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

Nothing to do with FS but you people are super knowledgeable about all this stuff.Any recommendations for a freeware dvd decoder?For some reason I can't run dvd movies thru Windows media player.Thanks,Ron

This is what i have. . . I had it built by a local computer builder who is familiar with FS and overclocking. He's known to a number of simmers and all had good fortune with his work - i had it o/c'd to 3.8.< ="Content-" content="text/; charset=utf-8">< name="ProgId" content="Word.">< name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10">< name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><> [/url]COOLER MASTER Sniper Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W Intel Core i7 Processor i7-920 3.8GHz 8MB Corsair H50 Water CPU Cooler Asus P6X58D Premium Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 6GB 3 x 2GB CL7 Western Digital WD6401AALS 1TB SATA 720…

I just bought a copy of the Windows XP Professional x64 (with Service Pack 2) Operating System. I plan on having a new computer built primarily to run FSX. I have several questions to users of the XP-64 operating system.(1) How does the general

When I undock FS9 aircraft panel windows and move them to my secondary monitor, my primary monitor display (windowed primary panel) goes black, and a few seconds later I get the old FSMS error window telling me that FS9 must shut down, do I want to send MS an error report.I thought that this problem was unique to the Eaglesoft Version 1 Citation X, as it virtually happens every time I try with that aircraft. One by one, I also tried this progressively with every other of the many I have in FS9, and at that time had no problem with any other aircraft. However, over the past couple of weeks, I did see it happen only once with two other aircraft. Restarting my computer cured…

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right forum.Anyway, I have 4 gigs installed,but don't think I can use all of it on my sytem.I have an HP Pavillion m8000n, and a GE force GTS 250 OC 512mb video card.It seems after trying to use the memory switch mod,that FSX works ok,but some aircraft on FS9 crash or do not work correctly.Mainly PMDG 747 and PSS 777.I would like to know what commands are correct for my system.The OS is Windows Vista Home premium 32 bit edition.Any help appreciated.Ron

I have had four spec upgrades in the past 2 years. This will be number 5. It seems I do things in relatively minor increments only.I just ordered a i7-930, an ASUS PT6 Deluxe Motherboard, 6g of 1333 ram and a 1000g hardrive that should be here early next week. I am just going to ghost my 500g hardrive over to the new one and still use my FAtality1 700w power supply and EVGA 275GTX video card. I will of course overclock the cpu as high as practical. For those who know more than I do about such things, how much of a difference will jumping to an i7 have beyond the specs I have now (below in signature)? Thanks for the imput.Stephen

Hello all,Newbie to AVSIM Forums here (but not to AVSIM itself). I've searched the forum for "laptop" related posts and thus far the trend of recommendations is to get a decent enough graphics card. I am no techie and just want to run Vista 32 Home Premium + FS9 + ASv6 with real world weather + 100% AI. If it makes any difference, I do go online from time to time so I use Squawkbox on VATSIM. I am OK with 25-30 fps (if it's good enough to become an NTSC/PAL standard used for video, then it's good enough for me). I fly mostly airliners but I do want to be able to have a smooth system even in severe weather (no snow; rain only as I fly in Asia). I do simulate actual airline…

According to my reseller I can pick up a gulfi six core in the next 1-3 days. As soon as I got one I will test this beast with FSX. I'll test with default clock (3.33GHZ), at 4GHz und as high as it is possible under water (hopefully 4.8GHz

I'm running MSFS2004 on:a Dell Dimension 8400 3.6ghz processor (admittedly several generations removed from today's latest and greatest CPUs), w/4GB RAM running WinXP sp3 using NVidia 7950GT overclocked w/512mb RAM running 3-21" monitors (via TripleHead2Go) and 1 17" monitor from the video card's second head. I am using 9 GoFlight units and CH yoke, throttles, pedals. Finally use TrackIR. I have lots of complex airport scenery and many complex aircraft.......but the sim runs with reasonably good/adequate framerates for my purposes.My sim is tweaked to the max....as I have, over the years, faithfully read and followed (and tried) just about all the hints for getting the be…

Like you should only update BIOS if you have an issue, should I leave an nForce driver update alone?The latest I

System Mechanic was kind enough to inform me, that defragmentation of RAM is good for overall performance. I haven

New i7 sitting at home at the moment, and I'm wondering what best to do with the HDD setup.I have the OS on a SSD, with a separate 1TB HDD for my apps, including FSX.I'm inclined to Partition the big drive into 500/500 and put FSX and all related goodies on the first partition, so I can use the second for videos/pics/other apps/games etc. I'd do it just for ease of reference, really, so my FSX folder structure isn't cluttered.Anyone got any experience of the effect of that on FSX? Am I better off just leaving the HDD unpartitioned and simply using folders to divide up the files/apps etc? A search on here shows a few different views (with a lean towards "don't partition…

I'm trying to work out what type of headset to get.1.Do you get a CPU hit with USB?2.Does either type allow voice through headset and all other sounds through PC speakers?3.Does anyone know what the Microsoft LX-3000 headsets are like?My budget is about that of the LX-3000 (

Will it make a difference to change CPU's frm a Q 9300 @2.5Mhz to a Q 9550 @ 2.85Mhz?Is it worth while?

