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

I am convincing myself, slowly, that a new rig is not unreasonable -- maybe in the fall. Two questions:1. Excluding monitor and speakers, what should I expect to pay for a machine that will run FSX comfortably? (With what add-ons, we can't say yet, I guess, since it's not clear to me what will still be necessary. For example, will FSX have UT-quality rivers, lakes and coastlines?)2. I just read this http://tinyurl.com/kf8ec on FSX and DX10. Assuming that I won't be able to afford another motherboard/processor upgrade for a couple years or so, should I wait until DX10 cards are reasonably priced, and when is that likely to happen?I realize these things can't be predicted e…

:-) Folks,I have recently been following the forum discussions on the pro and con of LCD vs CRT, and especially the use of the newer 16 to 9 aspect ratio widescreen LCD for FS9, and later FSX. I decided to go ahead an replace my trusty 19" Compaq Pro CRT with a ViewSonic VX2025wm on sale for $329. The results are excellent and overall performance is unexpectedly improved despite operating at higher resolution.My system could JUST manage 1280 x 1024 x 32 locked at 20 FPS target with the CRT. I had good balanced operation with no stutters, but FPS could get down to ~10 FPS at the worst airports. I also occasionaly got a lock-up/FS9 or CTD when panning the view too rapidly i…

Hi all,Occasionally when I try to start FS9 I get the followih error message: 'Your computer does not have enough memory available to run flight simulator. The program will now quit'.That is odd considering there is 2 Gb of memory avail and nothing else of consequence running.Anyone know how I can overcome this?ThanksSteve

I am now certain that I need a new cpu and motherboard for fs. Today fs crashed and has been runing slowly for a while now. I think the problems are cpu related, my video card is an ati radeon x800xt platinum. It runs fine with other more demanding software, my cpu is slow. It is an intel pentium 4 with ht, 2.6 gig. I am not a somputer expert and there are so many thing to look into. Is gigahertz what I should look for? What else is there to consider?

Hello everyone. Yesterday I replaced my radeon 9800 pro with a Sapphire X1600 pro agp.Everything works fine exept one thing. When I am in 2D or 3D cockpit view, a strange sound comes from the card (not the speakers). The sound looks like a clock ticking but much faster and in higher pitch. The sound is not from the fan and it doesn't happen in the other FS views. I tried a few other games and I didn't have the same problem that's why I decided to post in this forum. I removed and reinstalled the card, I reinstalled the drivers, I installed older drivers, I even removed and reinstalled fs bun nothing changed.My pc is:Athlon xp 3200+, asus a7n8x deluxe, sapphire radeon x1…

I wanted to upgrade my 6800 to maybe a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU Graphics Card. I thought I read something about Dx10 support coming out soon, but is not currently available on any existing cards. Is this true? Should I hold off a few more months until something new comes out? I don't want to waste money on something that will not support the latest features of Vosta or FSX.Thanks for any advice.Robert

I wanted to update my video drivers (ATI Radeon) and the ATI site offers netframe 2.0 as a required download. I have netframe 1.1 installed. Should 1.1 be removed prior to installing netframe 2.0? Right now I have the drivers installed with Netframe 1.1 and they seem to be working. Thank you in advance. Bob..

Finally got around to installing the Vista Beta 2 build 5384. For this, I resized the data partition on my second disk (SATA 150) and created and formated a 20g partition for the OS. Intent is to dual boot with my production Win XP Pro, which is on a partition on a pair of SATA 150 Raid 0 drives.I d/led the beta ISO and burned it to DVD. Trying to install from a DVD boot failed. Based on some net reports, this is not uncommon in a nvidia raid environment. As others reported, I was successful by booting into my Win XP and then starting the install on the DVD. At the appropriate place I was prompted in install my NForce3 SATA and raid drivers (F6 floppy from Win XP in…

Hi To All:I hope someone can help me, I have 2 monitor 1 Viewsonic G90F analog and got a new one Viewsonic VX924 Digital. Now when I run FS2004 with only either one my Frame Rate is up no issue, as soon as I plug the second, and use it lets say for the spot view as a second monitor , the frame rate drop to arround 4 or 5/sec. Can anyone tell me how can I solv this issue? much apprciatedThanksWalouigi http://www.oncourse-software.co.uk/forum_images/fdc_beta.jpg]http://www.pic767flyingclub.com/siggies/lsd1.jpg[/img://http://www.oncourse-software.co.uk/...s/lsd1.jpg[/img

Since I had my new computer with partitioned drive for fs9 I have noticed an increasing amount of 'low performing system files' showing up on my HDD after defragging.What and why are they there?Can anyone possibly help here? Is the HDD on the way out?

Can anybody please help? I bought a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 back in 2002. I was very pleased with it and it gave me many hours of pleasure. However, about 6 months ago, it started with a strange phenomenon. Everything was working fine and suddenly the twisting handle (rudder) started to become very "itchy". When I tested the joystick in Windows, the rudder does not gave a "still" center postion. This had the effect that when I fly in FS2004, the aircraft will fly straight and level and then suddenly yaw to one side. The rudder will center and a few minutes later it will yaw the aircraft again.At that stage, I uninstall the software and reinstall it and it so…

Hi,Would anyone be able to tell me if the DVI cable can be used at all with the ATI 9800 pro 128mb video card. Bought an adapter for the DVI cable to use on the analog video card, but I can't get it to work, no video at all when I try it. Further is a DVI cable much better than the analog connection???Thanks,Helmut

