New hardware

[SuperFudd]

I just ordered $1000 worth of new hardware and such just for T:ANE.
Six years ago I got my current system (see below) except the GTX550ti is new(er), to run Ts2009.
Tonight I ordered from Dell a new XPS8700 with latest I5 CPU, 12G of RAM and a GTX745 4 meg video card. The 745 should be at least a bit better than the 550. I expect I will upgrade from the 745 within a year. There was no optional video card offered. This will also get me Win 10. Hopefully I won't worry about the new 1T HD failing for the next at least 6 years. It is more that big enough since the old HD is barely half full. Perhaps I will add the old drive to the new PC temporarily to transfer files. Oh yes, that price includes a "free" 32 inch LG TV. It should make a nice monitor.

 

[captainkman]

I bought myself an XPS 87000 just a couple of weeks ago!

I bought the one with a NVidia GTX 750Ti graphics card, a 2TB SSD and 24GB of RAM. The one I bought also comes with an i7 processor which should be good for T:ANE, too.

My spend was about $1,650, with an extra $185 for a 23" 1080p monitor on top of that.

I am really pleased with my new setup!

Please tell me how T:ANE runs on your setup. I will probably buy T:ANE for myself around the end of the year. Hopefully it does alright on your setup, and if it does then it should do fine on mine as well.

My XPS 8700 also came with Windows 10 installed on it, and I must say that it's great! Though I do have one word of warning - make sure you aren't logged into a temporary account when you first log in. I was, and I moved files over, and lost them when I logged off for the night. Fortunately, they were replaceable.

Kieran.

Oh, also, I paid for the computer with YouTube earnings.

 

[iannz]

A 2TB SSD, what brand? They are pretty expensive from what I have seen.

 

[captainkman]

Hello Ian,

Turns out I was wrong - it's a regular Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD, not a SSD at all.

Thought I saw 'SSD' in the Dell parts list, but the product code in Device Manager says otherwise.....

Kieran.

 

[stouthm]

I hope both of your power supplies are sufficient.

 

[captainkman]

I hope both of your power supplies are sufficient.

Our computers are off-the-shelf, not custom-builds. I trust Dell to include a powerful-enough power supply.

Kieran.

 

[JCitron]

Our computers are off-the-shelf, not custom-builds. I trust Dell to include a powerful-enough power supply.

Kieran.

These are great machines as long as you stick to Dell recommended components. You run into trouble if you decide to do 3rd-party upgrades. If you do ever decide to upgrade the video card to a bigger faster one that may come out in the future, you may have to upgrade your power supply. Your computer case may, or may not, handle a different power supply unless there is a larger wattage supply available from Dell for your machine.

John

 

[captainkman]

These are great machines as long as you stick to Dell recommended components. You run into trouble if you decide to do 3rd-party upgrades. If you do ever decide to upgrade the video card to a bigger faster one that may come out in the future, you may have to upgrade your power supply. Your computer case may, or may not, handle a different power supply unless there is a larger wattage supply available from Dell for your machine.

John

Hi John,

Thank you for the warning. I will keep that in mind as I may wish to upgrade the graphics card in the future. I did buy a desktop so I could upgrade it in the future, after all!

So far, it's been a fantastic machine!

Kieran.

 

[pdkoester]

I'm using the following:

Asus P6T MoBo (from 2009!)
Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition (from 2009!)
24 GB of RAM (few years old)
GTX 980 SC AC 2.0 (few months old)
24" Samsung SyncMaster 2494 (few years old)
Two Corsair Force 60 GB SSDs in RAID0 for O/S (couple years old, I think)
Samsung 840 EVO SSD 500 GB (less than a year old)
Add on SATAIII PCIe riser card (the Samsung is mounted on it, the Corsairs are managed by it, less than a year old)
Creative Lab SB Fatal1ty PCIe Titanium (few years old)
Logitec 5500 series 5.1 speaker system (at least five years old)
Logitec G19 keyboard (few years old)
Razer DEATHADDER CHROMA mouse (less than a year old)

So, you can see, I spent a lot on the CPU 6 years ago, but it still works very well. Almost everything else gets changed over time.

 

[JCitron]

Hi John,

Thank you for the warning. I will keep that in mind as I may wish to upgrade the graphics card in the future. I did buy a desktop so I could upgrade it in the future, after all!

So far, it's been a fantastic machine!

Kieran.

You're welcome! I ran into this issue not too long ago with someone who wanted to upgrade their fairly new Dell. The power supply, though it looked "normal", was not and the system wouldn't take the off-the-shelf component. A quick call to Dell's tech support confirmed my findings. He was lucky enough to be able to return it to the store where he bought it. He was lucky that his power supply could be upgraded. This isn't always the case for some reason and he was able to upgrade it.

Overall, I agree these are great machines and I'm glad you are happy with it. It beats the old laptop you used to have to blow a fan on all the time to keep it cool!

John

 

[SuperFudd]

I had no problem upgrading the power supply and video card on my XPS8000 a few years ago.

 

[SuperFudd]

OK then. Got my Dell XPS8700 today. Fooling/fighting with Win10. Managed to get to this forum. Hope to install T:ANE tomorrow.

