Bought new computer

[steamboateng]

In a few days I expect delivery of a new Digital Storm built computer. The basic specs are as follows;

Case - Coolermaster HAF 932 (2 x 210 mm fans, 1 x 120 mm fan)
CPU - Intel Core i7 950 3.06 Gb/s; oc'd to 3.8 - 3.9 Gb/s
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D14 Extreme Performance (2 x 140 mm radiator fans)
Mobo - EVGA X58 SLI 3 Edition (USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
Sys Memory - 6 Gb DDR 3 1600 MHz
PSU - 1000 W Corsair (Dual/triple quad SLI Compatible)
Hard Drive #1 - 1 x 80 Gb Intel Solid State drive (Model X25-M MLC Edition)
Hard drive #2 - 1 Tb Western Digital Caviar (7200 rpm - 64 Mb Cache)
Optical Drive - 2 x DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
Video Card - 1 x NVidea GeForce GTX 570 1.2Gb (w/PhysX Technology)
OS - MS 7 Home Premium (64 bit Edition)

My basic philosophy was to build a rig that will lst 7 to 8 years, thus I investested in larger cooling components and quality construction.
I chose the larger case with large fans (slower speed-less noise) because I'm staying with air cooling. Ditto the large Nuctua CPU cooler. Despite the cpu oc, this system should run very cool.
I spent the extra $$ on a Corsair PSU for the quality of the unit. It will support 2xSLI NVidea 570 cards, but for the time being, I'll stick with the one.
The 80 Gb solid state drive will hold the OS, PSP, Blender, and a few Games. The 1 Tb WD Caviar will hold multimedia, MS Office, and less demanding games.
I plan to buy and install Trainz 2010 EE. Should I buy Trainz 2009 also, for extra content?
Please feel free to comment on the system, as described, and its compatibility with TR2010 EE, or any issues you may envision.
Regards

 

[RRSignal]

Looks pretty good, though that 80Gb will get eaten up real fast if you add lots of content to Trainz. I'm also wondering if you'll have the "black texture" problem people are having with the newer nVidia cards, so be forewarned and don't pull your hair out since there's a workaround. I can't answer the question of TS2009 but TS2010 runs well on older and newer systems alike so I think you'll be happy. Enjoy!

 

[jukeboxblues]

I have both TRS2009WBE and 2010EE. 2010EE is good but I prefer and went back to TRS2009. I didn't care much for the speed treez in 2010 (resource hog) even with my ATI 5770 HD card. You can download routes made for 2010 like UMR2010 (awesone btw) and load it up in 2009, go into Surveyor and 'Delete Missing Assets'. Runs like a dream.

Good luck with your new computer and have fun.

 

[William0d0]

I would think about making the 1TB drive your boot c: drive and installing the game onto your 80GB SSD drive.

On the whole your system looks quite impressive and should offer much gaming pleasure.

 

[steamboateng]

I freely admit that the mysteries of 1 'n 0's often escape me; but wouldn't the OS, installed on a slower drive, drag down system performance for all apps, even if those apps are installed on a much faster SSD drive? I use the reasoning that the Windows OS interfaces with any app running.
I'm sure that I can install PSP and Blender on the slower drive, without too much inconvenience in performance loss, since those apps are used in an intermittant way, like drawing a line here or a line there. Admittedly, photo enhancement and correction will be slower, but again, those apps are used only occasionaly, not constantly changing in graghics output, like Trainz would be. I think the i7 cpu and NVidea 570 gpu would be more than adequate to handle PSP and Blender graphics. On my older computer, which still sports antiquated AGP archatecture, Blender and PSP run quite well with the help of an ATI HD3850 gpu.
I guess the point I'm getting at is I can run the OS and Trainz on the SSD, which in vanilla install will use perhaps 11 Gb together. Of course Trainz will grow considerably with downloaded content, but I don't remember TRS2006 ever getting much larger than 20 Gb when I had it installed on my present computer. I simply don't get into massive layouts, prefering the shorter, switching routes.

