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

I'm about to take the plunge and get a new ATI Radeon 9500 Pro--would like to get the 9700 but right now the 9500 is a full $100 cheaper ($200 vs. $300), and from what I'm told it should be fairly easy to overclock it to 9700 specs anyway.So, I'm currently running a PCI GF4MX420--laughable, I know, but my old computer, which I had until last October, did not have an AGP slot, and the above was the best PCI card available. Ever since I got the new computer, though, it's been the Achilles heel of an otherwise great system (Sony P4 2.4G, 2 80G HDs, Windows XP Home, 512MB RAM, etc.). I assumed I'd just yank it when I got the 9500, but lately I've been reading posts here tha…

Hi GuysFirstly a big thank you to Elrond and Bill for their assistance on installing my new card :-) - at last I can run in a decent resolution and with semi-decent framerates - upgrades never provide the results your'e imagining in your mind.On to the problem first. It would seem that the card installed itself twice. In the registry under hkey local machine-system-controlset001-video I have a string for the Radeon 9700 pro and the a little bit further on I have a duplicate string stating Secondary Radeon 9700 Pro. Under Flightsim in display properties I have "Radeon 9700 Pro" and then underneath it "Radeon 9700 Pro //". Under display properties I have "Samsung 75…

I've had a CH Products Flight Yoke, the older non-USB version with 1 throttle lever, and ProPedals since 1998. The thing has sure served me well, and has outlasted me building three machines for myself. But, alas, it's starting to show its age, the movement is jerky (ie, it hangs up at times) and I think I popped a spring in it some years back because it seems to get hung if I turn it too far to the left.For a while now I've considered getting a replacement USB version with the 3 lever throttle/mixture/prop. But looking at the prices (and the fact that I can't mix the USB Yoke and Gameport Pedals), it would cost me around $300 to upgrade.I've got a coworker that's been…

I am using a GeForce 4 Ti4200 which also has a TV/out via the S-Video connector. I wanted to upgrade my 15" monitor to a larger one...at least 19". My question is this. If I purchase a 20" TV monitor with the S-video input (less expensive than a PC monitor) what will I be giving up in terms of quality (resolution, sharpness, brightness, etc) ?? Thanks for your help.Vincent CarloUSA Virginia

After seeing quite a few posts about the Audigy and Windows XP as far as conflicts and issues go I figured I would post this here in hopes of helping some people. These tips are based on my experience as well as articles in magazines I read.First and foremost run over to Creatives website and DL the latest set of DRIVERS for the card. Also make sure you are running the latest BIOS for your particular motherboard as well as chipset drivers.Uninstall the card from your system. Buried within the Audigy CD is a special driver cleaning utility. It is on the installation CD in the AUDIODRIVERS folder and is called CTZAPXX.exe. Running this little program will remove all traces …

I installed WinXP on an older computer over the weekend, installed SP1 and pre-SP2 updates, controller chip, graphics adapter, and various drivers plus some utility software. One of the things I noticed was the setting of restore points during the installation process.While looking through the different partitions of the hardrive in the "System Volume Information" folder, I found all the restore points. Looking through the different subfolders on each partition, I found some very large files stored. In my mind, they were wasting valuable disk space. On the other hand, if I needed to restore to a previous point, they weren't necessarily wasting valuable disk space.Howe…

HelloI am about to upgrade my 3 watt power unit to a 5 watt. I have never done this before. Is there any advise you can offer? I have the new power supply. What I need is advise on the actual mechanics of installing the new unit. Any hints, traps, look out for's etc? Need more power for my gforce and MSFS.ThanksRegards,Ed

Hello,I got a Pentium 4, 1.8mhz, 60go HD, 768mb ram, TI4400 geo force 4 and am operating under XP; Can some one tell me if it is worth to change my virtual memory settings manually v.s leaving the system manage them in order to obtain better FPS. If yes, which amound should I enter in the settings, same as my memory (768/768), or less ?Would appreciate your commentsPatrick Geneva

