Hello,I have always understood that FSX needs to be on a separate drive than the OS. As a result, I have design my new system to have a 300GB VelociRaptor for FSX. The OS will be on a 1TB Caviar Black.I have recently been told something completly different and I wanted to get some other opinions.What I have head makes sense - FSX should be installed in the default path on the same drive as the OS. If you don't FSX will continually search for files. Eventually, it should find what it is looking for but it will look on the C drive first.Any opinions? I'd hate to spend the money on a separate drive if it is doing nothing for me.Thanks.

Hello,I have always understood that FSX needs to be on a separate drive than the OS. As a result, I have design my new system to have a 300GB VelociRaptor for FSX. The OS will be on a 1TB Caviar Black.I have recently been told something completly different and I wanted to get some other opinions.What I have head makes sense - FSX should be installed in the default path on the same drive as the OS. If you don't FSX will continually search for files. Eventually, it should find what it is looking for but it will look on the C drive first.Any opinions? I'd hate to spend the money on a separate drive if it is doing nothing for me.Thanks.

Duckbilled,I am in the process of putting together a build and have heard that it is better to have FSX on it's own drive. That is what I am going to do. I have been talking with Gregg at Jetline systems (they design computers specifically for FS)and that was his suggestion along with getting a fast drive. I might sugges that you take a look at the components of the systems he puts together. His systems are a little on the high side but you can get an ideal what components work for him to get the best out of the program.BTW you have another thread going about monitors. I was wondering how you like your lg. Is that 1920x1200? I was in best buy looking at their selection and I thought it had a very nice picture. Chuck B.

Hello Chuck,I do like my monitor. FS really comes to life when you ditch the crt and add a 23"widescreen LCD. It was running at 1900x1080 native but my system died on Thursday (HD or RAID failure). The loss of my FS rig is why I'm asking the HD questions. I have had FS on a separate drive for the past four years but after the advice I just received, I am beginning to rethink the set up. I was told that FS on a dedicated rive is NOT the way to go because of the way Windows and FSX interact. I really don't know where to go with this but it is a $200 decision.I have bought the guts of a I7 system and I am just waiting for Windows 7 to be released for it to be built.

2 drives are optimal OS/FSXespecially running Windows Vistabut none the less the best way to run FSX on any systemYou will need to be on a 64bot OS to use 6GB and i7 correctly..

I'll be on Windows 7 64bit.Thanks. That is what I thought.

I'll be on Windows 7 64bit.Thanks. That is what I thought.

No problem JeffBefore installing software:Format the FSX drive to a 64K file allocation using the disk management system in W7 That will assist in reducing fragmentation in the long run and a few other little perks. You can only do that with the FSX drive, the OS drive must be the default file allocation of 4Kafter ALL software/FSX/addons are installed..... (use the FSX install list here: http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041 section 1 ) Windows7 is like Vista.. treat it the same in optimizing and setting it upThere are minor differences to where all the settings are located between Vista and W7 but here is a Vista list as these are really all you need to do: http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_post...D=174126#174126you can run down this list and follow it as it notes a few other items to do: http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1208959973just note where it says: "Do not use this for Vista" and skip it wih W7 tooand use O&O defrag as I listed .. follow the directions with it With Vista/W7 it is set up a bit different.. but its really simple to follow alongIf you use O&O v12, disable monitoring, zones and the O&O tray boot as explained in that listClocking does not happen till software is installed. Never clock a system installing an OS or software or defrag.. that comes after and you need to verify your clock is indeed stable and running within temp spec. when finished you can begin the process of setting up FSX. There can be differences to the config but basically the only edits you need to be concerned with are[Main]DisablePreload=1 [Display]WideViewAspect=True //If widescreen monitor in use otherwise FalseTEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=xx //Most will use 70 to 80 .. some find the default of 40 bestleave anything else out of that config till you have set up and tuned FSX the best you can get it.. then if you may still be having some minor difficulties there are 2 other edits that may help.. for stutters, Affinity Mask = 14 is possible but not always the best value. Leave Affinity mask and bufferpools out of the config till you think you 'may' need to work with them.. if you are smooth, thats all that matters! so dont add things if you are running solid.. they WONT increase frames or make any changegood luck :(

