KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread

[Geonovast]

@HH.Hello4r6 Welcome to the forum!

I have merged your question into our master thread for this sort of thing.

 

To answer your question... maybe.  It's possible the game may start.  However I believe it would be virtually unplayable.  That's a very weak processor.  The game itself needs 4GB of RAM, so that would be a problem for you as well.

[Elthy]

That thing is a complete waste of money. Better buy something used or save more money.

[RagnarD]

Hello Flight Directors!  Returning to the game after a 4+ year absence and discovering that the lack of GPU on my 13" MacBookPro really kills the performance (my old 15" had a dedicated card).  

Not a hardcore gamer, but for KSP I'm willing to pick something up used, and wanted to get a sanity check that this used rig I'm looking at will run at medium to highish settings:

 

Asus F2A55-M motherboard (with dual PCI-E slots)
AMD A8-5500 Quad-Core processor @3.2 GHz (turbo boost to 3.7 GHz)  <--- this is the piece I'm not sure about
16 GB DDR3 memory (upgradeable to 32 GB)
256 GB Samsung SSD
Asus GTX1060 gaming video card w/3GB GDDR5 video memory (HDMI, DVI, 2 x DP output)
 

From what I know, that GTX 1060 is pretty solid and will run at 1080 no problem.

The A8 at 3.2 GHz sounds good enough to me, but I'm not an expert on processor speeds.

Any help/thoughts appreciated!

[Harry Rhodan]

5 hours ago, RagnarD said:

AMD A8-5500 Quad-Core processor @3.2 GHz (turbo boost to 3.7 GHz)  <--- this is the piece I'm not sure about

Yeah no. That's a ripoff. You'd buy an old and completely outdated entry level base from eight years ago. And while the video card seems to be strong it is only the trimmed down version with half the RAM of the regular models.

[Elthy]

Yeah, the CPU is a big issue since its from AMDs old CPU series, before Ryzen. There is a good reason their stock went up over 1000% when they ditched those.

[Geonovast]

@RagnarD What's your budget?  We can help you find something suitable.

[RagnarD]

Thanks @Harry Rhodan, @Elthy, and @Geonovast for the quick responses.  I was thinking about picking that thing up today but that processor was nagging at me and it sounds like I would have been disappointed.  

I'm trying to grab something quick/easy on Craigslist for <$500.  It's not because I couldn't afford more right now, but I already have a lot of toys (boats, motorcycles, etc) and I'm not a big gamer, so the fact that I'm going to buy a PC just to play KSP during the shut down is already getting me some eye-rolls from the wife.  Getting a 'used', 'cheaper' gaming rig makes it 'not as big a deal' if you know what I mean.

Two other options on my radar:

iBUYPOWER TRACE930 - Core i7 7700 3.6 GHz - 16 GB -120 SSD / 1.12 TB HDD -  Nvidia 1060 GTX *3GB*... except he pulled the ram for his new build, so I have to grab some ram (thinking 16GB).  He's asking $400 but open to offers.

HP Pavilion 560 - Core i5-6400 2.7 GHz - 8 GB - 128 SSD / 1 TB HDD - RX 480 4GB - wifi/bluetooth.  Asking $300 but I'm worried about the 2.7GHz (turbo boost to 3.3GHz)

 

I was going to put this up on an old 1080p TV, but it's 46" and I've been told it won't look good, so I guess I'll be picking up a monitor as well... again, gotta keep the $$ down... or at least tell her I did. ;-)  

Thanks again!

 

[Geonovast]

If the primary focus is KSP, don't worry about the GPU too much.  It's not a GPU heavy game at all.  Just having a separate GPU is really what matters.

 

What your main goal here is high single-core performance on the processor.  So between those two choices, the iBUYPOWER would be the better one for KSP, although I don't think it's worth the price.  If you could get him down to $300 I would say that's a decent buy.

[RagnarD]

Thanks @Geonovast.  Unfortunately that one was gone by the time I reached out, so I'm looking at a few others now and focusing more on the CPU per your advice.

