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

Hello all:I am toying with purchasing the following system. What do you think? Is this a good buy? It appears Dell is making way for the Gen 5 XPS due to the 30% off offer. Thanks!!Dell XPS Gen 4Intel 660 3.61GB DDR2 SDRAM160 GB 7200 RPMDVD-ROM256 PCI express GeForce 6800$1687 USDThanks again!!

I bought my Raptor 74GB on Ebay, for a nicer price. It came with no cables however, but my Mobo came with the standard sata cables. I just checked WDs site, and they say that you need their "special" legacy cable dealy. Is this true?!Thanks

Hi everyone.I've been running on the Nvidia 67.03 Forceware drivers for awhile and decided to attempt the 7x.xx series of drivers. I loaded the 71.89 drivers over the older drivers on a freshly formatted HD and games that used to work i.e. flightsim and Star Wars Battlefront now have what I can only descibe as freezes...which eventually end up in me having to "ctrl-alt-del" to close down the app. Funny thing happens as well - when I return to the app after ctrl-alt-del'ing I seem to get it back running... This only happens when using the 71.89 drivers and if I return to the 67.03's everything's cool again...I get better performance in 3DMark benchmarking with the la…

hi all i currently have a dual monitor set up using my GForce 6600 GT CARD it has provisions for 2 monitors which i currently am using just fine, i have all 2D applications in the second monitor,i also have spare old Tnt card PCI,i am just wondering is it better to use this spare card to get better performance or does the 2 adaptors which come with the GForce 6600GT Card is sufficient?

I know that this is not a hardware problem but I get no answer from PSS or PMDG,I have a Toshiba Satellite A55 1.6 with the centrino chip in it.I am running 1 gig of ram and Windows XP Home,the problem is when I try to install the PMDG 737 600700 I get a error message that says skipping file C:WindowsfontsArialn.ttf than the program locks up.I tried the same with the PSS products as I have FS2002 installed and they won't install either as it says registering fonts and locks up.Does anyone have any idea how to cure this problem? Jeff

Just got my new Dell XPS Gen2 laptop. I will wipe the drive clean to get rid of the bloat-ware, and re-install my stuff.I just want some feed back if you use windows to create the partitions during install or do you use some type of software?I have looked at some that are out there but, no opinion on them.Also, what size did you create for your operating system partition?Maybe you could share how you have your drive set-up partition wise to give me some ideas.Thanks,J

hi alldoes anyone know where i can download a good Free Antivirus software?i wanted to download AVG buts now become payware.thx!

hi all well after some research and my budget here is what ive ordered AMD Athlon

Hi all Is it possible in fs9 to change from directx to open GL or open gl to directxIf so were do I go to change the settingsCheers Rhys

Hi there. When I boot up the pc skips the BIOS and all that initial screen and remains black for a brief period. THen the screen shows the Win XP log in as normal. If I try to hit the delete key to gain access to the BIOS the screen remains black and the light of the monitor remains orange instead of green. So I assumed that no signal at all was being sent to the monitor. Thing is, after pressing the delete key the pc stops and nothing happens. Then I remember that to exit BIOS I must press F10 (Save and exit or save without exit) and the pc then returns to a normal boot up. So I must conclude that the screen was in BIOS but I could not see anything due to the monitor not…

Hi Guys (and gals) -I'm planning on investing in a projector for my outside view with a 17" monitor for instruments. Can anybody guide me on the best specs for the projector. I am currently looking at an InFocus LP70+ with wireless, but am really a babe in the woods when it comes to projectors.Any advice or help will be greatly appreciated.

Hey guys I have the ASUS 6800GT 256mb card and I am looking for the best drivers, what drivers is everybody finding best?ThanksBenP4 3.41GB RAM6800GT

I've a WinXP 64bit CD here (with activation key), but I don't know whether to installit or not.Many people say there's no speed gain in gaming, some even say it may get worse than using the 32bit version.My PC houses an Athlon64 and a Radeon 9800 Pro on an Asus K8VSEDX board.Today, I read a message where a guy claims to have three times (!) the FPS he had with the "old" WinXP with almost exactly the same hardware I've got!Now, I'm more than uncertain whether a WinXP x64 install would be a benefit for me. I re-installed the OS and FS9 already some weeks ago, and another re-install would mean hunting for the license and activation keys again, let aside the effort to get eve…

I need a new disk since my 40gb i filling up and Georender is coming out with 600mbs of photoreal texture for Alaska. Therefore, the question is should I stick with IDE or go to SATA. The motherboard works with either. Any comments or recommendations. Looking at an 80 gb size 7200rpm 8mb cache.One other note. From wrongly selecting SATA when I first setup my motherboard it appeared that IDE and SATA cannot co-exist?? If so, I will have to dump my "stuff" to another computer and reload XP if I have to switch to all SATA.Thanks,Dick Boley @KLBE

Sometimes when I shut down my computer (XP Home) I get a message indicating a problem with closing svchost.exe. The computer shuts down OK and next time I restart it asks if I want to send a message to MS about it. I don't bother and my computer runs OK.It seems this happens if I shut down immediately after closing FS9 and doesn't seem to happen if I wait a while after closing FS9. I deduce that FS9 is still trying to tidy up when the computer tries to shut down. Anyone else noticed this?

