Making ready for ACOF

[Guest]

I mainly use my computer for MSFS or the Internet.I was at BestBuy yesterday and happened to see thisgaming computer AlienWare. I don't know much about itexcept that my son-in-law it is a computer designedmainly for gaming.My question is.....If I am going to buy a new computerwith just MSFS ACOF and the Internet as the principalreason, should AlienWare be my computer of choice forthe money?Thanks in advance for any comments.denverdave

[Guest Id Rather Be Flying]

Your question is a bit humerous Dave but just the same I know what you are trying to figure out.Will this super duper looking AlienWare box give me the FPS I want for FSCOF and let me be able to check my email before bed? Truthfully, there are several different configurations of those AlienWare systems at Best Buy so not sure which one you saw.AlienWare systems are good PC's assembled with the latest technology and higher end motherboards.Flight Simulator uses LOT'S of CPU power and in order to see nice high resolution non jaggy images, you want a video card that push high resolutions with lots of texture memory and antialiasing.If you have NO intention of getting involved in something like Digital Video then I could recommend the best AMD processor system you could afford otherwise opt for the best available P4 that you can afford. The 3.06 P4 is pricey & starts the hyperthreading realm which is like 2 processors in 1 for programs which support it like Microsoft stated FSCOF will.As has been stated here recently, ATI seems to have the advantage over nVidia with it's 9700/9800 card line and I would have to agree with the majority at this point in time. I currently have a GeForce4 TI4600.So in a nutshell, an AMD 2600XP or higher with an Radeon 9700(pro) would be my starting point.From there you would want plenty of high speed memory DDR333 or PC1066 for a P4 of around 512Megs.If this is an AlienWare PC like I said, they use high quality motherboards without latency problems or bandwidth bottlenecks using the latest chipsets so there shouldn't be much of an issue with that.You will want to take advantage of a good 3D sound card. I use an Audigy 2 Platinum with 5.1 surround speakers.Hard Drive space so that you can download all those GREAT addons not to mention Windows XP Pro which will take up a few gigs all by itself. You can never have enough drive space and you can always take it with you on your next PC :-). I recommend Western Digital and currently have 400GB of hard drive(s) but a 60gig or better should be more than enough unless full global satellite terrain becomes available for FS.I may have run amuck and gotten ahead of what you were looking for but the main questions you have to ask are basically the CPU/Video/Memory&Type/Storage & of course budget.If you can afford the higher end CPU & Video AlienWare box and it comes with a modem &/Or Ethernet card so that you can connect to the Internet via dialup or broadband then the short answer is Good System!

[Guest]

Thank you very much for the reply.I think that is what my son in law was tryingto tell me.(I am really lame when it comes to thissort of thing)But if I'm going to upgrade I wantthe best or at least something that will last mefor a long time or at least two years(when the nextMSFS comes out.I am retired now,with a nice little nest egg,and a couple of decent incomes.I don't mean to say thatmoney is no object, money is ALWAYS an object. Ijust want the best bang for my buck.AlienWare lookedpretty impressive and I just wondered why other simmershere have'nt mentioned it. MSFS will dictate what computer I get.Thanks Againdenverdave