Advice on new PC

[C_Pott$]

Hi all. Noob to the game, and running on a MS Surface Pro, so yeah, slooooooooow., lol

Have a line on a used Lenovo workstation, Dual Xeon E5-26670 2.6Ghz with 64GBof RAM, and a 128Gb SSD (as well as a 500GB HD). For under AUS$1K. No idea of video card, but will look for a good AM card, later.

I cannot afford anything newer. But I gather the Xeon E5 was a beast in it's day.

What is everyone's thoughtson the unit?

Cheers

[grapplehoeker]

The cpu is old but still fine and capable of running this game.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E5-2670-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6700K#performance
The 64GB of RAM will mean you will be able to subscribe to more than enough custom content from the Workshop (at least 3-4000 assets, but you'll only likely use up 1000 on any given city).
So, the only thing missing is the gpu.
I originally managed with an old GTX560Ti, for several years, then moved up to a GTX750Ti and now I'm using a GTX1070Ti. So, depending on your budget and the appearance of graphical quality that you're after, there's a wide choice.

[ECV]

This dude here has tested something along these specs
https://youtu.be/mURKRL3p74E

[C_Pott$]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

The cpu is old but still fine and capable of running this game.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E5-2670-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6700K#performance
The 64GB of RAM will mean you will be able to subscribe to more than enough custom content from the Workshop (at least 3-4000 assets, but you'll only likely use up 1000 on any given city).
So, the only thing missing is the gpu.

I had similar thoughts. Bang for limited bucks

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

I originally managed with an old GTX560Ti, for several years, then moved up to a GTX750Ti and now I'm using a GTX1070Ti. So, depending on your budget and the appearance of graphical quality that you're after, there's a wide choice.

Gotta wait until I see what it's got, and what the MB has capability for. Had thought of an older pair of SLI cards, if found, again, bang for limited bucks, but according to the vid ecv linked to, CS doesn't take advantage of the second card. Bummer.

But, I do want to maybe try out some other games, eventually, too, if my inner Scot will allow me to own Skyrim and Fallout 3, NV, and 4, on Xbox, *AND* a PC copy, too, lol. Might still need that SLI setup, after all.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by caracatus:

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

The cpu is old but still fine and capable of running this game.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E5-2670-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6700K#performance
The 64GB of RAM will mean you will be able to subscribe to more than enough custom content from the Workshop (at least 3-4000 assets, but you'll only likely use up 1000 on any given city).
So, the only thing missing is the gpu.

I had similar thoughts. Bang for limited bucks

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

I originally managed with an old GTX560Ti, for several years, then moved up to a GTX750Ti and now I'm using a GTX1070Ti. So, depending on your budget and the appearance of graphical quality that you're after, there's a wide choice.

Gotta wait until I see what it's got, and what the MB has capability for. Had thought of an older pair of SLI cards, if found, again, bang for limited bucks, but according to the vid ecv linked to, CS doesn't take advantage of the second card. Bummer.

But, I do want to maybe try out some other games, eventually, too, if my inner Scot will allow me to own Skyrim and Fallout 3, NV, and 4, on Xbox, *AND* a PC copy, too, lol. Might still need that SLI setup, after all.

That's a workstation/server system. Unless it has a video card already, you may need a power supply upgrade for a powerful graphics card(s), especially with SLI. IME, always go for the best single card. It will be cheaper and more powerful. Most games won't support SLI anyway. This game doesn't.

Can you link the rig, or paste the make and model number. Servers can have proprietary parts, especially the power supply.

[C_Pott$]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Originally posted by caracatus:

I had similar thoughts. Bang for limited bucks




Gotta wait until I see what it's got, and what the MB has capability for. Had thought of an older pair of SLI cards, if found, again, bang for limited bucks, but according to the vid ecv linked to, CS doesn't take advantage of the second card. Bummer.

But, I do want to maybe try out some other games, eventually, too, if my inner Scot will allow me to own Skyrim and Fallout 3, NV, and 4, on Xbox, *AND* a PC copy, too, lol. Might still need that SLI setup, after all.

That's a workstation/server system. Unless it has a video card already, you may need a power supply upgrade for a powerful graphics card(s), especially with SLI. IME, always go for the best single card. It will be cheaper and more powerful. Most games won't support SLI anyway. This game doesn't.

Can you link the rig, or paste the make and model number. Servers can have proprietary parts, especially the power supply.

From my pre-purchase research, CNET notes the Lenovo C30 came with a NVIDIA Quadro 4000, which is not SLI, unfortunately, but won't know until it arrives next week. Lenovo themselves have a long list of graphics cards on the C30 specsheet, so again,dunno

https://www.cnet.com/products/lenovo-thinkstation-c30-1097-xeon-e5-2670-2-6-ghz-monitor-none-series/

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by caracatus:

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

That's a workstation/server system. Unless it has a video card already, you may need a power supply upgrade for a powerful graphics card(s), especially with SLI. IME, always go for the best single card. It will be cheaper and more powerful. Most games won't support SLI anyway. This game doesn't.

Can you link the rig, or paste the make and model number. Servers can have proprietary parts, especially the power supply.

From my pre-purchase research, CNET notes the Lenovo C30 came with a NVIDIA Quadro 4000, which is not SLI, unfortunately, but won't know until it arrives next week. Lenovo themselves have a long list of graphics cards on the C30 specsheet, so again,dunno

https://www.cnet.com/products/lenovo-thinkstation-c30-1097-xeon-e5-2670-2-6-ghz-monitor-none-series/

The Quadro 4000 is very old and slow. it has only 256 shaders (integrated has up to 768 shaders recently) It may do OK for smaller cities. It is amazingly still DX12.0 and it does have faster GDDR5 than inegrated graphics DDR4, and memory bandwidth 256-bit vs integrated 64-bit, plus it doesn't share system RAM.

The Quadro 400 only has a sinle 6-pin power adapter (75 watts + MB provides 75 watts or 150 watts max), so it will only run low end gaming cards.

Lenovo has special power supplies, so it may be difficult to upgrade. Maybe a GTX 1060/2060 (maybe need a 6-pin to 8-pin power adapter) or GTX 1650 that doesn't need an adapter.

Does that computer have a model number listed? The C30 is just the series.

[C_Pott$]

Originally posted by ecv:

This dude here has tested something along these specs
https://youtu.be/mURKRL3p74E

Thanks for the link. This is my second attempt to reply, as I somehow changed pages, and everythingI had input just adissappeared, which is super annoying, as I had a long answer and story for you, but well, bugger!

Amongst other things, I had wondered what difference the Youtuber may have found, if he *didn't* OC his i7 rig. There are a hell of a lot of us that dont OC (old school, butI kinda expect any 'puter I bought would *already* be working at it's best capabiliies, anyhoo....)

Thank tou for your time, sir.

[C_Pott$]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Originally posted by caracatus:

From my pre-purchase research, CNET notes the Lenovo C30 came with a NVIDIA Quadro 4000, which is not SLI, unfortunately, but won't know until it arrives next week. Lenovo themselves have a long list of graphics cards on the C30 specsheet, so again,dunno

https://www.cnet.com/products/lenovo-thinkstation-c30-1097-xeon-e5-2670-2-6-ghz-monitor-none-series/

The Quadro 4000 is very old and slow. it has only 256 shaders (integrated has up to 768 shaders recently) It may do OK for smaller cities. It is amazingly still DX12.0 and it does have faster GDDR5 than inegrated graphics DDR4, and memory bandwidth 256-bit vs integrated 64-bit, plus it doesn't share system RAM.

The Quadro 400 only has a sinle 6-pin power adapter (75 watts + MB provides 75 watts or 150 watts max), so it will only run low end gaming cards.

Lenovo has special power supplies, so it may be difficult to upgrade. Maybe a GTX 1060/2060 (maybe need a 6-pin to 8-pin power adapter) or GTX 1650 that doesn't need an adapter.

Does that computer have a model number listed? The C30 is just the series.

Hi Mark, the 4000 is only what CNET mentioned, I still don't know, until next week when it comes in. I am hoping that the PS is a tad more capable, since Lenovo advertised the C30 as being capable of using two of the 5000 cards in an SLI configuration. Will update this thread with more details of graphics and whatnot (model etc) once it arrives.

But really hoping that the Dual Xeon E5's running 64GB, and a SSD will give me at least a major increase in speed compared to my Surface Pro 3 (8GB, and cut down i7 )

But also do appreciate what has been discussed so far.

Cheers and beers

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by caracatus:

But really hoping that the Dual Xeon E5's running 64GB, and a SSD will give me at least a major increase in speed compared to my Surface Pro 3 (8GB, and cut down i7 ) [/quote]
All of the above advice has been spot on, particularly with regards to MarkJohnson's concerns about sufficient power supply.
I just want to chime in to clarify something.
This game is primarily focused on the cpu and in that regard, the Xeon E5's should be up to the task.

However, the role of the RAM is to load and store the game, DLC's, and custom content as well as maps and saves you have enabled when you run the game. 64GB is more than adequate, but that only means that you will be able to load up a save quickly. It won't make any appreciable difference to performance in game... if that is what you mean by a 'major increase in speed'.
Only insufficient amount of RAM, resulting in your system having to resort to a page file as a substitute for RAM may be detrimental to performance. In your case, that won't apply.
In game performance will be primarily determined by your cpu and second to that by your gpu. The RAM is of little consequence in terms of performance as long as it is more than you need.

You should also bear in mind that the game has a natural bottleneck due to it using Unity for it's game engine, so there is a limit to how far even a high end cpu/gpu combination can push performance.
I hope that makes it clearer as to what to expect ;)

[C_Pott$]

The CNET link above, and this one, are all I currently know about the soon to arrive 'puter.

I believe mine is from this old Thinkstation promo

https://www.lenovo.com/medias/thinkstation-c30-ds.pdf?context=bWFzdGVyfHJvb3R8MjQ2Mjc1MXxhcHBsaWNhdGlvbi9wZGZ8aGEzL2gwNC85NDQyOTk3ODI5NjYyLnBkZnw3NDBmMGZiNWI3ZjQ5YjM4ZjA4NGI3MzAxZmMwMTkzNzhlODUxMjUyZDlkM2Q4NDVmOTkwNjU4OGY4ZDdlMTgy

[MarkJohnson]

It should be on your invoice/receipt of everything you purchased?

Do you have a link to what you actually purchased?

The link above doesn't say anything. But you should get the lowest common denominator in those specs.

E5-1620 V2 4-core/4-thread 3.7GHz
NVIDIA® NVS 300 graphics, same as integrated.
4 GB ECC (UDIMM or RDIMM)
500GB hard drive
No PSU listing.

[C_Pott$]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

It should be on your invoice/receipt of everything you purchased?

Do you have a link to what you actually purchased?

The link above doesn't say anything. But you should get the lowest common denominator in those specs.

E5-1620 V2 4-core/4-thread 3.7GHz
NVIDIA® NVS 300 graphics, same as integrated.
4 GB ECC (UDIMM or RDIMM)
500GB hard drive
No PSU listing.

Hey Mark, as i said it's a Lenovo ThinkStation C30 Dual Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz 64GB 500GB + 128GB SSD. This is the receipt description, so yeah, seems lit. Pity CS is apparently only set up for 4 core. I lost track, since I'm long out of practice in pc research for the latest benchmarks on cpu's and ♥♥♥♥, but I think this is one is hanging out there witn 16 (since i don't know any better, I'm enjoying my brag, but I'm probably gunna come a buster).

My research has me thinking psu should be okay, since Lenovo pushed the ability of running two Quadro K4000, 5000 or 6000. The GTX etc prob won't fit due to physical size of card and location of power connector (Lenovo community forum)

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by caracatus:

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

It should be on your invoice/receipt of everything you purchased?

Do you have a link to what you actually purchased?

The link above doesn't say anything. But you should get the lowest common denominator in those specs.

E5-1620 V2 4-core/4-thread 3.7GHz
NVIDIA® NVS 300 graphics, same as integrated.
4 GB ECC (UDIMM or RDIMM)
500GB hard drive
No PSU listing.

Hey Mark, as i said it's a Lenovo ThinkStation C30 Dual Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz 64GB 500GB + 128GB SSD. This is the receipt description, so yeah, seems lit. Pity CS is apparently only set up for 4 core. I lost track, since I'm long out of practice in pc research for the latest benchmarks on cpu's and ♥♥♥♥, but I think this is one is hanging out there witn 16 (since i don't know any better, I'm enjoying my brag, but I'm probably gunna come a buster).

My research has me thinking psu should be okay, since Lenovo pushed the ability of running two Quadro K4000, 5000 or 6000. The GTX etc prob won't fit due to physical size of card and location of power connector (Lenovo community forum)

PSU is selected based on components purchased. If it came with dual CPUs then the power supply will be larger, if it came with no GPU and uses integrated graphics as the description implies, then it will come with the smallest power supply.

But it does come with the 2000 series CPU, so it will have two 8-core/16-thread CPUs (16-core/32-thread). If you are short on power, then you could remove a CPU if you don't want to buy a new PSU. 8 threads is the most any game will use, so you have way more than needed with one CPU. This would be last resort.

GTX will fit fine. It is no different than any other video card. The Quadro just has extra instructions built in for professional apps. If the cable won't reach, you can buy extension cables. They also make different dimension video cards.

Also, CS is setup for 8-threads, just like most other games. 4-core/8-thread CPUs have been around for a good decade now, so most game use them.