 

[lewisner]

I have recently built my own PC and the HAF 932 case is excellent - it is so versatile that even if you need to upgrade your components you'll never need another case. I've pimped mine up a bit with red LED fans on the side and back.
As an earlier poster said I have the Black Texture problem with my GTX 460 GPU.
Regarding your SSD the conventional wisdom as far as I can tell is to install your System on the SSD and everything else on the 1TB HDD.
I'd say if the SSD has enough space put Trainz on there as well.

 

[Euphod]

I'm sure it won't be long before someone posts to disparage your new system, but I say; "Good for you!" I hope it fulfills every sweet dream of computery goodness you've ever had.

 

[steamboateng]

Thanks to all for your kind responses and insights.
I am pleased to hear the HAF 932 case is a winner. I figured its large size and large fans would add considerably to upgradeabilty as well as cooling. I ordered internal red lighting only, but decided to forgo fan lighting. I know it's a plastic case, but it got good reviews when I researched it. It was also $200 cheaper than a similar aluminum case.
As it stands now, I plan to load TRS2010 to the 80Gb SSD. However, I'm curious to how it would play if I loaded it to the 1 Tb 7200 rpm WD Caviar drive. Would there be a significant, noticable, performance difference; considering the i7 3.8 GHz cpu and GTX 570 gpu????
I haven't recieved the new computer yet, but that 'black texture' issue has me concerned somewhat. Searching the forums I see the remedy apparently lies in disabling 'Hardware Compression' in Trainzoptions. However, the source of the issue seems somewhat muddled. Is this an issue with TRS2010 texture files? Or an issue with NVidea 4xx/5xx video cards/drivers? Or an issue with Windows 32 bit or 64 bit OS?
Euphod, thanks for the kind words. I have been planning this new system for over a year and saving my quarters for it. I know this system isn't for everyone, personal preferences and budget issues considered. But I do feel that I'm geting a good deal of 'bang for the buck' in construction, quality components, and future relevancy. Multi-threaded programs and high-end graphics are becoming more common in software. I know the new NVidea 570 gpu w/1.2 Gb RAM will probably be judged as 'pokey' 2 years from now, but it will still be relevant. SATA II is giving way to 6Gb SATA III in the not too distant future, that will make all of our mobo's antiques, but........still relevant. The EVGA mobo I ordered will support SATA III, but it won't support the 6Gb bandwidth.......that simply isn't on the commercial market yet, to my knowledge.........and when it does arrive, you know it's gonna cost $$$$! (Now don't someone out there spoil my party and tell me there's one on the market....for $50 extra........!)
Please continue to comment.
Regards to all

Regards to all

 

[djt]

that simply isn't on the commercial market yet, to my knowledge.........and when it does arrive, you know it's gonna cost $$$$! (Now don't someone out there spoil my party and tell me there's one on the market....for $50 extra........!)

AMD has had native SATA III support for a while now with their 8-Series Chipset. Intel just released their new mainstream socket1155/P67 chipset that natively supports SATA III.


Q4 2011 Intel will release their new “enthusiasts” socket 2011/chipset (socket 1366 replacement) along with new i7 9xx CPU replacements.

 

[kamran]

thats the ideal gaming rig especially graphics card

 

[SuperFudd]

That should do, for awhile.

 

[RRSignal]

I don't know for sure what the true cause of the black textures issue is. I seem to remember seeing on a flight sim forum that this problem affects Vista and Win7 due to changes in DirectX, but I have TS2010 on a dual-boot Win7 Pro 64 system and it runs TS2010 as well as FS9 and FSX just fine, with a GTX 430 and the latest drivers. Just an observation I've made is that it seems the people having this problem seem to have 460s and especially 470s.

 

[lewisner]

Steamboateng said "I am pleased to hear the HAF 932 case is a winner. I figured its large size and large fans would add considerably to upgradeabilty as well as cooling. I ordered internal red lighting only, but decided to forgo fan lighting. I know it's a plastic case, but it got good reviews when I researched it. "

It is in fact solid steel, very large and heavy" I had some furniture delivered recently and one of the guys said "WOW that's big!".

