computer upgrade/MD-11

[Guest mickeymouse]

I would like to buy a new computer with flight sim in mind. I currently have a upgraded HP with 2 gigs, and a Gforce 6200 card. I can't upgrade to windows vista because of the chip-set. So right now the MD-11 looks far into the future. Could I get some recommendations on computers that can give me the best performance.Thanks for your help...ChrisBeech 1900c737 series747 Queen

[lefteris 70]

Hello Chris-the question comes up time and again and usually Ryan is quick to respond with his favorite set of hardware options. This time, I think I beat him to the punch, so let me post what I consider "best bang for the buck *today*" (and I say "today" because this post viewed in 3 months will be completely meaningless ;-)).I am assuming money is "no object" (relatively speaking) as we tend to go "all out" for our PCs. However, not all of my choices are "top of the line" at the moment; CPU-wise especially, I tend to choose 2nd or even 3rd best mostly.a) Case / power supplyGet a water-cooled solution - Swiftech or AquaCool are the two best choices today in the market. If you're handy with PCs, you can fit them in after buying the case. If you're not, you can select a pre-built case with them in already.Power supply: Get something "big" - i.e. 750W and up, if you wish to feed top-of-the-line VGA cards. If not, a 500W will do just fine.:( CPU.No question here for me: the Q6600 that's out now (Core2Quad 6600) is the best bang for the buck.c) MotherboardAnything with the P35 chipset that just came out - so you can upgrade to a Penryn CPU later. ASUS P3K or ABit are good options.d) RAMGo for 2GB or 1066MHz RAM for that P35 chipset - or again, if budget's a question, go for at least 800MHz. Make sure you compare SPD settings as you might find yourself requiring to underclock in order for your RAM to work properly.e) GraphicsLook for an 8800GTX - the ATI equivalent is not out yet. If budget is important, go with the 7950GT (w/ 512MB RAM) and put aside another $500 or so for after Xmas. The ATI 2900 (DX10) card isn't up to snuff with the NVidia line right now.f) Hard drivesSome swear by the Raptor line of Western Digital. I'd tend to agree but I don't see THAT big of a difference to make me want to go that way - it's way too expensive, comparatively speaking. Instead, put some cash towards a striping-RAID solution with one disk for Windows and two (yes - two) disks in a striping RAID configuration for FSX - the speed increase is quite large.g) ScreensEither aim for the Matrox TripleHead2Go (or TripleDooDah as some affectionately call it) with three 19" LG or Samsung monitors, if you can afford it (but keep in mind there's a performance sacrifice there), or go with two 19" screens plugged into your 8800GTX - performance is really good with it. My personal favorites are LG 19" screens - whatever is out today. (They tend to be updated very frequently).h) Sound cardGet a Soundblaster. Doesn't matter which one - I am not big on sounds anyway. Don't rely on the on-board sound solution - it drops your FSX fps performance by 10-20% and it's not worth it.Hope this helps!Cheers,

[Tabs 2,790]

Only thing I disagree with there is the video card - the GF9 series is coming out around Christmas and the initial reports are that it's at least 3 times as powerful as the 8800GTX. This is gonna be really important if you intend on playing any DX10 games other than FSX. The first few are out now like the new Company of Heroes update, and the performance is pretty bad even on the high end 768MB 8800GTXs. The GF9 is gonna be the true DX10 card that you'll want if you're intending to get Crysis and the other new games coming out...If you have to upgrade now but want to get the GF9 later, I'd say the 640MB 8800GTS is actually the best bang for the buck - it's nearly half off the price of the GTX and it really isn't that much worse performance wise.Check out www.hardocp.com - my fav site for benchmarks and reviews.

[Guest Ashu]

Lefteris/Ryan-You mentioned the P35 motherboard which would be compatible with an upcoming Penryn CPU. Do you know if intel's D975XBX2 is compatible with the Penryn. I'm actually looking to upgrade my intel pentium D CPU to Intel Core 2 extreme (QX6600) and a compatible motherboard with this CPU is D975XBX2. So, if I go for this upgrade do you think in future I would be able to upgrade to the Penryn CPU without having to change my motherboard. Let me just highlight a few specs of my PC:OS: Windows VistaCPU: Intel Pentium D 2.80 GHzRAM: 2GBGPU: nVidia 8800GTXCan you also please tell me if this upgrade is a good choice knowing that my bugdet can't go over $1500 whether it'd be today or 3-4 months from now. FSX is the only game I play on this system.Kind regards,Khurrum

[Tabs 2,790]

If the socket is the same on that board and the bus speeds and whatnot remain the same when the Penryn comes out then yeah I don't see any reason it shouldn't be compatible...I'm personally waiting until Christmas or slightly after to do my upgrades. The new hardware coming out should be a fairly substantial leap over the current Core 2/8800 stuff and that's what I want since I play other games besides FS...

[Spidierox 4]

Hello,May I suggest scouting Tom's hardware (--> google this) ?It gives indepth but relatively easy information about Mobo, graphics cards, GPU, sound card etc... Just follow the links on their site.Hopefully it helps you to orientate and understand what all the fuzz is about dual/quad cores, FSB, ...Good luck with the reading.Hopes this helps a bit.Dieter

[Guest D17S]

I agree, this one's worth waiting for:http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39829Also, looke here:http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06/06/p3...pports_pcie_2/1(Other PCI-e 2.0 support, what was the X38 'posed to have? Hummm.) So, wait for the post-July 22, $250 Q6600, then snag a cheapo 7XXX PCI-e Vcard. That'll end up being your 2nd Vcard to drive a couple of 19"-ers. FSX isn't gonna be DX10'd/MD11'd 'till Oct/Nov anyway. Also, Anandtech rumbles that the X38 will release along with July 22nd price cuts. http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=3002We'll see. But make sure you ask Santa for that red hot 9800 . . . and a (dual??!) 42" 1080p setup.

[Guest mickeymouse]

Thank you all for the great response to my question. It's amazing to have people from around the world answer such a novice question for a humble simmer like myself. Again.. Thanks for all your help!!!Chris

[razorseal 0]

so wait, you're saying the Q6600 will be ~250 post july 22nd? if so, I think I can hold out another month myself...

[Chaos81 110]

>so wait, you're saying the Q6600 will be ~250 post july 22nd?>if so, I think I can hold out another month myself... $266 is what I've heard/read. So yes, I would wait another month until the price cuts.

[Guest D17S]

$266, to be precise. Frys will have it for $250 on release day. (There aren't many, but livin' in the US does have some advantages!)It's a preclocked at 2.4, but it'll go to 3.0, easy. On good air (Tuniq), 3.2-3.4 is getting done. Why wait? Here's what's next. The C2D shrink to 45 nm, (Penryn) will be initially clocked at about 3.0. It will have better HD video decoding capability (aren't Vcards handling most of that these days) and a new SSE4 instruction set. SSE4 doesn't even exist yet and will be a solution searching for a problem to solve for quite a while. For instance, the current SSE3 instruction set was introduced years ago and is just now falling into main stream use. With a Q6600 at 3.0 ghz, you're getting (virtually) a quad Penryn for 250 bucks. Megabucks cheaper and sooner to boot. Sweet.

[razorseal 0]

well.... why would I want a quad core CPU when FSX (or anything else for that matter)doesn't support quad core? just curious

[Tabs 2,790]

FSX SP1 supports up to 256 cores Emir...

[Chaos81 110]

>why would I want a quad core CPU when FSX (or anything else>for that matter)doesn't support quad core? just curiousAs Ryan said, FSX does support quad core. Just head over to the FSX forum, I'm sure you'll find someone there running FSX with a Quad Core C2D.Logic Pro for the Mac supports Quad Core as well, I've got quite a few friends running it with Quad Core Mac Pro's.

[razorseal 0]

cool guys... thxint he hardware forum I must have misunderstood that FSX does not support quad core...guess i'll link them over here