-NEED SOME PC ADVICE-

G'day! :wave:

Well, the time has come to upgrade. I am going to get myself a Super Computer built by one of my mates! I'd like one than can run Trainz maxed out without any performance loss! But, I'd like to spend as little money as possible on it. My current PC is out of date so that means my hard drive cannot be placed into a new computer, that's where all my Trainz stuff is. So, I'd like to transfer all this, and all my other stuff, into my new PC, which is going to have I hope two 2 Terrabyte Hard disk drives to keep all my crap on. I basically want absolutely everything on my old PC put on my new one. How is this performed? I just want to make sure that this can be done.

So, any recommendations? Any Trainzer out there who can run Trainz without any performance loss on High settings? If so, please post your specs here and I can figure out what I need!

Cheers!

Jake.

You can get a caddy which you put the old H/D in. They have a power lead and connect to the comp by USB.
Transfer your stuff to your new comp and you have a ready made back up of all your files and folders.

Hi Jake,
Just how old exactly is your current hard drive?
I have a brand new modern system, but can still attach my old hard drives from many moons ago, most main boards still have an IDE socket if that was your worry.
In fact, my current 2006 install has been moved across 5 different hard drives and 3 new computers, each being a bigger, faster set up and still runs with no problems. So I'm sure we can get you transferred over and up and running in no time. :wave:

Hi,

I've just replaced my old self-assembled PC with a new ready-built one. I'm not giving the costs - because they'll be in £ UK and PCs & Components don't translate readily across countries:-

Old PC

Athlon X2 4200 (dual core)
Gigabyte Motherboard
2Gb Ram
Win XP (SP3)
nVidia GT 6600 (AGP)
graphics at 1024 x 760

to run the Settle & Carlisle routes needed sliders to "medium" with draw distance about 2000m - and a fair bit of "fog"

New PC
Intel i5 2400 (quad core - and yes i know Trainz doesn't use then all!)
Foxconn motherboard (H67 chipset)
2Gb Ram
WIn 7 (64 bit)
nVidia GTX 550i (PCi express).
Graphics at 1280 x 1024 (native for the monitor)

All sliders on max - the jetlog reports about 50 fps.

At the moment there are some good motherboard bundles here in the UK (i.e processor + Motherboard + RAM) - you'll need a good case (i.e. good cooling) and a good graphics card in addition - and HDD.

The problem is that none of the modern motherboards have the IDE Header - so you'll need a new DVD read/writer and an external USB(Or Esata) connection to your old disc (or do what I've done and network the two).

For what it's worth, the new PC also runs Jutland (the Program) at > 50 fps even when it's dealing with the highest graphics details and all the fleet movements.

Now all I need is one of those wide screnn monitors.

HTH

Colin

@ Fran1,

thats a brilliant gadget..i can't count how many hard drives ive threw away over the years.

and a good start for rastis,saving on a external backup drive to


@ColPrice 2002 http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=71146

if you do get a bigger tv and find the answer to my problem let me know please

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rastis said:

G'day! :wave:

Well, the time has come to upgrade. I am going to get myself a Super Computer built by one of my mates! I'd like one than can run Trainz maxed out without any performance loss! But, I'd like to spend as little money as possible on it. My current PC is out of date so that means my hard drive cannot be placed into a new computer, that's where all my Trainz stuff is. So, I'd like to transfer all this, and all my other stuff, into my new PC, which is going to have I hope two 2 Terrabyte Hard disk drives to keep all my crap on. I basically want absolutely everything on my old PC put on my new one. How is this performed? I just want to make sure that this can be done.

So, any recommendations? Any Trainzer out there who can run Trainz without any performance loss on High settings? If so, please post your specs here and I can figure out what I need!

Cheers!

Jake.

Click to expand...

If your looking for a setup thats never gonna have issues, its never gonna happen, even the fastest pc in the world will have problems at some point.
If your looking for the cheapest i would go amd because it compares to intel with the same speed and sometimes better,your biggest thing to look at when building a new pc is the videocard and cpu, those 2 things are gonna determine how well trainz will run,you can get some really cheap quad core amd cpu's from tigerdirect for 100 u.s dollars or less, as far as videocards go i would go with at least a 5 series amd card but if afforded get a cheaper 6 series, you can get a 6850 between 140 and 180 U.S dollars, if you plan on running windows 7 and decide on a 64 bit os i would get 8 gigs of ram, right now ram is dirt cheap 8 gigs will only cost around 100 bucks as far as your motherboard there are so many to choose from but make sure it has at least a 7 or 8 series chipset.asus and gigabyte are the best amd boards you can buy.any questions feel free to ask, i have been a system builder since 1995

Cheers:wave:

Having recently built a computer that runs TS12 superbly:

1: CPU and Motherboard choice is more important then GPU (video card).

2: Windows 7 64 bit is the way to go. At least 4 or 6 gigs of RAM so Trainz has plenty of room.

3: You don't need the best video card but get at least a good one.

4: Hard drive performance will affect "stutter" in areas with lots of assets.

My system is:

ASUS Sabertooth P67 motherboard.
i5-2500(k) cpu.
GTS450 video card (1 gig memory).
8 gigabytes DDR3 1600 mhz memory.
2X 7200 RPM hard drives arranged as a RAID 0 (2 terrabytes total).

You can save some money on a different P67 chipset motherboard and get the similar performance.

The i5-2500(k) is really the sweet spot as far as bang for the buck goes CPU whise.:udrool: Really hard to beat a $230.00 USD CPU and get anywhere near the same performance.

GTS450 video cards are not top end and as such are getting cheaper, but this game doesn't need as much power from the video card as from the CPU. Balance your budget starting from there.

I'm running TS12 at 1920 * 1080 with the sliders all the way to the right with great results.

I am tempted to buy at big box stores, and the HP-DV7 was $850.

I am unsure if it is top of the line, and up to Trainz standards ?

Fact most high end laptops are not intended for gaming, and inexpensive laptops will be choppy.

Desktops are super for gaming.

As with any laptops a 17" screen size is important, but most important is the processor chip type and speed, mostly the video card is the most important.

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cascaderailroad said:

I am tempted to buy at big box stores, and the HP-DV7 was $850.

I am unsure if it is top of the line, and up to Trainz standards ?

Fact most high end laptops are not intended for gaming, and inexpensive laptops will be choppy.

Desktops are super for gaming.

As with any laptops a 17" screen size is important, but most important is the processor chip type and speed, mostly the video card is the most important.

Click to expand...

850.00 is not cheap, you can build a highend up to date rig for under 500.00, my thoughts are if you buy from dell, hp ect all your buying is the name and not getting your moneys worth,if your able to build your own barebone system thats the way to go these days, if you bought, say my rig from dell they would charge 2 grand for it,complete rip off, i have even built pc's for people that cant afford highend name brand computers for free, and i would also be willing to do this for the trainz community as well

And if you buy a MAC you are shooting yourself in the foot, cutting off your nose to spite your face, and nailing your one shoe to the floor.

And If you buy a DELL you didn't pay enough for what little you got.:hehe:

cascaderailroad said:

And if you buy a MAC you are shooting yourself in the foot, cutting off your nose to spite your face, and nailing your one shoe to the floor.

And If you buy a DELL you didn't pay enough for what little you got.:hehe:

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Amen to Dell I am dumping the motherboard and hard drive from my dell lnto a new much better case that designed for gaming and then I can fit the power supply I wanted and graphics card. Accident got a small form factor pc from dell so no normal height cards fit in it, that's my bottle neck once in the new case my computer will be a great gaming computer .

The computering side of Beattie:wave:

cascaderailroad said:

And if you buy a MAC you are shooting yourself in the foot, cutting off your nose to spite your face, and nailing your one shoe to the floor.

And If you buy a DELL you didn't pay enough for what little you got.:hehe:

Click to expand...

I just need to learn how to build one of them 500 dollar high end boxes then I would be set.

William0d0 said:

I just need to learn how to build one of them 500 dollar high end boxes then I would be set.

Click to expand...

You can if you build it youself I did the math if I got the motherboard, powersupply, graphics card, and processer for around 700 dollars and thats with a 750 power supply and a icore7 2600 sandy bridge.
So thats pretty good and was looking with a nvidia 460gtx so its farly good price I think.

G'day!

Deano5 said:

Just how old exactly is your current hard drive?

Click to expand...

My current hard drive is around about... three and a half years old by now. That's how old I can recall it being.

fran1 said:

You can get a caddy which you put the old H/D in.

Click to expand...

