Hi all,

I want to run LFS, but don't have the appropriate hardware yet so looking for suggestions, which I was not able to find in the FAQ. And since I've been out of touch with PC's/mobos/procs/gfx cards/etc for some time, I Would appreciate some advice...

- From the FAQ, I know I need 1GHZ, but speed is not all that matters. Can I use (with good performance) an Intel D525MW mini-ITX system for this? I have one laying around, which was picked up for a controller.

- If that mini-ITX board is fine, is 2GB RAM fine, or should I get more?

- What graphics card should I use? I can add it to the D525MW (if that works).

- Can I run this on Windows 2000? I can install XP, but Win 2000 has always been more stable than XP in my experience, so I'd prefer to run that if possible.

FWIW, I only intend to use this PC for LFS, as I'm building it into a racing sim -- frame, racing seat, controls, external dash with gauges, motherboard etc, and 32" monitor.

Thanks.

It really depends on what video card you use aswell and (why not?) how much overclock you can apply to that Atom.

From my own experience on Atom DualCore N550 1,85GHz + NVIDIA ION 512GDDR3 (GT218) + 2GB RAM you get 20FPS on average when the grid is full on Blackwood (12 racers). High textures and stuff included.

Thanks for the reply... is 20FPS good though? I would've thought 30FPS would be the min I'd want, or even 60? Again, I've not actually run the game before, so I'm not sure what the target numbers are. I did try to run it on a laptop (which is all that I use nowadays and have several of), but it would not work.

Quote from LFS_Dude :

Thanks for the reply... is 20FPS good though? I would've thought 30FPS would be the min I'd want, or even 60? Again, I've not actually run the game before, so I'm not sure what the target numbers are. I did try to run it on a laptop (which is all that I use nowadays and have several of), but it would not work.

I can feel the force feedback becoming weird at 35 FPS. Plus, the FPS are suffered on race start, where you'd least like to suffer it.

I know people that raced having just 7 FPS during the first 2 corners, obviously everybody wanted to kill them because the mayhems they created.

I think we all would agree that 20 FPS should be the absolute minimum you get wherever the situation is, but the recommended should be always having at least 30.

Whiskey has a point there. At the start of the race with full grid (12 racers) the FPS its quite low 15-20 (on first corner) because of all the physics that are calculated by the CPU. You can imagine that havin about 6 racers in front of you won't do that much damage to the FPS. Its always above 35-40.

Point is, if you have an Atom, you have to overclock it to its max. They cannot be compared with Core2Duo as brute force so you need a higher frequency to compensate that. And since your Atom is clocked at 1,8GHz from the begining, I think you could easly overclock it to a 2,1-2,2GHz.

Mine for example is clocked at 1,5 and overclocked at 1,85Ghz.

So let's say I skip the Atom and get a mobo/proc specific for this. And i5 should be plenty then, right?

Even with an i3 you'll be just fine.

im running LFS on my laptop that is about a year old now and i have slight to no problems besides the need of a SSD but im using a i5 and i am having good results with it so it should be good but if you can get the older i5's you can overclock them good and run them even better i hear

Laptop? Wow. What graphics and RAM do you have in that? It won't even run (just exits a few seconds after starting to load) on my dual-core with WinXP, but then again, this thing has Intel 965 Express graphics.

So how about this laptop? Any thoughts if it will run smoothly? I'd be using it with a 1080p TV (HDMI) and need it to run smooth as it will be part of a tradeshow display. Video on this is "Switchable NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M with 2 GB graphics memory, and Intel HD Graphics 4000".

Advantage here is that I'd be able to use the laptop for more meaningful stuff for the other 362 days of the year

Cheers,
-Neil.

Quote from LFS_Dude :

Laptop? Wow. What graphics and RAM do you have in that? It won't even run (just exits a few seconds after starting to load) on my dual-core with WinXP, but then again, this thing has Intel 965 Express graphics.

So how about this laptop? Any thoughts if it will run smoothly? I'd be using it with a 1080p TV (HDMI) and need it to run smooth as it will be part of a tradeshow display. Video on this is "Switchable NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M with 2 GB graphics memory, and Intel HD Graphics 4000".

Advantage here is that I'd be able to use the laptop for more meaningful stuff for the other 362 days of the year

Cheers,
-Neil.

i7, 8GB RAM and 660M?

Dude, that's not a laptop, that's a motherf&$king spaceship. ^.^
In other words, if you have the money, go for it. As you said, it won't be good just for LFS, it has enough power in it to do or play whatever you want.

Okay, I'm set on hardware I think. I dug up an old shuttle PC with an Athlon XP and a GEForce MX4000 (old, I know), and LFS ran pretty smoothly (no other cars though). I assume the 30-ish number in the upper left is FPS?

No I won't use this, but it gave me some baseline indication of what I can expect, and I'll shop for an I5/I7 with some frills to ensure I have enough horsepower.

Much thanks for all the info.

Now the "fun" part -- I have to go figure out how to get external data for instruments, which I'll have to derive from this gear indicator... http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/~xkadlec/lfs/gi/

NO.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/ ... goryID.50787200/list.true

HP pls.

( its better, same price. )

So where would I find FPS then?

BTW, for anyone else coming across this thread with a similar question, I found two very interesting bits of info, that have been quite enlightening...

http://lfsbench.iron.eu.org/?c=completemax

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=51635

Cheers,
-Neil.

Quote from LFS_Dude :

So where would I find FPD then?

Sorry but I can't help you on this one mate. Hopefully someone else will.

Just wanted to say thank you for LFS Bench links. I find them really usefull for further upgrades.

i wouldnt just buy something that meets around the minimum requirements, in the future (if we get updates) the graphical quality will slowly increase, along with objects and open configuration tracks, you will find that the minimum specs will run the game, but it will barely be playable.. i find that with less that 50/60 fps, the game isnt smooth enough, which makes gameplay less enjoyable

I'm still using my AMD Athlon with 1.8 GHz (1 core) and it's stilll playable

Quote from xtraction :

i wouldnt just buy something that meets around the minimum requirements, ...

Agreed. I was just trying to get a realistic idea of what sort of computing power is necessary so I don't end up underpowered, or wasting money buying 10x the necessary power. :eek: