Hello, I'm new to AVSIM and this is my first post. I'm a Private Pilot getting ready to get my instrument rating. I'm now building a dedicated computer just to run MS FSX and I hope it will give me smooth fluid performance. My excuse to my wife is that FSX will help me with my instrument rating. It will, but will also be FUN! Here are the specs to my new machine.Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz (Should I get a Quad?)NVIDIA Nforce 680i SLI motherboard4GB DDR2 800Mhz RAMNVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX (2 of them on the motherboard)26 inch Samsung LCDTrackIR 4 ProMy question is twofold. Does anyone have any idea of what I can expect with framerates with such a machine with all sliders to MAX?Does anyone have a machine similiar? Will FSX utilize 2 Video cards running in parallel on an SLI motherboard?I'm also trying to decide if I want to get Flight Simulator Acceleration. I've read many people say they've had major problems with it. Some claimed some payware add-on Aircraft for FSX will not work properly if Acceleration is installed. Anyone had such issues? Crashes?I plan to get around 17 payware add-on Aircraft. I wish I could find FSX users locally in my area to talk to in person. I'm in St Petersburg, Florida... All comments welcome.. Thanks, Brad

>>Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz (Should I get a Quad?)cpu is fine. If you plan to keep the computer more than 2 years, I would probably lean toward a quad though.>NVIDIA Nforce 680i SLI motherboardDitch the 680i chipset motherboard. Get an X48 or X38 or P35 board instead.>4GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM>NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX (2 of them on the motherboard)I'd just run one video card unless you plan on running several monitors.>26 inch Samsung LCD>TrackIR 4 Pro>>My question is twofold. Does anyone have any idea of what I>can expect with framerates with such a machine with all>sliders to MAX?All sliders to max? bad, bad framerate except in rural areas. I would never recommend running all sliders maxxed.>Does anyone have a machine similiar? yes, I do. And you can't run maxxed.>Will FSX utilize 2 Video>cards running in parallel on an SLI motherboard?Yes BUT unless you are running multiple monitors, I would not run two video cards as I said before.>I'm also trying to decide if I want to get Flight Simulator>Acceleration. I've read many people say they've had major>problems with it. Some claimed some payware add-on Aircraft>for FSX will not work properly if Acceleration is installed.>Anyone had such issues? Crashes?No, no problems with accel/sp2. It is the latest version of the sim.>I plan to get around 17 payware add-on Aircraft. I wish I>could find FSX users locally in my area to talk to in person.>I'm in St Petersburg, Florida... All comments welcome..>Thanks, Brad >You need to make sure all of the 17 payware aircraft you plan to buy, will work with FSX. Do not rely on the vendor "saying" it works with FSX. Please instead rely on users. Best way to do that is here at AVSIM. Do a SEARCH on all of the topics you've brought up, including the hardware questions...they have been discussed at length many, many times.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

If the above system will not run FSX with all sliders to max, then what kind of computer specs would it take to run FSX at max? Thanks for the response Rhett, and I should have mentioned I'll be using Microsoft XP Pro / SP2

None as of this time will run FSX maxed everywhere.Some systems you build today, when overclocked, will do a really nice job in pretty much any conditions/anywhere EXCEPT major cities. Big cities is always the killer (more traffic, both air and road, and more custom scenery objects etc)I'm sure Rhett's system does really well in rural areas on near-maxed settings, but like he said his system will still struggle in large urban areas with sliders maxed.What you could do if you wanted more power is to get a Intel E8600 or Q9550 and overclock those using a better CPU cooler, like this one:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835109140FSX eats CPU cycles like crazy, so essentially, the faster the CPU, the better FSX runs. I'd also recommend a single video card, like the 8800GTX or 9800GTX whatever you want.If you're going with 4GB of RAM, be sure to get Vista 64bit, to make use of all the RAMSome of the best FSX addons:Dreamfleethttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/Eaglesofthttp://www.eaglesoftdg.com/Flight 1http://www.flight1.com/RealAirhttp://realairsimulations.com/home.php?page=homeLevelD + PMDGhttp://www.leveldsim.com/sevensix_home.asphttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/

(If you're going with 4GB of RAM, be sure to get Vista 64bit, to make use of all the RAM)So Windows XP will NOT see 4GB of RAM if it's on the board?

