I am thinking of buying or building a new PC just for MS Flight Simulator, keeping my current one for all other tasks. I have a few questions though, should anyone feel able to give me some advice:1. I'm considering twin SATA drives, 10000rpm. (Not sure which ones yet). I had also looked at two Ultra 320 SCSI drives, 15000rpm, as a possibility, but I doubt that the actual result in FS9 would be worth the huge extra cost. Do people agree?2. The AMD 64-bit FX55 seems the best CPU for FS9 at the moment. Yes ??3. Likewise, the Radeon XT800 Pro graphics card ??4. Lastly (really would like some advice here, in respect of FS9) - I would install the two hard discs as a RAID setup, but which? Would I get as good, or almost as good a performance from a RAID 1 setup as RAID 0 ? I'm a bit 'iffy' about RAID 0 - if one disc goes, you lose the lot of course. No one seems to offer RAID 5.... Or would the RAID not help in FS9 performance?Many thanks.Martin

>I am thinking of buying or building a new PC just for MS>Flight Simulator, keeping my current one for all other tasks.>I have a few questions though, should anyone feel able to give>me some advice:>>1. I'm considering twin SATA drives, 10000rpm. (Not sure which>ones yet). I had also looked at two Ultra 320 SCSI drives,>15000rpm, as a possibility, but I doubt that the actual result>in FS9 would be worth the huge extra cost. Do people agree?>>2. The AMD 64-bit FX55 seems the best CPU for FS9 at the>moment. Yes ??>>3. Likewise, the Radeon XT800 Pro graphics card ??>>4. Lastly (really would like some advice here, in respect of>FS9) - I would install the two hard discs as a RAID setup, but>which? Would I get as good, or almost as good a performance>from a RAID 1 setup as RAID 0 ? I'm a bit 'iffy' about RAID 0>- if one disc goes, you lose the lot of course. No one seems>to offer RAID 5.... Or would the RAID not help in FS9>performance?>>Many thanks.>>MartinHi Martin,IMHO, I dont ever see the need for the fast expensive Drives, Nor for the raid 0, to much of a pain and with what real advantage? Sorry, Just dont see it in real game play.Agree for your CPU.MotherBoard?This ties right in with your Video card choice...Get an SLI board, NF4-SLI boards are starting to reach market and NF-5 will follow.Super performance at Bargain$$$-get 2-6600GT PCI-X for less than $400 and you will get as much and in many cases more performance (running at High rez/AA/AF) than the very pricey XT800-ProUltra Performance -2x6800GTYou can always get just the one card for now and then buy the same model latter...just dont wait to long.SLI-makes sense if your going new 939pin.

I was considering the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum M/B... definitely need 939 pin. I haven't heard anything about NF-5 ...Not sure about the graphics. Two PCI-X cards generate a lot more noise and heat than one X800. Well, maybe.The read speeds on the 10k SATA drives are of course superior to the standard IDE options - and RAID setups are also said to improve benchmarks, though that doesn't necessarily mean much in FS9 terms. RAID 1 might be an option, but RAID 0 sounds dangerous to me! I've got to think about tht a bit more..Martin

Hi All, I read these forums when I can in an attempt to learn a bit about what makes my computer tick! (It is working slowly as I feel I understand more of the jargon at least:-) )However - reading this thread I'm confused about the mention of TWO graphics cards...... always on the lookout to improve performance (and there have been some super tips in the forums over time) could you tell me if TWO graphics cards can be fitted to any system and if so HOW does that improve things.I'll monitor this with nterest.Happy New Year to all .... Blue

