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

Dear Avsim Readers,I am a keen reader of these forums, yet have never post anything yet. Here's my first.I have been a flightsim user ever since FS95, and currently enjoy FSX truly. I use a 3 year old i7 computer, purchased just after its release in 2009. I have a i7-920 (@3.1 ghz), Sapphire HD4870, 6GB of corsair RAM, DDR3-1333 on an P6T motherboard.I use the PMDG 737 NGX with FSPassenger, EZCA, FS2Crew (in the future), REX, Aerosoft/ORBX/FlyTampa scenery, you name it.Now normally my sim looks fantastic, frames are good, and I am a happy user. However, when using the latest sceneries, especially on cloudy days my sim just does not reach that perfect level of smoothness t…

Looking for a diagram of how the cores of the i7 950 are physically laid out on the chip. Are they sequential 1-2-3-4 across the chip? Upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right? I'm trying to figure the "thermal footprint". Under 100% load, my 1 and 2 cores are consistently 6 or 7 degrees hotter than my 3 and 4 cores. I'm just wondering if I might have a "hot spot" on my cooler heat exchanger. My spec's are in my signature.

Hey guys,Here are my current computer specs:Gigabyte E58-UD3R motherboard (socket 1366).i7 950 Quadcore chip overclocked at 4.0GHz stableThermaltake liquid cooling system6GB RAMVelociraptor hard drive 300GBNVIDIA GEFORCE 9600 GSO 512 video cardNow here is the issue that I am having.I am trying to max out all the settings and get decent framerates (from 20-25 stable) at high densiti airports such as Fsdreamteam KORD, or KLAS, etc.With that hardware and max settings I barely make it to 10 fps which is annoying.I tried using *******'s tweaks for FSX and it has to lower all the settings for it to work properly.Would replacing the current video card for a brand new GTX 580 vid…

I have a 120 GB SSD and a 2.0 TB 2nd drive. EVERYHING is on the SSD. Wndows 7 64, FSX, all my addon scenery and planes, REX, Fly Tampa, Track IR5. I deleted most files that were useless, but I only have 36 GB left. Is that enough to sustain me for ever? What do I do now? I am not too computer savy, but can I move Windows to the 2.0 TB drive? Will that mess up FSX? Or do I move FSX and all the scenery/planes to the 2.0 TB? Or is 36 GB enough for a few more planes and a few more scenery addons?The computer is 5 months old. 990X CPU, 590 Video card and it really kicks a@@ with FSX.

I bought a new monitor for Christmas and had them in a dual monitor setup and it was working fine and dandy until I came to my computer today. My left monitor (plugged into the second port on my gpu) wasn't working. I tried unplugging it and windows doesn't even detect that there is a display. Then I did a clean install of my graphics card driver and that didn't work. I just tried switching which port the displays where plugged into and now the other monitor isn't work but the first one that wasn't working is now working. It seems the second DVI port is broken?Can you even damage your dvi out on your graphics card?

...would it be possible to build a computer that would let you never worry about bad FPS in FSX anymore no matter what scenery you were using and which a/c you were flying?I've had my FSX rig for some time now and I figured I would stick with it until MS Flight is released which I was hoping would use the HW in a more efficient way giving better performance with the HW I already have but now that I will most probably stay with FSX for who knows how long I'm thinking what I could do to get the best possible performance in FSX.I have my current HW spec in my signature and what I'm wondering is what I could do to get the best possible performance in FSX with the goal to be a…

Hi guys,I am thinking to change my old PC (HP Pavilion m8150) and replace it by a new ASUS N73 series.Do you think it is a good choice to run FS9 or FSX ?I do not understand anything about specifications so I need your help. Thanks !!!My old PC : http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&tmp_geoLoc=true&product=3459837The new PC : http://pt.asus.com/Notebooks/Multimedia_Entertainment/N73SV/

Getting ready to start a new I7 build for an FSX rig and I was wondering if upgrading to Win7 from Xp64 will be of any benefit to FSX?JBSent from my iPhone using TapatalkJB

Right now I'm running FSX on a Phenom II 955 overclocked to 3.7 ghz, 8 GB of ram, and a 560 TI; fsx still chugs along in heavy dense FSX regions (FTX scenery enabled, such as Brisbane airport ~ 10 FPS). Would I benefit more from a CPU upgrade or GPU? Are the new AMD chips any good? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103961

Ok so last week I was planning to load FSX onto a friends old gaming rig (I'm all Mac), buy PMDG's 737NGX and have a play. It quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to work out so I thought to hell with it I'll go all out and get a new rig!I am planning on using this machine exclusively for FSX, to which I am very new...as in never used it! From my research I have concluded that I want to load Windows 7 x64 Professional (is this compatible with FS2Crew voice?), FSX (does it matter which edition) buy PMDG's 737NGX and iFly's also because I am planning on practicing multi crew SOP's using FS2crew (no one knows when the 737NGX SDK will be avail and FS2crew ready)I'll…

I've just finished putting together the new system....... I upped the mutliplier to 45 for now.... set a manual 1.25vcore and I'm having BSOD at times when playing Rise of Flight. I haven`t installed FSX yet as I don`t want any dissapointments,Ram timings are set to 9-9-9-24 2T (Auto) 1.5vI`ve been following this guide http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/39184-p67-sandy-bridge-overclocking-guide-beginners.htmlI could use all the help I could get really. I havent had much exprience with overclocking but I`m learning. I just bumped the vcore to 1.26 to see if that improves stability, as per that guide saying 1.25-1.27 at 4.5ghz... Last night I set the ASUS Optima…

Quick question guys, I am building a system for someone, he wants the I7-980 3.33 ghz Lga1366.Good idea? Or anything better to overclock?Cheers

Hi,I've got a Phenom II X6 1055T and I fly with FSX. With some sceneries like detailed cities or airports, I experience some performances drops.Do you think an Intel i5 2500K will be the best choice with my GeForce GTX 260 ?Thank you.

