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

Guys, I need a recommendation on an Nvidia video driver. I bought a new Nvidia 7600 GS card with 512MB today which was a substantial upgrade from my old Nvidia 4800 Se card! In any case, I have downloaded and installed the current WHQL approved Nvidia drivers, 93.71. They run ok, but flash some and are slightly jerky. I was wondering can anybody tell me which drivers might run the most stable for this card?Also are there any specific settings I ought to put into the cfg files for FS9 (which is all I will run...dont like FSX.)?ThanksEric

Being that I am not quite ready to spend two to three thousand $$ to upgrade ONLY for FSX, I have done the following as a somewhat poor man's upgrade:I installed a NVAIDA 6800XT, 256 Bit,512 MB AGP video card in place of a Radeon 9800 Pro, 128 Bit, 128 MB card. I also added a third party cooler for my video card which so far has controlled the GPU @ mid to high 40's C normally, and 50 degrees C max temperature, even with pretty high overclocking and all pipes open.I increased my 1 GB/400 Memory to 3 GB.I have a third party CPU cooler which should arrive tomorrow that I shall also implement, good for either my present, or future considered CPU.An additional consideration I…

Did not see a similar subject on an initial search, so here goes:In an attempt to make a small upgrade to my existing computer before I really dig in to replace it within the next 12 months, I swapped out my existing Intel P4 530 3.0 processor for a 'new' used Intel P4 650 3.4. There are the obvious differences/improvements, in addition to doubling of the cache to a 2 MB L2 Advanced Transfer Cache, over my previous 1 MB.I checked before I bought this, and my motherboard can handle this processor, and everything seems to be running fine.....ButWhen I used FS for the first time today, I ran out of memory right towards the end of my 4 hour flight. This has never happened be…

Hi,I got from my wife a headphone as a Christmas present :). It works very well with Skype but I got in big problems with FS2004 ;( x( , especially with airplanes like CS Herc (here I got computer reboots when changing views) the MAAM DC3 (irregular reboots) but no problems at all with the Realair SF260. I could solve my problems by installing a freeware ASIO driver (Asio4All) and I have a much better rumbling sound as with my speakers :) . Simply to let you know!Regards and Happy New Year,Hugo

Happy Holidays everyone.I have an ASUS A8N32-SLI deluxe mainboard.This is my first time to set up a RAID0 array, so despite lots of reading maybe I am missing something.I set up RAID in BIOS, selecting the SATA drives to be in the array, in "IDE Configuration" as I recall on the main menu of BIOS. I also set up the array to be a boot option in that BIOS menu too (It replaces the HDD option that was there before automatically).I then press F10 and build the array, selecting both HD's (both are exactly the same, WD 300GB). I then enter stripe size for the RAID0 array. However before pressing CTRL-X to exit this screen, I note that under "Boot" I see "N/A", and the option…

right now, i have a ati radeon 9800pro 256mb in my pc, i would like to upgrade this card.i think i have to look for the following:AGP is the only i can use.PSU?I use 2 monitors.My question: what is the best agp videocard for me, which i can use with my psu,and will it be benificial. I would like to stick to this system until next winter before i upgrade to Vista/fsx/etc.system specs.Asus p4c800 deluxe 875P Pentium 4Intel Pentium 4 s478 3.06-512 Box 800FSB2*512 DDR PC400 3200Ati radeon 9800 pro agp8x 256mb ddr2maxtor 120Gb 7200 rpm u 133 8mb 6y120poSoundblaster 4/ creative inspire 4.1 4400case A-open HQ48 Pro midi tower 300 wattMonitor 1 iiyame 21"hm903 dt aMonitor 2 relis…

Just curious if anyone out there is using an Ergotron stand setup of some sort for multi-monitor use? Today I ordered 4 Dell 1907FP's for the Ergotron Horizontal Quad Stand. I have put off building my FSX machine in part because of the new technologies slated to hit market within the next year (dx10, vista, quad core, refinement of quad SLI, pci-2.0, etc) Any info or experiences would be greatly appreciated!Thanks!-Steve

I understand that multicore CPUs won't help FS9 performance alone. However, if you use programs like Active Sky 6 and Radar Contact in the background, will a multicore CPU help over a single core?Thanks,RH

