Maintaining my computer

[PC_Ace]

Malikrthr - Going to an SSD from a conventional platter drive is one of the best system upgrade experiences you'll ever make.

My recommendation is to make the SSD your boot drive first, as that's where the maximum gain will be found overall.

If you get one with 480Gb to 512GB capacity (a pricing sweet-spot), then you'll have enough for both T:ANE and Windows OS.
By all means shift all your other data files/ photos/ videos, etc. to the HDD, but leave your program files on the new SSD for maximum performance benefit.

At the moment, I have a small SDD as my boot drive and several terabyte+ hard disk drives as secondary disks for data storage.
Windows 10 OS and all of my program files reside on C: except for a couple of games (like T:ANE and Star Citizen).
With the new, much larger capacity Samsung SSD I'm about to install, I will be cloning the current ADATA SSD and transferring all of my program files to the new SSD, leaving the old (but still blindingly fast) SSD as a possible dedicated host for either T:ANE or Star Citizen.
Either way, by the end of the day, both of these demanding simulators will be run from an SSD again.

Regarding Video Cards - as JCitron suggests above - your GPU represents a weak link in terms of likely T:ANE performance. The new Nine Hundred series of cards from nVidia represent a big step-up in performance and thermal efficiency over all previous discrete nVidia GPUs, with T:ANE users generally reporting great satisfaction and good frame-rate performance from cards like the GTX 970, GTX 980 and GTX 980-Ti (a real Titan killer!).

That said, if you're prepared to wait until next year, even more powerful Pascal-based GPUs will be forthcoming, with high bandwidth memory improvements and considerably greater performance per watt and dollar.

Good luck with your upgrade quest. Keep us informed about how it works out!

 

[malikrthr]

JCitron: The graphics card is definitely on my list of upgrades. Perhaps a GTX 950 or GTX 960 or a 4GB r9 380 card would be a potential upgrade. I do not have the money to upgrade the graphics card and the hard drive at the same time so perhaps around the spring time or later next year, I can see about a graphics card upgrade. For the CPU, the AMD Phenom II X4 965 performs great even though it is an older quad core processor. I'll let you know how TANE runs with the GTX 570 when I get the new simulator next month.

PC_ACE: Since Windows 10 boots up in about 20-30 seconds on my computer with the 7200rpm hard drive, would it still be okay to have the operating system on the same drive as everything else such as documents, programs and pictures? The 20-30 second Windows 10 boot is okay for me so far. Would there be a big difference if I have Windows 10 on a 128GB SSD, Trainz on a 512GB SSD and everything else on the 1TB 7200rpm hard drive. Would the SSD's have to be the same type or would it be okay to have one samsung 850 EVO SSD for Trainz and a sandisk 128GB SSD to boot Windows 10 onto?

 

[nicky9499]

You can put anything on any SSD. The "SSDfied" things would simply be very very quick. In your case, Windows and Trainz.

I personally recommend Intel SSDs, having used them for years since the 530. Samsung EVOs are also right up there. If you're after extreme performance consider M2, but be aware on some boards you lose 1 or 2 SATA ports when that's in use.

Edit: I would seriously reconsider buying TS12 instead of TANE if a 570 is all you have to make do with for now.

 

[JCitron]

You can put anything on any SSD. The "SSDfied" things would simply be very very quick. In your case, Windows and Trainz.

I personally recommend Intel SSDs, having used them for years since the 530. Samsung EVOs are also right up there. If you're after extreme performance consider M2, but be aware on some boards you lose 1 or 2 SATA ports when that's in use.

Edit: I would seriously reconsider buying TS12 instead of TANE if a 570 is all you have to make do with for now.

The Intel SSDs are top notch. I have them in my PCs now and are nice and stable. The boot up time difference is amazing compared to the older 7200 RPM drives.

I agree with you on the video card. He should probably wait then and continue with TS2010 on his new PC then when he upgrades the video card, go ahead and install T:ANE. By then SP1+whatever Hotfix version x will be out, and he'll have the most stable version. I know I just put in a jab at the product, but SP1 is proving to be quite stable so far with the testing.

