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KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread


Leonov

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It's definitely more budget-concious RAM, but really unless you specifically need the higher end stuff, it's fine.

I just can't believe the price difference of that stuff now.  When I got the first kit, it was on sale for $270ish,  I got the second kit 9 months later on sale for $142.  Identical product.  It really sucks realizing how much money I could have saved if I built my computer a bit later.

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8 hours ago, XLjedi said:

heard G.Skill was OK

Pretty sure this box and my previous one both had G.Skill RAM in them, and I've not had any problems with it. Benches right where you'd expect too.

As for the "only fill 2 slots" bit, that doesn't make any sense to me. Just match your DIMMS for interleaving.
My current setup is 4x4GB G.Skill + 4x4GB Corsair, in fancy quad-channel motherboard. Benchmarks say no penalty for using all slots, and none for mixing brands. They're not even all the same voltage, but then fancy VRM be fancy too. :P
With DRAM prices as they are, buy as much as you can reasonably afford to. More RAM is good RAM.

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For some reason there's not much information about this on the net but this slightly frustrating to watch video explains what I was talking about:

He's basically pulling the numbers from his behind but from the values he's using the most likely reason why noone cares about this is that it'll only concerns really highly OCed RAM. If you're running your stuff at 3200 then anything will go.

 

What I really don't get is why the RAM slots that are farther away seem to be the more potent in the daisy chain setup. But I looked at my mainboard manual and it is recommending that you should fill the slots that are farther away first (the lighter colored slots in the video).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Recently I've replaced the battery in my laptop and added 2GB more RAM, and I've been thinking about further upgrades - specifically, replacing my ageing Lenovo T420's HDD with an SSD of the same size (1TB).  I have a few questions about buying, replacing and using the hard drive:

1) Where should I look for the best value for money on a 1TB SSD?

2) What's the best way to go about cloning data from the old HDD to the new SSD? It appears that Kingston sells SSDs along with software for data migration, but some tutorials say it's best to simply reinstall the OS and then transfer data across using a USB.

3) What advantages will the SSD have over an HDD, especially when playing KSP?

Thanks in advance :)

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38 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Recently I've replaced the battery in my laptop and added 2GB more RAM, and I've been thinking about further upgrades - specifically, replacing my ageing Lenovo T420's HDD with an SSD of the same size (1TB).  I have a few questions about buying, replacing and using the hard drive:

1) Where should I look for the best value for money on a 1TB SSD?

2) What's the best way to go about cloning data from the old HDD to the new SSD? It appears that Kingston sells SSDs along with software for data migration, but some tutorials say it's best to simply reinstall the OS and then transfer data across using a USB.

3) What advantages will the SSD have over an HDD, especially when playing KSP?

Thanks in advance :)

  1.  If you live in the US, NewEgg or Amazon are a good start.
  2. I agree with reinstalling. More work but you get a "fresh start". Do ensure you have a proper backup and test your backup.
  3. On a laptop, the HDD is typically the performance bottleneck. Upgrading to an SSD makes a very noticeable performance difference. During KSP play itself, as in launching rockets, you won't notice as much of a difference, but load times will be improved noticeably, e.g. start of game, going to launchpad and so on. Bootup will be much faster, and apps in general will load faster.

 

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47 minutes ago, Starlionblue said:

 If you live in the US, NewEgg or Amazon are a good start.

I don't live in the US, but I can still get stuff from Amazon rather fast over here.

49 minutes ago, Starlionblue said:

I agree with reinstalling. More work but you get a "fresh start". Do ensure you have a proper backup and test your backup.

Hmm, doing a reinstallation of the OS (Windows 10 currently) might not be possible for me. Since I bought this laptop second-hand, it already had Windows installed on it, so I don't think I have the means to install it :/

59 minutes ago, Starlionblue said:

On a laptop, the HDD is typically the performance bottleneck. Upgrading to an SSD makes a very noticeable performance difference. During KSP play itself, as in launching rockets, you won't notice as much of a difference, but load times will be improved noticeably, e.g. start of game, going to launchpad and so on. Bootup will be much faster, and apps in general will load faster.

Sounds good! Thanks for your help!

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1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Hmm, doing a reinstallation of the OS (Windows 10 currently) might not be possible for me. Since I bought this laptop second-hand, it already had Windows installed on it, so I don't think I have the means to install it

There should be a sticker with the key on the laptop, otherwise you may be able to read the activation key from the OS. If you have the key you can simply download the OS from Microsoft, for installation with a DVD or an USB Stick.

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3 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Hmm, doing a reinstallation of the OS (Windows 10 currently) might not be possible for me. Since I bought this laptop second-hand, it already had Windows installed on it, so I don't think I have the means to install it :/

 

You could always run Win 10 unactivated.  AFAIK the only downsides are :

  • You can't change personalization settings like your background picture.
  • There will be a "Please give us money for no reason" watermark in the bottom corner.
  • You'll still be using Windows.
Edited by Geonovast
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If it already has Windows 10 on it, MIcrosoft now uses "digital entitlement", recording details of your hardware (including the unique MAC address for the ethernet and wifi adapters). You can do a fresh install of Windows 10 and it will connect to MS's activation servers which will recognize that yes it's the same laptop, so you don't need to enter a product key. There should be a key sticker on the laptop anyway in case you do need to put it in.

