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

Hi everyone!I always check that I have the latest driver for my graphic card and the latest DirectX. But I've never checked the drivers/updates for BIOS, motherboard, CPU etc. I'm totally lost when it comes to these technical things. I mean, is BIOS, CPU and motherboard the same thing? Do I have to upgrade this or is it enough with having the latest Graphic drivers and DirectX?I'm grateful for all answers, please help.My specs:P4 3.0 Ghz512 RAM120 Gb HDRadeOn 9800 128 MbDirectX 9cCatalyst 4.8 graphic driverThank you,Tomas

They worked splendid with FS 2002 and my Geforce 4 I had then. Then I got ATI and they became useless but now that I am back to nVidia again (stereo3d is why I got the 6800 ULTRA) I bought the glasses again.Now got them working in FS 2004 but have some tweaking to do to get them work as good as they did on FS 2002 and Geforce 4. For some reasons the 61.77 drivers I have set the separation to be suitable if you would sitting 5 metres from your computer so I have to adjust it manually every time something I didn

I just had SP2 installed and found to my dismay the detrimental effect on FS9 performance. Somebody suggested DEP (see my thread on SP2 forum if you dont know what DEP is all about). I played with that and the frame rates that I saw with DEP on and off didn't suggest it is DEP as the cause of the performance downgrade.I then turned on the CPU monitor while FS9 is running. Surprise, surprise, FS9 is using about 50% CPU. The rest is system idle!! Does it mean IO as the bottleneck? But what IO?? I was sitting in Meig 36 and enjoying the scenery from the cabin in the Cessana! The plane is not flying and no scenery to change and IO from disk.Does it mean video bandwidth? I ove…

I have a Dell computer with a P4 2.6ghz, 1GB RAM and a 55.5GB hard drive with 34GB of free space showing and using Windows XP Home. My problem is that when I tried to install an add on to FS9 I received this message

I have the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb graphic card with the ATI 3.9 drivers. Everything works well.The ATI web site states that an update to the 4.8 drivers should only be done if there is a problem.Is it worth updating to the 4.8 drivers? Will this increase FPS or the quality of graphics? Is there a downside to the 4.8 drivers noted by anyone?I would like to hear from anyone who has updated to 4.8 drivers, the impact on FS9, and any negative results noted.Thanks.Stanner

Please choose and WHY?

I have the ch rudder pedals and after a couple hours of flying, after about two hours of flying my rudder eventually is extended all the way to the right and the autopilot cannot maintain speed like this as it tries to counteract the effect of the full right rudder. I have the ch manager installed in XP Pro and ran the calibration routine. Anyone else have this problem or other solutions to try?Scott

I currently run FS9 on a 19" ViewSonic A90 and even though I am pleased with its performance, I have been considering "upgrading" to a 17" LCD for several reasons: takes up less space, uses less electricity, runs cooler. Can anybody share their thoughts on the pros and cons of switching? Thank you.

Any experience with the FX6800 Ultra?How does it compare with the older FX5600?Any comments please?Regards, Marcelo Santiago, ChilePosted on Wednesday Sept.8, 11:10am EDT

... to my DVD writer?I have two DVD drives on my PC both from LG. A DVD reader "E:" and a DVD Writer "F:". Last night I wanted to backup some files (about 1.5 Gb of files) into a DVD but I wasn

I just ordered a Asus Motherboard with the 775 socket for my next upgrade. Im getting the motherboard this month. Memory next and videocard and processor (3.6 or 3.8) some time in late Oct/early Nov. Ive been checking out current PCI video cards, and found there are not too many available. The ones available, are not the latest chipset. I was hoping the 6800 would be available in PCI express. Ive seen reviews about it, but no one has one. Does anyone have any ideas when or if this card will be available? Rob

HiIts crashing too often and I'm posting here before bringing it back tothe storeMy videocard = ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256-bit, using 4.8 CATAlways or often crashes mid-flight no apparrent reason.ESPECIALLY, maybe mostly, with add-on freeware ac such as the new Pilatus (with repaired [VC-05] section removed) and the CR700VPU recover maybe?Motherboard is only a P4S8X-X with P4-2,4 and 1G DDRAny similar experiences?Maybe the X800 pro is crash free regarding the VPU recover thingie which has been posted before...allen

Hi all!After months of error searching, formats, etc I have finally pinpointed my strange FPS drop error in FS2004. In cooperation with Michael at FSGS, I have done some extensive hardware testing rgd systems and interrupts (hereafter called IRQs). The result is astounding!. I have never seen this solution to stuttering FPS in fs any other places, but I have seen many forum posts with excactly the same error symptomps as I had.Description:In Flightsim, regardless of Display setting, type of VGA card, type of CPU there is a FREQUENT drop of FPS; Every 5-7 seconds FPS drops about 50% for a short second ore two. It can be a bit hard to discover, but once you notice it, its a…

Seems after I upgraded my video card I lost my "Fly By" view in Active Camera. It shows the default "Tower View". I tried un-installing Active Camera and re-installing with the same results (As per Serge - the arthur of Active Camera) Any guru's here have any ideas how to get it back?ThanksDon

