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

Hi all.As was quickly discovered, FSX SP2, while supporting multiple cores for scenery-related tasks, still lets only one core handle disk IO requests. This was supposedly done to serialize disk io, to prevent four threads from randomly thrasing the harddrive, asking for different scenery textures and data. This keeps CPU usage high for all cores as monitored by e.g. the task manager, but in fact, the cores spend a lot of time in tight loops, waiting for a "slot" on the first core to do their IO. At least, this is how I've understood the system after reading on the net.If the engine was rewritten so that any core can do its IO at any time, and at the same time, Native Com…

Hello Yoke Owners,I have been tinkering again with the thought of getting a yoke.A joystick has been serving me alright up until now, but last time I tried a yoke, I saw what a joy it is, and how much more "feeling" and immersion one can get.Now, I own ONE computer. With ONE screen.I also do other stuff on PC, play another games too.I have been looking into getting this new Saitek Pro Flight System (last time I had it, it had problems, but thought of giving it a chance once again).That presents one problem: when not flying, I have to remove the yoke, quadrant and pedals. While pedals aren't that much of a trouble, each time unscrewing the yoke and the two quads, and also …

Just ran across the following article. See? You weren't wrong when you thought your display drivers were causing FSX to crash and cause other abnomalies....http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080...ia-drivers.htmlCiao,Jim

Getting close to installing Vista 64 and would love guideance on the best driver for FSX on this OS. Thanks in advance,NoelQX9650 w/ Retail HSF|8GB Muskin PC-6400|ASUS P5E|EVGA 8800GT @700|Seagate SATA 2 x 4|Seagate Cheetah 15K.x|XP Pro|Vista 64--soon to be installed

Please have a look at this MOBO and tell me what you think. I want to put a Q9450 or a E8500 in it.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131277

I'm about ready to bin my two-month-old 8800GT card in favor of something from ATI, but I'd thought I'd ask for ideas here first. I've had reasonable success over the last year using Nhancer 2.3.2 to enable AA in FS9 with my old 7600GT and the new 8800GT, but after experimenting with a few settings in Nvidia control panel, my AA and AF are gone, and they aren't coming back. I've done the usual procedure of reinstalling Nhancer, copying the stock profile to disable it, and setting up a new profile pointed at the FS9 exe, but after 8 hours of tweaking, changing drivers, reinstalling profiles, and even going to the new beta version of Nhancer, I'm out of ideas. Any help a…

Article Date: March 28/2008"MS: Nvidia Drivers Caused 29% of Vista Crashesby Aaron Linde Mar 28, 2008 2:35pm CST tags: Nvidia, Microsoft, Windows Vista Recently released documents from Microsoft reveal that drivers for Nvidia PC graphics cards were the cause of roughly 29% of logged crashes in Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, Ars Technica reports. The documentation details that Nvidia drivers caused 479,000 crashes out of a total of 1,663,748 logged by Microsoft across an unspecified period in 2007. Microsoft's own drivers followed at roughly 18%. Rival video card manufacturer ATI clocked in at fourth with 9.3%, and Intel at fifth with 8.8%. The information was…

I found this at the bottom of my PC case. First of all, I just thought it was a spacer or something like that.Then I realized it is actually a component. How come My PC is still working?????http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/186991.jpg

Hi all,Every now and then somebody posts and asks for hardware recommendations. In general I find the questions and recommendations very odd.1. Don't pay any attention to costs. It's all about TOYS and it's FUN!2. Buy a XP Pro license (no OEM stuff).3. Do you wanna build the computer yourself? Go to item #5.4. Buy yourself the most expensive DELL home stationary computer. Jump to item #6.5. Buy the best, and maybe the most expensive, mobo, cpu, gpu, memory, disks (6 1TB disks raid0 to 3 2TB disks) soundcards, encasement and psu that you can find on the market and make sure that the parts work together. Watercooled stuff is allways nice.6. Buy a couple of really big widesc…

Just a Heads Up.I recently installed a PNY NVidia GeForce 8600 GT board. Tonight I noticed a chattering noise from the computer, and at first thought I was about to experience a mechanical hard drive failure.After shutting down and opening the computer I found the following:The PNY card has a fan that is on the bottom of the card. Glued to the fan center disc is a thin but hard circular plastic label with the PNY logo. This label had moved completely off-center during fan rotation, and was rubbing on the sides of the fan duct. It was causing the noise, loading the fan motor, and I believe, just from feel, that the card was running hot (no temp measurements taken).I can se…

I use 1280 x 960 so I can't get a good idea of what the frame rate would be. Check it out.http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/03/18/nvi...view/page6.html

HiI currently have 2 monitors, CRT's and want to replace them with TFT's, 2 identical ones.So here the question:Is widescreen 16:9 better or worse than 4:3 ? what is your opinion??It looks like with widescreen the view is even wider, but will distort the 2D panel, and I HOPE it works well on the widescreen in VC mode. Can some one confirm this?Should I buy 2 19 inch 4:3 ones or 2 19 inch 16:9 ones?Please suggestions.JohanA LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, AND A LITTLE MORE ACTION PLEASE..http://www.jdserver.mine.nu/johan

