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

Hi thereApologies if this is not appropriate for this forum, I will let moderators decide if it can stay but I am hoping to get some advice/opinion from you...I am concerned about my CPU cooling on my new i7... I bought a bundle from www.overclockers.co.uk which consisted of a Biostar T-Power X58 motherboard, a Core i7 920 CPU, 6Gb triple channel RAM, and an Akasa Nero AK-967 CPU cooler. The motherboard settings had been preconfigured to overclock the 920 from its default 2.66Ghz to 3.6Ghz from the get-go. I have not touched any of the CPU settings or updated BIOS or anything like that!!I built the system and applied Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound in a horizontal lin…

Is it possible to instruct Windows to 'rotate' the image on a second monitor by 90deg?I'd like to turn one on it's end to gain space.

Hi there,I have seen somewhere a post by Nick N detailing exactly how to configure nHancer for best Flight Sim use, but I have lost the link. Can someone please supply me the URL of the nHancer guide?Also I seem to remember the guide was geared towards FSX, but I use FS2004 only. Can someone confirm that the guide is just as valid for FS2004 as it is for FSX? What relation does nHancer have with regards to setting application specific settings within the nVidia Forceware display drivers?? Many thanks.Mike

Hi Guys,Currently I am running FS9 on my laptop:HD 40GB at 4200rpm (very low)CPU Intel Centrino M 1,73Ghz2x 512 DDR2 RAMOn Board GPU Intel 192 RAM14,1" screenFurther I have added Wilco Pic 737, PMDG 737NG, Wilco Airbus V.1 and 2.Specs seem real low for hardware, though believe me, it is running nice, have had many flying hours........yet...it's simply never enough. Now I am not a FPS freak, nor have I ever looked at it, and I have a good performance. I am thinking of buying a new laptop. Since I travel a lot, I rather spend money on a good laptop than desktop (for now).The 2 systems I have got in mind are these:1) XXODD XNi761sun 15" …

I don't want to sound like an advertisement for Nvidia. But in my personal "acid test" flight, framerates have gone from the ~13-18fps range to the ~18-27fps range (PMDG MD-11, UTX Europe with night lighting, heavy weather, ASA, FEX clouds 1024 bits, 40% airline traffic with My Traffic, final approach to EGLL with Aerosoft scenery, demanding sliders). As anyone who has used FSX with the "heavies" will appreciate, this sort of improvement in the most demanding of situations makes a crucial difference in terms of fluidity and immersiveness. In less demanding scenarios, the framerates are of course much higher.I bought the new card because a couple of glitches made me suspec…

Hi there!I am using a WD VelociRaptor right now and I am very satisfied with it. But the blurries I see very often... It cames down to point, that the HDD led it always on, so the disk don't catch up with the scenery loading (I have few add-ons) with more than 140-150KIAS. When I hit the 'P' button for a few seconds, everything is OK for a few minutes.So I decided to spend some money on storage. Two things come to my mind: single SSD ~250GB with read at least 200MBps (no more can be achieved in SATAII) or another Raptor and set it in RAID. Here comes the questions...Which solution would be better?AHCI/NCQ mode should be off? I turned it on last time when deploying my rig …

Hi,I haven't really seen this question come up, but with the new SSD coming out, I was thinking of using one just to have FSX on it. Currently, I have FSX on it's own drive (a 150mb Western Digital Raptor). I figure it will help with loading times (I'm not complaining about that. I can load FSX in under a minute) but I am hoping scenery and textures will load faster. Overall I am happy with how FXS runs on my system. I keep the frame rate around 23. I don't plan upgrading to a faster CPU and video card, etc for at least another year. I am hoping a SSD will make sense and also I would be able to use it in my next build. Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks, JohnI have the fol…

Quick question, Would this PSU:http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NjE=Power this GPU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130370?That's all I want to know, I don't want to know what PSU would work better or anything.... I have a friend who already has that PSU and his GPU crapped out a few days ago (8600GT)

