. computers - the monologue

tupac · Post by **tupac** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 8:51 am

Been reading many posts where people write in and say that they are ashamed of their computers and also people who write in and brag about their great computers. Both are equally tiring and equally inconsiderate. Anyways, that said there is more to computers than hardware believe it or not. It may not be flashy to work on your software knowledge rather than buy a video card but hey. The sad part is is that MSTS is really not that fantastic a piece of software and isn't in the league of the bigboys it doesn't need Xeon, Opertons or Itanium processors to play the game. Intel's current P4 flagship is just a market response to AMD and that was just a response to Intel and back and forth. They push their plans ahead or back as the competion does. Truly most consumers do not require processors at this speed. I have a 1.3 celeron at home which for all intents and purposes runs as fast as my 2.4p4. Sure there's extra headroom and it'll rip a DVD faster but how fast can I type on a 2.4. Will I draw any faster.... will RE crash any faster?
So maybe you don't need the latest processor, maybe you just need to get the most out of your machine. How do you do that - software. It's boring but knowledge is free and parts are not. If you don't know everything about your OS than learn it. I'm not talking about how to change your wallpaper but learn about optimizing it. The best way to speed up your system is a fresh install of your OS. Avoid RAM boost and all of that stuff like the plague. Somebody did the work for you and probably is getting something out of it (maybe some adware-spyware etc) All of that stuf is basically available to you anyways it's just you have to find it. Perhaps even with the same hardware parts it can be better set up-maybe your BIOS is not optimized. Maybe you're not even running the latest or best BIOS for your system. Experiment. For example, I found by using the same hardware and putting MSTS on it's own partition with large cluster size I got an increase in framerates. Won't work for everyone depends on what your system's bottleneck is and maybe some of the stuff I tried that didn't work for me would work for you.
How to measure MSTS performance only-I downloaded some software called FRAPS and it records framrates at one second intervals. I run an introductory train ride and keep the log. Make some system changes run the route and compare the logs using Excel or some other spreadshee program. The log with the higher score wins. High spec machinery is boring-do more with less. Give your little computer a long and happy life. Like Railway modelling where to achieve great results you must hone many of your skills (soldering, cutting, artistry of all forms, carpentry and electronics to name a few)For MSTS you must also develop you computer skills...
Now if I could just get my route editor to work...

LucaZone · Post by **LucaZone** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 9:00 am

This is true, In an ideal world a computer should be formated and restructured software wise every 6 months. Thus keeping everything clean and fast.

Keeping an eye on the little icons next to the clock on the bottom right of the screen. Running as little in the background as possible, and giving increased priority to the main app ur running.

Cover discs from magazines are another no-no.

Installing ur OS on a seperate drive to all else can also help, keeping those essential files away anything that could clog it. This also means on startup the system doesnt have to trawl thru tons of data looking for the bits it needs. One clean OS harddrive makes it easy.

qzdcg8 · Post by **qzdcg8** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 7:15 am

Lucazone - you have described an Ideal Microsoft/Intel world - which is virtually an oxymoron.

In an Ideal world you shouldn't have to reformat/restructure/rebuild a PC (and lets call it that, not a computer which is far too generalised) at all - its only down to Microsoft's cr*ppy Operating Systems that we have to put up with this degradation over time.

Come and have a look at the commerical IT world and see what reliable computing is all about - and you'll find that NT & W2000 are up against much more reliable stuff (and I quote an extremely non-exhaustive list here - Solaris, HPUX, OpenVMS etc plus all the IBM stuff)

mikey2001 · Post by **mikey2001** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 10:36 am

Also, many people who are not as computer literate as some of use, would never dare to reformat the hard drive or update the BIOS - its like going into the unknown. I would like to think I am fairly experienced with using computers, but I still feel apprehensive about reformatting my hard drive or updating my BIOS, simply because I don't know what may happen to my PC.

60085 · Post by **60085** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:25 pm

Same here. I'm not looking forward to flashing the BIOS, which must be what's wrong if the new HDD doesn't fix it. Even with ASUSTeK's quite concise instructions there is still scope for making an @rse of it.

60085 "MANNA".

nwallace · Post by **nwallace** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 6:56 pm

Flashing Bios... oh scary

Had to do it a few times at work.
Platform software needs newer version of BIOS than whats on the chip.

Hm whenever a bank upgrades their ATM software this must be a problem, esp if we have it in lab ATMs which are much newer than thje ones out in the field.

Have flashed video BIOS before

tdurbo · Post by **tdurbo** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 9:51 pm

mikey2001 wrote:Also, many people who are not as computer literate as some of use, would never dare to reformat the hard drive or update the BIOS - its like going into the unknown. I would like to think I am fairly experienced with using computers, but I still feel apprehensive about reformatting my hard drive or updating my BIOS, simply because I don't know what may happen to my PC.

Yep, I've done everything to my PC from memory to motherboard but I would NEVER EVER dare try flashing my own BIOS.

tupac · Post by **tupac** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 2:27 am

Actaully there is no reason to Flash your BIOS if your computer is working fine. I accidentally wrote that while I was blabbering on. I think you spotted the fact that it is most times un-necessary but maybe you should atleast check if there are any updates and what's inside. Borrow a UPS if you're woried updating the BIOS and read lots so you know what to expect. But if it isn't broken it's best to just leave it well alone. sorry for the error. The whole point of the rambling was just to say read lots and learn more about your software take the questions out of ' I don't know what will happen to my computer if I...". You'll never know until you try it.
Unless, of course, you're perfectly happy with your machine-in which case give it a hug.

60085 · Post by **60085** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 9:04 am

Well mine's knackered and we think we've narrowed it down to HDD (either a file of physical failure) or some eeeediot flashing the BIOS without having a replacement BIOS on a floppy ready to run.
Needless to say we're trying the former/easier (yet more expensive) route first.

60085 "MANNA".