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

This is with the new system and FSX set to it's default/SP1 state except for AffinityMask=15.Have FSX installed on it;s own RAID 0 array and I dual boot to XP Pro and Vista Home Premium. Problem occurs with either OS and does not occur doing anything other than FSX including torture testing a four cores at 100%.Start FSX default flight engine already running - after a minute of flying I get a long (several second) beep from the *system* speaker, not the sound card speakers. Hitting Q does not silence it. After a few seconds, it goes away. Seems to occur randomly.It's not the stall horn nor the overspeed warning. I've run task manager and coretemp alongside and it's not an…

Ciao,i wanted to go for the Triplehead2go and 3 monitors of 19"...any tips, suggestions and screenshots before I spend all that money???Or I rather change my 19" for a 22" and save money???The Monitor is 50cm far from me on the wall...ThanxxPAco

HiI purchased this from Goodwill and it seems in good shape. unfortunately it is not supported by saitek anymore. I plugged it in a gameport-usb adapter and the basic functions work, but all the fancy knobs on the throttle don't work, and the hat buttons default to combinations of the basic joystick buttons.I've seen some drivers online developed by good people, but when downloading the files I got corrupted archives.Any idea if I can make this work, at least get the hat switches to work properly?Thanks!

I just went from a Pentium D 3.2Ghz with Nvidia 7800GTX (2) running SLI to a Quad Core (Q6600) 2.4Ghz and WHAT a difference.For a motherboard upgrade (evga 680I) and a new chip, my FPS worries are long gone. I'm averaging ~30fps on the ground with 60% traffic and most sliders maxed at major airports.My advise is go for the chip before you upgrade your video cards. You may get what you want.I've been tweaking non-stop since FS95. Time to fly! :)

I am in the process of building a new machine and plan on finishing this month after the purchase of the following: Giagabyte GA-P35-DS3R LGA Intel E6850 Crucial Ballistix My question is this. Would I gain more by purchasing 2GB of DDR2 1066 or 4GB of DDR2 800 ? I may or may not overclock depending on stock performance. I will be using an EVGA 7950 GT OC (512 mb) until DX10 is released. (if ever) Currently running XP Pro 32 bit and understand that it will only recognize 3 to 3.5 Gb of the installed if I went with 4Gb. I may run Vista 32 bit on a seperate drive in the future. Thanks in advance. Craig

Most stores have a 30 day will-refund-the-difference in lower price guarantee.Just last week, I bought my ATI X1950 Pro video card on sale for $169.00.It then went back to its original price for a week.Today, I just checked the website and lo and behold, it is now advertised for $149.00!!!I called the store and they said that I only have to bring in my sales receipt, the current copy of the sale price for the item in the flyer...and they will gladly refund me the difference of the twenty dollars plus tax. It now makes my vid card that much sweeter of a deal. Yeah!So, it pays to monitor the item(s) you bought for a month!Cheers!Mitch

I have just upgraded to 4gb of RAM in Vista 32bit .. but only 3 gig is useable until I upgrade to Vista 64 - that I'm fine about.but ....when running FSX for a period of time, then alt-tabbing out and looking at resources - my memory usage never goes above about 500MB - sometimes 600MB - any ideas ?I see people posting that FSX uses as much as it can get ... and people saying that for them it seems to utilise 1.5gb plus ...I used the explorer suite to enable the cap off the 2gb limit - to no avail.any ideas please ?thanks, Mark.

If you're running Nvidia GeForce video, has anyone tried the Vista hotfixes announced by M'soft here?http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105As far as I can tell they have swiped at least 10 fps from my FS2004 installation - where I was running at 30fps locked out, I'm now down to 20fps for zero perceivable benefit (still no ability to switch views in windowed mode, blacked out cursor pointer on occasions, etc).Thanks Bill!

I just bought the named video card, to replace my ATI X800XT (to be stored away for redundancy)Does anyone have this card, and if so, could you please give me your experience with it using FS9 and even FSX for your best FPS rate (with all sliders and features, full bore) and any comments regarding clarity of ground textures, etc.I have the Pent4 3.4 GHz and using the present X800XT, get a comfortable 30-34 fps with all full bore in FS9. Does this X1950 PRO 256 MB card do better than that?The asking price was excellent, so thought to pick it up. :)Thanks in advance.

Greetings from Colorado fellow simmers,I have recently purchased a new Vista machine (Acer E380) that has a low end Nvidia graphics card built into the MB. The PCIex slot is empty. I am getting a VGA ASUS EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M to fill that slot. My question is regarding how to handle the transition from to old card to the new card. The Bios has three options: 1=PCI SLOT, 2=ONBOARD, 3=PCIex. Currently option #3 is selected in the Bios. Should I leave the Bios alone or select option #1? Should I install the ATI drivers and then uninstall the Nvidia drivers? Thank you much for any help.

I am in the process of building a new system and am at a fork in the road with whether to get the dual core e6850 or the quad core q6600. I am very interested in using Tileproxy, but do not know whether the dual core with a higher clock speed and faster bus would perform better than the quad core with a lower clock speed and bus for Tileproxy. I would appreciate any experiences or insight.

