Using 1 Gaming Computer For 2 People? 424
Posted
by
timothy
from the quite-a-replacement-ratio dept.
from the quite-a-replacement-ratio dept.
True Vox writes "My fiance and I have recently taken interest in City of Heroes (she's currently got a character on my account). She's got a cute little netbook, but nothing nearly powerful enough for a 5-year-old MMORPG, let alone if we take interest in Champions Online! I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase. Has anyone had any experience using one computer to control two monitors with two sets of input devices (e.g. two keyboards and two mice, or one keyboard, one mouse, and a 360 gamepad, perhaps)? I have seen one solution that might work, but not much information from users that I can find. In short, does anyone have any experience with setups like this?"
Oh dear...did he even search the internets? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Solution (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't know the answer that's fine, but don't cloak it by telling people to go outside. If I wanted to go outside I wouldn't read Slashdot!
Priorities out of line (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude, wtf? You aren't going to be married long with this line of thinking. Get off of it and buy your woman a fantastic gaming machine and forget this crap. It shows you care. Priorities, man. She IS paying attention to your choices.
Seriously. WTH.
Re:Oh dear...did he even search the internets? (Score:2, Insightful)
Can it be done? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure. Is it worth it? No.
Re:Obviously fake. (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't know whether to mod you funny or let my gamer fiance, who's sitting next to me, slap you over the internet.
We both game. He's playing GalCiv2 and I'm posting on /. and waiting for my Titan Expansion to finish downloading for UT3.
Buy a cheap machine, add RAM and a vid card? (Score:1, Insightful)
Rather than try to use a solution to allow a machine to have two users, which likely will cost more than a new box anyway, one can find decent deals on a low end HP or Gateway machine either as a closeout or loss leader special, or a special of the week at Costco or Sam's.
If you are not needing Crysis on its maximum settings, buying a low end machine, getting it to 4GB of RAM (or at least 3), and putting in a $50-$100 video card should do someone decently for most games. No, you won't be getting triple digit FPS with settings on max, but it will at least be decently playable.
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, unlike what virgins living in their mom's basement may imagine, sex is only a small part of the time spent together in a relationship.
For a start, you can't keep it up all weekend. (Cue the willy-wavers to come swear they keep it up 24/7;)
Second, a woman tends to get unflattering ideas if your interest in her starts and ends at sex.
Third, humans generally, that is, including men, have more needs than sex. Look at Maslow's pyramid sometime. There's stuff in there like safety, confidence, respect, self-esteem, etc, which are actually antithetical to the role of being just a pussy on legs. You can't get much of a feeling of security of the family if, for all you know, you're just a perfectly fungible sex object in that family.
Basically I dare say that if your wife's interest in you started and ended at sex, you too would probably get insecure and unsatisfied eventually. I mean, what hint would you have that you're not just there until she finds someone with a bigger tool or more stamina?
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:5, Insightful)
Well they say sex is like air, is a much bigger deal to people deprived of it :-)
Re:RDP (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:RDP (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just wrong. Yes, it will let you connect multiple people to the same computer. However, you'll need another computer with which to connect from, completely defeating the purpose.
On top of this, it doesn't allow any sort of 3d acceleration, and if you somehow get it to work it would be a slideshow. Your grown folks business of hacking DLL files is dated, lame, and childish.
The posters only option is in Linux with multiple GPUs. MPX will allow it on a single screen, otherwise it's separate X servers.
Re:Computers are cheap - just get another box. (Score:3, Insightful)
2+GHz P4s/512Meg are commonly found in dumpsters/recycling centres by now.
You're advocating spending 200$ for a system (Base purchase + Graphics card) where 300$ gets you a more capable *new* system. Also, you conveniently forget that P-IV class machines typically have AGP slots and those are hard to get these days. Your link goes even to a PCIe graphics card which is absolutely useless in these kind of machines.
Believe me, I'm a dumpster diver.... Spending 50$ on a dumpster diven machine, is pretty much the maximum I can recommend. More gets your quickly in the domain of "new computers" or "capable second hand computers". Usually, combining two or more dumpster diven computers gives you one capable machine (and a bunch of spare parts)... and that entirely for free.
What kind of a geek are you? (Score:5, Insightful)
I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase.
It works like this: She gets your current gaming computer, you then reluctantly get to go out and buy a quad core with 8 gig of RAM and a gig video card. This is the way of the geek relationship.
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:3, Insightful)
For a start, you can't keep it up all weekend. (Cue the willy-wavers to come swear they keep it up 24/7;)"
Going with the assumption that this is a young couple, not even married yet, if they were more towards the norm, sex WOULD be one of the primary items on the agenda. I mean, that is normal early in the relationship. Think about dating, you're primarily there to try to get in her pants. And usually...good sex leads the guy to thinking marriage might not be bad 'cause he'd like to keep that to himself on a perm. basis. The deep relationship that you're talking about, that comes along later after you are 'trapped' so to speak in marriage and are stuck together. If it doesnt' develop, the marriage isn't gonna work.
Even with that last part being said...sex in a marriage is STILL a very important part of the relationship. And besides, if you go with most guys side of things anecdotally, you'd better get all the fucking you can before the numptials, 'cause that wedding cake generally cuts her sexual appetite WAY back.
"Third, humans generally, that is, including men, have more needs than sex."
True, but, for heterosexual men, they can satisfy 99% of those needs on their own, but, for sex they need the woman there. Self satisfaction jokes aside. Face it, the old joke of "Why did God give women breasts? So men would talk to them" holds a lot of merit.
If a guy didn't want women for sex, he'd not likely give them much attention otherwise...
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:4, Insightful)
Going with the assumption that this is a young couple, not even married yet, if they were more towards the norm, sex WOULD be one of the primary items on the agenda. I mean, that is normal early in the relationship. Think about dating, you're primarily there to try to get in her pants. And usually...good sex leads the guy to thinking marriage might not be bad 'cause he'd like to keep that to himself on a perm. basis. The deep relationship that you're talking about, that comes along later after you are 'trapped' so to speak in marriage and are stuck together. If it doesnt' develop, the marriage isn't gonna work.
Good graciousness! Absolutely everything about this is backwards! Honestly, this is at the root of everything that's wrong in the world now. And it's not just the obtuseness of how to go about interacting with women, lest you misunderstand me. It's the complete abdication of anything resembling acting like an adult, and taking a long-term, responsible view of the future.
You DATE to find out if it will work. The SEX is just a side benefit. Try thinking with your BRAIN for a change. If the sex is good, you'll think ANY woman would be a good wife, and that's just STUPID. I know. Been there. Done that.
(Full disclosure: Happily married to the perfect wife and mother for 15 years. 3 kids. Deliriously sated with what happens behind closed doors. Did nothing but smooch until we were married.)
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:5, Insightful)
Good graciousness! Absolutely everything about this is backwards!
Has it occurred to you that different people might have different needs and interests in a relationship?
Re:Computers are cheap - just get another box. (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, I take it you haven't actually looked at Task Manager on a dual core (quad-core is, admittedly not that useful for games) system playing anything Source based/etc. Just check anything on this [tomshardware.com]. It's a little outdated, but so is your CPU.
Nothing wrong with a P4 for a lot of tasks, but you're deluding yourself if you think it performs better than new CPUs.