New Computer

[bazcouta]

Hello to you all. I am not new to trains, or the forums, and enjoy both. Since some of you post your computer specs here I thought I would share with you what I have decided to have in my new system. So here goes.

CPU Intel Core i7 930
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
RAM 6Gb kingston DDR3 / 1333 RAM
Drives 64Gb G Skill Falcon II 2.5" SSD Drive
1Tb Seagate SATA2 HDD, 32mb, 7200rpm
Video Card Gigabyte NVidia GTX 260 OC Card, 896mb, 216 pipelines
Optical Drive Sony AD7240SGB DVD-ReWriter
Case Thermaltake Lancool PC-K60 No PSU
Power Supply OCZ FATAL1TY 700w PSU
Monitor Samsung B2440L 23.6" Wide LCD monitor
1920x1080, 5ms, 300CD/sp m, 70k:1
Operating System Windows 7 Professional 64

So there it is. This build will be my first use of both SSD Drive & Windows 64.
All my current peripherals have 64 Drivers for them, so should be OK there.
I am biting the bullet with an SSD drive and hope that I have a good experience with this one. It is still an expensive option but after some heavy reading to understand what they are and what they should achieve ( in the real world and not by magazine tests) have decided to try one as my primary drive.

My choice of Graphics card may seem low but my understanding is that it should handle Trainz 2010. If not I can always swap it out for another. Not to keen on NVidia GTX 400 series. Seem to be a bit toasty. Anyhow other uses for this computer are less demanding ( photo storage, business programs, ect, ect).

I will also add that I did consider the i7 870 chip. Would save a bit of money but went with the i7 930 as I expect this sytem to be my main one for 3-4 years.

Thanks, hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed looking at what others are using.

Andrew.

 

[johnwhelan]

Looks sane except I'd think about directX11 support if you intend to keep it for a few years.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-radeon-hd-5870-geforce-gtx-480,2621.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-core-i5-phenom-ii,2620.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-balanced-platform,2469-16.html

I seem to recall GFX or one of the nVidia partners announcing they were dropping GPUs they thought that the nVidia line was no longer profitable.

Currently Trainz TS2010 only uses two cores for the game according to Chris in Trainzdev. CM3.2 uses more.

Cheerio John

 

[bazcouta]

Thanks for your thoughts John. I have seen the articles you posted and have found them to be of interest. Concerning the graphics card issue I no longer have a son at home playing games that would require the high powered, high priced, cards that are available. I would only be playing traiz as far as games go.
The Direct x11 issue is of course something to think about. However at this time I will go with the above as I can swap out the card later if this proves to be a problem. My current computer would certainly take advantage of it.
I am hopeful that NVidia will resolve the issue concerning heat in thier 400 series cards. If that happens I would then have a look at them. Why not ATI? Since I only use trainz I think the open GL support is better with NVidia. This does not mean that ATI cards are bad. They seem to be rather good by the feedback around these forums.
Once again thanks for your thoughts.

 

[johnwhelan]

Roughly my personal thoughts as well. I went with the xeon version of the i7 930 with the thought I could switch the video card if nVidia or some one brought out something better. Meanwhile the 5850 does fairly nicely and I can get away with a 500 watt power supply.

I run a 40 gig SSD and it appears to make windows 7 a lot faster but it only added a frame per second to Trainz. I run Trainz on a raptor which doesn't seem too bad and has a 5 year warranty.

My monitor is 1600 by 900 2ms Samsung so slightly smaller than your own, so slightly less demanding for Trainz. I was tempted by 1080 but decide against it since I don't intend to watch Blue ray on the computer.

Cheerio John

 

[RRSignal]

Is this machine going to be online or offline? Security software, particularly anti-virus and resident anti-spyware software, can really hammer performance, and in my experience, simply disabling resident protection doesn't necessarily help. Have you considered building two machines: One a low-end one for internet usage, the other a strictly offline gaming/secure rig? There are ways to firewall it so you can *ONLY* contact the DLS, if need be.

It's even possible to set up a machine as a dual-boot, preferably with two or more separate drives selected at POST. The "internet" side of the rig has the network adapter installed, etc. The "gaming" drive/side does not, preventing network access and, thus, most malicious software from working and the need for security software.

 

[bazcouta]

Hello RRSignal. To answer your query I was intending to run with the security software in the background. To be honest I had not really thought about it.On my current machine I have run security software in the background and it does not seem to have any real effect on trainz. This of course does not mean that your observations are not in play. Something for me to investigate.
I must state here that I am a computer user and not a guru, software or hardware. I'm the the sort of guy who pushes the on button and expects it to work. However having had children, who inevitably like to stuff things up, I have had to learn how to look after things.
Thanks for taking the time to offer your views.

 

[bazcouta]

Hello John. In reply to your post I have resisted the urge to install a Blue ray player / burner. I too do not have any use for one as it is but can always upgrade if the need arises. The cost is still too high even at $200 AUD when a dvd burner retails at $30 AUD. Also I don't know if you have the same situation in Canada but here in Australia Blu ray discs seem to have a consistent $10 AUD premium over DVD's. Don't think I will miss them just at the moment.
Catch you soon.