John

 

[SuperFudd]

I am doing OK with my GTX745. Get TANE. I will upgrade my card next year but in the mean time the 745 will do well.
For the first few months with TANE I had a 550Ti and it was OK with the shadows off. It seems though that the 700 series can handle shadows more efficiently.

 

[captainkman]

\It seems though that the 700 series can handle shadows more efficiently.

That has been my experience. I have a NVidia GeForce GTX 750Ti 2GB graphics card in my machine and I can run T:ANE with shadows on Low - which still looks really good!

My system's main specs are in my signature.

Kieran.

 

[malikrthr]

Nicky9499: Cool, I'll be able to put Windows 10 and Trainz a New Era on one 512GB SSD. The M2 is definitely an SSD to consider. Right now, good options for the SSD would be Crucial, Intel, Samsung and maybe Sandisk. Since the GTX 750Ti is around the same performance as the GTX 570, I was thinking that I could perhaps run TANE at decent fps with some of the graphics settings turned down. Right now, Trainz 12 is a bit out of date and would be around the same as Trainz 2010 for the Major Tri State Area Project.

JCitron: Awesome. An SSD will definitely be the way to go for my system. I remember seeing a video of TANE running with the post processing effects. I think the system configuration included a GTX 560Ti and it ran TANE with reasonable fps. I also have a GTX 550Ti not installed in my PC. If I install the GTX 550Ti as a PhysX card and use the GTX 570 as the main, then I think I may get a bit of a performance boost. Not a huge performance boost though. Perhaps around the summer time, I can save and purchase a more recent graphics card. By the summer time, prices should come down so maybe a 780Ti or even a 960 or 970 will fit in my $200 budget.

SuperFudd: The GTX 550Ti is a good card even though it is older. The shadows on and the post processing would be nice to have but it should all still look good with some of the settings lowered. I think the reason the GTX 700 series handles the shadows a bit better would be because the Maxwell Architecture allows the card to perform even better with lower temperatures. The GTX 900 series cards are really good because they run really cool and offer good performance.

CaptainKman: Those are definitely great system specs. I definitely agree that a good quad core, 8GB of RAM, and a GPU with 2GB of Vram or higher would be great for the new simulator. TANE is getting better each service pack that is released.

 

[llebrez]

I feel that I am forced to enter on the subject of graphics cards. And I think I have already made some posts about it. GTX550Ti: Runs quite well under W-7. GTX750: Runs well but no so good as the 550 under W-7. Install W-10: 550 runs somewhat not as good as with W-7. 750, horrible. Since the 750 was in warranty, I sent it back and mfg replaced it. Now 750 runs much better, but not as good as the 550 ! How come? In detail, the 750 runs quite well in not so densely populated areas, but when arriving to heavy asset places, it stutters to unacceptable level. The 550 does not. One more test you can do: Position the camera in surveyor over a populated area view from above. Close it and open again. Take a look at how fast all the assets appear. The card is rendering everything as fast as it can. Now do the same with another card and compare. In my case, the 750 does it faster than the 550, and I expected that. But in normal driver running, the 550 does better !

Resume: W-7 runs better than W-10. 550 runs better than 750. And I am the first to tell you it makes no sense. Just in case you ask, I run high end processor Z87, and fast SSD's on my rig at 16Gb RAM.
Any clues?

 

[clam1952]

Briefly
550TI has a higher bandwidth and Pixel rate than the 750 which only has a higher texel rate and lower power consumption,
The 550TI is 192bit whereas the 750 is only 128bit. Higher is better.

On Toms Hardware the 750 is only two tiers above the 550TI so I would not expect much difference in performance, a lot depends on the actual card manufacturer as well, a Sparkle cheap and nasty things, are not going to work as well as say an EVGA or Gigabyte even if they have the same chipset and apparent same model number.

The other problem is that some manufactures re-badge older cards so you could get say a 650 re-badged as a 750 which won't be as good as an actual 750.

 

[LNERlover5]

The other problem is that some manufactures re-badge older cards so you could get say a 650 re-badged as a 750 which won't be as good as an actual 750.