Any problems going with 64 bit Vista instead of 32 bit - drivers, compatibility etc.? Haven't given it any thought before, but it is an option on a new machine I am looking at.--Bryn

Hey gang,Picked up a CH MFP unit + the 26-50 keys as well. Want to use them to control a number of things in FSX.I'm a bit stumped though on how to use the CH Manager software to program what keystrokes I want each button to perform. The instructions didn't help much.Also, is there any sort of good template/background making tool that has the key size where you can just drag/drop the boxes? I tried making a background using MS Paint, and after HOURS of laying it all out, I come to find out that the text labels I put on the background are pretty much unreadable and since it's all a graphic it's pretty tough to fix it. Was hoping they have a tool somewhere for doing this.An…

This was started by the Inq which has very little credibility (and Theo in particular who is about the worst out of the bunch):http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41970Bascially, it is claiming that a Barcelona chip clocked at 3GHz will be able to significantly outperform an Intel Quad core clocked at 5GHz in 3DMark06.As uncredible as Theo is, I found this article a little striking because most of the time the Inq cites other sources and can lay blame at others feet or blame mis-communication when it proves false. If this one turns out wrong, it can't be construed as anything other than a bold-faced lie. I imagine many will burn the Inq for good if it proves …

I've always found FS makes my jaw drop with every new release but there are some fundamental issues that will never be resolved with software alone. Number one for me is peripheral vision. Having to change views when turning finals or taxying is a real drawback and precludes really accurate flying. So I'm toying with going mad and buying two further 17" flat panels to augment my existing one because I gather that it is possible to show three views simultaneously which would be great. I also want to move to a faster processor and graphics card than my current Radeon 9800 Pro.I seem to recall that there is a triple header Matrox graphics card out there but I suspect tha…

First impressions,This monitor is Samsung's 22 inch LCD wide-view in 16:10 Theatre aspect ratio.Very NICE! It really enhances the use of FS9 when running in 1680x1050 rez. The wide-view is most enjoyable.The ATI X1950Pro bangs out the same FPS's as though it was running a 1280x1050 setup.This monitor is very bright, clear, and 2ms FAST. The set up is all of 30 seconds, and you really do have much more real-estate on the wide view units. I didn't know if I would like the 16:10 format, but after using it for half an hour so far, am finding it using FS9 and in viewing movies as most enjoyable. Also, the monitor is HDCP-ready with the included HDCP compliant cable. Matchin…

Greetings,I was wondering if anyone out there still using this graphics card, would be so kind to share their most reliable settings for FS9.It would be much appreciated if you could also include the driver version that you are also currently using.The reason I am asking is because my current display quality in FS9 seems to be way off to what I have been used to in the past.Thankyou.Regards,Ralf..

Hello, current specs posted at the bottom, i need a motherboard that will support overclocking, im looking to get my 6600 up to at least 3.2. I have a little expierience o'cing, however some tips will help. The Motherboard has to support Dual channel ram, at 667. my e6600, doesnt have to be SLI. Another question I have is is there a difference (fps wise) between the intel chipset and nvidia chipset? Thanks for all your help. (Budget anywhere from 100 to 175 bucks)

I just recently bought FSX, already knowing some of the issues I might have been up against operating the sim before going to Best Buy, I purchased it, and of course the frame rates were at the top of the list. Happened to go back to Best Buy about two weeks later, and asked a rep in the computer department what he would recommend for extra performance and graphics. He recommended to get a new motherboard and graphic card from NVIDIA, and it would boost performance in most complex PC games(never mentioning FSX). Here's what he recommended for me to buy.For a motherboard the EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 nForce 680i LT SLI Socket 775 1333MHz DDR2-800 ATX and the EVGA GeForce 8800…

Anyone have valid recommendations how much one can safely get away with in regards to increasing core voltage, before something nasty & irreversible happens?Noel

I found this at newegghttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16824252008And it appears to be a high quality monitor.... and I like the price...I can't believe the prices of LCDs today...I pad about 340 for my 19in lcd in april of 2006! whew...anywayHow does FSX work with widescreen monitors? How bout other games such as Half life, or warcraft, BF2142/bf2, etc? Are things stretched out, or is it ok?I'm only looking at this monitor...not buying or anything...but I do like the price !!!I guess what I'm asking is: is there a strong advantage over std 4:3 lcds like the one I have right now? Do you have one, do you like it?

Use MagicColor and the CUSTOM mode.Use the following settings:-------------------------------------------------------Brightness: 68Contrast : 85Red: 26Green: 28Blue: 11Color Tone: CustomGamma: Mode 1I just set up my monitor with the above, and am getting beautiful and saturated colors standing off from the white backgrounds.Mitch

Hello everyone!Since buying my new Samsung 226BW (22 inch 16:10 aspect ratio, wide-view) yesterday morn, and having REALLY explored absolutely every feature in hardware and software that comes with this magnificent flight simulation monitor, I will write and post my in-depth review, tomorrow morn.I intend to cover not only the 'hardware' features, but truly (where I feel it really shines) and would be of the most interest is how this monitor, the last 'chain' between your computer system, and you the user---and probably in many ways JUST as critically important as your choice of CPU, GPU, Memory speed, in how it presents to you---the virtual world within FS9. The world we…

I was planning to start building an FSX PC in September after the Intel summer price drops, but now I am tempted by a ready built overclocked system from Overclockers UK.It features:Q6600 overclocked to at least 3.4GHzABit IP35 Pro motherboard2GB Crucial PC2-8500 RAM500GB WD SATA II driveNVidia 8800GTX 768MBOCZ 850W PSU in Antec 900 caseetc. - full specs here:- www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-005-OCChecking the prices, they are charging about 15% over the raw component costs for putting it together and doing the fairly agressive overclocking with far more skill than I could muster - plus I don't lose any skin off my fingers. I would probably put Vista on …

Okay, first off, I'm still looking to stay with FS9, although I want to be able to install FSX and hopefully get some use out of it. I realize FSX isn't going to run with a bunch of add ons the way FS9 does now, and I'm a junkie for pay ware, especially complex aircraft. This is why I'll be using FS9 as well.My main issue is trying to find a good case and PSU. I don't want a case that looks like a neon light, just something that has great function over looks. I've always been very simple and conventional in terms of appearance. Right now I have an Antec full tower that I like very much, but I'll be keeping this computer together, so I need a new case. I prefer full …