Hi all I have aAMD 2000+512mb DDR ramK7S5A Pro main boardG-Force 5600 256mb Vido Cardonboard 24bit sound card, and a90% full Seagate 40GB 7200rpm hard driverunning on a XP systemI want to do an upgrade but don't know which way to go. do I put in a 2800+ chip, go to 1GB ram, or get a new video card (more than I want to spend) or would a new and not so full hard drive help the most?BTW I am looking for the best proformance gane on FS9Thanks for any help you all can giveFieldsy

FS is a cpu-reliant program. I would upgrade to the best you can. If you can go with the 3000, do it and get the 1GB ram. Get you another HDD, like a 80GB or another 40 and drop it in if you can. The video card will need to be upgraded for FS10 IMO.I had a P4 1.5512MB PC133IDE 40GBNVidia TNT64 32MB cardmade the switch to my new system.. *specs below* Made a world of difference.If possible, eathier do the upgrade on the CPU, then the HDD and vid card or buy some parts and build a new one. :):-wave

Yep thats what I was thinkin, CPU then RAM then HDD. unfourtnatly I as far as I can tell I am stuck with Socket A chips with this main board but the move fron 2000+ tp 2800+ (I think thats as big as socket A go isnt it?) should make some diferenceThanksFieldsy

socket A goes up to 3200+, but your chipset will be the limiting factor. i used to have a 2200+ and successfully went to a 3000+, i tried a 3200+ but could not get it to work. you could have a 233, 333, or 400, max fsb, not sure about the 233 (or is it 266) but the 333 will allow you to go up to a 3000+ (make sure it is a 333 not 400 fsb). Since then i have changed my mobo so i could now go for a 3200+ but doubt if the increasebetween the 3000 and 3200 would be that big.

Hello fellow K7S5Aer,I had an Athlon 2200+ sitting on a K7S5A right until..., well, yesterday! I had researched various upgrade options and had recently purchased a 6600GT, which didn't really make that much of a difference. The best processor you can get for this board is an Athlon Mobile XP. People recommend the 2500+ which is a good overclocker, but the 3000+ may be better. Don't try a mainstream Athlon because the K7S5A doesn't support a 166 FSB, it only goes up to 133, unless you flash a modified Bios (e.g. HoneyX), and even then very few have managed a stable 166. Mine was stable only up to 147.For more details chech out this forum : http://p199.ezboard.com/bk7s5amotherboardforumAs for myself I bit the bullet and moved to a 939 motherboard with a 3200+ Winchester. I didn't have the time to put it through tis paces yet but from what I've seen so far, the system is able to make the whole flight simming experience much more enjoyable. The frame rate just refuses to drop...Having said all that...I just love my K7S5A. It has been solid as a rock from day, it used to be very fast (beating the VIA chipsets of the day hands down) and will become the basis of my secondary system, which I refuse to call a slouch (2200+, GeForce4200).Kind regards,

Thanks a heep for that link Vassilis just what I was looking for :-yellow1

Hi Fieldsy, just an idea: Why don't you get a nForce3 mainboard (w/ AGP) and as much 939 CPU as you can? Epox, Gigabyte and MSI i.e. have such offerings. The benefit; you could continue to use all your other components and you should notice a significant difference. Certes, you'ld have to adjust the FSB to a lower rating, but I'm sure the difference in the game is pretty marginal. Doom i.e., only looses ca.4 % when running at 333MHz(166) instead of 400MHz FSB. Only synthetic benchmarks will notice a significant difference if running lower FSB values. Normal applications hardly do. IMHO, upgrading your current CPU is not worth it and the difference will barely be noticeable (ca. 15-20% if you go to 2800). Hope this adds to considerations, good luck and kind regards Jaap

That's actually what I did. My memory was of the 333 type and it works witout problems. I even pushed the FSB a bit and my cpu is now doing 2300Mhz from the 2000 original, so its rating is 3500+ a chip which costs almost twice the money. Keep in mind though that the worst part of the upgrade was the need to install everything from the begining, including addons etc. I am on day two and going strong... :-roll

Be strong, a spring clean of your FS setup is good for the soul, albeit a pain in the bu-tt :-lol.Gary

I only wish it was good for the soul...I have used every bad word in the Greek dirty language handbook (mind you, there are some pretty inventive ones) and still haven't even installed half of my add ons. I guess I'm going straight to ####, but at least I'll go down knowing my computer can hold 20 FPS no matter what. :-sae Edit: Oh ####, the filter blocks the word #### from posts...And it also filters b u t t! H e l l yeah, I'm impressed!