WonderPC wishlist for the PMDG744

[Guest Foizman]

Hi captains,suppose it's Christmas and you can order a high-end Gaming-PC to make the optimum FSX-DirectX10-Vista-PMDG744-online-gaming-machine (price/performance which is sufficient). Don't want to buy a CRAY!I'll use FS2Crew and will fly at VATSIM.What ingredients would you use? The only things I have so far are two 19" TFT-monitors, a MS-Force feedback 2, a plantronics-headset and TrackIR. OK and a 4GB SDSL-connection.regards,Volker

[Guest tmetzinger]

>What ingredients would you use? The only things I have so far>are two 19" TFT-monitors, a MS-Force feedback 2, a>plantronics-headset and TrackIR. OK and a 4GB>SDSL-connection.At the moment, the Intel extreme edition dual core chip is the performance champ, at an equally extreme price of about US $1000.00. I expect that the fact that there is real competition now between Intel and AMD will mean that in the "right below the top of the line" market we'll see some very good values for CPUs. Unfortunately the price killer for a high-end PC will, as always, be the graphics cards. Cards specifically designed to implement DX10 features in hardware should be out in time for Christmas. And if FSX is released on schedule it should drive up demand, the vendors should respond, and there should be sufficient availability of the high-end parts so that you won't end up in a bidding war on eBay for them.On the software side, I'm not sure how FSX will cope with the different screen resolutions and (more importantly) aspect ratios out there. Back when every screen was 4:3 the bitmap-based model for FS9 and panels worked well. Now that you have 4:3 and 16:9 and a bunch of others too, FSX will have to have a way to support this so the world and the gauges don't end up stretched and distorted. PMDG will have to worry about this as well (finally found a way to make this relevant to the forum!) I run at 1280x1024 on my new lcds and do notice the difference in aspect ratio from my previous 1600x1200.Best advice - ask this question again in Mid-November.

[United782 0]

If you're looking for a high-end pc while maintaining a decent price/performance ratio then I'd recommend the followingCore2 Duo E6700Asus P5N32-SLI nForce4 Mobo4x512MB Corsair XMS27900GTX 512MB (2 for SLI setup)Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZSIf you've got money to burn then you could even go higherCore2 Duo EX6800same mobo4x1024 Corsair XMS27950GX2 (2 for quad-SLI) <<< Only if one is intending to run higher than 1600x1200 resolutionSound Blaster X-FiVolker, by the way, SDSL is maxed at 2.3Mbits/sec. Only way you could acheive 4Gbits/sec is if you were running an OC-48 line...- Tim Schaff

[Guest Foizman]

Hy Tim,will check your hardware-list, thanx, sounds interesting. I think that a fast RAID0 will be good for an FS, too.So the optimum would be an Intel/nVidea not an AMD64/ATI? 1.5 jears ago I have had an P4 for 3 weeks and chanched it to and AMD64-system due to extrem temperatures and noise of the Intel-fans. It was unbelievable loud when there happened some renderings in FS2004. The AMD64 was even faster, 1/3 cheaper AND absolutely silent with it's standard-cooling fan. Hence I've become an AMD-sympathizer. Have things changed?@ Grafix: Dual graficcards dont make sense if I run lower at 1600x1200? Or do you mean a Quad-System? Never have heared about a quad...@4MBits/sec: have a look there, it's what I use so far and believe me it runs at 4.096kbits/Sec in both directions (cause they couple two telephone lines ;-) ): http://www6.inode.at/inode.at/business/int...usiness-gold-5/regards,Volker

[Guest Foizman]

Hi Timothy,thanks for your answers. The goal is that when I DO buy some new hardware that even a PMDG747 online-system is playable at at least 30fps, highly detailed rendering of course.Right now I hate it when I arrive on a bussy hub and the framerate decreases below 15-10fps. Will recheck it in 1 or 2 months.regards,Volker

[Guest D17S]

The 6800 Core 2s are just too expensive for what you get. Consider this comparison: The 6800s run at ~ 2.9 ghz and cost over $1000. The 6300 Core 2s run at 1.8 ghz and cost about $180. Seems like you are paying more, but getting more with the 6800, right? Not so! With a couple of simple bios clicks and an add-on $50 CPU air cooler, the 6300 will easily overclock to 3.2 ghz. If you are willing to play a bit, it will go to 3.4+. This is not a water-cooling nightmare or clouds of super cooled nitrogen billowing from your case! All you need is a good, clip-on cpu air cooler. That

[United782 0]

