Help Please

[oldfruit]

I expect all you PC experts get fed up with us asking for your opinion on PC matters.
As the clocks are going back at the weekend and the long dark evenings are with us again My attention returns once again to my Trainz set up.
Now I am in the market for a new desk top and saw this one on a special offer for around £850.

Standard Specification• Gangster Bos02A Case
• 2 x Standard Case Fan
• Intel CPU Core i7 3820, Quad Core (2011,3.60 GHz, 10MB Cache) Processor
• Asus P9X79 LE, 8xDIMM, Max. 64GB, ATX (USB 3.0, SATA 3.0) Motherboard
• nVidia GTX 560 Ti 1GB PCI Express Graphics Card
• 16GB (4 x 4GB) Kingston 1333MHz DDR3 Ram
• Silent OCZ 60GB Solid State Drive SATA III Hard Drive
• 1000GB SATA III Hard Drive
• 22x Dual Layer DVD +/- Rewriter
• Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit Version) With Original CD
• Xilence 580W 2x PCI-E PSU
• 2 Years Return To Base (1st yr. Parts & Labour, 2nd yr. Labour) Warranty

Would this be a good spec to see me run Trainz for a few years to come and give me good frame rates now.
I do have some quite complex layouts that stretch my present system.
Also they are offering Windows 8 at a good price, would this be a good thing for Trainz ?
Your opinions would be welcome.

Regards
Dave Williams

 

[fran1]

A bigger SSD (240 gig) to run trainz on and maybe only maybe a better graphics card (the 560 ti is a good one).
The system as it is should more than be enough, that's a pig (lots of grunt) of a cpu. £247 at e-buyer.
Win 7's enough.

 

[Bill69]

I would concur with Fran1, you will need a bigger drive but would also add there has been some problems with nVidia graphics cards, I would go for the equivalent in ATI.

Cheers,
Bill69

 

[fran1]

I would concur with Fran1, you will need a bigger drive but would also add there has been some problems with nVidia graphics cards, I would go for the equivalent in ATI.

Cheers,
Bill69

Have had a 560 ti for 12-18 months, no problems here.

 

[clam1952]

Not heard of any problems with Nvidia Graphics cards what so ever. Where did this myth come from?

 

[RRSignal]

I would get a bigger power supply. I know little of that one although what I do know puts it at Tier 3 at best. Ideally, get an Antec, Seasonic, maybe Corsair of 700W or more; go with 850W or more if some other brand. Be sure at least one +12V rail can supply at least 40A. That should give you a margin of safety, especially if you decide to move up to a better GPU.

I'm not aware of any appreciable problems Trainz has with nVidia. I'm an nVidia guy myself. I've had the multi-color texture issue but that's easily fixed. I don't have anything against ATI though.

Expanding upon Fran's point, Win7 is enough, don't get Win8, but I'd get a RETAIL version of Windows 7, since an OEM version (which is likely what you'd be getting) is generally locked to a BIOS upon activation. Pro version is preferable if you need the XP support, though you're way better off dual-booting with XP and saving some ££££

 

[JCitron]

This is a nice system you are spec'ing out. I also recommend a larger hard drive. You might want a separate regular large hard drive for Trainz and get a good size SSD for boot, even go with two good-sized hard disks. I agree too with RRSignal regarding your power supply go with a bigger one. Better still get one that could handle two video cards and extra hard drives for one just in case you ever could run SLI and may want to put in additional disks for storage.

Here's a system I've spec'd out for another Trainzer.

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/form/print.php

The price is quite reasonable and the company appears to have a nice reputation for their quality builds. This is unless you're growing your own machine.

John

 

[oldfruit]

Thanks for your replies.This is my updated spec.

Case Coolermaster HAF 912 case
Case Fan 2 x Standard Case Fan - Included
Case Fan Controller Not Included
Power Supply Quiet Xilence 800W 4x PCI-E
Processor Intel CPU Core i7 3820, Quad Core (2011,3.60 GHz, 10MB Cache) - Included
Heatsink & CPU fan Artic Cooler freezer 7 Pro CPU heatsink and fan
Heatsink Paste Standard Heatsink Paste - Included
Motherboard Asus P9X79 LE, 8xDIMM, Max. 64GB, ATX (USB 3.0, SATA 3.0) - Included
Memory Faster 16GB (4 x 4GB) Corsair 1600Mhz DDR3 memory
Graphics Card New - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB
Primary Hard Drive 2000GB SATA III
Secondary Hard Drive 1000GB SATA III - Included
RAID Option NO RAID - Included
HDD Noise Dampener Not Included
Main Optical Drive 22x Dual Layer DVD +/- Rewriter - Included
Secondary Optical Drive Not Included
Memory Card Reader Not Included
Wired Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps - Included
Wireless Network Adapter Not Included
USB Ports 2.0 2 Front + 4 Back Ports - Included
USB Ports 3.0 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 SATA 3.0 Ports - Included
Fire Wire Not Included
Sound Card Integrated 7.1 High Definition Channel Audio - Included
TV Tuner Not Included
PC Remote / IR Receiver
Windows 7 Professional (64 – Bit) Operating System.


Its all going to cost a fair amount than originally thought,but if I can get top rate performance it will be worth it.
Any comments would be appreciated.

 

[fran1]

@£329 the gpu's a bit ott on price.
What games are you going to use it for ?

