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Computer Tech questions...
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.
Computer Tech questions... // Roundtable
Post by Birdnest // Aug 6, 2006, 2:52pm
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Birdnest
Total Posts: 152
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I hope you guys don't mind me by asking. But what's the best
understanding of getting the basic idea of what the best video cards are,
as well as the Mother Board proccessors, CPU power, the mega-ram and of
those big Computer words lol. I have some knowledge about PC's, but I'm
afraid I don't know enough, I'm curious because I want to own a powerful
PC to run Ts7 (If I can afford it in the near future.) Can you guys
direct me to a website to explain the strange numbers and words that
I encounter involving computer hardware? Thanks! |
Post by noko // Aug 6, 2006, 3:39pm
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noko
Total Posts: 684
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Site, Right here :). What do you want to know more about?
tS7 takes advantage of modern day hardware. If you have a multicore cpu such as AMD's X2 line, Opteron Dual core line Opteron 165 and up, Intel's new Duo cores it will take advantage of both cores both in rendering (for Lightworks and Vray I see about a 80% increase in speed when rendering with both cores vice just one). In addition Physics in the Player will take advantage of a second core for much smoother physic simulation. Other areas also been tweak for dual core as well. So for tS7 I highly recommend a dual core setup and since prices have come down tremendously in the last several months this would be a good starting point.
Ram wise depends on what you want to do and operating system, I recommend 2gb but 1gb works well unless you start using higher resolution HDRI's plus complex scenes. Anything over 2gb may help but be advise WinXP limits anyone program to about 2gb.
Graphic cards have a rather big impact on Player speed, a modern day midrange $150 to high end > $300 DX9.c capable video card will make the player fly. In this area I recommend an ATI X1900XT and for high end but Nvidia line 7900 GT and up also fly as well. My 6800GT which is around $150 nowdays works well in player so you don't necessarily need to buy high if you can't afford it.
Having a dual monitor setup or widescreen or both is a godsend and very affordable now days having two 19" LCD monitors or even two 17" LCD if money is tight. Higher the resolution the better the video card should be but tS7 I've found to be very configurable even with 1024x768 resolution so your preference is probably the most important point here. If you have the room and money, go dual.
The rest is pretty much the same, hard drives are rather cheap for capacity so get what you need and if you need more buy another one :). I have a USB hard drive (120gb) which connects to any of my machines for backup use mostly. A dvd burner is also great for backing up vital work you have accomplish with tS7 usually with more then adequate room available per disk.
If you build your own, I recommend you buy good components, as in high end, high wattage power supply, brand name ram etc.. Hope this helps anymore questions please ask.
You can try these for hardware reviews, plus use forums to ask questions:
http://www.tomshardware.com
http://www.anandtech.com
http://www.hardocp.com |
Post by Alien // Aug 6, 2006, 7:10pm
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Alien
Total Posts: 1231
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Thanks for posting that Noko. I had wanted to post something, but I do better with responding to specifics than more general questions. The sites you mentioned may have some beginner articles, but I was thinking a bit more literally & couldn't think of anywhere specific with beginners guides. Hope you don't mind if I chip in with a few points in response to yours. :)
tS7 takes advantage of modern day hardware. If you have a multicore cpu such as AMD's X2 line, Opteron Dual core line Opteron 165 and up, Intel's new Duo cores
You forgot dual single cores [as in 2 single core CPUs on a dual CPU board], the fastest [AMD] of which is the 256 [3.0Ghz]. [yeah, I know, there's also Xeons that come in single core, multi-CPU configurations, but against an Opteron system...? <insert rude noise here> :D]
So for tS7 I highly recommend a dual core setup and since prices have come down tremendously in the last several months this would be a good starting point.
Although I don't pay much attention to Socket 939 chip prices [I just drool over the Opterons http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alien42/smilies/drool.gif], I would expect they'd be going down now as apparently AMD has stopped making them [to make way for the new AM2 socket chips].
Graphic cards have a rather big impact on Player speed, a modern day midrange $150 to high end > $300 DX9.c capable video card will make the player fly. In this area I recommend an ATI X1900XT and for high end but Nvidia line 7900 GT and up also fly as well. My 6800GT which is around $150 nowdays works well in player so you don't necessarily need to buy high if you can't afford it.
Apparently, the top ATI card is now the X1950 XTX, though I'm not sure how big a difference there would be between it & the X1900 XTX or even the X1900 XT. The X1900 XT has a very-slight difference in fill-rate compared to the 2 higher models, & they also have higher memory bandwidth [X1900 XT: 46.4GB/s, X1900 XTX: 49.6GB/s, X1950 XTX: 64.0GB/s], but given that there's no apparent difference in fill rate between the higher 2 cards it makes me wonder if they've got to the point where they're being held back by the GPU.
The rest is pretty much the same, hard drives are rather cheap for capacity so get what you need and if you need more buy another one :). I have a USB hard drive (120gb) which connects to any of my machines for backup use mostly.
I'd add to that that you should make sure to get a drive with at least 8MB cache [I believe 16MB is the current highest].
If you build your own, I recommend you buy good components, as in high end, high wattage power supply, brand name ram etc..
Not just high wattage on the PSU, but also a brand name - you can get cheap, crap PSUs that are rated high, but should still be avoided. I'm quite happy with my Ultra X-connect 500w. Other name brands to consider are Enermax, Tagan, and PC Power & Cooling.
As for RAM - I had a couple of 512MB GEIL [from their Value range] sticks for over a year, & now have... errr... TBH I'm honestly not sure. I know I have 2x 1GB sticks, but off the top of my head I can't remember who they're made by. :o |
Post by Birdnest // Aug 7, 2006, 6:23am
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Birdnest
Total Posts: 152
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Thanks for the input fella's! :) |
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