Sam, in response to your comment I suggested the 6800 if you have the cash to drop. The current price/performance leader is the E6600 for the high-end market, check the attachment (typo on my original post - not E6700). Although the E6300 may be able to overclock up to and past the 66/6800 you're "overclocking" the processor voiding the warranty and many users aren't comfortable with that. As for the kentsfield, there is a significant boost in performance with it's architecture. THG just released early benchmarks of a test model and in certain areas the kentsfield excelled past all other competitors by a significant margin. The reason FSX and other programs you have don't see a significant performance leap from single to dual/quad is within the program itself. Many games/programs have not been optimzed to take advantage of threading itself on dual cores and thus can cause single cores to outperform dual cores in some instances.Volker, as of right now Intel has reclaimed crown as performance leader in the cpu market. http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html is a chart comparing many of intel's and AMD's cpus. On another note, dual graphics is a great solution but I was specifically referring to quad-SLI being bad under 1600x1200. Benchmarks are clearly showing that the quad-SLI setup performs quite bad on lower resolutions. In most cases dual and single graphic solutions of upper-end cards will outperform the quad at resolutions below 1600x1200. When you get into 1920x1200 and higher the quad-SLI claims the lead by a large margin. Just something I noticed aswell in your response, I was merely saying SDSL is techincally maxed at 2.3Mbits/sec. What you have is xDSL which I assume, from your description, is two dsl lines bridged together.

[Chaos81 110]

>you're "overclocking" the processor voiding the warranty and many>users aren't comfortable with that. You're only voiding the warranty if the company knows you did it. ;)

[Guest D17S]

Of course additionally, a person might recognize that Intel could lock down any CPU's clock if they had even the slightest inkling to do so . . . and they have not. Why? Intel constructed a perfectly paved and groomed, 12 lane autobahn (the unlocked clock, and now unlocked multiplier in the CPU), handed their drivers bright red Ferraris (a CPU that can take advantage of this), then poised both drivers and cars at the entrance to this race track. Now Intel posts a sign that says

[VH_JLC 1]

This is the sytem im putting to gether for FSX an hopefully i'l get a few years outta the old girl..Motherboard Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 Case: Antec Atlas ATX Case - BLACK, 550W PSU Processor: AMD AM2 Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core ProcessorMemory: Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB DDR2 RAM PC-6400 800MHZ Hard Drives: Seagate 250GB 'ST3250624NS' SATA II 3Gb/s - 7200rpm,16MB Cache DVD DRIVE: LG GSAWriterFloppy Drives: Sony 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4, IR remote control,Speakers Creative Inspire P5800 Speakers $142.00Video Card XFX PCIe 7900GTX 512MB DVI/DVI/TV Im also ordering TRACK IR PRO 4..ps. Is there any new on when PMDG will be releasing their stuff ready for FSX??I really for the life of me cant see myself flyin default an being happy with that for to long..

[Guest Knikolaes]

My dream computer? The one with the on switch that never goes off :-)Seriously, I love my current rig. I just need to replace a friend graphics card and -- as a learning lesson from forementioned frying, buy liquid cooling as standard cooling is not enough for this machine :-P

[United782 0]

>>you're "overclocking" the processor voiding the warranty and>many>>users aren't comfortable with that. >>You're only voiding the warranty if the company knows you did>it. ;)They have ways of checking for overclocking... So they will know you overclocked it and will not validate your warranty if you accidently damage the cpu and need a replacement.- Tim Schaff

[Tabs 2,790]

Guys,This is VERY IMPORTANT:**THERE ARE NO VIDEO CARDS CURRENTLY ON THE MARKET THAT CAN DO DX10!!!**Do NOT buy a 7900GTX, 7950GX2, X1900XT etc right now thinking you are going to be able to run DX10 games on them (at least with full settings and features) - you will NOT be able to!The first DX10 cards should be announced very soon by both ATI (now owned by AMD) and Nvidia. I personally will probably be getting the AMD card, the 7800 I have has been a real mixed bag in FS with a bunch of driver issues, dual monitor problems etc. Nvidia is also not fully implementing the Unified Shader spec from DX10 on its card - it remains to be seen what this will mean tangibly, but it seems to me that AMD's gonna do better by having the card that fully conforms to the standard...

[Guest D17S]

Roger that. If you will need your 1st PCIe Vcard to complete any new system now, WAIT 'till the DX10 cards are available! Also, that darn 4 core Kentsfield is now roomered for a mid October release. 8 cores can't be far behind. That should drop prices some more on the (then) second tier Core 2 dualies. I haven't even heard any decent roomers about DX10 availability. I have Vista Beta RC1 loaded up on the laptop and so far, it's just new icons and a slightly different file tree structure. Other than that, I

[miguelpp 25]

Just , some info about powerful CPU in FS9. Look at the bottom of the page:http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2014654,00.aspRegards.Miquel Egea.