 

[2995Valliant]

I'd agree with fran1 - Trainz can't make use of all the cores in an i7 anyway (I've got one and I've checked) so quick i5 would be just as good. I've never seen Trainz come close to using 4gb of ram, so 8gb would be enough (roll on the 64bit version!)

I upgraded from a 560ti to a 670 about 2 months ago and haven't stopped grinning yet: I have the max frame rate set to 60, and average 55-58fps according to Jetlog on some very detailed routes that the 560ti would average around 30fps.

Before anyone says it, you CAN see the difference, especially in how smoothly the rolling stock moves past a fixed camera. Draw distance is also more rigorously maintained.

A quick word on RAM - I have the same as you and it's fine now, but when I first built the pc (my first with Windows 7) Trainz was nowhere as near as stable as it had been on my XP machine. It took some time to track this down to a faulty stick of RAM, but Corsair exchanged it with no problem and everything has been rosy since.

Have a look at Eclipse Computers (Coventry) as I've always found their pricing to be very good.

hth,

Anthony

 

[clam1952]

i7 3820 £246.88 at ebuyer.

 

[oldfruit]

Hello Again,
Thanks for your guidance on my new PC.
Its now delivered. I'm sure the lights in my town dimmed when I switched on!
I have copied all my Trainz 2009 files to an external hardrive.
I have 2 hardrives on the new PC is it best to put all my Trainz stuff onto just one H/D and keep it exclusively for Trainz.Also will I need to run the original 2009 CD after copying the files over.
Is there any issues regarding going onto Trainz 2010 after installing 2009.I tried it once before and lost all my routes and purchased items.
As I have spent many hours on customizing routes etc I would hate to loose them.
Any help on these subjects would be appreciated.
Regards
Dave Williams

 

[kenneth18278]

Dave,
You don't need to keep a drive dedicated solely to Trainz, but it is recommended that you do NOT install into the default "Program Files" or "Program Files (x86)" on C drive, as Windows 7 has imposed some protection measures on those. Rather, create a folder and call it, say, "Games" for example and preferably on a drive other than your boot drive. I see on your quoted specs you have 2 SATA3 drives, I'd create a games folder on the second drive and install Trainz (all versions) onto that, or just install directly to the root of the second drive i.e. E:\TS2009.

When I got my new kit, I networked it to my old one, did a clean install of Trainz, patched up fully, copied my old "Local" folder into the Library (Videos, I think) on my old machine and then imported it into my new install on the new machine via Content Manager, Import, Content from the copy. A few downloads of missing dependencies later I was up and running with no problems. It isn't necessary to network, by the way, just copy the local folder to a USB stick, or burn to a CD, this will work just as well.

AFAIK there are no issues installing 2010 alongside 2009, I've done that and TS12 with no problems. Just be sure to install as stand alones in their own folder.

This worked fine for me, hope it does for you.

Good luck
Ken

 

[BD1]

placemarker

 

[oldfruit]

Thanks for the info.2009 running great on the new PC ,frame rates in 50 and 60's, no stuttering, great stuff.
One problem I have encounted, I have installed 2010 and transferred items via cdp from 2009 to 2010.
When I open 2010 a lot of items are missing and a lot of items have strange colours like multicoloured dots.
I have done an extended database repair but it doesn't make any difference.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Best Regards
Dave Williamd

 

[JCitron]

Thanks for the info.2009 running great on the new PC ,frame rates in 50 and 60's, no stuttering, great stuff.
One problem I have encounted, I have installed 2010 and transferred items via cdp from 2009 to 2010.
When I open 2010 a lot of items are missing and a lot of items have strange colours like multicoloured dots.
I have done an extended database repair but it doesn't make any difference.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Best Regards
Dave Williamd

Dave,

The multi-color issue has to do with graphics hardware compression being turned on. The fix is simple. Go to the preferences in Content Manager. Go to Miscellaneous and uncheck that option.

Now in CM its self, set a filter for local and not built-in.
Select all the content, and open for edit.
After it's all open, commit the content.

This will force the program to handle the affected items correctly and the problem will go away.

The missing dependencies could be that there are open for edit, so the items are missing from the assets. Go to the open for edit tab and see if there are any items in there.

Good luck and I'm glad your new PC has worked out for you.

John

 

[oldfruit]

Thanks for that John.
I followed your suggestion and also consulted Shane Turners's tutorial .
However at the end of the exercise I was left with message...
" 3132 errors 0 warnings .......Failed to commit changes to asset xxxxxxxxxxxx due to database access error.
when I opened up 2010 on a route transferred from 09 it seemed to have got rid of some of multicolours but loads of assets were missing.
Again any help would be most appreciated.

Best Regards
Dave Williams

 

[shaneturner12]

Doing another EDR should fix that.

Shane

 

[itareus]

...Failed to commit changes to asset xxxxxxxxxxxx due to database access error.
when I opened up 2010 on a route transferred from 09 it seemed to have got rid of some of multicolours but loads of assets were missing.
Again any help would be most appreciated...

Dave, the first question is are you running Trainz as 'administrator' ?

 

[fran1]

2 choices, find the route in cm r/click and select download. Or, Use the cdp you made for the route and drag it into 2010 cm.
There is a 3rd way but my brains just failed.
If you noted the asset with the database error delete and re download if possible.