They don't, if they did I doubt they would remain board partners with AMD or Nvidia for very long. Instances you see where people claim cards are 'rebadged' is when AMD or Nvidia ship a GPU that is identical or similar to a last gen part for current gen products, not where board partners are ones doing it.

Jack

 

[JCitron]

And to add to what Malc is saying here, there are two versions of the 750-series. The cheaper ones are actually older version as well which use DDR3 RAM instead of DDR5. This too makes a big difference in performance. Your best bet is to hold out for a better video card when you can afford one, rather than doing a quick jump up to the 750, which would chintz out a rather nice system you are building.

The way it is spec'd out now, it's like a beautiful mansion with all the fancy trimmings. Then in the room where you'll want to show off the best of the best, you have a cheap Asian grand piano knock off instead of the high end Bösendorfer or Steinway grand piano, and a cheap plastic sofa.

John

 

[llebrez]

Boy Oh Boy! Everyday you learn something new, even if it is against common sense. Anyhow, the 750 goes to EBay and the 550 is in use now until I get a new latest model card. Anyhow I don't think MSI is pulling a fast one on us with cheap models, is all basic specs and dishonest reviews, ...down to marketing, yes?

 

[JCitron]

Boy Oh Boy! Everyday you learn something new, even if it is against common sense. Anyhow, the 750 goes to EBay and the 550 is in use now until I get a new latest model card. Anyhow I don't think MSI is pulling a fast one on us with cheap models, is all basic specs and dishonest reviews, ...down to marketing, yes?

I wouldn't worry about MSI.

One of the "name-branded" big box store computers might be a problem though. I've seen this way too many times as people go out and buy something from Staples. They're sold the bill of goods, and the computer has awesome paper-specs, but the components are at the lower level even on the premade name brand PCs. These lesser-quality GTX750s are a classic example. The name is the same, but the card is chintzy because the manufacturer used cheaper memory.

The other place you'll find this stuff is in some really cheap computer system builders. There was one my ex-boss used to use for his custom built systems. They were so cheap that the cases wouldn't hold the motherboards properly, or had some other problems. There was one system that gave us constant problems with various "issues". We couldn't pinpoint anything except that it kept crashing randomly. Finally I was given the task of taking the evil beast apart. Inside was a dangling wire... This was the ground lead which was supposed to be attached to the inside of the case. I screwed it into the chassis frame and there was no problem after that. On another system, we attempted to install a rather expensive DVR system that cost about $28,000. It was a single large card with some specialized electronics and ports used to drive video tape drives and had a RAID hooked to it. I opened the case to put the card in, and all the other cards fell out of the slots. The list went on. I said something to my boss and his answer was they're cheap.

John

 

[SuperFudd]

Do be certain to get your driver from NVidea and not Microsoft.

 

[malikrthr]

To save money for now, would it be best to run the GTX 570 in the PCIe X16 slot as the main card and run the GTX 550Ti in the slower PCIe X4 slot as the PhysX card for TANE. I performed this before for Trainz 2010 and did not really notice a fps or performance gain in Trainz 2010 on the Major Tri State Area Project. Would it be good to run TANE in this fashion, with both cards in the case or is it recommended to only have one card. Having those two cards in the case running at the same time did generate some heat but not too much when running Trainz 2010. The GTX 570 generated more heat than the GTX 550Ti because that card demands more wattage and runs as the main card.

I am now thinking, it would be best to run Windows 10 and TANE on the same SSD and have everything else on the regular 7200rpm hard drive and perhaps use my Dell Inspiron 1545 for school work.

 

[malikrthr]

Good evening. I would like to thank everyone for helping me and giving me suggestions on possible upgrades. I really appreciate it. Tomorrow, I am going to purchase Trainz A New Era Standard Edition. I was going to get the Deluxe Edition but I thought to myself, the standard edition will give me a chance to try the new routes and features out and at a later time perhaps, if everything goes well with the standard edition, I can bring the standard edition up to the deluxe edition by adding on the deluxe edition routes. Trying new things lately and I told myself, instead of looking at the negatives of TANE, I should look at the positive and the improvements that TANE has. I am going to put my GTX 570 and GTX 550Ti together, having the 550Ti as the PhysX card and the 570 as the main card. I don't think that would be too bad as long as I adjust the settings to perhaps medium instead of max. Maybe, there will be decent fps in TANE with these two cards put together. Hopefully with the more service packs and patches released, TANE will be optimized to run smoothly with the older cards too. In the summer or next winter, I will probably make the upgrade to a Maxwell 2nd generation card.

