Installing Steam

[ronbo613]

I'm getting back into PC gaming and I'm thinking I have to install Steam sooner or later. Since they are having a big sale this weekend, I figure now is a good time to do it.

What's the best way to install Steam? I have an SSD boot drive and 7200rpm HD's. Should I install Steam on the boot SSD and games on a separate HD or everything on a hard drive separate from my boot drive? I can't put everything on the 256G SSD, so my choices are limited.

Any general advice regarding Steam would also be appreciated.

 

[MeldarthX]

I have 120 boot ssd; and several other HD's including my 500 gig game drive; I just installed it my games drive; while everything will load faster on ssd; its just space is an issue. why I'll be moving everything; or at least my steam collection to new 2TB drive soon....

 

[cronos]

For a fresh install of Steam, just install it on the SSD, and then when installing the games, you are given the choice of which drive to install them to (if you have another drive). I personally kept some games on the SSD and some on the HDD.

After the fact, you can always move the installations around with SteamMover app or similar.

 

[Sulaco]

STEAM itself on the SSD.

Games I know I will play a lot, over and over again I put on the SSD. Most everything else I put on the HDD.

 

[ronbo613]

Thanks for the input.

I have my programs on an SSD with storage and data on hard drives, so I guess it will be about the same for Steam.

I've got to check out Bundle Stars, Origin, Green Man, GOG, etc. Lot of changes to PC gaming since I've been on the Xbox.

 

[Ampersand38]

Remember to check price aggregate sites like http://isthereanydeal.com/ and http://www.cheapshark.com/ .

 

[ronbo613]

Keeping in mind that I am pretty much clueless to all this, I guess I'm asking about DRM. If I sign up for Steam and buy games from them, any multiplayer activity is on Steam servers? If I buy a game from Origin, it is on their servers?

I'm checking it out, but I want to get in on these Black Friday sales to get my PC gaming going and I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. I think I'm going to start out with Steam, would that be a good call for a first step?

Sorry for the dumbass questions

 

[KeithTalent]

SteamMover was a god send when I was on my smaller SSD. Just shifted games back and forth between my SSD and my platter drive when I was/not playing them. NOw that I have a larger SSD I don;t use it as much, but it is very handy and super easy to use if you are having storage issues but still want the better load times.

KT

 

[ronbo613]

Lot of fine print just to buy a video game...

 

[Aikouka]

Keeping in mind that I am pretty much clueless to all this, I guess I'm asking about DRM. If I sign up for Steam and buy games from them, any multiplayer activity is on Steam servers? If I buy a game from Origin, it is on their servers?

I haven't heard of any segmentation on different PC delivery platforms. For example, if you buy FarCry 4 on Steam, you can play with people that buy it straight from Ubisoft through uPlay.

 

[ThinClient]

The original Tropico and Tropico 2 are together for sale for $1.04. Great buy.

 

[ronbo613]

As I move from console gaming back to the PC, the first thing I noticed is that console gaming seems much more oriented to multiplayer where with the PC it seems like single player is the main attraction. The PC is like a time machine of video games.

I was ready to jump right into the Steam Fall Sale and buy a bunch of games but I may start with a moderately priced game and check everything out. I'm not a huge fan of having Steam running all the time, even when I'm not using it. Disabling it at startup and ending all the processes in the Task Manager after using it is kind of a minor hassle, but I don't like stuff running and using my computer resources when I'm not using it.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Install Steam itself on to the SSD because that'll give you the best steam load times.

Steam can create install repositories on different drives which you select from when you install individual games, I'd recommend creating one on your SSD for games you play a lot and you want fast load times on, and then another on your HDDs which acts more like an archive where you can move older games you dont play as much or put any games that you're not as bothered with having slow load times.

You can move games between these dirs easily, just rename the game folder in steam/steamapps/ to whatever_bak then uninstall the game from steam, that will leave behind the game files. Move them to the new install location and rename the folder back to what it was originally then in steam select install for that game again, it will detect the original files and skip downloading them, fast and easy.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

As I move from console gaming back to the PC, the first thing I noticed is that console gaming seems much more oriented to multiplayer where with the PC it seems like single player is the main attraction. The PC is like a time machine of video games.

I was ready to jump right into the Steam Fall Sale and buy a bunch of games but I may start with a moderately priced game and check everything out. I'm not a huge fan of having Steam running all the time, even when I'm not using it. Disabling it at startup and ending all the processes in the Task Manager after using it is kind of a minor hassle, but I don't like stuff running and using my computer resources when I'm not using it.

Nah, PC has got a greater library of multi-player games by far.

Resource usage of steam on a modern PC is next to nothing, you can disable it running on startup in the steam menu, it shouldn't leave any processes running once steam is closed. Forcing steam to close while you're running a steam game may cause problems especially when syncing the cloud features/achievements etc.

 

[Aikouka]

I'm not a huge fan of having Steam running all the time, even when I'm not using it. Disabling it at startup and ending all the processes in the Task Manager after using it is kind of a minor hassle, but I don't like stuff running and using my computer resources when I'm not using it.

Why not just leave it running? It sounds like you're more used to the bygone era of computing where leaving something in the background could severely bog down a PC. Steam is fairly light-weight compared to some other applications, and it shouldn't cause any issues. The only thing you may care about is whether it updates any games in the background, which may be an issue if you have any data caps. Albeit, most game updates aren't that large. I have 11 in my Steam downloads section right now, and the largest is 44MB.