Current options are all Core i5's (and one i7 but with an older GTX 660 and only 4GB ram) that seem to score pretty well on cpubenchmark.net.

Any idea how KSP looks on TV's?  For some reason I recall (and have been told) that even at 1080p, computer games don't tend to look as sharp on TV's as on proper monitors.  It's been a long time since I've gotten into those details, but I have an older Sony 1080p TV downstairs that I was considering as a monitor.

[Elthy]

Dont use that page for comparing CPU performance, its based on a highly theoretical benchmark. When comparing CPUs from Intel of the 6XXX series and up the only thing that matters is the clockspeed since they didnt change the cores since then, only added more. KSP needs high singlecore performance, so a quadcore is enough for it.

[Incarnation of Chaos]

14 hours ago, RagnarD said:

Thanks @Harry Rhodan, @Elthy, and @Geonovast for the quick responses.  I was thinking about picking that thing up today but that processor was nagging at me and it sounds like I would have been disappointed.  

I'm trying to grab something quick/easy on Craigslist for <$500.  It's not because I couldn't afford more right now, but I already have a lot of toys (boats, motorcycles, etc) and I'm not a big gamer, so the fact that I'm going to buy a PC just to play KSP during the shut down is already getting me some eye-rolls from the wife.  Getting a 'used', 'cheaper' gaming rig makes it 'not as big a deal' if you know what I mean.

Two other options on my radar:

iBUYPOWER TRACE930 - Core i7 7700 3.6 GHz - 16 GB -120 SSD / 1.12 TB HDD -  Nvidia 1060 GTX *3GB*... except he pulled the ram for his new build, so I have to grab some ram (thinking 16GB).  He's asking $400 but open to offers.

HP Pavilion 560 - Core i5-6400 2.7 GHz - 8 GB - 128 SSD / 1 TB HDD - RX 480 4GB - wifi/bluetooth.  Asking $300 but I'm worried about the 2.7GHz (turbo boost to 3.3GHz)

 

I was going to put this up on an old 1080p TV, but it's 46" and I've been told it won't look good, so I guess I'll be picking up a monitor as well... again, gotta keep the $$ down... or at least tell her I did. ;-)  

Thanks again!

 

It's a shame that HP doesn't use standard parts; you could have some real fun with that CPU and a Z170 board with a modded BIOS

But it's perfectly servicable for most games; just be aware the lack of hyperthreading will cause issues whenever trying to multitasking.

Edited March 29, 2020 by Incarnation of Chaos
Saw the post above

[jost]

Hello everybody,

I plan to buy a PC for gaming. Up to now I always used Laptops for everything, but I really would love to use graphic mods for KSP1 and I also want to have a smooth experience with KSP2.
So: It will be something like a KSP video console
I don't plan to assemble it, since my job is already enough dealing with computer problems. So I will stick to buying a PC.
It will have Windows pre-installed. Although I'm a big fan of Linux I expect that KSP2 will only be available at Windows first so I won't take any chances.

And since I can Linux install for dual boot, it's not really an issue.

Some questions  though:

1. I have a budget of around 1000 € (a little bit more or less is ok, but not much) just for the PC (I already have a monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse etc), this should be enough for a decent kit, right?
2. Is anything known about the requirements of KSP2? I didn't find anything. Should I wait until release to pick the right hardware?
3. I kind of like the offers on www.alternate.de It's a German PC shop, where you can select pre-configured PCs, but they also have a tool for configuring a PC just with a few clicks. But I don't have any clue which mainboard, graphic card etc might be a good option so I tend to use one of regular PCs. Are gaming pcs worth it or more a rip of and I should stay to the Desktop models?
What do you experts thing about following offers:

1. https://www.alternate.de/HP/ENVY-Desktop-TE01-0006ng-Gaming-PC/html/product/1576530?
Specs: CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-9400F, 6 cores 2900 MHz, L3 Cache: 9216 KB
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB VRAM
RAM: 16 GB
2 Harddrives, one SSD (512 MB), one regular hard disk (1TB)
DVD-Burner included and several USB, sound, network etc options
Pricetag: 1.199 Euro

2.
https://www.alternate.de/Lenovo/IdeaCentre-T540-15ICK-G-Gaming-PC/html/product/1613286?

