Thoughts on New Computer

[seeseeme]

HI everyone,

One of our members Noel (nbrettoner) computer has died and we had been talking about a new one for him. Between those talks when his computer was working and phone calls we have an idea now of parts for his new computer.

Motherboard - ASUS P7P55D-E-PRO
CPU - Core i5 760
RAM - 4GB Corsair
Graphics - Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB DDR5
Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Case & Power - ANTEC and 850W
Plus Seagate hard drives and a BenQ 24" monitor.

He asked me to post these details to see what others thought and in particular about the Graphic Card.

Like most of us, money is always a main thought.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Craig

 

[RRSignal]

Stick with XP. Since the prospective system will only have 4Gb anyway, XP 32-bit is the obvious choice. XP-64 will give you 8Gb.

As for the video card, is this an SLi on a single card? I forget, but the going theory is that Trainz can't take advantage of SLi/X-Fire so there's no point in blowing money there. I will tell you upfront I don't use either so I don't personally know. But if the proposed card is the case, you'd do better getting a better CPU.

 

[djt]

HI everyone,

One of our members Noel (nbrettoner) computer has died and we had been talking about a new one for him. Between those talks when his computer was working and phone calls we have an idea now of parts for his new computer.

Motherboard - ASUS P7P55D-E-PRO
CPU - Core i5 760
RAM - 4GB Corsair
Graphics - Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB DDR5
Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Case & Power - ANTEC and 850W
Plus Seagate hard drives and a BenQ 24" monitor.

He asked me to post these details to see what others thought and in particular about the Graphic Card.

Like most of us, money is always a main thought.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Craig

The specs don't look bad but if you are going with a socket 1156/P55 chipset based system you might consider looking at the i7-875K with an unlocked multiplier -


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116368




You might also think about stepping up to the GTX 470. The OS (Windows 7 64 is the way to go) choice looks good.








ASUS Rampage III Extreme (901 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition w/Corsair H70
Corsair DOMINATOR-GT 6GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CMT6GX3M3A1600C7
EVGA GeForce GTX 480 SuperClocked (259.31)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
Corsair AX1200 Watt
Corsair 800D w/NoiseBlocker fans


ASUS Rampage II Extreme (1802 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition w/Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT
Mushkin Redline Ascent 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (6-7-6-18-1N)
Asus/ATI 5870 (Catalyst 10.7)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
SILVERSTONE 1500Watt SST
SILVERSTONE TJ09-B

 

[narrowgauge]

Craig/Noel

I'm running Win 7 Ultimate and have no problems. I upgraded from XP Pro and it was worthwhile.

The case. If money permits then I would suggest an Antec P138, I have an earlier P120, it is top value. Very easy to work inside and good build quality

Why Seagate drives, I always buy Western Digital and have never had a failure. I would recommend WD over all the others.

Peter

 

[djt]

The case. If money permits then I would suggest an Antec P138, I have an earlier P120, it is top value. Very easy to work inside and good build quality

Peter

Depending on the budget I'd skip Antec all together and go with this case along with one of Corsairs high quality PSU's -


http://www.corsair.com/products/600t/default.aspx



I've got their 800D and it's one of the best cases I've owned.

ASUS Rampage III Extreme (901 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition w/Corsair H70
Corsair DOMINATOR-GT 6GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CMT6GX3M3A1600C7
EVGA GeForce GTX 480 SuperClocked (259.31)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
Corsair AX1200 Watt
Corsair 800D w/NoiseBlocker fans


ASUS Rampage II Extreme (1802 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition w/Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT
Mushkin Redline Ascent 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (6-7-6-18-1N)
Asus/ATI 5870 (Catalyst 10.7)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
SILVERSTONE 1500Watt SST
SILVERSTONE TJ09-B

 

[lewisner]

Regarding SLI when I got TC3 i was running a Packard Bell 6810 SLI with 2 x Gigabyte 6800GT 256MB cards. At the time, many people here were complaining that they either couldn't run the full route or were getting dire FPS.By contrast my PC ran the full route with good frame rates.Now admittedly if I had had a top of the range single card it may have done even better but it would have been expensive.
I've recently upgraded it to 2 x 8800GT 512 MB cards and will shortly be installing a new motherboard and PSU so it'll be interesting to see what results I get.

 

[Iced8383]

Windows 7 should be fine, although it's okay to stick with XP. I would switch the graphics card to an ATI, perhaps a 5770?

