Choosing a computer that is in my budget price range

Lately, I have been thinking and I would like to try to build a new computer around the end of 2012. Lately, I have been looking around and finding out some information on graphics cars, power supplies and processors. My budget price for a computer that can run trainz is still $500. I went to this website,http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394156,00.asp and they explained how you can build a good gaming desktop if you are on a budget. Even though I have been with Intel for the last 3 years, I think I would like to switch to AMD since those processors are the equivalents of Intel processors but not at a high price. They also put together a gaming desktop for just under $500. I read about each component and I wanted to know if that would be good enough to run trainz at medium to high settings with decent frame rates.


I went over to the Tiger Direct website and chose some parts that are pretty much the same as the ones on the above website or a bit different. Here they are.


System Case: XION XON-180PCB 5 in 1 Mesh Mid Tower Case-ATX, Micro ATX, 3x 5.25" Bays, 4x 3.5" Bays, 7x Expansion slots, 2x USB 2.0, Audio Ports, Black, 500W power supply, Includes Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers. ($64.99)Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AMD 9 Series FX Motherboard - ATX, Socket AM3+, AMD 970 Chipset, 2000MHz DDR3 (O.C.), SATA III (6Gb/s), RAID, 7.1-CH Audio, Gigabit LAN, SuperSpeed USB 3.0, CrossFireX Ready ($94.99)


Processor: AMD ADX450WFGMBOX Athlon II X3 450 Triple Core Processor - 3.20GHz, Socket AM3, 1.5MB Cache, Retail w/ Fan ($69.99)


Memory: Crucial BLS4G3D1339DS1S00 Ballistix Desktop Memory Module - 4GB, PC3-10600, DDR3-1333MHz, 240-pin DIMM, 1.5V, CL9, Non-ECC, Unbuffered ($19.99)


Graphics Card: MSI R6570-MD2GD3/LP Radeon HD 6570 Video Card - 2GB, DDR3, PCI-Express 2.1 (x16), 1x Dual-Link DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA, DirectX 11, Single-Slot, Low Profile ($64.99)


Hard Drive: Western Digital WD5000AAKX Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 500GB, 3.5", SATA 6Gbps, 7200RPM, 16MB ($69.99)


Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST 24X Internal DVD Burner - DVD±R 24X, DVD+RW 8X, DVD-RW 6X, DVD±R (DL) 12X, DVD-RAM 12X, CD-R 48X, CD-RW 32X, SATA, 2MB, Black, OEM ($19.99)


Tigerdirect has all of these components. It all totals out to be $404.93. Almost $100 under my budget. How would this run trainz 2010 everyone? From what I heard, Trainz 2009 would go good with a dual core processor, but I think Trainz 2010 runs good with a quad core processor. I definitely want to stay away from Trainz 12 since it has problems with older assets. Since the AMD processor that I chose is Triple Core, which version of trainz would run with more fps and less stuttering. One other reason I would like to upgrade to Trainz 2010 is because of the 3D trees, improved scenery, track,etc... I would mainly like to run my Major Tri State Project on this which will consist of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. Sorry for the bold lettering.

I think this would be a good computer because all the components the motherboard that I chose fits in the system case. The power supply that comes with the computer is 500w, so there should be room to add a better graphics card in the future.The processor is better than a dual core processor, but not as good as a quad core processor, but it is over 3ghz so it should be good for trainz 2010. The RAM that I chose is good enough for trainz. Maybe in the future, I would probably be able to upgrade to 8gb. Since it is non ECC, that would mean that I can choose any RAM stick that is made from any company. The Graphics card has more than enough memory for trainz so that should be good. At first, I was going to go for a 1TB hard drive, but I guess 500gb is more than enough. I would still like to hear what other people have to say about these components that I chose. I did not order them yet. I plan to start ordering or getting components in a couple of months though. If anyone finds anything wrong with the components that I chose, do you think you can suggest some better components that be compatible with what I want. I am almost $100 under the budget so there should still be some room for improvement.

