OK everyone, my migration to FSX is now complete. The new computer arrived a few days ago. I7-980X, 6 MEG RAM/1800, GTX465 1GB superclocked, and a slow HD 500GB 7200RPM. --- I must say that this configuration is fine. I was worried about the HD speed and not getting a GTX480. I can run the sliders almost all to the right in FSX. I put the airline and GA AI traffic to 0% as I really don't care for it. All of my flying is done on VATSIM. However, I have the boat and car traffic to about 50% and airport vehicles at 30%. I think all of the other sliders are to the right.... well maybe except for the cloud draw distance. I have that at 70 miles(Is it worth going higher?).With the above settings, I get about 150 FPS enroute (aloft), 60-70FPS in less complex areas, and about 25-30 over really dense areas (LAX and Manhatten)....and that is running ASE, VATSIM, Wilco 737, and REX 4096 textures. I do see the occassional blurry when I Pan my view. And I do get an occassional flicker over very congested areas (I plan on resolving that issue with a tweak soon).When I turned on the computer the first time, I followed Nick N's install advice pretty much to the letter. However, I did not want to mess with shutting down services in windows....so I skipped over that a bit. Some things I noticed - When installing Squawkbox, the install program says it didn't install properly and that the program has to close...well it does install correctly and I have no idea why it shoots out an error message. Even with the error, you fire up FSX and boom its right there in the add-on area. Also, FSinn does not work with FSX and Wilco 737 - it disables the gauges for some reason. I uninstalled FSinn and everything worked fine.My impressions of FSX (coming from a real pilot and air traffic controller)--- It really is the next level of simulation. There is a real feel to the aircraft motion. The feel of final to short final (3 miles out to touchdown) is amazing. Also, having the various external elements (cars, boats, airport ops) really enhances the overall experience. Having said this, I must say you have to have the right equipment to run FSX. I am completely happy with my hardware selections. But I can see with a lesser system my opinion of FSX would not be the same. Please don't hate FSX if you don't have the equipment to run it properly. MicroSoft and ACES really did develop a great simulation that was ahead of it's time. So far, I have only done one flight (TVL to SAN) - South Lake Tahoe to San Diego, and I was completely blown away. The terrain is amazing and real looking. The weather depiction is just as life like. And the overall feel of the plane's actions are just spectacular (I really can't wait for the FSX 737 from PMDG). I will see you in the skies (wife willing) ---NYC TRACON ---Callsign VP-BBJ on VATSIM

not trying to burst your bubble, just my opinion. You can get that performance with a MUCH cheaper righttp://forum.avsim.net/topic/292181-i3-530-fsx/

Well, I think I'd rather select the "new" technology. I think this computer will enable me to work with any other future programs that come out. Also, I can run many many other programs in the background. Plus, I think I got a good deal on it. It was no where near the price of the Jetline systems that I have seen advertised.

The I3 is still 32nm new technology, but if you need to run multithreaded applications and not just FSX then that's a different story and the 980X will brutalize any dual core.

Sweet rig, I still tweak out my fsx cfg file, like the bufferpools=0 and others I also clamp mine a 30fps(much smoother for me), are you using the default scenery still? If so and your blown away by that get GEX and GEX Europe you can combine them with Ultimate Terrain aswell, its a heart stopper then :Big Grin: Congrats on the rig

Thanks --- I feel like a proud new father with the new rig. I am using the default scenery. I must say that I am quite impressed. Do you think if i do the buffer pool to zero that the occassional flicker might be eliminated?

Thanks --- I feel like a proud new father with the new rig. I am using the default scenery. I must say that I am quite impressed. Do you think if i do the buffer pool to zero that the occassional flicker might be eliminated?

That might not fix the problem, the BP=0 tweak can cause more spikes for some. It does work well with my system though, it kinda of hit and miss different users will report different results. All I can suggest is to read and tweak until you find your sweet spot. Have you locked your frame down? I know on my system if I run it at unlimited I get spikes. Are you using hyper threading? I shut that option off in the bios and use an Affinity Mask of 14 in the fsx cfg file, not sure what that would be for a six core rig, but there are lots of topics and tweaks in the FSX forum here at Avsim.

the equivalent to affinitymask=14 in an hexa core would be 62 (cores 1 to 5 and leave core 0 to run fibers)