How's this rig look...

[Guest Redvan]

Put this together on newegg, what do you think?https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedW...spx?ID=12113547

[Guest Redvan]

thinking of swapping the 9800GX2 with this:EVGA 01G-P3-1280-AR GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card $500http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130365 as per recommended at maximum pc. Of course, we'll have to see how the 280 is really gonna hold up with FSX...also forget to add cooling in the build... will be putting zalman on cpu and additional case fans in every possible location. Or i might just get a kegerater and build it in there...

[Guest D17S]

Try this: https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedW...aspx?ID=7159746This rig will Definitely provide BeTTer FS performance for about 1/4th the $$$.1) An 8800GT is plenty of Vcard for FS. The additional $400 for the GTX280 is for other games, not FS.2) The Q6600 will O/C further than the Q9450. The Q9's 8X multi will force a 450 FSB to get to 3.6Ghz. You don't want to be there 24/7, even with an X48. The P35 is rated at a 400Mhz FSB and these are - All - just rebranded P35s. That extra 200 mobo bucks is for Not-ing.3) There's No need for fancy ram. DDR2-800 is where you are going (400Mhz FSB x 2). O/Cing ram will make NO performance difference (at this level). Get 4 gigs of 800 for the price of 2 of that other stuff. 4) A Thermalright-120 CPU cooler and an ordinary box fan setup is plenty. Save $150 on that case. Coolmaster makes very nice $50 cases. 5) Ditch the Raptor. Save another $200 and get an additional 400Mbs os storage. Modern 7200 RPM drive will get you within a couple of seconds of Any Raptor's load time. It will provide No in-game improvement. 7) Onboard sound is fine these days. Ditch the $200 sound card. 8) "N" wireless routers are $49.99 at Target. Save another $150. That "Gamers" moniker is pure hype. I can't believe what they are selling. Have they no conscience? Geeze! 9) Now, spend an extra $300 and get a 42' monitor. Now that you can brag about! 10) Buy all your pals pizza.

[Guest Redvan]

I'm looking at the 280 vid card because i'd like to play other newer games and i'll be plugging into my 42" plasma that I already have (9). :D Getting a 24" to use when my wife (in 4 days) wants to watch tv while I want to game.considering i want to play newer games (like farcry 2, diablo III, etc) when they come out, would you still recommend a P35 mobo?Reason I added sound is to run the speaker system, onboard sound is enough to do that and not take too much from the processor?Again, with the ram, ddr2-800 enough for future games?I could get a TON of Little Caesars $5 hot-n-readies with the saved cash :D

[Mace 1,902]

How is anyone viewing this wish list?The link requires a newegg login, and then when you login, you are presented with 100's if not 1000's of wish lists. Which one is it?RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.80 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

[Guest Redvan]

lol, yeah, some people on other forums were wondering the same thing, yet some are still able to see it... try this link...:http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWi...shListTitle=FSX made some changes to the build since last post:750W PSSamsung DVD+-RW rather than liteon w/lightscribeGateway 24" FHD2400EDIT: also the Klipsh ProMedia Ultra 5.1 was recommended to me at maximumpc.com. Trying to find a price on that. Not listed at newegg. http://www.klipsch.com/products/details/pr...-ultra-5-1.aspx

[Guest D17S]

Get the Seagate -11 The P35 chip provides the same capability as the x38/x48/p45. They are all the same chip. The processor load from the onboard sound is irrelevant. Get the Q6600 to 3.6Ghz if you're worried about having enough CPU capability. That's how to get CPU horsepower. That Q9 is a ToTal waste of $$$ with a Q6600 so easily available.DDR2800 will provide the same capability as ANY ram (at this level). "800" is just a speed rating. Tires rated at 200mph don't make the car go 200mph. The ram will be running at 800mhz. It doesn't matter What rating is installed (However I suggest you use ram that is rated to run at 800mhz!). Driving the ram to a speed faster than 800mhz Will Make No performance difference.That sound system hurts. Check Circuit City. There's gotta be something cheaper (and better) than that.

[Mace 1,902]

>lol, yeah, some people on other forums were wondering the>same thing, yet some are still able to see it... try this>link...:>Ok, that link worksIt looks like you are building for max overclock, since you're getting 2 gigs of ram.Otherwise I'd get 4 gigs at this point in time.It's all debateable, Sam would tell you to not get DDR3 and all of that; and that a Q6600 with DDR2 and P35 will get you within 10% of the top end performance. All good points.As far as I'm concerned it all comes down to how long you plan to keep the rig. If it was fairly long term, say 3+ years before rebuild, I'd say Penryn quad + 4 gigs DDR3 + Vista64 and be done wid' it. But then again that is not as affordable as a Q6600 + DDR2 + XP which will run close.You could indeed get a lot of Little Caesar's hot-n-readies for $5 a pop.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.80 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

[Guest Redvan]

what's the seagate -11?i still dont understand how the different chips have the same capabilities... i thought the x48 was an up from the x38, the p45 and up from the p35, etc etc... in terms of how efficient/capable they are...

