I am planning on building a new computer to drive my T-38C sim. I would like some advice on what you think is suitable, figuring on FSx coming down the road.I plan on using a Athlon 64 x2 dual core CPU. The difference in price is so small I might as well go with it. I am looking at a geforce 6800gt pci or maybe the 7600 series. I have decided to go with the Matrox triple head adaptor and three 19" or 20" LCD monitors for the outside display. I think this well work better than a single projector for a fighter cockpit.I also need to drive two LCD panels for the instruments. One of the panels has to be turned 90 degrees and viewed vertically. My concern is in driving so many video components from a single computer. Any suggestions?John.

Graphics is processor-intensive. Were I you, I'd put the instrument panel LCDs onto a second computer. Since they're flat pictures, it doesn't need to be a fancy one.Richard

Yes, I agree, you should run the instruments on a second PC if possible. Also check the Matrox site for video boards that are capable of succesfully showing the 3840x1024 resolution. There are some issues with ATI boards and somewhere I read that the nVidia 6600 series are not capable of running the full resolution. btw great choice to go with the triplehead!In a recent test in a Dutch magazine Hardware Info on CPU/GPU combinations I read that you should balance spendings on CPU and GPU (eg spend approx the same amount of money on both) It makes no sense to burn a lot of money on the fastest processor if you buy a mid-range GPU (video) The framerates will not improve significantly because in this case the GPU is the limiting factor. Some examples of balanced combinations: AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 with 7900 GTX (for topscores) or AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with 7600GT (both midrange)And for internal memory I would suggest 2048MB Also spend some money on fast hard drives if you plan to use high definition add-on scenery. Best is to have the scenery folder on a separate disk. Use at least SATA2 disks and if possible RAID 0 for performance increase.RAID-0: This technique has striping but no redundancy of data. It offers the best performance but no fault-tolerance. Source http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDefin...i214332,00.htmlIf you plan to add additional hardware for switches etc (Flight Deck Technology or Phidgets) plug in additional USB brackets. Hope this helps. Have fun!

HiI do not want to start an amd-intel discussion here. My last PS were all AMD based.I recently read an article on simhq.com comparing the latest athlon with the new duo core 2 cpu's. The latter were definetly ahead.Till I read that article I always thought that FS did not use the full power of a dual cpu. Just look at the test and you will see otherwise.regardsNorbert Boschhttp://home.wanadoo.nl/norbert.bosch

Older AMD vs older intels = AMD winsAMD FX vs Core duo = core duo wins, defenitly. Optimised for dual core or not. (I have an AMD btw)BTW, Kester, telling someone to buy a SATA2 HD does not make sens... SATA2 is no standard, but just means it has something extra above normal SATA. This is a common mistake as companies like to advertise with SATA2. Check http://www.sata-io.org/namingguidelines.aspBTW: you're right about balancing CPU/GPU. If you get a faster one however, you can always upgrade the other component later, but I'd not do that if I was you :)

Big Thank You (s) to all who responded. You have given me much to consider. A couple of question for clarification and discussion.Two computers vs one How would one go about this today in the easiest and least complicated manner. In the past I have run Wideview, I think it was, and was astounded to find that I needed to run the instruments on the primary computer, for them to update correctly. This means two computers of equal abilities. Now money isn

Yes, Wideview does require the instruments to be displayed on the primary computer.However, take a look in the file library - there's a few applications there that display the flight instruments on a computer connected using WideFS (I even wrote one of them - a generic GA panel)The advantage of that route is that the instruments really don't need much computer power at all. My instrument panel is driven by a first generation Pentium-33 laptop that was just not up to even basic work wordprocessing and emailing function any more.Richard

Well, get the new PC, the triplehead2go (it rocks!! - highly recommended!) and two PCI videocards and see if it works. IF it does, great, if not, you lose the price of the PCI cards, which is peanuts nowadays.If you can avoid wideview, the better. With all due respect to the great work of the developers, while it is a good setup, the "more variables to the equation" can mean some gray hair too.//Tuomas