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

Okay I scratched the ATI/AMD build and made this build here. I recently got an I7-2600K as a gift so I did not include it here. This will be my final build and I plan on using this for a good 4-5 years and most probably upgrade along the way (IE: SLI and ivy bridge). I have the money now and am all set to pull the trigger. My budget is 1200 dollars but it turns out to be 1206$ after shipping and taxes which is okay. What do you think overall?

Folks are telling me to get one for any new system I order, all the top tier builders offer them and from what I can glean from various forums its the in thing these days. So, for someone like myself... a bit technologically challenged what exactly is this critter, how's it work, what benefits are there and any feeding and caring tips I need to be aware of? Is it accessed like any other extra drive as far as Windows is concerned, like using an external plug in drive? Do I need to simply select it when installing FSX as the destination, and Windows and the FSX installer does the rest? Will I see any performance increase or simple faster start up times? How does it affect s…

After years of happily using a very trusty, very powerful DELL XPS Gen 4 for FS2004 with 20 hardware peripherals from GF, CH, and so on, I am finally considering a move to FSX and a brand new rig. It has to run FSX flawlessly and must run PMDG without a shudder in particular. I want real life smoothness if possible and it must be able to handle either triple LCD screens or one or two 32" or 37" LCD TV screens. I've been configuring some Digital Storm systems with assistance from an expert FS friend who actually has an incredible DS system, but I am wondering how hi to go with all of the hardware. Should it have the latest i7 990X extreme at 3.46Ghz, overclocked to 4.8G…

Hi all, Just to do a bit of a forum tidy up. A lot of us are starting general conversations within support threads, obviously not on topic with the OP. Lets move all that to here so its easier for those wanting help. Lets keep it friendly and civilised. And lets try and keep it (semi) hardware related. Maybe we could get this pinned so it doesnt disappear in the future. Thanks all, Di

Keyboard: Logitech Illuminated K800 wireless keyboardCPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition (125W) Quad Core Socket AM3, 3.2GHz, 8Mb CacheCase: Cooler Master CM 690 II Basic Black ATX Mid Tower CaseDVDRW: Samsung SH-222AB/BEBE SATA Black 22X DVD-Writer OEMHD: Seagate Barracuda (ST3500413AS) 7200.12 SATA3 6.0Gb/s 500GB 16MBMotherboard: Asus M4A87T Socket AM3 AMD 870 + SB850 Chipset DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066Mhz 8-Channel HD Audio GigaLAN 14x USB2.0 6x SATA 6Gb/s ATXLED Monitor: Samsung S22A300B, 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor, 1920x1080, 5ms(GtG) 5M:1(DCR), VGA, DVIPower Supply: Corsair Builder Series CX500 V2 500 Watt 80 PLUS Certified Power SupplyRAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws …

Was looking at a dedicated gaming PC and of course Alienware always comes to mind. I almost bought one about 5 years ago but had cold feet... but now the bug is back. Are they worth the price? This particular rig seems almost surreal... the tower alone weight 84 pounds! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp-m7y1R_F4

If you live relatively close to a microcenter and you've been thinking about making the switch to Sandy Bridge, check out this ad: http://www.microcent...nding_0826.html $50 off any compatible mobo when purchasing a 2500K is pretty schweet. Not to mention they sell the 2500K for $179.99...

I was wondering if anyone is using the 990X CPU. I have one set at 4.2 GHz and want to go higher. I can't seem to enter the BIOS. I bought this computer from Stealth Machines and they won't tell me how to get into the BIOS - if they do - they'll negate the warranty.. The ASUS Extreme III booklet doesn't say. Do you think I can push this to 4.5GHZ? or higher? I have seen 5GHZ, but the techie who built it said "O WAY" On start up it sats "TAB" to enter BIOS, but I keep on hitting it and it sends me to the window start up option - nothing for BIOS.

Today was an exciting day, well that is until I ran into a little problem. I finished building (my first time) a new PC, updated the BIOS, set up the HD and SSD to a SATA RAID configuration and installed Win 7 Ultimate. Prior to the OS installation I installed the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and everything went off without a hitch. At this time the BIOS was still configured to boot from the DRW DVD drive so I decided to change the boot order but once I changed it I received the following message: "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key." I changed boot sequence back to the DRW and the WD hard drive as…

What's a good and stable set of timings for memory and at what speed should they run? I've seen memory that has a speed rating of DDR3-2133 with timings of 11-11-11-30 and other memory that is DDR3-1600 but has timings of CL 6-9-6-24-2N. So which one would be better with overclocking and an i5 2500K? Please advise and thanks!Mark

HI ALL,I was planning to buy a P67+a I5 2500k but my budget has now changed and I may have to rethink what Iam going to get,I am currently running a AMD6400 BE , How much of an improvement would I see if I went for a H67+ i3,I know I wouldn't be able to overclock it. I am also you a 9800gtx gpu.Mark

I have been thinking about putting a new card in my computer but I am a bit hung up on the fact that the system as a whole is pretty out dated. I guess what I would like to know is if putting a better card in will really help much OR if it is just a waste of money that will just reveal another bottle neck in my system. I have a Q6600 quad core NOT over clocked because of cooling concerns with the case. 5 gig ram and currently a BFG 9600 factory OC'ed to I don't even remember what because I got it a few years ago. As is, I can run FSX acceptably and most everything else. Considering the system, I keep pretty modest expectations so I am never really let down by performan…