 

[djt]

although it's okay to stick with XP.

With 4GB of system RAM and another 1GB of RAM on the video card, it's not going to be “fine” with 32-bit XP.


With the address space needed with those specs a 64-bit OS is the way to go.

I would switch the graphics card to an ATI, perhaps a 5770?

I wouldn't switch to ATI if your interested in running OpenGL applications. ATI's OpenGL support has been shoddy with Catalyst driver releases.



ASUS Rampage III Extreme (901 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition w/Corsair H70
Corsair DOMINATOR-GT 6GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CMT6GX3M3A1600C7
EVGA GeForce GTX 480 SuperClocked (259.32)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
Corsair AX1200 Watt
Corsair 800D w/NoiseBlocker fans


ASUS Rampage II Extreme (1802 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition w/Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT
Mushkin Redline Ascent 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (6-7-6-18-1N)
Asus/ATI 5870 (Catalyst 10.7)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
SILVERSTONE 1500Watt SST
SILVERSTONE TJ09-B

 

[QHRtrainz]

my 2 cents is would go with i7 860 over the 760 and they are similar in price and for all you people that want to know the GTX 400 series is not SLI on the one card

 

[Iced8383]

With 4GB of system RAM and another 1GB of RAM on the video card, it's not going to be “fine” with 32-bit XP.


With the address space needed with those specs a 64-bit OS is the way to go.

You do realize that there are 64-bit versions of XP right?

I wouldn't switch to ATI if your interested in running OpenGL applications. ATI's OpenGL support has been shoddy with Catalyst driver releases.

You can run Trainz in both OpenGL and DirectX if I remember correctly.

 

[RRSignal]

You do realize that there are 64-bit versions of XP right?

XP-64 rocks, though I haven't been able to get Firefox to work with it. But Chrome and Opera are faster (for now) anyway, so no biggie.

 

[seeseeme]

Hi Everyone,

I spoke with Noel this morning and told him about this thread. He has said to say "Thank You" for all your help. He has booked a computer at the local Library for an hour each day, the withdrawal problems are too hard to handle :hehe:.

So he may add a comment here at some time.

I sent him copies of this thread as well so he can see the replies and decide on what he wants, hopefully he is ordering his new computer by the end of this week. That will mean another week before he has a new computer.

Like me, many of us would know what it feels like not to have a computer when you use it every day, even if not just for Trainz.

Many Thanks from me and Noel,

Craig

 

[djt]

You do realize that there are 64-bit versions of XP right?

Sure do, I have multiple copies of XP/SP2 64-bit Edition along with XP/SP3, Vista Ultimate 64-bit/32-bit and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit/32-bit. I also have plenty of experience with all of them on the 4 systems I run at home.


I also know that Nvidia's Fermi (GTX 400) series GPU's currently have issues running on Windows XP/SP2 64-bit, the problem is well known throughout the flight sim community. Another example of how Nvidia and ATI are abandoning driver development for Windows XP.

You can run Trainz in both OpenGL and DirectX if I remember correctly.

Sure you can but why go with a weak card that has spotty support with OpenGL when you can get a card that does a good job at supporting both?





ASUS Rampage III Extreme (901 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition w/Corsair H70
Corsair DOMINATOR-GT 6GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CMT6GX3M3A1600C7
EVGA GeForce GTX 480 SuperClocked (259.32)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
Corsair AX1200 Watt
Corsair 800D w/NoiseBlocker fans


ASUS Rampage II Extreme (1802 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition w/Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT
Mushkin Redline Ascent 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (6-7-6-18-1N)
Asus/ATI 5870 (Catalyst 10.7)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
SILVERSTONE 1500Watt SST
SILVERSTONE TJ09-B

 

[RRSignal]

I also know that Nvidia's Fermi (GTX 400) series GPU's currently have issues running on Windows XP/SP2 64-bit, the problem is well known throughout the flight sim community. Another example of how Nvidia and ATI are abandoning driver development for Windows XP.

Since I will be abandoning the entire Windows platform entirely (except for professional reasons, if I can't convince a client to switch) once Vista/W7 become entrenched, what's the highest card and driver level one can expect, preferably for nVidia but also ATI?

 

[djt]

Since I will be abandoning the entire Windows platform entirely (except for professional reasons, if I can't convince a client to switch) once Vista/W7 become entrenched,

I just gave Linux Mint 9/64-bit a go on a Core 2 Quad (Q9650), 4GB of RAM and a Nvidia GTX 285 last night and all I can say is WOW.