I just installed an overclocked BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra (425) and it didn't appear to change the overall performance of FS2004. I upgraded from a TI-4600. I installed this card into a Gateway 700XL, 2.54GHz, 2Gb RAM, 2-120Gb disk drives, a pot-load of USB connections (I have a GoFlight setup), and of course a partridge in a pear tree. I left all FS settings as they were before I upgraded the card.I'm running a massive FS system - 6500 AI aircraft, approximately 1450 individual airline *.bgl files, and numerous payware scenery packages. Traffic 100%All FS settings are max'd to the right. Application handling functions offloaded to the graphics card. Screen resolution …

HiI am having slight issues now and then with FS9 and wanted to check a few things with you guy's to see what you think.I am running Windows XP Pro in 1600x1200 with 85hz refresh on both 22" monitors as they are the same.I use the second monitor in FS9 for FS Nav.my graphics card settings are as followsCAT 4.8's 1600x1200 32bit, and Anti-Aliasing set to 6x(and turned OFF in the sim) with Temporal Anti-Aliasing set to Quality, also the Anisotropic Filtering is set to 16x, all are on the Quality Mode,my Texture Preference is High Quality and MipMap Detail Level is High Quality also, the Wait for Vert Sync is on Application Preference and Truform on Always Off.I was wonderin…

I replaced my 128Mg ATI 9800Pro card, and so far..........I'm not impressed. I get "flashing" when going into FS9, and occasionally in the sim. The scenery looks somewhat blurry, or at least "not as sharp" as the ATI. Frames are OK...a little more than the 9800, but not so noticeable as to the smoothness. I've tweaked and tweaked AA and AF, but no real improvement yet.The only reason I went to NVidia was because I bought an X800 Pro ATI card a few days back, but returned it because after install, I couldn't bring Windows up. ATI thought my BIOS (up to date) may be untested and incompatible with the X800. I think it was just a defective card. I'm using a Dell 8250 with 2.9…

I have heard that windows xp can only use 1 gig of memory but I have also heard it can use more does anybody know the true answer?

just wondered if any of you know what this PWM thing is, or what it meansthanksSteve.PS here's a shot of my First ever attempt at water cooling, and the radiator is Out Side below the window ledge, it's a Black Ice Extreme II, the biggest one I could find. and it's got two 120mm fans behind it as well, the pump is the Hydor L30, 1200ltrs pr hr, and 240V so I can have it on/off without the PC running, this can help in the cooling prior to and post PC running, and a good way to check for leaks etc without having power on the board/graphics card etc.oh, and I forgot, that temp you see for the CPU is from where I am in the UK where it's very very hot right now with the outsid…

hi, all: My computer has a PC2100 256mb memory in it, now, I want to buy a PC3200 512MB and add it into my pc, is that ok for PC2100 and PC3200 working together? I dont care both of them r working on PC2100 standard. thanks

I am looking to change my Geforce 4600 Ti to a geforce 6800 Ultra.Apparently they are now available in the UK. My reason for wanting to do this is:1.To improve the image quality by making it sharper.2.To reduce the jaggies, shimmering and Blurry textures (we sometimes get in heavy textures)Does anyone know if the 6800 Ultra can do this, I would love to smooth out some of those jaggies. Best Wishes,ChrisEGBB

ATI released their much anticipated Catalyst Control Center today. It requires the .Net framework. The CCC download alone is 19Mb! Uses anywhere from 20-100Mb to run (those with 512Mb of memory be forewarned). The skinning features requires WindowBlinds, an application that has caused problems for some FS9er's. All this just to tweak some driver registry settings?RadLinker is a little over 400Kb download, and uses no resources once driver settings are tweaked and RadLinker is closed.This is the future...GregP.S. Any of you nVidia owners having a chuckle at the expense of ATI owners... your day is coming. nVidia is working on it's own new tweaker, and it won't be muc…

I just updated the Catalyst drivers to 4.8 on my ATI 9600 Pro and when going to utilities for ATI I am unable to set my AGP to 8X. My motherboard is capable (Dell 400SC). Is there a way to do this or a diagnostic to tell me actually what AGP setting my video card is actually running at. Thanks

HiAfter a few renderings to software video with my ATI 9800 pro. I unchecked the VPU Recover function.With CAT 4.8, is this safe? will not overheat my card under known circumstances/usage?Will it solve the problem?allenP4 2,4G with 1G RAM, ASUS P4S8X-X

I have just upgraded from a Nvidia 4200 (128mb) to an ATI 9800 Pro (128mb). I just wanted to crosscheck with a few of you guys to make sure that we are all on the same page here as far as the numbers are concerned. What I have found is very little increase in overall framerates. However, I can turn up most settings to the max, where as I could not with the 4200ti. Here is my scenario: Weather Clouds: scattered Visibility: 30 miles Precipitation: none Wind Speed: noneDefault Seattle International Airport with C-172 on 34R