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

Hi allOK, first of all, I am NOT too hot with computers, just the basics.I'm on WinME and would like to install a basic mic to chat with a friend in the US via Skype - maybe then onto voice in VATSIM, but that's for later.OK, buy mic, plug in hole at back of PC - then what? Do I have to somehow 'activate' it or, like my speakers, should it just work? How can I check if it's working or not?Thanks in advance for any help!!!Gavin

I just bought an ASUS Extreme AX700PRO/TVD (radeon) but I can't find any control panel for it. Could anyone recommend a good tweeker so I can adjust the AF ? I still have the blurries.....Greg

Hello!I have just bought a new PC with Windows XP installed.Now I wonder if FS 2004 works well with it, since, up to now,I use it with Windows 2000, which I had for a couple of years.So, can you recommend that I use my FS 2004 sim with XP?(or should I stay with Win 2k?)Grateful for your valued opinions...........Thanks!Hans HermanssonSweden

I was running my X800Pro quite happily the other day when I decided to check benchmark among different driver sets. I was running the card on the Omega 2.5.97a and then tested it against the 2.5.90 drivers. Everything was fine and I thought the 97a might be better so decided to uninstall the 90s and install the 97a again and that is where it all went wrong...1) I used the normal method of uninstalling the 90 drivers and the installation files, and used Driver Cleaner 3 to remove remnants2) I installed the 97a and the small Radlinker fix, but this is where windows installer went into a loop on installing Radlinker, and subsequently the drivers are not being recognised.I di…

I currently use the onboard sound with an inexpensive set of speakers and woofer, but will be upgrading to ATI X800 card and wondering if I should add a sound card as well (some payware aircraft recommend a beefier card)..........appreciate some thoughts thanks

Has anyone tried Flight Sim in SLI Mode using one of the new twin PCIe mobo's. Asus claim up to 186% performance gain using two Nvidia 6800 cards in SLI Mode. I wonder if it is worth spending the money.Regards,Andrew :-ufo2

Hi.I have just returned from a full format, and have learnt a few things about the Microsoft .net 1.1 framework thingie, like Stay Away From It. anyway.I have this shiny new ATI based X800 PE 256 card, and after installing win xp pro and everything else, all seemed to be fine, but I am now receiving a message after boot up that new hardware has been found, but it can't find any drivers for it, either from the win xp cd, or the web.I have attached a few screen shots for you, and I am running the standard CAT 4.12 drivers, without the fancy control panel, as I found it made no difference whatsoever.I apologise if I'm wrong, but I honestly never noticed any.I am completely s…

Hi All, I recently posted for advice regarding Graphics card jargon and received some excellent advice.... Now I've installed and used the card some, (nVidia 6800) I've been fine tuning it. I've seen lots of references to the FS9 Config file whilst researching (fine) tuning the settings, however I've been unable to locate a succinct explanation of the various FS9 cfg. file meanings/settings. Does anyone know of such a post or document I could refer to please?I have tried some searching on this site - and found lots of info. but much of it says "...try this" or "that" but doesn't explain what the setting does/means, or how it operates. I'm really enjoying learning about t…

I get this from time to time. When switching view I either loose textures in the spot view or in the vc view. It loads some and the rest are grey?Have tried the refresh scenery shortcut but doesn

I have a nasty virus/spyware problem. I can't boot my computer except in safe mode, and I can't see my cd rom drive. All I want is the data files off of it, but can't network it in safe mode to remove them that way, can't get on the net to download the latest spyware and virus updates, and can't write my data to the cd rom. Is it possible to copy a "generic" registry file into my system to at least allow me to boot? I don't care if I can't run my applications, I just want it to boot up with network access.Another option might an external harddisk. Would the computer see the external drive in safe mode?Thx!billg

Uh oh.A few weeks (5 0r 6) I was getting strange, miscolored textures and noise on the screen. I cleaned out me computer (physically) and the problem went away. I guess it was overheating.Now, I am having the problem again. But, unlike several weeks ago, it starts right away, not an hour or so into the flight. My computer is also squeaky clean. I have also experienced several blue screens while MSFS changes from loading to the FS and when switching from cockpit to external views. Would these be related to a bad vid card?So, my question is, is the card bad? recoverable? what do I need to do?Specs are:Asus K8V DeluxeA64 3200+9800 Pro 128 1028 3200 RAM120GB Seagate Barr…

I am adding a 80 gb hdd and want to move my entire fs9 to this new hdd. How do I go about it? This is how I thought about it please advise.1. Install another copy of fs9 in the new hdd2. uninstall all payware from the old fs9 and install again in the new fs9 directory3. move my aircraft, gauge, panel etc directory from old location to new locationWill this be the right way? I want to retain my old fs9-all aircrafts, panels, sceneries, gauges etc.

