Finally ordered a new Desktop !

[ccowan2126]

Just placed an order thru Amazon for an iBuypower desktop: Intel i3 3220 @ 3.3Ghz, 8gb of DDR3 RAM, 550gb 7200rpm HDD, nVidia GT 610 1GB video card. $509.99 out the door: No shipping (Amazon Prime) No sales tax. Should arrive by Friday. No, it is not top of the line/high end stuff, but there are always future upgrades! Should beat the crap out of my laptop! I have a boxed version of TS2012 that I bought during the 75% off sale a couple of months ago. I should be ready to go by the weekend.
Anybody have any suggestion, or "do's and don'ts" regarding getting everything set up/installed for optimum performance? I only plan on having Trainz 2012, FSX, Google Sketchup and Google Earth on this machine. The laptop is for everything else.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

P.S. Windows 8 preloaded. Pros and Cons ?

 

[RoysTrainz]

for that price you can grow on the go well spent budget!

Well, not a bad choice for that price and you should be able to run quite a lot of nice stuff on this like mine too, for sure. Our store now opened just a few days and I was amazed on what configs the routes would run well to very well.
Yes upgrade you can do when you get experience on what is really needed and no overkill without getting the feeling first what TS12 really supports.

good luck

Roy

Ps just saw you're from TN well I lived in Chattanooga and at lake Chickamauga, beautiful memories, miss it a lot.

 

[RoysTrainz]

When you run my routes I can advice you detailed on tuning and tweaking as I have done that myself with different configs and still amazed how Trainz runs as long as you have enough ram, cpu and a nice graphics board.
The first upgrade or extension I can already advice you is get a SSD disk that is at this moment the runner for trainz on ANY computer gain of fps is amazing, because the fast reads and writes.

Roy

 

[ccowan2126]

Hey Roy. I'm just up the road from Chattanooga just south of Knoxville (Louisville mailing address, but city of Alcoa). Gorgeous mountain scenery to model just out my windows. I'm slowly learning about how computers work. I don't know much of the "nuts and bolts" yet but I'm working on it.

Thanks for the input.

 

[RoysTrainz]

OMG I get the goos bumps when you talk like that wonna jump on the next plane but nooo cannot leave Djoetje alone for longer than 5 days.
Try things maybe model the RR in the museum I tried to work their at the huge model RR club as a hobby when I retired up in Soddy at the lake at Shore Dr man I get home sick...

gonna stop

Have a great day!

Roy:wave:

 

[lewisner]

OP, you could add an SSD to your new computer such as this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/CORSAIR-FOR...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item4849d4f23c though 60GB would be quite adequate for Trainz. Also, even though you have quite a lot of RAM there, have a look at increasing your virtual RAM http://www.ebay.com/itm/CORSAIR-FOR...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item4849d4f23c .
If you are used to using Windows 7 or earlier versions you might look at "adding Start button to Windows 8" http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33642_...utton-gets-your-start-menu-back-in-windows-8/

 

[RoysTrainz]

Lewiser,

I think 60gb SSD is to small for the long term and in that respect way to expensive. I would suggest anything higher than 100GB as you would like to use that excl. for trainz and need sufficient space for everything not running just short because of 60GB. My 2 cents( Bath here in Thailand).

Roy

 

[lewisner]

I was thinking that the OP wanted to save money so in my case for example Trainz 2009 and my custom content total roughly 20GB so on a 60GB SSD that leaves plenty of room for expansion? At the moment I have an OCZ Revodrive 3 240GB as my Boot drive, an OCZ Vertex 3 240GB for Trainz and other video games and an Hitachi 500GB HDD for "anything else".

 

[RoysTrainz]

I was thinking that the OP wanted to save money so in my case for example Trainz 2009 and my custom content total roughly 20GB so on a 60GB SSD that leaves plenty of room for expansion? At the moment I have an OCZ Revodrive 3 240GB as my Boot drive, an OCZ Vertex 3 240GB for Trainz and other video games and an Hitachi 500GB HDD for "anything else".

i9o0p

no offense meant really but TS12 is a different horse and if you get into route building seriously and built a big dbase for content mngr like I do you need some 40+gb to reserve easily for your local Trainz file and all related materials progs etc etc what one wanted to use for trainz.
Iif you take crucial 64GB for eg 80 usd and for a 128GB 122 usd so the ROI on a longer term is much better and safer. Also textures and all objects are much larger and better on TS12 and higher so we have to compare appales and apples if possible the same brand. I prefer Intel, faster, more reliable and a good brand name I use SSD already fe years not 1 crash until last friday yes on a 80GB which I bought at a time there was nothing else for sale and oh boy its a small disc I use now only for win7 x64 nothing else.

hope this helps everybody

Roy

 

[clam1952]

Agree that a 60GB SSD is too small for Trainz, I'm using a 120GB for the OS and a 240GB for my main TS12 install, which is currently around 78GB's.