If you are going after your IFR ticket I would put premium on fluidity, frame rates and not whether you could move your sliders to MAX. Even with the best of today's hardware and medium (not MAX) settings you may get high frame rates but still occasionally experience stutter. Not to mention that frankly in my opinion sliders to MAX not necessarily get you the best looking scenery, most immersive simulation. I run FSX on 4+ yrs PC and this is what I am focused on - IFR practice, I get acceptable fluidity but I use no autogen, no fancy clouds and I stay away from high density areas. Compromise is the name of the game.Michael J.http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9320/apollo17vf7.jpg

For IFR work I'll probably set FSX to Night Time with 8/8 Clouds down to 500 ft with rain.. Cloud tops at 15,000 ft.. I want good frame rates because I want Skysims Red Arrows Hawk to fly for FUN VFR..

>(If you're going with 4GB of RAM, be sure to get Vista 64bit,>to make use of all the RAM)>>So Windows XP will NOT see 4GB of RAM if it's on the board?That's right. It will see 3.something gigs. That is a limitation of 32-bit operating systems...they cannot address 4 gb of memory.For the "ultimate" fsx system I recommend Windows Vista 64.Regarding maxing every slider, as Ryan says there is no computer you can build today that will allow you to run FSX that way in all situations. However, you CAN run it with very high sliders (looking very good in the sim) even in complex scenery/AI areas, and still get very good frame rates.If max framerate is your goal, an E8500 or E8600 overclocked to the 4 ghz range with an X48 chipset and DDR3 memory is your ticket as of today.The quads do not clock as high, and will not give you quite as much raw framerate. However, the quads do help the sim in other ways (scenery loading), and will help FS11 a lot more (I predict). That is why I said, if you plan to keep the box more than 2 years, give a quad some serious consideration. Your frame rate with a quad will only be slightly less than with a dual. It is a tough choice to make, I know, so that is why I base the decision on how long you plan to keep the rig, with FS11 in mind.In April of this year I built what I consider to be the "ultimate" FSX machine. It's specs are in the sig. Truly ultimate, I suppose, would have been to add watercooling and go for high 4's, but the below rig will chew through most of what FSX gives it, with pretty high sliders.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

(Ditch the 680i chipset motherboard. Get an X48 or X38 or P35 board instead)X48, X38, P35 Which is best of the three? And why if I might ask?SLI Motherboards are new and have the capacity to run Video Cards in parallel doubling video output speed. Why would this not be a good choice for FSX? I watched a Tiger Direct Video on the NVIDIA 680i before choosing this one, but have not bought it yet, I'm still researching.. Tiger Direct was using CRYSIS to show what running multiple video cards with SLI was capable of.. CRYSIS is supposed to be an extreemly demanding game for video card performance, I only wished they'd used FSX in their demo..

>Cards in parallel doubling video output speed. Why would this>not be a good choice for FSX? This was explained to you - the subject of SLI in FS/FSX have been discussed here ad nauseam. Search this forum for detailed explanations. Other questions raised by you - also had been discussed.Michael J.http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9320/apollo17vf7.jpg

Actually it was the NVIDIA 780i I'd chosen, not the 680i... Just went to my Tiger Direct wishlist and checked... Also what do you think about the Asus P5N-D SLI Motherboard? Better than the NVIDIA board?

Thanks.. Sorry, new to the board.. Looking now for the discussions..

Well you'll want a video card that can chew through thick overcast - and I'd stay with the tried and true - the geforce 8800GTXAnd you could get windows xp 64 bit edition if you don't like vista

Thanks for the info, I have Windows XP Professional now and had never heard of a 64 bit edition... The one primary reason I wanted to stay with XP and not move to Vista was because some third party payware aircraft for FSX would not work with Vista and DX10.. Carenado Cessna 182 Skylane II for example.. This was a plane I wanted to use for IFR work.. I wonder if it would have a problem with XP 64 bit..

Thanks Rhett for all the info you've sent over.. I'm going to look up all your hardware on Tiger Direct.. Up to this point I had had strong adversions to running Vista as I'd read many Payware Add-on Aircraft would not work with Vista (Carenado 182 Skylane II for one)..The software I intend run is as follows..Microsoft Flight Simulator X DeluxeMicrosoft Flight Simulator AccelerationFS Global 2008Flight1 Ultimate Terrain XFlight1 Ground Environment XFlight1 Flight Environment XTrackIR 4: ProCarenado: Cessna 172NCarenado: Cessna 182 Skylane IICarenado: Cessna U206G Stationair 6 IILionheart Creations: Epic LT / DynastyIRIS Pro Series: PC-9Flight1: Pilatus PC-12Aerosoft: deHavilland (DHC-6) Twin Otter Aerosoft: Piper Cheyenne XWilco: Citation XFlight1: ATR 72-500Feelthere PIC: Embraer ERJ-145LRWilco: Canadair Regional Jet