System Hardware: PC | MOBO | RAM | CPU | HDD | SSD | PSU etc

Like the title says... I'm now dealing with my second defective Asus Maximus V board, and I'm ready to go in another direction. Both boards - one a Formula, the other a Gene - have the same problem. They're unable to post with memory in Channel 2, which makes it impossible to use dual-channel memory. I've researched this extensively, and it's a known issue with many of these boards (google "maximus v" and "code 55" and you'll see what I mean). I'd mistakenly thought that the first board had bent pins, but that turns out not to be the case - the issue is purely in the code. In addition, it can only apply XMP settings intermittently, only to one DIMM, and then loses th…

As some of you know from reading my posts in the Ivy Pictorial De-Lidding Guide thread, I've been having a devil of a time getting my newbuild computer to post. The problem, after a lot of trial and error, seems to be that the Asus Maximus V Gene has a lot of trouble recognizing memory. You can google "maximus v" and "error code 55" if you doubt this. Where I am now is... I've been able to get the system to post, and even to accept an XMP profile, for GSkill RipjawsZ Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) (F3-2400C10D-8GZH). The only problem is that I can't get the motherboard to read both modules unless they're both set in Channel 1 (slots A…

Hi all I have a question and to help explain some pics... My house has a sound system and there are two wall mounted speakers in the room where my computer is.. Just your normal wall mounted speaker of which there is two. Now next to my computer there's this That switch and knob control those speakers and to me those four input things look like they would work for the pc. But I'm a bit confused because how would I connect the computer to those? Because there's four would I have to "split" whatever goes to it? (if that makes sense) What would I need to buy to make this work? Finally I already have three speakers on my pc, a set of t…

I have a stupid question. How can I check if my GPU is busy departing the good life. let me explain why I think it is the GPU. Up until the weekend I have the most awesome experience with absolute stutterless setup setting with my new system 3770k. Saterday even made some FSX videos and then saterday evening I switched it off (by the way no software/drivers installed last 2 weeks - NADA nothing) Sunday morning I got up and it was chaos with frames jumping from 2 to 30 to 50 to 5 to 1.. I have never seen this. Initially I thought it looked like a RAM issue (I have 2 stick of corsair 2400's in the new machine). Tested that by swapping them out and trying one at a t…

Hi Folks, I have a 2600k sandy bridge CPU running at 4.6Ghz. I also have a GeForce 570 with 1.5Gigs of memory. Will I see much improvement with FSX upgrading to the 670 with 2 gigs? Or perhaps I should go for a CPU upgrade? I do play a lot of games but FSX is the only thing that could use a little help. I'm also running at 2560x1600. Your help is appreciated! -Ivan

I decided to take the plunge and get a Crucial M4 256GB SSD solely for FSX and I was surprised how easy it was to install. I have nowhere near the skill level of most of the folks here when it comes to DIY upgrades, but after doing a little research on it, I figured what the heck. My ASUS laptop has one huge cover and with the twist of one screw, the hard drive bays were exposed with total install time maybe taking 10 minutes. I was honestly more worried about initializing it upon first boot up, so I googled "initializing new hard drive in Windows 7" for a little reassurance. After that was completed I did a firmware update on Crucial's website. Now comes the fun tas…

By the look of things Haswell will start selling in June. http://chinese.vr-zo...-2013-12252012/ Let's hope it's a good overclocker as well....

1. Got up a couple of mornings ago and discovered that my computer started up relative to fans running, but monitors displayed disconnected cables and I never progressed to bootup or any other steps to the startup. The computer just runs continually (fans), but there is no other indication that it exists. 2. Disconnected all users, (CDRoms, Harddrives, etc.) Same thing. 3. Removed Video cards, Mouse, and Keyboard. Same thing (No progression after power was restored relative to error beeps or anything else, but fans are running) 4. Replaced Power Supply. Same thing. 5. Against all the rules, I read the Motherboard Manual. Discovered that the "MemOK" LED was…

