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

I've got a dell P4 2.26 with a 533mhz FSB. I'd like to swap in a 3.06 ghz (pretty sure that's the fastest 533 FSB cpu, or?) - any issues I should be aware of such as chipset incompatibilities or something qwirky about dells not liking CPU switches? Any need to reinstall windows, etc?Thanks!sg

Ok,I'm running a 2.28, 768mb DDRAM, 80 gig harddrive, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb. How can I get the best out of it? I have updated drivers and everything.What settings in the advanced tab would give me the best quality and performance?CW

Anyone of you gurus care to tell me how to tell WIN 98 to play nice with 1G of ram? I have two HD's one with 98 and I want to keep that set-up but also use 1G of RAM for the XP HD. When I want 98, I just boot to the old HD and use the 98 install. I want to use 1G of ram, or limit windows to using 512, does that make sense?? How can this be done?Thx.Hornit

HiToday I got the Nvidia FX5950. I install it with no problems and use it for like 4 hours: it's amazing!Then I had to format my hard drive due to an error. So from scratch Iinstalled Windows XP, the drivers, MSFS and so on... Once I installed the FX5950's drivers, it seemed like there was no video card, I mean, when I scrolled down it took like interveals, MSFS is un flyable etc... So I went to the Device Manager where I noticed this message under Display Adapters:Display Adapters >"This device cannot start. (Code 10)Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device."When I right Click on Display Prop, there is no Video Card, It says "Default Monitor" and…

Why does system32 folder show after a restart on my sons computer? Any help greatly appreciated

Hello all,I have some questions about PC hardware and I think this is the right forum to ask them.Right now I have a Dell Dimension 4500 with:Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz.512 MB RAM20 GB 7200Rmp HDDNvidia Geforce 3 TI200 (64MB)The overal performance is not to good. Having 8 - 15 Fps with complex addons. And +/- 5 Fps on the ground with AI aicraft.But I'am thinking of buying myself a nice Christmas Present.I do not want to buy a new Computer. I was thinking about a new Video card. I know the ATI card's are verry popular lately. Will an ATI 9800 PRO make much diference?? I've seen the new XT version also, but that's a bit to expensive.... Does the 9600 XT comare to the 9800 pro? Or t…

Hi,I just upgraded my graphics card from a geforce2 TI 64MB, to an ATI radeon 9800 pro with 128 mb DDR, I got it for christmas while in Vancouver and im anxiously waiting my return to Montreal on January 5th. :-hah My question is , what am I going to expect from the upgrade? How many times more frames will I get after installing this beast? And what drivers/tweaking should I apply to make this thing run at its full Potential.Thanks,Alex :-wave CYULAMD Athlon XP 2400+ running at 2.33 GHzAsus A7N8X deluxe motherboard512MB PC2700ATI Radeon 9800 pro 128 MB DDR80 gig maxtor HDWindows XP proX-45 Hotas (soon)CH yoke and pedals

Greetings everyone!I(like a few other people) built a new system just for FS2004:MOBO: Gigabyte GA-8PE667 w/dual channel ddr MEMORY: 512MB Crucial PC2700 Processor: PIV 2.4B Ghz 533 FSBVideo Card: ATI 9700 AIW Pro 128MB Hard Disks: 60GB and 40GB Western DIgital 7200rpmPSU: 420 wattsCase: Xpider ATX w/side window, five fans w/ lights:)Ok, my question is this. I just got a second stick of 512MB (I made sure it was the same type of RAM)but when I tried installing it, I ran into some problems. First, with the older stick in Bank 0 and the newer stick in Bank 2, my computer just displays processor information...and that's it!. The same thing happens when I move the newer stick…

Hi All.the last four flights in my PSS A340 have ended abruptly I'm affraid. what has been happening is this, I start the flight planning etc the normal way, the PSS plane performs admirably in every way, I'm not saying it's a PSS issue,but it's happened the last 4 flights in the A340 and I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem, I take off and fly as normal,I tend to stay in the 2D pit most all the flight, then like just now I went to the outside view to have a look at this lovely bird flare and auto deploy spoilers and then I engage reverse thrust.but just before I see any thrust reversers etc I get a black screen where FS should be, EG. the screen edge in wi…

