What is the best PC to have??

[WCL]

If someone were to customize and build a computer strictly for this sim.....What would you guys all have on it and make??? Would you go for a Dell?? or what kind of a PC and what specs would be the best to have.....Does not matter what price it is.....Just name some good specs that would run this sim on all the graphics maxed out and yet have like the FPS over 40 and still run smooth.....


Have at er!!!!

 

[Jaxster]

If someone were to customize and build a computer strictly for this sim.....What would you guys all have on it and make??? Would you go for a Dell?? or what kind of a PC and what specs would be the best to have.....Does not matter what price it is.....Just name some good specs that would run this sim on all the graphics maxed out and yet have like the FPS over 40 and still run smooth.....


Have at er!!!!

Thanks for asking the question. It's a good one, and hopefully will get some good responses. Especially if some of the veterans chime in.

 

[WCL]

Thanks for asking the question. It's a good one, and hopefully will get some good responses. Especially if some of the veterans chime in.

Reason why I ask is, I thought at first this was a GREAT PC that I built up....Well I guess I was wrong.....Its 5 years old about and its time for a new one, this one keeps locking up and just out of the blue re-starts on me for no reason....So I figure its time for something new and I wanna get something this time that will be worth it and can actually run these HIGH end games for say this one, Flight Sim, GTA, Farm Sim 2013, Railsim 2013...And would like to get all great FPS on all them sims......

So with that being said, I always see lots of great pix from these guys and would like to know what kind of an operating system some of these pros got...Like Justin and Mike from JR, and that Deadpool guy and simulatortrain, the guys that have the realistic looking routes that can run something like that and not have issues with there sim

 

[Gandalf0444]

It is hard because each of those games is different when it comes to the hardware they rely on.... GTA and Trainz hammer the CPU and the Hard Drives to no end so you would need a fast CPU and a fast HDD(SSD preferably), while Flight Sim slams the CPU with just enough forced down to the GPU to get by. while Farm Sim and railsim do a decent job at distributing the load fairly even, which in turn give it the best performance even in areas densely populated....

My most recent specs are Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit, AMD Phenom II X4 970 3.5GHz, 16GBs Kingston Hpyer X Limited Edition DDR3 1600, MSI 870A-G55 with USB 3.0 and SATA III support, EVGA GeForce GTX 660TI SC 2GB, Rosewill Lightning 1000W PSU, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Recon3D Fatality, Kingston Hyper X 3K 120GB SSD, OCZ Synapse Cache, OCZ Revodrive 120GB, Two 1TB Seagate Momentous 7200rpm, One 1TB WD Green, One 2TB Seagate Momentous 7200rpm, Corsair 900D case(with 14 120mm fans), Razer Naga Molten Edition gaming mouse, Razer DeathStalker Ultimate gaming keyboard, Three 19 inch displays using Nvidia Surround.

And it runs all games at max settings hovering around 35fps to 50fps pending the game and exact scene(exception to the rule is trainz which can barely squeeze out enough performance to be even playable even on an SSD) Final cost is most likely somewhere around 2200USD(not counting keyboard, mouse an screens would be near 3000USD with them), with a upgrade to the Mobo and CPU coming shortly.

 

[johnwhelan]

You need a reasonable CPU, and very good GPU, you have to decide whether you want ecc memory, most don't bother, you need roughly 5 gigs of memory so you'll end up with either 6 or 8 gigs depending if its dual channel or triple channel, you want a reliable motherboard with good drivers, SSD adds about a frame per second and things pop up quicker. Cases, quiet cases generally are more expensive, a UPS helps keeps things stable by avoiding brown outs, not all APC UPSes work with all power supplies, CyberPower have a good reputation at the moment. Newegg can be useful, look for items that have lots of positive reviews you don't have to buy from newegg.

You need to balance cost against performance remembering no matter what PC you have I can kill it by selecting the wrong assets. Remember it takes HP, or Dell several months to validate a PC so they tend to update once a year so selecting parts and doing a custom build can get you later better preforming parts.

In general Intel CPUs perform better for the same power draw, translation they need less cooling for a given performance level and can live with a smaller power supply. The cost of hydro will be about the same as your PC over five years so its something to think about.

You may find the following to be helpful:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

Note the performance difference between a $220 CPU and a $1,000 CPU is not that much in real life, also to the best of my knowledge Trainz does not support multiple graphics cards.

Cheerio John

 

[oknotsen]

I am pretty sure you will get a lot of opinions about some specific hardware, so let me just give you a few general pointers:

If you can afford it, get yourself an SSD on which you install your OS and Trainz. The SSD will speed up the loading of (larger) routes a LOT. Don't be surprised if loading of a medium to large size route will go 3+ minutes faster.
Don't go smaller then 128gb and don't waste space on that disk with stuff that does not need the speed (like movies and your holiday pictures collection); put those on a regular HD so your asset DB has space to grow or (like me) you can just do a 2nd Trainz install on it.

