All my gear is stuff I’ve saved from the dumpster at work except my hard drives and my UPS. I’m using the IKEA end tables instead of racks (I think they are called lakka?). My jbod chassis is huge and very loud, but it was free. I dropped cables into my basement and I only hear it when I’m down there.
I started off with just a desktop tower full of spare parts, but over time it’s slowly become a pretty impressive stack.
Xbox Game Pass for PC is an incredible value, even with the caveat of having to run windows (which sucks so bad). That’s always my top rec for PC gamers.
Elden Ring is still my number one game. It’s awesome and will run great on your new PC as well as your deck. It’s also got a lot in common with your listed games.
Grounded is a great game as well! It’s a reasonably difficult survival crafting game (like Subnautica). Same goes for Return to Moria.
Aren’t all forms of measurement (in this case it’s a measurement of time) completely arbitrary?
Who was using dial up 15 years ago (2009)? I grew up in a very rural area and even we got broadband by like 2003 or so. I think someone got their math wrong.
You can get them pretty cheap if you’re patient.
Personally I use the IKEA alternative. It works really well.