KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread

[stosyfir]

I have an Inspiron gaming laptop I run ksp on with an i5-7300hq and a 1050 it runs just fine heavily modded. actually looking at your listed specs it sounds like the same one.. Inspiron gaming 15. They have a slightly better version with a 1050ti and an SSD (I have a slot to add one to mine if I want) for $100 more. I'll probably get some more RAM just cuz but otherwise I haven't had any issues really.. just the usual load times because of mods.

 

Edit: It doesn't bother me really but just a warning it's a matte screen and a lot of people don't like those (I love em) and some reviews say the colors aren't great.. but again that seems like preference) it was on display at my local Best buy I'd assume yours would have it as well if you want to scope it out first 

Edited August 22, 2017 by stosyfir

[TheRagingIrishman]

@A_name my suggestion is to buy a cheap laptop for school/work and then invest in a good desktop rig (if that's possible for you)

[invision]

that GPU is more than plenty, i run ksp on a Radeon 7970 clocked at 1025mhz and it runs the game at 60 fps.

 

 

[Guest]

I'm running an Alienware 15 R2 with an i5, 16GB RAM, and a 965M, Full RO/RSS setup with RSSVE and 8K textures runs great, and a stock setup with visual mods runs just as good. On a mechanical hard drive even.

That laptop you spec'd should be just fine for KSP with all the sauce.

Edited August 22, 2017 by regex

[Guest]

4 hours ago, DrLicor said:

On another note, why a laptop?

Some of us prefer the portability for a gaming setup. Some of us literally game at the kitchen table because the office separates us from our family. Some of us value a do-all computer in one package rather than having a ton of gadgets.

I don't really see the point of the question. OP clearly wants a new laptop, there's no reason to debate that point and they likely have circumstances that make it more attractive to them than to you.

[Raven.]

6 hours ago, A_name said:

So I'm considering a new laptop which I want to be able to run KSP smoothly and finally be able to use visual mods. What do you guys think?

Intel Core i7 7700HQ 3.8GHz
16GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050

Not bad. In all honesty, with Kerbal, you will have zero problems with that setup. Do you mind me asking how much is that laptop?

I currently run Kerbal on an Alienware 14 R4, with an Intel i7-6700HQ, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB stolid state, a 1 TB storage drive, and a GeForce GTX 1070. I did not get the 4k screen, since even with the 1080p screen I can still attach the laptop to my 65" 4k curved Samsung and get the 4k resolution (saved me $300).

4 hours ago, DrLicor said:

On another note, why a laptop? Not that I'm anti-laptop, I have a decent laptop myself because I need it for school/internships. 
But with a laptop with those specs above, you can buy a better PC, with overclockable CPU/GPU, and can even buy a cheap laptop extra of the money you safe. 

Also, the thing with laptops is, the chips are not as durable as with a PC, they are getting slower much earlier than a PC.
If you really need a laptop for rendering or something like that on another location than at home, I would suggest you go for the laptop. In other cases, I would just get a decent PC with a cheap laptop for simple things like word etc. So for school. 

My alienware has a better video card than my desktop. Since nVidia now has full GPUs available for mobile, it's made, IMHO, mobile gaming more cost effective. Yes, I know, some people would argue with that point (and that's fine). Plus I got a laptop this time around since it allows me to setup virtually anywhere in the house; I can put the Alienware in my lap while in bed. Or take it elsewhere for Starcraft Remastered lan parties

[DrLicor]

9 minutes ago, regex said:

Some of us prefer the portability for a gaming setup. Some of us literally game at the kitchen table because the office separates us from our family. Some of us value a do-all computer in one package rather than having a ton of gadgets.

I don't really see the point of the question. OP clearly wants a new laptop, there's no reason to debate that point and they likely have circumstances that make it more attractive to them than to you.

Easy, I was just asking to clarify the rest of my comment. He said he needs it for school/work. And since I'm in the same situation as him, I asked him why he would need it for school/work. Is t for heavy rendering, or just for documentating some lessons. It could happen that he thought, hey I need a better rig for ksp, let's upgrade to a new laptop since I already needed that for school. In the case of heavy rendering, it would be the right choise. But that was just about the use of the laptop. I wasn't questioning any other situations like home/family/portable. Of course, if the reasons where clarified that a laptop was a real must, I wouldn't recommend a rig and a cheap laptop. I was just adding an extra option.

