What PC?

Tonysmedley · Post by **Tonysmedley** » Tue May 04, 2004 8:41 am

Several times recently, Simmers have raised the topic of poor performance after spending much money on computer up-dates.
Are there any experts around who are willing to stick their necks out and say

1) what is the minimum spec for a reasonable MSTS peformance?

2) what would YOU recommend as a reasonable spec for someone, NOT "the best that money can buy?"

I appreciate that to some extent the nature of a particular route and its activities affgect the perceived performance.

Tony ( the old one )

Post by **NeutronIC** » Tue May 04, 2004 9:52 am

If you look at the 'buy a new PC' page linked off the main site on the top left, the two systems that we've spec'd up with TCO Computers there are probably along the lines of the two specs you've asked for.

The Freighter machine is designed to fit a budget but still perform - so it's still got a good Geforce card in it but it lacks in some other areas where it would be adequate (sound for example) but not outstanding. The Express machine is designed to be still great value (and certainly isn't the best that money can buy, Alienware will sell you a machine for two or three times that price) but it has a top notch video card, loads of ram, very fast CPU, the shuttle case provides an absolutely blindingly fast motherboard too - plus if you want to go SATA then he has a version of the system that uses athlon 64 processors and twin SATA drives.

My new machine came from TCO and I can definitely recommend them, excellent service. And no, we don't get any kickbacks for sending people their way - the MD of TCO just happens to be a Train Sim fan himself.

Matt.

jains15 · Post by **jains15** » Tue May 04, 2004 2:56 pm

I upgraded to an Asus MoBo (motherboard), with Athlon CPU and corsair RAM. I basically cannibalised my old machine for modem, soundcard and graphics card (GF4 ti), but the rest is new. MSTS run incredibly stably on my machine which i think is down to the RAM, which i did not compromise on (a mistake with my last machine).

Anyway, a good, proven MoBo, with a 2 GHZ CPU, excellant ram, power supply, HDD and DVD cost me less than Â£350.

Downside is i had to settle for not having 100% new parts and I had to put it together myself, but my PC run msts brilliantly (max detail) at 30+fps most of the time. I can also run most new games at medium or higher detail. PM if u want more details/information/help.

jon

Lad491 · Post by **Lad491** » Tue May 04, 2004 9:36 pm

well ive just put an extra 512mb of ram in my dell bringing it up to 768mb and it didnt make any difference at all to performance, absolutely nil.
So my latest thinking is that first upgrade choice should be a SATA hard disk since there is no doubt that tile loading times influence performance the most so a turbo charged h/d is needed, followed by a top end graphics card. My G Force 64mb card is adequate but in need of upgrading, thats second on my list.

Im still dreaming of owning a shuttle ..... one day (sigh)

jbilton · Post by **jbilton** » Tue May 04, 2004 10:19 pm

Hi
The interesting thing about RAM is that the game is not a particular hog....I have a meter which shows it only generally uses 60-80Mb.
It does have all the well know flaws though.
Therefore my recommendations(for MSTS) are as follows

1.2x (good quality high speed) SATA HDs in a strip RAID
2. Disable virtual memory and use a memory manager programme.(512Mb min)
3.Best/most memory graphics card you can afford.
4.Largest True Flat Monitor you can manage(not TFT unless you've got Â£1500 quid to spare)
5.Any CPU over 2.0Ghz
6.Any MoBo but must support the SATA RAID and AGP 8x
7.Large IDE H/D to backup your precious MSTS install....and all those Mbs of zip downloads.

Thats the best spec at the moment...however the New PCI graphics cards are due in about 6-8 weeks....obviously requiring new MoBos and these will kill AGP.

as a guide done a couple of upgrades recently for about Â£250 (no monitor)

saddletank · Post by **saddletank** » Tue May 04, 2004 10:34 pm

jbilton wrote:2. Disable virtual memory and use a memory manager programme.(512Mb min)

It's fascinating how experiences differ. I turned off virtual memory a while back and tried a memory manager and I got horrendous pauses in MSTS every 20 seconds or so as my mem manager butted in, grabbed a huge fistful of system resources and sat there for 3 or 4 seconds while it worked out what to do and where to release/reassign memory usage. Then MSTS would jerk back into life again.