There are some nice reviews on YouTube as below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsG7AH-9c0
I think LED Fans are better than cold cathode tubes because the latter need a separate power supply whereas the fans are "all in one".

 

[steamboateng]

Thanks, lewisner, for the pointer to HAF 932 video. I guess I got it in my head the case was plastic, from the big price difference for a similar aluminum case. Glad to know it's sturdy steel construction. I thought the fans were 2 x 230mm (not 210mm), but too lazy to look it up. The back end exhaust fan is 140 mm (not 120mm as I stated above). That's still a lot of upgradable space inside and lot's air moving around. I opted for the interior lighting simply because it only cost an additional $10. The LED fans upgrade was an additional $60. Besides that, I was told the original fans were quite quiet, and didn't really need an upgrade. (If it works.....don't fix it!)
Hopefully the GTX 570 grphics cards avoid any 'black texture' issues. The GTX 570 card is about 20% less powerfull that the NVidea flagship GTX 580 card, and about 50% again, less expensive, while still sporting all the 580 card bells and whistles. Dual SLI GTX 570's will give you all the speed and monitor resolution you can ask for.
I checked with the geeky gurus over at Digital Storm Forums, and they assure me there is not, at this time, any commercial mobo on the market which can utilize SATA III 6Gb bandwith. CPU chipset and SATA controller limitations are deciding issues there. However, thats not to say such a mobo won't hit the market in the next 12 months. As djt points out, Intel is chipping away (sic) at the chipset issue.

 

[djt]

I checked with the geeky gurus over at Digital Storm Forums, and they assure me there is not, at this time, any commercial mobo on the market which can utilize SATA III 6Gb bandwith. CPU chipset and SATA controller limitations are deciding issues there. However, thats not to say such a mobo won't hit the market in the next 12 months. As djt points out, Intel is chipping away (sic) at the chipset issue.

I’m not sure why they told you that but as I mentioned earlier AMD has had native SATA III/6Gbps support with the introduction of the 8-series chipset since early last year -

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-crosshair-iv-formula-review/2

http://www.xbitlabs.com/misc/picture/?src=/images/mainboards/amd-890fx-roundup/table1.png&1=1

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/02/890gx_sb850_chipset_motherboard_video_preview/

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/10/14/gigabyte_880gmaud2h_motherboard_review/3



Native SATA III/6Gbps on the new Intel P67 chipset –

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...e-i5-2600k-i5-2500k-and-core-i3-2100-tested/4

 

[steamboateng]

My gurus are
sticking to their guns.
The data referenced above is for relatively newer cpu's.
Thier story: The Intel i7 900 cpu's are still boss.
No mobo on market can utilize full 6Gb SATA III bandwidth
SATA controller issues, even with newer, faster chipsets
Those mobos you reference are new, unknown entities; i.e. what
are oc and stability issues.
My observation:
Referncing the Anandtech tests you noted above, the transfer size in both Sequential and Random write are in line with the proven X58 chipset. Wouldn't that suggest that overall the mobo's offer little improvement to what is on the market now?
My conclusion: The Intel chipset you reference are for newer Sandybridge cpu's. These cpu's, though faster, are considered inferior due to available mobo configurations in terms of infomation pipelines when compared to the i7 900 series. In overall perfomance there is no evidence the mobos can put out a full 6Gb/s tranfer rate due to SATA controller issues. I can't comment on the AMD cpu's as I didn't research them, in the belief that the i7's were king of the hill, at least for now!
Now, I'm no computer guru. But I do try to make some sense of what's presented to me. A mobo that supports SATA III doesn't mean it can match SATA III standards. I'm sure that before 2011 is finished, such a mobo will be on the market. Just not yet!
Regards

 

[djt]

My gurus are
sticking to their guns.

Sounds like you need to start doing some self educating. You’re “guru’s” can stick to their gun’s all they want, they just sold you a computer didn’t they, lol. Did they tell you before you placed your order that the socket 1366/X58 chipset is now a dead end street with the P67 already released and socket 2011 on the way?

