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

While deciding whether to go with Intel or AMD system I asked myself the above question. What's more important in a long run for the MSFS - having 64 bit CPU or a hyper-threaded one ? After realizing that HT did nothing to FS9 and actually made things worse for some addons I am beginning to think that actually 64-bit-ness may be more important with future in mind. It may actually be impossible architecturally by FS to take full advantage of the HT since there is only one video card and cache memory is shared (and because of idiosyncrasies of the FS itself). On the other hand 64 bit AMD Athlon has twice as many internal registers and they are of course 64 bits long. If OS …

intel pentium 4 3.20ghz, 800mhz front side bus, HTwindows xp pro1GB dual channel DDR SDRAM240gb sata raid o hard drive, 80gb second hard drive256mb ddr ATI radeon 9800 XT cardsound blaster audigy 2 sound cardwhat kind of frames should i expect from this with sliders maxed, 100%ai traffic flying the PMDG737, CS727, PSSA330, or anyother frame eater in the cockpit and VC? and anyother info would be greatly appreciated.adam

I have just installed FS2004 which is excellent. But I have noted that the frame are less than 50% of those in FS2002 for some reason, ie 50 FPS in 2002 given the same set up translates to 17 FPS in 2004.Is that correct, this is even after setting the priority to highest in the task manager.I have FS Traffic 2002 installed, default Airports, default A/C.System: Win XPAMD FX 51 3200I GB RAMNvidia Geforce FX 5950Many thanks, Best Wishes to all,Chris EGBBUK

Hi GuysFor some reason in FS9 my mouse scrolls very slowly. If I press the "alt" button to access the menus it works properly, it only slows down in the cockpit and also on the "create a flight" menus. This is a new problem as it worked fine up until now. I have not installed any new software or hardware recently. Any ideas?Microsoft XP ProfessionalPentium 4 2.2GHZ512mb RAMnVidia GeForce 4 128mbMicrosoft Forcefeedback JoystickLogictech Trackball mouseThank you Gerry

For anybody who gets zapped by this very bad virus, you may be interested in this URL, which is where to go do download the Norton Anti-virus removal tool. Its free and you do not have to be a norton user to use it.http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcen...moval.tool.htmlEric

Hi all,after a buddy of mine recently upgraded his system to an Athlon XP 2800, I became curious as to how far I could upgrade my system. I got a 1st revision ASUS A7N8X main board which had been running on the 1.006 BIOS since last autumn, and so I checked the ASUS web site for this information. Now, I just saw I could go as far as to an Athlon XP 3200 with 400 MHz FSB, provided I had at least a version 1.04 PCB - which I have, since I couldn't have run my current XP 2500 without this - and 1.004 BIOS, which I also had. Just to be sure, I just flashed it to version 1.007 anyway.Now, what I'd like to know is whether I would actually see a significant performance boost i…

J, My question to you is has your FS2004 performance increased/decreased since you went to the on-board sound? Some say that the stand alone audio card frees up CPU time and thus more speed and or smoother video. I am currently running the on-board audio. (ASUS P4P800 Motherboard)Terry

Recently went from Norton to the AVG Antivirus programIs there any way to automatically schedule "Disk Defragmentation" in XP Pro in a similar manner as that with Norton? I do not see this as an option under "Scheduled Tasks". I tried to just enter it from Windows>tasks but the result is that it says it cannot run when the scheduled time entered times in.Thanks:RTH

intel pentium 4 3.20ghz, 800mhz front side bus, HTwindows xp pro1GB dual channel DDR SDRAM240gb sata raid o hard drive, 80gb second hard drive256mb ddr ATI radeon 9800 XT cardsound blaster audigy 2 sound cardwhat kind of frames should i expect from this with sliders maxed, 100%ai traffic flying the PMDG737, CS727, PSSA330, or anyother frame eater in the cockpit and VC? and anyother info would be greatly appreciated.adam

Does anybody succeeded to pilot on "common" sims (other than Elite and FS, ie Sims like X-plane or Fly!II) with an Elite pro panel hardware ?ThanksBtsu

