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

Shopping around for a new video card I see terms like "OEM" , "Retail" , or "Box" . Could somebody explain the difference and whether one is more desirable than the other ?ThanksJohn

Anyone with experience with this mobo that could possibly direct me to correct drivers. ASUS site does not show "any" drivers for any OS.Originally had a P3V4X which failed - under warranty. THought computer shop had replaced with same. Come to learn, that I have a P3B-F instead. And, per ASUS readme, this board was only good for up to PIII600 - and I have a PIII800 on board.Time to replace. Just curious as to any knowledge or experience with the P3B-F board.Thanks,Ron

I'm just formatted my pc due to fantastic irreversible system crash caused by a black out, system were i fly fs2k2 finelly.Reinstalled all fs2k2 won't istall giving me this message: impossible open file sound.cab due to low memory or(insufficient space on disk to swap file".My systemxp1700xp524 mb ram ddr 233Hdd 60gb (30+30) free 20+21 I+JHdd 40gb (20+20) free 10+5 K+ESo on I: Win xpDisplay Asus Gf4 128mb ram ddr Ti4400Anyone can help me plese GraucoItalyPS sorry for poor english

Hello , I need your opinion.two month ago i upgraded m y pc from a pII 400 mhz with 256mb sd-ram to a amd athlon xp 1700+ with a 256mb DDRMost of the time during a flight in fs2k2 my PC becomes very very slow and getting all choppy and stuffwhat could the reason be ? cpu ram video card adapter (i got gf2 64mb drr)??Can someone help ?

I'm putting my first system together within the next couple of weeks. I'm using an ASUS P4PE/L Mobo. I want to put in 512mb of RAM. I went to the crucial site (they have free 2nd day shipping for orders over 40 bucks right now) to pick out my ram. Their selector said that the mobo has 3 banks of 1. I've read thier FAQ which explains this, but I'm still having a hard time wrapping my little brain around this simple concept. My question is this. There are three slots for RAM on the mobo. Should I put in two sticks of 256mb or one stick of 512mb?Thanks for any light that you can shed on this topic for me.Tim13

Can anyone tell me where I can find a good throttle quadrant. I am looking for a 2 engine and if possible with reverse thrust.Thanks for any help

Anyone try these yet? Any improvements?Thanks

I recently upgraded to the Dell 8250 3.06 HT with the Radeon 9700 Pro video card. I've noticed if FS2002 is minimized for several seconds and then returned to normal full screen mode, the aircraft panels are distorted, "ripped" or "torn". This situation is rectified by reloading a different aircraft. Most display settings are either maxed out or close to it which usually yields 28-30 fps. I reset target frame rates from 15 to 30 to see how it would handle it. Most situations offer a solid 28-30 fps.I would appreciate any recommended settings or any other information that may help remedy the situation as described above.

My system specs:Intel Pentium 4 2.8gigAsus P4T533 motherboard fsb=5331GIG of RDRAM 4200 232 pinRadeon 9700 Pro with Catylyst 3.1 drivers previously had 2.5Soundblaster AudigyMaxtor 80 gig hard driveAntec 400W Power Supply, Case=Open for coolingSoftware:Windows XP ProfessionalFlight Simulator "is killing me"Here is my situation:I can start a flight from say for example Asheville to Charlotte, does not matter either night or day it happens and no given time either. But Flight Simulator just crashes. It runs as pretty as you please and looks sweet and then all of a sudden again no time frame it crashes. Evertime it has referred to one of the "Modules" dll file such as terrai…

Yep... my PC hates me. I've come to realise this recently. Like I don't treat it well? No... I look after it... it should like me. Why? Why shun me like this? I should cry really... but then again, that would be childish and I would lose any twinkling of respect that my PC might still have. Yes. Act strong. Be brave. Stiff upper lip!Anyway... enough of that nonsense!I have just rebuilt my system to this spec:AthlonXP 2100+SolteK KT400 board, with no chipset driver updates.512mb DDR RAMPNY GeForce Ti42007200rpm 40gb HD (forget the manufacturer, but not 'budget')SB Audigy PlatinumUSB mouse52x CD24x 4x 4x CDRW HP8100Alcatel USB ADSL ModemNorton AV 2002Folowing some…

I'm thinking of buying a new video card. I currently have a GeForce 2 Pro card on a P4 1.7 GHz system, with 256 MB RDRAM (yes, I'm going to double the RAM too). The GF2 is, to put it mildly, starting to feel a little dated.So, what would be a good video card to buy right now? It should of course run well with FS, but also with other games.When it comes to computer hardware, I'm not really interested in all the technical stuff, so I'm happy if I don't have to read hundreds of pages detailing why this kind of card is better than that kind of card, and why a card using this technology is better than a card using that technology, assuming that you have this processor and not …

hi folks, recently bought a logitech rumblepad, basically for some racing games where it works great but then I also wanted to give the force feedback a try in fs2002. well, although everything is set up the throttle lever/slider does not work. or let me put it this way: using the calibration utility in device manager it does work. but not in fs20002 although it is assigned to the correct axis as throttle and the slider is even recognized as 'throttle'. any idea?to make things even more complicated: I usually use a CH Yoke USB which works also fine, even with throttle. Of course, I detached the yoke when trying to use the gamepad.CheersPhilCome to DAD!http://www.dangerous…