Hi Folks, I'm looking for a new computer and was wondering if a unclocked Dual Core processor (3.0 gig) would be as good or better than a unclocked Quad Core processor at 2.x gig. In reading the forum messages I understand that processor speed is of major importance to FSX. Example: I've read that a Quad Core processor with a speed of 3.0 will be faster for FSX than a I7 at 2.66. Now my question is would a unclocked Dual Core processor of 3.0 be faster (and better) for FSX than a unclocked Quad Core at 2.x.If not, then what would be the disadvantages of Dual Core over Quad Core for FSX? From what I've seen you can get dual core (old I realize) at very good prices (…

This is kinda a vague question, but does anyone one know of any tell tale signs (physical) that you have received refurbished hardware ie MOBO CPU RAM etc etc etc, I plan on building a new system in six months and plan on dumping alot of $$$ into it, Im really going to inspect the hardware when I get it and just want to know if anyone out there that has built a lot of rigs before has some advice on what to look for if anything, or if anyone wants to share a story I would appreciate it.

Whats up guys? I am wanting to upgrade my cpu to get better performance out of fsx. I currently have a q6600 cpu, 680i motherboard, 4 gigs ram, and 8800gt video card. I overclock the q6600 to 2.8 ghz. I am willing to spend around 300 dollars. Also what is a good way to back up my hard drive? I dont want to lose all my addons if my hard drive failes. Thanks fellas.

Nick, please check out the following link below and let me know what you think. the "zombie with fans" statement describes my system to a tea on 3 diffeternt occasions (2 this wk.) in the last 2-3 wks. after the initial boot failure, on all 3 occasions, when i turned off the sytem via the pwr. switch on the PSU then waited a few seconds to several minutes then turned the pwr. switch on the PSU back on then hit the Pwr. button on the PC again the system booted up. however, on 1 of those 3 occasions less than 1/2 a minute after the system booted up the PC restarted itself. before i forget, on all 3 occasions during the "zombie state" both of the exhaust fans, the fan on the…

Hi guys,I built my first system!!. I have all the info in my signature below. I am going to try to over clock it. But before I do I have few questions:1)What is the difference between CPU temperature and Core temperatures? When people around forums mention their processor temperature, what are they refering to? 2)I get around 30C at Idle for CPU Temp and around low 40's for the cores. When running prime95 my temps rise by about 17-18 degrees. Are these numbers okay for a base clocked system?3)My VReg (voltage regulator) temp is high to me; 55C at idle and around 63C when under full load. Is it high for a system that is not over clocked? If it is what is causing i…

I have seen an Asrock motherboard out for salehttp://www.tradera.com/auction/auction.aspx?aid=90129414With it I could use my current S939 AMD 64 4000+ CPU and 2 Gb DDR400 RAM (and initially my old AGP videocard). It would give me two upgrade options which I don't have with my current setup1) I can use PCIe videocard and for example trying to find a 8800 or 98002) It supports SATAII so I could use a bigger newer Seagate 7200.11 hdQuestion is this something that could give any clear increase in performence? I'm thinking about 1) in the first place.My current system isMobo Asus A8N S939 Deluxe AGP SATAIAMD 64 4000+2 Gb DDR400 RAMNVIDIA 7950GT 512M DDR3 AGPWD Raptor 150 Gb SA…

I am not going to be fourm surfing for a while so if you have a question and direct it to my attention I wont be around to see it. I will try and stop by and check in when possible however my attention right now needs to be focused elsewhere in the real world for some weeks :(

I built my pc last week and started the Overclocking today and I have it stable at 3.4 GHZ. I get the following temps after over clocking:Idle: Mid 40's COCCT full load: Mid 60's CRoom Temp: 24 C.1st Questions: ARe my core temps okay for such a moderate overclock?Before the over clock, I had an issue with my VREG temperature that was always around 55-57 at idle. I bought a spot cooler and placed it on north east corner of my board to blow over the ram and under the Zalman HSF to cool the VREG HS. This helped slightly. Now after over clock, my VREG temp is around 60C which really concerns me. Please note my system set up in the sig. So the following are my question…

hi All,could a hardware prob. be causing FSX to crash with "terrain.dll" being the culprit? (according to Event Viewer) also, sometimes the computer will restart on its own during a flight with FSX. i'm using the PMDG 747X with FS2Crew and RCv4. all scenery and weather(RWW) is stock FSX. a few days ago i turned the computer on and the case fans were running but the computer did nothing. no BIOS Splash screen or POST msg., no BIOS beep codes no nothing. it was like the case fans were the only thing getting power. i turned the computer off using the PSU on/off switch. turned off the UPS battery back-ups surge protector and waited several minutes. then i turned everything b…