Specs:  CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-9400F six cores, 2900 MHz L3 Cache: 9216 KB
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6.144 MB VRAM
RAM: 16 GB
One 1 TB SSD
No DVD drive
Pricetag: 999 Euro

On the first impression the first one seems better. Although RAM and CPU are identical, the  GPU has more VRAM , more disk space and it has a DVD burner (I don't need one very often but quite handy If ever, I even could convert my old audio cds to a digital library) just for 200 bucks more.
However the second offer claims, it's RAM can be extended up to 32 GB (since it has more RAM slots), while the first one has just two which are already filled with the 16 GB. I might be wrong but shouldn't it possible to replace them with more RAM when it gets available?  If the first one doesn't allow this It might be better to take the second and invest the money in an external disk drive and dvd rive. On the other hand as far I know VRAM is a critical limit for KSP and Unity games in general (correct me If this is repurposed bovine waste) so 2 GB more might be a big difference on the end of the day.


What do you thing about these offers? Are they ok, even for KSP2? Should I wait for KSP2 and then look again for something similiar (corresponding to KSP2s requirements)? Or are they to expensive for your taste?

Any hints are highly appreciated.

 

Regards, Jost.

[Elthy]

Since you are from Germany i would recommend the forums of PCGH, Hardwareluxx or Computerbase for recommendations. Usualy prebuild PCs are to expensive for the offered parts, I threw together a quick comparasion build to the 999€ option:

https://www.mindfactory.de/shopping_cart.php/basket_action/load_basket_extern/id/680b562210a4eb50dffedcb48b809cfa8c9496d07ac696c7c62

It doesnt come prebuild and without a windows 10 licence (those cost 5€ on Ebay), so its not directly comparable, but with a slightly faster CPU. Its only a draft, i would recommend the mentioned forums for more specific advice.

[jost]

13 hours ago, Elthy said:

Since you are from Germany i would recommend the forums of PCGH, Hardwareluxx or Computerbase for recommendations. Usualy prebuild PCs are to expensive for the offered parts, I threw together a quick comparasion build to the 999€ option:

https://www.mindfactory.de/shopping_cart.php/basket_action/load_basket_extern/id/680b562210a4eb50dffedcb48b809cfa8c9496d07ac696c7c62

It doesnt come prebuild and without a windows 10 licence (those cost 5€ on Ebay), so its not directly comparable, but with a slightly faster CPU. Its only a draft, i would recommend the mentioned forums for more specific advice.

But I don't want to built the pc myself. Configuring on a retail site like alternate might be an option but assembling a pc while I could already playing is sonething I don't like to do in my pasttime

[Harry Rhodan]

On 3/30/2020 at 9:01 AM, jost said:

But I don't want to built the pc myself. Configuring on a retail site like alternate might be an option but assembling a pc while I could already playing is sonething I don't like to do in my pasttime

Just don't take a completely prebuilt machine like those posted above from HP or Lenovo. They tend to use nonstandard parts that'll make upgrading or replacing stuff in the future very hard. The people over at Computerbase would at this point usually try to tell you to look at the offers from harwarerat.de or dubaro.de because they offer custom builds with standard parts and in the case of dubaro you can even reconfigure them to not use a childish g4m0r case with a giant window.

[jost]

On 3/31/2020 at 10:04 AM, Harry Rhodan said:

Just don't take a completely prebuilt machine like those posted above from HP or Lenovo. They tend to use nonstandard parts that'll make upgrading or replacing stuff in the future very hard. The people over at Computerbase would at this point usually try to tell you to look at the offers from harwarerat.de or dubaro.de because they offer custom builds with standard parts and in the case of dubaro you can even reconfigure them to not use a childish g4m0r case with a giant window.

That's a good advice, thank you.
I think I will look for two comparable offers on hardwarerat and dubaro and then take the better offer (in terms of Value for money, warranty offers etc).

However I'm still not quite settled whether I should wait for KSP2 or not.

[Harry Rhodan]

16 hours ago, jost said:

However I'm still not quite settled whether I should wait for KSP2 or not.

Well if you still want to go with an Intel build then you probably should wait for the next generation of Intel chips. The current i5s and i7s are still good for most games including KSP, but without Hyperthreading/SMT they might age pretty fast considering that the next console generation has eight cores with Hyperthreading/SMT.

[jost]

9 hours ago, Harry Rhodan said:

Well if you still want to go with an Intel build then you probably should wait for the next generation of Intel chips. The current i5s and i7s are still good for most games including KSP, but without Hyperthreading/SMT they might age pretty fast considering that the next console generation has eight cores with Hyperthreading/SMT.

To be honest I'm not quite sure whether I should pick AMD Ryzen or Intel. As far I looked people tend to differ whether AMD or Intel is actually superior.

[Harry Rhodan]

2 hours ago, jost said:

To be honest I'm not quite sure whether I should pick AMD Ryzen or Intel. As far I looked people tend to differ whether AMD or Intel is actually superior.

Right now Intel still has a slight edge when it comes to single core power which is important for a few games like KSP. But you have to pay a hefty price because you'd need to get the higher clocked K models and not just the 9400F. But as I always say: you shouldn't buy a PC for a single game and the Ryzen 5 3600 (not the X one) offers quite a lot of power for the price. The 3700X might be more future-proof because it is more akin to the CPUs of the next console generation, but it's hard to fit it in a 1000€ budget for a prebuilt machine.

[jost]

10 hours ago, Harry Rhodan said:

Right now Intel still has a slight edge when it comes to single core power which is important for a few games like KSP. But you have to pay a hefty price because you'd need to get the higher clocked K models and not just the 9400F. But as I always say: you shouldn't buy a PC for a single game and the Ryzen 5 3600 (not the X one) offers quite a lot of power for the price. The 3700X might be more future-proof because it is more akin to the CPUs of the next console generation, but it's hard to fit it in a 1000€ budget for a prebuilt machine.

Thanks I will keep this in mine And 1000 € is not  fixed totally. I can live to spend some bucks more, but I don't want to spend 2000 bucks either.

[StrandedonEarth]

It seems my venerable HP Envy dv6 laptop has bit the dust. That thing has seen me through KSP since 0.24, and has groaned its way through uncountable kilopart launches with playable framerates (as long as it wasn’t too warm). 

It boots up and appears to be running, but the screen doesn’t come on. Hard rebooting usually works in that case, but not now. I tried hooking it up to external monitors through HDMI and VGA, but no joy. Those were my suggestions to my wife while I was at work. She left it on while waiting for me to come home, and I noticed it was rather warm over the graphics area. Not unusual, but while it should have been idling? I should mention that the USB ports on the video side had also gone belly-up last year, right about the same time my laptop cooler fried

Now it’s in pieces on the dining room table, with nothing obviously cooked. First time I’ve taken a laptop apart. Before I attempt to put it back together and pray for a miracle, is there anything I should be looking for, anything I can check or test (not that I have much for testing tools, just an old multimeter). I don’t want to yank the heat pipe/sink assembly off because I have no paste to remount it. 

[Geonovast]

There's not a whole lot you can do with laptops.  Since the problem seems to be heat-based, the only thing really could do is replace the thermal paste and the fan. 

You could also try running it without the battery in it.  I've got an older Dell laptop that will, once in a great while, refuse to boot for seemingly no reason.  Unplugging the (internal ) battery will get it to turn on normally.  Run it a few hours, shut it down, plug the battery back in, then it'll go a few months... before doing it again.

[StrandedonEarth]

Well, after partially disassembling (covers off) it I did try booting it without the battery, but no luck. Since there is no video output at all, I guess it’s hooped

[onwudaskow]

I have been thinking about getting KSP and am assuming that my slow computer (a chromebook) won't be able to handle it.

Is there a list of computers that KSP can run on?

[James Kerman]

Welcome to the forum @onwudaskow, your question has been moved to a dedicated thread for KSP PC build advice.