I just made the step from 4.8 to 4.9 with my 3770k and Asus PZ77 - V MB... I noticed markedly better performance at 4.9 than 4.8, much more than any other incremental OC so far. My question is that in order to achieve 4.9 my voltage is around 1.5v. It is set at 1.45 but with LLC at Extreme it hits 1.5v when being pushed. My temps are absolutely fine, in fact I just put a new coat of IC DIamond 24 on the chip the core temps aren't much above 70c. My question is what is the max safe voltage for this setup? If my temps are fine am I good to go? I'm not interested in preserving my CPU for years and years as I'm sure I'll want to upgrade in another generation or two. …

Hi, -After going over my budget so many times by now, (Was $800 without sim equipment & accessories and monitor) I tried to not exceed the overall budget… But I failed! <_< - Leaving me with this $2000 build (FSX add-ons not included) * I will be using this PC for a long time & other projects beside FSX * ** Budget of course will be divided into monthly basis for money purposes obviously! ** - Enough talking and let’s get to it *** Parts prices are almost identical to which I found them, but of course it changes over the time *** **** I will start purchasing the parts necessary for the build starting from next week **** - I …

It looks like that I didn't make good choices when building this system. AMD processor and AMD graphics card is a terrible combination for FSX as it seems. I'm not happy with performance in complex cities and heavier weather conditions. I'm planning for an upgrade because I'm sick of all the problems AMD drivers cause. But since I need an Intel CPU to get the most out of FSX, this means a full system upgrade, and that means that I'll have to wait a lot until I can upgrade my system. So I'm wondering, how much performance do I lose by using an AMD CPU instead of an Intel? Maybe I could skip a CPU upgrade and go with an NVIDIA GPU? (I know this will improve cloud perfor…

Hi all, I'm just looking at some options for my rig as per my specs on the side. I'm very happy with the way it's running FSX and everything else for that matter but coming into Summer here in Australia it tends to get pretty hot so I just have a few minor concerns about my temps. My OC to 4.9 Ghz gave me max temps around of 83C under IBT and Prime 95 after a 24 Hr test. This was with roughly a 23C ambient temp. Normally temps in FSX might max out to about 70C and other games considerably less than that. However the other day it was a bit warmer with ambients at around 27-28C and temp in FSX hit 75C which I guess was expected. The CPU cooler is a Corsair H…

Hi guys ! I`am wondering as Memory speed has this noticeable impact on fsx, wouldn´t the use of high clocked triple or even quad channel ram give you an extra performance boost ? I know that´s also a $$$ question. Anyone has tested this ?

Hi, I don't understand anything about defragmanting, i have OO defrag 16 trial version and i don't know what to do. Is there any tutorial who can help me ? I read Nickn's tutorial but it's not the same version of OO defrag, things are very different ... thanks

I have got my low spec XP rig running pretty good after a year of constant experimenting w/ hardware, tweaks, and graphics settings. I am running Razer Gamebooster to hopefully kill non-essential backgrough programs. I can run a fairly consistent 18-24fps with my non-tubeliner aircraft. One thing still bothers me... I get occasional 1-2 second freezes. Is this what is referred to as "stutters" in the FSX world? Sometimes they seem to be related to an aircraft action such as adding flaps or changing the throttle setting but often they appear without any action on my part. Is this "stutter" most likely related to the Mobo or the graphics card or what? …

wife said I can get a new computer, budget max is $2000. My question for help is I have only used fs9 and I want to bring it to its knees ,but I may be interested in fsx. What specs would you folks recommend to accomplish what I am looking for. Thanks

What internal PC cables are required to connect an SSD to the motherboard? There appears to be two groups of gold-plated connections (one group larger than the other) on the SSD. I have checked some sites on the 'net (Tom's Hardware, etc.), as well as here but can't seem to find the answer. The SSD is only for FSX, not the OS. Thanks for any answers. Bruce.