I got an old laptop I am only using for charts, online programs, EFB...It is very slow in general, ASE to open needs a very long time, CPU often at 100%...It's an eMachines E510:Intel Celeron M 5601GB RAMonboard graphicsNew HDD Seagate 250GBThe mainboard supposedly supports T7300, so I was thinking of upgrading.Also wanted to put 4GB RAM in it and a small SSD + Windows 7.Question: is that a worthy upgrade? Am I really going to see much better performance?My problems are with EFB which is using lots of CPU on the movable map, and general responsiveness of the laptop. I couldn't care less about the looks of the laptop, it's size or weight.An alternative is a new laptop 600€…

Hi, looking for a Q9650. Did a search and found them to be pricey still. Anyone know where to find on at a cheap price?

The other day I noticed my orbx sceneries running a lot slower. And now that I think about it, I also experienced the "boot loop" that has plauged P67 mobo users. Still didn't think much of it.Before the boot loop I've been running auto vcore (runs 1.356v) and 44x multi. Temps avg about 67-68 with a hard test of IBT. Nothing to worry about imho.But today my fps were really low and I checked CPUZ and it said 3300 mhz. I went into BIOS and it gave me the red box saying previous OC settings failed reverting to default etc. Sure enough all my stock stuff was active.Anyway, I guess my question is: Is the boot loop the PSU telling the mobo to reset settings to stock beca…

Well, Cooler Master has stirred up all sorts of hype this new year. My favorite reviewer finally got his greedy paws on the Cosmos II, a case I've been waiting to see since deciding to upgrade to a new case (originally a Corsair). I'll be taking donations to upgrade to this case in the next 3 weeks. (Seriously though, I will be purchasing this)What a classy looking case! $350 price tag.

Hi,So I'm completely new to serious component replacement/upgrading, and I was just wondering what it takes to get the "old' processer (i3) off of the motherboard, the replace it with the new one. I'm thinking about the 2500 for Christmas as a much needed boost in performance, but unsure wether or not to overclock it.Thanks,

I'm looking at sata3 SSD drives and the specs of some drives differ hugely in their listed read/write speeds, especially the read speeds - my main interest.Do they really vary much, or are they just using different goal posts to measure with?

Hi guys,a quick forum search [engine] shows no dedicated discussion on degrag of the computerI am currently loading everything onto a fresh installWhat is the best Defrag, is it neccassary for FSX, and [in the case of O&S] how should we defrag our desktops?Alex

Ordered a new pc from Jetline Systems for FSX and of course Orbx scenery with the following spec's. Just wanted to see if there were any changes I should make? Also I'm thinking of getting a 27" Dell Ultrasharp Monitor but am worried about the performance hit of running the higher resolution. I did get a Graphics Processor 1536MB EVGA GeForce GTX 580, GDDR5, PCIe card. Would I be better off getting a higher memory card Graphics Processor 3072MB EVGA GeForce GTX 580, GDDR5, PCIe card? IS it worth going with a 24" monitor instead of a 27" monitor to get better performance?Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (64-Bit)Chassis CM HAF 912 HellFire Edition Mid-Tower A…

Need up to date thoughtsI am using fsx sp1 sp2 accel with an i7 965 3.2 @ 4.0 stable, fsx is ok but not great. ( asus rampage 2 extreme mb )I am going to build a new rig this month:Recommendations pleaseThinking 2600k or 2700k - on air hopefullyWhat MB would everyone recommend?I think I would prefer Asus, just because ive been working with the Rampage 2 Xtreme for a while and sort of understand itThoughts?Peter

Hi all and Happy New Year,Long time reader, first time poster. I just ordered the modest system listed below in my signature after reading about every post in this forum. This is my first build, so I'm a bit of a newbie in this area. I'm comfortable with everything except the SSD. My orginal plan was to put the OS on it, but I did some further digging after ordering and have found people saying that with smaller drives, it is pretty complicated to move all of the user data files, modify the page file limits, ect, ect. I probably would have been better off with 80gb or 120gb so I wouldn't have to worry about those issues, but I'm on a pretty tight budget. The way I se…

Well, I've almost finished my sleeving job. It was very straight forward and simple, but I managed to drop my PSU and break it pretty good. I have since ordered a Corsair AX unit to replace it. Here's a few pics to show the before and after. Amateur I know, but I'm happy with the overall result:Before organizing cables and moving 3pin fan connectors to fan controller cables on the rear.The finished product. Almost.I'll post final pics when the parts come in, including my biggest feat: The great organization on the back side.

HiSo my question is what are normal/good temps for my cpu when flying. My CPU is 26C (79F) right now and my motherboard is 21 C so 70F this is not overclocked yet. Are these temps ok? They are about room tempreture maybe a little warmer.I have a Sniper case with 4 built in fans and a good cpu cooler.What are your thoughts?thanks lee