Building a computer for TC (Noob alert!)

SandwichSpread said:
Well I am amazed, although I have at least a shortage of 256Mb in memory for TC (768Mb) and my Gfx card is only a 128Mb MX-400!!

The install is a standard install as I tend not to get too clever with Auran as they invented the DLS which is highly over complicated. So TC is "as installed out of the box". It takes up to 5 minutes to load when running the game compared to 15secs(ish) for '06!! Note: Unacceptable for a game.

I will have a look at your link tomorrow John as it's a "tad" late here now though and reply then. Hopefully something nice! :hehe:

Chris
Click to expand...

Loading times is more to do with loading from the disk drive. I suspect you computer has been around for a while and the hard drive is fairly full. When you installed TC the operating system has scattered the program across the disk drive. Try uninstalling TC then doing a defrag before reinstalling.

If your disk drive is more than 75% full see if you can delete something or save up and buy a new disk drive.

Once it's loaded into memory you should see roughly the some performance as TRS2006.

Cheerio John
 
it's as simple as this: We can NOT recommend something like that. It is up to you and you alone as to which to buy. Keyboards especially, are something for each individual buy whichever is best for you.

As for the RAM I wouldn't trust a review, at the very east they are a tier 2 (or 3) name, go for the extra bit and get the stuff that has a solid history behind them.

Skimp in an area and I guarantee it will come back to bite later on (don't get me started on what can happen).


P.S. Dump the quad core for a simple (and cheaper) dual core, the quad core isn't near worth the price, and for sure you'll never see ANY performance increase from 2 to 4 cores.
EDIT: just noticed your video card, with a card like the the ABIT Intel board isn't the best choice.
Decent: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127023
Best: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136032
 
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Lo_Poly said:
Don't worry, I will get a better PSU.

Anyway, which one of these keyboards would you recomend? I like the glowy keyboard, but I also like ergonomic stuff since I have arthritis.

Option One

Option Two

Option Three

Option Four
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Either of the microsoft keyboards would be ok. I have a earlier model of the natural ergonomic keyboard and I like it

GP_38-2 said:
EDIT: just noticed your video card, with a card like the the ABIT Intel board isn't the best choice.
Decent: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127023
Best: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136032
Click to expand...

There are no problems with having a ATI graphics card on a intel based board. The only thing you cant do is have two linked in crossfire mode and if that isn't what he intends to do then it wont matter. The first board you linked to is micro atx board which doesn't fit with his needs. The second board is ok but again if he isn't planning to have two graphics cards its a bit of overkill I think.

John
 
GP_38-2 said:
Decent: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127023
Best: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136032
Click to expand...


Both of those cards have incredibly sub-par ratings. I'm sorry, but it feels too risky. Do you have any other cards that have good ratings you'd reccomend? :)

Capt_Scarlet said:
Either of the microsoft keyboards would be ok. I have a earlier model of the natural ergonomic keyboard and I like it
Click to expand...
Ergonomic it is!

Capt_Scarlet said:
There are no problems with having a ATI graphics card on a intel based board. The only thing you cant do is have two linked in crossfire mode and if that isn't what he intends to do then it wont matter. The first board you linked to is micro atx board which doesn't fit with his needs. The second board is ok but again if he isn't planning to have two graphics cards its a bit of overkill I think.

John
Click to expand...

I may upgrade to two monitors in the future... but I feel that card is too risky.
 
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Lo_Poly said:
I may upgrade to two monitors in the future... but I feel that card is too risky.
Click to expand...

Do you mean the motherboard is two risky ? If so you dont need to have two graphics cards if you want to use two monitors one will do as long as it powerful enough. Either the ATI/AMD graphics card or the nvidia 8800 gts can do this unless you are talking about really big monitors.

John
 
I am going to add two of those Asus drives. I also have a Mitsumi thingamajig. What would you recommend I fill the remaining two spots with?
11-119-118-03.jpg



And this is my current configuration:
newerconfiguv1.jpg


And about the power supply, I will ask what I should get when I have my final build. :cool:
 
Lo_Poly said:
If you have questions, please make your own thread instead of hijacking another's.
Click to expand...

Thought I'd just slip it in as this thread seems to be hanging in there & has not been deleted yet & at least your getting a few answers about building your PC .

Dave
 
I have paid 1020 euros on a PC and it runs great(not just TRS, any game, including FSX), with all the details set to maximum, full fps.:hehe:
 
johnwhelan said:
I suggest changing the motherboard, memory, cpu, graphics card, disk drive, case, monitor, keyboard, UPS and power supply.

It might be sensible to work out what your requirements are first then state those. At the moment you seem to be picking components out of the air. For example keyboards, have you tried a zero pressure keyboard? They can make a big difference for arthritis.

Cheerio John
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing that out. Here are the applications I commonly use:
Firefox 2, Trainz, Google Sketchup, Gmax, Gimp, Trackmania, The Sims 2, Acid Pro 6, WinDVD, Google Earth, Winamp, Interior Designer 7.0, GTR 2, Xpand Rally, SimCity 4.

