Good evening gents. I am getting back into the flightsim community after a 3 year layover. My question to this forum is this.... I have just built a custom alienware area-51 rig at a cost of 5100. If you want specs I can get them, just dont have them here. With this rig, do you think FS with PMDG, activesky , squawkbox and FSNav will run great with high frame rates. Smooth as silk? I am pretty sure that this rig will have no problems at all, but before I pull the trigger I was looking for input. Thanks for your time, and I will post specs.Brett Lucas

lol, sorry have to laugh a little...You ask what the performance will be yet no specifics? Anyway, yeah, if you recently spent that much it probably is a decent system. So, what one did you get? You should mainly be concerned about the CPU, RAM, and video card.

i was looking to buy from them ..but after three failed attempts to contact them by phone and by E-mail...I bought two Digital Storm machines..and them promptly sent them the reciets to let them know they had lost my business....Digital Storm Desktop Case: Digital Storm 850Si Power Supply: 750W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache) overclocked 3.38Motherboard: nVidia 780i Core 2 Quad (nForce 780i SLI)Memory: 4GB DDR2 Corsair at 1066MHz Dominator (Dual Channel) (Extreme-Performance)Hard Drive 1: 150GB Western Digital Raptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme SpeedHard Drive 2: 250GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 512MB (PCI-Express)Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi FPS Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O Unit)Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 WindTunnel (Copper Heatpipe Heatsink & Zalman Case Fans)Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts)My wifes is the same except she wanted windows ultitum and she had a new 8800GT O/C so only got one card from them...And heck yes it will fly.............

I deserve that laugh. Here are the specs.CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66ghz 12mb cache 1333FSBVideo card: 1gb Nvidia geforce 9800 GX2 dual GPU. tech. ( this is new)Power: 1000wattMotherboard: NVidia NForce 790iUltra SliHDD: 1 TB (2x250GB) SATA 3GB/s 7200 rpm x2x16mb cacheMem: 2GB Patriot EP + low latency dual channel DDR3 SDRAM@1333 MHZ 2x1024I have read the reviews on flightsim.com and have done my homework. By the way, in order for me to get this bad boy, wife wanted a new ring. She got it! I'm just looking for input, little nervous on pulling the trigger. What do you guys think?

Man, that is way too much money to spend. I just had a new system built with the following:E8400 @ 3.0ghz not OC'dAsus Maximus Formula Mobo2 Gigs Corsair Dominator RAM @ 1066 mhz not OC'dEGVA 8800 GTS 512750w PC Power and Cooling power supplyAntec Nine Hundred case500 GB Western Digital HD with 16mb cache320 GB Western Digital HS for backupWin XP SP2I bought all this and had it built for about $1700 and I am running:FSX SP2GEX EnhancedFEXUTX UsaFS Genesis meshWOAI AI trafficand a few addon planes. I had the system tuned by FS-GS and i am running pretty much all setting maxed out with absolutely no problems, blurries or stutters. Even with all my addons on I have spent 1/2 what you are planning to spend. Don't do it man, it's way to much money. Pick your parts and either build it yourself or have it built. Just my opinion, hope it helps.Regards,Sean

I would second that- with a little research you can save yourself at least $2000- call Michael at FSGS (Google).Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png

"Here are the specs.CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66ghz 12mb cache 1333FSBVideo card: 1gb Nvidia geforce 9800 GX2 dual GPU. tech. ( this is new)Power: 1000wattMotherboard: NVidia NForce 790iUltra SliHDD: 1 TB (2x250GB) SATA 3GB/s 7200 rpm x2x16mb cacheMem: 2GB Patriot EP + low latency dual channel DDR3 SDRAM@1333 MHZ 2x1024I have read the reviews on flightsim.com and have done my homework. By the way, in order for me to get this bad boy, wife wanted a new ring. She got it! I'm just looking for input, little nervous on pulling the trigger. What do you guys think?"It looks like you're getting two 500GB HDD's as that equals 1TB, not 2x250GB. I bought a similar system from Dell, the XPS 720H2C and the speed of my CPU was 2.93GHz, factory overclocked to 3.73GHz. Since Dell owns Alienware, I would suspect your CPU is overclocked too. If not, 2.66GHz is way too slow IMHO for this price. I also got 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM memory. Your memory is top of the line but I would get at least 4GB. HHD's are also running at 10000 rpm vs yours at 7200. Excellent motherboard but although the video card is the latest and greatest, I've read reviews where this card is not much faster than the 8800GTX. In addition, for my approx $5500 price, I got two 8800GTX's in SLI config. You indic you're only getting one. Yes, it will run FSX w/o many problems (you'll still have DX10 problems in FSX, OOM errors, display driver not responding type errors) but I agree with others in this thread -- do some further research. One of my favorites is http://www.techspot.com/guides-buying.shtml where they discuss low-end to the "dream machine".Best regards,Jim

