Hardware Recommendations for new machine

[jlivermore]

I'm thinking of replacing my 5-year-old Windows machine (XP) with something new. How important is the graphics speed/memory for the sim experience? I'm not a gamer, so orbiter is the main consideration for me. Does the DX10/11 type of thing do anything or is that overkill?

My current machine isn't too bad with orbiter so I'm assuming just about anything mid-range today will be superior in comparison.

 

[Schimz]

What are your computer's specs and his usage ?

And your estimated budget ?

 

[orb]

How important is the graphics speed/memory for the sim experience? I'm not a gamer, so orbiter is the main consideration for me. Does the DX10/11 type of thing do anything or is that overkill?

Not much important for the built-in graphics Orbiter, because it's DX7. But it will be for external graphics clients like OGLA or D3D9Client. There is no DX10 or DX11 client being made for Orbiter yet.

My current machine isn't too bad with orbiter so I'm assuming just about anything mid-range today will be superior in comparison.

Depends. Some people who changed computers a year or two years ago complained that Orbiter is slower on their new machines. What have you got, and what do you want to buy?

 

[streb2001]

My PC is seven years old with onboard graphics. About 2/3 years ago I added an NVidia 7600 GS to replace the onboard graphics. Couldn't believe the difference it made. Might be easier than replacing the whole PC.

 

[jlivermore]

What I have now is an Athlon 64 at 1.8 GHz, 1.5 Gig RAM. There are some components that are flaking out so it seems like a good time to just get something new and up-to-date.

I don't think I want to go over $1000. Might be nice to get one of the larger monitors with 1920x1080.

If I'm looking at, say, an $800 machine with integrated graphics, but spending a couple hundred extra bucks on a dedicated graphics card would improve things noticeably, that's what I'm looking for.

I see some machines with i5 or AMD Phenom II in this range.

 

[halcyon]

Your budget will really be the deciding factor on what you get.
If you plan to build, you can get more value out of your dollars.

For around $800, you could get a very nice machine that will run orbiter smoothly. For even $500-600 you could get a machine that runs Orbiter no problem.
If you use existing parts out of your current machine, you could save on things like the case, PSU, and maybe the RAM depending on if it's compatible with the new motherboard you get.
Just add a cheap Intel i5 CPU (or equivalent AMD) plus the board and an earlier GFX card like the GeForce 8 series, and you'd have a nice machine if Orbiter is your priority.

If you need new RAM, it's really cheap on the market. Even new triple channel DDR3 1600 GHz RAM is on sale these days. You could pick up older RAM for probably $30.

If you really want to stick with an $800 budget, here's what I'd suggest:

- a nice Antec case, like the 600 mid tower http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...129079&cm_re=antec_600-_-11-129-079-_-Product
- Asus motherboard that supports i5/i7 cores. I've heard some bad things about some of the Gigabyte boards with the i7 cores, not sure about the i5's
- personally I'd go with an i7 CPU because the prices right now are reasonable. But if you want to keep the CPU below $200, go with an i5 660. Check out the latest SharkyExtreme.com CPU price list http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/WCPG/article.php/10705_3916676__6
- GFX cards are insanely cheap right now. You could get a GTX 460 for under $200
- a nice power supply. I recommend Corsair units. They're reliable and fairly priced
- tons of cheap RAM right now. Corsair has some nice deals on newegg.com


I just ordered parts for my new machine through newegg, should be delivered next week. My original budget was $1,000, but I decided to spend a bit more for the CPU, plus I tacked on a copy of Win 7 64 bit (been suffering through Vista).
Here's what I was able to get for $1,200:

- i7 950 3.06 GHz quad core (insanely easy to overclock up to 3.5 without aftermarket cooling)
- EVGA NVidia GTX 265 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E SLI
- 8GB Corsair XMS3 240-pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) RAM
- ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 motherboard
- Corsair 750W PSU
- Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower case (3x 120mm fans, 1 200mm fan)
- Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium OEM

I'm re-using my HD.
Jlivermore, I'd suggest looking at sharkyextreme.com and newegg.com. Lots of after x-mas deals now, and the price I paid for mine was in Canada. US has better prices on deals.

 

[NukeET]

@halcyon:

Just saw this list for a home built gaming PC for under $850:

Motherboard: MSI 890GXM-G65
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Video card: AMD Radeon HD 6850
Memory: 4GB Crucial Ballistix RAM
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB
Optical Drive: Lite-On DVD burner
Power Supply: Thermaltake TR2 600W
Case: NZXT Vulcan
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

But, I don't know how the above combination will affect Orbiter's frame rate...to me a really important issue.

