new PC time but.....what?????

[Guest]

Good afternoon fellow flyers,I live in Palma de Mallorca and getting PCs here is a drag. It looks like this is about the best on offer. The same shop also do a p-4 2.8 for not much more. If anybody has a similar system to this I would be glad of your input or if anybody has any criticism on the setup I would be most thankful.Motherboard Gigabyte 7VAX (AMD)

[Guest ccgr]

looks like a good system to me

[wsieffert 0]

Yeah! Can you get me two!:-lol

[Guest]

Pretty funny! I dont know whether to go for AMD or Pentium.

[Guest]

I have used both Pentium 4 and Athlon machined, and they are both nice systems. Persoanlly I currently have an Athlon I built myself and I prefer the Athlon over the Pentium. My system is:Athlon 1600XP ProcessorA-Bit KX-7 Motherboard2 512Mb DDR memory chips (2 open slots remaining)40 Gig. Maxtor HDGainward GF2 Ti 64Mb DDRWindows 98 SE OSFS runs flawlessly and I maintain a FPS of 30 to 50 except with some third party scenery. The sceneries I am talking about seem to hit heavy on Frame Rates on the machines of all the people I know who have them. The primary issue to keep in mind with the Athlon is that they run hot. Very hot compared to the Pentium, so I would recommend the best CPU heat sink and fan you can find (7200 RPM minimum). There is also a copper shim available to go between the processor and fan assembly, when I installed the shim my operating temp dropped by 14 degrees F.My brother has a P4 2.0 Gig machine with Windows XP OS, and all I can say is that FS2002 runs far smoother, better frame rates, and overall better appearance on my Athlon than on his Pentium. Hope this helps.Keith

[Guest]

Wow!All that on a 1.6 !!!! I am currently running my systemAthlon 1.2 T-BirdAsus7V pc-133 GeForce2MX80 gig Seagate 7200 hd256 DDR memoryWindows98 First Edit. and my framerates are down to 12-15 fps. The main problem for me is the blurries(yes Iknow,always a problem with fs2002). I can take off with trees and roads and stuff but when I get to the destination, perhaps thirty minutes later its all just a blur. Runways and taxiways are good but outside that there is no definition.I might just try to change my chip, my card and the O/S going from your info. I already bought another stick of 256DDR RAM but Windows 98 1st edit doesnt run it apparently.Thanks a lot Kieth, this could save me a packet.

[Guest]

Glad I could help. However, before replacing the processor make sure your Motherboard will support the XP processor, some older MBs don't. I really like the KX-7, 4 slots for DDR up to 512Mb per slot, will support up to 2800XP processor (I am thinking of upgrading to 2400XP),enough fan connections to keep any Athlon cool, but there is no onboard sound so it requires a card. I would also recommend visiting the web site of your video card manufacturer and downloading the latest drivers. I would think that either version of 98 should recognize and run the DDR memory, so it may be the MB that requires examination rather than the OS.For what it's worth I downloaded the latest Nvidia drivers a couple of weeks ago and noticed an improvement. I also use Rivatuner which allows you to overclock the video card. Just today I decided to experiment with the anti-aliasing and set it to 4X. It has slowed my frame rates to 23 to 29, but has helped the blurries. Too soon to tell if I will keep that feature enabled.If you go to someplace like Tigerdirect.com you should be able to find the 1600XP processor and a mother board (I think they carry the A-Bit) for under $200.00 US.Am attaching a screen shot from my Athlon taken of a Dwight Booth chopper in a 3rd patry scenery. You should be able to see the FPS at the top, if not is is 33.3. Dwight's helicopters and most 3rd party scenery are frame rate heavy, so this gives you an idea of what I was saying (this taken prior to the anti-aliasing experiment).

[Guest]

CyberbirdeThanks for the shot, fantastic frame rate right enough. I am now thinking its probably more sensible to just upgrade to 2.4 than to go the whole hog up to 2.8 or 3.1. All I keep thinking was my disappointment when I got my 1.2 (state of the art-at the time !)and when I tried to run FS2002 maxed out it was pretty awful. I guess its just a chance I'll have to take with Fs2004 not far away(?). Thanks again for your kind help, you saved me almost the price of the PFC jetliner yoke !!!!