 

[tential]

As I move from console gaming back to the PC, the first thing I noticed is that console gaming seems much more oriented to multiplayer where with the PC it seems like single player is the main attraction. The PC is like a time machine of video games.

I was ready to jump right into the Steam Fall Sale and buy a bunch of games but I may start with a moderately priced game and check everything out. I'm not a huge fan of having Steam running all the time, even when I'm not using it. Disabling it at startup and ending all the processes in the Task Manager after using it is kind of a minor hassle, but I don't like stuff running and using my computer resources when I'm not using it.

PC Gaming is where online multiplayer originated and still has the most active online userbase of gaming. This is your "feel" because you have so many more choices now.

So you're noticing all the single player games now available to you, but PC Gaming is far more sophisticated with thousands of options for online gaming. Not sure how you didn't see this but being a console gamer you may simply be overwhelmed with choices.

League of Legends, Dota, WoW, Counter Strike Global Offensive alone most likely eclipse any game on console.

Halo 4's userbase a couple of months after it came out was a joke compared to a handful of private, pirated MMO servers even.

PC is the home of online gaming.

Your issue is first, you're only looking at Steam, there are other online games not on Steam like Wow and League of Legends.

Also, Steam doesn't use resources unless you're using it. Like someone said, you're thinking of the old era of PC where leaving something running ate up resources.
You don't need to task manager shutdown things either.... you can simply hit exit. You'll need to reeducate yourself on how PCs work in 2014, it's not the same as before.

 

[ronbo613]

Also, Steam doesn't use resources unless you're using it. Like someone said, you're thinking of the old era of PC where leaving something running ate up resources.
You don't need to task manager shutdown things either.... you can simply hit exit. You'll need to reeducate yourself on how PCs work in 2014, it's not the same as before.

I've got a pretty good idea how computers work in 2014, this is my first experience with Steam(unless you count me ignoring it when I bought Half Life for my Win98 rig), so yeah, I've got some learning to do. I got computer resources to spare, that's not the issue. I just want to know what's running on my computer because, well, it's my computer.

Nah, PC has got a greater library of multi-player games by far.

I bought the CounterStrike package on Steam. It appears to be a pretty popular multiplayer game, that should get me going. I like car racing games, GRID Autosport is $14USD, I'll probably get that until Project Cars comes out, which is a game that I'm really after.

The thing I missed about PC gaming was the ability to modify games. One of my favorite PC games was Combat Flight Simulator 2. Even though Microsoft refused to release the source code, even a decade after it came out, the game community made the game ten times better than the original. Sometimes, tinkering with the game is more fun than playing it.

Thanks again for all your input.

 

[Aikouka]

I like car racing games, GRID Autosport is $14USD, I'll probably get that until Project Cars comes out, which is a game that I'm really after.

I have an extra copy of the game if you want it. I received it from an Intel promo, but I already own it.

 

[ronbo613]

I have an extra copy of the game if you want it. I received it from an Intel promo, but I already own it.

Thanks for the generous offer, that's super nice of you. I consider the $13 I'm paying for the game the tuition to "Steam University". I'm sure there is someone who doesn't have the huge bank account I do that could use a free game more than me.

Perhaps when I get a few races in we can race online. Are you a racing enthusiast?

 

[Aikouka]

Perhaps when I get a few races in we can race online. Are you a racing enthusiast?

You would probably think that I am since I own GRID and GRID 2, but I don't play many of them. As for racing games, I actually found myself getting really into Sonic All-Star Racing: Transformed. I don't know if you'd be interested in the game, but it's currently on the Humble Bundle, which means you can get the game (and a few others) for $1 (or even more if you beat the average, which as of writing, is pretty low). It's definitely inspired by Mario Kart, but I like the way the driving feels in the game.

 

[ronbo613]

You would probably think that I am since I own GRID and GRID 2, but I don't play many of them. As for racing games, I actually found myself getting really into Sonic All-Star Racing: Transformed. I don't know if you'd be interested in the game, but it's currently on the Humble Bundle, which means you can get the game (and a few others) for $1 (or even more if you beat the average, which as of writing, is pretty low). It's definitely inspired by Mario Kart, but I like the way the driving feels in the game.

I've been a racing enthusiast my whole life so I like the racing games where you tune and paint cars, the only place I'm going to own a Ferrari or McLaren is in a video game. When playing "just for fun" I'd probably enjoy a game like Sonic All Star Racing or Mario Kart.

I saw some of those games on Steam for less than a dollar, a few have come out fairly recently. How'd you like to be a video game developer, pour your heart and soul into a project and have it being sold for less than a buck a few months after it's released?

 

[Ampersand38]

For combat flight sims definitely check out DCS World and its many many modules. The free base game comes with a few planes to fly, but the modules offer very detailed simulations for lots of aircraft.

 

[ronbo613]

For combat flight sims definitely check out DCS World and its many many modules. The free base game comes with a few planes to fly, but the modules offer very detailed simulations for lots of aircraft.

I'll give DCS World a look, thanks for the tip. There really hasn't been a good multiplayer combat flight sim(that I know of) since the CFS2 era. It would seem that aerial dogfights would be a perfect multiplayer scenario. I do remember that the CFS2 multiplayer was so full of cheating it destroyed the multiplayer part of the game. Microsoft either didn't know how or didn't care to do anything about it. Kind of sounds like the way Xbox is going.