[Guest D17S]

Here's the -11http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E168221482883 for the price of a single raptor? It's just getting silly! Intel developed the P35 as its chip-set to support this - Entire - current generation of CPUs (Core2/Panryn). Next quarter, the Nehalem CPU will be released with an entirely new buss architecture. We will have a different chip-set then (finally).The P35 was always intended to be simply rebranded (up-branded) to serve this sequence of same-gen CPUs. This is an entirely normal business model. The p35 have been simply rebranded (up-branded) to provide a (disingenuous) impression of "latest and greatest." Functions were not added, they were simply enabled within the original P35. For instance the P35 always had PCI-e v2 and DDR3 capabilities, It was just enabled with x38 up-brand. The x48/p45s are just a final "up-brand" of the P35. Neither PCIe-v2 or DDR3 provide any current performance increase or relevant future-proofing benefit. My concern about spending significantly additional amounts for that last 10% is based on my next-build forecast. I always look for a 1000% gain (Yes, I mean 10 times as powerful as my current rig). The move from a P4 at 3.2 to a Core2 Quad at 3.6 was just about a 10X increase. Considering that these 10X increases are occurring at 2-3 year intervals, it's not such a pie-in-the-sky plancast. I would have been ridiculously misadvised to spend an additional 30-40-50% to get that Big-Dog P4 at 3.8Ghz (remember) for a 10% boost. It ended up being entirely irrelevant then, as adding 10% will end up being entirely irrelevant now. I'm looking for the next 1000%. That'll be ~ 40 cores at 4.0Ghz in 2010 in 18 months (and a sim that can use 'em!). Watch for it.

[Guest Redvan]

yes, this will be a 2-3 year build. I do have 4gig (4x1gig) on my wish list, if u look at the ram it'll show 2 items under ram rather than one... ;)I wont be building for a few months at least, so i'm just getting a feel for the water right now, ofcourse, everything will change once nehalem core comes out (either i'll build this for significantly cheaper, or i'll reconfigure for a nehalem core depending on their price)This is a build off a student loan, so 2-3yrs from now, i may not have the money for a massive upgrade...

[Guest John H.]

I have appreciated reading Sam's (and Nick N's) hardware explanations and recommendations as they make me feel a little better about the system (GigaByte GA EP45 DS3R, E8400, single ATI 4850)I am getting ready to build mostly for FSX and FS9, as well as their tips on optimizing our systems for FSX. However, in my research, I have found some benefit in the later generation mobos in regards to affordable ATI Vcard upgrades in the future. I may not be able to build a Nehalem system for 4-5 years as I probably won't be able to justify a complete new build with a new relatively expensive motherboard and CPU for a while. My upgrade path will probably be a second 4850 and an extreme quad processor when they drop in price (which should improve my FSX experience). Both are more likely for me before a whole new Nehalem motherboard and CPU in the near term. Even inexpensive Nvidia 680i boards offered full x16 SLI. There are some nice P35 boards out there for overclocking, but they will only run crippled CF @ X16/X4. P45's have two X16 slots that will run CF at PCIe 2.0 x8/X8, which should be enough bandwidth for even 2 4870's. I can probably buy a second 4850 in a year or two (for perhaps $100 by then) and get substantial improvements in applications other than FS if I decide to try some gaming. I don't know if the X8/X8 configuration will be able to run two 4870X2 cards when they come out, but the X38 and 48's will run CF'd cards at X16 and PCIe 2.0 so they should, and might even give a little future proofing to new Gen Vcards running in CF. None of these Vcard concerns will likely offer much improvement in FSX, but may be worthwhile if you run more GPU dependent applications or games. If I had an extra $100 in my budget, I would probably go with a 4870 instead of a $250 DFI or MSI X48. But if I had $200, i would probably also upgrade to a X48 just for CF capability at full x16.

[Guest D17S]

The P35's 4x by 16x PCIe-v1 crossfire configurations does not limit crossfire's capability at all. The Asus 8x by 8x was simply a marketing stunt to try to dissuade a lay audience away from the 16x by 16x SLI offered by Nvidia's 6X0is. 16x is Sooo overkill that 4x provides plenty of "pipeline" for modern Vcards, now and into the future. There's no need to have the 16 v 8 v 4 as a factor in one's building decision. Daily, the P35 (group) is proving PCI-e v1.1 at 4x is allowing full Vcard functionality with the CF usin' community. For FS, SLI/CF does not help. Notice the GTX280s didn't make a bit of difference in FS performance. For instance, I use a second Vcard, but only to drive 2 extra monitors. Works fine and does not affect FS performance.Upgrading a this-gen mobo (P35/et al) from a $180 Q6600 can only net a 10% increase. The Q6600 goes to 3.6. The soon to be cheaper QX-super-doopers go to 4.0. Not much of an upgrage. In other words, there is really NO upgrade path from a cheapo Core2 CPU with any current-gen mobo. One might consider this build will - Not - make economic sense to upgrade. Again, beyond an 8800GT, additional Vcard horsepower will Not help FS.In 4 years, Vcards Might start needing PCI-e v2.0 bandwidth. Remember, we don't even need AGP-8X speeds yet. AGP-8 and PCI-e v1.1 at 4X provide approximately the same bandwidth. Consider: That second CF card runs at Full Speed on an AGP-8X equivalent "PCI-e v1 at 4X" buss. We are - four times - away from even needing PCI-e v1.1's 16X. We are even - Further Years - away from needing PCI-e v2.0 at all. Don't worry about all that for this build. You will easily have 4 years . . . unless they physically change the socket . . . like they did with that equally useless DDR3! A 4 year upgrade path needs to look at a 10X (1000%) increase over this current build for about the same cost. The 10X will come in the form of more cores. In 4 years, we will (with out a doubt) have 40 core CPUs as the norm. We will still be having this same discussion about upgrade paths from a $180, 40 core to latest-and-greatest 44 cores, and it will sound like an equally big deal. It won't be then, as 3.6Ghz to 4.0Ghz is not now.