How are YOU "Computer OCD"? If you dare, tell us your computer habits.

[VirtualLarry]

I know that all of us have "certain habits", when it comes to PCs. I do too.

As I recently accused someone here of having some "Computer OCD", I thought I would start by listing my own forms of it. If anyone is similarly bemused, they can join in. And even if you don't want to contribute, you might consider a little introspection into your own habits, and how you can fight "Computer OCD" yourself.

So, some of the things that I do:

When building a PC, I try to make the primary physical boot drive, plug into the very first SATA port, for good measure. On modern UEFI systems, this doesn't matter at all, really, but I still do it. I also put the optical drive on the last port, if I can, and then stick secondary data drives / SSDs on the second and upward ports.

When using my own PCs, I leave the Recycle Bin on the top left, but then I put my primary web browser as the icon just below it, for muscle-memory purposes.

And for PCs I use, I always use Details View in File Explorer, and click on the Type column, so directories are ordered first, followed by files, and each group of them is in alpha / collate order.

I also turn on View File Extensions and View Hidden Files. Many a noob have been tripped up viewing e-mail attachments that were .jpg.exe or something similar, because the final-level extensions were hidden. (Dumb move by Microsoft, but when they implemented that in Windows 95, they had Apple-envy.)

I like to leave CPU-Z running, as well as Task Manager's CPU time graphs. Just in case something wierd pops up, then I can see it.

 

[XavierMace]

For desktop computers. Single SSD, no optical drive. I don't like waiting, so minimal run on startup applications. I don't like e-clutter either so a minimal amount of stuff installed in general. Cables tucked and tied but not to an extent where it's impossible to remove parts without cutting ties. Fans should be something that are nearly silent at low speeds but have the upper range for unusual circumstances. Typically this means Noctua iPPC's. Quality over cost. That doesn't mean money is no object but it means I'm not going to fret over an extra $20 if I'm getting a far better quality component. Nothing of any importance is stored on the desktop PC, everything is on the server.

For servers..... If it's worth doing, it's worth over doing. LOL. Either server has enough capacity to run all my normal stuff. Storage is a pair of virtual SAN's (one on each host) with replication. I'd have to lose multiple drives in multiple systems at the same time to actually lose any data. I don't like waiting, so the storage systems are robust enough enough to handle file copies at line speed.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Nothing of any importance is stored on the desktop PC, everything is on the server.

Yeah, me too, for the most part.
My NAS (QNAP TS-451) can for the most part saturate my GigE, so I was a little surprised when I was copying some ISOs from it, to my local client SSD.

Turns out, SSD ran out of write bandwidth at 20-35MB/sec. It's an A-Data SU800 Ultimate 3D TLC w/SLC write cache. The first 40-50GB of the file transfer had exhausted the write cache, so it appeared to be writing straight to the 3D TLC. Which is SLOW. My 160GB WD Blue 7200RPM HDD would have been faster.

 

[whm1974]

I also turn on View File Extensions and View Hidden Files. Many a noob have been tripped up viewing e-mail attachments that were .jpg.exe or something similar, because the final-level extensions were hidden. (Dumb move by Microsoft, but when they implemented that in Windows 95, they had Apple-envy.)

This is one of the biggest beefs with Microsoft I have and it should have been fixed with Win98. However I prefer not to see hidden files unless I do need to see them.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

In the past twenty years I have built myself a dozen PC computers and not once could I trust others in buying AMD. It wasn't like I had loyalty in Intel, but for some unknown reason I just couldn't do it. I 'think' It may be that I would have felt like a second class citizen or something.

In modern times the boot drive has to be SSD and cloned monthly to another SSD. I will not abide by moving away from this and all experimenting with other OS' is also done via SSD.

 

[UsandThem]

Probably my biggest OCD PC thing is sound. I seem to be sensitive to noise.

I will completely build the PC in about an hour (cable routing, etc.). Then I will proceed to test different fans in different locations until I get the sound profile 'just right'. Some fans sound great as intakes or on the CPU, but produce a weird sound as an exhaust fan. This probably takes 3-4 hours installing different fans, and configuring the RPM until I find the perfect balance of noise/heat. For example on my current case, I tried the included Fractal Design fans, two different Noctua models, and finally a Prolimatech fan for an exhaust fan.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I still organize all my Win10 folders in detail format, and I try to eliminate specialized settings for folders that have been set up to show you different data fields (such as the media folders that want to show you artist name and album, stuff like that). So I want to see filename, date modified, type, and size, on everything. And I want hidden files viewable all the time even though this results in two trailing desktop.ini files on the desktop that I have to stick in the upp-right-hand corner of the desktop. Yes, two. Not sure why but hey there they are.

 

[Paperdoc]

Many of my habits are rooted in "old school" more limited resources.

