Long time ago............

[Q Dog 0]

I used fly II. I`m buying a new comp.and wondering if anyone can give me some suggestions on what to add on. It will be a lap top with a 17" screen.Intel 9300 processor3 gb of ram (800mz or 667mz,what`s the difference?)512 mg nvidia 8600gs card250 gb hard drive 5600 or 7200 ( what`s the difference?)Vista 32 bit or 64 bit again what`s the difference?Any help would be most appreciated. I would like to start simming again with FlyII as soon as I can. ThanksQ Dog

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

Hey Q Dog,Long time since I've seen you on the forum. Your questions are of a technical nature and I can only give simplistic replies. Hardware today is just so much better (faster) than it was back in 2000 when Fly!II was released.ram 800 or 667 Mz. The difference is speed. But as far as Fly! II is concerned it will run at warp speed on either. You won't be able to differentiate the difference. I'm not familiar with the 9300 CPU but I'm using a 6600 Core 2 Duo with 667 MHz ram and blistering FPS speeds. If you can afford the 800 ram then get it.Same with the hard drives 5600 rpm or 7200 rpm - the faster the drive spins then theoretically the quicker information can be retrieved. I'm using a Western Digital Raptor 10,000 rpm but to be honest any speed gain in file loading/saving is not quantifiable.I think the 512 Mb 8600GS card is the weakest component you mention but again Fly! II will probably whiz along.No nothing about Vista and don't want to know :-)Cheers,Roger

[Guest 3cffts]

Hello Q Dog: Much like Roger, I am running a 6600 Core 2 Duo. I agree that the video card may be a weak point. I first bought an ASUS EN7600 GS Silent video card, because I want the quietest machine possible, but I was not satisfied with the quality of the graphics. It was not nearly as good as my old ATI 4200 TI 8X. So I now use an ATI Radeon X1650 XT and my machine runs fly!II superbly! ... and with a couple of low speed case fans it is almost inaudible! I decided to stay with Windows XP and not go to Vista. I use a Seagate SATA 5600 250 GB HDD.Brian.

[Guest 3cffts]

P.S. If you want the video card to be quiet, use a big Zalman cooling fan on it! Makes a big difference!Brian.

[KenWood 5]

Summations above are spot on, even though I am still running on an old computer / video upgraded to WinXP. Hoping this little article at Wikipedia will help you out. I am unclear as to whether or not programs developed for a 32-bit OS/CPU would run well on a 64-bit OS/CPU - but my general feeling is, they would not run well. Backward compatibility is always a hit-or-miss item.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bitCheers!Ken Wood :-sun1http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/dfdg/bannernewkw.jpgGateway 700X; Intel P4 2.4GHz; 512MB RAM; NVIDIA Ti4200 4X AGP 128MB; SB Audigy; Thrustmaster TopGun Fox 2 Pro Shock

[Q Dog 0]

Thanks guys. It`s good to see some of the original names from back in the day. I moved and because of space restrictions I have been using my girlfriends laptop which is still running a Pentium II so I can`t use flyII. My Desktop is in storage, but it was only a P3. Now that laptops are as powerful as desktops, I am making the leap. Thanks for the info and I think I will go with everything above except the video card will be a GT instead of a GS. Will keep in touch!!Qdog

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Q dog,I was in the newsagent yesterday and noticed that the summer edition of PC Pilot magazine had an article on the best video card for FSX. I realise that FSX is not FLy!II but Defintitly stay away from the GS. They gave great reviews for the NVIDIA 8800 GT, GTX, cards but were not impressed with theRadeon ATI 3850 or 3870. You don't have to buy the magazine but if you pop into a newsagent and browse the article I'm sure it will help you make an informed decision. How do you manage to fit these massive sized and power hungry cards into a laptop???Cheers,Roger Cheers

[flyfisher 0]

G'Day Q Dog,At some stage in the near future I will be upgrading to a more powerful laptop and would be interested to know of your final decision and how FlyII runs on it.:-wave

[Guest 3cffts]

Hello Q-dog: A thought just occurred to me. Practically all the laptops sold these days are widescreen. I don't know if they are the same as the wide screen monitors, but when I tried running Fly! with a widescreen, the instrument panel display was greatly distorted! I.e. Fly! it appeared to me would only display properly on a true 4 : 3 screen. For this reason I have just purchased a used HP Compaq N1000C 1.8ghz Pentium 4 with a 4 x 3 screen ... so that I can use fly when away visiting. It runs Fly!II reasonably well, with Terrascenery, except the video card, even with the latest driver / control centre does not permit sufficient anti-aliasing to do away with jagged runway edges etc. Too many dynamic aircraft will of course quickly bring it to its knees! Perhaps a more powerful model would do a better job! Brian.

[Q Dog 0]

Roger, I will check out that article asap, thanks

[Q Dog 0]

Flyfisher, I will give you an update when i get up and running.Qdog

[Q Dog 0]

Brian, I wondered about this possible problem also. I am prepared to buy a separate larger monitor if needed. Dell makes a 20" and 22" flat screen that I checked out at Staples. I`ll let you know how everything goes.Qdog