 

[captainkman]

OK then. Got my Dell XPS8700 today. Fooling/fighting with Win10. Managed to get to this forum. Hope to install T:ANE tomorrow.

Please let us know how T:ANE runs when you get it installed, as well as what settings you can run it at!

I am curious to know how it runs on your XPS 8700 so that I can judge how well it will do on mine.

Kieran.

 

[LNERlover5]

I am curious to know how it runs on your XPS 8700 so that I can judge how well it will do on mine.

Probably not brilliantly if you use shadows. I have an i5-4690K, which in games is similar to your 4790 if they don't make use of the multi-thread benefit, since all an i7 has over an i5 is hyper threading, which makes no difference if it isn't used. You won't see much gain from all that RAM because it won't get used really. As for the 750Ti, it should do okay, I could turn the sliders up and get pretty good performance (better than TS12), however if you turn on shadows your frame-rate will drop substantially. I have an R9 270X which is a few notches above a 750Ti in performance and it struggles.

Jack

 

[SuperFudd]

I have got T:ANE installed on my new Dell XPS 8700 and patched to 78667. I am happy with the results. Essentially NO jerkiness on Hinton. Very good FPS with shadow off. With shadow on it is quite tolerable. Default T:ANE settings. I will probably run with shadows on most of the time. I expect the 4meg video RAM gets most of the credit for being jerk/hesitation free. It has the 4th (newest) generation i5 CPU with 256 KB L2 cache and "up to" 8 MB L3 cache. System chipset is Intel Z87. 12G of RAM. GTX745 4m video card.
Perhaps I will put FRAPS on this PC and do some comparisons with the old Dell XPS 8000. Is there a way to measure FPS built in to T:ANE?

 

[captainkman]

Probably not brilliantly if you use shadows.

You won't see much gain from all that RAM because it won't get used really.

Jack

Hi Jack,

Well, that is a disappointment. I do now feel like I've wasted my money....

Especially since Dell just released the 8900 series computers.

Kieran.

 

[JCitron]

Hi Jack,

Well, that is a disappointment. I do now feel like I've wasted my money....

Especially since Dell just released the 8900 series computers.

Kieran.

I wouldn't fret too much over having "too much RAM".

Even if you are running a 32-bit applications which will only see 4GB out of the 24GB you have installed, the remaining memory is being put to use by other tasks by the computer. Remember you are using a 64-bit operating system which will manage the rest of the memory and dole out what is needed to other applications.

Having an i7 instead of an i5 is actually advantageous since the hyper-threading is good for 3d modeling, audio processing, and other things. So sure an i5 is good for games, and is considered a good deal for a gaming machine, but an i7 gives you the advantage of a bit more lanes and the hyper-threading (multiple channels and intelligent processing) capabilities which the i5 of similar speed does not have.

So no you didn't waste your money, and your i7-4790 will run T:ANE fine.

 

[captainkman]

t waste your money, and your i7-4790 will run T:ANE fine.

But, one question still remains: what about shadows? The way I see it, there's not much point in having T:ANE if one cannot run it with dynamic shadows.

Should I wait for a few more hotfixes and patches?

Kieran.

 

[LNERlover5]

But, one question still remains: what about shadows? The way I see it, there's not much point in having T:ANE if one cannot run it with dynamic shadows.

Should I wait for a few more hotfixes and patches?

Your mileage may vary because I can just about run shadows, but apparently AMD cards are under performing, so your 750Ti might just get there (Don't hold me to that though).

All I'm saying about the i5 vs i7 debate is that an i5 has cost-performance benefits, an i7 that is clocked equal to or greater than an i5 will always be better for the larger range of features. Typically, games don't use these additional features which is why going for an i5 would net you the same results (or even better if you fancy a little overclocking, which is why I bought a K series i5) at a significant cost reduction. There is a range of software that will make use of these additional features though as John stated, my assumption is that you're looking for gaming performance though.

Jack

 

[captainkman]

Your mileage may vary because I can just about run shadows, but apparently AMD cards are under performing, so your 750Ti might just get there (Don't hold me to that though).

All I'm saying about the i5 vs i7 debate is that an i5 has cost-performance benefits, an i7 that is clocked equal to or greater than an i5 will always be better for the larger range of features. Typically, games don't use these additional features which is why going for an i5 would net you the same results (or even better if you fancy a little overclocking, which is why I bought a K series i5) at a significant cost reduction. There is a range of software that will make use of these additional features though as John stated, my assumption is that you're looking for gaming performance though.

Well, I guess it's a case of "try it and see", then, with the most likely outcome being positive.

Your assumption is correct - I did purchase this computer with gaming performance in mind, specifically T:ANE and Grand Theft Auto IV and V. (though I am yet to purchase T:ANE and GTA V)

If I may bring up a question I have that I could not find an answer to elsewhere;

I have a HDD in the case, and an external SSD which is USB-compatible. Which would be better for Trainz (and games in general)? Would I be correct in assuming the SSD would be preferable due to its quicker file access times? Or would the SSD running through USB 3.0 be detrimental to performance?

Kieran.