And you can actually download Windows 10 freely from Microsoft. They're happy now for us to make our own install discs / usb sticks. The "Media Creation Tool" is a bit lousy but it does work. Note that if you want to use a DVD, the most recent versions of Windows 10 don't fit on a regular DVD, you'll need a dual-layer.

Worked for me putting an SSD in our laptop a couple of weeks ago anyway.

If it currently has Windows 7, I've found Windows 10 will usually activate using a Windows 7 key, even though the "free upgrade" has officially ended.

If there's no key sticker on the computer, you can use a program to get the product key before you take the old drive out.

EDIT PS: And yes, it's made a huge difference. I'm now able to actually turn on the laptop and use it, whereas with the previous awful hard drive I just spent so much time waiting. I opted for a Crucial MX500 512 GB (the same drive I have in my desktop), and also added RAM to a total of 12 GB. Probably overkill on both counts (the drive being one of the best-in-class) but as the saying goes, buy cheap buy twice.

Edited by cantab
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+1 on an SSD.  I never thought much of them until recently.  I have several old laptops running around now that were basically unusable, even after removing the MS garbage, until I tossed an SSD in.  It doesn't even have to be an expensive one.  You can 120GB ones for under $20.

Just remember to keep a backup of anything important.  It's a good idea anyway, but even more so with SSDs.

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Alright, so I should be able to save my data on a USB (or whatever), replace the HDD with the SSD, reinstall Windows (which I think I’ll keep for now), and transfer my data onto the new drive. Despite the current HDD being 1TB, I think I’ll get a 512GB SSD, for the reason of cost and the fact that I’m never going to fill up a terabyte anyway. Does anybody have recommendations for a specific brand of drive I should buy?

Also, @cantab it currently has Windows 10, but I think it was updated from 7 before I bought it, because it has a Windows 7 sticker below the keyboard. But as you said, it’ll probably be able to install Win10 anyway.

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3 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Does anybody have recommendations for a specific brand of drive I should buy?

Samsung, Intel or Crucial would be my picks, but these days anything that's not a bargain-basement mystery-brand should be fine.

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How does this look for a gaming laptop?:

https://www.newegg.com/black-lenovo-legion-y730-17ich-81hg001hus-gaming-entertainment/p/N82E16834847239?item=9SIA24G8277395

I'm intending to run CPU-intensive games (such as heavily modded kerbal and minecraft), as well as graphically intensive games, such as subnautica and borderlands 3. My current laptop has horrible integrated graphics, no SSD, and only 12gb of RAM, though the CPU is quite powerful compared to everything else.

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2 minutes ago, coyotesfrontier said:

Everybody always says that, but a desktop really isn't an option for me. Even if it doubles the price, I'd still rather get a laptop. Also, in order to afford any desktop, I'd still have to sell my current comp.

"Everybody" always says that because for CPU/GPU intensive gaming a desktop will give you better performance at a lower price with more upgradeability.

That being said, the laptop you linked would more than adequate for KSP.

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On 8/17/2019 at 4:23 PM, RealKerbal3x said:

Does anybody have recommendations for a specific brand of drive I should buy?

I only go with Samsungs, either the 850 Pro or 860 Pro.  If you just get the regular one (850 or 860) you save a bit of money for somewhat lower performance.

also, if you need a lot of storage (1Tb) and reasonable speed, you can get the QVO 870.  It's slower than a regular ssd, but cheaper as well

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I would definetly advise against buying the "Pro" variant of samsungs SSDs, the "Evo" variant is way cheaper while being exactly as fast in real world benchmarks. The "Pro" variants have a bit higher theoretical speeds, but this doesnt result in better boot times or loading speed.

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Hi am wanting to upgrade my tower PC. I currently have a I-7 & a 2012 GPU 670 & 8 gigs of ram. And want to get ready for the new games coming out like Cyberpunk 2077 & also the New Kerbal space program 2 & also the new Microsoft Flight simulator coming out next year. And a few other high end flight simulators & games also. And am wanting to play them on the highest settings & butter smooth frame rates. And wondering what are some good upgrades to consider saving up for? As I don't want to buy another Tower PC etc.

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11 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

I currently have a I-7 & a 2012 GPU 670 & 8 gigs of ram.

The first step is to identify what components you actually have. There have been nine generations of i7 CPUs and every generation had multiple different versions in it. Same goes for the GPU. If you have the actual names of your components, you can compare them to newer ones or to the ones recommended for the games you're looking at.

11 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

coming out next year.

Then you should wait with the upgrade until you actually need the performance. There's absolutely no point in upgrading in advance.

3 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

We have a dedicated thread for questions like yours, and so I have moved your question to it.

Well no, you moved the thread to the question. :P

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