Bit the big one!

[Wrench 9,857]

Well, it looks like it's time to think about a new machine. Been having issues with this box since the end of October -- some weird issues with freezing on the desktop after startup, just before ESET loads.

Yesterday (for those that haven't seen my post on FB) I really hosed myself over by doing a Window update. Now, for reasons unknown (well, not really -- it's a combination of software AND probable hardware, everything but the HD is from 2008), the machine won't even GET to the desktop! 

So, taking the original HD from 2008, which is "known bad" (makes noise), I've been able to get it up and running. But now, I've got to shop for a new machine. At least I don't need peripherals; just the main box. Been looking at either a Dell gaming rig or (a bit more expensive) one of the mid-range Alienware. What I really hate is now, is having to learn a totally new OS, and try to get all my SF, StarWars and other games installed and running. Just have to choose a machine and order it. Hopefully this one will last a few weeks more.

So, if you all have some thoughts on the matter (machine) let me hear 'em! Price range is a max of 2200-ish USD

(I'm still very angry with myself!!)

[bazillius 1,259]

Oh my goshhhh!!!! Oh my gosh...... It means you will use Windows 10 now? Oh boy... You will past this way alone without any help i think and it will be full of sorrow and pain. I can only send you a hug to support you a little.  Sorry for offtop. 

2200$ ? Enough for any adequate machine.  i play on Intel Core i7 7700HQ Kaby Lake,  RAM 8 GB DDR4 SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB GDDR5 and it was price about 900$. I can plays on this machine Tomb Rader, Falout 4  Far Cry Primal etc. on High Graphics without troubles. But if you like to play Tank Platoon 2, Armored Fist 2, Comanche 4, DID EF2000, DID F-22 on Windows 10 it is a pain... i Use DOS BOX for it and PCEMv14. It works on Windows 10, DOS BOX i mean. SF2 works on Windows 10

 

[+VonS 1,424]

I've heard good thoughts about the Intel NUC SkullCanyon series...the top end ones with discrete graphics (probably would have gone with one of those if I wasn't a Mac person and decided on the MacPro instead). Top end NUCs are around 1500 USD, give or take a couple of hundred $ depending on configuration. The SkullCanyon series comes with no OS and RAM/HD I think...but you can build to taste on Amazon or shop around for different components for it.

Link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G3GKYMB/

Happy holidays,

Von S 

P.S. For Win10, go with Pro instead of Home edition and you can meter/control OS updates more effectively - less updates, less hassle.

[MigBuster 2,884]

What are the specs you are looking at?

Are you only looking to play those older games and nothing like DCS?

 

[KJakker 902]

Wrench, have you considered building your own system?

I am planing on replacing my case, motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM, PSU, heat sink and hard drives over the course of this coming year.

[Wrench 9,857]

was looking at something like this:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-gaming-desktops/alienware-aurora/spd/alienware-aurora-r7-desktop/dpcwxtc03h

right now, the older games. DCS is just too much money all the time. If newer flight sims or space game come out, definately want the availability to play them.

I'd thought about building a system, but with my eyesight (minimal depth perception close up and "unfocusedness") I don't think I could.

Definately NOT looking forward to learning Win10!

 

[+daddyairplanes 10,252]

as said on FB try looking at Xidax. used a chunk of VA backpay to get myself a laptop (i7-6700K with overclock to 4.0GHz, 32 GB RAM, 2TB HDD space, 17.1in screen, nVidia GTX1070 and around $3200 3 years or so ago) so went almost all out. but for a desktop their mid range systems are very capable and not too bad (again esp. if your thinking alienware)

https://www.xidax.com/desktops

and win10 isn't too bad when you get used to it. i keep my old win7 system as a backup and actually am getting a little frustrated when i fire it up occasionally due to things i've grown used to in win10

finally i goofed and have the latest update (1803) thats supposed to zonk alot of programs. SF2, GIMP, and Civilization V on Steam work fine so far.

[fallenphoenix1986 603]

19 minutes ago, Wrench said:

Definately NOT looking forward to learning Win10!

Welcome to the club... my girlfriends laptop is Win10 and I hate it with a passion...