I was thinking about the SSD's and I thought, the Samsung 850 Evo 512GB SSD would be a great choice for now. I can put Windows 10 and TANE on the drive and then have my HDD for everything else. This will be my first SSD so it will be interesting seeing the improvement over the HDD. Instead of upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7, I was thinking of creating a bootable disc for Windows 10, and performing a clean installation so my system can run like brand new.

 

[JCitron]

Good evening. I would like to thank everyone for helping me and giving me suggestions on possible upgrades. I really appreciate it. Tomorrow, I am going to purchase Trainz A New Era Standard Edition. I was going to get the Deluxe Edition but I thought to myself, the standard edition will give me a chance to try the new routes and features out and at a later time perhaps, if everything goes well with the standard edition, I can bring the standard edition up to the deluxe edition by adding on the deluxe edition routes. Trying new things lately and I told myself, instead of looking at the negatives of TANE, I should look at the positive and the improvements that TANE has. I am going to put my GTX 570 and GTX 550Ti together, having the 550Ti as the PhysX card and the 570 as the main card. I don't think that would be too bad as long as I adjust the settings to perhaps medium instead of max. Maybe, there will be decent fps in TANE with these two cards put together. Hopefully with the more service packs and patches released, TANE will be optimized to run smoothly with the older cards too. In the summer or next winter, I will probably make the upgrade to a Maxwell 2nd generation card.

I was thinking about the SSD's and I thought, the Samsung 850 Evo 512GB SSD would be a great choice for now. I can put Windows 10 and TANE on the drive and then have my HDD for everything else. This will be my first SSD so it will be interesting seeing the improvement over the HDD. Instead of upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7, I was thinking of creating a bootable disc for Windows 10, and performing a clean installation so my system can run like brand new.

Good luck and congratulations on your upgrade.

Remember you can install T:ANE on the SSD with the rest of your applications and put the T:ANE data on the regular hard drive.

 

[malikrthr]

Thanks . Just ordered TANE. I can't wait to try the new sim. For the TANE data, would that be the user data folder in the auran folder. If I move the user data folder to the HDD, would it be okay to delete the user data folder from the SSD?

 

[JCitron]

Thanks . Just ordered TANE. I can't wait to try the new sim. For the TANE data, would that be the user data folder in the auran folder. If I move the user data folder to the HDD, would it be okay to delete the user data folder from the SSD?

Yes...

What you would need to do is:

1) Move/Copy the data to a folder on your hard drive (not SSD). I put mine in TANE_DATA for a lack of any other name.
2) When you install T:ANE from scratch, put it in normally.
3) When you go into your settings, where you put in your username and so on, there's a tab called install.
4) Click on this and put in the location where you put your T:ANE Data.

When T:ANE is launched, it will run a database repair and "link" up your user data to the program.

It's actually easier to do than I explained here....

John

 

[malikrthr]

Thanks JCitron, I am going to follow this process once I get my system up and running. I just created a bootable dvd so I can clean install Windows 10. Currently, I am using Windows 7 on my HDD. Do you know what would perhaps be the best way to get Windows 10 onto the SSD? Would changes have to be made in the BIOS since the SSD would be the primary drive. I was also reading some information about cloning the OS from the HDD and then transferring Windows 10 from an HDD to an SSD. Originally my process was going to be ,

1) Install the SSD
2) Change the boot order of drives in the BIOS, making the SSD the first choice and the HDD the second choice
3) Have the bootable DVD in the disc drive and install Windows 10 from the bootable DVD.
4) After the Windows 10 setup goes through the process, set the install location to the SSD
5) Once Windows 10 is on the SSD,
6) As Windows 10 goes through the install process, format the HDD so it can be used only for docs, programs, music and TANE data.