Hi guys. Well, after attending the Dulles conference and exhibition I am siked now to get up and running with FSX. I know my current 2.8 P4 1 gig ram system is probably the least amount of horsepower one would want to be happy with the program, so I am considering a new system. Could some of you give me advice on this? First of all, I thought I would wait until Vista and Direct X 10 are out, but my local Best Buy experts say once it is out in January or February, it will still be up to a year before it is shipping on new machines. Then they said if I choose to buy now and upgrade to Vista later, it is best to do a clean reformat of the drive rather than installing over XP. What is anyone's advice on this? Once I do decide either now or later, what are the best components to consider for FSX? I figure an HP seems to be the most popular rig at Best Buy, and I assume the latest Intel duo processsor. How much ram and what would be the best video card?? Any other ideas would be appreciated as well. Regards, Tom

Yes, absolutely. You had the same system as I before I got ticked off (at FS9 mind you) and bought a new computer. I had it custom built by PC Club (they have them all over the US, if you live here in the states). I got a Core 2 Duo E6600, 2 Gigs of RAM, a 250 gig SATA HD, and just a simple nVidia 7600 GT just until new DX10 cards come out. My system also has a 550W power supply, standard cooling, a cool looking case and a DVD burner with lightscribe technology. I paid a lot less than I would have paid at other places, as I did a little research and compared to other systems. I also recommend a 5.1 sound card, and 5.1 speakers. A CH Yoke or joystick is good to have too. I am very happy with the way FSX runs, and FS9, well let's just say my frames are locked at 30 and stay there, even with the PMDG 747 and the LDS 767 at Simflyer's JFK, no prob. Back to FSX, I locked my frames there at 30 as well, sliders almost all full right, autogen normal, traffic at 35% for each category. I get 30 FPS almost everywhere. Most larger cities, I may drop to 20, but they don't go below that, and so I am quite confident, that when I buy a nice new video card and with the release of DX 10, I won't have much problem. Aircraft and Weather categories are at Ultra High. AA is x4 AF is x8. I couldn't be happier with this new computer and FSX.Jeff

Jeff, what are the tweaks you have applied to FSX? It sounds like FSX is still more CPU intensive than GPU.

>>Jeff, what are the tweaks you have applied to FSX? It sounds like FSX is still more CPU intensive than GPU.<

Can you please post your config?. I am in the process of building a e6600 and not sure if I should by a high end graphics card or just a midrange like yours and wait for the DX10 cards to come out. If I go this route, it will be a long wait. My current machine is very old (3+ years), so I am in for new machine for FS9 anyway. BTW. Are you overclocking your e6600? With a nice air cooler, I have helped a few people overclock their e6600s to over 3.5GHz. Hugh boost in formance.

Hi, sorry I forgot to mention, I am overclocking. Since I only have standard cooling and don't know much about hardware, using Core Center I only upped the FSB from 266 (2395mhz/2.4ghz) to 301/2700mhz/2.7Ghz my temperature has not changed, but I don't want to ruin my processor, so I'm not sure how much more I can up it. As far as the video card is concerned, I'm just waiting for the DX10 stuff to happen, so if I could offer you what I think is a good suggestion, I would get the best video card you can get for like $100.00 or something, or a 7600GT or higher for that much and wait to get an awseome DX10 card, if infact we get good reports on DX10.Attached is my config file. I just flew around in Sydney, Austrailia and got 24 FPS consistently flying around town.Jeff http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/159736.txt

"Best Buy Experts"....I'd rather take advice from a laxative salesman.Sorry, I just had to comment.

Can you post a your FR on this screenshot? The FR on that screenshot with my machine is a stunning 8 fps. I just want to see, with a cpu/gpu/pcie x 16 twice as fast as mine, what the FR is.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/159794.jpg

Pardon the interruption...but is that New York City? Where is that screenshot?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>"Best Buy Experts"....>>I'd rather take advice from a laxative salesman.>>Sorry, I just had to comment.LMAO, no kidding. I remember taking my first system to them a few years back because I couldn't uninstall McAfee office suite.......I got a clean reformatted HD back..NO INFO left on it, 30 gigs of work gone, never again.Regards, MichaelKDFW

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI-x16 / AMD

Best new system for this sim--as worked out through internet reading for three days-- and long conversations with my computer builder ( a longtime personal friend ) is a top on the line Asus motherboard--capable of holding two dual Asus Nvidia 7950 video cards ( in other words Quad Video cards ) 4 gigs of memory and a top linre processor--add 2 500 gig drives--cost $3.000.00 Plus--Told my wife that this is what I wanted for Christmas--she said "No Problem! Just cancell your vacation for next year.Cheers

Yes, it is New York City. The shot was taken facing north.

bump

Another bump

Thanks for the info guys. Your advice on Best Buy is well taken, so with BB out of consideration, where is the most reliable place to go? Thanks. Tom.