1. Rarely, images such as screenshots will not show up on my computer. I get a little square with an "X" in it. I do have the latest Java provisions downloaded. This only happens on very few images. Most show up with no problem.2. I click on "my computer>Tools>Folder Options>View>Remember each folder's view settings" ("Remember each folder's view settings" is checked). My preference under "View" is "List", however my computer stops remembering this setting after a short time. I don't remember this being a problem some time in the past, but seems to have developed over time, and shortly defaults back to the "View>Icons" selection. Is there a way to setup the…

Hi everyone, I was wondering if a second video card for a second monitor would help any in performance for FS2004?? I've tried two monitors on an ATi Radeon 9000 pro 128mb on FS2002 (two CRTs) and that seemed to work great except (on the second monitor) I could not have any actual views outside the cockpit except for one small view of a spot plane but otherwise it was great for all my other instruments, especially my GPS. Now I have an ATi 9600 pro 128mb with FS2004, and I automatically suspect that it might lag too with two monitors with external views outside the cockpit, considering that there really isn't that much of a difference between a 9000 and a 9600 (also i…

Hello,I am having real bad problems with sound and windows media player. FS seems to be the only thing where my sound is crystal clear.Maybe something is wrong like priority. I am really the world's worst when it comes to sound issues.So can someone help? As in Media Player any kind of sound played is crackly and quite distorted, especially the bass.It is not my soundcard as I swapped my primary sound output to my onboard card and I get the same thing with playing music or sounds in Media Player.Regards,Alexander Martin.http://img33.photobucket.com/albums/v99/wa.../alexbanner.jpg

http://reviews.cnet.com/ATI_Radeon_X800_XT...661.html?tag=fr Now if the early buyers report the same, I'm just gonna have to go out and spend some money. Hot Dam n!!Test:Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 We use Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2004, a demanding DX9-based game, to measure a graphics card's 3D graphics gaming performance. To measure the frame rate at which the game plays back, we use Fraps, a shareware utility that measures frame rates, takes screen shots, and captures video from DirectX and OpenGL games.Flight Simulator 2004 contains a plethora of settings. The settings we use to utilize the game as a benchmark are as follows: Weather: Rate at which weather ch…

I've been debating whether or not I should just go ahead and update my flight control. I have a VERY old CH Flight Sim Yoke and CH Pro Pedals, both non-USB, that are at least 6 years old now. It's been partially broken for at least three years (if you turn it too far left and then back to the right, there's a distinctive spring popping noise), and lately it's gotten to where it's very sensitive... just nudging the thing forward past the null zone and it takes to pitching wildly.I've considered replacing it with a joystick, since that seems to be where some aircraft are going, the Cirrus SR-20/22 (waiting impatiently for FFS), Airbus, etc. Not to mention with that I co…

I have a problem with the graphics in FS2004.I am using the latest Omega drivers and have a Pentium 3.4 and Radeon 9800SE graphic card (Direct3D settings: anti-aliasing 6x, anisotropic filtering 16x).When I start FS 2004 the graphics look very nice, but whenever I go back to the desktop or switch to another program and return to FS2004 the image looks much worse and twinkles like hell. When I go to the 3D settings in the Display screen and click on any item related to the Direct3D settings (and immediately put it back to its original position), apply these changes and return to FS 2004 the image look fine again. It seems as if whenever I leave FS2004 it clears its Direct3…

NV40 aka GeForce 6800 Ultra early FS2004 Benchies & Image Quality Results:http://mbnet.fi/elixir/NV40/10817474486qLMOmeutS_6_6_l.jpghttp://mbnet.fi/elixir/NV40/10817474486qLMOmeutS_6_5_l.gifhttp://koti.mbnet.fi/elixir/NV40/108174744...eutS_1_15_l.jpghttp://mbnet.fi/elixir/NV40/10817474486qLMOmeutS_2_1_l.gifIt has to be stressed that the NV40 Ultra used here ran at 400 Mhz GPU clock while the upcoming ATI monster R420 is expected to run @ up to ~600 Mhz.