I'd suggest looking at newegg as well. Look for items that have lots of positive reviews. toms hardware does computer builds from time to time and discusses the trade offs here. What no one is mentioning is Intel have very good optimising compilers and Trainz almost certainly is complied using one of these. These compilers are optimised for Intel CPUs. I'd also go back over Toms hardware PC builds recently and have a look at their choices.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/child-game-pc-build,3247.html

Cheerio John

From my own experience, 500G of HD will be fine. I trust you will use Windows 7.

malikrthr said:

I think this would be a good computer because all the components the motherboard that I chose fits in the system case. The power supply that comes with the computer is 500w, so there should be room to add a better graphics card in the future.The processor is better than a dual core processor, but not as good as a quad core processor, but it is over 3ghz so it should be good for trainz 2010. The RAM that I chose is good enough for trainz. Maybe in the future, I would probably be able to upgrade to 8gb. Since it is non ECC, that would mean that I can choose any RAM stick that is made from any company. The Graphics card has more than enough memory for trainz so that should be good. At first, I was going to go for a 1TB hard drive, but I guess 500gb is more than enough. I would still like to hear what other people have to say about these components that I chose. I did not order them yet. I plan to start ordering or getting components in a couple of months though. If anyone finds anything wrong with the components that I chose, do you think you can suggest some better components that be compatible with what I want. I am almost $100 under the budget so there should still be some room for improvement.

Click to expand...

Check out some of the "kits" on newegg. Also, have you condidered that you need an operating system to make it all work?

Desktop: @ $800 USD ... Preferably a CPU speed of at least 2.3 (3.3 would be best) ... and a good video card that has 1-2Gb ... and a power supply greater than 300watt.

Laptop: A 17" screen (although you can run an external 23" widescreen monitor off your laptop) Possibly $900 USD ($1000-$2000 laptops are better), NO Integrated Graphics.

You only need 2 Gb RAM for Trainz, and a smaller 500 Gb HD would just limit your Download CDP files ... In short, a 10Gb RAM, 2TB HD, $3000 Alienware PC is totally unneccesary

cascaderailroad said:

Desktop: @ $800 USD ... Preferably a CPU speed of at least 2.3 (3.3 would be best) ... and a good video card that has 1-2Gb ... and a power supply greater than 300watt.

Laptop: A 17" screen (although you can run an external 23" widescreen monitor off your laptop) Possibly $900 USD ($1000-$2000 laptops are better), NO Integrated Graphics.

You only need 2 Gb RAM for Trainz, and a smaller 500 Gb HD would just limit your Download CDP files ... In short, a 10Gb RAM, 2TB HD, $3000 Alienware PC is totally unneccesary

Click to expand...

TS2009 and up under a 64 bit operating system can make use of up to 4 gigs of memory.

Cheerio John

I am thinking about swapping out the AMD Athlon processor for an AMD Phenom II X4 965 clocked at 3.4GHz, and Windows XP 64 bit for an operating system. I am also thinking of upgrading to 8GB of RAM maybe in the future.

malikrthr said:

I am thinking about swapping out the AMD Athlon processor for an AMD Phenom II X4 965 clocked at 3.4GHz, and Windows XP 64 bit for an operating system. I am also thinking of upgrading to 8GB of RAM maybe in the future.

Click to expand...

Compare them to the Intel ones http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

Cheerio John

I made some changes, for the system case bundle that I want, it comes with a 500w power supply. On the Tigerdirect website, I noticed that the graphics card is a low profile card. As far as graphics cards go, what would that mean. I think it is great since Trainz 2010 wants around 256mb out of a discrete graphics card. Since the card I am choosing has 2gb, I think the memory is all that matters. Back on topic, the graphics card requires 400w minimum and the processor requires 125w so we have a total of 525w that is being used when the computer is running. The way that I think about it, the psu only has 500 and everything needs 525w to function. Even though power is coming from the wall outlet, I am thinking that the material in the power supply will only allow the psu to operate at 500w so I think that the processor and the graphics card will not function correctly since there is not enough power. Yesterday, I thought about switching to a midtower gaming case bundle that comes with a 700w psu which will be enough and there should still be some room for improvement in the future. As far as operating systmes go, I was thinking about Windows 7 home premium. For the monitor, I am thinking about a 20" HannsG backlit LED monitor with 1600x900 resolution. Recently, I have been debating about LCD and LED and from what I understand, LED would be the better option since they have a longer life span, no motion blur, and the colors and detail look better compared to LED.

Remember the rest of the computer needs power also so allow 100w for that.
Make sure the psu you get has enough ampage on the 12volt rail for the gpu. It can be 30 amps depending on the card you get.

Along with the 525w for the graphics card and processor, another 100w will need to go to the rest of the system. So that would be 625w to power the whole system. I think 700w will be enough. 75w left over. I don't really know how it all works but that is how I picture it. I think I will have some room for improvement in the future if I wanted a different processor or a different graphics card.

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I was just looking up some info on graphics cards and I have a question. Which would be better for trainz. 2gb of ddr3 or 1GB gddr5. So far, it seems that Gddr5 performs better than ddr3 even though it does not have as much memory. I still plan on getting the MSI Radeon HD 6570 2GB ddr3 card because it seems that Trainz want a discrete graphics card with a good amount of memory on it. What does everyone think. What would be best for trainz. This is just my opinion but I would just like a card that performs good and really does not have any lag. I chose the 2gb 6570hd because I saw some reviews on it on youtube and it seems that it can run some heavy games like battlefield 3, first person shooters, and some racing games flawlessly without any lag.

With regard to 2Gb of DDR3 versus 1 GB of DDR5, and which would be a better choice, the fundamental thing you need to consider is what type of stuff you will be using the computer for. As you can imagine, the bus speeds for both are fairly rapid, but that's not the whole story with GPU RAM, since data capacity is also important if one is to avoid a bottleneck.

If for example, you wanted to play a modern first person shooter game with all of the graphics on full throttle, you'd be looking at a screen image where things are changing rapidly and so data throughput would be of great importance, so the DDR5 would be a good choice. It would also be a good choice because a GPU with DDR5 memory is more likely to support DX11 and later pixel shader technology, which is the kind of thing modern FPS games tend to tap into, as they are often showcases for 'the latest thing'. Stuff such as Trainz and MS Flight Simulator, are generally a bit less on the cutting edge graphically, and are therefore normally content to work okay on cards which are less at the leading edge technology-wise, and so actual capacity in terms of the amount of RAM might be more beneficial.

Thus if you have something such as a simulator where you want a massive draw distance and complex terrain, the actual amount of data the GPU could hold could be the decider, particularly since the view changes fairly slowly on a train simulator, so RAM data throughput is less frenetic and capacity is more important in order to avoid lag spikes as things bottleneck on the buses, although of course if you like jumping the view around all over the place then that might change a little.

As others have noted, you need to also be aware that very fancy GPUs can use a lot of power, for example, my own HD 6950 graphics card (which has 2Gb of DDR5) actually requires two power connectors from the PSU in order to even start working, and I needed to upgrade to an 850 watt PSU just to make that happen, as anything less would not even crank the thing up.

Al

Thanks. So since trainz is not as demanding as a serious first person shooter, it seems that I would go with the gpu that has 2gb of ddr3 as oppose to the gpu with 1GB of Gddr5. It seems that memory on the gpu is important when it comes to trainz instead of the speed. From what I know, DDR3 is pretty fast. One other question. The reason I want to know all of this is because I am building my Major Tri State Area which consist of NY, NJ and CT. There will be alot of content, splines, speedtreez or ultra treez here and there along with maximum detail and maximum draw distance. How do you think the MSI Radeon HD 6570 2GB ddr3 gpu will perform with trainz? Another thing I notice on the Tigerdirect site is, it says that the 2GB MSI Radeon HD 6570 is a low profile card.

Here is an Intel based budget gaming PC I configured at Tigerdirect. I would like to know which system is better, the AMD system I built a couple of days ago or this Intel system. This is all for Trainz 2010. I don't know if I would go for any future version of trainz since trainz 12 dropped the compatibility mode, then my guess would be that any future version of trainz won't have compatibility mode. Here is my opinion on the components that I chose.