Well, I went back to an x9 multiplier and set the FSB to 370 to get a precise 3.33 GHz, but running Prime95 put the temperatures at 98C and it started throttling and shutting down programs, including virus protection. Idling at 56C was too high. Now I need to know if it's still a safe speed for FSX without overheating or if I should go back to 3.2 GHz (which I'm doing for the moment) until my father and I get some liquid cooling, which should be soon. I got no errors on Prime though. So should I stay at 3.33 or go back to 3.2?Update: I also think it might be my VCore. I put it to Auto because I had no idea what to put it to for 3.33 GHz. I use 1.35 for 3.2 and it works fl…

First, let me say hello to everyone, as I am new to this forum.Although I am new here I am not new to computers, my specialty being hardware.I have noticed that some people have been making comments regarding having a problem with stuttering, even with "high" frame rates [over 30]. Some have suggested quad core CPUs as the answer, however, I am not fully convinced that is the proper fix.My system consists of a 500 watt Seasonic power supply, Gigabyte P35-DS3R revision 1 motherboard, 2GB DDR2 800 by Transcend, Intel E4400 2.0GHz overclocked to 3.3GHz [it will do 3.85GHz and remain stable, however, I do not want the extra associated voltage increase and heat], HD 3870 X2 v…

I currently have a dell c521 with amd 64 something at 2 GHz and 3 Gbyte of ram. All stock except for mem. Im pretty sure it has a AM2 socket but someone please correct me if im wrong. Im looking at newegg.com for an upgrade to dual core. These are what im chosing from.http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....932490&name=65WNow, how much of a difference will i see from 2.7GHz for $109 and 2.1GHz for $48? I want a quick and easy swap so i dont plan on adding any extra cooling or anything. I dont plan to overclock (unless i can get away with it without mods). Im really cheap but will spend the money if i have to(and regret it later for sure, and have to hear it…

Greetings, due to a long story that I will not gt into here, I changed my video card from a 8800GT to the 3870. This being a non-nVidia card, can someone with this type of card tell what the settings in the control center should be? Also, some hints on the FSX settings would be nice too.ThxTurnipSPECS:VISTA Home Basic 580 WATT Sunbeam PowerCrucial Ballistix 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAMASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6550ATI Sapphire 3870 512 SB LIVE 24250 GB WD SATA HD 120 GB WD IDE HD[/url]

In April I intend to buy my new machine for FSX, flying with PDMG and Ariane boeings. Because of stability and other issues I stay with WinXP pro sp2 for now. Du to the SLI issues I stay with one graphic card. I use a 24"screenWhat do you think about the following spec and which CPU and GPU do you choose?CPU: quad core Q9450 ( I will overclock to 3.2) or E-8500 (no overclock),or?GPU: 9800 GX2 (a lot of people say that FSX not benefit the second gpu) or 8800 Ultra or 9800 GTX, or?Other components?ANTEC P182OCZ Power 850 wattMAXIMUS FORMULA X38 (amongst other for the automatic overclock function - I am no IT wizard.)RAM: OCZ Reaper X 4 GB 1066 Mhz (4 x 1 GB in dual channel)…

I received the attached email (advertisement) for a program that scans your system and recommends driver updates. I am interested in the motherboard & BIOS, and not the video card.Has anyone had any experience with this or similar programs, and have any recommendations?Thanks a lot,Howard

I have changed monitors to a 28" that runs at 1920x1200- and was wondering if there was any other VC that would benefit me at this point? I have the factork OC'd (KO) eVGA 8800GT 512- if not currently, are there any other offerings from nVidia coming down the pike?Also, as far as drivers I am running the latest WHQL driver release- any thoughts or preferences there? Obviously I run nHancer as well....thanks!Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png

I've noticed that Skulltrail is finally available. By any chance has anyone gotten their hands on such a system? I am dying to know how FSX performs on it. Thank you.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=110592I'm dling now.

Hi folks,I'd just like to know whether the following system config is sufficient for running FSX with complex scenery & aircraft add-ons in VC view WITHOUT STUTTERING - of cource with defragmented HDD etc.:4 x 2,4GHz Intel

I ordered a Radeon HD 2600 Xt graphics card and a 4000+ socket 939 CPU and they arrived today. I've installed the graphics card and it's an obvious improvement over my older ( 4 years?) Radeon 9600.Now my next job will be to instll the CPU. I've found this site which looks ok;http://www.hardwarezone.com/guides/amd-soc...index.php?&pg=6On that page of the guide, they are applying thermal paste. The paper with the CPU also mentioned this. I guess I'll have to get a little tube of that. Any suggestions or guidelines to consider?Thanks in advance for any help!

I've recently built a new PC (Syatem 1 in my sig) but during POST the screen is filled with dots arranged in blocks of 4*4 when the first messages appear. When the screen blanks for a second or so and the next messages appear the dots change to vertical dotted lines.When the Windows XP logo appears they revert to groups of dots 4*4 less bright than originally and as soon as the Desktop appears they all disappear and thereafter the display is absolutely fine.I've Googled the problem but can't find what might be causing it. This problem wasn't present when I first powered it up after building it so it could be down to either something I've changed in the BIOS or perhaps a c…

Hi All:I recently purchased two Benq G2400w monitors with my NvidiaGeforce 7800 GTX Graphics card and after downloading thelatest drivers for both;my troubles started.I have sincethen experienced one lock up after another on both FS9 AND 10.I have also not been able to continually have full dual monitorfunctionality on FS 9.Could someone offer advice on the bestdrivers for me.Thanx