Thanks fran, I'll check one of them out!

nugget2225 said:

you can get some really cheap quad core amd cpu's from tigerdirect for 100 u.s dollars or less.

Click to expand...

I'm afraid I don't live in the US.

A processor I had in mind was an Core i7-2920XM Extreme Edition. Is this any good for Trainz?

Cheers!

Jake.

William0d0 said:

I just need to learn how to build one of them 500 dollar high end boxes then I would be set.

Click to expand...

Here's a start:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budget-gaming-pc-phenom-ii-radeon-hd-6850,2903.html

brado99 said:

@ Fran1,

thats a brilliant gadget..i can't count how many hard drives ive threw away over the years.

and a good start for rastis,saving on a external backup drive to

Click to expand...

I've never binned a hard drive until it's dead, I always add them to the new setup internally, used to use add-on IDE controllers, with Sata most of my motherboards have 6 Sata ports so not a problem, actually got one PC with 6 hard drives in addition to two optical drives........ watch the power supply rating and cooling though if you do that!

I would be inclined to use smaller drives for Trainz, they are actually quicker than the same RPM drive in Terrabyte size.

I use large disks for storage and non disk speed critical programs but use 250GB WD Caviar Black drives for the OS and running games which at present seems to be Trainz and Trainz!

Raptors would be better though...........

Just to answer the original question, you can clone a drive easily enough. Seagate includes a decent tool with their drives (the retail-boxed ones, not OEM drives) which is also available on their site. That way you could keep and run everything as-is from a faster drive; then you wouldn't have to reinstall anything, and go putzing around changing the settings you have made and tweaked over the years. You would have to post your drive model for me to make a judgment, but you very likely could even reuse the same drive in a new computer, if it isn't too far out of date, and get performance as good as an average new drive. I'm assuming, of course, that you don't have an OEM computer and, thus, a copy of Windows that is tied to that computer model, or a drive that's been reinstalled too many times, as Windows has various copy-protection controls.

Trainz currently can only use 4Gb of memory max and I haven't seen it use more than 2Gb; there's a simple way to tweak your OS (assuming you have a 32-bit OS now) to use up to 3Gb. Of course, if the extra 1Gb means a lot, I'd say go with Win7 64-bit.

P.S. Yes, building your own is a GREAT way to go! I suggest going to Tigerdirect.com and look at some of the "barebones kits" as a starting point, to get a sense of what you can get at what price. I do not recommend actually BUYING a barebone, as they usually have woefully inadequate power supplies. But they're a good place to start.

Custom built is defiantly the way to go for any sort of gaming scenario.
The speed you want it to go all depends on your budget for the machine. You can build a machine for 300 bucks, or you can sped a grand or more.

I spent about a grand all together, except I didn't pay it all at once.

I spent about $430 on a Thermaltake case, MSI motherboard(wonderful company might I add, have used them in all my custom PC builds for me and various other people) 8GB of Kingston Hyper X RAM(DDR3 1600) and a AMD Phenom II X4 3.5GHz.

But prior to that by about 3-4 months I spent about 200 on hard drives which simply got dropped into the new machine.

Then prior to that I had gotten a new graphics card PNY Nvidia GTS 450(1gig) for 120ish.

So that is about $750USD so far.

Then about 5 years ago I had bought a 500W PSU which still functions perfectly and is enough power for this machine with all its components, and a Creative sound blaster card which is being used in the new machine as well added another 200 roughly...

So the total bring is to $950USD.

Then you figure the 2 DVD-RW drives are about 20-25 bucks a pop(or more pending the exact speed and specs you want)
Landed me grand total right around 1000 when all said and done.

Not counting the OS of course because that was dragged over from an older computer, then I inherited my grandfathers computer that had winXP pro 64bit, so I quickly dumped XP 32 bit in favor of that OS of course.

Of course this was spread out over the course of years so it is a lot different then buying all new parts at the same time which is more of a "shock" then spread out.

I would reuse parts where you can for the time being so you can save some money and you could add on later, just a little more economically friendly so it is not one big massive hit to the wallet. Of course if your wallet can withstand that sort of blow then by all means get all new parts at the same time!

Paragon have a free cloning program, Paragon Backup & Recovery, I used it when changing the system drive in one of my PC's, no problems at all and quicker than reinstalling Win7 as well.