I just ordered computer parts to build a brand new tower (will use existing keyboard, mouse, printer, scanner, monitor, and speakers).This is my current PC:Gateway Performance 600Intel Pentium III 600Mhz 100FSB384MB PC100 SDRAM20GB 7200RPM ATA-100 Hard DriveHitachi 8x/40x DVD-ROMHP CD-Writer 12x/8x/32x3Dfx Voodoo3 16MB AGPCreative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 128DMicrosoft Windows 98 Second EditionI will be building the following:Chieftec ATX Midtower Beige Case2x 92mm fans, 2x 80mm fansThermalTake 420W Dual-Fan PSU Active PFCIntel Pentium 4 2.8GHz 800FSBAbit IS7 MotherboardCorsair 1GB PC3200 DDR400 SDRAMMaxtor 120GB 7200RPM 8MB Serial ATA Hard DriveSamsung 16x/48x Multi-Read DVD-ROMLite-On 52x/32x/52x CD-RWMitsumi Floppy DriveATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MBCreative Sound Blaster Audigy 2Microsoft Windows XP ProfessionalAs you can see, it's a huge upgrade for me. I got the Gateway when I got FS2000 and of course, I never fully enjoyed FS2000 properly because of all the problems it had. Then FS2002 came a long and was a great improvement in terms of framerates, but still not perfect and graphics weren't good because of my Voodoo3 (which was an excellent card until 3Dfx was swallowed by nVidia). Then I got FS2004, and said to myself that this time, I want to enjoy Flight Simulator the way it was MEANT to be enjoyed. So there ya go, I'm finally building a new system.Hopefully it should be good for FS.Anyone have any comments or suggestions?Regards

I'm jealous, that's my comment. My suggestion is that you promptly send the machine to me for quality assurance purposes :DThat looks like it's going to be a smokin machine. Enjoy!Nate

My concern is my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.I heard the Radeons are having some problems with FS2004. Has ATI assessed this issue and fixed it?Regards

Nice rig!!! when its done tell us your performance..As far as the Ati card...nvidia has the same issues and I own one..But Ive heard alot of good about the 9800.

Nice system.The only things I would have done personally like I do in the systems I build is two fold.When your spending that much money the price difference between the IS-7 and IC-7 is not worth the difference in boards. Even the extra cash spent on the IC-7G makes it a better deal at the level your spending.Only other thing I do is eliminate the second drive and I would have gone with the Lite-on 48x32x48x16 CDRW/DVD Rom. If your worried about copying on the fly, if your burning over 16X speed your better creating an image on your HD and burning that.Other than that, a nice system that should keep you happy for quite some time.Bobby

>When your spending that much money the price difference>between the IS-7 and IC-7 is not worth the difference in>boards. Even the extra cash spent on the IC-7G makes it a>better deal at the level your spending.I looked at the IC7 very closely and found spending the extra $20 simply not worth it. The IS7 cuts it for me and is equally as fast as the IC7 (even though different Intel chipsets). The advantage of the IC7 is it supports ECC memory which I'm not getting. I also don't need the IS7-G or IC7-G because I'm probably not going to do any RAID. If I do, RAID 0 is fine for me and the IS7 is capable of doing RAID. The IS7-G and IC7-G are only good if you wanna do RAID 1.Also I'm not going to overclock anything on my computer which is why I don't need to spend a lot on a motherboard.>Only other thing I do is eliminate the second drive and I>would have gone with the Lite-on 48x32x48x16 CDRW/DVD Rom. If>your worried about copying on the fly, if your burning over>16X speed your better creating an image on your HD and burning>that.I wanted them to be 2 separate drives.I often put a program or game CD in one drive and a music CD in another.Regards

:-lol I have a Gateway Performance 800, but just built the rig below.You are going to be real happy to get away from the Gateway.I can not believe how fast mine is, as will yours. I am having greatfun doing this. I am UV sleeving everything and putting UV lighting inside. This is my first one to build and might may be going overboard but it is enjoyable.____________________________________________________________________

Consider getting DDR memory instead of SDRAM?

>My concern is my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.>>I heard the Radeons are having some problems with FS2004. Has>ATI assessed this issue and fixed it?>>RegardsNah, you should be fine with the 9800 Pro. Although I am not currently using one for FS2004, the Radeon performs very nicely in UT2003 and, from what I'm reading, will be the card to get for Half Life 2. Also, I hear that the Cat 3.8 driver will be one of the best from ATI.It's fun to build PC's.Enjoy!David

Looks good! I've decided to wait until Novemember/December and get an Athlon 64 or Pentium 5 system with the new Radeon 9800XT. (should be the 9900 really lol) It'll be interesting to see how Intel competes with the Athlon 64 - the first benchmarks just came out and it's completely destroying the P4 3.2 in most of the tests by up to 30-40%. Hopefully this will be the system that allows 2004 to run well with everything cranked up. HL2 is sure to run great as well...Ryan

>Looks good! I've decided to wait until Novemember/December>and get an Athlon 64 or Pentium 5 system with the new Radeon>9800XT. (should be the 9900 really lol) It'll be interesting>to see how Intel competes with the Athlon 64 - the first>benchmarks just came out and it's completely destroying the P4>3.2 in most of the tests by up to 30-40%. Hopefully this will>be the system that allows 2004 to run well with everything>cranked up. HL2 is sure to run great as well...>>RyanPentium 5 (if that's what they'll call it) doesn't come out until 2nd quarter. The Athlon 64 is wavey, it was supposed to come out this September but that's not gonna happen, they keep postponing it and it may be postponed until at least 1st quarter 2004.And nobody knows how the Pentium 5 will fair with the latest Pentium 4 3.2GHz. They made some early predictions in the passed, but those have now changed.The Prescott processor (the code-name for the next Intel CPU) is currently on hold until AMD gets the Athlon 64 up which looks like will be a while now.I don't want to wait that long, which is why I got what I got.9800XT should be nice, but I'd imagine it'll be quite expensive, too much for my budget. I found the Radeon 9800 Pro for $297 and that was pretty much the max I could go.Regards

>Pentium 5 (if that's what they'll call it) doesn't come out>until 2nd quarter. The Athlon 64 is wavey, it was supposed to>come out this September but that's not gonna happen, they keep>postponing it and it may be postponed until at least 1st>quarter 2004.>>And nobody knows how the Pentium 5 will fair with the latest>Pentium 4 3.2GHz. They made some early predictions in the>passed, but those have now changed.>>The Prescott processor (the code-name for the next Intel CPU)>is currently on hold until AMD gets the Athlon 64 up which>looks like will be a while now.>>I don't want to wait that long, which is why I got what I>got.>>9800XT should be nice, but I'd imagine it'll be quite>expensive, too much for my budget. I found the Radeon 9800 Pro>for $297 and that was pretty much the max I could go.>>RegardsAMD's pushing back the release of the Athlon 64? Then what's this? http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20030912110905.htmlI guess those "Athlon 64s" people are buying at this very moment are fake?They should also probably cancel the launch party they're having in San Francisco on the 30th of this month then, huh? Why do people post rumors without bothering to research them first?-Max Cowgill