Galaxian's engine overhaul - new system build

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Wed Dec 08, 2010 8:05 pm

*edited title*

First let me say I had a great time flying with Eclipse, MiaZ, and couple other pilots who's call signs I haven't seen 1000 times yet so don't recall at the moment (no offense).

It does however seem that I need to wind up the spring on the old P4/AGP difference engine powering the Galactic Gremlin.

Things run dandy at medium settings and planet detail on low as long as there aren't any player ships in the area. Once the action gets going and there are other player ships around, things get reduced to a slide show for me.

Graphics settings don't seem to have a huge effect, so it's likely not enough CPU.

My hooptie old system:

P4 3Ghx
Intel D865PERL
ATI X800GTO AGP
2GB RAM

[Edited on 12-9-2010 by Galaxian]

[Edited on 12-9-2010 by Galaxian]

[Edited on 12-13-2010 by Galaxian]

XB7 · Post by **XB7** » Wed Dec 08, 2010 11:36 pm

In all honesty, I just had to break down and buy a new machine before I could even play Legends. By the time I did, Mercenary was out - and I'm having a blast with it.

You might just roll all your settings to the lowest when in multiplayer mode. You should only have to worry about the AI ships when things are stuttering. If players know you're having a bit of a problem, they won't attack you.

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Thu Dec 09, 2010 3:38 am

I've just realized how long it's been since I built a new PC and that although my current system has been running FSO, Mig Alley and Jane's F/A-18 for years...

And that t's been running FSO, Mig Alley and Jane's F/A-18 for YEARS... LOL

I've been running on the same machine since before I built my cockpit and now have more money in controllers than I had in the machine they are plugged in to.

Time for an upgrade.

Now to defeat that singularity in my bank account...

[Edited on 12-9-2010 by Galaxian]

[Edited on 12-9-2010 by Galaxian]

XB7 · Post by **XB7** » Thu Dec 09, 2010 8:31 am

Yeah, buy those upgrades while the bank still has the money.

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:41 pm

After much head scratching and googliness, I've come up with the following as a build sheet for my new system:

CoolerMaster Storm Sniper case
Asus Sabertooth X58 MB
Core i7 950 quad core Proc
Noctua NH-C12P SE14 CPU cooler
6 gigs of Corsair Dominator triple channel
XFX Radion 5870 1Gig 256 bit
1TB WD SATA 6 HDD
LIteOn SATA DVD R/W
XFX 850w modular PSU

Win 7 Pro 64 bit

This should be a nice upgrade from my old box, which incidentally has had an MTBF cricket take up residence in one of the HDDs...

[Edited on 12-13-2010 by Galaxian]

Parapilot · Post by **Parapilot** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 9:11 pm

From post: 97961, Topic: tid=7005, author=Galaxian wrote:After much head scratching and googliness, I've come up with the following as a build sheet for my new system:

CoolerMaster Storm Sniper case
Asus Sabertooth X58 MB
Core i7 950 quad core Proc
Noctua NH-C12P SE14 CPU cooler
6 gigs of Corsair Dominator triple channel
XFX Radion 5870 1Gig 256 bit
1TB WD SATA 6 HDD
LIteOn SATA DVD R/W
XFX 850w modular PSU

Win 7 Pro 64 bit

This should be a nice upgrade from my old box, which incidentally has had an MTBF cricket take up residence in one of the HDDs...

[Edited on 12-13-2010 by Galaxian]

When you get it all built I would be curious to see what the "Windows Experince Index" is on that bad boy.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 3:40 am

Yes, Please let us know the Windows Index Experience when you have it up and running....

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 5:01 am

I am rather anxious to discover this myself.

I have a dilemma...

While shopping for parts, I found this rather attractive deal:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBund ... mbo.568961

Overall it looks like a better deal than what I put together myself.

Decisions decisions.....

Ravenfeeder · Post by **Ravenfeeder** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:19 pm

That looks a good deal, well worth considering. Tks for the info.

XB7 · Post by **XB7** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 6:10 pm

Well, just to put things into perspective.

Altogether, I think I spent around $550 on my box, including the video upgrade. It runs Mercenary flawlessly - Best Buy HP liquidation special + $50 video card (Ebay).

Although link you gave is the bomb, it's way overboard for what Merc needs.

[Edited on 12-16-2010 by XB7]

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 6:47 pm

Overkill is what I'm going for.

Future proof me as much as reasonable.

Both builds are really close in price. In fact the MB/CPU combos are almost exactly the same cost.

With identical parts aside from those two items, there's virtually no price difference to speak of.

It really seems to come down to the Intel i950 + triple channel RAM vs the AMD 1090 six core + dual channel RAM.

At this moment, I am leaning toward Intel...

Parapilot · Post by **Parapilot** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:30 pm

Don't forget the SSD drive.

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:22 pm

Got the SSD drive too.

Spec'd out the same, there's no price difference between the six core Phenom II 3.2Ghz and the quad core Intel i7 950 3.06Ghz.

I'm going with the Intel rig and a single HD 5870. I like the MB layout and it's gotten great reviews. It supports two PCI-E 2.0x16 so I can add another 5870 at full speed later if needed.

Thanks to everyone for the tips and information! NewEgg has a ton of combos and with some helpful tips both here and in MP last night I was able to nail down exactly what I wanted and not go too much over budget... :p

I plan on ordering the parts this evening and hope to have it up, running and installed in the starfighter next week sometime.

YeeHaw!

XB7 · Post by **XB7** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:23 pm

From post: 98034, Topic: tid=7005, author=Parapilot wrote:Don't forget the SSD drive.