Two Graphics Cards:SLI (Scan Line Interleaving) is a technology that allows you to use TWO video cards to render on ONE monitor. The two cards split the duties - each card renders every other line. I believe there is some GPU overhead to the process, so it's not a pure 2x jump in speed, but it certainly does improve performance on video-card dependant programs. SLI is not a new innovation - 3DFX used it with their Voodoo series before they went belly-up.Currently, in order to do SLI you need an SLI-capable video card, and an SLI-capable motherboard. This means PCI Express (PCI-X) and creme of the crop cards. Not sure how SLI would effect MSFS, being that MSFS is often handicapped by the CPU and not the GPU. SATA / RAID-0:I run a SATA150 RAID-0 array on my system. I've noticed improved load times and a little extra pep to the system. It's not a HUGE impact, but just noticable. I do a lot of video editing and processing on my computer, and I noticed a HELLUVA jump in performance with those programs than I did with games. As most know, RAID-0 is very "risky" when it comes to hard drive crashes. I run an external USB2 drive and whenever my system logs on, I have a program copy all my documents and critical files to it. This gives me a perpetual backup which allows me to rest assured that my work and my stuff are safe. I've already had a SATA drive die on me while in the RAID array, and needless to say - it blew out all my stuff. Not pretty, but I was backed up. I'd recommend against RAID-0 as a performance enhancing tweak for MSFS, but it is good for those with high disk access needs (video and multimedia editing) and/or folks looking to create a very large physical disk. -Greg

Greg, Many thanks for taking the time to reply in (almost) laymans terms. These forums really are an excellent educational tool for computer dummies like me. I'm sure my system is not up to two video cards yet, but knowing it is possible will stand me in good stead when next upgrading.Thanks again - Regards, Blue.

>Two Graphics Cards:>>SLI (Scan Line Interleaving) is a technology that allows you>to use TWO video cards to render on ONE monitor. The two cards>split the duties - each card renders every other line. I>believe there is some GPU overhead to the process, so it's not>a pure 2x jump in speed, but it certainly does improve>performance on video-card dependant programs. >>SLI is not a new innovation - 3DFX used it with their Voodoo>series before they went belly-up.>>Currently, in order to do SLI you need an SLI-capable video>card, and an SLI-capable motherboard. This means PCI Express>(PCI-X) and creme of the crop cards. >>Not sure how SLI would effect MSFS, being that MSFS is often>handicapped by the CPU and not the GPU. Thats the old name, and possibly still copyrighted to someone. Through Nvidia its called Scalable Link Interface. Its basically similar to the old SLI except the PCI X bus is wide enough to make it work. For the extra $$$ spent it would have to make a pretty big diff in fps for me to take the plunge. Two high end SLI cards could easily run about $1,000 or more....David

Hair splitting time!! ;)I thought the new nVidia SLI worked on the same technical premise that the old SLI's did (rendering every other line). Turns out nVidia calling it Scalable Link Interface isn't just a marketing ploy - Scan Line Interleaving is no longer an accurate technical description of the technology! > Thats the old name, and possibly still copyrighted to someone.nVidia purchased the intellectual property of 3DFX, who brought SLI capable video cards to the home market. (SLI had already been in use with Silicon Graphics machines in the years prior) As such, if it is a 'ed name, nVidia owns it. I believe scan line interleaving is the industry standard name for the technology and methods which were *originally* used. The new nVidia "Scalable Link Interface" is a bit of a marketing name for the link - intergrating the old SLI phrase for those of us who remember, and including the recent buzzword "scalable". The technology used today is not the "every other line" method that gave SLI it's name, but rather a split screen method - card 1 renders the top half, card 2 renders the bottom. So while I thought it was still scan line interleaving, nVidia went a different route! Learning something new every day!More information for the curious...http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1728http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjMz

The following works for me.I also was a bit apprehensive about the Raid0 configuration, but so far so good after about a year. In all honesty, I do not see any difference in performance from the conventional HD setups, but it may be fooling me.Good luck on your choice.RTH 1585368CFIFor whatever it might be worth:P4C800 Deluxe MotherboardPentium 4, 3.2G CPU1G PC3200/400 MemoryWinXP ProDirectX9.0cATI Radeon 9800Pro 128MBSecondary Graphics Diamond Stealth III S540 PCI 21

I was just scanning the thread and noticed that there isnt any mention of the fact that SLI gives absolutely NO performance advantage over a single slot solution.. .. Refer to THG for the review which includes Fs9 Just FYI .. Cheers