I try to stick to the old DOS 8.3 file naming system, so when I receive an agenda for an upcoming meeting as a .pdf file attached to an e-mail, it gets stored in a sub-directory (yeah, I know, that's a folder!) for that organization with a name like 17OctAgn.pdf.

I don't keep old files lying around. Although there is tons of space on current HDD's and mail servers, I delete old e-mails etc. and spreadsheets I used to compare sources of car parts I bought two years ago, and so on. My son, a computer specialist, keeps telling me I'm silly to worry about wasting storage resources.

 

[Torn Mind]

I also like to have the file extensions showing. It just feels...incomplete not having the extension showing.

This is rather recent, but I now would never make a boot partition larger than 240-250GB because cloning is a slow process and a whole load of time is wasted cloning FREE SPACE. . I also now believe that keeping files created by using the the computer should be kept on a separate partition so the file backup process is streamlined and organized; I can backup the entire partition easy. .

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I use keyboard shortcuts. A LOT of keyboard shortcuts. Watching other people use a computer is like watching slo-mo.

I show file extensions and hidden files. Similar reasons mentioned above.

Other than that, I generally try to not tweak my UI from the defaults. Too many years in desktop support - if you spend all day using 30 other peoples' computers, you don't have your widgets and tweaks, so you can't get terribly reliant on them. And somebody with a skinned OS? Har™. If I can't find your start menu, guess whose machine is getting reimaged today?

 

[Baelzar]

I constantly monitor the task manager and shut stuff down. Even though I'm on a beefy computer, I just can't help it.

 

[Linflas]

Turn on desktop icons, view details, turn off the checkbox if it is on, view file extensions, view hidden (but no longer system since it was changed to make the .ini files show on the desktop), set file explorer option to show This PC, and most importantly disable that stupid click on navigation sound.

 

[bononos]

The most ocd habit is taking a long time fiddling with the monitor knobs or osd to make sure everything is square and the color is right. Then marking the position of the dial to alert me if it gets shifted by mistake. With LCD screens, theres nearly nothing left for me to get ocd about.

 

[fastamdman]

My biggest ocd things are when actually building the computer. For example, 99% of the computers I build....I have to build naked. Once upon a time, years and years ago I was wearing socks and boxers during a build. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I placed the motherboard in the case, with all components in it and for whatever reason WITHOUT power added to the motherboard, the fans kicked on and spun for a split second and the motherboard light came on. I was almost completely positive that I killed the motherboard from a surge of static electricity from socks on carpet. Luckily the system worked just fine.

So nowadays I build systems either nude or just in boxers lol. Obviously if I am building for friends or family or have company over I will be fully clothed, but I once found myself at my best friends house building him a computer and out of instinct I took off my shirt lol. Only my shirt though I swear haha.

Another OCD habit of mine is thermal paste. If my temps are to high for my liking I will dismount the cooler and see if the thermal paste was evenly spread across the IHS. If it's not, I will do it again until the entire IHS is covered perfectly. This can be difficult considering I use the grain of rice method, and not the credit card smoothing out method. There have been times in the past where I re applied thermal compound 3 or 4 times until it was "just right".

Another OCD habit I have is that I have to be the first person to touch the hardware when it comes out of the box. Like if my wife buys me something for christmas and I am unboxing it, I HAVE to peel off the plastic and touch it before she does. She can touch it with the plastic on, but I have to peel the plastic off items and I have to be the first one to touch it, otherwise everything is ruined for me. This is the oddest thing for me, but it has to be done or everything is just....ruined and off and weird for me.

I also hate rattles, but I am not OCD about them. I have a slight rattle if my fan speed is below 50% on my radiator fans, but above that it's completely fine. Oh another one is that when I am gaming, my gpu fan speeds have to be set to 100%. I can't use auto fan profiles on gpu's or set them to like 80%, they are either set to auto for normal web browsing which for the gtx 1080 generally means the fan isn't even running, or they are set to 100%, no other options allowed lol.

Lighting in a case, I like all one color. For example currently I have everything set to red. Mouse is red, gpu is red, nzxt cooler is red, motherboard rog lighting is red etc. However my keyboard can be any color, but the case has to be all the same color. This doesn't apply to fans though, I can have White led fans, pure black fans, blue led fans etc, but when it comes to RGB lighting inside the case that is not fans, they all have to be the exact same color. I couldn't do white rgb ram with everything else red for example.

Last up is my fan controller. I can't have the 4 fan knobs in different locations. They all have to be at the exact same spot, which is usually either the lowest setting or the highest setting. Once in a blue moon I will set them all to 50% (excluding gpu obviously). But I would absolutely hate it if like the first fan was at 25%, the 2nd was at 50% and the last two were at 100%. This would just ruin everything, they all have to be exactly the same.

...I just realized how OCD I really sound with some of this stuff lol, maybe I need help.

 

[UsandThem]

...I just realized how OCD I really sound with some of this stuff lol, maybe I need help.

Yeah, I think you are definitely the blue ribbon winner here, LOL.