Computer advice

[Retro]

Hi,
Will the SSD I have chosen have faster read/write speed that the Main Hard Drive. This is the bit I do not really understand. The 120 Gig SSD would appear to be faster but is more expensive.

80GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 90MB/sW) Chosen one ATM

120GB INTEL® 510 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 450MB/sR | 210MB/sW) more expensive alternative

Not sure what all the numbers mean.
Thanks kind regards James.

[secludedsfx]

I would go with the higher capacity one as it has double the read and write speed of the other

[Kromaatikse]

Any SSD will be fast enough. Railworks does not even come close to the maximum bandwidth available, and all SSDs have very low latencies compared to mechanical drives.

It's up to you whether you want the extra capacity though. If you plan to do route-building, being able to store at least two copies of Railworks (which will be bloated by authoring input files) will be essential. Also, if you have other Steam based games, Steam will want to put them in the same place.

[Retro]

Thanks for that information. I have no other Steam Games and my Railworks folder is about 20 Gigs.
Kind regards James.

[Retro]

I have decided to Upgrade two components which do not add a great deal to the cost.
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics in case future overclocking is required
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX should allow greater Upgrade choices.
Hope I am correct in assuming this.
Would it be possible to overclock the GPU as it is or do you need a special version for that.
Can also get the 24 inch Monitor from Scan at a few Pounds less
24" Iiyama Prolite E2473HDS-B1 Black LED LCD, 1920x1080, 2ms Monitor (£155)
This one is unavailable from current supplier
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)
Not sure which one is the best
Any advice on above stuff appreciated.
Kind regards James.

[glowball]

Wise decisions in the long run I would think, certainly with the CPU.
With your spec, I wouldn't be overly concerned about over-clocking the GPU, unless you are trying to get/need maximum frames from the system. In answer to your question though, yes it can.

[Retro]

Thanks.Much appreciated.
Just added the Monitor problem onto the Topic. I must stop adding Edits in. I get confused as well

[USRailFan]

Good luck on the new computer. Hopefully my budget will allow for something semi-decent too...

[SquidvT]

Re overclocking. Its all about the cooling. So you will need a good CPU cooler, and a decent case as well. You can also run the risk of frying your CPU, or motherboard if you tinker without knowing what your doing. As stated I would leave it. That I7 at 3.5 gig should be fine for Rws. The biggest hinderence is that RWs doesnt support multicores. The biggest factor will be the Graphics card you put in it.

That 570 should be a nice one. If its possible see if the MB will take 12gig of ram. Seems RWs cant get enough of the stuff.

All in all though thats a nice system.

[mervyn61]

James

I have the Iiyama Prolite E2473HDS 24" monitor and I am very happy with it. I doubt the B1 variant is much, if any different. Are you intending to use the built-in speakers?

If you want to be absolutely sure, do a search on Google or go to Iiyama's web-site and download the spec and manual (both available as PDFs).

Mervyn

[Retro]

Thanks Guy's. Overclocking would be much in the Future and then only if it is needed. RW 4 when it comes out might need a bit more out of the Hardware.
It would seem that Monitor would be OK then. It is Backlit. Maybe thats what the B1 indicates. I will probably not use speakers as I have this Machine linked to my old Studio Sound System and also a Logitech set when I do not want to knock out the neighbours.
Kind regards James.

[Kromaatikse]

The Z68 m/board will also let you use your SSD as a cache, so you don't have to worry about everything fitting onto it all at once, or choosing what goes on it and what doesn't.

Just set the board to RAID mode (rather than IDE or AHCI mode) before you install Windows to the mechanical disk. Afterwards, you can install a utility which turns on the caching.

[Retro]

Thanks for that information. This will probably be the last Computer I will buy so I want it to last as long as possible and be upgradeable. Apparently I also only need a 650 Watt PSU but the 750 Watt PSU should allow some expansion in the future.
Kind regards James.

[USRailFan]

My budget: 1000 € - can possibly stretch it to 1500 € but that it the absolute maximum I can afford.

I have a Chieftec case with 350 W PSU, plus an Intel D875PBZ motherboard with 3 GHz P4 CPU and 2 gigs of RAM. I also have a 17-inch BenQ monitor (flatscreen), a Logitech PS/2 mouse and a Logitech PS/2 keyboard, plus a Sound Blaster X-Fi and a separate PhysX card. At least the case, monitor, mouse, keyboard and souncard should be reusable, possibly the RAM as well (800 MHz, most likely, given the motherboard). Also have an old Windows Home Edition XP license.
So what'd be your recommendations on such a budget?


(Currently playing TS2012 in Legacy mode on an eMachines G525 laptop, with a Celeron T3300 CPU rated at 2.0 GHz, with 4 gigs of RAM, on 64-bit Windows 7).

[glowball]

You might need to also rule out your PS/2 keyboard and mouse, some of the more recent motherboards don't support PS/2 anymore.

Have you seen the Hardware Reconsiderations for Railworks 3 thread?
http://forums.atomic-systems.com/viewto ... 18fc2a4210
It's a good place to start to get an idea of what's required.