Nick_N or Duckbilled,Please excuse my ignorance when it comes to heavy computer stuff, much like what is being mentioned in this thread. Could you please explain this drive thing so a "challanged" person like myself can understand it. I am going to be using Windows 7 with two hard drives so........operating system and FSX on the same drive, right? Does it matter which drive FSX is on. My research from the last couple of days says FSX should be on its own drive.I am looking at two "botique" companies for my build. Jetline systems is the first. They are pretty pricey but will set the computer up to run FSX. I can get the second computer with basically same components from another company for much less but it would be up to me to install FS and the tweaks. I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous with computers and not sure if I personally have what it takes to do that. The tweaks I mean. I can install programs and what not but going in and changing settings and such make me nervous. Since I am investing some $$$$$$$$ I want to do this right. I would sure appreciate your advice. I would like to make my decision soon and pull the trigger on the build.Thanks,Chuck B.

Well this post of mine was really to confirm what I have believed to be true. I received some conflicting information. My system that just died had FSX on a dedicated drive and my last one did as well.Windows 7 should be on its own drive along with other stuff like Office, documents... I am going to use a Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black for that. FSX should be on a drive by itself. I am going to use a Western Digital 300GB VelociRaptor for thatThe Caviar Black is a 7,200RPM drive and the VelociRaptor is a 10,000RPM drive. The VR is the fastest so that is the one I want FSX on. If they made a 10,000 RPM 1TB drive, I would go for that rather than the Caviar Black but one does not exist. As for having it built, I can't comment of the job Jetline will do. If I had to choose between the two, I would install FSX and tweaks myself. There is a ton of information on the forums and SOME of it is good. If you follow Nick's guides, you should be just fine. For most cases, you shouldn't have to do anything really complicated. Overclocking is something that I have not ventured in to yet. If Jetline offered a factory overclock that had some sort of guarantee, I could be interested in that.I haven't quite ventured in to building my own systems yet. Installing CPU's, Windows and other components makes me nervous. If I had someone there to help, I would feel better about it. There is a shop in my area that I have talked to extensively. The seem very competent and I am going to have them build my system. They will allow me to hover over the tech while he installs the OS, overclocks... I will be installing FSX myself though.I will have enough parts left over from my current system and my wife's old desktop to build a new system. I am going to do that one myself for once. I figure it will be a good opportunity to tinker without consequences. Maybe I can build my next rig all by myself? My old Althlon 64 3800+ is supposed to be great for overclocking so I am looking forward to experimenting with it.

Nick_N or Duckbilled,Please excuse my ignorance when it comes to heavy computer stuff, much like what is being mentioned in this thread. Could you please explain this drive thing so a "challanged" person like myself can understand it. I am going to be using Windows 7 with two hard drives so........operating system and FSX on the same drive, right? Does it matter which drive FSX is on. My research from the last couple of days says FSX should be on its own drive.I am looking at two "botique" companies for my build. Jetline systems is the first. They are pretty pricey but will set the computer up to run FSX. I can get the second computer with basically same components from another company for much less but it would be up to me to install FS and the tweaks. I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous with computers and not sure if I personally have what it takes to do that. The tweaks I mean. I can install programs and what not but going in and changing settings and such make me nervous. Since I am investing some $$$$$$$$ I want to do this right. I would sure appreciate your advice. I would like to make my decision soon and pull the trigger on the build.Thanks,Chuck B.

Duckbilled, have you thought of possibly running 3 Velociraptors? (2 in RAID.0 for FSX and 1 for the OS)? I am thinking of doing that because I was thinking of using 2 Velociraptors in a RAID.0 and having FSX share the same partition as the OS, but now that I see this post I think getting 3 would be the fastest option.

Duckbilled, have you thought of possibly running 3 Velociraptors? (2 in RAID.0 for FSX and 1 for the OS)? I am thinking of doing that because I was thinking of using 2 Velociraptors in a RAID.0 and having FSX share the same partition as the OS, but now that I see this post I think getting 3 would be the fastest option.

