HED

That does indeed help very much. Especially since these items are never available locally for purchase or trial. Thank you.

Thanks Stephane. You say it has springs, but from your description, I get the impression that it uses detents on either side of the centers. So to be clear, do you feel the return tension through the entire stroke/turn, or only when it approaches the neutral zones?

Hey guys, I'm in the market for anew yoke and could use some first-hand opinions. I've been trying to find a used yoke that I could butcher and convert into a left-hand-only frankenyoke, but nobody seems to be interested in getting rid of their old gear. Because of that, price, and because I've had a Saitek ST290pro joystick for years that seems to be well made and reliable, I'm leaning towards buying and butchering a new Saitek PZ44 yoke. But I have questions that aren't addressed within the product's specs. Does the aileron and/or elevator axes of this model spring back to a neutral position? Does it have a smooth action allowing for reliable, one-handed operation?

My mobo (sig) supports IB. Using IB instead of SB also enables PCIe 3.0 support. My bad, I missed that you were looking for a micro; mine is ATX.

Me too. It's always several years between builds for me and I always forget that, that is one of several advantages to having a full tower.

The computer and I are usually well grounded, so I'm not too concerned with the static. But the air compressor moisture was the first thing that came to mind with me too. This Novec is awesome if you can find it at a reasonable price.

Thought you guys might get a chuckle out of these rigs. This would certainly keep the dust out, lol. Tom's Hardware made one using vegetable oil. 104*FI have a thermoelectric wine cooler that I converted into a humidor; maybe slightly bigger than a full tower. Maybe some day when I'm feeling a little froggy, I'll pick up another to convert into a computer case (using parts from an old build). It would surely keep the dust out, but not sure if it's got the cajones to beat the heat. May be a nice little experiment though.

There are some really nice photos of some of your setups in this forum. Ever since my second computer I've been struggling with trying to keep the inside clean (my first was not an issue, a VIC-20 w/ 5K RAM, LOL). I've lived in various areas of the U.S. and have always had an issue with dust build-up. The area I live in now is especially dry and dusty which I think will make things better and worse; low humidity makes it much more dusty; yet better because the lack of humidity makes it much less sticky.The case I'm using for my new build includes one filtered intake fan in the front. I can see this filter being removed permanently as it will become choked with dust very quickly. Besides, there are so many unfiltered vent openings in the front, side, and rear of the case that a single front fan filter is futile because two exhaust fans (rear and top) and two side panel fans (I haven't decided whether they'll be intake, exhaust or both; recommendations welcome) will be drawing air from those vents.So I was just wondering if any of you have any tricks you could share for keeping the inside reasonably clean and dust-free while maintaining air-flow. Also, about 20 years ago, I recall using some type of non-conductive aerosol spray to power-wash computers at work. I have no idea what it was called and haven't seen it since, but it cleaned the insides like a charm. If you know of such a cleaner, do tell.

That does help quite a bit, thank you.

Please excuses my slowness, but I'm still kind of foggy. The memory controller is built into the CPU and only recognizes 1066/1333, so if I install my new RAM (see sig), by default, it gets pushed down to 1333. If I change the BIOS to reflect the RAM's actual rated speed of 1600, wouldn't it still be pushed down by the CPU only recognizing it at a max of 1333?

Thank you guys; great info. Plenty of time left to make the exchange, albeit even more over-budget. Mike & John,My original reply would suggest still a bit of confusion on my part. But after re-reading your posts a bit more carefully this time, I understand what you were saying.

Okay, that's the way I was leaning. That being said, it would seem to also hold true not just for the 2133, but also for the 1600 since the SB CPU only supports 1066/1333 (but may not be the case when used with a non-SB CPU/memory controller). I could have sworn that when I was comparing mobo specs that it also included "2000(OC)/1866", but it's possible I'm thinking of another mobo.

I have several noob questions regarding the "how-to"s of over-clocking and tweaking my system for FSX, but I'll spare you all from most of them as I'm sure you've already discussed them many times. I do however, need a timely answer to a (probably) basic issue before my return-period expires. I'm sure I can track down the remaining info needed (if I can manage to avoid being side-tracked by the wealth of interesting reading here). I'm starting to build a new system but I think I may have bought the wrong memory (still un-opened, from Newegg). It's been several years since I've built a box so I'm a little rusty, especially in regards to memory selection, compatibility and over-clocking, and I was hoping for a quick edification.The memory that I bought is: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL.I bought that particular memory because my processor (Intel i7-2600k) indicated that its "Integrated Memory Controller" supported Dual Channel DDR3-1066/1333, leading me to believe that those two speeds were my only choices, even though my motherboard (ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3) supports "DDR3 2133(OC)/1600/1333/1066/800". (On a side note, perhaps you can also explain the meaning of the "(OC)" next to "2133". Does it mean 2133 can only be obtained by, say, over-clocking 1600 to 2133?)My plan is to over-clock my CPU, RAM, and GPU to a reliable maximum while using only air cooling. Can and should I use ram faster than 1333 or would anything faster be wasted by being "bottle-necked" by the CPU's 1066/1333 support?Thank you very much for your assistance.Edit: My bad guys. It never fails; as soon as I posted this, I found the discussion here.