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system recommendations
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
system recommendations // Visitor Area
Post by exorch // Apr 8, 2008, 10:26am
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exorch
Total Posts: 0
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hi,
a customer wants to upgrade his computer for working with truespace 7.5
the OS is winXP but may be upgraded to WinVista.
The questions is what kind of machine would you recommend?
singlecore or dualcore?
how much gig? 1gig? 2gig? more?
which kind of gfx card? 128bit or 256bit? 256 or 512mb? Mainboard has AGP atm, but probably would be replaced!
The specs of the machine the customer has atm:
Intel Pentium 4 2,4Ghz
1,5GB of DDR1 (don't even know if dualchannel)
Radeon 9200
Thanks for helping out on this one. |
Post by kena // Apr 9, 2008, 1:46pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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my main pc is a single core, but dual processor... I would say dual core. And if it is compatible with vista, I understand that version 8 will make use of vista's features. |
Post by hultek43 // Apr 9, 2008, 2:04pm
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hultek43
Total Posts: 234
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More RAM is normally better. Same holds true for the graphics card. The software may work okay with the minimum recommended specs and some applications can take advantage of a dual core or a dual CPU set-up and some can't. Money is normally a factor in at least one way. Time is almost always a factor. Is it for a production machine or for a 'hobbiest to play with'? |
Post by TomG // Apr 10, 2008, 1:19am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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You want to balance between CPU, memory and graphics card depending on budget. I can only speak for Intel and NVIDIA set ups since those are the ones I research, but there are of course AMD and ATI equivalents.
For optimum bang for buck, I'd go for a Core 2 Duo (around $150 and up right now), 4Gb memory DDR2 (just picked up 2Gb for $35), and an 8600 or 8800 card (starting around $150 and up). I wouldn't drop below the Core 2 Duo, but you could do 2Gb memory, and you could go for a 7600 card (around $90 and up) if you wanted or had to economize. I wouldn't do less than those though - you can run Vista and tS on less, but then you wouldn't be getting good value for the money spend on your upgrade. 256Mb is probably the minimum to go with in the graphics card (don't think the latest cards come with less anyway though).
If you can go higher, you could go for a Core 2 Quad. Even higher, then you could get a double processor motherboard and install 2 processors.
For HD, I went for 2 SATA drives in RAID 0, no safety factor and I have to do my own backups to keep things safe, but that's fine with me. I got two 150 Gb drives for a total of 300Gb storage since its RAID 0 (and just fitted a third, non-RAID SATA, 200 Gb, which is what I back up to regularly, with DVD backups less frequently).
With pricing, you should be able to put together the system without monitor for around $1000 I think. Same pricing would apply for AMD and ATI based machines, you'd just need to find the equivalents.
HTH!
Tom |
Post by Jack Edwards // Apr 10, 2008, 3:59am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Like Tom, I generally prefer the nVidia cards, but ATI/AMD cards have become competitive lately and don't have the Workspace Bloom bug that the nVidia cards are showing currently with TrueSpace so that might be another consideration.
Also it's definitely worth considering building a system that can be overclocked. The Intel Core 2 Duo chips are insanely good at overclocking if you fit them with a good cooling solution -- copper heat pipe cpu cooler and a case with good airflow for example.
Definitely build your own system though. Don't bother with pre-built, just research and pick the components you want and order them from here:
http://www.newegg.com |
Post by TomG // Apr 11, 2008, 2:57am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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As a note for anyone using NVIDIA on Vista, the latest beta drivers remove the "bloom has to be enabled" bug.
Newegg I can recommend (on a personal level, not as a Caligari recommendation). Been using them for years, awaiting another delivery from them today of more computer parts :) I built my own system too and got exactly what I wanted, spending the money where I needed it, and not where I didn't, and got a much better system that I would have done for the same money on a prebuilt. Takes a little confidence to be able to assemble components from scratch into a finished machine, but its not as difficult as it might sound, if you've changed a processor, swapped hard drives, switched graphcis cards, and added memory, you've already done most of the work just not all at once!
HTH!
Tom |
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