I have done a lot of search on forums for various systems, From price range vs. performance, Intel vs. AMD, Nvidia vs. ATI, and finally made a dicision. Just need advice as to whether I am wasting my money or not.. Finally talked my wife into spending more money on my computer>>> lol.. I only have 1 shot at this so I would like to get it right, BTW, I still have time to cancel my order... Just would hate to be disappointed.. O.K. here it goes..[Current system]old systemP.4 2.4ghzBFG 6800gt-oc 256mb AGP 8x/4x1.gig Kingston ram 2x(512mb)250gig WD HD + 80gig HD that came with computer Dont't know what brand[New system ordered]new system ordered from newegg. $1,193.00ASUS A8N5X nF4R MOBOAMD 64 4000+ San Diego 2.4ghzXFX 7800GTX 256mbOCZ EL 2x1g plattinum DDR400 If anyone with a similar setup or anyone for that matter who has any suggestions, would very much appreciate your input and help... My main purpose for my PC is for flight Simulator, really dont use for anything else, that's why I decided for a cheaper single core and spend the money on a PCIe video card. Just another ? Will I see any better performance or will I just be dissappointed? lol! Hope not.. Although I am not a newbie with FS. I am tottaly a dummie when it comes to computer specs..etc.. But I have learned alot from these forums, as most of you here are very helpful here.. Thanks Alot.. Maholo, HAKU

Your new specs sound just fine. You probably won't see as much performance gain as you might have hopeed for - your old setup was really not that bad. You're not really skipping 2 or 3 CPU/GPU generations, but you should notice some improvements that will defintitely keep you happy for another year or two.Have fun!Pat

I'm currently upgrading my fathers machine.He had a KT400 mainboard2400+ cpu(stock)512MB pc27009700proMy brothers and I kicked in for this...DFI nF4 Ultra-DAthlon64 3000 (currently @2565mhz w/stock cooling)eVGA7800gtx 256MB (8194xp drivers from evga)2x1GBpc4000 Crucial Balistix (RMA in progress)2x80GB Hatachi SATA2's strippedOnboard sound (set to low)520watt power supply (to power all eleven fans)I had to RMA the RAM. Should get the replacment in another day or so.I have 2xCMX512-pc3200c2pt in it now (runing @366mhz 2.5-3-8-3)for set-up and some testing.I have my rig running right next to it for a comparison.865PE mainboardP4 2.4C @3.02x512XBL's @200mhz 2-2-2-5128MB 9800prodesktop set to 1024x768@32 3d settings maxed out/on for both cards, for quality.SP9Basically Ultra high across the board, then anything left out was slid right and checked, except weather (that was left at ultra-high).Water effects high. Target frame rate locked at unlimited.Loaded up his favorite plane at one of his favorite haunts (fps killer) in the world....in this case Dallas Ft. Worth Int.Shift-Z on both rigs...Mine was showing 18-22fpsHis was showing 40-42fpsF4 and . on bothat the end of the runway (310L) I bank both planes 270, his is smooth as snot, mine is choppy in the mid-teens.I bank to 180, his rig has not gone below 40fps, Mine is dipping into single digits now. Dallas is a tough town.I'm still testing and tweaking, and when the RAM gets in (if it's good), will make it better still.I would've have like'd to have gone with a Cross-Fire board and an ATI card, but money was an issue.I'm monitoring both machines on matching P95f+ Viewsonics.I was aprehensive about the image quality of the GeForce card.It's actually quite good.There are some driver problems, but none all that serious.I'm real pleased with this upgrade so far...He's gonna be tickeled.

Thanks so much for the replys Pat and Badatit, I really didn't expect to much of a diffrence with new setup, I was looking for more stability, With old system I was getting between 12 and 23 FPS, with it locked at 25FPS. With everything maxed out, 3d clouds etc. all set to high. Also I have Tons of addons, FS genesis 38m mesh, UT Terrain US, BEV summer and fall, Megascenery New york, Megacity San Francisco, FD III, Loads of payware Aircraft, Ultimate Traffic At 100%, Aerosoft Boxer, Flight Enviorment, etc.. Only reason for not getting a dual core was that I read that FS doesn't make use of the dualcore, But one question I couldn't get an answer on was if I would be able to run all programs not related to FS on one core and FS on the other? I really Appreciate all of your help and input, That's what makes this hobby so much fun, And theres always people willing to help whenever I Hit a roadblock!! lol... BTW, I am no computer wizard. And I will have to have someone Install everything for me.. When I bought My first computer 4 years ago, My 6 year old son had to teach me how to turn it on..lol But I have learned alot since then, with the help from other people just like you guys... BTW, I have an Xalien case with a 500W PSU. It keeps current SYS. running about 20 to 25c With 6 fans and 2 on the PSU. Would you all recommend anything else I would need or change? Thanks, HAKU

