u/Agitated-Scholar-502

I was browsing Steam and found the official explanation about booster packs and Steam levels increasing the drop rate. I'll attach a screenshot of it below.

https://preview.redd.it/cv6w6t7hcb3h1.png?width=684&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a7622f332d0f292e4c17620616597482571c21c

Now I'm curious about something.

If I had something like (let's say) a level 500 Steam account or smth and also a large amount of games with completed card drops, could this realistically pay itself back over time? Maybe even become a passive investment/profit source after enough time?

Like with high enought level you could maybe even recive hundreds or thousands a day, maybe there are pennies compared to total cost of leveling, but now let's multiply the number of those booster packs which you could get and you will recive total ammount of money which you get daily/monthly/yearly.

The only question HOW BIG IS IT?

I know a lot of people level up mainly for profile customization, collecting, or flexing, but I'm more interested in the economic side of it.

Does anyone here with a very high Steam level actually get a noticeable amount of booster packs from this? Or is it mostly just a collector/prestige thing nowadays that wouldn't really generate profit?

I've also seen some insanely high-level profiles, like 5k+ levels (for example St4ck). In this example he do it for flexing/collecting, but it made me wonder if something like this could theoretically work as a long-term passive investment.

Ok, so i want to switch from my old (almost 10 years old PC) to the new one.

Budget: 1000-1250 USD. (not including the cost of the monitor, although I would like to spend a maximum of $270 on it)
Use case: Gaming
Looking for minimizing power usage.

I am looking for a computer aimed at medium-demand games (i'm not targetting games with crazy specs requirements), some PC, which can last as long as possible without needing hardware upgrades. If necessary, I would also like the option to upgrade it later, for example adding more RAM, a GPU, or other components.

For example like motherboard with 128 GB RAM, and 2 graphics cards slots.
(I think it should guarantee enough space in case of any upgrades)

One of the games that pushed me toward upgrading is Rust, so I would like it to run as smoothly as possible on this PC. I also want to ask how many FPS I could expect within this budget range.
From what I have heard, Rust is not one of the best optimized games, and many people say that achieving 144 FPS even on very good PCs can be difficult.
Are there any Rust players here who could comment on this?

Moving on:
Monitor details I have figured out so far:

Refresh rate: 144 Hz
So rather a typical gaming refresh rate. I am not targeting esports titles like CS2 or Overwatch, so a 144 Hz monitor should be enough for my needs.

Resolution: 1080p / 1440p
Size: around 70-80 cm width (approx. 27.6-31.5 inches)
Matrix/panel type: IPS
From what I know, IPS seems like the best choice for me. I am looking for a good gaming monitor that is also durable over time. I also do not want to overload my PC with overly demanding graphics settings.

I wanted to move slowly, like do a little requirements of mine and on this basis build PC right for me, i have read that i should start from monitor (so i started from this), cuz monitor are the main factor when it comes to chosing right specs for pc, after that i wanted to choose right specs and after i would picked right parts, good monitor etc. i would call some IT guy and ask him what he thinks about my choice and ask him if he would change anything in the components.

This stratety worked fine when choosing right monitor, tho after that, when i started thinking about selecting the right components things started to become a far more complicated (at last for me), to the point on which "paralysis" came into play, which stopped me from making any decisions on these matters.

Are there any tips, which can help with this, i also must say that i know nothing about PC's.

I would also be happy to hear your thoughts about my choice when it comes to monitor, and if you think it's good choice for my needs.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to ask what kind of PC setups you use for playing Rust, and what hardware you'd personally recommend.

Right now I'm looking for something in the 4000-5000 PLN range (around $1000-1400 USD). I'm mostly looking for a long-term, upgradeable setup, so I could replace or upgrade parts over time if something become outdated, instead of buying an entirely new PC in a few years.

I don't know that much about PC hardware yet, so I'm still doing my own research. I also don't need some "NASA computer" with a motherboard supporting 256 GB of RAM or anything crazy like that. Realistically, even 128 GB would prob be overkill for me. I'm mainly looking for something cost-efficient that can comfortably run games for the next several years without spending a fortune.

What kind of builds would you recommend in that budget? Also, how many FPS in Rust could I realistically expect with a PC around that price range?

You can also share what specs you personally use and how much FPS you get in Rust.

Right now I'm still using a roughly 10-year-old PC. These are a few of my current specs in my pc (ik they are bad):

CPU:
AMD Phenom II X4 965
GPU:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3

I actually tried running Rust on this setup, but so far I couldn't get past the loading screen. The game won't even finish loading into a server, even after waiting for hours. Probably I shouldn't even bother optimizing this pc just for this game, because even if I somehow managed to get in, I doubt I'd get playable FPS on hardware this old.

Still, the fact that Rust even launches on this thing gives me at least some hope that the game isn't insanely demanding hardware-wise.

I've also seen people mention on this subreddit that Rust isn't very well optimized (which sadly seems pretty common with modern games nowadays :/) I'm curious how bad the optimization situation actually is in Rust, so feel free to share your thoughts about that too.