3 Track Cajon Project

[Bananarama]

Do you think you could release the current build?

It's ready when it's ready.

[dtrainBNSF1]

Do you think you could release the current build?

It's ready when it's ready.

True dat.

[Tomcat]

Do you think you could release the current build?

What they said!

If you check back a couple of pages I gave an estimated time frame for the beta and that still holds as long as my laptop doesn't burst into flames. I had another computer 'episode' in the past week and had to reload everything once again. If the laptop goes to the happy hunting grounds then I'm financially prepared to replace it with a desktop but not so much mentally prepared.



Back side of Black Mountain. I could easily throw another 20 hours at this spot.

BlackMountain02.jpg

On the outskirts of Edwards AFB. This is either Martian directions for an upcoming invasion or the flyboys at Edwards use this as some sort of landmark. Maybe I should get the nutjobs at SecureTeam10 to investigate.

EdwardsAFB01.jpg

[ssbobz]

Thank you for the continued updates and your incredible work!


[tries to wait patiently]

[ssbobz]

[now hoping the aforementioned laptop flambe hasn't happened]

[Tomcat]

[now hoping the aforementioned laptop flambe hasn't happened]

I'm stunned about the synchronicity of your post. I just got the laptop working as you were posting - Yes, my laptop has been throwing fits the past month. I'm on my 6th or 7th re-install of everything. I had it up for about 3 days a couple of weeks ago before it started throwing fits again. The laptop has been into a repair shop with a diagnosis of 'It's in good working order' - yeah, right! That gets filed under the heading of 'Money Well Wasted'. No one can figure out what the problem might be although the one constant factor is me - which is a discouraging thought to say the least. Well, actually the other constant is Windows 8.1 which I suspect goes a bit haywire after doing updates for some reason. I have no evidence other than anecdotal to support that claim but I am suspicious that the computer locks up only after certain critical updates are applied. I have turned updates off and I'll see how it goes from here.

I mentioned a few pages back about not being mentally prepared to get a new computer - well, now I'm pretty well darn prepared. I have no patience left in me for dealing with this every few days.

I suppose I should post in the geek section as well but as long as I have the attention of anyone reading this here... Any thoughts on a desktop recommendation in the $1500 range that anyone has had a pleasant experience with? I mostly use TS2016/17 for entertainment with an eye towards being able to handle TSW when it's released. All iterations of Quake, Doom and Unreal Tournament pretty much fills out the rest of my gaming along with an occasional flight sim session.

I'm leaning towards something like the following;

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerp ... Id=5374306

I have no experience with nor do I know anyone who has had a CyberPowerPC so I'm a bit reluctant to dive in without more feedback. In any case, that's kind of my price point and the feature list that I would like to get.

Some of you might suggest a DIY build but I've done that with my last 2 desktops and the novelty has worn completely off for me. At this point I would rather buy pre-built and have someone other than myself to blame if something goes wrong.

Another company I've been looking at is Digital Storm (at least a name I recognize) but similar builds to the CyberPowerPC linked above seem to run $200 to $300 more.

And I should mention that the route is still safe and sound although I have gotten squat done in the last month.

[Tomcat]

Thank you for the continued updates and your incredible work!


[tries to wait patiently]

And I forgot to put in the previous post and it's a month late but, thanks for your continued kind words!

[dejoh]

Toss the laptop and get into a real desktop.

computer.jpeg

Seriously, looking forward to the revamped Cajon. Your doing excellent work.

[minerman146]

There is nothing like a Mid 1960's main frame to run your government or missile defense system - so I lean to mainframes!

I don't usually offer unsolicited advice, but you said BestBuy and I want you to RESIST the urge for immediate gratification and hear me out for a moment. I manage a mid-sized data center and deal a great deal with high capacity, high speed and highly expensive servers all the time. And I have to get equipment for all the people that work for the company that has the facility. I buy stuff that not just gets it done BUT LASTS so I don't have to do refreshes ever 2 years. When I buy workstations I buy OptiPlex from Dell. Why, they are business class machines, using established and stable hardware. Why so, well when Amazon or pick your favorite corporation buys 50, 100 or what ever machines they need to be consistent and last. At my own home my family has their own LAN, AD Domain, networked printer and OptiPlex workstations - Just like at the office! (wife gets maaaad changing her password every 90 days to - Tough, I am the house network security officer too!) I bought my setup about 3.5 years ago and bought OptiPlex 380 series with Duo Core i3, 4gb ram and onboard video. On my build machine I doubled the RAM and added a 2gb Video card when we got train simulator and away I went. This is a bit underpowered for TS at the moment but this will beat your current rig and its rock-solid stable.