I was wondering what a top end machine gets with FSX maxed out on ALL sliders and flying a LD767 or PDMG 747.I have a pretty top of the line Dell720 H2C quad code O/C to 3.76 GHz, dual 8800 GTX, 4 GB ram and I get <10 fps with everything maxed out and flying the LD767. At all sliders about 50% I do get 30-50 fps (less in NYC area) and >100 with default planes. I do get "out of the memory" problem ONLY with the PDMG 747 (especially if I change views too much) as I have Vista 32 and realy don't want to upgrade to 64. (for that hassle, I'll spend $6,000 and start fresh with a new computer and give this 2 year old $6,000 Dell to my kids to destroy). I am not smart …

I'm really close to biting the bullet on an Intel X25-M 160gb SSD. I was really curious how FSX would perform on one, since FSX is massively dependant on hard drive access for loading scenery and such. It might help stuttering a lot which is what I'd love to see, providing a smoother experience as well as loading faster. Anyone?

QUOTE (w6kd @ Mar 11 2010, 08:14 PM) I just broke down and put an ATI 5870 into my FS machine, and it's performance in FSX is at par with the GTX285 it replaced, except I'm not getting black screen crashes with the ATI like I was with the 285 after a couple hours of flight. From reading the eVGA forums, the black-screen issue is continuing to plague many GTX285 owners, and nVidia has been talking about a fix for months. ATI's Catalyst 10.2 drivers finally fixed the problem of not being able to use adaptive AA in FS, which for me was the big showstopper. My only (minor) beef with ATI now is I haven't found a way to make program-specific settings like I did with nHancer.The…

Hey guys, the question I have for the gurus out there is this,I want to get the new 980 i7 processor to replace my i7 920, will I need to reinstall my OS afterwards, or will it just be good to go.I know I have to update my BIOS to take advantage of the 6 cores.Thanks

I was having some fun on newegg yesterday, put together a few components for my i7 dream build. What do you think?The case is pricey but I've read reviews and think Corsair did a great job with cable management possibilities. Plus it's very roomy.The SSD is for fun, at the cost per GB I wouldn't probably buy one until they come down more.The HSF is massive but would fit the case.Everything is is pretty self explanatory - the psu, I've been a fan of modular so I went with one of those.$2500 USD not including OS which I'll get from work (Win 7 x64)p.s. Can't believe how much LCD's have come down in price - my 4 yr old 19in Viewsonic cost $330 bucks at the time lol

I was reading the Guru3D review of the i7 980x and the reviewer had this comment regarding monitors:"Before playing games, setting up your monitor's contrast & brightness levels is a very important thing to do. I realized recently that a lot of you guys have set up your monitor improperly. How do we know this? Because we receive a couple of emails every now and then telling us that a reader can't distinguish between the benchmark charts (colors) in our reviews. We realized, if that happens, your monitor is not properly setup.This simple test pattern is evenly spaced from 0 to 255 brightness levels, with no profile embedded. If your monitor is correctly set up, you sho…

Though no real advantage in gaming is apparent at all, it would be nice to know what if anything the duel QPI and 2 extra cores and larger L3 cache do for holding FSX steady and smooth.Speaking of the larger cache:"The added cache does come at the expense of higher access latency. Nehalem and Lynnfield had a 42-cycle 8MB L3, Gulftown has a 48 cycle 12MB L3. A 14% higher latency for a 50% increase in size. Not an insignificant penalty, but a tradeoff that makes sense."-Anand shimpiNot too unexpectedly so far I have not seen any FSX benchmarks.However I requested Anand to again throw up some suggested FSX benches, we will just have to wait to see if he can oblige. http://ww…

Anyone running ATI's latest powerhouse GPU (radeon 5970) with their FSX setup?I've come to the conclusion that if I play both FSX and other high end games I'll be stuck with a GTX 285 because the older Radeon 4xxx cards don't seem to play well with FSX (and I'm not sure how well the 5xxx series cards work). While rumaging through the various online charts for performance in games other than FSX, it is clear than the Radeon 5970 is smoking all of nvidia's high end cards. I thought it would be nice to have the top of line if I were to play other new video games. But only if FSX wouldn't be hurt by a fast ATI card.What's the status of ATI's relationship with FSX?

Just curious - I have a high level ATI card but still have trouble with clouds - lots of stuttering and low frames. Have a good rig, i7 920 ocd to 3,8, good MOBO, 6 gigs of memory, Win 7 64. Have read that NVIDIA cards perform better. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Ok so i went and picked up some new ram corsair DDR3 CMD8GX3M4A 1600c8 2048mb 1600MHZ.My board is a GA-EP45-UD3P system is an intel R core 2 quad Q9650 3GHZthe ram is 4x2g sticks i put the ram in and all it did was crash so i went back to two stick and it worked fine and so i tested 3 sticks that was ok as well. but 4 sticks no go. what would be the problem. :(

I was having difficulties getting my Q6600 system stable at a 3.2 GHz overclock,after a 2GB to 4GB memory upgrade (which is FSB=356 X 9 on my Asus P5K motherboard).Then, I tried selecting DDR2 800MHZ memory in the BIOS instead of leaving it on Auto.This has resulted in a stable system with memory running at 6:5 X FSB which amounts to 854 MHz.Before the memory upgrade, I was running memory at 1:1 X FSB which I thought was the optimum setting.Is there any reason to want to revert to a 1:1 setting, or is 6:5 (which is faster) actually better?