Hi guys,I did a complete new and clean install of win 2000 ...After that I installed Direct X 9.0a and afterwards I installed the Nvidia 43.45 drivers. When I tried to start FS2k2 I got the following message: FS is starting up in safe mode because your system is unable to run graphics acceleration.So there weren

Was wondering if anyone has experience with these cards. Its time for a sound card but I only have a 200W PS and am already running an ATI 9000 128meg video card, I don't want to push the PS to the limit. Why HP put small PS units in we will never know. LOL The computer runs fine and have had no problems but am unsure how much power an internal card would use. Any suggestions? The external seems like a good idea, but have read that they actually use up to 20% more of the CPU than an internal Audigy.ThanksChris

Hello!I have a question about the memory allocation option in the Nvidia driver series related to the amount of memory to allocate for AGP cards running in PCI compatability mode.I have a Visiontek GeForce 4 MX 440 64MB AGP card using the Nvidia 43.45 drivers.My question is, what should I set the memory option for PCI mode to?Does my card ever run in PCI mode and if not, by setting the memory on PCI mode to say 64 (which is the default on my system) will that amount of memory of my system ram be used up, even when the card is not running in PCI mode?How do I know if the card is running in PCI mode? Any way to tell?Right now I have the memory set to 2MB for this option.I a…

Hello all, I'm interested in buying a cheap sound card to use simply for the roger wilco communications. I don't even need to transmit out of it, just to hear the RW ATC with VATSIM. I'll still have my regular card for the FS2002 sounds and transmitting over RW if necessary. I just want something very inexpensive that'll work with Windows XP!Thanks,MarcMarc Gibsonhttp://www.freewebs.com/flightsimcfi/http://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg

It may sound (pun not intended) strange not to have a sound card on a new game-oriented computer. It seems however that the newest motherboards have AC 97 5.1 6 channels integrated chips of very good standing. So does a card really help the cpu to cope (gnawing you a few fps) and then is useful or is is a waste of money if you don't use your rig for "Computer Assisted Music"? :-violinDominique

All:Hi. I need help troubleshooting a lockup/squeal issue that I am having. The symptom: On a regular and routine basis, the computer completely freezes with an audible squeal that is reminicient of a feedback through a microphone. The only way out is to pull the power from the wall and re-boot. The lockup is not predictable meaning that there is not a particular thing that I am doing or application running that is identifiable as this occurs everytime when I do this... It's random and affects all applications..Quicken, Microsoft FS, several Sierra games, some of the Jane's stuff, the Star Wars games, MS Office. Manufacturer of the software doesn't seem to matter. …

hi all.about a week ago,i've changed my old gforce2mx to a brand new radeon 9700Pro from Crucial.My idea was to get a better FS2002 image quality.So i started to increase all the display's assignements almost to the max.i play in a 1024*768 resolution with frames locked at 30fps.my pc is able to keep this framerate very well, but there is a problem,it stutters.the fps drop from 30 to 06 every 10s,very sad!!!but after many adjusts, i've just discover the problem!!!it only stutters when my dsl connection is alive.i've just make a trial: take a dash 8,in meigs,a lot of clouds,rain,and some wind too.ready for a small trip to O'hare.i'm pleased to see chicago like i've never s…

Hi, In the Bios,AGP is set at 4X. In the cards information box it says--Bus Type:AGP 4X.Current Rate:Off. Side Band:Off. Is this right, or do I need to enable something else somewhere? I sure hope so 'cos I was expecting a bigger bang for my bucks with this TI4600. Frame rates keep in the high 20s in the cockpit with all sliders at medium, but zooming in close to a Posky 747 with only sky in view soon drops them to 5/10 fps. Thanks for any help.Russell.AMD 2000xpTI4600 128mb512mb ddrSoltek SL-75DRV5350w psuWin98se

Hi,What's the collective opinion as to the best detonater driver set for the Ti4200 card? Thanks.