HI ALL,I was planning to buy a P67+a I5 2500k but my budget has now changed and I may have to rethink what Iam going to get,I am currently running a AMD6400 BE , How much of an improvement would I see if I went for a H67+ i3,I know I wouldn't be able to overclock it. I am also you a 9800gtx gpu.Mark

Hey friends, First off, up until about a month ago I knew very little about computers so forgive me I'm still learning. So I had been reading a few posts over the last several days that point to a connection between monitor refresh rate and game stutters. Therefore, a monitor with a refresh rate of 60Hz will provide a smooth simulation as long as the frame rates match at 60fps - Or at least closely match +/- a few. Now, I can totally see how that works, in fact I currently see the smoothest gameplay at 60fps on my 60Hz monitor, but there is just something about this I'm not willing to accept. For starters, who the hell is getting 60fps flying into heathrow at mimimums wit…

hello, right now i have the G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB DDR3 1600 CAS latency 6 installed in two slots. If i add a second pair for a total 8GB will my performance be affected in any way? Or should i just by 8Gb pair in one set? Thank you for any help win72500k 3.3 GSKILL DDR3 1600 4GB GTX 570 Sound Blaster x-fi win7x64

Hi to all people, first of all sorry but I am new on overclocking so I need your help if possible. My sistem is in the signature below and I'd like to overclock it at a rasoneable value, about 3,4Ghz would be good for me to improve FSX pers and frames. My combination is Intel i7 920 @2.66 Ghz with ASUS Rampage II Extreme, and Freeze Xtreme cooler. 1) does enyone have allready the values I can put into the bios (is it better to have the latest bios?) 2) or eventually some guide I can follow for those combos of cpu and motherboard? many thanks to all in advance,Riccardo

Hello, I was unsure exactly where to post this but I figured that here would be a good idea with all the real experts of FSX. I am looking for the "Miracle Tweak" for FSX. I know my hardware can do better because I have seen it perform better in other application. I have sent it through the online tweaker, changed the amount of trees and buildings per cell, perfbucket=4 but the one I just can't get is usepools=x. Whenever I use 1 or 0 i get stutters. The performance seems to be better when these tweaks are applied but the stutters are maybe 1 every 2 secs so its unplayable. Thanks in advanced,

...Without lowering sliders, or is this the only way? I fly in big city Orbx Land with the PMDG NGX and I automatically get OOM's within about 30 min. Granted my settings are really high, LOD 6.5 with extremely dense autogen and max scenery sliders, but zero ai traffic. Do these only happen because of the way was programmed? Or would this happen with any 32bit application?

I Oc'ed my Athlon X3 445 to 3.95 and running fsx on 1024 x 768 with autogen and scenery on normal @klga and all other sliders to 50-60 and ground traffic 3%. I am pulling 19-23 fps on ground and the same is at the stock speed which is 3.1 Ghz , Is it that my overclocking is not doing anything ? Tweaks from Bojote. System specs are in the sig.

Gurus, What is the general consesus with SATA Mode in the Bios AHCI or IDE. The manual leans toward AHCI but if you read NickN's post on setting up FSX, he recommends IDE rather than AHCI when using Standard hard drives.This also brings up the issue if you upgrade from a standard hard drive to a SSD and have the SATA mode in IDE, to change to AHCI do you have to completely restore the operating system.I apologize if this issue has already been raised already, but I am on a steep learning curve in regards to this.Another query, should all the bloatware applications supplied on the motherboard disc(eg AI Suite SRT etc) be installed? Thanks Andrew EDIT: After a bit of readi…

Ok, after reading few a few threads have become to think that many people have micro stutters but don't notice them. So here is a poll to try and settle this topic.

Hey guys, and girl One of nicks instructions is to unhide the hidden files when tuning W7. After I did that two desktop.ini files showed up on my desktop. Should I leave them alone? Cheers

Well, I've just finished my current development project and finally have a little time to mess around with overclocking my older system. I've never overclocked a system and there's a bit of a learning curve. So as I was reading about overclocking, I came across a little utility named "Easy Tune" which was actually supplied with my older H55M-S2V Gigabyte motherboard.I went ahead and installed the "Easy Tune v6" software and discovered that there's a tab in the dialog named "Tuner" which has three command buttons on it. The three command buttons provide a graduated overclock with button one being the lowest and button three having the greatest overclock settings of the thr…

Hello, I'm new to the forums. I just want to know before I buy this computer if it is going to be able to run fs9 at high settings: MEMORY: 8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMs HARD DRIVE: 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB CacheOPTICAL DRIVE: Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability VIDEO CARD: AMD Radeon™ HD 6670 1GB DDR5 SOUND CARD: THX® TruStudio PC™PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ i7-2600 processor(8MB Cache, 3.4GHz)OS: Windows 7Total Cost: 880$ I Want to be able to run this computer for fs9 only and some scenery programs.

I unfortunately cannot overclock my system according to ASUS.I cann however upgrade my cpu from a 920 to higher number.I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to do this, or would it not give muchimprovement in performance for the cost?Ron