How is this for a Possible New Computer?

[seeseeme]

I think I have finally settled on the components for a new computer, but my money will not be available for another 4 weeks .

Hows this look though;

Asus P7P55D-DELUXE P55
Intel CORE i5 750
Corsair 4GB (2x XMS3 2GB) PC-12800 (1600MHz) XMS KIT, DDR3 For MB
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 260+ (216SP) Overclocked PCI-E 2.0 896MB GDDR3 448-bit, 650/ 2000MHz
Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm Serial ATA-II-300 HDD w. 16MB Cache
Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm Serial ATA-II-300 HDD w. 32MB Cache
PIONEER SATA DVR218L
Antec Nine Hundred Two Tower
750W “Antec” TruePower ATX Power Supply
Microsoft WINDOWS 7 PRO 64BIT

I know 6GB of RAM may be better, but at the moment money will not let me go that far.

Any thoughts would be appreciated,

Craig

 

[Apogee10]

Craig

You didn't mention it in your specs but get a large cooling fan. I don't remember the size but there is a fan that is larger than the normal box fans. I have one and it is very quiet.

I just found my specs and it's a 120 mm fan.

Earl

 

[seeseeme]

Craig

You didn't mention it in your specs but get a large cooling fan. I don't remember the size but there is a fan that is larger than the normal box fans. I have one and it is very quiet.

I just found my specs and it's a 120 mm fan.

Earl

One top 200mmx30mm fan(exhaust), 2 x front 120mmx25mm fans (intake) and 1 back 120mmx25mm fan (exhaust), plus getting another one for the side - 120mmx25mm (intake) as well. Plus the power supply has a 120mm fan too. Hope that does not make to much noise though.

Craig

 

[meatloaf747]

My advice, spend the extra $40 - $70 and get an i7 860 CPU. The i5 750 CPU doesn't have Hyper-threading... All the rest of the spec's are good, except I'd change the Asus motherboard to there P7P55D LE instead of the Deluxe. (Xtreme design - Hybrid series with TurboV. It's still a socket LGA 1156 board). Very good M/B.
Cheers, Mac...

 

[johnwhelan]

I think I have finally settled on the components for a new computer, but my money will not be available for another 4 weeks .

Hows this look though;

Asus P7P55D-DELUXE P55
Intel CORE i5 750
Corsair 4GB (2x XMS3 2GB) PC-12800 (1600MHz) XMS KIT, DDR3 For MB
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 260+ (216SP) Overclocked PCI-E 2.0 896MB GDDR3 448-bit, 650/ 2000MHz
Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm Serial ATA-II-300 HDD w. 16MB Cache
Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm Serial ATA-II-300 HDD w. 32MB Cache
PIONEER SATA DVR218L
Antec Nine Hundred Two Tower
750W “Antec” TruePower ATX Power Supply
Microsoft WINDOWS 7 PRO 64BIT

I know 6GB of RAM may be better, but at the moment money will not let me go that far.

Any thoughts would be appreciated,

Craig

Wait until the new nVidia video card is released March 26th. Currently ATI have 40 nm parts the best nVidia have is 55 nm parts. If nothing else you should see a drop in price on your video card.

Why two hard drives? I'd probably go one big drive say 1 terabyte. Bigger platters mean the files can exist on a single track so less head movement faster access.

Cheerio John

 

[Paulsw2]

My advice, spend the extra $40 - $70 and get an i7 860 CPU. The i5 750 CPU doesn't have Hyper-threading...

I've got an i7 860 and it's great, I haven't seen it stressed yet and Trainz runs smooth as silk. Some people think an i7 920 is better though.

Paul

 

[seeseeme]

My advice, spend the extra $40 - $70 and get an i7 860 CPU. The i5 750 CPU doesn't have Hyper-threading... All the rest of the spec's are good, except I'd change the Asus motherboard to there P7P55D LE instead of the Deluxe. (Xtreme design - Hybrid series with TurboV. It's still a socket LGA 1156 board). Very good M/B.
Cheers, Mac...

I received another quote yesterday and they actually suggested the ASUS P7P55D-E-Deluxe motherboard which seems quite good and so was their quote.

