u/Minute-Pay-5355

I keep getting these update notifications and sometimes it just starts downloading stuff in the background without me doing anything. Had a few times where I shut the PC down and it says it needs to update, then after restarting everything takes forever because Windows is installing something. I get that updates are important but sometimes I just need to use the PC and dont want it randomly doing this. Is there a way to stop automatic updates completely or at least control when they download and install? I already checked Windows Update settings but it still seems like Windows does whatever it wants. Also worried that if I disable updates somehow, Windows will just turn them back on later anyway. Is this normal behavior or is something messed up with my settings? Would changing active hours actually help or is that only for restart timing? Just trying to understand why it keeps forcing updates when I didnt ask for them and what options there are without breaking anything.

I keep seeing people talking about sound cards, DACs, amps etc and now I’m wondering if the onboard audio is actually good enough.

Current setup is pretty basic, motherboard has the usual 3.5mm audio jacks and I’m using a normal gaming headset. No fancy studio headphones or speakers or anything. Mostly gaming, YouTube, music and Discord.

Would a dedicated sound card actually make a noticeable difference in sound quality, mic quality, volume, footsteps in games, stuff like that? Or is it mostly pointless unless you have really high end headphones?

Also does having a better motherboard already mean the onboard audio is decent enough? I don’t wanna spend money on a sound card just to hear basically the same thing lol.

Would an external USB DAC/amp make more sense instead, or is that also overkill for a regular setup? Trying to figure out if there’s an actual reason to get one before buying anything.

Like obviously i get why servers, huge databases, scientific stuff, VMs etc might need that much RAM, but for a normal PC what would you even do with 1TB?

Gaming, video editing, 3D stuff, running a bunch of apps at once... can any of that realistically use anywhere close to 1TB? Or does it just sit there doing nothing most of the time?

Also wondering if there’s some weird use case I’m missing. Like running a ridiculous number of VMs, huge local AI models, massive modded games, browser tabs or whatever lol.

At what point does adding more RAM basically stop making sense for a regular desktop?

Looking at monitors and keep seeing stuff like 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.03ms etc and honestly not sure how much of that actually matters for normal gaming. I mostly play single player games, RPGs, some racing games and occasionally multiplayer stuff, so I’m not exactly sweating over every frame lol. Is there a noticeable difference between something like 1ms and 5ms when you’re playing casually? Or is response time mainly something competitive FPS players should worry about? Also does a faster response time automatically mean less ghosting, or are those kinda separate things depending on the panel and overdrive settings? I’m looking at 1440p monitors around 144-180Hz and some cheaper options have slightly slower response times but better colors and HDR. Trying to figure out if I should prioritize the advertised response time or focus on other stuff like refresh rate, resolution, contrast and image quality. Don’t wanna spend extra money chasing numbers I probably won’t even notice. For regular gaming, what response time would you guys consider good enough? Is 5ms totally fine, or should I still aim for 1ms if the price difference isn’t huge? Any advice appreciated, especially from people who aren’t playing competitive shooters all day.

Got an SSD sitting in my old PC and wondering if I can just move it over to a new build instead of buying another drive. It’s a regular SSD that I used mostly for games and files, and it still seems to be working fine. The new PC will have a completely different motherboard, CPU, and probably a fresh Windows install.

Can I just plug the old SSD into the new motherboard and use it normally? Or do I need to format it first? I have some files on it that I definitely don’t wanna lose, so I’m trying to figure out the safest way to do this before I start taking stuff apart.

Also, if Windows was installed on the old SSD, does that cause any problems even if I’m installing Windows fresh on a new drive? I’ve heard people mention old drivers and boot issues when moving drives between completely different PCs, so not sure how much of that actually matters.

Would it be better to connect the old SSD after Windows is already installed on the new PC? Any tips for avoiding accidentally formatting or wiping the wrong drive would be appreciated.