System Upgrade: Here is what PMDG Advised

[dazz 69]

Wasn't true in my case - my 570 was all screwed up until I reformatted after I switched to it from my old 260. Can't explain it but it was a gigantic difference - I almost sent the 570 back, tried the reformat as a last ditch attempt and it was like night and day. Had done driver sweeper and all of that too...

Yeah, I remember that. So weird. I have no idea what could cause that, but glad to hear you eventually got it sorted out

[Tabs 2,790]

Also just noticed this line here:Hard Drive: OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB and Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB 6GB/s SATA-II 32MB CacheWhich is a copy and paste (obviously) from the site so could someone in the know explain if this is two separate drives and if so what the point is?Cheers!And apologies for the hi-jacking of the thread!

The OCZ one is a 60GB SSD (last generation, based on the SandForce SF1200 chipset), the second one is a standard 1TB mechanical hard drive. If you get an SSD you need to get a much bigger one, 60GB is too small for the OS and FSX with addons... I'd get at least 120GB, probably 240 if you want to be safe. My own FSX folder is 90GB right now...16GB of RAM is not going to be useful unless you're doing major content creation work in 64-bit applications - rendering video, massive resolution photo editing, multitrack audio recording or mixing etc. Putting four DIMMs in the system can make it less stable when overclocking too due to the way the voltage regulation and stuff on the motherboard works. I would get 8GB in a 2x4GB configuration, not 16... You can always add more later if it were to come to that, but I bet it won't before this machine is obsolete and you're getting a new one.

[ryanbatc 12,833]

The OCZ one is a 60GB SSD (last generation, based on the SandForce SF1200 chipset), the second one is a standard 1TB mechanical hard drive. If you get an SSD you need to get a much bigger one, 60GB is too small for the OS and FSX with addons... I'd get at least 120GB, probably 240 if you want to be safe. My own FSX folder is 90GB right now...

Yep I bought a Mushkin Callisto 120GB. Though it's not using the latest tech, something here like the OCZ Vertex 3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706&cm_re=vertex_3-_-20-227-706-_-Product) would be what you want. Be advised the SSD is what I consider a luxury or premium "toy" lol! It is expensive but I love mine. 40 second load time for big cities with LOD 8.5, UTX, GEX, FEX. Last PC took me about 4-5 minutes lol.

[antic81 57]

Many thanks Ryan and...Ryan! The advice you have offered is invaluable - many thanks!So I'll change the system back to 8GB and give them a ring about possibility of changing the SSD to something bigger and better- also knock off the extra GTX 580 card - that adds £400 to the budget - will have a gander at your suggestion Mr Batcund, many thanks for that!I am hoping to get a few years out of her - probably be the case that when MS Flight comes out in a year or twos time - itll be back to square one again, but that is the nature of the beast - got plenty of years out of FS9 and Im sure to get the same out of a great running and looking FSX - and a fair share of addons of course!

[bakaman 28]

Yep I bought a Mushkin Callisto 120GB. Though it's not using the latest tech, something here like the OCZ Vertex 3 (http://www.newegg.co...7-706-_-Product) would be what you want. Be advised the SSD is what I consider a luxury or premium "toy" lol! It is expensive but I love mine. 40 second load time for big cities with LOD 8.5, UTX, GEX, FEX. Last PC took me about 4-5 minutes lol.

4-5 min!! wasn't getting that long with my imac with almost all the sliders to the right.Kaman

[lostmoon 0]

Is it more optimal if FSX and the WIN7 share the same drive? Any thoughts on having FSX on its very own SSD, apart from the OS?

[Murawski 21]

What about FPS hit on upping the resolution?I currently run a 24" @ 1920x1200Thinking of getting a 27" that is 2560x1440Currently i can get between 20-30FPS (capped externally at 30) pretty much anywhere. How much of an extra strain on the system will it be to goto the higher resolution? Will i see a big FPS hit?Thanks!

[ryanbatc 12,833]

Is it more optimal if FSX and the WIN7 share the same drive? Any thoughts on having FSX on its very own SSD, apart from the OS?

You'll get some different answers on this.My personal feeling is to have FSX on the SSD. I want FSX on my very fastest drive. Don't put the Os and FSX and the same drive.Others say put Win7 on the SSD that way boot will be uber fast, so you'll save time there.Some say two mechanical drives in RAID0 are nearly as fast as one SSD.Either way you do it don't install FSX to the usual Program Files directory. Just make it C:/FSX or something.

4-5 min!! wasn't getting that long with my imac with almost all the sliders to the right.Kaman

It's true... it was an AMD6000 @ 3GHz, 4 gb ram, 8800gt. LOD 8.5 is an external edit to the cfg and you can't set it in-game. It will load a lot more textures so therefore it takes longer. The 4 min estimate was based on the moment I double clicked the .exe on my desktop.

What about FPS hit on upping the resolution?I currently run a 24" @ 1920x1200Thinking of getting a 27" that is 2560x1440

In this case a GTX580 would probably help, as this is a pretty huge resolution. It would also help in other games like Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3 (when it comes out teeheee)

[4116705510 4]

What do you think about an AMD Radeon HD 6970? Its really fast, and I'm considering it. Its a big step from my 'use'less' PNY GeForce GTX 260...any ideas?

[VH_JLC 1]

later this year I plan on running 2 34" HD LED TV's as my monitors..Would I benefit from a dual video card set up or would a 580 suffice??Josh C

[Avantime 81]

later this year I plan on running 2 34" HD LED TV's as my monitors..Would I benefit from a dual video card set up or would a 580 suffice??Josh C

AFAIK FSX doesn't really benefit from SLI, or current high end graphics cards in general. Also in other games dual SLI 550ti/560ti cards don't scale very well compared to single card solutions.With regards to prefab CPU water coolers, currently the gold standard is the Antec Kuhler H2O 920. FYI Both Antec and Corsair are owned by the same company, Asustek.

[VH_JLC 1]

whats AFAIK??Im completely aware that a SLI set up is of no benefit to FSX, my question's intent was more towards would a single 580 be able to keep up with 2 34" HD LED at a high resolution with out any considerable performance drop..Josh C

[Murawski 21]

AFAIK - as far as i know

[Andydigital 93]

Just because a TV is bigger it doesnt mean its any harder work for the GPU, in most cases even HDTV's still have fewer pixels than smaller monitors. It's the total number of pixels that determine how hard a GPU has to work not the viewing area. A single 580 is more than enough for 2 34" HDTV's.

[bakaman 28]

Here is the second part of my upgrade. This video shows me working on my sytem at 3-4 AM. Only the GPU and the power supply are missing.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NFZvyJm3s0Kaman BA