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

I thought I would share my recent experience in upgrading my PC for FSX in order to help others. To simplify it, I will just highlight the important points I learned in the process.- More memory is not always better. I have 2 gigs of dual channel memory now and my PC runs faster than it did with 2.75 gigs of single channel memory. The difference is when you mix different types of memory, you lose the dual channel DDR feature of the memory. This in turn actually slows the system down. Yes, you have more memory but your system is slower. Go figure!- More memory may mean nothing for increased game performance if you have a slow or outdated graphics card. My old card w…

Well, I've got a very old system:1.6 GHz Pentium IVATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 32MB (Didn't it say 64?)512 MB RAM DDR400ASRock P4VM800 motherboardAnyway, I'm thinking of upgrading it a LITTLE bit (my wallet is empty)... just for keeping it for about a year before I get a new one... and yes, I'm keeping with FS9 (altough there are so much lowest-end users like me that make FSX work decently). I'll change the ATI for an GeForce FX5500 256MB, and upgrade the RAM to 1 GB. I was thinking of leaving my comp with 1.5GB RAM, but I don't have enough money.Anyway, in the board's installation guide, it says that it has "2 DDR DIMM slots: DDR1 and DDR2" (just copied exactly from th…

Did i read somewhere that FSX dosen't support dual core and will only use 2GB of RAM no matter how much you have installed.

What matters most to FSX performance? (If the budget permits the purchase of just one (b)leading edge item and filling the box with otherwise mid-range stuff, where do you splurge?Amt. of RAM?Processor?Video Card memory/performance?And how do you compare clock speeds between P4's and dual core chips? The P4 #'s seems higher, but it's hard to imagine a 3 year old design is "faster"

Matrox have pulled their support forums.www.matrox.com/graphics/en/corpo/support/forums.php Big mistake, as it offered a very useful resource for folks considering buying the product, and also helped those who had it already to optimise their seups. Is this a sign of nervous corporate cost cutting? If so, maybe not much chance of seeing future DVI versions or versions optimsed for multiple widescreen setups.Anyone know any background?--Bryn

Hi, i've create a new computer and I added a new hard drive. There i've installed FSX but in my old hard drive (that is in my new computer also) I have Flight Simulator installed too and my father in his computer has FSX installed, so i'm not going to use the FSX in my old hard drive but i've it installed there because i'm saving some files but i cant unistall this fsim because i installed it in my old windows XP (now I've Vista).So my problem is that i cant activate FSX again on my computer... and i want to know if is any file that i could copy from my old FSX (in my old hard drive) to the new FSX to activate it.The reason why i've installed my fsx in different hard driv…

Hi,How do I get the ATC in my headset, and the plane sounds on my speakers.Basically, right now, I have all the sounds coming into my headset. I want it so the sounds in my headset is ATC, for example when flying on VATSIM, and the jet engine sounds are on my 5.1 speakers.

My AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs),to be running at right now it is at about 2.2 and I think it should go faster if so how would I overclock it safely?.

Hello folks out there i need to know if a 3800+ 64 chip can be overclocked and if it can , where can i get the info on how to do this.im getting ready to go out and buy the latest and greatest first time ever use of a intel chip and motherboard.I like to think i know computers but when FSX came out it made you go deep in your system to get as much out of it as you can to run this BIG DOG.So i think im going to experiment on the 3800+ 64 and see what i come up with.thanks...........Robert

Seems prices fluctuate daily. The BFG nVidia 8800GTS was $419 after rebate yesterday, now $449. Is there any difference from one 8800 to the next, or should I just buy the cheapest one on the day that I order?Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

When I run DXDIAG, it tells me that my installed Vid card driver is 6.14.0010.6614. But the latest Catalyst driver on the AMD website is Catalyist 6.12 The other older Catalyst drivers have similar numbers to the latest one -- so where does mine fit in??Thanks for any help Barry

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_fsx_techtips.html#

Well once I finally got all my parts, everything came together really nice. Took me about 7 business days from order to completion and I'm not quite done tweaking yet.Parts4 Dell 19" 1907FP's1 Ergotron tripple horiztonal stand1 Ergotron monitor pole mount 1 Ergrotron 28" Pole 1 Tripplehead2go I can actually line up with the centerline @ distance now on approaches (problem I've had since FS 5.0), not to mention the wow factor of having some side vision throughout the flight. Performance didn't suffer more than 1-2 fps all around. I basically have stock scenery except @ LAX w/cloud 9 and Honolulu w/ some freeware. Performance at these two locations is 7-10 fps but it has…

Hello folks out there i need to know if a 3800+ 64 chip can be overclocked and if it can , where can i get the info on how to do this.im getting ready to go out and buy the latest and greatest first time ever use of a intel chip and motherboard.I like to think i know computers but when FSX came out it made you go deep in your system to get as much out of it as you can to run this BIG DOG.So i think im going to experiment on the 3800+ 64 and see what i come up with.thanks...........Robert

Hi All, I did a search first to know avail.I have 2 sound cards in my PC and I'm trying to do with voice only in the headset mic with all other sounds coming out of the main speakers in multiplayer.I have it set up correctly (sounds in control panel), ie: in free flight and all missions the voice comes through the headset and all other sounds through the speakers. In multiplayer voice comes through the headset for about 2 minutes then completely dies and I can't hear anyone but myself. It works fine in multi if I have all voice/sound going through one card, but if I split them up voice dies in multi.Anyone have the same issue or know what I might be doing wrong?Thanks