[Jas0n]

You'll be able to run KSP fine. I'm running it with some visual mods with intel integrated graphics.

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, DrLicor said:

Easy

There's no anger there, I just don't understand why OP is asked to clarify their choice of a laptop when they're asking others about their choice of laptop hardware. OP clearly implied they specifically want a laptop so that choice has already been made. vOv

[DrLicor]

3 minutes ago, regex said:

There's no anger there, I just don't understand why OP is asked to clarify their choice of a laptop when they're asking others about their choice of laptop hardware. OP clearly implied they specifically want a laptop so that choice has already been made. vOv

Right, Haha. Than we are on the same level. I just wanted to know if the reason(s) were solid enough to get a laptop. It would be a pity if OP buys a laptop for 1k for example, while the reason for a laptop over a desktop was to just write some word documents for school, right?

For extra clarification, the same almost happened to my brother, he is a freshman this year and needed to buy a laptop for school. Since he likes gaming a lot, he wanted a badass laptop so he could also game on it. However, now he got a (upgradable) rig + a laptop for school. 

I wasn't disproving OP reasons for a laptop, I just wanted for him to make te right choise since we know very little about the scenario. And if the OP wasn't informed of the fact that you can buy for example a pc+cheap laptop for the same money as for a good gaming laptop, I can imagine that a more expensive choise could be made.

[Guest]

 

42 minutes ago, DrLicor said:

I just wanted to know if the reason(s) were solid enough to get a laptop.

I don't think OP needs your approval of "solid"-ness to make the decision for themselves.

42 minutes ago, DrLicor said:

I just wanted for him to make te right choise since we know very little about the scenario.

I'm sure they know what's best for them.

I bought my laptop for around $1300. Could I have bought a laptop and desktop for the same? Sure, I could have bought a comparable desktop for like, what, $800 or $900 and hooked it up to the 24" widescreen I already have, leaving enough for a decent development laptop. Could I have bought a laptop and desktop, with similar stats, from Dell using my Preferred Account what I've had on autopay for the last eight or nine years and don't have to think about? No. Financing helped make that decision for me (and one of the reasons I go for somewhat overpriced Dells since I'm already in with them for literally thousands in interest and no one offers better rates for computer equipment) along with some other considerations I've already mentioned.

But here's the thing: I shouldn't have to tell this story to ask whether and how the new i7, 16GB, 1050M laptop I'm considering will run KSP with all those saucy mods. Just my take. 

[Ty Tan Tu]

It seems more than adequate to me. According to notebookcheck, you could play Resident Evil 7 at high with decent frame rates. Heat is always a problem with laptops when playing games, so you might look at cooling pads.

It is definitely better than my AMD A8-8600 Radeon R6. 

[Vanamonde]

@A_name, your question has been merged into the master thread for this sort of thing. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Ty Tan Tu said:

Heat is always a problem with laptops when playing games, so you might look at cooling pads.

This^

I have fan plates for my gaming AND development laptops; they're cheap insurance for your hardware.

[A_name]

Wow guys, thanks so much for all the great answers. This is why the KSP community is so awesome.

As to the why a laptop debate, I just prefer to have everything in a single package. That said, I will consider buying a cheap laptop for my basic web browsing and word processing needs and use the remaining money for a better PC. If it works out money-wise I just might do it. 

@Raven. the price is USD $1,200. This is a good deal for those specs in my country, no idea how much this would cost in the US or somewhere else.

21 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

@A_name, your question has been merged into the master thread for this sort of thing. 

Right on, thanks!

On 8/22/2017 at 1:53 PM, NSEP said:

9/10. You could go for a slightly better GPU but its quite good nontheless. Better than my setup.

It should run KSP smooth like butter. I have a computer that is worse but runs KSP and other games with high graphics quality smooth and sleek like a red hot knife through styrofoam.

I enjoyed your metaphors, do you follow football (soccer) by any chance? You're the Ray Hudson of gaming : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS6Np-g_h5w

 

Edited August 24, 2017 by A_name

[A_name]

Hi guys I'm back to ask for a little bit more help before settling for a new laptop. I'll try to keep my questions succinct:

 

1. Will there be a noticeable difference between an i5 7300hq and an i7 7700hq?

2. Will there be a noticeable difference between 8gb and 16 gb of RAM?

 

Thank you all!

