It needs to run FSX ultra high. What should I get? about a $3k budget.Currently, I'm looking at core2duo (what's the best for the money? E6550? Or E8400?)4gig DDR2768mb 8800GTX (that'll depend on the new ATI card coming out250gig SATAII (7200 fast enough? or should i go with a 10k?)Was recommended the ASUS Maximus Formula ATX mobo. But then the SkullTrail may be out by the time i build...what do people here recommend for something that'll run FSX to it's fullest?

Hi,I'd recommend that you repost this question later this year, because by then you'll probably get the same hardware at a lower cost and some new hardware will be put into the equation.Ulf B

AgreedThings are moving fast. The things I upgraded in January are either discontinued(replaced with better), or discounted(just my luck). Some people with twice the specs you are looking for have trouble with FSX.Good luck and have fun.BobE6740,2GB 667,8800GT,Stupid 17 inch crt

What ever you decide on for a processor make sure its a Quad. It makes a world of difference in FSX compared to a dual core.

i concur with sargeski. the quads are basically two duos on one chip. in any application that can use all four cores (like FSX), the performance will be much better than a duo. i just upgraded to a Q6000 (G0 stepping) and am blown away by the performance. i have it overclocked to 3.2, which was easy even with an older zalman CNPS7000 CPU cooler. i can run max autogen even with ultra high res add-on scenery like megascenery hawaii.

>It needs to run FSX ultra high. ...with what framerate? I'll finish your sentence: ..."with decent frames".I really am not sure you'll be able to do that with any computer built this year. Yes, I am saying that. Well, ok, ...Maybe...Maybe the Extreme Edition Penryn with an overclock in the low 4's. But this does not mean that you can't have an awesome sim with cheap mainstream hardware that's out and coming out this year.I agree with the others sentiments, if you post back here in two months the changes will be significant. For one thing the G0 Q6600 will no longer be the sweet spot.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

i respectfully disagree that you can't run ultra high and get decent FPS on current hardware. maybe you can't max out the AI traffic, but in terms of visuals, it is certainly achievable with overclocking and config tuning. note that config tuning is as important or more important than your hardware. you can't expect FSX to run well out of the box. you have to put in your hours tweaking fsx.cfg.

>can't expect FSX to run well out of the box. you have to put>in your hours tweaking fsx.cfg. If your running SP2 there are a few hours of tuning the FSX sliders to your particular setup. If your running with SP2 the only tweaks that need to be thought about for fsx.cfg are:[DISPLAY]TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=30-80 depending on graphics hardware (I use 80 with my hardware)[bUFFERPOOLS]Poolsize=8000000 standard setting is 4000000 shown is a typical setting for an 8800 series card[MAIN]HideInfoText=1 gets rid of the mag, brakes and other info on the screen (optional)DisablePreload=1 a Must in order to offload the memory from the default flight and not allow FSX to double load on boot.Anything else needed to get FSX running smoothly can be accomplished through the proper setting of your configuration sliders within FSX itself.I'll also agree have to agree with Rhett on processors. Sure I can get pretty decent results with my setup FPS wise (but very expensive ATM). I can definitely say that the change from a two core CPU to a four core CPU makes alot of difference within FSX. It may not equate to alot more FPS but it will equate to alot of other things happening that FSX was "throttling" like texture and terrain loading (say good bye to blurries).I've also noticed that all four cores get loaded quite heavily by FSX with my particular settings. In short for overall graphical quality four cores does FSX alot of good.

i would add LOD_RADIUS and FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION to that list. LOD_RADIUS can be set higher than the manual slider will let you, which improves blurries with high res add-on scenery. FFTF makes a big difference in FPS as well. i found 0.1 to work best for my system.

LOD Radius can be increased in an attempt to decrease blurries. It will work great for photoreal textures with minimal autogen and a slow aircraft. Crank up autogen FPS will plummet and at some point speed will bring the blurries back and they will be worse than before.I actually used to fly with a LOD of 7.5 in slow movers.

wow... hmm... lots to think about lolquad for sure.i like autogen, traffic, and all that shaz. I'll have to relearn the config tweaks lol, plus learn the tweaks for quad cores (or do people not use those anymore?)guess i'll have to post back here in the future when it's closer to the time to buy lolthanks for the help!here's a question, i heard that with the new radeon X2 video card, older games wont work properly, i'm talking older such as, tribes 2 and Falcon 4.0: Open Falcon 4.5 or whatever they're at now... lol. I need that game to run properly, my life depends on it. lol. Anyone know anything about that?

Well I don't concur. I have a quad core and it made a marginally better improvement over the dual core I had before it. A C2D at highest clock speed, not core count, IMO is still the best thing you can get for FSX.Gary

Gary,I didn't say that that the quad made any great increase in FPS over dual core because it does not. However, there is a heck of alot more that a quad does in the background that will allow you to push the sliders up and not loose graphical quality because of how FSX choses to throttle certain aspects of the sim when being taxed.Nice to see you back in the forum btw. Hope all went well with your move.;)

>i respectfully disagree that you can't run ultra high and get>decent FPS on current hardware. Well, I did say a Pen running at 4+ ghz would.Perhaps the other non-extreme edition Penryns can too. I will find out when I build one in a few months. I'm tempted to go all-out and just get the Extreme Edition Quad though. The angel on my right shoulder tells me to "NOT DO IT", and the devil on my left shoulder tells me "DO IT! DO IT!".>maybe you can't max out the AI>traffic, but in terms of visuals, it is certainly achievable>with overclocking and config tuning.Agreed,RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>>i like autogen, traffic, and all that shaz. I'll have to>relearn the config tweaks lol, plus learn the tweaks for quad>cores (or do people not use those anymore?)>I don't think the AffinityMask cfg entry is needed anymore with SP2. Isn't that right? That would be the one setting to ask about.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian