New computer?

[AussieNightcrawler]

Personally I would not go any lower then a 650 watt PSU these days, a 500 watt will not handle the draw off the system, especially when you start adding cooling fans and what ever else you need. I had a 550 watt and only lasted for about 6 months, it just could not handle what was needed.

I do agree though on the 9500, too slow, you can pickup a 9800 for a little extra, around $150 - $180 or a GTS 250 for around $200 - $300, any one with 512MB will be fine, my 8800 has 320MB and its fine. The GTS 250 does have 1GB versions available.

Have a look around your neck of the woods for prices...

 

[robbiehanson]

Ex-railwayman: It's not about memory size once you're past 512mb; the 2400 cannot make efficient use of its 512mb, but neither can the 9500 make efficient use of 1gb. I'm using a Radeon HD4650 512mb at the moment, and I'm running Trainz at 1920x1200 max everything, averaging around 60 FPS on tougher routes(40fps on Gfisher routes), and that's with a $60 Athlon 4850e processor. Considering the 4650 can be had for $52.99, I cannot fathom why on earth you'd ever want a 9500 which isn't much faster if any!

 

[Saieditor]

I found this thread and wanted to know if the following statistics look good for a new PC, my OS is Windows XP I am not going to change to VISTA.......
I have chosen XP Home edition, as I've been using that for the last 6 years, but can go up to XP Professional for an extra £ 43.50.

This is a workable quotation today from a reputable company in the UK, I have just about maxed out all my options for the majority of the fields available, I can increase the CPU cooler to the next option for a small cost ( about £23.50), the motherboard is non negotiable, they only have the one available....:hehe:
The graphics and sound cards are the best available.

Your suggestions and advice would be appreciated....

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.


20-001 Intel Dual Core PC (20-001)

Customizations:

CPU: - Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200
CPU Cooler: - Standard CPU heatsink & fan
Motherboard: - Asus P5KPL-AM (Intel G31 chipset, onboard video)
Memory: - 4GB DDR2 800mhz (2x 2GB)

Hard Drives: - 500GB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: - 20x DVD±RW DL
Graphics card: - NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 1GB

Sound card: - Onboard 7.1 Audio

Operating System: - Microsoft® Windows XP Home SP3

PSU: - 700W EZCool Tornado

You can stick with XP Home SP3 and all will work well.

Underpowered with regard to the PSU ... should be up near 800-850w with that graphics card, that's what they say in Aust.

Well, this is a two year old MOBO with an Intel Socket 775 support. I dunno why it is non-negotiable, when it doesn't appear to be expandable. Its not the latest of the Asus Boards which support the Intel Socket 775 range, and looking at the specs, is very, very similar to a board I just bought from Asus, so lemme share something with you.

Make sure your DVD unit and its bundled software work with that onboard audio or your could easily end up with no sound at all. I agree with everyone else, ditch the onboard sound and invest in a decent sound card. You will be grateful you did.


Cheers

 

[robbiehanson]

Saleditor, I've run an Athlon X2 4200+ with four hard drives and an X1950PRO on 550w with no issues; it's not so much wattage as quality of power supply. I had an Antec Truepower Trio, a very steady PSU, but if you have a cheaper one, I would indeed want more power. I'm currently on an Athlon X2 4850e, two hard drives, and a 4650 on 350w; and it's fine. 800-850w is only needed(from my experience) with either Crossfire or SLI, and here neither is indicated as necessary.

 

[ex-railwayman]

Thanks very much everyone for your input, I have a better understanding of some things now. I did probably limit myself to this one website, and it was rather restrictive in choice, etc...

I have therefore been around the net and found a PC specialist who will build a PC on my specifications, and have gone for the following so far, although I do have a bit of a wider choice on certain items and the present cost is £475.00. I may ask for special Saturday morning delivery, so the price will increase a little, but, going on what's provided I think the table below looks OK, but, things can be changed, and if I go mad and get the best of everything I'll probably end up spending £1,000.00, so I have to budget accordingly......

The company did warn me that I had chosen a 600W power supply which they stated was too much, but, I wanted to err on the side of caution, so I've not amended it.

I can also exchange the graphics card as well to a 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE 9600GT PCI EXPRESS if necessary.....


Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON™ 64 X2 7850+ (2.8GHz) BLACK EDITION (Socket AM2+)
Memory (RAM)
2GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY!
Motherboard
ASUS® M4N78-AM: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA II, PCIe x16, 1 x PCIe x1, 2 x PCI
Operating System
Genuine Windows XP™ Home + SP3, CD & Licence (£68)
USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st CD/DVD Drive
22x DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Graphics Card
512MB ATI RADEON™ HD 4670 PCI EXPRESS
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio PCI Express (£35)
Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK FUSION CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Power Supply & Case Cooling
600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£58)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£15)
Surge Protection
Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector with £25,000 Protection! (£8)
Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1 Year Free Collect & Return: £5
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days

 

[Captain_Collins]

For all of you:

Make sure you get good quality PSUs (Power Supply) as the last thing you want is some cheap no-name PSU blowing out not only itself but your motherboard, RAM, or video card, or maybe more.

Make sure you stick with brands in the good column of this list:
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=131195

The PSU is one of the most critical components in a computer and as such it should be allocated a significant portion of your budget.

Basically, do not skimp on a PSU.

 

[ex-railwayman]

That's great Captain, thanks for the link, it was an interesting and knowledge-busting read....I'll go and amend my specifications and I'm sure my PSU is an Enermax which they say is one of the best available, and I'll notch up to a 700W.....

Cheerz again.

ex-railwayman.

 

[narrowgauge]

I would suggest that you upgrade to XP Pro + SP3. I can't remember the details but XP Home does lack functions that are useful. I would also recommend an Antec P180 or P182 case. The PSU is at the bottom in a much cooler position.

Peter.

 

[robbiehanson]

ex-railwayman: Looks good. I don't think you'll need 700w, seriously, but if you want to go there feel free.

Should run XP unbelievably well considering I was running Vista on a much slower machine.

 

[ex-railwayman]

I would suggest that you upgrade to XP Pro + SP3. I can't remember the details but XP Home does lack functions that are useful. I would also recommend an Antec P180 or P182 case. The PSU is at the bottom in a much cooler position.

Peter.

Thanks Peter, but, I've been using XP Home for 6 years so I'm happy with it and PRO is an extra £40, and this'll last me for a few more years until Vista get their backsides into gear for the future......And those Antec cases aren't offered with this particular model unfortunately.

Anyway, I've upped to 700W PSU and bought the PC for £500....I've also looked at a brand new 19" TFT Monitor for £75 from dabs.com, so, I'm reasonable happy with my birthday present, I've just got to persuade the family to chip in now......:hehe:

Thanks to you all for advice, etc....

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

 

[Captain_Collins]

Thanks Peter, but, I've been using XP Home for 6 years so I'm happy with it and PRO is an extra £40, and this'll last me for a few more years until Vista get their backsides into gear for the future......And those Antec cases aren't offered with this particular model unfortunately.

Anyway, I've upped to 700W PSU and bought the PC for £500....I've also looked at a brand new 19" TFT Monitor for £75 from dabs.com, so, I'm reasonable happy with my birthday present, I've just got to persuade the family to chip in now......:hehe:

Thanks to you all for advice, etc....

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

Why not get the new windows 7 RC for free for a year? It's a great operating system and it runs trainz very smoothly compared to vista, and it outperforms XP on most things on my desktop, in terms of waiting times and lag.

 

[Euphod]

Why not get the new windows 7 RC for free for a year?

Yeah, I lived with a girl for a year, then had to marry her. Over the following ten years her performance degraded to the point that she crashed my hard drive and I ended up losing everything! Yet she got to take the three "laptops" we made together!

 

[SuperFudd]

I am not inclined to get the pre release 7 on a new computer because I don't want to have to reformat my HD.

 

[ex-railwayman]

Why not get the new windows 7 RC for free for a year? It's a great operating system and it runs trainz very smoothly compared to vista, and it outperforms XP on most things on my desktop, in terms of waiting times and lag.

Thanks Captain, but, what Windows 7 RC, I've never heard of it, it hasn't had much of a press release then if it's the best thing since sliced bread.....
I'm unsure if anything lags on my PC, having Firefox and a FCT I can download all sorts of things very quickly these days, I downloaded the TrainzItalia West of Denver 200mb layout off there website the other week, in about 4 minutes, can't say any other OS would have done it any quicker....

Think I'll stick with XP and Firefox for the time being, thanks all the same...

Cheerz. ex. :wave:

 

[Captain_Collins]

Yeah, I lived with a girl for a year, then had to marry her. Over the following ten years her performance degraded to the point that she crashed my hard drive and I ended up losing everything! Yet she got to take the three "laptops" we made together!

:hehe::hehe::hehe:

Thanks Captain, but, what Windows 7 RC, I've never heard of it, it hasn't had much of a press release then if it's the best thing since sliced bread.....
I'm unsure if anything lags on my PC, having Firefox and a FCT I can download all sorts of things very quickly these days, I downloaded the TrainzItalia West of Denver 200mb layout off there website the other week, in about 4 minutes, can't say any other OS would have done it any quicker....

Think I'll stick with XP and Firefox for the time being, thanks all the same...

Cheerz. ex. :wave:

Windows 7 is the new Microsoft Operating System and it has had a very good press recently. You have probably heard of Vista, and windows 7 is what Vista should have been on release.

Download speeds are not affected very much by the OS in use, but program speeds are.

 

[robbiehanson]

I'd still go WinXP. 7 is indeed almost as fast as XP, but is seriously warped regarding the user interface(think Mac OSX mixed with Vista themes) and I can't stand it. I actually went BACK to Vista on my laptop from 7...whoda thunk it?

 

[SuperFudd]

It looks llike my aquisition of a new computer will be put off for awhile, perhaps until the release of retail 7.
My friend and new Trainzer, Gary, and I got the old (Dec 02) computer going again after it being layed up 3 months. It seems the cpu was overheating due to a combination of poor heat sink goop instalation and a heat sink choked with dust. The +5V looks a little low. I will have to keep an eye on it.
At least I can be frustrated by TS2009 again. My daughter's machine cannot handle any Trainz beyond TRS2004.