So I did some shopping for you ... and I have 4 units like this one I am getting for the office at work. This is for the finance group. The video cards are multi monitor capable which is what they were looking for, and they do processing directly from the machine. What I change for you was to enlarge the hard drive. I also added a big fat monitor and some sound. With tax its over your budget, but here is a real machine you didn't know about until now... enjoy

http://ecomm.dell.com/dellstore/basket_ ... otmail.com

Here is a review that explains where I am coming from in detail:
http://www.computershopper.com/desktops ... uct-review

And Love your route man!

[thecanadianrail]

Definitely make sure everything is saved on another remote drive or you will have what happened to me 2 weeks ago and have nothing left from the old pc. Still loving your work keep it up!

[buzz456]

I love all of you on here but anyone who doesn't have a external backup (for under $100) I have little to say. Come on people. Do you value the information you have or not? If you don't want to save it on a external hard drive than there is about a zillion choices for storage on the cloud.

[Ericmopar]

I love all of you on here but anyone who doesn't have a external backup (for under $100) I have little to say. Come on people. Do you value the information you have or not? If you don't want to save it on a external hard drive than there is about a zillion choices for storage on the cloud.

I've got to second Buzz on this.
I would have lost Donner Redux on at least one occasion, if I hadn't had the backup. 100s of hours would have went down the tube.
I also take advantage of Google Drive to save things like that in the cloud for free.
It's not just games, it's family pics and other backups, including a system image when things are running top notch, that should be on an external drive.

When it comes to a large route or other project, it should be backed up at least once per week.
Also remove the backup drive when you are done, so a power surge or failing power supply can't muck up the backups.

[Tomcat]

Toss the laptop and get into a real desktop.

Take that scene, multiply it by 50, tighten up the spacing and add one of these babies;

cray-1-supercomputer-640x616.jpg

And you have my old haunt. We all took turns sitting on the Cray when it first arrived and then I don't think anyone ever sat on it again out of a mix of reverence and a fear that we could be blamed if something happened to it.

Definitely make sure everything is saved on another remote drive or you will have what happened to me 2 weeks ago and have nothing left from the old pc. Still loving your work keep it up!

Having been around computers for going on 40 years now I have 2 external drives and a flash drive for backups. Luckily I learned this lesson before digital cameras or I would have lost most of my photography several times over. Ericmopar also brought up a good point about saving to the cloud (or whatever) and that is something I now do as well. I would add that a backup once a week is not enough for me, I backup after each session. Lose 2 hours worth of intricate trackwork or terrain adjustements and you'll know why I do that.

@minerman146 Thanks for taking the time to make a recommendation. I consider everything presented to me, though I must say that a small form factor and half height cards are a no go with me. I like my towers spacious and airy with plenty of room for making upgrading components less of a potty-mouthed spectacle.

[Bananarama]

The CyberpowerPS is a hit and miss operation - plenty of reviews on the 'net and on Youtube. If you're not willing to put a PC together yourself, consider saving a bit more for an Origin PC (started by former Alienware employees). At two to three times the price they're not cheap, but in this case you do get what you pay for.

[Tomcat]

The CyberpowerPS is a hit and miss operation - plenty of reviews on the 'net and on Youtube. If you're not willing to put a PC together yourself, consider saving a bit more for an Origin PC (started by former Alienware employees). At two to three times the price they're not cheap, but in this case you do get what you pay for.

Origin completely slipped my mind, thanks for the reminder. I went to their site and I'm really liking their full tower Genesis.

I've seen a lot of reviews for CyberPowerPC but I was hoping that someone on the forum might have first hand experience with one. In any case, I mentioned CyberPowerPC because it had the specs and price point I was leaning towards although I have a nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me to bypass them.