So, I wanna finally download steam, mostly for free tf2, but I've heard from some people that it's a massive resource hog, and that it slows down your pc. Can anyone confirm or deny this? Also any advice for a new steam user, how complicated is signing up?
Steam; resource hog?
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Eh, I don't know what they mean by resource hog, I've seen it balloon up to taking 140mb of RAM sometimes, but a quick shutdown and restart fixes that. It might depend if you have the store or community tab open, as it might cache some web browsing stuff. I've never had Steam slow my computer down though. I suspect in its infancy it might have, but those issues have been ironed out since.
Signing up is pretty easy, just the email and a password.
I'd recommend NOT installing Steam under C:\Program Files\ as Vista/7 might interfere with (older) games trying to write to their root folder for preferences and such. Stick it on a separate drive or into C:\Games\Steam would be my recommendation.
Signing up is pretty easy, just the email and a password.
I'd recommend NOT installing Steam under C:\Program Files\ as Vista/7 might interfere with (older) games trying to write to their root folder for preferences and such. Stick it on a separate drive or into C:\Games\Steam would be my recommendation.
Whether Steam is a resource hog or not is all relative to what resources your computer has.
It should only use a set amount of memory and processing power, but if your computer only has small amounts of those resources, then Steam will use a greater percentage of your computer's total resources.
Most people with modern desktop PC's don't have any problems with Steam "hogging" resources, but if your computer is underpowered, then you may find Steam slows things down a bit.
The only way to be sure is to download it and find out for yourself. Use Task Manager to monitor what Steam is using and if you decide it's too much, then it's easy enough to un-install.
Another option is to close down other, unnecessary processes while you're running Steam in order to free up more resources. For example, you don't need to have your internet browser open while playing a game and if you really need to check something, you can use Steam's built in browser.
A final note about Steam is that by default, it starts up when you turn on your computer. For most people this isn't a problem, but some may find that this is an unnecessary drain on resources and slows their computer down too much, especially if Steam starts downloading large updates for games as soon as you start Windows, but this behaviour and automatic downloads can be switch off in the options.
It should only use a set amount of memory and processing power, but if your computer only has small amounts of those resources, then Steam will use a greater percentage of your computer's total resources.
Most people with modern desktop PC's don't have any problems with Steam "hogging" resources, but if your computer is underpowered, then you may find Steam slows things down a bit.
The only way to be sure is to download it and find out for yourself. Use Task Manager to monitor what Steam is using and if you decide it's too much, then it's easy enough to un-install.
Another option is to close down other, unnecessary processes while you're running Steam in order to free up more resources. For example, you don't need to have your internet browser open while playing a game and if you really need to check something, you can use Steam's built in browser.
A final note about Steam is that by default, it starts up when you turn on your computer. For most people this isn't a problem, but some may find that this is an unnecessary drain on resources and slows their computer down too much, especially if Steam starts downloading large updates for games as soon as you start Windows, but this behaviour and automatic downloads can be switch off in the options.
On idle task manager reports Steam on my machine to use 57Mb RAM and 1% CPU (i5 3570K). So yeah. If you're worried about that kind of resource use you're probably not going to be able to run TF2