I just bought this comp, dont ask the price, it has a x6800 clocked a 4.2GHZ, 2gb of corsair gddr2 ram, 2 72gb fujitsu 15,000RPM scsi hard drives in raid 0, 1 BFG 7900gtx oc, a scsi card, asus P5WDG2-WS PRO for the mobo, a zalman cpu 7900 cooling fan. what do you think, it stable and very very fast, but i dont know how it will run on fsx, is fsx still cpu based or is it gpu now?steve

First things first:A merry christmas and a happy newyear to the whole flightsim-community!My question to you fellow simmer:If you look at the hardwareconfigs below, would it be possible to run FS9 with good framerates ,all the sliders to the right and with addons PM737,747, ATR72, FS2Crew, Radar Contact 4, Activesky 6.x and Groundenvironment Pro, WideFS en Wideview installed?Rig1:AKASA Powersupply ATX/EPS 12V 550W ABIT Fatal1ty AN9 32X, nForce 590 SLI, AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 2048MB LEADTEK GeForce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3, Samsung SpinPoint P120S 250GB SATA2 Rig2:NorthQ 4001AT, ATX 400W Silent, 120mm ABIT IL9 PRO, Intel 945P, Socke…

First things first:A merry christmas and a happy newyear to the whole flightsim-community!My question to you fellow simmer:If you look at the hardwareconfigs below, would it be possible to run FS9 with good framerates ,all the sliders to the right and with addons PM737,747, ATR72, FS2Crew, Radar Contact 4, Activesky 6.x and Groundenvironment Pro, WideFS en Wideview installed?Rig1:AKASA Powersupply ATX/EPS 12V 550W ABIT Fatal1ty AN9 32X, nForce 590 SLI, AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 2048MB LEADTEK GeForce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3, Samsung SpinPoint P120S 250GB SATA2 Rig2:NorthQ 4001AT, ATX 400W Silent, 120mm ABIT IL9 PRO, Intel 945P, Socke…

All of a sudden I am getting 2 copies of Explorer.exe working in the Task Manager. Is that normal?Appreciate any help all explanation.Thanks.Abe

I can't seem to get the trims programed correctly on any of my hardware devices and it's driving me crazy!!I use a Saitek X52 in combination with a Nostromo N52 keypad. I have tried programing the rotaries on the X52 as bands with no luck. I've programed the trims as macro keystrokes on the N52 with no luck either. Well, that's not entirely true they move sometimes and don't others totally unreliable and inconsistent. I can program the elevator trim as an axis via FSX and it works great except it is way to sensative on the slider, the null zone does not reduce this sensitivity. FSX Programed a lot of controls to perform as axes but I cant believe they left out aileron…

I installed FSX Standard on a 2.8 GHz hyperthreaded P4 with 512 MB of 'PC 3200' DIMM's. Note I had applied many of the 'fixes' listed in this forum: reduced Autogen file, and some edits in FSX.CFG. 'Traffic' is set around 10%. Usually I run FSX in a window at DT resolution: 1152 X 864 pixels. I got quite a few stutters with sliders up a bit past half way. The HD light blinked ever second or more, indicating HD access. Last week I added another GB. Stutters have disappeared (there may be short pauses at times, especially with clouds). The HD light hardly ever flashes. I assume required files have been preloaded in the HD Cache. Task Manager indicates it is aroun…

Hi allAm having a problem with FSX (both demo and deluxe version) that says that I've a 24bits colors configured screnn (not video card) and that FSX is not compliant to it.I for sure have a single screen , configured 1280*1024 32 bits, and for sure no access to any 24bits configuration.My video card is a RADEON 7600 with updated driversSo I'm definitly blocked here with no way to solve it via the graphic settings.Anyone having such problem and for sure the solution ?Thanks a lot for any infoPS: This signature brings me back to some old days :-) Gotta have to change it one day :-)http://www.avsim.com/ffg/personal/1_pascal/signature.jpg

I have decided to try my hand at building a computer. My three year old Dell XPS is not able to run FSX very well.Here is a list of components I have come up with after may days of research:Siverstone TJ09-b Aluminum ATX Mid TowerIntel D975XBX2KR Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 975X ATX IntelMotherboardThermaltake W0116RU Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version 750W Power SupplyIntell Core 2 Duo E6600 Concore 2.4GHz 4M L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor BFG Tech BFGR79256GSOCE GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video CardKingston HyperX 2GB (2x1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JBRTL 250GB 7…

