VSC DB #1 – IT setup, Server and Dev machines.
(Retrospective May 2015)
So, here we are with our official Dev Blog number 1.
I have decided that a good place to start is to show what hardware we have started with. There are no fancy machines here. The Dell Precision was bought second hand in 2010, the Asus at some time similar but as new, and our trusty server was bought last year in 2015 - second hand also.
Being somewhat old-school in our ways, we like making the best use of what we have, and we think we have done so with the hardware we have so far. Even if we had more money, the fact that we are developing on older machines appeals to us in that we feel we have a more solid appreciation of how well VSC is optimised, the idea being that if it runs well on a 5 year old PC, then it should also run at least equally well on a new one.
We have our server up and running. It is a humble machine, but serves its purpose well.
Obtained: May 13th 2015
Server: Dell Vostro 420
OS: Windows 7 Professional (SP 1) 64bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) Quad CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz 3.00GHz
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 630
OpenGL: 4.4
Storage: 2 TB
Sound card: NVIDIA HD Audio Driver 1.3.34.3
Additional note: DirectX 9.0 required for the VSC audio system. Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010)
Our developer PCs are simply laptops at this stage.
Obtained: 2010
Laptop: ASUS G73JW
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (SP 1) 64bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 Quad CPU Q740 1.73GHz
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 440M 1.5GB
OpenGL: 4.5
Storage: 1 TB
Sound card: Realtek High Definition Audio
Additional note: DirectX 9.0 required for the VSC audio system. Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010)
Obtained: 2010
Dell precision M6500
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (SP 1) 64bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 Quad CPU X920 @ 2.00GHz 2.00GHz
Memory: 12 GB RAM
Graphics: ATI FirePro M7820 (FireGL) 1GB
OpenGL: 4.4
Storage: 600 GB
Sound card: Bose Companion 5, 2.1 system, USB connection
Additional note: DirectX 9.0 required for the VSC audio system. Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010)
Having previously had a NVIDIA FX 2800 graphics card, which died, the upgrade to the ATI was a welcome relief, offering far superior FPS, and a 3DMark Vantage score that doubled. With an ATI and NVIDIA video card we have witnessed the added advantage of testing on multiple video card platforms, resulting in immediate bug fixes due to graphical inconsistencies with VSC.
This post can now be discussed at the forums here.