Motherboard: G452-7976 ::GIGABYTE GA-H77M-D3H Motherboard - ATX, Intel H77 Express Chipset, DDR3, USB 3.0, RJ-45, HDMI, DVI-D, SATA 6Gb/s, AMD CrossFireX, RAID(1.65 lbs)

Graphics card: EVGA GeForce GT 610 02G-P3-2617-KR Video Card - 2GB, GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), 2x Dual-link DVI, Mini-HDMI, DirectX 11

Power supply: Ultra LSP550 550-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan

Keyboard: Microsoft 6JH-00001 Wired Keyboard 200 for Business - USB

RAM: Patriot Signature PSD38G13332 8GB Memory Module - DIMM, PC3-10600, DDR3 1333MHz, CAS 9, 1.5V, Non-ECC Unbuffered

System Case: Cooler Master RC-430-KWN1 Elite 430 Mid Tower ATX Case - ATX/Micro-ATX, USB, Audio, 120mm Blue LED Fan, Black

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD5000AAKX Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 500GB, 3.5", SATA 6Gbps, 7200RPM, 16MB

Processor: Pentium G870 Processor - Dual Core, 3M Cache, 3.1 GHz, Socket 1155, 65W

Here are my opinions on each component. Would everyone agree or am I wrong in some areas. This system only cost $481. The AMD system I configured a couple of days ago cost $568 so I am saving almost $100.

malikrthr said:

Here is an Intel based budget gaming PC I configured at Tigerdirect. I would like to know which system is better, the AMD system I built a couple of days ago or this Intel system. This is all for Trainz 2010. I don't know if I would go for any future version of trainz since trainz 12 dropped the compatibility mode, then my guess would be that any future version of trainz won't have compatibility mode. Here is my opinion on the components that I chose.

Motherboard: G452-7976 ::GIGABYTE GA-H77M-D3H Motherboard - ATX, Intel H77 Express Chipset, DDR3, USB 3.0, RJ-45, HDMI, DVI-D, SATA 6Gb/s, AMD CrossFireX, RAID(1.65 lbs)

Graphics card: EVGA GeForce GT 610 02G-P3-2617-KR Video Card - 2GB, GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), 2x Dual-link DVI, Mini-HDMI, DirectX 11

Power supply: Ultra LSP550 550-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan

Keyboard: Microsoft 6JH-00001 Wired Keyboard 200 for Business - USB

RAM: Patriot Signature PSD38G13332 8GB Memory Module - DIMM, PC3-10600, DDR3 1333MHz, CAS 9, 1.5V, Non-ECC Unbuffered

System Case: Cooler Master RC-430-KWN1 Elite 430 Mid Tower ATX Case - ATX/Micro-ATX, USB, Audio, 120mm Blue LED Fan, Black

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD5000AAKX Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 500GB, 3.5", SATA 6Gbps, 7200RPM, 16MB

Processor: Pentium G870 Processor - Dual Core, 3M Cache, 3.1 GHz, Socket 1155, 65W

Here are my opinions on each component. Would everyone agree or am I wrong in some areas. This system only cost $481. The AMD system I configured a couple of days ago cost $568 so I am saving almost $100.

Processor: I think this Pentium G870 dual core processor clocked at 3.1Ghz would be a good fit for trainz since it trainz 2010 only uses 2 cores. Compared to the AMD quad core clocked at 3.4Ghz and 125w, this processor is only a tad bit slower but only uses 65w. As far as fps and performance goes, I don't really know what would be the better processor to go with, the AMD quad core or the Pentium Dual core if trainz only takes advantage of 2 cores. Would any future version of trainz take advantage of more than 2 cores. Motherboard: This motherboard supports Pentium, Celeron, core i3, i5 and i7 processors. Since the Pentium G870 requires and LGA 1155 socket and this motherboard has that. Graphics card: I think the EVGA Geforce GT 610 graphics card would be better than the Radeon 6570 graphics card because because it has 810Mhz clock speed and it is GDDR3. The Radeon only has DDR3, low profile, and only had 650Mhz clock speed. So the GT610 should give me better fps with all the sliders cranked to maximum. Power Supply: I think this power supply would be good because the graphics card only wants 300w and the processor only want 65w so that is 365w. I have over 100w left over for the rest of the system. RAM: I think 8GB of DDR3 RAM should be good for building large DEM's in trainz with a good amount of Detail. System Case: This case is compatible with my motherboard so that should be good. Hard Drive: 7200rpm hard drive with 500GB should last me a good while and loading times should be pretty fast which is good. What does everyone think of this system. Would it be better than the AMD system that I configured a couple of days ago.