I removed the memory manager, put back in a whopping big swapfile (several tens of megs) and all is smooth again.

jains15 · Post by **jains15** » Tue May 04, 2004 10:54 pm

My experience is that with good RAM, msts does not run any faster, just better

The computer on a whole is sooo stable! lovely!

JohnKendrick · Post by **JohnKendrick** » Wed May 05, 2004 10:42 pm

I'm now using one of the Medion PCs that can be picked up at a local Supermarket (LIDL) at a very reasonable price. Other stores sell it such as PC World or Toys For Us. 160Gb HD, XP3200 or P4 + 500mhz SSB. 512Mb Ram (I've upped it to 1 Gb and used the old ram cards in another PC), Slots for Firewire, 7xUSB2, Graphics and sound more than adequate. Cost - less than Â£800. Anything else I've seen with that spec is much much dearer.

PS I have no associations with any of the companies mentioned!

Oh, and Medion give support on a normal rate telephone line, none of that Â£1 a minute business like some of the more expensive machines seem to need.

John

jains15 · Post by **jains15** » Wed May 05, 2004 11:05 pm

Good luck with your new PC john, the 160GB hdd seems partiularly tasty...

ianmacmillan · Post by **ianmacmillan** » Wed May 05, 2004 11:34 pm

Been using a Medion PC from Aldi for over a year now.
Typing on a medion keyboard and backing up on a Medion removable HD.

Old computer is using a Medion LCD monitor.

Only had one minor problem and the help desk read out the solution as I wrote it down to save phone charges.

I would not hesitate to recommend the company.

tupac · Post by **tupac** » Thu May 06, 2004 7:21 pm

don't bother wasting your money or time waiting for the new PCI express cards. PCI Express won't kill AGP anytime soon.
The same with SATA; just upgrade to a new IDE drive -hard disk performance improves faster than many other technologies. SATA is a great technology (like PCI express) but the existing interface is not at it's limit yet so it would be a shame to buy say a SATA expansion card and drives (slightly more expensive than IDE) and hope that it'll be better than pluggin in the IDE to your existing controller. That said if you're buying a new mainboard it will probably come with SATA and that's great. Same with AGP (I don't think the 8x bandwidth is a bottleneck yet)

LucaZone · Post by **LucaZone** » Fri May 07, 2004 7:53 am

Id say any standard PC off in Curry/Dixons/PCWorld is going to run MSTS at highend frame rates

Tonysmedley · Post by **Tonysmedley** » Fri May 07, 2004 9:11 am

All helpful comments, but there still seems to be no answer to the question of how much and what type of memory offers the best return for money spent in relation to running MSTS. For example I have 512 of DDr but no great improvement over my previous 256 SDRAM
Tony ( the old one )

wirralsimon · Post by **wirralsimon** » Fri May 07, 2004 10:12 am

Tony

I think we've established that memory (as long as you have 256Mb plus ) is not a main determining factor for Trainsim performance. Processor is not a huge issue as anything 2gb plus is probably going to be OK. An up to date graphics card with 128MB or more should be fine. Add the biggest, fastest hard disk(s) you can afford, and you will probably be OK.

Simon

LucaZone · Post by **LucaZone** » Fri May 07, 2004 11:24 am

hhmm some heafty upgrades your asking there.

Im running a 64Mb GFXcard, 1Gb DDR Ram, and a 1.67Ghz CPU, with a normal ATA133 HDD and things seem fine at max detail to me.

I think its more a case of getting a balance across the board of hardware, not jsut the biggest all the time. good combinations can work way better than just big this and big that.

Atomic Systems

What PC?

What PC?

post subject