[A_name]

*bump*

[qzgy]

On 8/24/2017 at 0:59 PM, A_name said:

Hi guys I'm back to ask for a little bit more help before settling for a new laptop. I'll try to keep my questions succinct:

 

1. Will there be a noticeable difference between an i5 7300hq and an i7 7700hq?

2. Will there be a noticeable difference between 8gb and 16 gb of RAM?

 

Thank you all!

1. No, probably not.

2.Yes. 16Gb gives you more room to play with. I often run out of memory with 8gb while playing KSP And running Firefox.

[Camacha]

9 hours ago, qzgy said:

2.Yes. 16Gb gives you more room to play with. I often run out of memory with 8gb while playing KSP And running Firefox.

That doesn't sound right. I have worked with 8 GB for years, doing all sorts of complicated things simultaneously, including a few that are rather RAM taxing. Just KSP and Firefox should not use that much, the most ungodly complicated modified KSP installs possibly excepted.

[qzgy]

16 minutes ago, Camacha said:

That doesn't sound right. I have worked with 8 GB for years, doing all sorts of complicated things simultaneously, including a few that are rather RAM taxing. Just KSP and Firefox should not use that much, the most ungodly complicated modified KSP installs possibly excepted.

Ok, maybe I exaggerate a bit .I do see often though the 'Close programs to save memory' thing pop up from Windows a bit more often than I maybe should. Right now with about 10 firefox tabs and whatever background programs are running, I am using around 3.8 GB. With a not too heavily modded KSP install (visual mods plus a couple display mods), it eats about 3 gb, IIRC. So, sometimes I see the programs crash from a lack of memory.

The extra space would be nice though.

[Camacha]

23 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Ok, maybe I exaggerate a bit .I do see often though the 'Close programs to save memory' thing pop up from Windows a bit more often than I maybe should. Right now with about 10 firefox tabs and whatever background programs are running, I am using around 3.8 GB. With a not too heavily modded KSP install (visual mods plus a couple display mods), it eats about 3 gb, IIRC. So, sometimes I see the programs crash from a lack of memory.

The extra space would be nice though.

It seems something might be wrong with your installation. Windows should use anything between 1 to 2 GB. Firefox does love RAM, but from experience I can tell you it can get to about 2,5-3,5 GB before simply giving up. You need about 200-300(!) tabs for that.

Like I said, I've done some pretty advanced stuff with 8 GB of RAM and can remember maybe twice getting in trouble because of it, and that was with a silly amount of complicated software packages opened at the same time. Adding another 8 GB is a waste if it will never get used. In that case, the money is better spent elsewhere. If you add that money to your GPU, you are bound to notice a nice improvement in performance, while idle RAM gains you nothing. RAM is only useful if you actually use it. Spending a 100 to 150 dollars for that one time you opened a lot of tabs because you felt like it that night might be a bit of a waste.

Also, programs shouldn't crash due to a lack of memory. Windows will start using the page file on your hard drive, slowing things down considerable, but avoiding crashes. Only when you disable the pagefile completely, you should start getting in trouble when the memory runs out.

[CatastrophicFailure]

FWIW, I'm with @qzgy, here.  I've got 16 gigs, and with a heavily modded KSP install and my usual couple dozen always-open Chrome tabs, I was running into memory crashes constantly. Until I realized at some point I'd disabled the page file entirely. Probably way back when I was thrinking, "16 gigs and a RAIDed SSD array? The heck do I need a page file for?"

point is, with KSP and lots of mods, 8 gigs can go away real fast. 

[Eldrad_Ulthran]

4gb club here! Ksp (modded heavily), Elite dangerous horizons, DCS, Rise of flight. More. I can run those without my computer dieing from shock (Not at once, That will crash stuff)

[A_name]

Thanks again averyone!

[Camacha]

On 28/08/2017 at 8:25 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

FWIW, I'm with @qzgy, here.  I've got 16 gigs, and with a heavily modded KSP install and my usual couple dozen always-open Chrome tabs, I was running into memory crashes constantly. Until I realized at some point I'd disabled the page file entirely. Probably way back when I was thrinking, "16 gigs and a RAIDed SSD array? The heck do I need a page file for?"

point is, with KSP and lots of mods, 8 gigs can go away real fast. 

Chances are fairly big that you never really needed all that RAM. It's just that Windows tries to use all it can - idle RAM is wasted RAM - and that it does not expect the page file to be absent. You just set yourself up for trouble that way. People grossly overestimate the resources they actually use on a computer time and time again.