Time to Upgrading PC?

[JamesC]

I am thinking about upgrading my PC, I've had it for about 2 years and now its not good enough. I'm always running with TSX Mode disabled and with settings turned down but now with all recent locos being released from Steam running with TSX Mode disabled isn't good enough anymore so now its time to think about upgrading.

I am currently running this set up

Windows Vista
RAM 4.00GB
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz, 2336 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
64-bit operating system
Geforce G210

I had a trip down PC World today, one of the guys showed me the best destop PCs which are the best for games but they are over a Grand! they were i7 Processors. I would like to run Train Sim with TSX Mode enabled with best performence, what should i be looking for and what price do I need to spend for a good set up?

Thanks for any help

[rfletcher72]

I found the thread below useful when deciding on a new PC

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 1&t=132264

[montylowe2]

DONT go to PC world.
DO go to http://www.overclockers.co.uk.

You could easily assemble a PC for around £700 that could play TS2013 at all max settings depending on how many peripherals you already have (monitor, mouse, etc)

PC world will royally rip you off. They have a habit of selling Desktops for about £1500 which have g-fix cards barely above laptop level.

Go for a decent I5 chip, decent Mobo and save most of your money for the g-fix card.

Brefiy.

Mobo - £80 -£100
processor £170
Ram £60
Graphics £200 (the most important bit of hardware of any game)

Hope this helps.

Monty.

[thetrainfan]

http://www.ebuyer.com/ and http://www.aria.co.uk/ are very good. I got my PC custom-built from Aria with GPU and sound card from eBuyer.

i5 2500K @ 3.3GHz, GeForce GTS 450, Asus Xonar 7.1.

[sundog]

I just got one from http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/ and I'm over the moon with it

Ken

[clivejames1st]

I recently decided to upgrade mine and I bought all the components off the internet, e.g. Amazon, Maplin, eBay and a few other stores. I got some good deals and saved quite a bit with their offers. I purchased a new case, motherboard, cpu, memory, cpu fan, graphics card and sound card for under £700. I have a Corsair case and memory, Asus Sabertooth motherboard and Asus nvidia OC GTX660 graphics card, Creative sound card and Intel i5 3570k Quad OC. I can now run RW on full settings and with a good frame rate. I spent some time reading reviews on the internet so I knew what I wanted and I am glad I did. I had no intention of visiting PC World from past experiences with them. Also. I got free postage with all components.

[Trev123]

Buy of the internet either built up or build your own. It is cheaper.

[rosschris10]

im on the same boat as the OP im looking to upgrade my pc tower as well

can someone recommend a good pc system (via link) that will allow me to play ts 2013 with TCX on and full settings please its about all i use the pc for and of course surfing the internet

[johnrossetti]

James, I had a think and started to look at CPU's but then I had a thought, What is your budget ? don't tell me ! Give these people a CALL,
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/, Then let us know what they come up with.
Don't waste time trying to put one together yourself, just tell them what you want to spend, and what you want to do with it, NOT Games, Simulators, they require a slightly different collection of bits than a games pc also mention you would prefer Nvidia Graphics Cards. I think they are a better bet for TrainSim, although I still use AMD ! Good Luck John

[Trev123]

Buy of the internet either built up or build your own. It is cheaper.

Buy off the internet either built up or build your own. It is cheaper.
Thought I would correct my spelling.

[ttjph]

One of my friends has recently built a new system based around an i3-3220.

My first thought was "why have you only gone for an i3?", but then I looked at the single-thread benchmarks and it's actually a pretty capable CPU, especially for RW which only uses two cores at the moment. It looks to be faster than an i5-2400.

Worth considering, depending on price (obviously) and on what else you plan to use the PC for.

[rosschris10]

that company mentioned above look really good

now i am not technically minded i am one these people that can turn a pc on and play games when you start going on about mother boards,cpu,ram,gb,memory etc i am gone lol

what should i ideally select to get a upgraded pc that enables me to run TS2013 at max settings and a good speed with tCX on that will last a good few years

[JamesC]

I was on the phone to scorpio computers in plymouth just now asking about a possible upgrade to run Train Sim 2013, I told him my computer specs and he said that should run Train Sim 2013 ok if I upgraded to Windows 7. I am currently running vista and vista is not running all the Cores apparently he said.

Is he correct, if I simply just upgrade to windows 7 will it speed up train sim?

He gave me a quote of £475 for a faster desktop pc with windows 7 which will run train sim perfectly.

[sargnickfury]

One thing I have noticed is this is a CPU hungry program. Switching to a i7 3770k made a huge difference for me. Truthfully though game wise a i5 in the 3.4 ghz range would probably work equally as well....I got i7 more for video editing. I will say I moved from a HD7850 to an eVGA GTX 670 FTW edition and this has been HUGE. The AMD 7000 series look good on benchmarks but they have micro stutters, the GTX-870 has been micro smooth...and not only to I have details up but I am using FXAA_tool to add additional post processing lighting enhancements and it's running rock solid at 40fps which is what I have it maxed at on command line. I cannot say enough about that card. SSD drive helps as well....in a perfect world I would like a SSD for both OS and steam directory (keeping steam on separate drive is always a good idea for better performance.)

[gptech]

James, whilst the guy at scorpio might know about computers I doubt he knows about TS2013---the game doesn't exactly fit in with how PC specs are supposed to work, and as nick has just posted the game demands a decent CPU, with the i5 family giving the best 'bang per buck' as it were.

keeping steam on separate drive is always a good idea for better performance.)

is something I fully agree with, whether that be an SSD or a conventional (much cheaper) spinning drive it's well worth the money---£40 gets you a Terrabyte of storage space these days, maybe even more if you shop around, so it's a pretty cheap way to get a performance boost.

As you have a keyboard, mouse and monitor you don't need to buy these agin so all your budget can go on the 'magic box' itself, http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Home+and+ ... ctId=55872 whilst being *only* an i3 and not having a discrete GPU is a good starting point---cheaper than your quote too. If you phone round places like Aria and see what they can change in a spec to suit YOU rather than a supplier telling YOU what you need you'll end up with a much better machine.

GPU wise, nVidia are favoured and whilst a GTX 870 would be nice (I'm not jealous....honest.......) I'd suggest you start looking at the GTX550 range (about 100 quid for a 550Ti) , and move up if the budget allows.