MSTSX Computer Specs

[rchgck]

Considering this computer for near future purchase.

Looking for something that will run MSTSX when is finally arrives next year.

Looking for opinions.

Would this system be able to handle the sim or would the advice be to hold off until next year.


The HP Pavilion M8457C-B Media Center desktop PC is designed and built for your digital life. Take control of your digital entertainment with a PC that helps you consolidate, organize and play your favorite movies, music, photos and videos. The front-panel 15-in-1 memory card reader makes it easy to transfer photos, music and other files to and from your digital camera and other peripheral devices. The SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe technology lets you create custom, silkscreen-quality labels and artwork directly onto LightScribe-enabled CD and DVD discs. A built-in drive bay fits an optional HP Personal Media Drive, for up to 500GB of additional storage that you can carry with you when you go. AMD Phenom™ processors enable true multi-core solutions for a new dimension in performance that deliver an exquisitely powerful, intensely visual and strikingly efficient computing experience.

# Model: M8457C-B AMD LIVE™ Smarter Digital Entertainment AMD Phenom™ X4 9500 Quad-Core Processor
# Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit edition with Service Pack 1 - delivers premier performance, reliability and enhanced security
# 5120MB memory for powerful PC performance
# HP W2408h Vivid Color 24" diagonal widescreen flat panel monitor
# 640GB storage with dual 320GB hard drives store 141,000 songs
# SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology
# NVIDIA GeForce 8400 HD graphics card with support for Microsoft® DirectX® 10
# Go wireless with 802.11 b/g; wireless HP keyboard and mouse
# Front-panel 15-in-1 memory card reader
# 24 x 7 toll-free phone support and one-year HP limited warranty
Specifications
# Processor and Memory: AMD LIVE™ Smarter Digital Entertainment
# AMD Phenom™ X4 9500 Quad-Core Processor
# Processor Speed: 2.20GHz
# 2MB L2 + 2MB shared L3 Cache
# 2000MHz System Bus
# 5120MB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM memory (1x2048MB) (3x1024MB) (expandable to 8GB)
# Memory Slots: 4 DIMM (240-pin, DDR2) (occupied)

Hard Drive and Multimedia Drives:
# 640GB (2x320GB) 7200RPM SATA hard drive
# SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology: 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 8x DVD-R DL, 12x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CDR, 32x CDRW, 40x CD-ROM

Audio, Video and Graphics:
# High Definition Audio, 8 speaker configurable
# NVIDIA GeForce 8400 HD graphics card with 256MB dedicated video memory, DVI and HDMI capabilities and support for Blu-ray, HD DVD and Microsoft® DirectX® 10
# Up to 1535MB Total Available Graphics Memory as allocated by Windows Vista®

[ED_4]

I'd hold off if I were you. That sim won't show it's head until they say it's ready. And we are not even sure if it will really be released in that time they claim. Like the way they did the last time and never went ahead with it.

If you wait, that same system will more than likely be nearly half the price of what you will pay today than when the simulator finally shows.

[Vince]

I'd hold of if I were you. That sim won't show it's head until they say it's ready. And we are not even sure if it will really be released in that time they claim. Like the way they did the last time and never went ahead with it.
If you wait, that same system will more than likely be nearly half the price of what you will pay today than when the simulator finally shows.


This is very good advice. You can almost count on technology doubling every 18 months or so.

A case in point: Four months ago I purchased a 4 gigabyte thumb drive which is basically a 4 gigabyte solid state hard drive that plugs into a USB 2.0 port. This 'Thumb Drive cost me 35 dollars, four months ago.
In Sundays paper, a Sony Thumb drive was listed for 27 dollars. Hmm not much of a drop in price you say.....but wait, there's more;

Well, the 27 bucks was for an 8 gigabyte drive, double the capacity of my old one and 8 dollars less to boot! :)

So yes Rich, WAIT!!! Dont join the 'Bleeding Edge' crowd. Let the impatient others buy the newest and bestest and fastest and let THEM suffer the debugitis. This way when the new sim is released you will have all your ducks in a row for the least amount of pain. :cool:

[beatle]

Couple things about that system that would make it a no-go for me:

1 - it uses an AMD processor, they've been sorely lagging behind Intel in the CPU department for the last year or so

2 - the nVidia 8400 based graphics card, do NOT get one of these for running 3D games, this is their very lowest level DX10 card and is really only suited for running the UI and maybe some WPF based 3D. The number of pixel processing units on that part (and the 8500) is degraded way too much from the number in the 8800 its based on to be of any use for 3D gaming. The 8600 is about the minimum of their 8xxx series that's usable.

I didn't notice a price, so can't really comment on the value of that box overall, but BestBuy just recently got in a new Dell i530 box with an Intel Q9300 Quad Core, 6 GB Ram, 750 GB HDD, and an ATI HD 2600 XT 256MB for $900 (granted, I would have preferred a 512MB or better video card, but I can always replace that part in the future :-> ).

Tim
http://beatlesblog.spaces.live.com

[jamesc25313]

I hate to dig up a old thread but who knows who may read this in the next 15 months or so. Id say have a computer custom built. That way you get what you want and usually for less. Every pre-built system Ive ever thought of buying has many things I wouldnt even use and if it were being custom built, could be money going into something else or upgrading something. I dont have much use for 640 GB Hard Drive for example and still use a 80 GB some of you cant remember what a 80 GB was like :) and some peoples addons take up that much. Find you someone to build you one.