Best Hardware/Software for KSP + Mods?????

[Boss Savatron]

Hello all. I've been senselessly murdering Kerbals for a few months now, I've actually been improving these numbers in recent weeks thanks to some kick ass Mods and CKAN (Greatest thing ever)... and this is where I am stuck. So many great and helpful Mods but not enough computing power to keep up. I've been reading and following some of these Steam Machines and other products. which, if any of the Mid ranged price point should I be looking at to run a half decent list of Mods. Here is a link of a few of the machines available. http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

Thanks for any and all help or advice.

[The White Guardian]

Hello all. I've been senselessly murdering Kerbals for a few months now, I've actually been improving these numbers in recent weeks thanks to some kick ass Mods and CKAN (Greatest thing ever)... and this is where I am stuck. So many great and helpful Mods but not enough computing power to keep up. I've been reading and following some of these Steam Machines and other products. which, if any of the Mid ranged price point should I be looking at to run a half decent list of Mods. Here is a link of a few of the machines available. http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

Thanks for any and all help or advice.

Well, I don't know a thing about the steam machines, but this might help:

I've got a computer that can run KSP lag free when:

- no mods are installed

- all textures and renders are set to the lowest quality

This laptop has:

4GB RAM memory

Intel Pentium core

So that's the minimum hardware you're going to need.

Moving on to a better computer: the laptop I'm typing this on. It can run KSP on medium quality with a tiny bit of lag when things like Environmental Visual Enhancements and Kopernicus(planet adding mod) are installed. This laptop has:

Intel HD graphics 4400

Intel i3 core

6GB RAM memory

So for medium-low quality lagfree gaming with a few mods (part-adding mods or mods like Chatterer or Texture Replacer are no problem), you're going to need a computer with that kind of hardware.

For full-quality gaming with lots of mods, you're looking at an Intel i5 recommended, i7 for best results. The RAM should be above 7. Then the graphics, a good Intel HD graphics or Nvidia card will do.

As for the Steam Machines, I don't think you should take one of those if you want to install mods. You see, mods have to be installed in the KSP directory, and the steam machines are not computers.

A steam machine is basically a PS4 that instead of the PS4 software runs Steam. It therefor has no Windows or Apple software, so you can't access the KSP direcory and modify it.

HOWEVER

The steam machines are around $600. Well, a good computer with an i7 core is around $700-$900, so it isn't that expensive when compared to a decent steam machine.

Hope this helps

The White Guardian

[scifi6546]

I would build a computer, you could get a computer that could run ksp as well as other games that you probably discover you like. A 600 dollar pc could probably run ksp well.

[legoclone09]

An $800 budget works scrape you by, it is about $800 with these parts and a motherboard. 8GB RAM minimum with lots of mods, but for 8GB to be worthwhile, you will need Linux because only Linux has 64-bit KSP. A 4460k i5 is more than enough for 60FPS at most times and 2GB of vRAM is good as well. Active Texture Management reduces RAM usage and OpenGL/DirectX 11 help even more with using less RAM. Anyways, welcome to the forums! With practice, your Kerbals will not die. Much.

Edited August 13, 2015 by legoclone09

[The White Guardian]

I would build a computer, you could get a computer that could run ksp as well as other games that you probably discover you like. A 600 dollar pc could probably run ksp well.

$600 is a nice budget, but not enough for a computer with a decent processor and GPU, those are $600 and more. In fact, the most expensive gaming pc I've seen was around $16500! But hey, that one had:

8x Intel i7 core (the most powerful edition of the i7 is the strongest processor ever built on Earth!)

4x Nvidia GeForce Titan X (Until the new Titan Z showed up, the Titan X was the most powerful GPU)

64 GB RAM

You understand, that's a lot of money wasted, since it's practically using a minigun on a fly. Good computers do not have to be expensive, you'll be fine with an intel i5 quad core, 8GB RAM and a decent GPU, which'll cost around $650-$950.

[Dilli]

IIRC Steam OS is just a modified linux (Debian) OS and it seems you can just enable the access to the desktop to and file system. So installing Mods on it shouldn't be a problem.

Steam machines are just prebuild PC's with Steam OS installed (saving on OS costs) and certified to work with Steam OS (you may get a controller with them to)

You could build you own PC and install Steam OS if you so wish.

Most of the Steam Machines listed don't give the actual stats so hard to recommend one; That said, as mentioned above a normal i5 + 8 GB RAM and Decent GPU will work perfectly (I have used a HD5770, HF5870 and GTX570 - the latter two are ample; AMD 270 onwards or Nvidia GTX 960 onwards would be safe bet current GPUs) . If buying a Steam machine try avoid a mobile / embedded version i5 (There are to many intel suffixs now but I think its the i5-????U and i5-????M that some of the Steam Machines were intending to use)

[legoclone09]

IIRC Steam OS is just a modified linux (Debian) OS and it seems you can just enable the access to the desktop to and file system. So installing Mods on it shouldn't be a problem.

Steam machines are just prebuild PC's with Steam OS installed (saving on OS costs) and certified to work with Steam OS (you may get a controller with them to)

You could build you own PC and install Steam OS if you so wish.

Most of the Steam Machines listed don't give the actual stats so hard to recommend one; That said, as mentioned above a normal i5 + 8 GB RAM and Decent GPU will work perfectly (I have used a HD5770, HF5870 and GTX570 - the latter two are ample; AMD 270 onwards or Nvidia GTX 960 onwards would be safe bet current GPUs) . If buying a Steam machine try avoid a mobile / embedded version i5 (There are to many intel suffixs now but I think its the i5-????U and i5-????M that some of the Steam Machines were intending to use)

Most Steam Machines are 'consoley', they aren't as good for more hardcore gaming. or graphically intensive games, like GTA 5 on Ultra or High settings.

[jaredkzr]

Most Steam Machines are 'consoley', they aren't as good for more hardcore gaming. or graphically intensive games, like GTA 5 on Ultra or High settings.

Your main issue is going to be driver support. Most hardware companies don't release drivers for Linux as often making them outdated and potentially leading to lower performance. Steam OS itself is actually very lightweight and can offset some of the driver disadvantages. You'll find that Steam OS will perform similarly to Windows on high-end games such as GTA 5 and others.

[Lord Aurelius]

I'm not sure how technically inclined you are, but if you want to maximize KSP then you'll be better off building a PC since you'll be able to focus your spending on the components that make the biggest difference.

KSP is CPU bound so you don't need to spend big bucks on a high end GPU, but you'll still want something better than integrated, especially if you want to use visual mods. Since you're looking at Steam machines I'm assuming that you would be fine with Linux (which is better for KSP anyways since it's been 64-bit for a long time) and you'll want as much memory as you can reasonably get your hands on (about 16GB). I would also recommend a SSD to drastically reduce game load times with a lot of mods.

A Steam Machine could work just fine, but it's hard to recommend a specific model since a lot of them aren't listing any technical specifications. What you'll want to look for is an Intel CPU (make sure the model number doesn't end in T, Y, U, or M, these are low voltage/mobile parts that won't have as high of performance), an Nvidia GPU (better linux driver support) GTX 950 or higher, minimum 8GB of RAM (more is better, especially for KSP on 64-bit linux), and a SSD (realistic minimum if you also want other games/software is 256GB).