Any suggestions for my new rig?

[Guest Tonyla1]

Hi all,I've finally decommissioned my old P4 system and upgraded to:i7 950 3.06Ghz; GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard; Corsair 6G DDR3 1600Mhz ram; 1G ATI 6870; Thermalake Armor A90 case; 700w power supply.I haven overclocked yet, but am amazed at how well it runs FSX/FTX out of the box. After applying the VSync fix for the ATI card I am really impressed with the graphics.Are there any other tweaks to the cfg I should look at, such as bufferpools, affinity Mask or adjusting the TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL etc?Finally, can someone direct me to a good (easy to understand) overclocking linc? or if you have a similar system provide some settings advice?CheersTony

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Start with NickN's set up guide here: http://www.simforums.com/Forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.html

[corkyo4 2]

Although you havent overclocked yet this gave me the greatest improvement on my setup. I had a 3.16GHz dual core processor to begin with and i now have it at 4GHz.. My graphics card is only 512mb 9800gtx+ and i only have 4Gb of ram and i get good performance using the tweaks.But as the previous poster suggests Nicks guide is a good start point, but i wonder how valid it is now that we have Bojotes tweaker. I have to say after my recent reinstallation of FSX i forgot about/didnt use Nicks guide, just Bojotes tweaker, and my performance is still excellent for my needs. In terms of tweaking guides, i used this forum and their information http://forums.overcl...display.php?f=7 and here http://www.tomshardw...g-guide,15.html oh and here (more specific to I7's) http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/263043-11-1156-core-core-overclocking-guideCPUID and HWMonitor are useful bits of kit to monitor your machine speeds and temps. The key to overclocking is to take it really slowly and makesure you have stability in your system before you move further ahead. You can test the stability of your system using software called (i think) prime. There is also an Intel burntest which does the same but quicker. This essentially stresses your machine to see if it is stable and if not, it will let you know - the downside is that it wont tell you why it is unstable and so its down to you to play with settings until you crack it.Essentially its a bit of maths to calculate your CPU speed and fsb speed (or something like this, its been a while since i did this) and then you basically play with the voltage of your CPU and Northbridge to ensure the components are getting enough juice without overheating. So you will need a decent CPU fan too. - there is more to it than this but i summarised lolIn the end i got bored and left alot of my BIOS settings on auto, which has given me a stable system, but may not be the most efficient, i didnt have the time to play around lol. Just ensure that you dont overheat your CPU as that is not a good day out, this is a key consideration, hence the need for a decent CPU fan.Hope this helps.Tom

[Guest Tonyla1]

Thank you gentlemen, that is a great startCheersTony

[cat 2]

Or you could run no tweeks, & not riskpermanent damage.Peter Sydney Australia

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Or you could run no tweeks, & not riskpermanent damage.Peter Sydney Australia

I think its safe to say you can't cause any permanent damage tweaking FSX. Overclocking yes, tweaking FSX no.

[Paul J 349]

Overclocking link, Tony:-http://forums.pureoverclock.com/showthread.php?threadid=5736Have been running at 4.2 for the longest time, and am now ( a month) running at 4.4gig. You will also find lots of expert advice on o/c'd proc life expectancy for the 950 and that mobo.I use most of Bojote's tweaks, plus Nick's for the (slightly o/c'd) GTX580.My previous ATI5870 needed vertical sync controlled from within the fsx.cfg (-5fps), and probably so will your 6870: so I switched to the - more configurable - Nvidia 580. No real difference otherwise. I have had limited and sporadic success with the FPSLimiter_v2.0, so I just lock at 30 now, where it sits almost everywhere. I run multiple cfg's dependent upon whether fixed wing, rotary, multi-engine, Maddog, etc... No point in having 60% AI if you're flying a single around OrbX PNW Darrington, right?The main thing is - it's smooth as silk in each of the differing scenarios with most sliders at or close to the right.Have fun!

[Fsau 0]

Or you could run no tweeks, & not riskpermanent damage.Peter Sydney Australia

Hah... explain how you are going to cause permanent damage by applying tweaks??

[cat 2]

I've been using computer applications since the 1980's & Flight Sim is by far the mostcomplicated application I've ever experienced. I've never known anyone personallywho can run any flight sim. Thus for me it's a very lonely hobby.Thanks to people here on these forums, I can run FSX entirely to my satisfaction.Obviously people love tweeking, but there are obviously a great number of unfortunatepeople who try it then put FS away & never use it again. That's what I mean bypermanent damage. Some people would never go on a forum to get help. Thx kind helpers!Peter Sydney Australia