largest LTTP maps for years and across every online platform I can find I see nothing bigger than poster size.  Is it possible to take something like this to a print shop and have them blow it up where it's not really blurry and distorted?  If you click on the picture below it takes you to a flickr page that has a bunch of different dimensions but I don't know what any of that means or how that translates to what I want to do.  Suggestions or ideas appreciated!
 

  

I saw it last week.  It was a decent movie but nothing to go out of your way for.  Took forever before the plot actually went somewhere and it had some OG ghostbusters vibes, but overall it was just ok.

Sup fellas.  Tommy I've been day trading for about 5 years now.  Not full time or anything but I spend about 2 hours or so a day on it from around 9-11 and again at close.  I mostly swing trade different stocks for a few weeks or so in a variety of sectors.  I've used a few platforms and Fidelity is the only one I use now, and I recommend it to everyone.  Do not use Robinhood.  All the brokers have free trades now so go with a solid company (i.e. NOT robinhood lol).  Download Active Trader Pro on your computer and use that.  Don't trade from your phone.
 
Anyhow if you have any questions I've been a student of trading for quite a long time and can give plenty of advice/recommendations.  I had a bunch of friends that recently got into trading in the last few months with the GME/AMC stuff and helped them avoid some major fuckup ideas they had in their heads lol.  
 
Also if you want to drink from a firehose, Stocktwits is a fantastic app.  It's like twitter for stocks.  Just take everyone's posts with a grain of salt.  You'll eventually find traders to follow who know what they're doing.  Easily 90% of the people on there are morons typing out rocket ships and diamond hands and all that crap, but you can learn a ton from the other 10% because you're seeing active opinions on whats happening and what their game plan is (not youtube videos where people monday morning quarterback).  It's a great place to find opportunity, but then it's your job to do your DD and understand why you are investing and when to enter/exit.
 
My best general rule is to always enter a stock with 1/3 of the position you want.  If you want to gamble $1k on a particular stock, enter with $333.  Add another 1/3 on 5% dips until you get your full position.  If it doesn't dip, maybe average up along the way but never look back and say I wish I had put more in.  Thats what rookie traders do because they have no discipline.  They also go full in out of the gate and if it drops 10-20 percent they're left holding big bags instead of the traders who give themselves opportunities to average down with the same amount of invested capital.  Always ease into a position.
 
I learned the hard way like every new trader does, and it took a long time before I found my style and actually started making money.  I could go on for days but if you have any specific questions shoot em over. 
 
 

Sup fellas.  Tommy I've been day trading for about 5 years now.  Not full time or anything but I spend about 2 hours or so a day on it from around 9-11 and again at close.  I mostly swing trade different stocks for a few weeks or so in a variety of sectors.  I've used a few platforms and Fidelity is the only one I use now, and I recommend it to everyone.  Do not use Robinhood.  All the brokers have free trades now so go with a solid company (i.e. NOT robinhood lol).  Download Active Trader Pro on your computer and use that.  Don't trade from your phone.
 
Anyhow if you have any questions I've been a student of trading for quite a long time and can give plenty of advice/recommendations.  I had a bunch of friends that recently got into trading in the last few months with the GME/AMC stuff and helped them avoid some major fuckup ideas they had in their heads lol.  
 
Also if you want to drink from a firehose, Stocktwits is a fantastic app.  It's like twitter for stocks.  Just take everyone's posts with a grain of salt.  You'll eventually find traders to follow who know what they're doing.  Easily 90% of the people on there are morons typing out rocket ships and diamond hands and all that crap, but you can learn a ton from the other 10% because you're seeing active opinions on whats happening and what their game plan is (not youtube videos where people monday morning quarterback).  It's a great place to find opportunity, but then it's your job to do your DD and understand why you are investing and when to enter/exit.
 
My best general rule is to always enter a stock with 1/3 of the position you want.  If you want to gamble $1k on a particular stock, enter with $333.  Add another 1/3 on 5% dips until you get your full position.  If it doesn't dip, maybe average up along the way but never look back and say I wish I had put more in.  Thats what rookie traders do because they have no discipline.  They also go full in out of the gate and if it drops 10-20 percent they're left holding big bags instead of the traders who give themselves opportunities to average down with the same amount of invested capital.  Always ease into a position.
 