Thanks everybody for your input. My gut was telling me "too much" . Anymore input would be great. I'm going to take all specs to my local computer store and see if I can get the same for half. That seems to be the case here. Is it safe to say "paying for the name".Thanks again!!

>Man, that is way too much money to spend. I just had a new>system built with the following:>>E8400 @ 3.0ghz not OC'd>Asus Maximus Formula Mobo>2 Gigs Corsair Dominator RAM @ 1066 mhz not OC'd>EGVA 8800 GTS 512>750w PC Power and Cooling power supply>Antec Nine Hundred case>500 GB Western Digital HD with 16mb cache>320 GB Western Digital HS for backup>Win XP SP2>>I bought all this and had it built for about $1700I agree with that guy, although the 9450 is a strong CPU, you'll want to overclock it. Not sure if you can do that with Dells or not.If you build you're own, try the E8400 or E8500 CPU's, with a better CPU cooler too:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115037http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835186134http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835109125But anyway, I'd look into 4GB of RAM (because it is cheaper than 3GB, 2x1GB and 2x512mb modules), even if you're running with XP. I have 2GB of RAM with XP and occasionally all my RAM gets eaten up, and starts swapping to page file, thus lower FPS. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820227280And the 9800 video card is overkill, all you need is the 8800GTS 512mb - stellar card for the money! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...800%2bgts%2b512As far as HDD's, if you can get the latest Seagate, with 32mb of cache,http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148288Hope that helps! Remember, FSX will eat CPU cycles like crazy, so the faster CPU (not necessarily more cores), will give you the best performance.

>Thanks everybody for your input. My gut was telling me "too>much" . Anymore input would be great. I'm going to take all>specs to my local computer store and see if I can get the same>for half. That seems to be the case here. Is it safe to say>"paying for the name".>>Thanks again!!Well you do pay for the name...but they have a good rep. and solid machines....As far as after care I don't know...One thing to consider is the big buck machines have a warrenty and I don't know about a store/local built..I do know that AlienWare charges for extended warrenty where as DigitalStorm does not...But for a fact if you know a good builder than you can cut the price way down,and perhaps slip in an upgrade or two while you're at it....

>>Thanks everybody for your input. My gut was telling me>"too>>much" . Anymore input would be great. I'm going to take>all>>specs to my local computer store and see if I can get the>same>>for half. That seems to be the case here. Is it safe to>say>>"paying for the name".>>>>Thanks again!!>>>Well you do pay for the name...but they have a good rep. and>solid machines....As far as after care I don't know...>>One thing to consider is the big buck machines have a warrenty>and I don't know about a store/local built..I do know that>AlienWare charges for extended warrenty where as DigitalStorm>does not...>>But for a fact if you know a good builder than you can cut the>price way down,and perhaps slip in an upgrade or two while>you're at it....>My old rig was a Dell, never had much probelms but when I did the call in customer service was horrible. Plus Dells aren't very upgradable for future stuff. They use a lot of proprietary parts. If you later want a different video card and need to change the power supply to support it you may not be able to since its a propreitary power supply. If you have a machine built the parts will still come with a warranty from the manufactures. It's just a matter of removing the bad part and sending it in. I will never buy a prebuilt Dell or any other computer for that matter unless its just for browsing the internet. To get anything decent for gaming at a good price it needs to be custom built by you or a shop and not Dell or Alienware. They are expensive cause they need to make money off your order. Mine rig was built by Microcenter in Dallas. Look and see if they have one in your area. They did a great job and price matched newegg and other site if thier price was lower.

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