Building a PC.... help?

myxomatosis

New member
Wow. I've decided to build a PC after being extremely limited with my current system. I've put alot of money into and am super disappointed. The real thing that got me today is my attempt at putting some new content into the game and after I tried to open CDP it crashed and I couldn't even get the Trainz intro screen up. I had bought some payware and was quite upset that I wasted my money on it. It didn't even come with a custom cab (very disappointed, jointedrail). But anyway, the system is just horrid to use. Super slow, too much lag, and so many more problems. So the time has come- I have to build my own PC since all the commercially available ones have upsetting bottlenecks.

So now the question, can you guys help me select parts for the system? I want to spend about $500 and the things I am willing to spend the most on are the video card and motherboard.

Thank you. I will post what I am considering when I figure that out. I've never built a PC before so I will be fresh in experience.

Sorry about the long post and I know some might not make sense. But I'm just so enraged about the failure of Trainz!

James
 
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Do you have a monitor and keyboard available? What size monitor?

Realistically $500 isn't that much for a PC optimised for Trainz. I assume we can use newegg.com and you are capable of putting it together? ie know about antistatic precautions etc.

Thanks John
 
Hi James,

In over 15 years using computers, I have discovered (for me) that if you want to built your own system buy a bare-bone system.

However, honestly, PC's are so cheap that for a 500 buck you can get a great PC to play extreme games ... without building one yourself.

Anyhow, shop around tigerdirect, geeks.com ... price watch (directory of PC retailers) ... yes, I have bought from all of these sites, etc ... and I have never been disappointed (check their return polices, also)

My advice, look into bare-bone PC's ... now, if you have a windows CD at home a bare bone can even be cheaper, and you can invest the bulk of your money into a superb video card. However, if you buy a bare bone with the OS, then you are going feel it in your pocket -- About mothers, get one with PCI express (first , and if you're willing to spend a little bit more, get it ALSO with an AGP slot ... Lastly, make sure that any motherboard you may select has enough PCI slots) ... my motherboard has 5 but I only use 3 ... the more the better... just case you would like to add a video capture card, a TV TUNER, sound card, etc ...

Lastly, all of this information can be found in many sites, which are dedicated to this subject -- check around, do your own research, and see what else you can fine!! :wave:

BTW- Bare bone comes with their own manual -- going on my own experience, I have yet to failed building a bare bone system because, their the manuals are VERY detailed -- they wlak you though each step!!:)

Well, good luck, and hopefully others jump in here and give you another direction... take it all in, and then make a decision!!

Ish
 
Thank for the long and informative posts Ish6. I actually want to build the computer from scratch but your post was very helpful and I know someone will benefit from it at one time or another.

And johnwhelan, I am capable of assembling it. I know about being grounded and such.


Also if someone could help me decide between Intel or AMD processors. I've only had experience with Intel processors before. I've actually been researching alot tonight about video cards, CPUs, Motherboards etc. I'm excited to build this. I will need alot of help from the community though. I really appreciate how everyone is so willing to help. When I first joined it seemed like it and I still hold that though. Thanks everyone. :)


James
 
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One thing you should do that will help is post what components you already have that you could use for the new system. Every piece of an older computer that you reuse is one less piece to buy.

As far as AMD/Intel, I don't know for sure how things stand now, but when I put my current system together the higher end Core 2 processors were, in general, better then AMD's processors. So I built myself a system with a Core 2 Quad Q6600, and planned from the beginning to overclock it to 3.0Ghz. :) When I built my previous system, (Intel P4 3.4Ghz) AMD's naming scheme was rather confusing too so I went Intel instead.
 
Honestly, nothing very useful. The DVD drive is probably really the only keepable part, and I'm not sure if it would fit in the case I bought. The whole reason I am upgrading is because the computer is old- so old there isn't even an AGP card slot on the motherboard! It's PCI only and obviously that puts me at a major disadvantage. It's too bad that I put so much money into it (around $100). I could probably sell it on craigslist, but it would only be very good for tasks such as word processing, internet browsing etc. as the hardware is so outdated. And chances of it being sold are low- the sides are covered in beat marks from my days as a drummer with a makeshift set- the case served as my cowbell. :D
 
Just save your bucks and get a super laptop. Mine's already close to a year old, but it's the bad S.O.B. It goes where I go, and that's nice since I can't sit still for long. I dealt with sloooow Trainz for a while, but it pays off in the long run. It's some kind of HP Pavilion Entertainment PC with a bunch of stickers claiming it has fast guts. So far I believe it. I don't know how to tell you all the crap it has in it as far as specs, but it's a lot. Smooob Trainzes...
 
Honestly, nothing very useful. The DVD drive is probably really the only keepable part, and I'm not sure if it would fit in the case I bought. The whole reason I am upgrading is because the computer is old- so old there isn't even an AGP card slot on the motherboard! It's PCI only and obviously that puts me at a major disadvantage. It's too bad that I put so much money into it (around $100). I could probably sell it on craigslist, but it would only be very good for tasks such as word processing, internet browsing etc. as the hardware is so outdated. And chances of it being sold are low- the sides are covered in beat marks from my days as a drummer with a makeshift set- the case served as my cowbell. :D

What about harddrives? Mouse? Keyboard? Speakers? Addon cards? Major USB devices like wireless adapters? My upgrades tend to be big jumps too.

From WinMe era Pentium 3 933Mhz and PCI video card to P4 3.4Ghz and PCIe to Core 2 Quad 6600. But I used the same mouse and keyboard with all three of those systems till finally I got tired of them and bought some new ones. I've only used 2 monitors and speakers during that same time period. (And only reason I replaced the monitor, and thus the speakers, is because that CRT monitor actually died on me. Haven't replaced my old 15" LCD 'cause it hasn't died.)

