Anecdote, his people didn’t even watch the debate. If they did watch it, they watched some edited version the next day that only had his answers, basically an edited speech. Then they watched some talking go over all the worst bits of what Harris said and did. Then they read about how the moderators were unfair to Trump, and how Harris must have been given the questions ahead of time. I know multiple people that did exactly this, it’s all quite insufferable. Based on the way they talk, it wouldn’t surprise me if some people watched it live and just muted the TV when Harris was talking, because they can’t stand hearing her.

Yeah, upgrading the platform means Motherboard, RAM, and CPU. You’d be upgrading your GPU before then though. Don’t sweat it.

That’s a great deal with all those accessories. You can price all the other stuff new. None of these things degrade really, so functionality will be identical to new.

Only downside if you’re looking for one is the AM4 platform is done. Basically that’s a computer anyone would have recommended you buy 3 years ago new for what you’re budgeting, minus a few hundred for a mid range GPU. If the keyboard, mouse, and headphones are quality you’re getting a steal for someone in your position.

Right, huge price difference. Performance isn’t totally linear like this, but it’s still helpful to think of it in terms of pixels and fps. 4k is for times the pixels of 1080p, 120fps is twice the frames. So to go from smooth 1080p 60fps to smooth 4k 120fps you need 16 times more graphics power.

Your screen resolution and fps goals (capped by your screen’s refresh rate) are something you want to nail down. I think the jump to OLED 120hz or higher screen is better than 4k partly because getting high fps out of 4k is much harder.

A $1500 budget can go a long way. Don’t think about future proof, think about meeting your goals in games today, whatever you build will be fine for 8 years as long as your standards don’t change. Outside of pushing 4k and high fps, graphics demands have plateaued compared to 10+ years ago. Ray tracing was the last big wow, and AI processing in the pipeline has done wonders at improving performance. I don’t see the value of a motherboard that costs more than $200, and the best value CPU for gaming is the 7800x3d which is $400 when not on sale. You don’t need more than 32gb of RAM, decent kit is about $100. Cases are looks subjective, airflow objective, runs $30 to $150, up to crazy high for gamerz styles. Any PSU over $100 is a waste of money, even driving a 4080 super. For storage get a well rated NVME within your capacity goals, $100 gets you a good brand with decent space. That would leave $500 for a graphics card, buying new won’t get you top of the line, but you could get last generation’s best with that. If you live near a Microcenter and can wait for a good bundle, you can save a few hundred. Sorry for ballparking, writing from my phone. Use pcpartpicker and have fun with it.

You can build a fabulous PC for not much, but you can also end up feeling disappointed for a few times more. It’s about expectations and targets.

What resolution gaming are you trying to do? Are you wanting insane frame rates or is 60fps enough? There’s a huge difference between 60fps 1080p and 120fps 4k. Since you mentioned PC VR, the target is really high as it’s usually rendering higher than 4k, and smooth, high FPS is critical. You may still want more than a 4080 can give you in some games.

I just built a PC for my nephew, he got my old 2080 (used cost is $200-$300), and some mid-tier AM5 combo deal from Microcenter. He’s super happy with it because it does what he wanted it to do. I helped him keep his expectations within his budget, critically an entry level 1080p gaming monitor as he wanted to get high FPS on Valorant.

https://youtu.be/dTKhOvBNakM

Because those are beaches of the 4th amendment, so of course you don’t see that happen very often. That’s the point being made.

Regardless of what the remote access test says about it being available, I had to manually port forward to fix this same issue.

I’m happy with 4x of these trays from Monoprice, cheaper than everything else posted so far as well. Fits a beefy power strip (don’t cheap out on power) with room to stuff cables and power bricks. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=33815

Ah, thank you for the clarity. My view of things, intelligence comes down to luck as it’s a measure of brain capability (not IQ), which I believe is fixed. Darkness was strictly meant as ignorance. Highly intelligent people will be more likely to learn, synthesize new ideas from previous experiences. When faced with the struggles of this existence, high intellect might invent a functioning coping mechanism where low intellect will fail and leave you to meltdown. Considering I believe we also become frustrated over a lack of understanding, not strictly from undesirable sensations, I think intellect plays a huge role in why people say autism is a spectrum. The compounding failure for an average intelligence autistic kid to learn to cope results in daily meltdowns and placement in special needs classes where they are seen as incapable. If society better understood their problems, helped them process and learn coping mechanisms, healthy stims, and what to avoid, they might be able to live a more normal life. That’s not what happens today, and it’s fucking tragic.

I don’t really like any of the words that exist to talk about the issues unique to autism. Sorry if that caused any confusion.

Based on your response I’m not clear what we didn’t agree on. I’m a former smart kid that only realized he is autistic at 33. I’m hopeful that my kids will have more support in school than I did, and that the world outside of school will continue to become more accommodating for us. The world wasn’t built for people in wheelchairs, but it’s slowly being rebuilt with accommodations. Our curb cuts will take a lot of different shapes.

Start expanding your fundamental understanding of what is happening. Words give power over problems, prior to understanding triggers were even a thing you weren’t looking for them. Read experiences of others, what triggers them. Consider that you can alter your relationship to the triggers, not just avoid them. I hated almost all music as a kid, that changed once I started playing music rhythm games like DDR and guitar hero. I’ll argue that music was information I didn’t understand how to process, which dysregulated me. The unwanted information of songs being stuck in my head really upset me. Improved understanding of the sensory input opened ways to stim in response to it.

Expand what you consider to be inputs, expand what you consider to be a stim. Inputs are anything happening to you, including your own thoughts and actions. Stims are your outputs, including thoughts. Inputs you don’t understand cause frustration. Your brain expends energy to find the correct response and gets nothing for it. Pressure builds up and if we don’t do something in response we blow up. There are so many things that get better once you can understand them.

Consider cilantro, wiki says between 3 and 21 percent of people have a gene mutation that makes it taste unpleasant, I’m in that lucky pool of soapy disgust. Before gaining this understanding I simply could not process how my family enjoyed food with cilantro. In fact, I didn’t even know it was cilantro at fault, I just hated some of the food and my family loved it. Lack of knowledge let me believe it was a subjective taste preference, and I would suffer for that, going hungry or being forced to eat soap. Learning in my late teens of this genre mutation empowered me to avoid my own disgust while explaining how others aren’t disgusted by it.

So much in life is improved by expanded understanding. I think that’s the core of why kids dysregulate more often, they have less tools to explain the world. I think that’s why super smart kids with this brain don’t dysregulate as often, they pull themselves out of the darkness.

I’ll leave you with this link about how words literally grant your brain power to process inputs. https://news.mit.edu/2023/how-blue-and-green-appeared-language-1102

The difference in taste between good and mediocre for fruit is huge. Most fruit in stores doesn’t even taste distinct at this point. I’d totally be down to follow good growers to know when/where to buy their stuff. There’s this brand of frozen cherries in my fridge (Townsend Farms, Oregon) that has ruined all other cherries for me. Dole organic bananas, at least the ones at my Costco in Texas (says product of Mexico), have similarly ruined all other bananas for me. Taste is like, generic fructose, vs something distinctly of that fruit.

My work used to have a hookup with a local watermelon farmer, every summer we’d buy a few pallets and give everyone a watermelon. I’m still chasing the taste of those melons…