Please do not use motherboard RAID with FSXIf you wish to use RAID make sure it is off a hardware RAID0 card running on a PCIe x4 or x8 able port (most use the 2nd x16 video slot) , the card is designed with onboard DDR memory and the ability to set a minimum STRP of 256KIf you use motherboard RAID0 with FSX you will eat CPU and since most MB RAID chips only allow 128K you are breaking the files up into far too many chucks due to the average file size in FSX, and therefore forcing higher/longer disk access... and you lose more performance to the RAID array than it gains youand if you use a single Vrap off the motherboard SATA, or better off same card as mentioned above in single mode, .. RAID is not needed at allThe only advantage I can see with the right hardware RAID setup on Vraps is if the use is for large photoscenery installs.. a typical FSX install that does not incorporate a massive file database does not need RAID0.FS9 has a far smaller CPU need and a smaller average file size and because of that can take far greater advanatge of RAID however with any RAID off the mortherboard ports you will use more CPU for the RAID array than a correctly spec'd dedicated PCIe hardware RAID card

Please do not use motherboard RAID with FSXIf you wish to use RAID make sure it is off a hardware RAID0 card running on a PCIe x4 or x8 able port (most use the 2nd x16 video slot) , the card is designed with onboard DDR memory and the ability to set a minimum STRP of 256KIf you use motherboard RAID0 with FSX you will eat CPU and since most MB RAID chips only allow 128K you are breaking the files up into far too many chucks due to the average file size in FSX, and therefore forcing higher/longer disk access... and you lose more performance to the RAID array than it gains youand if you use a single Vrap off the motherboard SATA, or better off same card as mentioned above in single mode, .. RAID is not needed at allThe only advantage I can see with the right hardware RAID setup on Vraps is if the use is for large photoscenery installs.. a typical FSX install that does not incorporate a massive file database does not need RAID0.FS9 has a far smaller CPU need and a smaller average file size and because of that can take far greater advanatge of RAID however with any RAID off the mortherboard ports you will use more CPU for the RAID array than a correctly spec'd dedicated PCIe hardware RAID card

Hmm...didn't know that. I did not really know much about RAID (I had it once before, but the drives were not identical and it failed in a matter of hours...but it was just for experiment's sake). So you recommend running 2 velociraptors (one with the OS and one with FSX)?

I think you will need a larger drive than 300GB for your OS and other stuff. If that is the case, there are no VelociRaptors larger than 300GB. I would go for a 500GB+ Western Digital Caviar Black. If you are going to do nothing else with the computer other than flightsim, maybe the 300GB is ok.

I think you will need a larger drive than 300GB for your OS and other stuff. If that is the case, there are no VelociRaptors larger than 300GB. I would go for a 500GB+ Western Digital Caviar Black. If you are going to do nothing else with the computer other than flightsim, maybe the 300GB is ok.

Duckbilled,I am going to use the same hard drive and setup as you with my new build. What are you going to use for a monitor. I am close to a decision but have not completely made up my mind. A large one, 26 inch, would sure be nice though. I am going with a simgle monitor configuration.cbreeze

When are you building your system? Mine is at the shop right now. The guy there says he will have Windows 7 disk tomorrow. After checking stability on the overclock, I'm hoping to have it at home on Monday. I'll let you know what I think. Hopefully you will see me on here bragging about how awesome it is next week:)As far as a monitor, I was really lost on what to do. I think lots of the stats our there are not apples to apples. In addition, a lot of it is suggestive. The main thing I looked for was a 2ms response time. I had my eye on a few at Newegg but in the end, I got a LG W2361V from Best Buy. They have a 30 day, money back return policy so I figured I couldn't go wrong. I like it an no dead pixels. Going from a 5 year old 19"crt, FSX really came to life.When picking out the size, I really wanted to make sure I was choosing something that was as tall (wide) as my 19" crt. 23"-24" is what is needed. I would have liked a larger monitor but it seems like the native resolution for all monitor/TV's stops at 1900x1200 regardless of size. I figured the image would be better with a 23" than a 32". It is my (hopefully correct) understanding that you want to run a monitor at its native resolution.One thing I'm not sure of - I also have a 4:3 LCD that I would like to run in a dual monitor set up. It would just be used for gauges and pop up panels. Is that going to mess me up because of the different resolution?

Duckbilled,I am going to use the same hard drive and setup as you with my new build. What are you going to use for a monitor. I am close to a decision but have not completely made up my mind. A large one, 26 inch, would sure be nice though. I am going with a simgle monitor configuration.cbreeze

One thing I'm not sure of - I also have a 4:3 LCD that I would like to run in a dual monitor set up. It would just be used for gauges and pop up panels. Is that going to mess me up because of the different resolution?

Jeff, I am using a Samsung Syncmaster 2693 HM (widescreen) together with a Viewsonic 19" (4:3) and I have absolute no problem with that. Only problem of course is that now with my Asus 5870 I'd would like to use the eyefinity function and run fs over three identically sized (probably 24" widescreen monitors) and get one wiiiiiiiiiiiiide monitor!