Atomic Systems

Hello all. I have been shopping around and trying to come up with some new computer specs for a decent price. So far I have come up with these and I am just asking if these specs are ok, specifically for running railworks:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 2600K Quad Core 3.4GHz 8MB cache LGA1155 + HD Graphics

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card

Memory: 8GB (4x2GB) PC12800 DDR3/1600mhz Dual Channel Memory

Hard Drive: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 7200RPM Hard Drive

Any thoughts?
Callum.

Nothing wrong with those components, but I have a few thoughts to share....


the i7-2600k is substantially more expensive than an i5-2500k but doesn't afford a comparable performance increase. By all means stick with the i7 but if the budget gets squeezed the i5 will still perform splendidly.
The RAM you've looked at will adhere to the JDEC standard with a speed of 1333MHz programmed into the SPD chip. To get it to run at 1600MHz will entail a little bit of tweaking, either by enabling XMP or manually tweaking the settings in BIOS. There's very little gain to be had by choosing 1600 over the Sandybridge standard of 1333, but I doubt there'll be any cost difference so opting for the modules with a higher manufacturers rating won't hurt things, and if you plan to overclock may prove to be the better path anyway. I'd suggest you look at 2 X 4GB though to leave 2 RAM slots free for any future upgrades.
You don't say what motherboards you're looking at....Z68 would be the preferred chipset.

gptech
Great points:

There's very little gain to be had by choosing 1600 over the Sandybridge standard of 1333, but I doubt there'll be any cost difference so opting for the modules with a higher manufacturers rating won't hurt things, and if you plan to overclock may prove to be the better path anyway. I'd suggest you look at 2 X 4GB though to leave 2 RAM slots free for any future upgrades.
You don't say what motherboards you're looking at....Z68 would be the preferred chipset.

One thing to remember wrt SB overclocking - you are overclocking the cpu multiplier and not the Front Side Bus and hence as RAM speed is usually linked to the FSB - faster RAM will have less impact than it would in a system where you o/c the FSB. So your suggestion of 1333 is excellent for the SB but changing it to say 1600 will have little speed impact even if you oc the cpu to 4-5GHz. Z68 Rev B3 is the latest mobo to use. BTW (to shoot myself in the foot) I use 1600Hz (same price as 1333) on a 2600K 4.8GHz o/c 2600K with liquid cooling. IMHO the 2500K is best bang for buck and is slightly easier to o/c.
PeterH

Hi Callum,

Much the same as my setup except that I have
CPU Intel i7 960
Nvidia GTX580
and I also have a small SSD as the C: drive with virtually only the operating system on it.

This gives good results on TS 2012 so I would expect your suggested package would also work well.

Mike

Sorry Mike, I have to slightly disagree...
theres quite a difference between your 1st generation CPU and the ones Callum is looking at; and with a Z68 motherboard the most benefit from a SSD would probably come from utilising it as a fast cache.
The components he's looking at are first rate, no argument there and would certainly run RW admirably.
Peter, you're absolutely right about speed of RAM, the most benefit from 1600MHz RAM, if in an overclocked system, would probably come from being able to tighten the timings a tad.
Callum, any thoughts about a power supply?

wow. Thanks for all the advice.
If I can get away with an i5 instead of an i7 then that would be good if it would be alot cheaper. As for the PSU, i'm thinking 700W-750W?

Basically, I'm just trying to build up a good computer on the cyber power systems website. Any help would be great.

Thanks.
Callum.

A PSU of 700W or so should do nicely, but also check that whichever you go for kicks out enough amps, particularly if you end up with a 'beast' of a graphics card. Personally, my preference is for a single 12v rail model, with amperage on that rail over 40A

During my research when buying components for my PC I took note that a SATA 6Gb/s connection made no improvement to a SATA 3Gb/s HDDs (at the time), that's why in the end I went for the cheaper 1TB SATA 3Gb/s.

My rig has a Corsair 650W PSU, I do believe this is also enough if I were to upgrade since I was originally given the suggestion for a 550W, see my specs below.

To pick up on Lee's coment about SATA------SATA 3GB/s and SATA 6GB/s are the speeds of the interface, not a measure of how fast the drive itself can get data off the platters. In the real world you won't find a conventional spinning HDD that will push SATA 3GB/s to it's limits, never mind a 6GB/s connection. If you go for a 'proper' RAID setup with more than 3 HDDs in the array then a fast SATA nterface comes into its own, but for most of us with single discs there's no benefit to SATA 6GB/s. If speed is a big issue, you'd be better off (if funds allow) to add a small (64GB) SSD to a Z68 based system and use that as a fast cache. next step down would be to go for a 10,000 RPM HDD.

gptech wrote:If speed is a big issue, you'd be better off (if funds allow) to add a small (64GB) SSD to a Z68 based system and use that as a fast cache.

Or, if you have plenty of RAM you can use a program like 'Fancy-Cache' to use your RAM as a cache. It can also use a SSD as cache without the need of a Z68 Chipset.
see topic: http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 4&t=122007
I'm using this program a couple of weeks now and I like it ( until now )


Regards,

Frank

Haven't looked at Fancy-Cache in great depth, but seems to be a grand piece of software, could be a great boon for those running a 32bit OS but who have 4GB+ of RAM as I believe it can utilise the RAM a 32bit OS can't 'see'

Parrotnut wrote:......It can also use a SSD as cache without the need of a Z68 Chipset....

Which, whilst true, should be irrelevant in a new Sandybridge based build as you'd (preferably) elect to go for a Z68 anyway.


Of course, all these tweaks and extras should only be considered after getting a system up and running, not as criteria to greatly influence the buying decision.

gptech wrote:Of course, all these tweaks and extras should only be considered after getting a system up and running, not as criteria to greatly influence the buying decision.

You are absolutely right about that

Regards,

Frank

Sorry to Hijack this thread a little but whats the advantage of an i7 2600 4mhz, over say my i3 2200 running 3.3mhz, I must confess this sort of thing goes over my head somewhat ??

antonyperks wrote:.... whats the advantage of an i7 2600 4mhz, over say my i3 2200 running 3.3mhz.....

For Railworks, very little actually.
The i7 has 4 cores, and hyper-threading which effectively means you get 8 cores available, the i3 is a dual core CPU with hyper-threading so that equates to 4 cores. RW only uses 2 cores in it's present form, and unless a program 'knows' how to make full advantage of hyper-threading that feature is of little use.
The i7 has a much larger level 3 cache, which can give a small benefit when gaming and of course the fact that it's running at a faster speed will boost performance slightly but the gains to be had don't justify (in my opinion) the extra cost over an i3 or i5.
If you do any serious video editing, or anything else that really pushes a CPU then the i7 would be a better choice, but for just running day to day stuff and RW your i3 is just fine.

A quick google search will bring up oodles of benchmarks proving the i7 blows the i3 away in terms of performance, but these will mostly be synthetic tests and not 'real world' observations.

Is it actually documented that TS2012 in fact _does_ utilize both cores in a dual-core? IIRC people have been reporting the opposite...