Hi All, Happy New Year!I find myself needing some advice in cracking the blurb on graphics cards in order that I pay for what I need as opposed to what the advertisers SAY I need:-)System: Athlon XP2700+ CPU. K7N2 Delta Motherboard. 1 gig RAM (not sure make). 2 X 80 Gig Hard drives. (Slave used only for Flight Sim) nVidia FX5600 Card. Plus usual ROM drives etc. CRT 19" Monitor 1280 X 1024.I'm looking to update my graphics card but am unsure exactly which of the short list to go for as the jargon confuses me somewhat.I mainly use the system for Flight Sim. (i.e. no other gaming) plus the usual letter writing etc.I have my eye on the nVidia Geforce 6800 card but have the fo…

Hi - can the ATI cards be used with the new SLi motherboards does anyone know or is SLi restricted to just Nvidia graphics cards.I ask as it seems that the ATI cards on their own seem to be faster in general than the Nvidia cards and so - logically - it would seem to follow that 2x ATI will be faster than 2x Nvidia.If not then are there any future developments from ATI which will compete with SLi from Nvidia as it seems to me that PCI Express is the emerging standard for this year.Also, am I right in thinking that it is now possible to have pci-e motherboards supporting AMD chips and not just Intel.I'm looking to perform either a system upgrade - perhaps even a complete r…

I am thinking of buying or building a new PC just for MS Flight Simulator, keeping my current one for all other tasks. I have a few questions though, should anyone feel able to give me some advice:1. I'm considering twin SATA drives, 10000rpm. (Not sure which ones yet). I had also looked at two Ultra 320 SCSI drives, 15000rpm, as a possibility, but I doubt that the actual result in FS9 would be worth the huge extra cost. Do people agree?2. The AMD 64-bit FX55 seems the best CPU for FS9 at the moment. Yes ??3. Likewise, the Radeon XT800 Pro graphics card ??4. Lastly (really would like some advice here, in respect of FS9) - I would install the two hard discs as a RAID setup…

Hi all,i would like to benchmark my new system, just to see how well, and in what neighborhood it runs in. Can anyone reccomend a free software or a demo title that i could use to see how it runs?Thanks.

Hi! I have a 1000 USD budget to build a new system especially for FS9. I only surf Internet when not playing MSFS.I'm looking at an AMD XP 3200+My current system is P4 1.8, 1GB RDRAM, GeForce Ti4600 128 MB video card.So, I need a new Motherboard, CPU, 1 GB RAM, Hard Drive, and Case w/ Power supply.I'm looking at the Antec SOHO case and Power supply combo (430w PS).What do you guys suggest? I've always built my own, but I'm out of the loop on what's good right now. I especially need help on the video card decision. I can also go over the 1000 dollar budget, but not much. I just want everything to be most compatible too.Thanks

I have created a seperate XP (SP2) instance for my flight sim (FS9.1), and was dismayed today to discover that I had a frame rate drop with sound ("Q" in FS9) being on (12fps with it on, 22 with it off, just to give some magnitude). This became apparent when flying the DF B727, so may be dependant upon a complex aircarft (either sound or visual complexity). It is not apparent flying the default C172.My sound is a Creative Audigy 2XS. I installed the latest drivers from the Creative site, and for a bit I thought I had fixed it, so there could be a randomness related to booting here as well (I regularly boot between the older XP and this new instance, which is on D:).I've…

Hello all... I'm going to build a new PC and wonder if anyone could comment on this set-up that I currently have planned... This new PC will only have windows XP and flight simulator installed on it. I'm hoping for good performance and wonder if anyone out there has this current set-up installed and running FS2004... If you do have this setup, is it stable, and what kind of FPS can I expect at KORD?At first I was going to go with Pentium, but recently changed to AMD. I hope AMD is a good choice?Sound is on the motherboard, I was going to just use that? Good Idea or not?Here it is:CPU - ATHLON 64 (3500+) SOCKET 939 (64 BIT) (RETAIL W/ COOLER)Motherboard - K8N NEO2 P…

Hi all,i have a new systemA64 3200+1GB PC320080GB SATAATI Radeon 9600XT 128MB OCand, i would like to see how it runs. Can anyone reccomend a good program that is free or has a fully functional free trial that i can benchmark my system with?Thanks. :-wave

Not to sure where to post this, so will give this location a try.At the top of "forums" (all of them in Avsim) there are a number of links. (e.g. "Help Us Continue to Serve You!", "Contributors Wall of Fame", "AVSIM Home" etc.)Each has an Icon or graphic box preceeding, but all I display are little blue boxes with red X's in them.I do see the same thing occasionally in other presentations but do not know how to get rid of them and display the graphic which is being prevented from displaying. Is there some option in Windows XP Pro which will permit the display of these items?Thanks:RTH

Greg,I have a 9800Pro 128MB card which I know you just upgraded from. It's used with a P4 3.2Ghz. I run on a 21" LCD monitor with a native refresh rate of 60Hz and at 1600x1200x32. FR locked at 25. What is ideal for the Anti-Aliasing setting ( 2, 4 or 6) as well as the Anisotropic filtering (2,4,8,16)under the custom settings for D3D?Thanks again!

For those of you thinking of changing your video cards to a Geforce Ultra 6800, don't! It has to be the worst card I have ever had the pleasure of using... 1. The FPS are no more than a 5950. (AMD 64 3200)2. The shimmering is terrible, no matter which drivers or settings are used. (66.91 or 66.97)3. The image quality is awful. How on earth Nvidia / Gainward released such a card is totally beyond me, especially when they claim that it is 50% quicker on a like for like system. Best Wishes for a happy Christmas,Chris

Would I see any significant increase in frame rates if I replaced my current ATI 9800 Pro with an ATI X800 Platinum Edition? Is it worth the money for such an upgrade? Thank you.

http://www.omegadrivers.net/If you can't donate to Omega's efforts please click on his add links.Cheers,Greg