My own rig was designed mainly to get me through uni and I graduated 5.5 years ago... turns out the requirements for a decent FEA/CFD set up make for a decent gaming rig... least that was how I justified it at the time... truth is it was more a gaming rig that could handle Ansys/LD-Dyna/Creo etc 

At 9 years old though upgrades just wont cut it any more and since I badly want the DCS F-14 its time to bite the bullet and build a new rig...

[+Trotski 936]

bloody win 10......hate hate hate ! go with a ryzen 5 or 7 the architecture is more forward compatible than the intel processors , an R5 will most likley be adequate, as unless you do a lot of video work you dont need the R7 really but if price isnt an issue just go with the 7 16gb or ram, and 2 drives an ssd for your op system ( sooooo much faster !! ) and a good quality HDD for everything else, a 1060 or equivalent GPU will do the job, 3 gb of vid memeory is enough to be honest, anything above that is not really needed , but its horses for courses, and some peeps like more vid memory,  oh and a nice liquid cooling system for the CPU is desirable, and they are cheap and easy to install tnow, not like before when they were complex and awkward. Oh and nothing to stop you installing win 7 as well and dual boot the pc, until win 10 becomes good.

Edited December 22, 2018 by trotski00

[+Menrva 4,202]

10 hours ago, bazillius said:

But if you like to play Tank Platoon 2, Armored Fist 2, Comanche 4, DID EF2000, DID F-22 on Windows 10 it is a pain... i Use DOS BOX for it and PCEMv14. It works on Windows 10, DOS BOX i mean. SF2 works on Windows 10

I play Armored Fist 2 with DOSBOX, as well as F-22 TAW and Comanche Gold, which is a jewel compared to the arcade-ish Comanche 4. M1 Tank Platoon 2 is prone to crashes though. I guess it's flawed somewhere.

Windows 10 isn't that bad. It was problematic at the beginning, but right now it's miles ahead Windows 7, and I can play the usual old games as I did on Win7. You can even reinstall Win10 without having to lose all your files and installed programs. With Win7 the recovery options were limited to restore points, and those sometimes don't help at all. Sorry for the off-topic.

[MigBuster 2,884]

10 hours ago, Wrench said:

was looking at something like this:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-gaming-desktops/alienware-aurora/spd/alienware-aurora-r7-desktop/dpcwxtc03h

right now, the older games. DCS is just too much money all the time. If newer flight sims or space game come out, definately want the availability to play them.

I'd thought about building a system, but with my eyesight (minimal depth perception close up and "unfocusedness") I don't think I could.

Definately NOT looking forward to learning Win10!

 

Well that's the real trick isn't it! 

 

So looking at the link

 

CPU 

i7 8700 is very good....don't think you can do that much better currently. Only get the K version if overclocking. The i7 8086K I have is essentially a good 8700 but I wanted a guaranteed 5Ghz on all 6 cores.

 

OS

Win 10 Home nothing to be scared of - you can still do a lot of things like you did in Win 7 the control panel is still there but you do need to use the new Settings app which is like settings on a tablet/phone etc - so nothing difficult just getting used to where things are. 

Technically a different and far superior OS to Win 7 - yes as said above some great benefits like being able to essentially rebuild without losing files and Apps - you will notice major updates pretty much do this - similar to phones / tablets etc.

Win 10 Pro - any point going with that ? not seeing why you would. You can defer updates but you still cant stop them completely - unless you set to metered (but you can do that in home and its fairly pointless IMO). You lose some control although not to the level of Phone/tablet OS.

Privacy and control is a big issue for some - not as bad as corporate owned Linux (Android etc) but it is the way the world has gone - there are more things you can do in Windows but I don't bother.

 

Solid State Disk Drive 

The most important thing is having Windows on an SSD and ideally the games as well - so the default 128GB SSD I cant see as being viable - would suggest a 512GB NVMe SSD minimum for some future proofing. Even the SATA 3 SSDs are still ridiculously fast and far superior to SATA 3 HDDs.  You will notice in my sig I have totally ditched the old mechanical drives.

 

RAM

16GB minimum currently would hopefully be enough

 

GFX Card

a GTX 1070 might cover all your current games at 1080p or lower but cant say about any future games. Assuming that must be in a PCI 3.0 express slot then going to an RTX card later should still be viable if a new space game used the new tech like DLSS and is likely to be VR as well!! 