I learned the hard way like every new trader does, and it took a long time before I found my style and actually started making money.  I could go on for days but if you have any specific questions shoot em over. 
 
 

Facebook is doing everyone a favor.  Who needs facebook for anything?  I've never had an account and the only thing I've missed out on is having everything about my life in some database to be farmed out.  If you rely on facebook for news, introspection is required.  

That picture with the castle is fucking amazing.  Dammit I want a castle

That picture with the castle is fucking amazing.  Dammit I want a castle

Right there with you buddy lol.  I saw the keys in the picture first and knew immediately.  Thats a pretty sick present, definitely would put them in a display
 
This was the first Christmas in who knows how many years that I didn't go anywhere, and that was awesome.  We usually spend the days around Christmas running around visiting family so I was actually really looking forward to this Christmas.  The wine was flowing early.  Aside from some gift cards from family I usually only get a present from my parents.  Me and the wife stopped giving each other presents a long time ago.  Usually I get something house or camper related from my folks but this year I really couldn't think of anything I didn't already have so I didn't give them any ideas.  They decided to get me an Oculus Quest 2 VR set which is something I'd never even thought about honestly.  It's amazing how far these things have come compared to the last time I tried one of these about 5+ years ago.  I haven't played any games yet but I did watch about 3 seasons of Turn on Netflix lol.  Its like being in a legit movie theater with a massive screen.  Also jumped out of a few airplanes with a wingsuit on flying down mountains, rode some roller coasters, Blue Angels ride alongs, etc.
 
The Oasis cannot come soon enough!
 
And TIL about Lynx Africa gifts being a thing lol.  

Right there with you buddy lol.  I saw the keys in the picture first and knew immediately.  Thats a pretty sick present, definitely would put them in a display
 
This was the first Christmas in who knows how many years that I didn't go anywhere, and that was awesome.  We usually spend the days around Christmas running around visiting family so I was actually really looking forward to this Christmas.  The wine was flowing early.  Aside from some gift cards from family I usually only get a present from my parents.  Me and the wife stopped giving each other presents a long time ago.  Usually I get something house or camper related from my folks but this year I really couldn't think of anything I didn't already have so I didn't give them any ideas.  They decided to get me an Oculus Quest 2 VR set which is something I'd never even thought about honestly.  It's amazing how far these things have come compared to the last time I tried one of these about 5+ years ago.  I haven't played any games yet but I did watch about 3 seasons of Turn on Netflix lol.  Its like being in a legit movie theater with a massive screen.  Also jumped out of a few airplanes with a wingsuit on flying down mountains, rode some roller coasters, Blue Angels ride alongs, etc.
 
The Oasis cannot come soon enough!
 
And TIL about Lynx Africa gifts being a thing lol.  

Right there with you buddy lol.  I saw the keys in the picture first and knew immediately.  Thats a pretty sick present, definitely would put them in a display
 
This was the first Christmas in who knows how many years that I didn't go anywhere, and that was awesome.  We usually spend the days around Christmas running around visiting family so I was actually really looking forward to this Christmas.  The wine was flowing early.  Aside from some gift cards from family I usually only get a present from my parents.  Me and the wife stopped giving each other presents a long time ago.  Usually I get something house or camper related from my folks but this year I really couldn't think of anything I didn't already have so I didn't give them any ideas.  They decided to get me an Oculus Quest 2 VR set which is something I'd never even thought about honestly.  It's amazing how far these things have come compared to the last time I tried one of these about 5+ years ago.  I haven't played any games yet but I did watch about 3 seasons of Turn on Netflix lol.  Its like being in a legit movie theater with a massive screen.  Also jumped out of a few airplanes with a wingsuit on flying down mountains, rode some roller coasters, Blue Angels ride alongs, etc.
 
The Oasis cannot come soon enough!
 
And TIL about Lynx Africa gifts being a thing lol.