Minimum, Maximum Pc Specs For Pincab F.a.q Idea?

[Redbeard30]

So in another VP forum when I was starting out in cab building I thought and suggested a hardware F.A.Q would be helpful to newbies. Something where one can go and check PC specs for budget, mainstream and enthusiast builds for they're cabs. Sorta like PC games list minimum and recommended hardware on the box. This idea was shunned. I got responses such as"use the search" , etc. But it was quite overwhelming try to piece together info from 100 threads to fit my budget! So maybe we could put together a short spec list of hardware for different tiers as mentioned above? Something that newbie can go to and see what types of parts they need at a given budget range. It would cut down on a bunch of threads starting with "will this video card...."

Its something I wouldn't mind helping with, and it could be updated as new hardware comes out. Its kinda overwhelming seeing those great cabs that cost big bucks to make, so maybe more people would be willing to get involved in the hobbie if they know they can start smaller and on a lesser budget or go all out! Regardless, all the info of what's needed PC parts wise and what to expect at a certain level would alleviate some frustration. Anyone think this is a good idea?

[DeeGor]

It may be a little difficult as a great running system is a little subjective.  There are some people on here that will tell you that running VP on their Pentium 1 works great *cough* Faralos *cough*, but it would still be good to see a list of what people are running out there, and any problems they are possibly encountering.  If you see enough people running a certain configuration without issues, you can probably be sure that it's fairly safe to go with.

 

I can't attest for anything other than the build I had, but I'll post the specs on here anyway.  It ran everything smoothly.  The only time I ran into issues were with intense lighting sequences like the Tiger Saw captive ball shot on Threater of Magic, you would see microstutter for half a second sometimes, but I think that has more to do with the ledwiz code, than how fast the system was.

• Intel core i5 2500k processor OC'd to 4.6 GHZ
• 4GB DDR 3 RAM
• GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Playfield)
• GeForce GTX 260 (Backglass / DMD)
• Intel 40GB SSD
• ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Motherboard

[Redbeard30]

I think i will start compiling info from my experiance and what I can pull from the forums, and if people would like to post info to help that would be great. Once i get everything together I will post it if its not a problem. I figure at least it'll be "guideline" for people.

[jasonsmith]

This is an interesting thread as I too have always wondered what would be the best. I'm effectively running a P4 system (Dual Workstation XENONs). I have a decent Nvidia 650ti OC 1g video card that is working awesome running both playfield and backglass. I'm running Win7 64bit with 4g of old, slower ram and a basic 80g 7200rom hard drive. All that being said everything plays great with all graphic settings maxed out on both FP and VP.

 

The only issues I run into is the micro-stutter and that happens on most VP tables when there is a heavily lighted sequence along with sound and everything else. If the ball is close to the flippers it usually results in a drain . The odd thing is that I get zero micro-stutter on my FP tables, no matter how crazy the sequence is, even though I only have a few tables to judge that with. I guess this has to do with the code as DeeGor suggested. 

 

Something that I found very interesting was recently I changed my old x800pro 256mb video card to the 650ti OC 1g card and my frame rates stayed identical, they didn't change a bit. The tables that I had low FPS remained low BUT.... I was able to max out all the graphic settings and keep those same frame rates steady.

 

Here is the quick info:

 

• Win7 64bit
• Dual P4 Xenon 3.2ghz
• 4GB Ram(old/slow)
• Gigabyte GTX 650 Ti OC 1GB Ram (Playfield and Backglass)
• Western Digital 80GB 7200rpm SATA
• HP xw6200 Workstation Motherboard

The above results:

• Maxed graphic settings for both FP and VP and 720res.
• Low FPS on FP, around 60-80, some tables like 3 Angels and STTNG around 40fps.  
• Micro-Stutter (LedWiz) on most VP tables when things go crazy. 

[Dazz]

After TPF this weekend; Im going to be putting in some major time on this site. We can easily create a database where people can input their system specs.

[PinballBuzz]

After TPF this weekend; Im going to be putting in some major time on this site. We can easily create a database where people can input their system specs.

Like the idea Dazz

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[Redbeard30]

Good deal. Building these cabs can be very intimidating for first timers, so having this info in one location should be very helpful. And thanks for not stifling the idea!

[neohusky]

System performance can be quite subjective. When someone says "most tables play well" someone else will say that "most tables stutter" given the same hardware specs/OS/config.

It would be great if we can have a point of reference to compare each systemic the DB to. Is FPS a reliable measure of performance?

[Noodlemaker]

Hey guys glad you made this thread. 

 

Here is the setup that is being used by the manufacturers in China that are now starting to build these cabs. They say%2

[nickbuol]

How well would an i5-4570 quad core 3.2GHz CPU with 8GB RAM be good enough to run all of the main systems at full resolution and frame rate?  I know that a LOT of this will rely on the graphics card, but I am trying to work on the base computer specs and have access to a computer with the above mentioned CPU and RAM (and 240GB SSD) for next to nothing.  That said, if it isn't powerful enough of a base computer, I will scrap the idea and build from the ground up.

 

Thanks.