The new desktop powerhouse

A mostly easy and painless setup of the new Aftershock Ryzen 5 7600 + GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER rig. Essentially just plug and play. The problem I had was with my existing monitor which apparently has only 1 functional HDMI port. Maybe the other port needs cleaning, but my idea of sharing 1 monitor between 2 rigs isn't quite as seamless as I hoped.

Honestly, it's not the pretty lights and colours that attracted me, but the value I could get from each dollar spent. I do like the simplicity and neatness visible within the box through the plexiglass panels. Reminds me of a fishtank housing a family of tetras.

The corner of the monitor gives away the first game I'm playing on the new setup. Finally, Diablo 4 is running as quickly and smoothly as it should. It's currently Season 5, and I've been very lucky with the mythical drops of exactly the equipment I need from early in the playthrough. I picked up a Starless from normal Duriel, and an Andy's from normal Andy when the odds of any of them dropping from normal bosses are unrealistically high. Seasonal rewards give plenty of summoning materials to try for another mythical drop from Tormented Bosses, and I got a Tyrael's from Tormented Beast in Ice. Finishing the seasonal campaign with 3 separate characters provided enough crafting materials to manufacture my own mythic Shako. Now all I need to do is figure out which of the 3 characters is my favourite to bear this entire collection of treasures and blast the remainder of the season away to my heart's content.

Diablo VI Server Slam, as played on a 7 year old PC

Spent the weekend alternating between grading assignments and participating in Blizzard's Diablo VI Server Slam preview event. This event is a try-before-you-buy sample of Diablo VI (releasing June 6), and was open to everyone, no purchase required.

There were two similar free events earlier this year to stress test the system as we approach commercial release. I missed out on the first event but participated in the second, and discovered the game was practically unplayable on my PC, which I haven't upgraded in the last 7 years. I kept getting logged out, if the game didn't freeze, requiring a CTRL-ALT-DEL call for the Task Manager. Even with the graphics turned to minimum quality, the instances I could play were juddery, shuddery, experiences, and I was resigned to shop for a brand new PC with all the latest bells and whistles. I wasn't looking forward to shelling out for that kind of expense, but it didn't seem like I had a choice, since like an idiot, I buy-ed before I tried. Hey, I loved Diablo III, and wasted many hours dungeon crawling with it, while waiting 11 years for D4 to arrive.

This final Beta test before release, I was expecting more of the same glitchy nonsense since I hadn't got round to PC shopping yet. But this time, the difference was like day and night. Minimal waiting to get logged in, incredibly short wait time to load into a game, the cut-scenes played smoothly, and the game ran on my 7 year-old PC perfectly well -- granted with the graphics again tuned down to minimum, and yet, it still looked fantastic. And I was finally able to co-op with other players to take down the 'world boss', the ultimate objective of this preview experience for a sweet cosmetic reward I can display on my horse when I get to play the game for real.

It's a steep learning curve, especially since D3 offered a much simpler equipment and fighting system. D4 is deeply complex in comparison, requiring more strategising and optimizing than I want my filthy casual brain to engage in, but if D5 takes another decade to arrive, I have all the time in the world to learn. Regardless, any small upgrade I can build into my character makes combat so much more satisfying, with hoards of monsters blowing up everywhere under my ever-increasing might.

It's a simple reward cycle: kill monsters and level up with experience, or get lucky with an item drop that increases your power level sufficient to take on tougher monsters that offer even better item drops to take on even tougher monsters. Plus a crafting and a multi-layered ability upgrade mechanic that allows us to continuously tinker for even better performance. But knowing me, I'll just look at what the experts on YouTube are building and try to keep up.

But the best takeaway for me from D4 Server Slam is I'm not buying a new PC! My bank account breathes a sigh of relief.