My ultimate goal is to have a system that will operate good onFSX & X-plane with 4 monitors. But with limited $$$ must work intoit. My present system:Manufacturer: GatewaySoftware: Windows xp Home addition with Service Pack 2Processor: 550 (3.40 GHz)Memory: 1GB (1024MB) DDRRAM (400MHz, Dual Channel)Hard drive: 250 GB Serial ATA100 7200 RPMMonitor: FPD 19" LCD analog/digital.Addition of a good video card:GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-Bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 EXTREME video cardorGEForce 7950GT KO 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card.Would the 7950 tax the present memory? At a later date would buildthe memory out to 4GB with the addition of another card.I also see …

Hello All, I have installed a nVidia 7600gs card and i am getting a warning when i start that nVidia Systems Sentinel has found that the card is not getting enough power and has adjusted it so the card can run ok, i have a 430w Power unit, i was running a FX5700 before with all the same Specs in the computor but i can't find out where to see what the minimum watts the 7600 needs , Silly question but would having a 650w be a good way to go be that it will cost me

Hi all,I recently bought a laptop off ebay which at first I deemed not powerful enough for FS X but it seems that after some tweaking, it becomes quite playable.My system:T5600 Core 2 duo 1.83 GHz2048 MB DDR2 RAM 533 MHz160 GO HD 5400 RPMnVidia geForce 7600 Go 128 MO dedicated RAMWindows XP Media CentreAll setting in low I get 20+ frame rates, in medium low, 16-20 and medium high I get 12-16 fpsI find that Autogen is of course the power hog so I usually leave it at medium and still get acceptable results.In FS 9 I am at 26 fps+ with everything maxed out :)Will post screenshots in appropriate forum!Blessings and happy new year!William

Being curious about the use of memory in FSX I loaded a free memory optimizer program (http://www.wincleaner.com/)that also displayed memory in use, free memory, virtual memory in use and free virtual memory as well as CPU usage. Watching these parameters while in-flight with the default Cessna and autopilot on was very informative. The system was low end:AMD 2ghz (real clock speed)Radeon 9800SE with 128mb1 gb ram I was not interested in FPS unless they became very good or very bad. They averaged 30fps in this instance with max mesh sliders, minimum terrain, no water effects, simple clouds (few),textures at 1m, no autogen, and normal scenery objects. First the bottom line…

Looking for recommendations on the best OFF-THE-SHELF computer (under $2,000 withOUT monitor) available to run FS-X. (I'm not a big gamer or a video editor; FS-X will be the most demanding program that I run on it.)I'll wait til Vista launches, so the purchase is about 3 weeks away.(What I HAVE learned, browsing these forums the past few days, is that there are a lot of people out there more willing to build their own FS-X machines than I am. );)

Hi Gang:Yesterday I loaded FSX on my 3Gig Pentium system with 2Gig ram and ATI X1600XT video card driving a 24" wide screen flat panel LCD. I defragged before installation and shut down the anti-virus.1. The install went fine. I noticed that after the install the fragmention level went to 37% on a half-full 80 Gig SATA drive!!! Naturally, I defragged again using Diskeeper. Before starting FSX I ran "Enditall".2. I made 2 changes from the default installation settings; a) I lowered the resolution from the monitor native 1900 X 1200 to 1600 X 1000, and :( I moved the frame rates to "unlimited".I took a quick "free flight" in the 172 and had 25-34 fps when straight an…

I'm thinking about upgrading my video card from a 7600GT (256 meg RAM)to a 7950GT (512 meg RAM).I fly mostly FS9. Would it be worth it to upgrade?Thanks in advance for opinions....Happy New Year!JoelJoel @ CYVR (not far from CYNJ, really)

I have recently changed how my USB CHPro pedals and Saitek X36 are connected to my PC and now the pedals will not work unless unplugged and then re-connected.I have a bracket with two USB ports which plugs into one USB header on the mo/bo. Into these two ports are plugged my X36 and pedals.The X36 works OK but there is no response from the pedals within FS9 or within the joystick calibration window although the pedals are shown in that window.If I unplug the pedals and then plug them back in they work but I have to do this each time I start the PC.Is this because both controllers are, in effect, using one port or is there something else going on?TIA for any help.

Need some input on what to replace my old ati 9800 card. There have been so many cards developed since the 9800 I find it somewhat confusing to decide without some input from other FS9 members. Would like to keep the new card price under $160. Considering a 1650pro card. (ati chip set). Not sure how this card will perform with fs9.Basic conf.1 gig memwin xp sp2Pentium 4, 3.o gati 9800 video

What kind of FPS increase can I expect to have?AMD 64 Dual Core 2.6 GHZ (5000)160 GB SATA HD2 GB RAM NVIDIA 256 / 512 MB PCI Express Video Card (Which One?)My current system:2.5 GHZ Intel P41GB PC 2100 Parhelia 128 MB AGPI get about 11-16 peak 20 FPS with moderate weather & AI traffic etc Flying in Alaska away from major airports.Thanks!