Don’t count on it.

First off you stated that there is “no mobo on market can utilize full 6Gb SATA III bandwidth” which obviously in any hardware forum you’ll find the same response I gave you, AMD has had native SATA III support since early last year.

The AMD “data referenced above” pertains to the AM3 socket 8-seriers chipset supporting AMD Phenom II CPU’s, hardly anything new.

Thier story: The Intel i7 900 cpu's are still boss.

I’m well aware of what the i7 9xx is capable of; I’ve been enjoying a 975X and a 980X for a while now.

As I said before replacements for Intel’s i7 9xx series CPU’s are supposedly going to show up in Q3-4 of 2011 along with a X58 socket/ 1366 chipset replacement that just like the newly released P67 chipset will have native SATA III support.

No mobo on market can utilize full 6Gb SATA III bandwidth

I haven’t seen tests lately with AMD 8-seriers chipset but when it was first released the tests did show an advantage over native SATA II controllers. I don’t expect anything different with Intel’s new P67 chipset.

Without a doubt when given the choice between running those SATA III SSD’s that are right around the corner on a SATA II or SATA III controller I’m sure as hell going to choose native SATA III support over SATA II. It’s actually why I still haven’t gone with SSD’s yet.

In overall perfomance there is no evidence the mobos can put out a full 6Gb/s tranfer rate due to SATA controller issues.

With the exception of the new P67 chipset and the AMD 8-seriers there hasn’t been any chipsets that featured native SATA III support nor has there been SSD’s with the full SATA III spec. Some of the X58 chipset based motherboards (I’m running two of them) have a Marvell controller that supposedly was 6Gbps capable but as many predicted it is just a half-assed solution until Intel releases a chipset that natively supports SATA III/6Gbps with their “enthusiasts /performance” i7 CPU’s.

A mobo that supports SATA III doesn't mean it can match SATA III standards.

That’s why I keep mentioning the word “native” SATA III.

Now if you crave bandwidth (more than you’ll ever use) then be prepared to dish out about $500.00+ for a quality PCIe RAID card.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007607 50001642&IsNodeId=1&name=3ware

 

[William0d0]

I freely admit that the mysteries of 1 'n 0's often escape me; but wouldn't the OS, installed on a slower drive, drag down system performance for all apps, even if those apps are installed on a much faster SSD drive? I use the reasoning that the Windows OS interfaces with any app running.

My reasoning for making the SSD a second drive with Trainz:

1. While installing the OS onto the faster SSD will shorten boot times, your computer spends a relatively short amount of time booting compared to its usage anyway. Not much need for the gain there.

2. The OS will be more responsive on an SSD but being much more limited in size will be an issue. So, maybe something else won't load or perform a task as fast as it would on the SSD but when playing Trainz the stutter of asset loading is really something to avoid (and is highly distracting) if possible.

3. Trainz runs much better on a drive which is not the boot device and does not contain the swap file.

Just my .02. I currently have 2 HD's , both 1TB with Trainz installed on my D: drive. And so I don't have any experience with SSD's.

 

[William0d0]

Now if you crave bandwidth (more than you’ll ever use) then be prepared to dish out about $500.00+ for a quality PCIe RAID card.

I think it was an earlier link of yours that got me into "dreaming" about such things.

Can you imagine Trainz on a RAID card with 512megs of memory and 5 or more SSD's.

Such a thing brings my mind happy thoughts.:wave:

 

[lewisner]

Steamboateng said "The LED fans upgrade was an additional $60. "

I only replaced the side and back fans because they are the only ones visible - in practice the case is so tall that with it sitting on a desk you don't see the top fan, and the front fan is already LED lit.
I think the total cost of the two fans was £20 or less - probably much less in the USA as are you aren't screwed for tax over there like we are.
On the subject of the "Black Texture" thing I am struggling to run Trainz on my PC but (sadly for me) my ancient TRS2004 works OK and so does TC3 - at least there are no visible problems with transparent trees and so on. The graphics on TC3 are startlingly clear a crisp, and movement is very smooth.