Hi allThis may be a real stupid question, but I'm wondering whether an external USB harddrive will give me sufficiently high data rates to be able to use it to run FS9 from?I've got physical and financial limitations which make any form of internal drive non-viable and I'm looking at options for improving my storage space for FS9 sceneries etc.All help/advice appreciated.CaffeineBomb

Hi!I just reinstalled my FS9, because I had some problems with it.I use separate partitions for my XP, backups, FS9, etc., so myFS9 is on a separate partition, which always works fine.I have 2 HDD's.But now, with no changes made to my FS9 setup, I sometimes geta "your computer does nor have enough memory" message.Very strange. I removed unnecessary programs and "unstarted"some for the XP startup.Still, the problem sometimes recurs.Any idea how this can be resolved?Grateful for any help.Thanks.Hans HermanssonSweden

Hi there, fellow simmers! :-waveI want to know which multi-engine throttle unit for FS2004 is the best and most realistic to use. I particularly want it to be the most realistic to use in simulating large airliner operations, including the most realistic operation of thrust reverse levers.I'm currently looking at two products:1- The CH Products Multi-Engine Throttle Quadrant.2- The Goflight Inc. Throttle Quadrant.I do know that the Goflight Inc. product is twice the price of the CH Products product, but money isn't a problem to me when I want the most realistic and smooth operation out of the hardware that I buy to use with FS2004.I hope that I get informative answers fro…

Hey Guys-- I'm running MSFS 2004 on a Dell Notebook (Inspiron 1100) with a Pentium 4 and over a Gig of RAM, plus I've updated my graphics driver and DirectX plug-ins several times and I still have very jagged graphics and the frame rates seem jumpy. Oh and one more thing, just in the last couple of days the AI traffic and surrounding buildings when I get started are staying "blank" or having no graphics at all for a second or two while it seems my computer is rendering the data. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO TO FIX IT!! It's getting really frustrating and I think my machine is not to blame. Can anyone help?? I'm by no means a software engineer so use alot of layman's terms, I k…

can someone buy the new corone intel cpu (the fastest is the 6800xs) and run fs9 on it ?i would like to buy it but i am not going to unless i'll see some benchmarks.thanks

Greetings All, well the skys haven't been real friendly lately for me.Just had my 2nd harddrive crash since Jan. Have been running seagates 80g 7200 8mb in raid o+1 Since its still under warranty i thought i would ask if i purchase 2 WD Raptors at 10000rpm in raid will i see an improvemt in fs9 PROFORMANCE?aNY HELP WILL BE MUCH APPRECIEATED.Best regardsAndrewP4 3.4Asus P4C800-E deluxe2GB Corsair dual channelATI X850XTAudigy 2 ZS

I am considering upgrading to a newer computer. Currently I have a Dell Dimension 4600C. It has a 2.8 GHZ Pentium 4 WITHOUT hyperthreading and 533 FSB. I have 1 GB of SDRAM memory and a 73GB 10000 RPM SATA HD. I use it primary for browsing on the web and Flight simulator.My question is would I notice a noticeable performance increase in FS if I would to upgrade to a machine with the following:1.)a faster processor (3.0 or 3.2) with HT technology 2.)a video card like a NVIDIA 7900 series video card3.)faster RAM4.)Faster front side busI appreciate any and all advice you all might have.Mike

I recently finished building my new PC (specs in sig) and the one thing I haven't upgraded yet is my trusty old 19" CRT monitor. My video card (GeForce 7900GT) only had DVI inputs, but I just hooked up the included adapter, and that works well enough. It would appear that CRT monitors are going the way of the dinosaur...I've been thinking about upgrading to a nice LCD monitor that can play games (FS2004, other first person shooters like battlefield 2, etc...)I've been doing a lot of online research, but I would really like to hear some practical opinions from real gamers out there. I just want a good 19" lcd for gaming. Nothing that will break the bank. I just play g…

Ok, eversince I got a new monitor that supports 1600 x 1200 i've been running flight sim in that resolution. Everything is great until I switch to night time. Then all the textures are affected and white landing lights and clouds are green, and everything becones very geometrical. I even switched back to 1280 x 1024 and tried x 16 and x 32 on both 1600 and 1280 with no avail. What should I do? I have attached a screen capture. ThanksIn the picture, look at the landing light, beacon light, green/purple clouds. Green and purple seem to be the only *new* colors.Thanks,Richhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/137154.jpg

Anybody have any idea as to when Intel will release the new Conroe duo to the marketplace? I'm thinking about a new computer and don't have any clue as to when it 'might' be released to the public for purchase. Also, anybody know a good brand of computer to buy with a good graphic's card to run the PMDG's?Regards,jack

Is there a way to set reverse thrust using a joystick throttle i.e. have part of the throttle for reverse?

OK, gotta post this.New system shipped yesterday.AMD FX60 Dual Core2 Gigs Corsair XMS memory2x Nvidia 7800GTX512 SLI2x 150GB 10000RPM RaptorsThermaltake 680 watt power supplyCoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit (not Overclocking so this should be fine)I know, I know, I should have built it myself and usually do. But after pricing parts, lead times, warranties etc, it just made more sense for me to have it custom built. Cost me about $200-$300US to have it built. So far the experience has been fantastic. The company kept me posted every step of the way during build, sometimes e-mailing me 3 times in one day with updates. Now if the rig shows up in one piece and w…

Hi. Being a 550hr CPL and not flown for a few years I decided to purchase FS2004. I have loaded it into my computer. Its a Toshiba laptop. Im not computer savy and every now and then my machine shuts down during a flight. Is it a major computer problem. Can anyone list the minimum power, and computer bits,etc required to run this properly. I can get my IT guy to fix and problems once I know what I need. Cheers and hop to see you in the circuit.