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

hi all,i just assembled my new rig (asus P6t, i7 920, 6GB 1600 ram, GTX 280). i was quite surprised to see what has changed the last 3-4 years. no more serial port? no lpt port either? wow. and only one IDE controller? WOW where have i been the last few years??? i guess it's all SATA these days.speaking of which, this is what i am a little worried about. this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822144160 is my old SATA raptor drive that i use for FSX. i have a dedicated xp/FSX installation on it which has worked well ever since. now i am trying to use the drive with the new computer, but i am having a little bit of trouble doing that.i hooked it up on the…

I noticed that a name defrag didn't order files correctly at the beginning of the drive and looking at the report, it showed multiple locked files.Apparently these are due to alternate data streams. I downloaded Streams.exe from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897440.aspx and deleted streams from all drives. O&O Defrag now shows all files in name order.

I built a new system last week and I heard good things about the stock fan and heat sink that comes with the chip so I used it. I'm getting 48-51 for my 4 core temps at idle. I know this is fairly typical from what I've read. What I would like to know are actual numbers from anyone who is using this chip with a 3rd party fan and heat sink to see if they are really that much cooler. I'm using CoreTemp to get the numbers, but they are consistent with numbers I'm getting from EVGA E-LEET. Here are my specs:EVGA 132-BL-E758-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel MotherboardIntel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core ProcessorOCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDR…

Contemplating if to do it or not. Money doesn't grow on trees, especially not in times like these, though I have been thinking if to upgrade or not.How much performance boost can I expect?1) Less stuttering?2) How much faster loading?3) On landing something it stutters, maybe because it loads sounds at that moment, can I expect that to be smoother?4) Faster loading of textures while in flight?I just want to know if it would be justified to pay 260

Hi thereWell I've bought all my kit for the new PC and built it last night. Decided to go for the more future-proof i7 even though I run FS9... But I do have the 920 (2.66Ghz) clocked at 3.6Ghz!! :( My main drive is a WD Caviar Black 640Gb /32Mb cache drive, which I have installed Vista x64 onto. I did not choose any formatting options during install so presume it's just used the default for that. My "flight sim drive" is a WD Velociraptor 300Gb, which I as yet have done nothing with.My question is this, when I came to format it just now, it struck me that somewhere round here I have read it should be formatted with 64k clusters, rather than the default 4... Is tha…

Hi all,This morning i was running FSX. No problems at all. Then I shut down the system and did some shopping. I used my Ford and drove exactly 4.5 km. When I got back home FSX didn't start. I've tried to do a reshopping several times without success. I'v even tried to use my friend's car, a Toyota, to do the shopping, without success. I tried to drive 8.0 km, but this didn't help at all. I've applied the exhaust tweak to my Ford. Are there any more tweaks that I should use?I'm pretty desperate and would appreciate some advice. Would changing the fuel in my car help? One guy reported that he had success with running his car with diesel mixed with alcohol. Is this safe? Wou…

In Poker the higher number is better but Im not sure when it comes to memory. Can someone fill me in on what is the better number? Higher or lower?

Hi Folks, I'm considering getting a new computer and have read many good comments about the new I7's. I'm interested in the I7 920. So far I've only seen good comments about this processor and I was wondering if anyone has any negative comments about it for running FSX.thanks Howard

HiI picked up a upgrade for my computer yesterday.AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black EditionGigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4LKCrucial DDR2 BallistiX TRACER PC6400 4096MBInstallation went fine, both hardware and OS (Vista x64).But after the computer has been on for just a minute or two I get this really annoying sound from what I can locate coming from the CPU fan.Here's a clip which I recorded yesterday:http://www.easy-share.com/1904285839/Inspelning (5).wavI suspect that the fan is broken? =)Johan, ESGP

http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showtopic=24839And please remember the date :(

Hi Guys,After a lot of reading on this particular forum and lots of research I was able to come up with a new system that is being currently built.I had a budget of under $1000 cndn and wasn't really looking for something for FSX.Will this system make my FS9 flying days happy?-Asus P5QL-Pro S775 P43-Intel Core2Duo E8500 3.16G-Transcend 1066 4G RAM-SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200 3Gb/s 500G SATA 32M HD -COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP case-Geforce 9600GT 512M-COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power 650W Power Supply-COOLER MASTER V8 CPU Cooler (to OC the E8500)Going to run this under XP 32,with a new ACER 19 LCD monitor.Any thoughts?ThanksRichard