I use to get 36 fps (because thats were i have it locked)with my fx5200 and now I'm getting around 28 fps . Just to back up a little, I installed a new graphics card (Nvidia Geforce fx5700le) and was unsatisfied so i returned it, and now i'm still using my old 128mb fx5200 (i know it sucks) with the 56.72 drivers... tried the newer drivers but to no avail.THANKS IN ADVANCE

Enjoyed reading a number of posts in this forum describing the same issue I am having with my computer running FS9. I recently took deliver of a Dimension 8400 with lots of power to run FS9 compared to my old system with PIII1000 and old ATI videocard. But 'whoa is me', my new machine freezes up after only a few minutes of sim time. I tried every trick in the book to make this program run or more correctly; make the videocard run FS9 correctly. I know I have the proper drivers installed yet I still freeze. On occassion I get the dreaded blue screen telling me I have had a fatal error and the computer has shut down for safety reasons. I am also told my nv4_disp module crap…

This appears to be a WinXP (Home) - FSAutostart - TrackIR3 (With Vector) - FS9 - Active Camera combined with a Sata (Raptor) boot drive Problem.Everything was working and fantastic at that until I did two things:1. Installed FSAutostart (and of course disabled a bunch of stuff)after which all seemed okay for several days (probably three flights of 1 hour or more duration.2. Installed my new TrackIR3 with Vector.I set up the TrackIR3 and Vectoring using the default FS2004 profile included. Started up FS and after a few minutes Track IR started shaking. (I had already disabled Active Camera head latency, so that wasn't the problem.) I quit and checked everything, connecti…

What setting should be selected for optimal performance.1 Custom Size2.System managed size3.No paging FileAnd if 1 is selected what settings are appropriate? I am using a RAID 0 Configuration and currently have 1 selected with a min of 1533MB and max of 3000MB.ThanksAndy

I am looking at upgrading my system but have a slightly different problem from that rehearsed here frequently. I want to use dual monitors with the panel on one & the "view" on the other.I assume that as normally recommended I want the best processor that I can afford & I assume the normally recommended 2x512Mb memory will still be the way to go but am unsure about both the graphics & the desirability of a dual core processor.Am I better to run both monitors from one dual monitor enabled graphics card or am I better with a PCI-e for the view & the panel on a separate PCI graphics card - if they are still made?What effect does having two monitors by either …

I've been thinking about this problem for months and I need your expertise. I upgraded my P 4 3.2 with ATI x800 pro video card, to a new Lga775 P4 3.4 extreme with an Intel motherboard and 1gig of ddr2. The mother board came with a pci express slot, so I bought the ati x800 xt pci express card.With the older video card (x800 pro AGP version) I had to reduce the AGP setting from 8x to 4x because FS9 encountered micro stutters, especially in clouds. With this new PCI Express card I can't find a way to reduce this setting, if it can be reduced, or a change the settings on the motherboard's BIOS to a lower setting to see if the stutters stop. This could be a latency proble…

Hi everyone. I tried posting this in the ordinary hardware post but got only one reply...I've been running on the Nvidia 67.03 Forceware drivers for awhile and decided to attempt the 7x.xx series of drivers. I loaded the 71.89 drivers over the older drivers on a freshly formatted HD and games that used to work i.e. flightsim and Star Wars Battlefront now have what I can only descibe as freezes...which eventually end up in me having to "ctrl-alt-del" to close down the app. Funny thing happens as well - when I return to the app after ctrl-alt-del'ing I seem to get it back running... This only happens when using the 71.89 drivers and if I return to the 67.03's everything's…

Well, I'm buying my new computer components this week, and will likely have in running within the next 2 weeks. In the next week I'm buying the motherboard and part of the memory, I already have the processor, which makes it bare-bones runnable (certainly better then what I've got now, see sig). The vid card and more memory come later. I Will be using the same 250w power supply I have now and the same monitor, HDD, etc. I'm just glad to get away from this piece of crap.

I have a 120GB Maxtor ATA drive that is not showing it's content!The drive is partitioned into 3 partitions with FAT32 formats. Today I was unable to access these drives. The HD with the three partitions is still recognized by my system, but on attempt to access them I am getting a message that the drives(Partitions) are not formatted. I don't know what happened, but I did have a problem with the middle partition losing format, and have I reformatted it in the past with Fat32 and NTSC systems, but it still failed a couple of times. Suspecting that the drive may go south I started backing-up some of the data on the partitions, but have not been able to finish it all.I know…

Hi Ken; I seem to remember that you "promised" to report on your new system,so how's it performing Hmmmmm? Inquiring minds want to know.;) Second question; Did you get to see Hitchhiker? If so, what did youthink?:-hmmm I'd love to see some info on how the new hardware is working. DennyProfessional Tourist