John I had thought of only one Hard Drive (plus I already have an external hard drive) however I started to think about a hard drive crash, which I have already have had one. I do not think I really need one HUGE drive, but just as a "safety" measure thought 2 would be better. Some of my Data files can be on the second drive while the program is on the first, some backup files such as 2010 Archive files ones on the second drive as well. On the Main drive I can have 2010 and the local folder working well and still the backup Archive files just in case. Overall, everything can then be backed up on the External Drive. I am going over board may be with backups, but its better to be safe then sorry I think.

@ John, I forgot to say that this new computer will not be ordered until after April 7, and I do remember mention in other threads about new components coming out in March, so my plans may change slightly.

Craig

 

[DeRiCo]

Hi craig.

I have a similar new setup with a Gigabyte mobo and an i5 750 CPU with 4gb memory. An NVidea GForce 9800 GT Graphics with 1gb memory. Win7 64bit.

It handles Trainz 2010 with no problems. And everything else I have thrown at it so far.

I also go the 2 drives way with 2 x 1tb SATA hard drives. I remap the documents folder to the second drive so all data files are there. Reason being that when the main boot drive fails I still have most of my data safe.

Then to protect agains the second drive failing I also have a backup on an external drive that is only plugged in once a month to refresh the backup.

That way the external will last longer before failing as it is not running every time the machine is on.

Like you said, double backup is safer.

After the initial learning curve of finding where everything in Win7 has been moved/renamed to you will find it very good to work with.

Dennis

 

[seeseeme]

Thanks Dennis, that's not a bad idea about disconnecting the External Hard Drive I had not thought about that and it makes sense as well.

Thanks for the advice and comments, its much appreciated.

Craig

 

[johnwhelan]

Thanks Dennis, that's not a bad idea about disconnecting the External Hard Drive I had not thought about that and it makes sense as well.

Thanks for the advice and comments, its much appreciated.

Craig

For back up I also use an external hard drive on a usb port that gets turned on occasionally.

Cheerio John

 

[AussieNightcrawler]

The only problem I have is that the ASUS Motherboards tend to have a few driver issues, the ones that we have around this house are a pain, but after saying that if you do run Win7 it should not be a hassle.

As John said there are new video cards coming so prices will drop, if then you can stretch the budget you could get an i7 920 (socket 1366) with an EVGA X58 for an extra $100.

Something to think about.

I also run a 500GB external HDD for backup, but mine runs through Firewire.

 

[SuperFudd]

In my not so humble opinion, PCs have finally caught up with Trainz. There is no longer an advantage to having "bleeding edge" PCs. My new system (see below) does a fine job with TS2009. A 260 video card would be a better match for my i5 but my 220 does very well and uses much less power. No extra power connection. I am not sure it has a fan. No, I have not opened my new, under warantee, Dell PC yet. It is dead quiet, even when TS2009 is running flat out. Unlike my old PC, this i5 cpu never runs even close to 100% with TS2009.
Perhaps in 2 years I will get a better/newer video card. I don't need one now.
I supose 4G of RAM is enough but I did the math and decided 6G would be optimal. More will not help.

 

[RRSignal]

Heck, I've posted here repeatedly that a run I bare-minimum spec - really, under spec - machine with TS2010 and it runs nicely. Supposedly TS2010 is a bit more streamlined than 2009. YMMV.

Consider the OS you use and what kind of software you run (most importantly, what services run in the background - antivirus software is a
MAJOR performance-killer, which is why lots of us run offline machines. That's not an option for Vista and W7.)

 

[seeseeme]

Heck, I've posted here repeatedly that a run I bare-minimum spec - really, under spec - machine with TS2010 and it runs nicely. Supposedly TS2010 is a bit more streamlined than 2009. YMMV.

Consider the OS you use and what kind of software you run (most importantly, what services run in the background - antivirus software is a
MAJOR performance-killer, which is why lots of us run offline machines. That's not an option for Vista and W7.)

I did not know that part, thanks very much for the information.

Craig

 

[saintjimmy]

It's not that Vista or 7 can't be run when not connected, it's just that it prefers to be connected. As long as you connect it to the internet say every month or two to get drivers and Windows updates, you should be fine running offline.

