KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread

[Vanamonde]

Your question has been merged into the master thread for this kind of question, @Momo8289. 

And welcome to our forum.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

I'm looking for a external hard drive to hold my pictures, videos, zipped KSP installs, backups of files, and other stuff that doesn't need quick access. I probably want something with 1-4tb of storage, and isn't solid state. I care mostly about cost and reliability, although I'm happy with a disk drive since it won't be running most of the time. It also does not need to be quiet, or very fast. USB is the easiest way for my computer to connect to it. I'd like to spend less than $100USD, ideally less than $70USD.

I was recommended this by someone who uses it, but I was wondering if anyone here had any other suggestions. I can't really find a category for this on places like newegg, everything there seems to be SSDs with faster connection types. Thanks!

[Harry Rhodan]

6 hours ago, Momo8289 said:

Link: http://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/cty/pdp/spd/inspiron-15-5575-laptop/ni155575_btsb_s8012e/configurations?cid=3852&st=&pdv=m&lid=5736660&VEN1=sIj9Al4at,177321299993,901mtv7630,m,&VEN2=,&dgc=st&dgseg=dhs&acd=1230881379501410&VEN3=519304314024641511

Should be more than enough. But you have to remember that in order to get the most out of an APU you need two fast RAM modules of the same size because they are in most cases limited by memory bandwith.

3 hours ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

I can't really find a category for this on places like newegg, everything there seems to be SSDs with faster connection types. Thanks!

https://www.newegg.com/Portable-External-Hard-Drives/SubCategory/ID-3400?Tid=167526

You have to click on the broad categories to see more subcategories, otherwise the GUI will only offer you a small selection.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

8 hours ago, Harry Rhodan said:

[...]

https://www.newegg.com/Portable-External-Hard-Drives/SubCategory/ID-3400?Tid=167526

You have to click on the broad categories to see more subcategories, otherwise the GUI will only offer you a small selection.

Thanks, I was looking in "backup drives."  

[Momo8289]

Thanks. So will it be good without any extra modifications?

[RealKerbal3x]

Hi, I’m kind of a noob at this computer stuff so don’t worry if I ask a stupid question:

Is it actually at all possible to upgrade a laptop??

[Elthy]

Its depends. On most bigger ones you can swap the hard drives, often the RAM is also reachable. In theory its sometimes possible to upgrade the graphics card since its on a dedicated MXM module, but you usualy wont get hands on a compatible module. Very rarely you can switch the CPU, but thats only true for those with desktop sockets, which are special build bulky gaming machines.

[Lisias]

5 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Is it actually at all possible to upgrade a laptop??

It depends. Some laptops allow changing/adding memory and replacing the processor. A very few allow changing GPU.

I don't know a single laptop that would not allow replacing HD/SDD.

[SiglakS]

Uhhhhhh i have Pentium(R) Dual Core CPU E5400 @ 2.7 GHz 2500 Mhz....

 

Can Uh run it ?

[davidGGlines]

Hey guys,

I have Intel Core i5-4200U, 2300 Ghz, 8 gigs of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M. Will it run with it fine?

Thanks.

[Vanamonde]

16 minutes ago, davidGGlines said:

Hey guys,

I have Intel Core i5-4200U, 2300 Ghz, 8 gigs of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M. Will it run with it fine?

Thanks.

It's better than my PC, and mine runs KSP fairly well.

Also, your question has been merged into the master thread for this kind of question. 

[Lisias]

On 6/16/2018 at 11:13 AM, SiglakS said:

i have Pentium(R) Dual Core CPU E5400 @ 2.7 GHz 2500 Mhz....

How much memory? What video card?

If you have 4Gb and a dedicated Video Card, it will run. Perhaps you will have to adjust down something, but it will run - but I would not install any mods. Making History is reported to run on this, but I heard some complains that sometimes KSP crashes by lack of memory with 4Gb RAM.

