New System On The Way!

[Guest bigun]

OK, gotta post this.New system shipped yesterday.AMD FX60 Dual Core2 Gigs Corsair XMS memory2x Nvidia 7800GTX512 SLI2x 150GB 10000RPM RaptorsThermaltake 680 watt power supplyCoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit (not Overclocking so this should be fine)I know, I know, I should have built it myself and usually do. But after pricing parts, lead times, warranties etc, it just made more sense for me to have it custom built. Cost me about $200-$300US to have it built. So far the experience has been fantastic. The company kept me posted every step of the way during build, sometimes e-mailing me 3 times in one day with updates. Now if the rig shows up in one piece and working I'll be a happy camper:-roll Should be here next Tuesday.Hopefully, any FPS or stutter issues should be resolved:-eek

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi George, congratulations, that definitely is the most advanced FlyTendo I've ever seen! :-) Hope you enjoy it and I'm keen to learn more about your impressions once you got it. Thanks for sharing and kind regards Jaap

[Guest bigun]

Thanks Jaap,Only problem is, it won't be in until next Tuesday. The way hardware changes, by then it will be a "middle of the road" system.;-)

[Guest navav2002]

SSSWWWWEEETTTTTTTT!!! What a RIG!!Who did you deal with?? I build my own stuff...But I know some folks don't and I really haven't anyone to refer them too..."Hopefully, any FPS or stutter issues should be resolved"Ummmmm...Maybe with a tad bit Hotter Rig...Not so sure about Yours?? he he :+ "The way hardware changes, by then it will be a "middle of the road" system."Maybe "Upper"..Middle of the road...(ie: "Upper" Middle Class...OK..never mind...wasn't funny...I tried..he he)...Really Though...Amazing System!! I too would love to hear the details!! Really interested in hearing about those Raptors!! You gonna run them seperate..Or in Raid0??...They are on my list too...I needed to study up on them to see how they are doing in raid though...I kinda sorta would like to get just one(Price)...They are suppose to be *S*Hot...Ummm...If I add water to my system..maybe it will grow to be like yours?? Probably not...Just gotta add more green..That is going to be Sweet!!Have Fun!!

[Guest bigun]

Hi ya Chuck,Setting the Raptors up as raid. They will be my 2nd hard drive for just my FS stuff. Forgot to put in the above that I will have a third Raptor as my c: drive. It will be a 80 gig for the OS and stuff. Getting it through this company www.ibuypower.comNever had any dealings with them before but I did a LOT of research before deciding who to go with and they seemed to have a good reputation and I talked to several people about them who had nothing but praise for them. So far, as I stated above, they have been fantastic.I'll let ya'll know how it pans out when I get it next week.

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi fellas, by coincidence, my hardware bible has a couple of details on the 150GB Raptor in their latest issue: Average seek time 6.6ms; read min54.3 max84.8 MB/s; write min50.9 max92.6 MB/s(!). As far as I would dare to judge and without digging into the HD archive, this is the quickest non-SCSI drive ever. The 150GB Raptor also seems very quiet. The only thing missing in these tests were the temps. However, looking at my 74GB sample, I guess they will be very moderate and nothing will have changed. HST, to me, the low temps on their 'old, outdated' models were the greatest surprise. Ohh, BTW George, here's some news: Starting next Wednesday, AMD ships their quad-core/2227-pin - 9.5GHz/2333FSB/32MB-L3 CPU and Nvidia starts delivery of their new XTCX19900XYX/TCX-Ultra-2048MB. Best of all, the whole thing runs fine with a 116W power supply and ibuypower sends the following gadget alongside free of charge! http://www.3dv.com/dvhardware/visionstatio...ionstation.htmlSeriously, it's so nice to feel your excitement and anticipation. Wish you boatloads of fun. :-) Kind regards Jaap

[Guest bigun]

Thanks for the info Jaap. Yup, the 150 Raptor is supposed to be pretty quick. The 74 Raptor is what I have now (that the one I'm going to use for my c drive on the new machine) Called it 80 but close enough:+ PS see, I told you that by the time mine gets here it will be "middle of the road":-lol

[Guest baksteen33]

LOL, 'pretty quick' probably is the understatement of the year. :-) Right after posting, George, I all of a sudden wondered whether you wouldn't be giving away performance when setting up a Raid array with those 'animals?' I mean, the combined max read/write of 180&185MB/s seems significantly beyond the theoretical 150MB/s bandwidth of the SATA-1 specification. I'm no expert on this but just to raise the thesis. Maybe somebody knows more? Greg 'Soarpics' once posted a link to an article that Raid arrays don't really do much for games. OTOH, maybe FS is - as usual - an exception? I'ld be interested to learn more about your thoughts on this. Thanks for taking your time, kind regards Jaap

[Guest bigun]

Hi Jaap,Yea, I really don't expect to see any major performance increase with the Raid set up vs a single Raptor. The 74 I have now is what I use as my "D" drive with FS and add-ons with my current machine and I honestly didn't see any "earth shattering" changes vs the old WD I had.I'm mainly setting it up for the "cool" factor:-roll :-lol, and, who knows maybe it will help a little.I usaully build a new computer about every three years and try to go with the best stuff out there. This has worked pretty well over the years. I'm currently running a P4 3.0 HT machine I built before FS2004 was released and it's done OK up to now. The only thing I've had to upgrade is the graphics board.

[Guest baksteen33]

Thanks a lot for the reply, George. I asked because even the fastest HDs still seem to be the weakest components in todays FlyTendos. Compared to i.e. the 8GB/s or more our RAM can push. Not to mention the driver situation and making sure we really are using the interface's or component's full potential... I can imagine you wish it was Tuesday while the rest of us is probably happy to have the weekend ahead! :-) I dearly hope you'll have a little bit of time to tell us about your impressions and that you won't be carried away to the extent that you don't have time to post anymore! :-) Almost 2 years ago, I went to a s754 AMD64-3200 from a P4-3GHz and the difference was amazing. Specially in dense areas with lots of AI like NY, Chicago, London, etc. Bushflyers probably wouldn't benefit that much from such a swap (as far as I would dare to judge) and I couldn't detect much of difference between the P4 and the AMD64 back then. Anyway, looking forward to your report and again, I wish you tons of fun, George. Guess you're in for a treat! Flightsim Nirvana? :-) Cheers and kind regards Jaap

[Guest dutton]

Nice! You will be happy with that new baby for sure!duttonhttp://fsblogger.com/blogs/dutton

[Guest navav2002]

Two More Days!! Dang...even I'm excited...he he

[Guest bigun]

Yup,I'm a little annoyed with myself. I'm a 53 year old man and I'm sitting here "wishing" the weekend away like a kid before Christmas:+

[Guest bigun]

Came a day early!!!Just installed FS. Have not installed any add-ons yet.This thing is insane! KATL. ALL sliders maxed, lowest FPS while looking directly at the terminal full of AI+ 50-60Going to load it up with about 20 gigs of add-ons now and see if I can bring it to it's knees:7

[Guest navav2002]

Waaaa Hoooo!! he he...That is Great!!I think you'll find it kinda tough to bring it to it's knees...Will be Fun Trying!!