Hey all,Kittie's better half here. We were debating on whether or not to wait a bit....but as she's established, waiting for the best time to buy is like waiting for the Second Coming....We generally tend to upgrade every two years or so, regardless of what might be on the horizon. Last time, we settled for a second-best chip (at the time that was the 3500+). This time, we want to go for the "wow" factor. Our motto in building this system is "go big, or go home!"The data she posted is a bit inaccurate on our new system. We're going to be taking the M2N32-SLI Deluxe/Wireless edition motherboard over the M2N-SLI. Biggest advantage...nvidia 590 chipset over the 570.The processor is pretty much set in stone.The Ram...she's a fan of Corsair, the salesman is a fan of OCZ...I could care less. To me, it's like comparing Ford to Chevy. Maybe this is a good debate...which is better :-)I highly doubt we are going to go with the liquid cooling. Where there is water and heat, there is condensation...enough said.The system we are buying will last us the two years that we intend to keep it for, then we will be upgrading yet again to whatever the latest and greatest is at that time.The 1 Gig card is pretty much set in stone too...again, go big or go home. Regardless of what may be up and coming, I believe we will have a system that will be able to take anything flight sim 10 will throw at us without any hiccups!Blue skies!

There will be a nVidia chipset for C2D, but it according to reports it will take until end of September until they're readt for retail.DDR2 memory is *not* faster *or* better than DDR memory. It is required for the intel processors, because they're not hyperthreaded like their AMD counterparts. intel CPUs have a FSB of 800MHz (depending on model), while AMDs have 2000MHz (so to say, because AMD doesn't really have a FSB, because it can directly access the memory).Pat

Lucas is aware of this from another thread...For the benifit of the rest of you all who may not read that one, I'd like mention a couple of things..."Wait"(long term ie: DX-10, FSX ect)...That issue has been addressed...It is really an individual decision...I'll second, third or whatever the sentiment "There will always be something new on the horizion"...One could easily say "There is just No good time to upgrade"...Their will Always be Something Better comming out in 6 months..Nuff on that..Now "Wait" in terms of buying Today, This Week ect...I would say Definatly Sit Tight...It is a Very Dynamic time...Intel's Core 2 Duo's are slated for release(USA) on July 27th(Slipping from July 23rd)...They are suppose to pretty much Dominate the Performance Processor arena according to all preliminary reports/reviews...The Midrange Core 2 Duo E6600($320) processor is apparently suppose to run circles around AMD's Flagship FX-62..(BTW: I'm an AMD Guy!!)..The High End Core 2 Extreme X6800($999) apparently has nothing close to an equal...However..Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Extreme Motherboards are not widley avaliable at this time...I'm personally interested in a motherboard with the nVidia 590 Chipset also...I'm not sure if they will be a week or a month..I havn't heard yet...When the 590 motherboards become avaliable...and things have settled down a bit and we have some "Real World" feedback..I'm considering putting together a Core 2 Extreme Rig together myself...I Never Thought I'd say that..My favorite comment has always been "I wouldn't have an Intel Processor as a paper weight"...Hummmmm..Now I may be eating my own words.. :( Here is some info some of you folks may find useful:This Pricelist is out of a review..I don't remember exactly which one..I *Think* it may have been Tom's Hardware?? Sorry I don't know exactly...Intel's pricing:Processor PriceCore 2 Extreme X6800 $999Core 2 Duo E6700 $530Core 2 Duo E6600 $316Core 2 Duo E6400 $224Core 2 Duo E6300 $183Pentium D 960 $316Pentium D 950 $224Pentium D 945 $163Pentium D 915 $133Pentium D 820 $113Pentium D 805 $93Now for AMD's Stuff:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/152994.jpgI'd personally advise doing some reserch if I were building soon...Your gonna be able to get some really good prices on AMD stuff...Some of the Major Suppliers have already lowered AMD's prices pretty close to what this list reflects...This just happened this past weekend...Again..As much as I hate to say it...If I were building a High End System...I'd do some reserch on the Intel Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Extreme...You might let things settle down just a bit...Maybe let the motherboards catch up...I hope to see some good user data avaliable soon??Just My Opinions!!Good luck with your Decisions!!