Hi, I have an Intel D875PBZ or whatever the exact name of the motherboard is. I plugged in a P4 3.0 800, with the stock fan and heatsink. I would think this would keep the system plenty cool, but I installed the Intel Active Monitor, and when running FS2004, the active monitor will pop up and tell me the processor has exceeded maximum recommmended operating temperture. It gets up to about 70 degrees. Anybody else experience these problems? What is the recommended solution? I can't believe Intel would ship such an inadequate heatsink/fan with it's CPU.

Does having this enabled slow down disk access duringGame play...or does it in fact speed it up.Or does it not make any the diff?. :)

Has anyone had dealings with this company? http://lowboy.applications-program.com/ Fifty dollars for Win-XP-Pro, too good to be true ?

It's time for an upgrade and my budget only allows me to buy either a new CPU or a Video Card (around $240 CDN),My options are, ATI Radeon 9600 XT or Pentium IV 2.8 Ghz (533 Mhz FSB - 512K Cache), both are in the same price range.My current system:Intel Celeron 1.7 Ghz (400 Mhz FSB - 128K Cache)Nvdia GeForce2 MX400 (64 Mb)768 MB DDR SDRAM (512 + 256)Intel D845EBG2 Motherboard - 533 & 400 Mhz FSB - supports up to PIV 2.8 Ghz (533 Mhz and 512K Cache) (No plans of changing this)Soundmax on board sound (works perfect for me)40 GB Hard Drive (more than enough)Microsoft Force Feedback 2Windows XP Home (SP1)My Sim:FS2004 @ 1280 X 9something - Windowed mode (better FPS) and 1…

I've had this problem since FS2004 was installed (I did not have this with FS2K2).During flights, my CPU fan will increase in speed so fast, that it becomes quite loud. I understand the need for the speed increase - to cool down the processor that's heating up due to the CPU load.However, if I start FS2004, choose select a flight so that you see the default plane spinning in the lower window pane, after about 30 seconds, the CPU fan will increase in speed.Placing FS2004 in windows mode so I can use the Task Manager to show the CPU/Memory usage, the memory usage is low, but the CPU is at 100%.Why is this happening?I'm concerned that the processor will over heat.I've not ov…

Good morning,some hrs ago first benchmarks of the ATI X800 Pro, X800 XT vs. Nvidia 6800 Ultra (450 Mhz GPU) have been discovered.Benchmark images are from THG, while all official reviews will be published later today. Yet no MSFS specific benchmarks are available.First Source - Rage 3D Forum (english):http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php...readid=33756628http://www.meristation.com/img-filer/artic...no/P1010017.JPGhttp://www.hx3.de/ext/farcry/ATIBilder/image014.gifhttp://www.hx3.de/ext/farcry/ATIBilder/image033.gifhttp://www.hx3.de/ext/farcry/ATIBilder/image045.gifhttp://www.hx3.de/ext/farcry/ATIBilder/image051.gifhttp://www.hx3.de/ext/farcry/ATIBilder/image061.gifht…

Hi, I own a powercolor ATI radeon 9200, and been using it for some months, but didnt get very good framerates in flight simulator 2004, so i looked over the card settings and i noticed smartgart has my agp OFF. I looked through about this issue, most people just say i should update my bios and get the lastest driver, i did both and still have this issue, the BIOS Video menu just has an AGP or PCI option and i cant change properties of the AGP (they dont even show) (1x, 2x...4x) Although my motherboard specifications state it has a 4x agp card slot available.My motherboard: Intel (Essex) Pentium 4 - 2.0 GHz (400MHz)And the specs are here:http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHER…

Hi, I own a powercolor ATI radeon 9200, and been using it for some months, but didnt get very good framerates in flight simulator 2004, so i looked over the card settings and i noticed smartgart has my agp OFF. I looked through about this issue, most people just say i should update my bios and get the lastest driver, i did both and still have this issue, the BIOS Video menu just has an AGP or PCI option and i cant change properties of the AGP (they dont even show) (1x, 2x...4x) Although my motherboard specifications state it has a 4x agp card slot available.My motherboard: Intel (Essex) Pentium 4 - 2.0 GHz (400MHz)And the specs are here:http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHER…