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Development PC(s) and Network - Introduction


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This section of the website is for those with an interest in computers (both workstations and servers), networking, hardware and software. Here you can find out what systems I develop my routes on, and what components I've chosen for good performance in openBVE, BVE Trainsim or other applications. Apart from my first ever PC, I've assembled all my computer systems myself, as usually a much better computer that's suited to my needs can be built this way. You can also find out what software I use, what hardware I've developed my routes on, both currently and in the past, as well as see what kinds of add-ons I've been able to produce thanks to each new generation of hardware.

Within the Development PC(s) and Network Section:



The AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ System (2009 - 2014)


This was a spare PC, occasionally used for testing the performance of routes on slower hardware. This system was built on a tight budget at the start of 2009, re-using some old hardware. It was used during the development of the following openBVE add-ons:

- Birmingham Cross-City South v1.4
- Watford Junction to Rugby


Gallery


The system in use:

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The system being built:

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Specifications


CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ @ 2.21GHz [Brisbane Rev. G2]
-- 3DMark06 (Default Settings) - CPU Score: 1688

SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2010
Aggregate Arithmetic Performance: 13.37 GOPS
Dhrystone ALU: 13.52 GIPS
Whetstone iSSE3: 13.22 GFLOPS
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3 [nForce 560 MCP, Socket AM2, ATX form factor]
RAM:
2GB PC2-6400 CL5-5-5-15 DDR2 SDRAM [Dual channel]

SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2009
Int Buff'd iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth: [7.31 GB/s]
Float Buff'd iSSE2 Memory Bandwidth: [7.29 GB/s]
Memory (Random Access) Latency: [104 ns]
Memory (Linear Access) Latency: [25 ns]
Graphics:
ATi Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB DDR2 PCIe [Catalyst 9.2 drivers]

3DMark06 Basic v1.0.2 (Default Settings)
SM2.0 Score: [1063]
HDR/SM3.0 Score: [1348]

FurMark v1.6.5 (AAx8, AFx16, 1280x1024, Time: 60000ms)
o3Marks: [144]
FPS (min/max/avg.): [2 / 5 / 2]

openBVE framerates
(Windows XP 32-bit, 600m viewing distance, Bilinear, fullscreen 1280x1024, AA: 8x, AF: 16x):
Cross-City South v1.31 High Detail, Redditch: [56 fps]
Cross-City South v1.31 High Detail, Barnt Green: [40 fps]

Information: This card (together with the Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU above), is a little too slow to handle full anti-aliasing with animated objects in openBVE -- framerates are acceptable, but there is some stuttering. This card also exhibits some transparent texture edge colouration issues in BVE 4.
Audio:
On-board Realtek ALC888 Audio Codec
Internal Storage:
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EACS-00D6B1 1TB [SATA-II 3Gb/s, 5400rpm, 16MB Cache, AHCI, Firmware v01.01A01]

ATTO Disk Benchmark (default settings)
Max Read Transfer Rate: [99420 KB/s]
Max Write Transfer Rate: [99975 KB/s]
Min Read Transfer Rate: [6463 KB/s]
Min Write Transfer Rate: [9297 KB/s]

SiSoft Sandra Lite 2010
Read Performance: [49.21 - 94.42 MB/s]
Random access time: [10 ms]

Windows 7 Experience Index (Hard Disk): [5.9]
Optical Storage:
LG GH22LS30 22x DVD±R Lightscribe (SATA)
Display:
Samsung Syncmaster 710T 17" 12ms TFT/TN LCD @ 1280x1024
Input:
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical
TV Card:
Hauppauge WinTV HVR1300 MCE Digital/Analogue PCI card
Case:
Generic ATX Case
Power Supply:
Generic 600W ATX PSU
Internet and LAN:
Onboard Realtek 8211BL Gigabit Ethernet Phy (10/100/1000 Mbps)
Edimax nLite EW-7711UTn Wireless USB Adapter (802.11b/g and 802.11n 150 Mbps)
Operating System(s):
Windows XP Home Service Pack 3
Ubuntu 10.04


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Content last updated: 10th April 2019