Don't get a laptop. Few reasons:
- You want to have a decent graphics card and by the pure nature of how a laptop is constructed, you will always find the best in a desktop/tower PC or pay a lot more for the same quality.
- If you really want to enjoy a sim, game or even a movie, you want to have a decent screen and 24inch+ laptops are not existing / very expensive.
In short: For the same amount of money you get a better desktop/tower PC then a laptop.

 

[kamran]

well all depends on your budget
core i3 core i5 or core i7 based pc all can run trainz easily so by the combination of other components according to your budget you can make ur pc more and more powerful
core i3 is best for normal use like office work home and gaming
core i5 is ahead of it and its used where more work required from processor and extreme gaming
corei7 comes into extreme series and you can buy only if ur budget allows you bcz core i5 based pc can do any task even core i3 can perform any task

so the optimum combination of components make ur pc best like good gpu and good gpu are recommended so in oreder tor un good gpu you have to buy mobo according to your gpu though low end mobo can also run all components but performence decrease
well i am using a nice budget pc and this never fails in any game or app or any type of work
core i3 3220 @3.4ghz
asus p8b75m mobo
gskill 4 gb 1600mhz rams
1 tb seagate hdd
samsung dvd rw drive
thermaltake litepower 600 watts psu
xigmatek utgard case
msi gtx 650 gpu
samsung s20b300 led moniter

so all thses components are budget components not so expensive nor so cheap so this optimum combination produce best results for me

so think your budget and then select whether u can buy high end components or mix up of high end and mid end components or even low end components.here low end components doesnt means they cant do anything but it means least in their category but in the end i will say you should have atleast good cpu and gpu

 

[PC_Ace]

Here are a few guidelines for higher level performance in Trainz Simulator gameplay as far as I have observed:

(Assuming a Microsoft Windows OS based-PC like the one you are replacing...)

1. Fast, multi-core CPU like an Intel i7 (Quad or even 6 core)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html
2. Top of the line nVidia graphics card using the Toms Hardware "Best Graphics Card for the Money" guide here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html (Note that TS12 does not appear to like multi-GPU configurations using Crossfire or SLI so a single discrete card is best for this simulator at least.)
3. Microsoft Windows 8 or 7 64bit
4. 8 to 32Gb of fast RAM (Random Access Memory)
5. An SSD (Solid State Drive) for the Operating System drive (usually C: drive) and a separate SSD for your Trainz installation drive. (I have mine on a single fast large capacity SSD and that works fairly well too...)
6. A motherboard to suit all of the above with USB 3 ports and/or Thunderbolt
7. A PSU (Power Supply Unit) to suit all of the above
8. (Nice-to-have for an immersive simulator experience) Multiple LED monitors, surround-sound speakers, RailDriver desktop cab controller... etc.)

Such an exciting time putting together a new gaming machine! One of life's greatest pleasures, methinks!
PC

 

[cascaderailroad]

Remember that Turbo Boost is not intended for gaming, and extended hard CPU usage, as it heats up the chip.

I saw an Asus $1299 laptop that had 3Gb of dedicated memory, with a 1TB HD, and 16Gb RAM

Desktops are best as they are easily retrofitted !

 

[WCL]

WOW!!!! I didnt expect all these great answers!!!! Looks like I will have to start picking out pieces here and see what I can come up with.....Lots of nice info on what to get and so.......

Still wondering what Justin and Mike use.....lol :hehe:

 

[JCitron]

This is a great question to ask.

Before we all start throwing hardware at you, it's a good idea to narrow down exactly what you'll be doing with the computer. I generally ask a bunch of questions to get a feel of what you, the user would like, and then tailor a system to suit your needs and budget. There is no reason to spend a ton of money (unless you want to) on a computer to play Trainz. You can get a decent system today with lots of tower space (great for cooling), a decent video card, and a nice motherboard. Your great system of 5 years ago was a great system in its day. With today's hardware being even less expensive, you can get a really great investment for about the same money you spent on your old system, or a decent system for less money.

What else do you want to do with the computer? Are you into content creation? Video and music production/creating? These other things can determine what you'd need for a video card and sound card. Typically, the average sound card is okay for the game, but an expensive one is overkill. If you were doing sound editing too, you'd want a decent discrete sound card as well. The same goes for video production which would require big hard drives (not that Trainz doesn't like those too for all the downloads), because video editing takes up lots of disk space. Content creation has other requirements as well including a decent video card because programs such as Blender and Max may run fine on a cheap video card, but having one that has nice Open/GL and DirectX support can make a huge difference in rendering time and production time.

Anyway, this should give you something to bite on first before you plunk out the credit card and payments for a system.

John

 

[johnwhelan]

Or you could think about upgrading the old one, I assume its a desktop. A five year old top of the line CPU is probably not bad, check the CPU hierarchy chart http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html TS12 puts more work down to the GPU so buy a new high end GPU, up to Win 7 or 8 and stick in a 512gig SSD, it might not be perfectly balanced but it could be a cheaper option to improve performance.