Hi All; I saw on Tom's Hardware that the 47% across the board pricecut announced by AMD on the 24th is NOT ENOUGH in thier opinion,they're saying closer to 51% would be inline with the performancedifference. Just for info; Denny

Hi,How will that video card run under Vista and DX10?Hope this helps,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development Team Active Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/AirSource Member: http://www.air-source.us/FSEconomy Member:http://dot.kelder.net:8080/fseconomy/

Well, as for myself. I ordered a 4800X2 yesterday for $309. I wouldn't say that's a bad deal at all. Yes, the Conroe will be faster, but to upgrade my entire system, the upgrade would have cost me at least $600, so I decided to skip the Conroe and await the trend how things shape up between AMD and intel.In addition, the benchmarks show about an 8% increase in performance in gaming for the Conroe compared to the 4800X@, so if I have now 100 or 120fps in FS9/FSX is really secondary to me, no? In Q4 the AMD Quad Cores will hit the streets and it might just re-shuffle the CPU landscape again.It is not that the 4800X2 is a shabby processor. Currently it is only surpassed by the FX62 and more than adequate for FSX AND Vista.Pat

I intend on keeping my system until late spring next year waiting for Vista/DX10 to come out and the dust to settle. In the meantime, I upgraded my graphics card a few months back swapping a 9800Pro for a X850 256MB card. I just ordered 2x 1GB PC3500XMS DDR sticks from newegg for 246 dollars to swap out what I have now (2x512 sticks)and this will carry me through until next spring. I say do little things like this and not a whole new tower.

Hey Chuck,Your system looks pretty much idential to the one we are picking up. When you suggested to wait, in a sense, we are. It won't be ready for about 6-8 weeks. We'll pay whatever the market prices are at pickup rather than what they are now.Again this is just a system to last us a couple of years. In two years, we'll be in the same boat we are in now, and will be doing our homework all over again...and effectively the computer we are building now will be dumbed down to an MSN/surf the net computer.With that system, what kind of frame rates are you getting with FS9? Just curious to see what we can expect.Thanks in advance!

>Hi,>>How will that video card run under Vista and DX10?>>Hope this helps,>Jim>This is the question that should be the focus exactly!I don't know about spending all of that money on a 1 gig 79xx series card right now. I don't think I would advise someone to do that, especially an FS person.As soon as DirectX10 is out (early next year), it seems to me, that this would immediately make obsolete any non-DX10 video card. Including that super nice 79xx series 1 gig ram card.But, it would be very nice for right now.Rhett

As a comparison, I get between 38 and 60fps with the following setup:AMD 64 3800+ (stock, not overclocked), 2x512MB Corsair XPS DDR400, eVGA Geforce 7800GT, Biostar TForce6100-939, 160GB Seagate Barracuda SATAI have most of my sliders maxed, visibility set to 60nm, 100% 3D clouds, fps unlocked (Unlimited), fs9.cfg tweaked, FSUIPC, Active Sky v6, My Traffic 2006 (90%), Flight1 Cessna 172R, Ground Environment Pro, Ultimate Terrain, AI Smooth.Hope this helps,Pat

If history is any lesson, FSX will under-utilize the capabilities of the cards that are current to its release. That means those of us with 7800's or better will be fine. The real areas that need to be addressed will be once again the cpu and IO sub-system bottlenecks. Fast and well matched MB, memory and CPU combos will outweigh simple tricks like SLI or multi-core processors.With AMD eating up ATI (everybody should be horrified by this:http://www.ascendant-online.net/en/blog/in...ry060724-135105 ) we might see some interesting movement in solving some of those issues in a big way. This is cause for excitement (and a sense of doom) but should not cause anybody to wait. If you need/want it now.. get it now and enjoy it now. Why suffer?CheersShad

B777ER - How much of a difference did that new video card make?I upgraded my graphics card a few months back swapping a 9800Pro for a X850 256MB card

Noticeable. Textures look better and load a bit quicker. Not to much of a pick up in frame rate but I dont care about that, I want smooth over FR. An extra gig of ram will help smooth things out even further.

>As a comparison, I get between 38 and 60fps with the>following setup:>>AMD 64 3800+ (stock, not overclocked), 2x512MB Corsair XPS>DDR400, eVGA Geforce 7800GT, Biostar TForce6100-939, 160GB>Seagate Barracuda SATA>>I have most of my sliders maxed, visibility set to 60nm, 100%>3D clouds, fps unlocked (Unlimited), fs9.cfg tweaked, FSUIPC,>Active Sky v6, My Traffic 2006 (90%), Flight1 Cessna 172R,>Ground Environment Pro, Ultimate Terrain, AI Smooth.>>Hope this helps,>PatDo you ever go below 30 fps with your setup?I have a similar speed setup, and sometimes I can get mine below 30 fps if I do a crowded airport, with lots of weather, etc.I'm pretty close though. Definitely no reason to be frame rate obsessed. (3700+, eVGA 7800GT, 2 gigs Corsair, Active Sky 6, 100% 3D clouds, fs9.cfg also twked)Rhett

My fps rarely drop below 30fps. It dips for a split second below when approaching heavy clouds or occasionally on payware airports, but that's it.Well, my 3800+ is history now. I just installed my new 4800X2. ;)Pat