I would like opinions about what to shop for...

[jcardana]

I have a 10+ year old 3.5 GHZ P4. Since my good VidCard died I had to downgrade. I'm currently running TRS2009 & 2010 on an Acer Aspire. Complete system details HERE. I'm tired of having to turn all the details down or off. I'm DLing 2012 right now and I know I won't really be able to play it unless I get up to date on hardware.

I'm not Specifically looking at an Acer but I ran across this... http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/DT.SJPAA.003

I've been out of the hardware side for a few years and I'm not familiar with all the new equipment.

I'm basically looking for Yea or Ney on the above system or other system suggestions. I have a $2000 budget.

Thanks for your time and inputs,

Joe

 

[BD1]

placemarker

 

[johnwhelan]

Toms is a good place to start for comparisons. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

My personal view would be to do a custom build but not every one is comfortable doing this. toms have custom builds at various price ranges for a gaming PC.

Newegg is a good place to start look for items that have good reviews. Basically an i5 is probably fast enough for Trainz but the video card can make a big difference. AMD cards tend to draw less power but have a look on toms again you're interested in the max TDP. Less power required means a smaller power supply, less heat, quieter, and a cheaper electricity bill.

I happen to like the Antec Sonata III with a 500 watt power supply. Choose the components carefully and the 500 watts works fine, certainly on my machine. SND for booting certainly but 60 gig min, for Trainz the frames per second gain is minimal, less than 1 FPS but scenery objects pop up faster. So balance your pocket book against that.

Memory Trainz on a 64 bit operating system will use about 5 gigs max including the operating system. Dual or triple channel means you have to use either 8 or 6 gigs of memory.

The monitor affects the performance, more pixels means you need more horse power. So a 1600 x 900 monitor needs less raw computer power than a 1920 x 1080 one. You need to trade off do you want to watch HD though. Currently LED monitors are better than some of the cheaper ones again look at toms or newegg.com.

With laptops you pay a premium price for components that use less power to preserve battery life. Some users are happy with Trainz on a lap top but I suggest you look at the requirements first. Would your son be better with a desktop and a Google Nexus 7? What does he want to do with it? The Nexus7 currently is wifi only so it is incapable of high phone bills and there are lots of places that have free wifi these days. Also you can do your emails off line and it will send them when it finds a connection.

Cheerio John[h=1][/h]

 

[fran1]

I have a 10+ year old 3.5 GHZ P4. Since my good VidCard died I had to downgrade. I'm currently running TRS2009 & 2010 on an Acer Aspire. Complete system details HERE. I'm tired of having to turn all the details down or off. I'm DLing 2012 right now and I know I won't really be able to play it unless I get up to date on hardware.

I'm not Specifically looking at an Acer but I ran across this... http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/DT.SJPAA.003

I've been out of the hardware side for a few years and I'm not familiar with all the new equipment.

I'm basically looking for Yea or Ney on the above system or other system suggestions. I have a $2000 budget.

Thanks for your time and inputs,

Joe

Looks ok except for the graphics card, I just checked and they're for sale at £37 and upwards which to me says it's a poor card.
Just read a review, it's a tad slower than a 8800gt.
A better card is needed for sure.

 

[Euphod]

I know it may be intimidating, but with a budget like that you could build one hell of a PC! It's actually much easier than you may think, plug in a bunch of pieces and load an OS, and you're all set.

 

[tomurban]

Lots of choices here and reasonable as well.

http://outlet.lenovo.com/SEUILibrar...:ShowPromo?LandingPage=/All/US/Portals/Outlet

 

[BD1]

placemarker

 

[clam1952]

They changed the numbering after 9xxxx and started with 2xx, so a 2xx is newer than a 9xxx. Yes the second figure is usually an indication of the replacement card for another with the same figure but not always and does not mean same as but usually better than. Need to check the actual card specs along with reviews. This may give an idea of the complexity of the problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units.

Edit whatever you do don't get an 8xxx thinking its better than a 5xx as it isn't, it's ancient.

 

[jcardana]

I know it may be intimidating, but with a budget like that you could build one hell of a PC! It's actually much easier than you may think, plug in a bunch of pieces and load an OS, and you're all set.

I built my current tower. I'm not intimidated by that. I'd prefer to build my own so I can get the HDD partitioning I want. I just don't know about the tech these days.

I should have asked on the first post, Does anyone know of a site that can talk me through all new new tech. Especially in VidCards. I know that's the biggest concern but I don't know about Crossfire, SLI (I know what it is, but I don't know if it's worth it) and what motherboards are best to support that.

 

[johnwhelan]

I built my current tower. I'm not intimidated by that. I'd prefer to build my own so I can get the HDD partitioning I want. I just don't know about the tech these days.

I should have asked on the first post, Does anyone know of a site that can talk me through all new new tech. Especially in VidCards. I know that's the biggest concern but I don't know about Crossfire, SLI (I know what it is, but I don't know if it's worth it) and what motherboards are best to support that.

Basically Trainz doesn't support crossfire or SLI as far as I'm aware. Video Cards is just a matter of having a look at Toms http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html motherboard ASUS and Intel are still good, CPUs http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

Lite-on make most DVD burners these days and their firmware typically is more up to date. I had to replace a different brand to get my CDS to burn correctly with imageburn so I'd recommend Lite-on. I still favour APC UPSes they help protect the machine against brown outs more than surges and help avoid software problems.

Does that help?

Thanks John

 

[jcardana]

Basically Trainz doesn't support crossfire or SLI as far as I'm aware. Video Cards is just a matter of having a look at Toms http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html motherboard ASUS and Intel are still good, CPUs http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

Very helpful, Thanks!

Lite-on make most DVD burners these days and their firmware typically is more up to date. I had to replace a different brand to get my CDS to burn correctly with imageburn so I'd recommend Lite-on.

Ok

I still favour APC UPSes they help protect the machine against brown outs more than surges and help avoid software problems.

Yeah, I tried using an off-brand UPS... never again. APC all the way!!! People don't talk much about brownouts... They're more common than people think. Especially when our A/C kicks in.