The basic choice now, for those of us who are in the process of acquiring a new system and are Intel-oriented is threefold- a i850 hyperthreaded system, still the top choice last week with prices bound to fall :9- a Canterwood system faster and then tantalizing but a lot more expensive (a nice config looks like over 4000

Hello there,I'm gonna upgrade my 3D card and I was wondering which of these two card I should buy ? I would like the best card FOR flight simulator because I know that some card are better in something than another one but in the case of these two cards I didn't know which one I should buy.Tell me which one you prefer and if it really makes a big difference in FS. Currently I have this one: ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder 4X AGPits the one that I had in the computer when I bought it.Thanks for your help

Hi All,I'm looking at grabbing a new Dell PC but of course the video card is a big issue for us Simmers.I've got 4 choices on what video card I can put in it and had a few questions that I was hoping some of you hardware gurus could answer.The choices are;1-64MB nVidia GeForce 4 MX 420 Graphics Card w/ TV-Out 2-64MB All-in-Wonder Radeon 9000 Pro TV Tuner Graphics Card 3-128MB DDR ATI RadeonT 9700 TX Video Card w/DVI and TV-Out4-128MB DDR ATI RadeonT 9700 Pro Graphics Card w/DVI and TV-Out I'm looking at getting the 3rd choice but am a bit confused.The 9700 Pro costs $310 more than the 9700 TX and is a tad out of my price range. What is the big difference between the two c…

I'm planning on upgrding my video card from my ATI Radeon ALL-IN-WONDER (not even the 7500) to an ASUS GEFORCE-4 V9280 TI4200-8x 128M. I was wondering what it's power supply need is so I could see if I can have it.So could someone please tell me: -How to find out what my power supply is -What you think of the cardThanks, Marcsystem specs:AMD Athlon 1.1 Ghz384MB PC133 MemoryWindows XP ProfessionnalIBM motherboard with VIA Chipset

What's the performance advantage between the 9500 and the 9700 cards? Is only one DX9 compatible? And how would the 9500 compare with the Ti4200?I'm also interested in which version of DirectX is bundled with WinXP SP1 (Home version)? Before I break sonething in trying to install DX9 :)Thanks fpr any answers.Bruce.

Hi GuysMy newly aquired Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro arrived today!!! :-)I currently have a Leadtek Geforce2Ti installed running Nvidia's 40.72 Detonator Drivers on Windows XP Professional. What is the correct procedure for installing this card? I see that Detonator Destroyer is not yet for use with Windows XP. Can anyone who has made a similar move in respect of moving from an Nvidia based card to an ATi based card provide me with some pointers of what to do in order to get the best out of my new card and getting rid of Detonator remnants?Also what is the installation reccomendations for drivers for my new card? It comes with a driver disk from Crucial but I have also do…

Hello there guys from the sunny Italy.I know that what I'm gonna mention will cause some bad thoughts but I would like to buy a new video board. First of all my rig:- WIN XP- AMD Athlon 2000- 512 mb Ram- Maxtor UATA 7200 rpm- Mobo Gigabyte 7VA- Abit Siluro GEforce 2 T400- FS2002I use only FS2002 for flying. I have the Abit Siluro T400, a very obsolete card by now. So I would like to change it but unfortunately I don't have a lot of money to spend. I would like to get a Ti4200 at least but it cost here in Italy about 250 $. I have on my pocket a lot less and was thinking about an MX400, precisely this kindXFX GEFORCE 4 MX440SE 128Mb DDR TvOut DVI that I can get for 91 $.Do…

At my default settings, my memory timing is set at CAS 2.5. However, I went into my BIOS and changed it to the faster CAS 2.0 setting. I assume that because my computer accepted the newer, faster setting that now it will speed up slightly. I am not sure of the brand of memory in my computer, but because it seems to be working fine and not locking up, can I assume that it is indeed running at the faster setting? Also, will I see any improvement in FS2002 now? Thanks,Robb