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There are sites that will size the power supply for you. Tomshardware gives the TDP for many graphics cards here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html If you read the power supply reviews you'll see that the rating can be optimistic especially at the lower end.

CPUs http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-3.html I quite like the i5 at the moment. My personal preference would be an Intel or ASUS motherboard simply because they seem to be fairly good at getting the drivers correct. However I tend to go quality first rather than price first.

I assume you've read this article?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-pc-do-it-yourself-geforce-gtx-560,3216.html

Even here they don't include the cost of the operating system and you want Win 7 for the drivers. Actually xp 32 bit then upgrade it to Win 8, allows you to downgrade to Win7, that might be the cheapest way if you have an XP licenses lying around.

Idle thought, Google Nexus 7 16 whatever at $200 then a copy of Trainz for 2.99? It might fit your budget better.

Best of luck I suspect you'll need it.

I know this must be getting annoying but I really want to make a good budget gaming PC for under $550. The computer would only be used for trainz, internet, and maybe google skecthup and that would be it. Lately, I have been studying a bit on each component and as much as I would like some of the best components, I am trying to tell myself, this is only trainz, not one of those serious 1st person shooters.. Based off of what I learned, I decided to choose an LSP 650 watt power supply since LSP's are better than LS series because they allow for good air flow, they are quiet and remain cool. LSP's are recommended for gaming where the LS would be recommended for basic office work. Another big thing that I am debating is the processor. As much as I would like to get the quad core processor, from what I remember, trainz can only use 2 cores. I don't know what future version of trainz would use but I really don't plan on going past trainz 2010 because I like to mainly use older assets so I need the compatibility mode for older assets. I was on the Tigerdirect site and I found an AMD Athlon X3 450 triple core processor at 3.2Ghz. From what I studied, it seems that triple core processors are really quad cores but you have to unlock that one hidden core. Since trainz only uses a maximum of 2 cores, I said to myself, why go for the quad core when trainz only uses 2. 3 should be great for trainz. Also, the clock speed is pretty high that that should be good for trainz. Anyway, here is a new set that I configured over at Tigerdirect. Something tells me that this setup would be way better than the other 2 setups since I chose a graphics card that has 900Mhz clock at with alot of memory. Here it is. It all totals out to $475.


1. Power Supply: Ultra LSP 650 watt psu, ATX,Sata ready, SLI ready, 135mm fan, 80% efficiency.

2. Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 550Ti, 2GB GDDR5, PCI-e 2.0 (x16), dual DVI, mini HDMI, Direct X 11, dual slot, SLI ready

3. RAM: Patriot Signature 8GB DDR3 RAM, 1,333mhz.

4. Hard Drive: Western Digital 250GB hard drive

5. System Case: Ultra Xblaster Midtower V2 case, Micro ATX, ATX,

6. Processor: AMD Athlon X3 450 triple core processor 3.2Ghz.

7. Motherboard: AMD 760 motherboard, micro ATX, socket AM3+, AMD 760G chipset, 1,333mhz DDR3



I am sorry for asking all these questions but I would really like to build a computer that is capable of running trainz pretty smoothly with alot of detail. I like to compare parts to see what would be the best component to get. The way I see it, this should be a pretty good system and there is definitely room for improvement a couple of years later.

That's fine. If you have a couple more bucks to spare, get this kit:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2580461&CatId=333 and a 550Ti graphics card. That'll be identical to the system I run and I can tell you that it runs Trainz GREAT.

If you don't have that much extra money, that system you listed is fine, too.