If you have a embedded ("onboard") GPU, my advise is to have 6Gb of RAM at minimum, as the GPU will stole some memory from the CPU.

[Nightside]

Hi All, I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this, I'm a bit of a stranger to the lounge...

Anyway I'm getting a massive upgrade to my work laptop for CAD and GIS work - 32GB ram, actual video card('ve been on Intel graphics the last 4 years), 500GB SSD, etc.

So naturally I want to play KSP on it. My work has no restrictions on installing programs, but I'm curious if there is "low-profile" way to install games on a computer so that they aren't obvious.

[qzgy]

3 hours ago, Nightside said:

So naturally I want to play KSP on it. My work has no restrictions on installing programs, but I'm curious if there is "low-profile" way to install games on a computer so that they aren't obvious.

What do you mean by "not obvious"? Like not immediately visible? KSP bought from the store is pretty easy as it comes just as a zip file which you can unzip and bury in some folder, and not make any shortcuts or anything to it. (good rule of thumb not to get it discovered....)

Not sure about steam though.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

4 hours ago, Nightside said:

Hi All, I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this, I'm a bit of a stranger to the lounge...

Anyway I'm getting a massive upgrade to my work laptop for CAD and GIS work - 32GB ram, actual video card('ve been on Intel graphics the last 4 years), 500GB SSD, etc.

So naturally I want to play KSP on it. My work has no restrictions on installing programs, but I'm curious if there is "low-profile" way to install games on a computer so that they aren't obvious.

KSP can be run portably from a zip drive, although loading might be a bit slow. You could just copy it back and forth off the zip drive as needed. 

[tsaven]

Hey guys, I'm building a new gaming computer and could use some advice on what's worth it to splurge on for making my KSP experience even better.  Obviously single-core CPU speed is king for part counts, but what helps with other general performance?  I'm hoping to speed up the loading times, the waiting when reverting to launch, transitioning to a new scene/ship, etc. Right now it's painful, 15-20 seconds or more when switching to new ships (Which is an eternity when you're just sitting there waiting) and 4-5 minutes to load the game.

New computer will (probably) be:

• i5-8600K with a mild overclock (4.8-4.9GHz)
• 32gb of RAM,
• GTX 960 (holdover from my old computer, no reason to upgrade it because all I play is KSP)

I run pretty heavily modded, many of the USI mods for manufacturing and life support, SVE, Outer Planets, etc.

Is memory speed going to help?  NVMe SSDs?  What else can be enhanced to make KSP more usable and the loading/scene switching times faster? 

[AngrybobH]

I would suggest an NVMe SSD and decent memory speed. I shamelessly built this computer for KSP. Sure, I do many other things with it but, KSP was the only consideration. Well, a bit of price and the fact I normally only use AMD CPUs.

My old rig was an AMD Phenom II 965BE(OC'd to ~3.8ghz), 8gb high speed RAM, and SATA 3 drives. The current one is a Ryzen 5 1600x(currently not OC'd), 32gb decently high speed ram, a samsung 960evo (OS and KSP and 12 second boots times), and a SATA 6. Both run the same 970GTX. I run about the same amount of mods from when I had one to the other(~78 mods, lots of visual). Load times are improved but not by a huge amount. switching scene times is also improved but, also not by a huge amount. The game runs smoother on the new rig but part count before slow downs start is roughly the same but max playable part count is considerably higher(over 4fps with over 1000 parts!).

KSP with a lot of mods can store a quite a bit in memory but 32gb is more than it needs unless you are using

That mod can slow down that little stutter every so often and put that 32gb of RAM to use. Memory speed is always good but, by itself the improvement is negligible. Most of my improvement is probably due to the NVMe.

[Dman979]

Since this isn't about KSP itself, I've moved it to the Lounge.