Hey guys,I've found a new problem now - Ran a test on PCMark and I discovered my FSB is running at 200 MHz instead of 800. I've been searching everwhere, BIOS, Forums, manual and still cannot find why this is happening. The motherboard manaul says nothing about setting the FSB nor does the BIOS have any setting that I can change. If anyone knows or has experienced this same problem, please let me know what I can do. Anyways thanks a lot :)If this will help, I have my PCMark results posted below if you would like to take a look.http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm04=128627

Hello,I got the Catalyst 3.10 drivers but am disappointed to find no digital vibrance, and windowing between FS and windows there is a 5 second delay.Also I am getting jagged edges inside FS.Does anyone have any tips, i.e. best drivers, settings etc for the best FS experience.Cheers.Alexander Martin.

I'm posting this on it's own so any answers will be more "searchable" for others.My new system will of course have "USB 2" where I have only had USB 1 to date..I understand that there will be NO improvement in USB port speed until I buy a "USB 2" piece of hardware to plug into it. No problem..However, am I going to have to change all my cables to USB 2 "style" ?Is there a difference in "basic" cables betwee 1 & 2 ? I'm sure there are "better" cables than others, but will my cables with current printer, scanner, broadband cable remain the same for now ?I thought this would be easy to find out, but my time spent on various websites did not supply an answer, so I came …

Another quick question.I'm getting a lot of fan noise all of a sudden from the AGP fan on my Gigabyte mobo. I can hear it "spin" up and then chatter, sort of like there was no oil or something in it, lol. Are these replaceable? Or, how should I fix it?Thanks,

Hi All,any techie minded guru's out there who know if I should let Win XP Pro handle my page file size, or should I set it to something else, I've heard of others that have set their own sizes up, but I don't know what sizes to use, ie. Minimum and Maximum sizes, I'm running 1024MB of RAM on an Intel P4 3.02GHz CPU as you can see in my sig.thanks for any helpSteve

Over the years, I have upgraded several times. I buy new hardware/software, install it in my computer, pass my mother board, CPU, and memory down to my wife's computer, and then pass what was in hers down to my daughter's computer.Some weeks ago, after I did this, all three went flawlessly with the following exception. I retained the existing harddrives as is in each computer. The only hardware added to both my wife's and daughter's computers were CDRW drives and new graphics cards. . I removed the sound card from my wife's computer and went with the onboard sound. (The removed devices do not show up under hardware devices anymore either)On my wife's computer, under devic…

Hello.My friend got this computer, it has onboard video with an AGP Slot.So he put the AGP card in, and it wouldnt display, and he put it back into the onboard, and it works. So he tried to set the "Share Memory Size" in bios to NONE. Now his computer makes a few beeping noises when you power it up and displays "Sync. Out of Range".Can someone please help us?

A quick one. I've got 512MB 3200 Crucial memory. I'm running an AMD 2600XP at 333 MHz. I know I'm overkill with the 3200, not using to it's full potential, but I want to upgrade to 1GB, to run other programs in addition to MSFS (ie. FSHotseat).Could I run 512MB 2700 on the same Gigabyte mobo? Or would I run into problems and should just stick with another 512MB 3200? Looking off of pricewatch.com, the difference between the two is only about $3.Thanks,

Why do they seem to enjoy making things as tough as possible to decide on what works with what ?! It might be better these days, but it never stops...I ordered a couple of Crucial 512mb pc-3200 DDR400 for my new ASUS P4c800-E Deluxe because I see Crucial recommended a lot in the forums.NOW, I see that "Crucial" is not on the ASUS list of qualified vendors!HOWEVER, when I go to the "Crucial" site and work it the other way, (putting my P4c in memory finder)they state NO PROBLEMAfter reading all Crucial had to say, I feel pretty good about using it with the ASUS board, I can't see a problem with it, but WHY do they have to play head games with us like this ? One of the item…