One of the reasons I'm still running XP is 'cause my wireless adapter has no Vista driver and the driver I use for my joystick wouldn't work under Vista. (Pretty sure that'll apply to Win7 too.)

You said you bought a case, if that's what you intend to put the new system in, what size motherboards can it handle? Did it come with a power supply? If it's one of those HTPC/Media Center style cases and isn't very big that may influence what kinds of hardware (say video cards) you can use. When I built my P4 system (my first self built computer) I bought myself a big 12 bay case which I'm still using.

I'm not making any specific recommendations 'cause right now the system I've got isn't exactly great at TS2010, at least on the big detailed routes. (I've turned a bunch of settings down. I may still do some tweaking, but I think I my performance issues are due to my aging 7600GT video card and hopefully if I upgrade it Trainz will run a lot better.) I'm more interested in making my own routes though. And they probably won't be as detailed or prototypical as most. I do have some weird ideas I want to try out in Trainz though. :)

From everything I've read, as far as video cards you should look at Nvidia. (You may have already picked up on that :) )

I personally recommend Antec for power supplies. Their customer support was nice and painless. (I had an issue with my PSU that ended up with me sending it back under warranty. I sent in a True Power 2.0 550watt PSU. They sent me back a True Power Trio 550watt PSU, so my bad luck with my first PSU resulted in getting a slightly upgraded version. :) ) When looking at a video card, check to see what the power requirements are. (Assuming you can find them.)

Oh, and Newegg.com is a nice place to shop for computer stuff and (in my experience) usually has the best prices I can find short of used/refurbished stuff.
 
If you intend to use the rig for serious Trainz steer well clear of ATI video cards.
Geoff


I see this advice a lot, but I'm not sure why. My last few ATI cards have run Trainz just fine !


Cards I have run Trainz on successfully over last 4 years...

ATI 9600 XT (TRS2004, TRS2006)
ATI X700 mobility (TRS2006, TS2009, TS2010)
Nvidea 7600 GT (TRS2006, TS2009) <-- because I kept reading Nvidea was superior for Trainz
ATI 4330 (TRS2006, TC3, TS2009)
ATI 4670 (TRS2006, TS2009, TS2010)
ATI 4650 mobility (TRS2006)





Phil
 
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I built my new computer 18 months ago and it cost just under $1,200. Only thing from my old computer was the monitor. Every thing came from Newegg and Trainz run fine on it.
 
I see this advice a lot, but I'm not sure why. My last few ATI cards have run Trainz just fine !


Cards I have run Trainz on successfully over last 4 years...

ATI 9600 XT (TRS2004, TRS2006)
ATI X700 mobility (TRS2006, TS2009, TS2010)
Nvidea 7600 GT (TRS2006, TS2009) <-- because I kept reading Nvidea was superior for Trainz
ATI 4330 (TRS2006, TC3, TS2009)
ATI 4670 (TRS2006, TS2009, TS2010)
ATI 4650 mobility (TRS2006)





Phil
Only ever had the one ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2.
Runs Flight Simulator perfectly
Will run Trainz all versions with lots of crashes.
Will not run TS2010 in Opengl mode (Since SP1 anyway)
Although it has nothing to do with Trainz, there are no Linux drivers for it either.

Have tries XP 32bit, Vista 32bit and Windows7 32bit.
Makes no difference whatsoever.

Maybe I just have the wrong card, or maybe it's the newer ATI cards that are a problem for Trainz. Since I don't seem to have a problem with any other software, maybe it's the dated JET graphics engine.

Thankfully, I have other machines so this one is set up for flight simulator.
Geoff
 
Only ever had the one ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2.
Runs Flight Simulator perfectly
Will run Trainz all versions with lots of crashes.
Will not run TS2010 in Opengl mode (Since SP1 anyway)
Although it has nothing to do with Trainz, there are no Linux drivers for it either.

Have tries XP 32bit, Vista 32bit and Windows7 32bit.
Makes no difference whatsoever.

Maybe I just have the wrong card, or maybe it's the newer ATI cards that are a problem for Trainz. Since I don't seem to have a problem with any other software, maybe it's the dated JET graphics engine.

Thankfully, I have other machines so this one is set up for flight simulator.
Geoff


ATI 4330, ATI 4670 and ATI 4650 mobility are all current generation low (4330) to midrange cards. 3870 X2 is last generation. But I suspect it's Crossfire that caused you Trainz problems - not sure, but I don't think Trainz supports ATI Crossfire, or Nvidea's SLI.

Phil
 
Well my new PC with an HD 5870 on board arrived today so I guess I'll find out very soon whether, "If you intend to use the rig for serious Trainz steer well clear of ATI video cards."

If this is true I guess I'll have to throw myself out of a window having spent £1800 on the new rig. :confused:

Paul
 
Well my new PC with an HD 5870 on board arrived today so I guess I'll find out very soon whether, "If you intend to use the rig for serious Trainz steer well clear of ATI video cards."

If this is true I guess I'll have to throw myself out of a window having spent £1800 on the new rig. :confused:

Paul
You can simply find what kind of video card slot it has and buy a new card for that slot (if finances permit, money doesn't grow on trees). I reccomend that you go with nVidia in the future. I have a beautiful nVidia 8800GS 384mb and Trainz runs beautifully on full everything.
 
Whatever you do, make sure you have the latest drivers installed. Not sure about ATI but old Nvidia drivers cause weird errors you would never associate with the video card.
 
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