The other thing I'm toying with is....
Y'know when you have to make a decision on how to spend your time? You get the bog standard menu choice pop up of say "Visit Sarah"; "Visit the lounge".
I'm thinking of still having the MC thoughts (as they are rather useful) but replacing the dull menu thereafter with...
View attachment 391252
Just a bit prettier
How about placing the MC's thoughts about what to do inside some popup text when you hover your mouse over one of the options? Or showing the the text in the text bar below when you hover over an option.
As for the whole new rig debate:
1) The FIRST thing I skim on when buying a new rig, is the RAM. Many people call me crazy, but 2x 4GB is a helluve a lot cheaper than 2x 16GB. It's a noticable downgrade, yes, but also the EASIEST thing to fix in the future, when finances allow you to upgrade. And almost all software, including Daz, still works fine with "just" 8 Gb. (my own rig still runs perfectly fine on a single 8GB bank, since the other died). Just take out the banks, insert new ones, and you're done. Best part is, you can still move your 2x4GB to bankslots 2 and 4, for some totally unnecessary bonus oomph.
About every other component involves messing with cables, (re-)installing software and drivers, you name it. Of all the intermediate options, this is the first one I always go for.
2) Liquid cooling is overrated. Seriously, it is. Maintaining a good airflow inside and outside the case has more effect on your cooling than liquid cooling, which is seriously just a gadget for computers.
3) If you *don't* overclock your CPU or your RAM, then the standard fan that comes with an AMD Ryzen processor is more than enough to cool it. If you overclock the RAM to its advertised speed, then the standard fan usually just manages to keep up, but a better cooler becomes advisable. If you overclock the CPU, then certainly get a better cooler.
Intel CPUs notoriously come with lousy fans, the standard fan being just barely good enough to keep up with CPU and RAM at default clock speeds.
Just, always ask yourself: do I really *need* an overclocked computer? Will I really benefit from overclocking? Generally, the answer is that the effect is barely noticable, and that it's not worth the bother. Especially for iRay rendering, which mostly relies on your GPU and the memory on your graphics card anyway.
4) SSDs are great, but not for storing data. Great to have your OS on SSD, also great to put software on SSD. But just install data on a cheaper & bigger HDD. Also make sure to relocate your user folders (documents, pictures, downloads, etc.) to the HDD. There's an option hidden somewhere in Windows to redirect those to another drive. It helps to keep your SSD clean and fast if you maintain a strict seperation between these filetypes.