It's a real chore to get an idea of what to expect from hardware w/SP9.DOOM 3...no problem....hardware benchmarks all over the web. But not for SP9. That's why my above post is soo long winded.I failed to mention above,My P4 rig has "alot" of garbage on it right now (I plan to clean it up), the upgrade is a freash install of XPro/SP2.I had XP partition the Array into two equal halves, then format (NTSF) and install itself to E:DRIVE.As soon as I got to the desktop, I formatted D:DRIVE (NTSF), Installed chipset drivers, and completely updated the OS...then tweaked the OS to the nines, using the Tips thread here. SP9 was a Full install to C:DRIVE. Added and updated the Piper Archer II, Cessna 310, and the C177 Cardinal (Flight1 and Dream Fleet).Thease are some of the finest a/c I've ever seen on a computer monitor, and the fps are as good as the default skyhawk.(no SP9 tweaks have been applied yet)At this point Both partitions were defragged and backed up to a 40GB IDE drive, using GHOST.In the nut shellYour current P4 chip will be spanked by a 3000 venice (stock),even if you overclocked it to 3.2mhz.Even more so by a San Diego (nice choice).My goal is to hit 2600-2700mhz with stock cooling on the cpu.@2565 it's real close to an 800.00 FX-55 performance now.CPU Arithmetic Benchmark-SiSoftware SandraDhrystone ALU 11520 MIPSWhetstone iSSE3 5209 MFLOPSCPU Multi-Media Benchmark-SiSoftware SandraInteger x4 aEMMX/aSSE 24476 it/sFloating-Point x4 iSSE2 26351 it/s(These numbers should improve (I hope) with the pc4000 RAM).Your mainboard selection looks good, but I cant tell if it supports the new SATA2 hard drives with speeds up to 3Gb/s. I highly reccommend 100.00 worth of the new Hatachi's.The Video card has to be a killer. XFX is gonna be faster than the one I have.The core on this one runs at 450mhz, and it's very, very warm.I put two fans on it (both sides of the chip).There are driver issues with the card. I cant see the 3d a/c model in the a/c selection window (I can live with it). The latest nvidia drivers wouldn't recognize the card (thank's nvidia), so I got the eVGa driver's (NP).I might also add, I'm running the nF4 machine in plug and play monitor mode (I'll install the PL9 drivers for his monitor when I deliver it).A shimmer look, was fixed by backing off the Mip slider to 4. I also laid an 80mm case fan on top of the RAM (big help).I'm guessing you'll get a "solid" 40-45% increase in fps (able to lock it in at 35fps, maybe more), on a clean install.I'm not familiar with those add-ons (milage may very)good luck.

Thanks for all the INFO. As for the video card, I have read that the latest drivers were causing problems, some even reported texture corruption? But also noted that most of the problems seem to have been with the BFG cards? Don't know if that is true or not? But anyway, when it all gets put together I will post some performance here! Thanks again! Aloha,HAKU

Hi Haku.You may get a texture problem with your new card in fs9.if you do try 77.77 drivers untill nvidia sorts it out.Good luck with your new pc.Rex.

Hey REX, Crossing my fingers, should get everything up and running by next week, kind of seems like taking a step backwards with the new video card..lol, But I've seen the same thing with my 6800gt oc with the new drivers too. As far as the black screen in the aircraft control panel. Only bought the 7800GTX card cause it was hard to find a good MOBO with AGP slot to go with processor.. Thanks for the help... HAKU

Update!I took the machine up to my dad sunday night, and we tweaked it for 48hrs. (-minus 7hrs sleep).He's got lots of addons.I didn't take notes (this is from memory).system specksA643000 oc'd to 2565mhz (9x285@default voltage and cooling)DFI NF4 Ultra-D 704-2BTA BIOSeVGA7800GTX 81.94drvs (stock @450mhz with two 40mm fans pointed at the front and back of the GPU)CTX PL92xCMX512-3200C2PT (@ a very conservitave 2.5-3-8-3-1T ([email protected])Maxtor 40GB IDE HD (H:DRIVE STORAGE)Hatachi SATA2 Stripped RAID0 (3GB transfer rate enabled) C:SP9 (95GB) E:XP_PRO (58GB)DVD DriveZip DriveFloppy Drive520w Aspire P/Sall shoehorned into an old ATX case.Note: The RMA'd Ballistix replacements have arrived. I'll start testing them for error-free stability in my backup machine shortly (I'm not holding my breath).OK,So we install All of his planesBEVFS WaterFlight EnviromentMega Scenery DenverAnd several other that I cant even remember.And start the tweaking process.We took turns. One would fly for a while, trying different display settings, while the other would watch. Testing was done mainly arround Dallas, San Antonio, Las Vegas, and Seattle.We were working from 3 different ghost images.We tweaked to the point that I new I'd seen what we were after.Here it is:Driver display settings on the desktop are as follows,1024x768@32Performance and Quality (Advanced)Everything that can be changed is set to ON or slid far right,except for Vsync oFFTransparent set to multisample (not supersample)His monitor is very dark ie; Color SettingsAll sliders to 50%(this makes the desktop look a bit wierd but brings the sim to life)SOUND hardware excelleration set to basic.SP9 Options/Settings/SoundLowSP9 Options/Settings/DisplaySCENERYAll sliders far right except:Terrain mesh complexity: 80Terrain detail: Land onlyAll boxes checked except:Lens flareAIRCRAFTMaxed outWEATHER80mi/128km50mi/80km70Detailed cloudsMaximumHARDWARETarget 281024x768x32Everything far right and checkedTrilinearMip quality 4In his case, these settings yeilded the best results.And it looks absolutely amazing.The only way to bring down the fps 28 was to change weather to building storms at dusk (I never saw it drop below 21). I'm sure the addon settings play a great roll too, but I didn't have time to really test different settings there. He will tweak those in time, I'm sure. HAKU, your machine should be a bit more powerful than this.Laterz bro

Hey, Thanks for the help, My Hardware just arrived yesterday, Hopefully will get it all installed this weekend, Seems my specs are pretty close to yours, I will be overjoyed if I get even 20 FPS steady, without jumping all over the place, I usually lock my FPS at 25.. Will let you know when It is all together.. MAHALO, HAKU