 

[seeseeme]

ah Thanks Kyle for explaining it more. After my post I started wondering why. Well Windows 7 will be happy with me as I can not play with Trainz all the time, I also need my forum fix as well each day or a couple of times a day :hehe: :hehe:

Also, when I looked even further and read in a magazine there is even a ASUS P7P55D-E-Pro that looks like it will suit me as well compared to the ASUS P7P55D-E-Deluxe. So that may be the only area where I may change my mind.

Craig

 

[AussieNightcrawler]

I kinda of thought that was a bit of a "no brainer' about anti-virus software, thought everyone knew they use a lot of memory and system resources, hence the reason why my main gaming system does not connect to the internet very much, only when Trainz is playing. Same as Firewall software, and even anti-spyware software can use a lot of memory too now.

These days with things like Game For Windows Live and even Steam can use up lots of memory, don't be fooled, they do, another reason why I bypass anything with them on it.

I stay with XP for a reason, upon start up, there is only 16 processes running using only 150 - 170MB of memory, giving a lot to the most important stuff, like Trainz, oh and Borderlands right now too...

 

[seeseeme]

Hi Guys,

I am think of "downgrading" my Motherboard to a ASUS P7P55D-E-Pro instead of the ASUS P7P55D-Deluxe as the Deluxe seems to have features that I will never use. It seems more for the so called professional "Game" players and the Pro board seems to have everything I need.

I tried looking on TomsHardware but could find little to change my mind about these boards.

I also looked at 2 Gigabyte boards, the GA-P55A-UD6 AND GA-P55A-UD5 and they seem comparatively the same. The UD6 seems to be more for the heavy Game players with features that I will never use.

The ASUS Pro and Gigabyte UD5 are very similar.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Craig


P.S. Hopefully I get to read any replies as my current computer has died twice in the last 2 weeks and while it is not working 100% at the moment, I know how to get in and use the internet. I missed my computer so much while it was sick :'(. No one seems to know what is wrong, but it certainly is not well and will soon die for good. At the moment I am busy backing up everything I need for the new computer, but it would be best if both are working at the same time.

While I can get the money to order a new computer now I would prefer to wait a couple of weeks to earn more interest from it and save on cancellation fees. A new computer in 4 weeks for sure though.

 

[RRSignal]

Hi Guys,

I am think of "downgrading" my Motherboard to a ASUS P7P55D-E-Pro instead of the ASUS P7P55D-Deluxe as the Deluxe seems to have features that I will never use. It seems more for the so called professional "Game" players and the Pro board seems to have everything I need.

I tried looking on TomsHardware but could find little to change my mind about these boards.

I also looked at 2 Gigabyte boards, the GA-P55A-UD6 AND GA-P55A-UD5 and they seem comparatively the same. The UD6 seems to be more for the heavy Game players with features that I will never use.

The ASUS Pro and Gigabyte UD5 are very similar.

Exactly what are your needs? What features won't you use? Heck, if it's just for Trainz, I'd look at an i3 barebones from Tigerdirect and a decent video card, like a GTS 250. You can probably build for about $500 USD. If you want RAID, you'd pay a bit more, naturally.

With that in mind, the one Asus board I had was an absolute nightmare with no help whatsoever with the company. I haven't used Gigabyte yet, but they mobos have a reputation for rock-solid performance and reliability (their video cards are another matter though...)

I do like the specs of what you are looking at. But if you're not going to use RAID or USB 3.0 or Sata 6Gb, I think any of these boards are probably overkill.

 

[SuperFudd]

As for the old PC, sounds like overheating. Try de dusting. Make sure all fans spin, yada yada. If you just want it to run for another month, try an external fan with the side cover off.
My latest failed PC died for another reason but with simular symptoms. The power supply connector on the ASUS MB could not handle the 5V current, got warm so it corroded so the contacts (3) became worse, getting warmer, corroding more, until the voltage drop through the connector became too great. Try unpluging it and see if 2 or 3 pins look discolored. Pluging it back in might fix it temporarily.