barebone pooter

E

EJB

Member
i saw a barebone pc at compusa made by nvidia.it has a ms1 g31tm-p21 prodessor[hope i got that right] and 2 gigs of ram and a nvidia 9800gt 512mh pcle card . the stock number is n500-3000.
jsut curious if this machine will move trainz without much trouble, and which operating system to use.
never put one together but i think it is time to learn. if i screw it up i have lots of help to bail me out.
any help would be hot
thanx

ejb
 
I would say that CompUSA barebones is overpriced. Also, it lacks PCIexpress 2.0 capability. Since Trainz (and many other applications) are moving more and more of the processing load onto the GPU, having a high-speed interconnect between the mainboard and the GPU is increasingly important.

I suggest looking around Tigerdirect. Here is a comparable system for less with PCIe 2.0 and 4Gb memory (I have this mobo - it runs great.)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5713908&CatId=333

Here's a much better rig, IMO, though it doesn't come with a video card and the power supply is on the weak side:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5651109&CatId=333

Definitely get an nVidia video card though since Trainz seems to do well on OpenGL. In the case of the latter system, I'd splurge $70 for a 650-700w power supply and unload that 500w on Craigslist.

I would consider purchasing Windows XP 64 if you don't have it. I run a pretty much minimal-spec system with XP Pro 32-bit and Trainz runs pretty smoothly.
 
thanx for the reply. my son said the same thing about the sli feature that is lacking on the compusa unit.
i will show him the units you suggest. what video card would you suggest?
thanx again
ejb
 
If you're a big gamer, I'd splurge and go for the GTX250/GTS250, at about $140. It supports SLi and PhysX, among other things. I highly doubt Trainz makes use of PhysX though and if money is an issue, you can get a 220 for half the price. I should caution that I don't own either one, but I am going by specs and what I WOULD buy. I have had nothing but great experiences with XFX cards.

Note that if you plan to SLi, you are going to be spending 4 times as much as that 220 and you will definitely need a better power supply than 500w. I'm not really an expert on SLi, but research it before even considering it. Considering that I run Trainz very well on a single 8400GS, that 220 would suit me just fine.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5406481&CatId=3669

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4497969&CatId=3670
 
after looking up sli i don't think i need to be hooking more video card than one.
look, i play 04 with a 8 year computer with 1.5 gigs of ram and unless two large consists meet in a town it seems to work all right.
we are presently looking to upgrade as soon as the funds are available, but the second unit shown to be by a earlier post seems to be the one to look at. although it doesn't have a video card,no problrm,it still seems to be the one we are looking at.
i just bought 09 and presently have it on the external drive to learn how to work the cm. thanx again
ejb
 
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