New PC

E

ess1

Active member
My venerable AMD Athlon w/ 2GB RAM & Nv AGP 7600 purchased from PC Specialists in U.K. has to be replaced in order to run 2010.

I have the following specs from same supplier, from whom I have had no problems:-

Processor (CPU)Intel® Core™2 Duo E8600 (3.33GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM) 8GB CORSAIR XMS2 DUAL-DDR2 800MHz

Motherboard ASUS® P5QL/EPU: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 3 PCI, 2 x PCI-e x1

Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS250 PCI EXPRESS

Power Supply & Case Cooling Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER

Cost £750.

As, at my age (not quite dotage ) I do not feel competent to build one, advice on suggested improvements would be appreciated. This will be my last one (wife would kill me!)

Thanks
 
Sounds like a blinder to me, but I would up the memory on the display card if you can to 2GB+

John Whelan is the best to ask, as he has a lot of expertise
 
Hey Barn,

Thanks for prompt reply. May you and yours have a happy, healthy & successful year. Stop building those wretched diesel things:p
Sellick
 
I am trying not to Sellick !!

I have some new (steam) locos from your neck of the woods, to be released shorlyy, for TS2009 and TS2010.

I had a quick look at the specs of the display card, it appears to be a rebadged Nvidia 9800 so should be OK

I would hold off purchase for the moment, as your old one should run TS2010 well. Remember TS2010 runs much faster than previous versions of Trainz, and hence detailed routes/locos will look much better with the new graphics of TS2010
 
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Sounds like a good 'un. The only suggestion I would make would be to ask your supplier to quote for a GTX260 based graphics card. It shouldn't add much to the total and will give you a little more 'umpf'.

Stuart
 
Thanks for info. I was under the impression that the engine can only make use of 2 cores. Quad might not be fully utilised by my use.
 
hi can any one tell me if i can run trainz 2009 well my specs are below thanks and your system is great wish i could have money for one like that

sleek
 
haha im gona try my best or maby put some upgrades in it wen i have money its brand new pc tho wen i get in 5 days so u think it will run on default setings smoothly mate?
 
For another 30 - 40 pound you could get a GTX 275 video card. If you are getting DDR2, then I would go for 1066 (instead of 800). Virtually no difference in price...
For not much more you could get an I-7 860 setup and 8 gigs of DDR3 1600. If you get the right Asus motherboard (something like the P7P55D LE) the I-5 750 & I-7 860 are very easily over-clocked...
If you are going to over-clock the CPU, make sure you also purchase a really good heat-sink. Intel's standard heat-sink that comes with the CPU isn't good enough to keep the over-clocked CPU cool enough. Also make sure that your PSU has atleast 22A per rail !!!

I've just put together a gaming machine for a mate who had a certain budget and when I compared the Duo core 2's - E8400 - E8500 - E8600 compared to I-5 750 & I-7 860 I was surprised to see that there was very little different between the E8600 & the I-7 860 setups.

Side note; I'm sure there are many that will debate the advantages & disadvantages of running Trainz on either a Duo core 2 - verse's - a quad core processor. (higher clock speed verse's more cores)... - Try & find some benchmarks results that compare the two processors...

The sweet spot for video cards at the moment (in NZ) is currently the GTX 275 (same price here as the 260's).
Wouldn't hurt too also get a quote for a I-7 860 setup with DDR3 1600 RAM. You'll be future proofing yourself better with a CPU (socket H 1156) that's only been out for a couple of months, rather than a CPU (socket 775) that's been out for a number of years... (for on or around the same cost).
Assuming the prices for components are the same in your country as they are in NZ...
Cheers, Mac...
 
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The i7 would be my cpu of choice but it depends a bit on price and UK prices are a bit of a mystery to me sometimes.

Cheerio John
 
ok thanks for advice i was hoping to upgrade ram tho to 3 gigs that was all but my graphics card is integrated so i dont know about that so will trainz 2009 still happily run on my current system for time being then i will get some upgrades later?

sleek
 
sleek said:
ok thanks for advice i was hoping to upgrade ram tho to 3 gigs that was all but my graphics card is integrated so i dont know about that so will trainz 2009 still happily run on my current system for time being then i will get some upgrades later?
sleek
Click to expand...

No. Increasing your RAM will help. Integrated graphics is a waist of time. I would highly recommend that you get a separate video card. I'd also recommend that you replace your Intel Celeron e3200 processor while you where at it. (As far as I'm concerned, Intel Celeron & AMD Duron processors are cheap junk).
Cheers, Mac...
 
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ess1 said:
Thanks for info. I was under the impression that the engine can only make use of 2 cores. Quad might not be fully utilised by my use.
Click to expand...

I've forgotten where I saw the post, probably in trainzdev, but essentially on a good day with the wind behind it and you see a black cat crossing the road in front of you TS2010 can make use of more than two cores. I'll have to dig and see what I can find. Four cores will not give you twice the performance of two cores by the way but should give you some improvement.

The quad core Intel processors will overclock slightly when you use less than all four cores but still stay within the thermal envelop.

Cheerio John
 
meatloaf747 said:
No. Increasing your RAM will help. Integrated graphics is a waist of time. I would highly recommend that you get a separate video card. I'd also recommend that you replace your Intel Celeron e3200 processor while you where at it. (As far as I'm concerned, Intel Celeron & AMD Duron processors are cheap junk).
Cheers, Mac...
Click to expand...

ok then how about trainz 06 will that run please help i must play trainz
 
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