 

[Grover]

my new desktop was just under £400 (ENG) and it runs orbiter with above 40FPS even with over 20 vessels in the same scanerio. if its new: itll run it REALLY well, and even if its a year or two old, it'll still run it fine, Orbiter isnt very resource intensive compared to new machines

 

[jimblah]

Orbiter 2010 is the first "Windows" application I've run in nine years. Wine doesn't do Orbiter justice so I created an ntfs partition and installed xp pro(ughhh...) P4P800-E deluxe, P4 3.2 Ghz, 2 gigs crucial PC3200, WD Raptor @10K rpm, Nvidia Geforce 8600 GS.
This system is ok... but for the ultimate orbiter machine that can support motion simulation software and Orbiter 2010...
Hard drive performance is the bottleneck. I'm looking to build around SSD and an LGA1366 platform. I'm wondering if anyone has seen the ACARD ANS-9010 DDR2 SATA RAM-Drive. Here's a review at http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=308&Itemid=60

 

[Hielor]

Orbiter 2010 id the first "Windows" application I've run in nine years. Wine doesn't do Orbiter justice so I created an ntfs partition and installed xp pro(ughhh...) P4P800-E deluxe, P4 3.2 Ghz, 2 gigs crucial PC3200, WD Raptor @10K rpm, Nvidia Geforce 8600 GS.
This system is ok... but for the ultimate orbiter machine that can support motion simulation software and Orbiter 2010...
Hard drive performance is the bottleneck. I'm looking to build around SSD and an LGA1366 platform. I'm wondering if anyone has seen the ACARD ANS-9010 DDR2 SATA RAM-Drive. Here's a review at http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=308&Itemid=60

"Hard drive performance is the bottleneck" what? :facepalm: You've been on Linux too long and have apparently forgotten what matters in gaming...

Like any game, hard drive doesn't matter for peanuts after Orbiter has loaded. With that system, you should be getting upwards of 100fps in Orbiter on XP, which is plenty for any purposes. Your system's bottleneck right now is your ancient single-core CPU. A 10K RPM hard drive is plenty.

Also, LGA1366 is going out of style. If you absolutely *must* build a computer *right now,* get a 2600K: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&cm_re=2600k-_-19-115-070-_-Product It outperforms all LGA1366 chips except the 980X, and gets pretty darn close to the 980X at 1/3rd the price.

If you can wait a few months though, I'd recommend doing so--Intel's LGA 2011 enthusaist parts are coming in Q2.

 

[jedidia]

Your system's bottleneck right now is your ancient single-core CPU.

although the single-core doesn't have much to do with it either. Orbiter doesn't use multiple cores, unless you're using ORULEX or OGLA. 3.2 Ghz seems plenty, actually.

 

[Hielor]

although the single-core doesn't have much to do with it either. Orbiter doesn't use multiple cores, unless you're using ORULEX or OGLA. 3.2 Ghz seems plenty, actually.

Orbiter itself doesn't use multiple cores, but everything else on your system is also trying to share that single core.

Moving from a single core to a double core will definitely help Orbiter performance by offloading system/OS/background tasks to another core. Going from a double core to a triple or quad won't see much of an improvement at all in Orbiter, but there's definitely an improvement to be had by going from single to double.

 

[Carmen A]

my new desktop was just under £400 (ENG) and it runs orbiter with above 40FPS even with over 20 vessels in the same scanerio. if its new: itll run it REALLY well, and even if its a year or two old, it'll still run it fine, Orbiter isnt very resource intensive compared to new machines

My computer is even cheaper than that and about 3-4 years old if I remember right. Still runs multiplayer dogfights at 30-40 fps and I can even do fraps recording through the HUD. Radeon X1550 graphics and 1 gig of RAM. Does fine in Orulex too.

Does quite well for the (older) games I like to play, the most "modern" of which is Fallout 3.

 

[jimblah]

Orbiter on VirtualBox in linux

I've been testing Orbiter on linux with Ogla on VirtualBox and then wine. VirtualBox has better functionality but wine demonstrates better performance at 2/3rds the resources or overhead. I'm still looking for the best system for my needs. I've uploaded 3 screenshots to the member's gallery unedited folder that clearly shows Orbiter in VirtualBox with Gkrellm in plain view. I have to admit I was clearly trying to push it with compiz running but it was for the shot. Everyone's comments are extremely helpful. .:blahblah:

 

[jimblah]

Update on my hardware

When I was running Orbiter on VirtualBox, hard drive performance was an issue. Now thanks to a better understanding of wine, I've dismissed virtualization completely. The graphics card I was using on closer inspection was actually an Nvidia 8400 GS pci card. I was only averaging 30 to 50 fps in both native xp and linux with OGLA at stock clock speeds. Turns out that overclocking the video card clock and memory harmed nothing at all. This LG W2353V Flatron monitor has a "Demo" mode for "VisualBoost" that shows half the screen with "VisualBoost" on, and the other half with it off. Their refrigerators apparently have a similar problem that people complain about. I don't know how it was activated but it happened in close proximity to the time I overclocked the card and I assumed that was the cause. It wasn't until I installed my new Nvidia 7950 GT AGP DDR3 512MB today that I discovered this. The old card is fine and will serve as a backup. The monitor is fine. I took it out of "demo" mode. I'm now enjoying 120-188 fps with Orbiter in native xp and loving every minute of it. I'm not going back to linux till I feel like going back to work.:lol:

I'm getting high framerates; ie, 500-600 fps when looking at planets with [cntrl][F1]. EVGA Precision is confirming what Orbiter is telling me. I'm going to add all the hires planet textures to try and reduce the fps.