 

 

DCS

It can be costly...........looking at my purchase history DCS has cost about $760 in software so far (you dont need to spend anywhere near that) and if you were doing a system primarily for DCS and liked high settings I would say 32GB RAM and a GTX1080ti or RTX2080ti minimum to cover Multiplayer. If you do 4K or VR then it appears you currently still have to lower settings even with a 2080Ti.

 

[bazillius 1,259]

1 hour ago, Menrva said:

M1 Tank Platoon 2

Ооооор! you play MicropRose Tank Patoon 2 too? You toched the strings of my soul. I am so sentimental today))  It runs perfect on PCEMv14. No crashes, no lag, no artifact. This is not stupid virtualmachine kinda useless VMware or else, this is virtual PC! After it runs your computer begins to think that he is.... Pentium II MMX! With Voodoo 2! And you can install Windows 98 on it for example if you have its CD. and play TP2 without patches, miracles and other things. Video is not mine, just have found it in internet to show how it looks like. Sorry for offtop.

Youtube link - How to Install Windows 98 on PCEM V11

[bazillius 1,259]

 As to Windows 10 Home. You doing something. You doing something long time, phoitoshop or else, or you playing. Windows write to you "so i am updated and i need to restart!" you click "later", and continue playing. After some time its again  "i am updated and i need to restart!" you click "later". you are playing and windowas write "i do not care what are you doing, i will restart myself" and begins to restart. You are siting and thinking, who is main it this room, me or Windows 10? And there is no way to turn this off on Home edition. It is rare now. but year befor it was wery often and was killing my psychik.

[MigBuster 2,884]

Hasn't really affected me as much. Pro does have a lot more flexibility and access to GP.

You can use O & O Shutup 10 for privacy and updates  https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 - Enterprise/Home /Pro are essentially the same OS really :)

Good bit of kit and free but use at own risk - do not recommend stopping updates personally you can also roll back still if you need to without this.

 

 

 

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Kevin

Digital Storm....my specs are below and that's a $4200 rig. I went a bit nuts. For $2200 Digital Storm will hook you right up.

[+baffmeister 1,205]

On 12/21/2018 at 3:59 PM, Wrench said:

Been looking at either a Dell gaming rig or (a bit more expensive) one of the mid-range Alienware.

It will be interesting to see how you proceed. My 8 year old mediocre I-3 Dell has been extremely reliable but I took a look recently at their gaming and Alienware rigs as well. Like you I have some older games I would like to keep working, specifically BoB2 and the old F1 Challenge 99-02. I'm only into season 2 on that game after owning it for about 15 years! I would like to give DCS a try at some point but it would be a "lite" install with just a few older jets that would interest me. Planes like the Mig-15, F-86, Mig-21 and F-5E. I'm mainly interested in checking out the DCS FM's so it would just be a study sim for me with a few basic single missions now and then. I really have to take a closer look at the specs to see what might be a minimal system for DCS.

[+Sundowner 4,837]

21 hours ago, bazillius said:

 As to Windows 10 Home. You doing something. You doing something long time, phoitoshop or else, or you playing. Windows write to you "so i am updated and i need to restart!" you click "later", and continue playing. After some time its again  "i am updated and i need to restart!" you click "later". you are playing and windowas write "i do not care what are you doing, i will restart myself" and begins to restart. You are siting and thinking, who is main it this room, me or Windows 10? And there is no way to turn this off on Home edition. It is rare now. but year befor it was wery often and was killing my psychik.

It can be setup to only install updates on shutdown , I have Win 10 home edition and have only had this happen once, after that I  went into settings/updates and changed the way updates are installed.

Windows 10 is not as hard as most folks make out, it's just usually a case of "ask Google" when you get stuck.

[bazillius 1,259]

8 hours ago, Sundowner said:

It can be setup to only install updates on shutdown

All we have personal preferences working on computer. In times Windows 7 I didnt turn off PC AT ALL! It was up time by month without turning off. it always was doing something, rendering, playing youtube, showing and recording TV programs, reading mp3 books. I forgot about blue scrin of death that times. i forgot about reloading. i forgot about backing up my work files. All changed with Windows 10 Home. It need reloads like... like Windows 98! And in Windows 10 HOME i googled a lot of time, i tried modify Reg, i tryed to use many Updatekillers, all that useless for Windows HOME. i do not say that Windows 10 is a bad system, i just said that Windows 10 HOME it is EVIL!  Any other windows but HOME edition is good i think.

[+EMCON360 215]

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