I'm about to embark on building my own PC (first-timer), specifically with FSX performance in mind. I'm also on a budget that won't stretch to the fastest I7's, etc.I'm quite confused by threads I've read regarding CPU's etc, and have a couple of specific questions:1. Does FSX take full advantage of quad-core, and if so am I better off with a slighly older CPU than I7 but with a higher clock speed than, for example, the I7 920? (I'm not technical, so overclocking isn't really a possibility!)2. Which operating system is best - Vista 32 or 64?Thanks for any help.Toni.

Hi !I want to build myself a low budget pc for FS9 only. I want a PC that can handle FS9 perfectly for around 300-400$ (only the components as I will assemble it myself). With this in mind tell me what you think about it, as I said I'm not interested in FSX at all so I don't want an expensive gaming pc. Thanks a lot !Newegg.ca [*]Pioneer 20X DVD

I have my mobo set to automatically turn on and off the CPU fan. I have just replaced the Intel stock cooler on my Q6600 today with an Ultra-120 eXtreme, and noted that the fan was not running (it does on CPU start). I have yet to stoke a fire under the CPU, which should make the fan spin, but I wondered at what CPU temperature do fans usually cut in or out? My mobo is a Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6. I do have the capacity in BIOS to turn on the CPU fan and keep it turned on regardless of CPU temps. Core Temp reports CPU temps between 37 and 43 degrees C (no overclock yet), between the 4 cores.Thanks, Bruce.

Hi,Not sure if this belongs here. While I wait for the I7 975 chip to be released, I was wondering if Windows 7 handles memory better than windows XP Pro. Would there be any benefit in running the 32 bit version of Windows 7 until I can build my new system.Also any thoughts on running Windows 7 64 bit with the I7 975 setup once its built?, or should I just go with Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit.One other question, would I see an increase in performance by creating a 10 gig partition to be used only for my swap file?. I think this would get rid of any disk fragmentation.Thanks

I have Creative 5.1 loudspeaker system which for a long time has worked just fine. A while back i noticed something strange that started to happen, the volume started to adjust itself. It went all of a suddenly to minimum, then varied up and down and up again.Sometimes it is so bad that they turn them self off!!? :( I really dont understand it.Could it be something wrong with the adapter? It is extremly annoying to play FS when this is at its worst..Anyone got a clue?

Ciao to all,I recently loose frame rates form allmost 20 to 5 suddenly when I fly...But never had frame rates problem, I haven't changed any settings...I've this problem since I took away the cpu fan for cleaning it from the dust from the MB.It seems that now,it goes up to 70% of it's speed while before It was going to 100%..So this loosing frame rates could it be caused from the fan that doesn't cool down enough the cpu???Or could be my used 8800gtx that it' breaking down?From the task manger i get max 30 % of cpu usage...while flying...I use 2 monitors and on the 2nd one i use to put the left side view of the left cockpit window...If i close that view i get the frame ra…

Hi AllHaving established that upgrading my Dell Dimension 9200 to get better FSX performance is a non-starter (can't be overclocked, low-power PSU not enabling good video like 8800 etc.), I'm now looking at building a new computer....I'm on a budget, but want to use my existing DDR2 memory (2 MEG), hard-drives and DVD/CD writer. I guess I'm looking for a powerful PSU, case, mobo to have integrated Internet Broadband and sound capabilities, fast CPU (duo or quad?) and 'matching' chip set and fast/powerful graphics card.Also, what operating system would you recommend?This machine will primarilly run FSX, so please help with component suggestions with FSX performance as th…

Hello!My Windows Firewall has been asking me about 'mdm' and 'mdmm' - as in, whether to keep blocking or unblocking. I have scanned with Spybot and Adaware, and my antivirus is Eset NOD32.A Google search gives conflicting info.Anyone here got any ideas?