[tsaven]

3 hours ago, AngrybobH said:

I would suggest an NVMe SSD and decent memory speed. I shamelessly built this computer for KSP. Sure, I do many other things with it but, KSP was the only consideration. Well, a bit of price and the fact I normally only use AMD CPUs.

My old rig was an AMD Phenom II 965BE(OC'd to ~3.8ghz), 8gb high speed RAM, and SATA 3 drives. The current one is a Ryzen 5 1600x(currently not OC'd), 32gb decently high speed ram, a samsung 960evo (OS and KSP and 12 second boots times), and a SATA 6. Both run the same 970GTX. I run about the same amount of mods from when I had one to the other(~78 mods, lots of visual). Load times are improved but not by a huge amount. switching scene times is also improved but, also not by a huge amount. The game runs smoother on the new rig but part count before slow downs start is roughly the same but max playable part count is considerably higher(over 4fps with over 1000 parts!).

KSP with a lot of mods can store a quite a bit in memory but 32gb is more than it needs unless you are using

That mod can slow down that little stutter every so often and put that 32gb of RAM to use. Memory speed is always good but, by itself the improvement is negligible. Most of my improvement is probably due to the NVMe.

Thanks for the reply.  I'm suprised you went with AMD for your newest build, unless it has advantages for other things you use your system for.  Single-thread performance has not been their forte as of late.

I run out of RAM on a pretty regular basis.  After a couple hours of KSP with all my mods, I'll be right at or over my current 16gb.  32gb should give me the breathing room and if I can run that great mod you pointed me to, even better.  I'm still not totally sure on how to use it, but it seems like it will help.

My current system is an i5-4590 with 16gb, and some of my larger Mun/Minums bases make the system slow to an unmanageable crawl with ~4 100 part count ships and ~5 smaller 20 part count ships all within physics range.  It'll sink to 8fps, but also be so laggy and unresponsive that it takes forever to get anything done.

My hard drive is a 256gb Samsung SSD 850 Pro, the old SATA kind, and loading anything takes forever.  The scene switching especially is just maddening, mostly because I have to do it so often.

Edited August 21, 2018 by tsaven

[qzgy]

I would not be surprised if a good deal of that slowdown in due to running so heavily modded.

RAM upgrades would certainly help somewhat. Though I'm not quite sure how much it would actually help speed up the game performance and as others have said, RAM speed doesn't really help too too much (though it might a bit)

Graphics card would be important mostly if you were running a bunch of visual mods. I'm not sure you are so.... IDK. Might be nice though to have a better card for other games if you do play other games.

[Dafni]

6 hours ago, AngrybobH said:

 

... and put that 32gb of RAM to use.

Hmm, interesting. I always overlooked that mod, assuming it is only useful if you have stutters. Maybe worth a second look.

Thanks for pointing this out.

[YNM]

RAM and SSD, for easier caching.

Don't think you need an extra strong GPU unless you're playing with many many visual mods.

[tsaven]

9 hours ago, qzgy said:

Graphics card would be important mostly if you were running a bunch of visual mods. I'm not sure you are so.... IDK. Might be nice though to have a better card for other games if you do play other games.

I don't play anything else right now, and the only thing that I plan on playing if I have time is Fallout 3 New Vegas (been meaning to play it for years).  The visual mods are SVE/Scatterer, but for that my existing GTX 960 should be fine.

If I decide to upgrade, I'll wait for the GTX 2070 to hit.

[AngrybobH]

9 hours ago, Dafni said:

I always overlooked that mod, assuming it is only useful if you have stutters

The stutter is the unity garbage collection and happens to everyone to some degree. You can use Memgraph to see the GC events and the GC intervals. Then you can pad the heap to reserve more memory to increase that interval to something acceptable to you. You can also see, on the fly, how much memory KSP is using. If you run a lot of mods, I'd say its almost needed.

[Vanamonde]

@tsaven, your question has been merged into the master thread for this sort of thing. This makes it easier for others with similar questions to browse through the collective wisdom.