The ones in bold note ones that are rather CPU intensive, the ones italicized and red simply just kill my machine when I start them. So yes, my computer wants to kill itself right now.

Hopefully that helps. :)
 
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CPU Intensive maybe, but definately does not need a quad core
CPU (not that any of the programs would be able to use more than a single core anyways)
Basically your looking for a gaming level computer. In that case how much money do you have available to spend on this monster?
 
GP_38-2 said:
CPU Intensive maybe, but definately does not need a quad core
CPU (not that any of the programs would be able to use more than a single core anyways)
Basically your looking for a gaming level computer. In that case how much money do you have available to spend on this monster?
Click to expand...

$2,500 USD :wave:
 
Lo_Poly said:
$2,500 USD :wave:
Click to expand...

Now we can start to sketch something out.

I suggest we sketch then you question and we explain why we suggest an item or some one comes back in with a better idea.

My shopping list not built to a price but more for reliabilty and quality. You'll have to do the sums.
ASUS P5B Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX $200


, an 8800 GTS 640 mb card $370, Intel dual core processor
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6750 $200, 2-2.5 gigs of memory


4GB kit (2GBx2) DDR2 PC2-5300 [URL="http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=B8B040BAA5CA7304"]CT2KIT25664AA667 $270 from crucial

[/URL]

. Personally I'd drop it in an Antec Sonata III case $120, looking at the power supply it's good enough not to need a UPS.

Disk drives personally I'd go with 3 500 mb drives set up in Raid 5 probably Seagate with 5 year warrenty, say $350 for the three, the Intel chip set should be able to handle this easily. Start it on one drive then add in the others and tell it to upgrade to RAID 5, gives you 1,000 mb of space and very fast reading times. SATA 3.0 is limited by the internal motherboard buses. Check if SATA 3 actually buys you anything in tomshardware.

The motherboard can go to 8 gigs of memory by the way, the built-in power supply should handle the 8800 GTS easily. http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/21/energy-efficient_computing_options/ has a list of graphics cards and their power draw.

Video go wide screen 16:10 ratio for ergonomic reasons like you have two eyes side by side. If you sit closer to the monitor a smaller screen will show as much detail as a larger one. With a TV more than one person watches at once,with a computer usually only one person watches so why pay more for a larger screen? Samsung have a nice 2 ms 2000:1 contrast 19 inch for around $200

The aim on the memory is to use 2 gigs for Trainz and about a gig for the operating system unless you go to a 64 bit operating system.

OK folks now pick holes in it.

Cheerio John
 
Another suggestion - look in your locality for one of the smaller stores that sell all the bits and pieces for a computer, one that has been around for a while and seems reliable - STAY AWAY from the bigger stores that sell pre-built machines, they will sell you the most expensive machine they can and in all probabilty is not really what you want.

Talk to the local store about the type of machine you want and what you intend to do with it. Ask them for a price to build a machine from the parts available in their store. You should end up with a decent machine at a much lower cost than the PC World type stores.

Where I live there is a good local supplier who will build a machine to the customer's spec and only charge £30 ($60US) for the building and testing.

Hope this helps because what you are doing now is fraught with danger - inexperience with a full build, incompatible parts, problems with installation etc - YES, it is easy to build your own machine from scratch (when you have done it a few times) but you can do it wrong and end up ruining a piece of kit costing a lot of money. Shops will not take an item back if YOU have blown it.
 
Lucrativus said:
Another suggestion - look in your locality for one of the smaller stores that sell all the bits and pieces for a computer, one that has been around for a while and seems reliable - STAY AWAY from the bigger stores that sell pre-built machines, they will sell you the most expensive machine they can and in all probabilty is not really what you want.

Talk to the local store about the type of machine you want and what you intend to do with it. Ask them for a price to build a machine from the parts available in their store. You should end up with a decent machine at a much lower cost than the PC World type stores.

Where I live there is a good local supplier who will build a machine to the customer's spec and only charge £30 ($60US) for the building and testing.

Hope this helps because what you are doing now is fraught with danger - inexperience with a full build, incompatible parts, problems with installation etc - YES, it is easy to build your own machine from scratch (when you have done it a few times) but you can do it wrong and end up ruining a piece of kit costing a lot of money. Shops will not take an item back if YOU have blown it.
Click to expand...

I'd back this idea as well. It's very easy to destroy something with static.

Cheerio John
 
I went ahead and nuked my shopping cart.

Anyway, I stand by these as if I were a Japanese soldier in WWII.
  • Windows Vista Ultimate
  • 22" LCD Monitor
  • 5.1 Stereo System
  • Wireless (ergonomic if possible) keyboard and wireless 4-button or more laser mouse
Anyway, let's get started with the case. Which one of these would be best?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811166030
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119039

If you had a different case in mind, bear in mind I don't like insane graphics on the case or those neon lights. Just a simple Silver/Black color scheme. Also, (at least) 4 5.25 bays and 2 3.5 bays minimum. :)

johnwhelan said:
I'd back this idea as well. It's very easy to destroy something with static.

Cheerio John
Click to expand...

I know a reliable technique for grounding yourself.
 
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