What is the existing system?

Cheerio John

 

[wkwood]

If you want a budget setup grab an ASUS crosshair motherboard and an AM-FX8350, with a case and 8GB of memory and a 3 TB hard drive, you'd be in under 700 US then go for a good grahics card, an NVIDIA or good AMD, 7000 like the 7750 and you'll tack on another 200 to 300 depending on the card.
Add water cooling and you can easily clock 5 Ghz with 8 cores.

 

[WCL]

Or you could think about upgrading the old one, I assume its a desktop. A five year old top of the line CPU is probably not bad, check the CPU hierarchy chart http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html TS12 puts more work down to the GPU so buy a new high end GPU, up to Win 7 or 8 and stick in a 512gig SSD, it might not be perfectly balanced but it could be a cheaper option to improve performance.

What is the existing system?

Cheerio John

No, this PC is about done for.....Its a few years old....How does one get like the PC specs to show what I have right now??? I used to know how to find em back in the day, but now I am running a brain fart on how to find what I have and share it on here.......

 

[WCL]

What else do you want to do with the computer?

So I figure its time for something new and I wanna get something this time that will be worth it and can actually run these HIGH end games for say this one, Flight Sim, GTA, Farm Sim 2013, Railsim 2013...And would like to get all great FPS on all them sims......


I wont be doing any editing on stuff, just running this sim and them others I mentioned up there ^^^^^^^

 

[johnwhelan]

No, this PC is about done for.....Its a few years old....How does one get like the PC specs to show what I have right now??? I used to know how to find em back in the day, but now I am running a brain fart on how to find what I have and share it on here.......

Belarc from belarc.com is fairly good.

Cheerio John

 

[JCitron]

So I figure its time for something new and I wanna get something this time that will be worth it and can actually run these HIGH end games for say this one, Flight Sim, GTA, Farm Sim 2013, Railsim 2013...And would like to get all great FPS on all them sims......


I wont be doing any editing on stuff, just running this sim and them others I mentioned up there ^^^^^^^

This is good to know as this will determine what kind of video card you'll need. The higher-end graphics cards for CAD and video work can be really, really expensive - more so than a high-end gaming one.

What kind of budget do you have? This can be a determining factor.

Are you building this yourself or are you having a company build if for you?

John

 

[bunkerrattmk2]

ASUS M5A97 MOBO
AMD 4170 FX @ 4.6 QUAD CORE
8GB CRUCIAL BALLISTIX TRACER 1600 DDR3 dual channel
H I S ICEQ X TURBO 6970 @975/1250
CREATIVE FATALY PRO EXTREME GAMER SOUND CARD
LOGITECH 5.1 SPEAKERS WD VELICIOR RAPTOR 80GB HDD O S ONLY 10.000 RPM S A T A
SEAGATE 150 GB TRAINZ 7200 RPM S A T A
2 MAXTOR 100 GB /DOWNLOAD DRIVE 7200 RPM S A T A
1WD MY BOOK 2 TB STORAG/BACKUP DRIVE U S B 3
1seagate 500 gb external storage drive
ULTRA 750 LSU POWER SUPPLY
2 asus DVD.DVRW /CD OPTICAL DRIVES /11 IN 1 CARD READER
THERMALTAKE FULL ARMOUR STEEL CASE 10 DRIVE BAYS 1 240 MM SIDE INTAKE 2 120 MM FRONT INTAKE FANS
2 900MM REAR EXHAUST FANS
I 90MM TOP BLOW HOLE FAN
ZALMAN CPU COOLER ....FORGOT THE MODEL NUMBER
ACER X213H 22 INCH WS RAZER DEATH ADDER I R MOUSE
ECLIPSE RED KEY BOARD
6 FT.NZXT BLUE SLEEVED LED KIT

i like ultra psu's due to the free lifetime replacement ,and they will cross ship so if the psu crap's out you'll only be down for a few day's , you should honestly get the largest case made of "STEEL" you can afford ,once you learn and understand how to build your own system you'll never buy "bug's in a box " again.

 

[boc61]

This is good to know as this will determine what kind of video card you'll need. The higher-end graphics cards for CAD and video work can be really, really expensive - more so than a high-end gaming one.

What kind of budget do you have? This can be a determining factor.

Are you building this yourself or are you having a company build if for you?

John

If you aren't the type to build a computer yourself, like me, I definitely recommend having it done for you, as opposed to buying something off the shelf. There are several good "boutique " builders that specialize in gaming machines and you can use their configurators to find something that meets your needs an budget. I used a local company called Maingear, and am quite happy with my purchase, but there are several others that are well regarded.

Alternatively you can find a good local shop, buy the parts yourself and have them build the machine. The do it yourself method is probably the best bang for your buck if you are so inclined.

 

[pdkoester]

What would be really nice, if somebody from creators of Trainz could step up, provide what they use for testing and such. See how "high-end" they are compared to the rest of the suggestions, etc. Maybe they could provide a suggestion or two?