Two problems: Setup: ASUS P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3 Motherboard i5 2500K 3.3 GHz 6MB Cache LGA1155 95W Dual EVGA GeForce GTX560Ti SLI Memory: G Skill Ripjaws Series F3-12 800 CL9D-8GBRL DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 1.5V ANTEC Earthwatts 650W Max Model EA-650 Samsung SSD 830 Series: Primarily for FSX H60 Water Cooler for CPU Overclocked to 4.8GHz ________________________________________ Problem 1: Maybe 20% of the time when computer boots up, shortly after the Windows loading message and the Windows Logo appear the machine locks up. Shutting down and restarting usually goes OK. Problem 2: Many videos lose sound about half or more throught the video. …

Dear Forum it is time to get a new computer and i thought somone can give me some good help what hardware i should look for i started looking arround an have some ideas but not sure if it is worht or what fits best together Motherboard: Asus P8UZ777, 2011 ASUS TUF Sabertooth X79 or ASUS p9X79 Pro Processor: i7 3770k , i73802 i73930 or shoud the i7 3970 CP coolong: Antec 920 H20 or Scythe Mugen 3 SCMG 3000 System Memora: DDR3-Ram Kit 16GB 1866 MHz or DDR-Ram Kit 16GB, 1600 MHz System Power: ATX 1000 WATT cooler master silent pro gold series 80 plus or ATX580 Watt Be quiet straight power e9, 80 plus Gold Graphic processor will be the the Nv…

Im having a bunch of trouble installing new driver for my 570.I constantly get "driver installation failed"regardless if I try from control panel or from nvidia.Google was no help at all. Anyone got any thoughts on this? Im stuck on the 285 driver rightnow

I have tried most of the recommended tweaks and gone back to a default rebuilt fsx.cfg with only a HighMemFix line added. I have AI traffic fairly low, scenery detail medium/high-ish and it runs pretty good with moderately dense airports and Bluesky photoscenery and meshes. I have moved all addon scenery to a 128gb Crucial M4. The system is FSX locked at 24fps and I usually get smooth frames with the occasional stop (which I guess is referred to as a stutter) and sometimes I see distant scenery loading. It is a given that I can't afford a new computer as I am retired and living on a fixed income. The question is this; Could I get any worthwhile improvement…

Does anyone know where is the 'thermal wall' overclock speed for the i5 Ivy Bridge 3570k with Corsair H100 water cooling? I'm hearing people in other overclocking forums saying 4.6/4.7/4.8GHz. BTW I'm not interested in delidding. Right now I'm considering either the Ivy Bridge i5 3570k or the Sandy Bridge i7 2700k. I'm pretty sure I can get close to 5GHz with the 2700k+H100 but the old CPU is actually ~US$95 more expensive than the Ivy Bridge 3570k as I have to purchase it from overseas and I want to know how much of a MHz difference there is and whether it's worth paying that much extra to get the 2700k. FYI I'm not interested in the i7 3770k because I don't need…

Hey guys, I am trying to get a list of all the parts that I am going to use for the computer I plan to build for fsx, this is what I have so far: AMD FD6100WMGUSBX FX-6100 Processor - Six Core, 8MB L3 Cache, 6MB L2 Cache, 3.30GHz (3.90GHz Max Turbo), Socket AM3+, 95W, Fan, Unlocked, Retail ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AMD 760G Motherboard - Micro ATX, AMD 760G Chipset, 1866MHz DDR3 (O.C.), SATA 3.0 Gb/s, RAID, 8-CH Audio, Gigabit LAN, Hybrid CrossFire, AMD FX Ready Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX 8GB Desktop Memory Kit - DDR3, (2 x 4GB), PC3-12800, 1600MHz, CL9, Intel XMP Ready Thanks

I am still looking for a new 2013 system. I am torn between the CPU's mostly, I am building a gaming rig, so what would be the better choice? Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge? Option 1 CM Storm Stryker Gaming Big Tower Corsair TX 750W PSU Intel® Core i7-2700K Processor Corsair H60 Hydro Series CPU Cooler ASUS P8Z77-V LX, Socket-1155 Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB CL9 XFX Radeon HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 Seagate Barracuda® 2TB Samsung DVD Writer, SH-224BB Windows 64-bit 1,822.87 USD Option 2 Cooler Master HAF X Big Tower Intel® Core i5-3570K Processor Stock CPU Cooler Corsair TX 750W PSU ASUS P8Z77-V LX, Socket-1155 Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz …

Does anybody know a motherboard with 3 x Intel SATA3 6Gb/s ports? I plan to have 1x O/S 128Gb SSD and 2x SSDs for FSX and my other sim, perhaps for P3D. The Z77 chipset mobo-s I've seen all have only 2 x Intel SATA3 ports. Thanks, Dirk.