Dear technical experts, I am using computer withIntel Core Due T7700 processors. I am still not very happy with performance in mainly more complicated sceneries.Is there anything I can set-up in computer regarding full utilisation of both processors and 4GB Ram.I am flying FS9any help will be appreciatedmany thanksJM

Awhile ago I needed to upgrade to DualCore. Bought an e4400 and clocked to 2.5ghz. The board I used as an AsRock that allowed legacy DRAM and AGP video. I wanted to next jump to more and better memory(400mhz dual channel) as well as a better PCie video card. So I asked about the most significant drawback of the AsRock board which was its 4x PCie bus speed. At that time the consensus was that 4x was not an issue because the video card I was looking at (nVidia 8600-256mb) would not perform any better with the more standard 16x bus speed. That question comes up again as I consider a new motherboard. The only reason I would get one is to achieve faster video speed so I could …

One of my coworkers is using a Dell laptop with Vista home premium (x86). She was telling me about this weird problem where the computer would sometimes load Vista all the way to the desktop. But other times you'd see the DELL logo startup and then the Vista "loading bar" would appear like its going to actually load the OS but then you just get a blank screen after that. It essentially hangs somewhere when trying to load the OS. At work me and another PC guru tried to reproduce the problem but it was very random.The woman who owns the PC took it to Best Buy and had the Geek Squad look at it earlier. They said it was free of spyware/viruses/spam etc. I inspected the …

hi,i will soon upgrade and build a new i7 system for FSX. i will go with the 920 cpu (oc to 3.5GHz) and the asus P6T with 6gb triple channel ram. i am currently using a 7800GT which i think i should replace, as well now the question is which GPU to buy. i am planning on an evga GTX260 since that one is quite affordable ($160+tax). i could also buy the GTX280 for $250, but will i even get better performance with that one in FSX? the sim is cpu hungry, so i would not expect any better performance on the 280 compared to the 260. am i correct? or should i even get the 9800GT?thanks for your input!

I now have a WD 150 Gb SATAI 10000 rpm harddrive. I have put Windows XP and both FS9 and FSX (with addons) on it. It is filled to slightly more than 50% and I have read that is when the HD slows down. FS9 is my main sim due to my system. My question is what gain could it be to remove FSX from the raptor? Will that significantly speed up FS9 harddrive access? With ultimate defrag I have put FS9 on the outer tracks and then FSX.What if I moved FSX+UTX+GEX+FSGenesis mesh+a few addonplanes to the outer track of my secondary harddrive, a IDE 7200 rpm 250 Gb drive where I have other games and stuff. It's now filled to about 20%. Would FSX slow down regarding hd access? As it is…

Hi Everyone,I'm thinking of upgrading my system, I am currently looking at the following.1. Asus motherboard - ASUS Rampage II Extreme Core i7 Motherboard2. Intel I7 975 processor - When released (hopefully in April / May)3. Corsair memory - TR3X6G1600C8D (DDR3, 1600MHz 6GB 3x240 DIMM, Unbuffered, 8-8-8-24)I will be selling my Asus Striker Extreme motherboard, Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X6800 processor as well as 3 Gig of memory (used of course). I will be keeping my video board for the time being, its an ATI 3870X2 video board. I also have an additional 4 gig of Dominator CM2X1024-9136C5D XMS2 1142 MHz memory for sale.Selling these items will offset the cost of my upgrade.…

hi,i am thinking about that overdue system upgrade (for FSX). right now i am running an AMD64 3500+, 2GB ram, 7800GT that is almost 4 years old now.what i have in mind is the i7 920 cpu with the ASUS P6T board and probably a GTX260. from what i have been reading the 920 could be easily overclocked to 3.5 GHz. now i am not all that proficient when it comes to overclocking but it seems doable to me (with some help from all you guys :( ).where i am kind of lost is the decision for the RAM. there are many many choices and the price range is large. i would assume buying the cheapest memory out there is not necessarily going to be the best choice for what i have in mind.i am ho…

I'm looking to get a bit more performance out of my system I just bought last summer. It's a Dell 630i with a Core2Duo E8500 @ 3.16 ghz / 4 gigs Corsair Dominator ram / Geforce 8800 GT 512mb / Soundblaster xFi and an Nforce motherboard (630 model? not sure).I'm just curious what kind of upgrades I could do. I'm considering replacing my video card with a GTX 260 or 285. Should I look at a new CPU too? What CPUs could I use? (based on the E8500 it has now). An i7 would be nice but I'm assuming it would require a new motherboard and would be quite expensive, I'm trying to stay in the $500 CDN range (keep in mind our prices are generally 30% if not more than US prices and New…

Do onboard RAID controllers of today's chipsets (e.g. Intel Matrix et. al.) really mean performance loss when using them e.g with 3 HDDs in RAID 0 under FSX?Andreas

Hi,I'm looking for a tutorial for overclocking my FSX server. I have tried using the ASUS AI Overclock setting (5%,10% etc), however, all lead to instability. I am looking for around 3.0GHZ on the cores. The rig has a VM installed Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink, Copper Heat Pipes. I have tried to follow some of the Overclock forum guides, but they are generally not helpful for my board. I would like to invoke the KISS principle for me. :) A link would be appreciated. Bob..

I am currently running an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 Ghz, E6700, I think my video cards are two much for my roccessor to handle thus giving me an opposite effect as I have recently upgraded video cards from 2 X Nvidia 7950 GTKO 256mb to 2 X 8800 GTOC 512mb. After this I actually lost FPS. My only thought is my video cards could be out doing my proccessor so I was just curious as as to what would be better. Can FS9 run Core2 Qauds, or should i go with a huge dual core like 3.33 core2 duo. Any help would be appreitiated... I also have 4 Gigs of DDR2 ram so I know that is not the issue, I am almost certain its my Proccessor. My video cards are not set up for SLI with regards to F…

Hello. I am fit to be tied here with a problem that crops up every couple of months. I have the following: an MSI P7N Platinum motherboard, a Q6600 CPU, 4 GB of RAM, a GeForce 8800GT video card, and a Coolermaster Elite 330 case.Here is the problem. Every so often the computer refuses to power up. The last time it did it, I took it to a friend after a week of sitting idle. It started up for him and ran flawlessly for 24 hours. I brought it home and was ok for a month..Then this AM I hit the power switch, and nothing...I use this computer for FSX only, and to watch hunting videos while exercising. Tonight when I get home from work I will check all contacts internally and…

Hi,I have 2 laptops in my house and could pick one for FS use. I wonder if some of you hardware gurus could advise me.Laptop 1 is a Toshiba SLi1 with an Intel T7250, 2gb PC667 DDR2 ram, 2 x 120gb HDDs (5400rpm) in raid0 and 2x M8600GT in SLI (512mb total DDR3 video ram) on a 1440x800 LCD.Laptop 2 is a Gateway with an Intel P8400 at 2.26 ghz, 4gb PC1066 DDR3 ram, 1 x 320gb HDD 7200RPM, 1x M9800GTS with 1gb DDR3 video ram on an 1920x1200 display. I would never run FSX at that res.So it boils down to is the raid0 and SLI going to be better than the faster HDD and single (faster) GPU?I want to run both FS9 and FSX with complex addons. I do not want "all sliders left" but I wa…

Hey everyone, new to the forums but I've been flying with FS as long as I can remember back in the Meigs Field polygon days :( I built a custom system a few weeks ago and I'd like to find out how I can push FSX to the MAX.It's great so far, running in 1920x1080 on a 24" screen, here are some specs and some questions:I'm using the latest drivers from nVidia's site for the 9800 GTX. My system is running on an AMD Phenom X4 940 45nm chip (I have it OC'd to 3.5Ghz). Also have 4GB DDR2 5-5-5-15 RAM.I've setup FSX with a guide I found for an 8800 video card (from nVidia's site) but want to get as much as I can out of this build. Your thoughts???Running this FSX setup on Win XP…