LOL!

Don't do the SSD drive! The computer would process the game so fast, you might experience the mythic bug of infinite universe rendering.

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:26 pm

Once I'm up and running on the new box, I might even stand a chance of keeping up with the MP action...

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:38 pm

Sorry to say, no matter how new or sophisticated a machine you build or buy,
It will be obsolete by the time you plug it in.
In a way, that's good for progress, in another way it just makes us cry!

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:42 pm

From post: 98043, Topic: tid=7005, author=MMaggio wrote:Sorry to say, no matter how new or sophisticated a machine you build or buy,
It will be obsolete by the time you plug it in.
In a way, that's good for progress, in another way it just makes us cry!

But of course... That is the way of these things.

Thanks for reminding me though.... :/

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 8:40 pm

The new warp core has been built and installed.

See next post.

[Edited on 12-25-2010 by Galaxian]

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Fri Dec 24, 2010 11:59 pm

Got my new box built up and running:

CM Storm Sniper case
XFX 'Black Edition' 850w modular PSU
Asus Sabertooth X58 LGA1366 MB
Intel i7 950 LGA1366 CPU
Noctua NH-C12P SE14 CPU cooler
XFX Radeon HD 5870 1GB
OCZ Reaper DDR3 CL6 RAM (6 gig triple channel)
OCZ 60 gig SSD (for OS)
WD SATA-6 'Black' 1TB HDD (storage drive)

Win 7 Pro 64 bit

After I got it all built and the drivers installed/udated, I hooked up my Cougar, MFDs and TrackIR. All of which installed without a hitch.

I switched to VAC from Shoot! for voice control as the latter doesn't run on 64 bit. I like VAC better already as it's easier to build profiles and seems to work great.

After a brief run-in period to make sure everything was stable, I loaded up EM, set every option to the highest detail settings and took flight...

And there was much rejoicing! The 3.5 minute load time went down to about 10 seconds and there was more rejoicing.

Once out in space, the Galactic Avenger was far more responsive and the view was incredible. I ran into some hostiles and was able to dispatch them with a little more 'enthusiasm' than pre-overhaul.

After an energetic rebuttal to the 'greeting by missile salvo' I'd received, headed planetside for some recon and was treated to a whole new world of visual goodness.

I had no idea what I was missing....

Where my old box was severely taxed just keeping up with low settings, the new box runs everything on high without breaking a sweat.

And it runs Win7 64 pretty good too...

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:45 pm

What is your Windows Index Experience? I'm curious now since I was thinking of the Sabertooth X58. Ordered an ASUS P5E Deluxe instead so I can use my old 8GB Cosair XMS2 6400 hundred and get an CPU Q9650 with 2 HD4850. Any one using an ASUS P5E Deluxe Mother Board? If so please let me know your setup and how EM runs on it.....

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:18 pm

My WIE on a scale of 0 - 100 is 100% happy.

The box went together with zero issues. All the hardware installed into the case easily and the box fired right up on the first press of the power button.

The Sabertooth was a dream to set up and I had zero problems. All the devices were detected without any issues, so I set a couple of preference settings in the BIOS, configured the boot options and installed Win 7 pro 64 on the SSD.

Win 7 booted right up without any drama and away I went.

The only thing that I encountered was the cutout in the MB tray didn't line up exactly with the CPU backplate on this particular board/case combo. This means that in order to change the cooler, you either have to trim the tray about 5mm in a couple of spots BEFORE you install the MB OR install the cooler mount first, which what I did.

Apparently this is a common issue and widespread and not really a problem in particular with this case or MB. Although why the case mfgs can't seem get this right is a puzzler...

I haven't built a system in while, but this was easily the quickest, most hassle-free build I've done.

I'm quite happy with the results. The box runs great and I'm digging Win7. Way mo betta than XP in my opinion. It's just better all the way around.

I also did a little EM MP load comparison to my old box and where my old P4 was running at >70% CPU load a lot of the time, the new box is camped out at <10% most all the time and everything runs fantastic.

Parapilot · Post by **Parapilot** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:45 pm

The Windows Experience Index is an actual rating between 1.0 and 7.9. You can get to it thru the Start menu by right clicking on Computer and then Properties. You will need to refresh it to get a value. I think with your setup you are looking at about 7.4 to 7.6. I'm curious too what a system like that rates at. Mines at about 7.3 if I can remember. It takes the lowest value of 5 ratings. 7.3 on my system is the CPU AMD 945. I just looked at mine and the 7.3 is tied with the hard drive and I have a SSD drive also. At one point it was at 7.4 for the hard drive but I don't do any maintaince on mine but I'm going to start now after reading articles on it recently.

CPU 7.3
Memory 7.5
Graphics Aero 7.4
Gaming 7.4
Hard Drive 7.3

[Edited on 12-27-2010 by Parapilot]

[Edited on 12-27-2010 by Parapilot]

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:01 pm

Win7 noob mode enabled here..... lol

Didn't realize there was an official type widget that quantified it.

Go ahead... laugh....

I'll do that and report the results.

Parapilot · Post by **Parapilot** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:29 pm

In regards to your SSD if you haven't done it already, you will want to turn off defraging, prefetch and superfetch. If you have any questions do a search on SSD maintainence. Since you have a more current version of a SSD you will probably not have to run wiper.exe.

And no I'm not laughing.. been there...in fact....I still am.

Galaxian · Post by **Galaxian** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:50 pm

Excellent! Thanks for the tips.

More useful things I did not know, but make perfect sense.