Hello all.....must do a 90 day post or else. I'm thinking of getting a ATI 9800 pro..maybe xt. Shush!!!! Don't tell the wife!!!! I've gone from a diamond 4 mg on a 100hz PI, to voodoo daughter , to voodoo bangie, to the geforce line. (with system chages along the way) Anyone else out there a video card upgradeaholic?? The question...Drivers..which are best for fs9 and others? And ATI owners...worth it???Current SystemP IV 3.06 @3.15 533mhz1 gig 3200 corsairAsus p4s800 mobogeforce 4600TI

I am thinking of replacing my 19" CRT and possibly my 27" CRT TV with a Sony 17" SDMV72W LCD monitor. Does FS2004 support widescreen?

ATI 9800 Pro Clone vs extented view question?" On cold startups, I am getting a clone display on my second monitor some of the time (Same display on both monitors no matter what I do, including desktop Icons, toolbars etc). The extended view box is not checked in my display properties for the second monitor although it was in my original setup, and it will not accept a check mark if I try to put one in it while the clone display is present.Similar to the old NVIDIA setup, I find no options for clone views in any of the ATI control functions so I really do not know from where this is coming.I can restart the computer and it comes up with the extended view as per my origin…

In recent weeks I've been putting together a spec for my replacement system to run FS2004. In previous years choosing the graphics card hasn't been too difficult. However, this time round it's a flippin' nightmare.Here's what I've considered so far (chipsets only...)nVidia Ti4800 - very good 2 years ago but probably overtaken by better now.nVidia FX5600 - poor reviews, rejected.nVidia FX5700 - shortlisted; good reviews; relatively inexpensive.Radeon 9800 Pro - shortlisted; good reviews; quite expensive.nVidia FX5900/5950 - shortlisted; faster than 9800 Pro?; most expensive.The card will be fitted in a P4 3.0Ghz, 800Mhz FSB, 1Gb PC3200 system. I don't want to spend large s…

http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnps3100GP.htmI put one of these on a computer I built for my daughters a couple of days ago. Its wild looking but it works by total simplicity. Instead of small heat sink with a fan on top screaming at 7200 rpm this works with a large flower/fan shaped HS and a large 90mm fan turning slowwwwly up above it. In fact the bracket for the fan is held by three screws over on your PCI slots. The one I bought isn't Gold plated but is pure copper,pretty far out looking to say the least,and its heavy,this ain't no cheapo HS.The one I bought has a rpm speed control. You can lower the speed as low as about 1350 rpm,high speed is only about 250…

Okay, onward and parallel (not upward) it seems :-)Bit of a problem on initial boot up of the new system.. specs firstASUS P4c800-E DeluxeIntel P4 3.0 1 gig Crucial 2x512 PC3200 DDRWD Caviar 120gb Serial ATA HDATI AIW 9800pro 128mb video card52x24x52 CD-RW drive8x4x12 DVD dual format driveInfo related to last subject post by me on heat sink paste;After 30 mins from new:CPU temp 40C 104FMB temp 33C 91FVcore 1.5363.3 3.155v 5.2412v 12.34 I installed the CD and DVD drives as master and slave on the primary IDE.I installed the Serial ATA HD on the SATA1 mb plug-in and I'm using a SATA power cable for power supply. So far, I booted the system and went into bios setup an…

Well, got a bit more time to work on the new system.. (should have been done by now...cripes!)Put the new ATX 400W power supply in place and plugged in all the matching plugs to MB (except the extra one for "Rambus"(?) boards)I still have two small diameter wires left to plug in. These are the size of fan wires and are color coded black and red just like most fan wires. They have a two post plug. All the fan power plugs on the ASUS mb have three wire plugs.Now, I'm thinking that they are for sensing either temps or fan speed (this mb connection IS two pin)in the PU but really have no idea, although it seems that if they are other than pos & neg power supply then the…