What motherboard/PC Specs for PMDG and FSX?

[CrashEd 8]

Hi,I'm having serious problems with my Asus Striker Extreme motherboard. It's never been stable and now it has finally died. Fortunately it is still under warranty, so it will get RMAed. So, I'm looking to get a new motherboard and wondered what you can recommend in terms of performance when running FSX/PMDG 747-400X. My current set up is/was this:Asus Striker Extreme (now dead)Intel Q6600 2.4GHz (was OCed to ~3.2GHz) 4 GB DDR2 Crucial PC6400 RAM2x Nvidia GT8800 GFX cards in SLi2x WD 170Gb Raptor HDD, raidedVista64I can't decide whether to sell one of the gfx cards and get a non-SLi motherboard or keep it and sell the RAM and get a Striker 2 Extreme and some DDR3 RAM. These have the new 790i Nvidia chipset which seems to be a lot more stable than the (rubbish, imho) 680i chip set.Any comments/advice would be massively appriciated!

[Tabs 2,790]

Well you're limited to Nvidia based boards because of the SLI video cards...This board, the EVGA 750i FTW, got very good reviews at HardOCP, which is the main site I trust for unbiased hardware reviews:http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MT...GhlbnRodXNpYXN0

[Chris from Angle of Attack 7]

Good recommendation. I was going to recommend EVGA before he even said anything. I've had problems with their boards, but they have THE BEST customer support available, and now that they have the kinks worked out with the 780i, it's a SCREAMER. Very stable. I also have one of their video cards that has lasted for 2 years. Every other component in my computer has been replaced. I have learned to stay away from ASUS for you exact issue. They always seem to be unstable.

[CrashEd 8]

Thanks for your advice guys. I'll check out EVGA's boards.TBH I'm tempted to scrap SLi altogether. I've seen very little performance increase whilst using it (perhaps I never had it set up right?) and, as far as I can see, you always have to have two of the most recent cards, otherwise there will always be a new, single card in 3 or 4 months that will out-perform your two cards! (usually for a similar price too).Needless to say, I'm looking into gfx cards as we speak ;-)

[Chris from Angle of Attack 7]

Keep in mind that FSX doesn't support SLI until you get into the very high resolutions, which is uncommon. Basically, on FSX, SLI is a waste.

[CrashEd 8]

>Keep in mind that FSX doesn't support SLI until you get into>the very high resolutions, which is uncommon. Basically, on>FSX, SLI is a waste. Yes, I'd read the same recently. TBH I'm giving up on SLi. I'm going to sell my two GT8800s and buy a new, single card. Can't decide whether to go down the Nvidia or ATi route. Can you recommend one? Over the last 6 or so years i've always gone with Nvidea, but I hate that horibble 'shimmering' you get with their cards. I read that this this phenomenom isn't so bad with ATi cards?

[Tabs 2,790]

SLI isn't something a game "supports", it's all done in the video driver and hardware. The reason FSX seems like it's not benefiting from it is because the game is highly dependent on CPU power. When you get to extreme resolutions and levels of AA/AF, SLI is beneficial because those things are mainly functions of the video card.The new ATI/AMD 4000 series cards are getting great reviews and are priced quite low:http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html...W50aHVzaWFzdA==Just be aware if you go ATI and want to do Crossfire (their name for SLI) you need an Intel chipset based motherboard, not an Nvidia one.

[Chris from Angle of Attack 7]

I've actually seen benches on Tom's Hardware that show the 8800GTX still kicking everything's butt. This is the only site I know of that uses FSX as one of it's benchmarks.

[CrashEd 8]

@ Tabs> Apologies for opening a separate thread. It was a different question from what this thread started off as, and, I had posted it *before* the gfx card questions started, but hey ho... Please go ahead and delete the other thread.@ Chris> Thanks, this sounds promising. Given that FSX is mainly CPU intensive it's possible that I can get away with a card that hasn't just been released. I do play some other games that would make use of a fast gfx card, so I'm still undecided. There's this shimmering issue with Nvidea cards that I'd like to avoid though...

[Tabs 2,790]

There's no way an 8800GTX is faster than these new cards, they're two generations behind now. They've already had the 9 series and now the 2xx cards. It's likely just driver issues that will get ironed out - and who the heck knows what settings and stuff Tom's is running and whether they're actually using the sim realistically or not. The new Radeon cards are beating some of the top Nvidia cards that cost twice as much in games that actually rely on the GPU.

[Gary A 8]

>>Keep in mind that FSX doesn't support SLI until you get>into>>the very high resolutions, which is uncommon. Basically, on>>FSX, SLI is a waste. >>Yes, I'd read the same recently. TBH I'm giving up on SLi. I'm>going to sell my two GT8800s and buy a new, single card. >>Can't decide whether to go down the Nvidia or ATi route. Can>you recommend one? >>Over the last 6 or so years i've always gone with Nvidea, but>I hate that horibble 'shimmering' you get with their cards. I>read that this this phenomenom isn't so bad with ATi cards?I kept quiet about the NIVIDA chipsets thinking you were going to keep your SLI. As a very dissatisfied Striker Extreme owner it would be a cold day in severe turbulence before I purchased another NVIDIA board. If I was getting a free replacement and had to decide now, I would go with Maximus II Formula P45 chipset.If I was doing a total upgrade I would wait until the new-year and look at the Penryn or Nehalem chips.Buy the best that you can afford.If I was buying today it would be a Vista 64 bit system, a P5E3 with a QX9775 and 4GB of DDR3-1600 with an ATI 1GB FireGL card. Expensive yes but I

[CrashEd 8]

Gary> I ended up going for the Maximus Formular (X38 chipset) in the end as my supplier offered me cashback on my Striker Extreme (I almost pulled his hand off!). Can't affor to go up to DDR3 at the mo, so this will do until the new chips come out next year. Also, this board seems to be very reliable from the threads I're read.Ouch! ATI 1GB FireGL card is not the cheapest! I'll probably end up going for one of the ATI 4870 X2 when they come out. I'd rather have the graphics quality/clarity of the ATi and sacrifice some performance, as it mainly CPU power that is needed (as far as I can tell). However, as Tabs says, the newer ATi cards are almost outperforming the Nvidia cards...

[Jeff Nielsen 1,385]

Just ordered this today! :-) Haven't ordered the Zalman cooling dealy yet.LG Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive Black SATA Model GGW-H20LItem #:N82E168271361371 Pioneer Blu-Ray DVD-ROM and 12X DVD

[Gary A 8]

>Gary> I ended up going for the Maximus Formular (X38 chipset)>in the end as my supplier offered me cashback on my Striker>Extreme (I almost pulled his hand off!). Can't affor to go up>to DDR3 at the mo, so this will do until the new chips come>out next year. Also, this board seems to be very reliable from>the threads I're read.>>Ouch! ATI 1GB FireGL card is not the cheapest! I'll probably>end up going for one of the ATI 4870 X2 when they come out.>I'd rather have the graphics quality/clarity of the ATi and>sacrifice some performance, as it mainly CPU power that is>needed (as far as I can tell). However, as Tabs says, the>newer ATi cards are almost outperforming the Nvidia cards...FireGL, was a bit over the top Ed, I got carried away. The 4800 series makes much better sense. Good choice on the board by the way.