One hell of an OS for free and definitely worthy of a close look.

I'm not sure if I understand what your asking but so far I haven't seen any problems with the ATI 5870 and the latest Catalyst drivers or the Nvidia GTX 285 with the latest 259.32 drivers running on Windows XP/SP2 64-bit Edition.

I'm not sure if I understand what you are asking but so far I haven't seen any problems with the ATI 5870 and the latest Catalyst drivers (except for the broken OpenGL support) or the Nvidia GTX 285 with the latest 259.32 drivers running on Windows XP/SP2 64-bit Edition.






ASUS Rampage III Extreme (901 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition w/Corsair H70
Corsair DOMINATOR-GT 6GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CMT6GX3M3A1600C7
EVGA GeForce GTX 480 SuperClocked (259.32)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
Corsair AX1200 Watt
Corsair 800D w/NoiseBlocker fans


ASUS Rampage II Extreme (1802 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition w/Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT
Mushkin Redline Ascent 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (6-7-6-18-1N)
Asus/ATI 5870 (Catalyst 10.7)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
SILVERSTONE 1500Watt SST
SILVERSTONE TJ09-B

 

[RRSignal]

I just gave Linux Mint 9/64-bit a go on a Core 2 Quad (Q9650), 4GB of RAM and a Nvidia GTX 285 last night and all I can say is WOW.


One hell of an OS for free and definitely worthy of a close look.

Thanks, I think I give that a look.

 

[Iced8383]

Sure do, I have multiple copies of XP/SP2 64-bit Edition along with XP/SP3, Vista Ultimate 64-bit/32-bit and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit/32-bit. I also have plenty of experience with all of them on the 4 systems I run at home.


I also know that Nvidia's Fermi (GTX 400) series GPU's currently have issues running on Windows XP/SP2 64-bit, the problem is well known throughout the flight sim community. Another example of how Nvidia and ATI are abandoning driver development for Windows XP.

Getting Windows 7 Ultimate may work. Running it in XP Mode may fix it.

Sure you can but why go with a weak card that has spotty support with OpenGL when you can get a card that does a good job at supporting both?

Run Trainz in DirectX mode?

 

[sister]

Hi everybody,
I'm trying to use Ubuntu 10.41 with wine to run TS2009/2010 and everything goes fine but a problem with the ground: as openGL doesn't works with wine I have to use the directX but while trains, objects, etc. are perfect I always got a "transparent" ground (like when you switch with the gril button)
Is there anyone who had have the same problem and could help me?
I really apreciate your kind help.

 

[djt]

Getting Windows 7 Ultimate may work. Running it in XP Mode may fix it.

I've got three copies of Windows 7 Ultimate retail, take a look at the specs on two of the machines I'm using below.


I experimented with Windows 7 XP mode a long time ago but is not intended for running games as it is based on Virtual PC, not something you'd want to run performance applications on.

Run Trainz in DirectX mode?

Again why would you want to be stuck with just running DirectX games with drivers that have spotty OpenGL support when you can run both with Nvidia?



ASUS Rampage III Extreme (901 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition w/Corsair H70
Corsair DOMINATOR-GT 6GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) CMT6GX3M3A1600C7
EVGA GeForce GTX 480 SuperClocked (259.32)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
Corsair AX1200 Watt
Corsair 800D w/NoiseBlocker fans


ASUS Rampage II Extreme (1802 BIOS)
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition w/Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT
Mushkin Redline Ascent 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (6-7-6-18-1N)
Asus/ATI 5870 (Catalyst 10.7)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
WD VelociRaptor 150GB – Windows 7 Ultimate 64
WD VelociRaptor 300GB – Games/Programs
SILVERSTONE 1500Watt SST
SILVERSTONE TJ09-B

 

[djt]

Hi everybody,
I'm trying to use Ubuntu 10.41 with wine to run TS2009/2010 and everything goes fine but a problem with the ground: as openGL doesn't works with wine I have to use the directX but while trains, objects, etc. are perfect I always got a "transparent" ground (like when you switch with the gril button)
Is there anyone who had have the same problem and could help me?
I really apreciate your kind help.

The only sim I've had running on Ubuntu was X-Plane but it didn't perform any better than running it on XP, Vista or Windows 7.


The only train sim that I know of that will run on Ubuntu is OpenBVE.