 

[lewisner]

i9o0p

no offense meant really but TS12 is a different horse and if you get into route building seriously and built a big dbase for content mngr like I do you need some 40+gb to reserve easily for your local Trainz file and all related materials progs etc etc what one wanted to use for trainz.
Iif you take crucial 64GB for eg 80 usd and for a 128GB 122 usd so the ROI on a longer term is much better and safer. Also textures and all objects are much larger and better on TS12 and higher so we have to compare appales and apples if possible the same brand. I prefer Intel, faster, more reliable and a good brand name I use SSD already fe years not 1 crash until last friday yes on a 80GB which I bought at a time there was nothing else for sale and oh boy its a small disc I use now only for win7 x64 nothing else.

hope this helps everybody

Roy

OK.
I don't have TS12 so I can't comment on it and indeed I don't really bother with Trainz much nowadays. I certainly agree on the reliability of SSD's - I have had mine for well over a year-1.5 year and they've been perfect, especially the Revodrive. If I won the Lottery I would probably buy a 1.2TB Velodrive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ALaAed69o&feature=related :mop:

 

[RoysTrainz]

@lewisner,

thank you and yes we both try to give the best information possible based upon the version of Trainz we use. both is very valuable and I bet most appreciated by Noobs and starting Trainzers.
BTW if win the lottery I would do the same only more relaxed and not buy the big the bigger the faster old and gone so what we both do is not to bad right?
Moste appreciated dear Lewsiner you look a good chap!

Roy

 

[Robert2d6]

I would insist they let you have Windows 7 on that new PC. Works great and you don't have to Beta test it.

 

[tomurban]

For a hassle free TRAINZ experience, install in C:\ not C:\programs

 

[ccowan2126]

It is all good advice. Thanks. Why coudn't a person get a small SSD (less expensive for now; -$100) and ADD (not replace) another one later when prices come down....and they will come down. Aren't there usually enough bays and power for more than one HDD/SSD? I don't know, I'm asking. How will I transfer my stuff I created and/or downloaded from Content Manager to the new comp.? I am not very computer literate (yet), so you may have to "dumb it down" for me.

Thanks, as always.

 

[ccowan2126]

OP, you could add an SSD to your new computer such as this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/CORSAIR-FOR...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item4849d4f23c though 60GB would be quite adequate for Trainz. Also, even though you have quite a lot of RAM there, have a look at increasing your virtual RAM http://www.ebay.com/itm/CORSAIR-FOR...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item4849d4f23c .
If you are used to using Windows 7 or earlier versions you might look at "adding Start button to Windows 8" http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33642_...utton-gets-your-start-menu-back-in-windows-8/

How reliable are "refurbished" SSD's? I just looked at the one you showed me on Ebay for $80. Great price, but how reliable. I guess there are no moving parts!

 

[lewisner]

How reliable are "refurbished" SSD's? I just looked at the one you showed me on Ebay for $80. Great price, but how reliable. I guess there are no moving parts!

To be honest I hadn't noticed the "refurbished" bit - if you were tempted it would be worth asking them the nature of the refurbishment. I have bought a number of refurbished items including a motherboard from a UK firm called Novatech.ltd and they always arrive in what I would call "new" condition with the box turned inside out. I think in many cases it may just be damaged packaging or something.
To answer your earlier post you can buy , say a 120GB SSD then later buy another 120GB of the same make and have them in what is known as a "RAID" array (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) which improves PC performance. You can install them in an empty HDD bay or if you don't have one spare tape them to the side of the PC. You can only have RAID if your mobo supports it.

Here's an OCZ Vertex 3 120GB for sale "Buy It Now" or "Best Offer" in California for just $85.99 brand new. OCZ are one of the best makes.http://www.ebay.com/itm/OCZ-120GB-Vertex-3-SATA-6Gb-2-5-SSD-VTX3-25SAT3-120G-/230888750810?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item35c20abeda

 

[tomurban]

It is all good advice. Thanks. Why coudn't a person get a small SSD (less expensive for now; -$100) and ADD (not replace) another one later when prices come down....and they will come down. Aren't there usually enough bays and power for more than one HDD/SSD? I don't know, I'm asking. How will I transfer my stuff I created and/or downloaded from Content Manager to the new comp.? I am not very computer literate (yet), so you may have to "dumb it down" for me.

Thanks, as always.

Easiest way I know is via a large enough USB Flash Drive or a network. I just transferred my TRS2012 installation from an older i5 machine to a new i7 2600 Tower over my network. Both Comps have WIN7 operating systems. This was a one step operation. Moving my 27GB TRS 2012 folder from comp A to comp B took approximately 25 minutes. Using a USB flash drive or portable USB HD would be a two step operation. First downloading to your USB device and then up loading to your NEW COMP. After the transfer was completed, I found the launcher.exe file and created a short cut on my NEW COMP desktop. DONE! Just a word of caution, your new computer must have Directx 9.0c installed. Otherwise, TRAINZ will not load and you will get the "Trainz cannot communicate warning". Good Luck.

 

[clam1952]

To be honest I hadn't noticed the "refurbished" bit - if you were tempted it would be worth asking them the nature of the refurbishment.

According to a couple of sites they are RMA'd drives that had locked up, apparently only the manufacturer can unlock them, seems to be caused by an incompatible bios problem on some motherboards, supposedly they are as good as new however there is an issue over the warranty though only 30 days in some cases a year in others.

I use OCZ's here no problems with them, seem to currently be less expensive than most of the others as well.

 

[RoysTrainz]

It is all good advice. Thanks. Why coudn't a person get a small SSD (less expensive for now; -$100) and ADD (not replace) another one later when prices come down....and they will come down. Aren't there usually enough bays and power for more than one HDD/SSD? I don't know, I'm asking. How will I transfer my stuff I created and/or downloaded from Content Manager to the new comp.? I am not very computer literate (yet), so you may have to "dumb it down" for me.

Thanks, as always.

a small one for that price is very expensive as it not serve the purpose of the expectations for a tad more you can use it for win7-8 or trainz now you not even can use it for Win7 alone!

Roy