I've got two Barracudas in my computer and since flight sims take up so much room I'm thinking of dedicating one of them just to flight sims and their scenery, add-ons, etc. Does anyone think this is a good idea? I keep my hard drives very clean and defragged so the files will be in good order whether FS in on my general drive or on one dedicated to FS. I'm just wondering if a separate drive would speed things up any.This idea was suggested to me by a Microsoft employee at the AOPA convention in Palm Springs recently. They had a demo booth for FS X. Actually, he suggested a complete dedicated computer just for flying, but in lieu of that, does a separate hard drive …

HiI have a P4 HT (Hyperthreading) processor. Will it help or rather is it advisable to disable this option in the BIOS?Will I gain anything with FSX?Stelios

Any explanation on this problem

Hi,I'm just needing a little bit of help from a hardware guru to enable me to get some enjoyment from FSX ;-)For FS9 I had only 512mb (2x256) sticks, so realising that I would need more memory for FSX I went out and bought 2x1GB Kingmax PC-3200 DDR400 sticks, removed the older sticks and put the new ones in. Problem now is that my PC regularly re-boots itself or gets BSOD, but only whilst using either FS9 or FSX. So I removed one of the 1GB and can now run the PC fine, no BSOD, no mid-flight re-boots. Both FS9 and FSX run ok. Thinking that one of the sticks might be dodgy, I have tried installing them both individually, and in different slots and they work fine. But put t…

HiWell, after reading a lot of excellent advice given out on this forum, I bit the bullet and upgraded from my signature system, to the following:-Core 2 Duo E6600 CPUGigabyte GA965-DS3 MotherboardGeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)Maxtor 6V300F0 300GB 7200rpm SATAII 16MB Cache HDDAnd all i can say is...wow what a difference !!! The improvement in performance is just beyond belief - FS9 is now soooooo smooth - and the dreaded blurries have totally gone.As an example, parked at the gates at Gary Summons UK2000 London Stansted in the virtual cockpit/cabin version of PMDG's 737-700…

Hello,I just built the following system:AMD 4800+ Dual Core160GB Sata HDD2GB DDR400 Ultra Ram Dual ChannelNvidia 7600GS AGP 512KWhen I load up FSX, the program freezes within a minute. Sometimes I have to restart the computer, sometimes it goes blue screen with the NV4_disp.dll file as the problem (one of the Nvidia driver files I guess). I have drivers 91.47 installed, although I have tried the new ones 93.71 but get the same result. My fans are working and tempature all good.I have a Nvidia 6600GT that I could go back to and try.Is there any settings on the video that I should tweak to try to get this working. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.Thanks,Ken

Hi,Since the DX10 update for FSX is expected not sooner then Q3 2007 (my own guess, based on blog PM Aces), I decided to stick with FS9 for about another year before buying a new PC and migrating to FSX/DX10/Vista.Therefore I'm considering to update my current system with either a new CPU or GPU.My system specs:- Athlon 64 3500+ CPU (Single core)- ASUS A8N-SLI S939 Mobo- Radeon X850XT 256MB GPU- 2 GB Corsair XMS RAM- etc, etcI can update my system with:1. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Manchester (S939, 2x2.4GHz, 512KB, Dual core): 220 euroor2. Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB DDR4: 370 euroor3. Both are a waste of money, performance gain is very small.What do you advise?

I have been advise not to rely in MS recommendations for Hardware. My PC has a Pentium 4 1.62GHz with 1.0 GB of RAM but I have an old Sound Card and a nVidia GeForce 4 Ti4200. Can anyone advise me which os the best sound card and best Video Card that I should buy for Microsoft Flight Simulator X? I participate a lot with VATSIM. Many thanks for anyone's willingness to help.David [email protected]

I'm planning to build a new rig in early February (once Vista is available). My goal is E6600, 2 gigs RAM, and... I'm not sure what to do about the video card. I would prefer DX10, which right now means some form of Nvidia 8800. Then I read a few days ago that the 8800 is still handling some things in software that the full DX10 standard is supposed to handle in hardware. So I'm in a bit of a quandary. Do I buy the 8800 and congratulate myself on being ready for DX10 when it's available for FSX, or do I buy something cheap to hold me over until FSX is DX10-capable, by which time there will be more, and more evolved, options for DX10? The cheap something I'm considering is…