Hi all,Since ram was cheap I bought some, went from 512Mb DDR to 768Mb DDR, My 3DMark2001SE scores didn't improve as well as my FS2002 fps didn't?? I'm only getting 18-25fps with 3fps in heavy weather. System is AMDXP 1400, Abit KG7512 or 768 DDR ramGeForce4 TI4600 128Mb latest drivers ,09's7200rpm hard driveWINXPThanks for your help or ideas.Rob

First of all, my systems specs:P4 1.7 GHz256 MB RDRAM (600 MHz, 2x 128 MB)60 GB HDDGeForce 2 Pro (upgrade pending on the video card too :-))I'm going to get another 256 MB of RAM, but I need some advice. First of all, it's my understanding that the RDRAM I have must be run in pairs, so I would have to buy two more 128 MB modules.Do the new modules have to be the same speed as the current ones (600 MHz)? Looking around the web, I wasn't even able to find 600 MHz modules for sale. So can I buy two 128 MB 800 MHz modules and add them, or should I get rid of the currently installed 600 MHz modules and get 512 MB of fresh memory?Also, should all the modules be by the same manu…

I understand that even in XP, it's advisable to un-install previous drivers before installing new ones. Is this just a matter of deleting the video card in DM, then having the PC find it on re-boot? If so, is it then just a matter of direction the new driver wizard to the HD location with the new drivers?Thanks,Bruce.

Having a bit of a problem. I shut the computer down last night. While shutting down, it said "iexplorer not responding". I waited for it to shut IE down on its own. It didn't do it, so I clicked "End Now", and the pc shut down. Now, I try starting it and I get to some screen that just says Welcome to Windows XP, and it just hangs there. Is there a way to get into a safe mode so I can use the system restore? Thanks in advance.

Hi Guys,I'm wondering if anyone else has this nagging problem that I've encoutered with my ATI Radeon 7500/64MB. I searched the forum as best I could but I've never had any luck with the search function here. In spot view, the landing lights/taxi lights project with normal depth and brightness. In cockpit view, both taxi and landing lights are nothing but useless. They do not project correctly and seem to be patchly at certain nosewheel angles (on 3rd party aircraft with taxi lights that rotate with the nosehweel). Straight ahead motion causes very dim or no landing light projection. The best way I can describe the effect is to say that landing lights project about half a…

I saw in on the TweakXP forum a reference to a "run command" that supposedly "unloads idle processes" to free resources. The command line is Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasksDoes anyone know what exactly this command does? I created a restore point and a HD back-up then ran this command, lots of HD activity but no noticeable change in performance.Thanks,Bruce.

Hi, Im finally going to upgrade my Geforce 2 mx to either a Radeon 9000 pro or a Radeon 9100 (AKA the 8500 brought back with just a new name no other improvements but still looks like a very good deal at under $100). I was wondering which one should I get since both look very good on paper and in reviews. I do plan to use fs2002 exclusively on this PC and FSCOF when it comes out. The reason Im Jumping off the nvidia waon is it seems like you get more for your money with the 9000 pro and 9100 radeon cards. for $70 you get a Directx 8.0 card with vertex shaders and everything. On Nvidias side $70 gets you a Directx 7.0 card. Which one should I get? The 9000pro is newer a…

http://www.casearts.com/gallery.htmlWhat kind do you want...Marble,wood,water drops?? Pretty wild looking with keyboards,mice and drives to match.David

Hi, I am thinking about buying a larger harddrive. My question is...would I notice much of a differencein performance with a drive which has a 8MB cacheversus a 2MB cache with FS2002? Thanks in advance for any advice. Dave

hias some of you already know it is imminent before i go and upgrade my P3 800however before i go and buy my upgrade i want to ensure i have done my homework.Now the thing is i have Telstra ADSL on this P3800 computer which i want to also access with my upgrade machine, which will be exclusively for FS 2002/2004i need to know by some knowledgebale people on this board, in steps what / how do i go about getting my FS computer access with the ADSL connection i have at the moment,i know a few details of my current ADSL setup.I have a PPoE connection, using a speedtouch home ALCATEL external modem, i also downloaded a software program called SYGATE which i believe will assist…

Okay folks, it is that time of year again... We have kicked off our spring fund drive. What's that you ask? Simple. An easy and convenient way to show your support of AVSIM and a means for you to contribute to keeping our doors open contributing to the expansion of our services (read the front page today about our latest server acquisition as an example).Providing growing bandwidth and expanding services to the flight simulation community is not cheap (as anyone who runs a web site of any size can tell you). Bandwidth is not cheap, and replacing machines to keep up with demand is expensive too (figure $3,500 to $4,000 each time we buy a server - these are not your normal …

In the process of upgrading Dell 800 Mhz CPU to :3.06 Mhz HT - or - 2.80 Mhz - or - 2.66 MhzPriority is FS2002 and FS2004 efficiency. Any pro or con comments on HT technology appreciated.RAM : 512 Mhz planned.Video Card : Radeon 9700 TX vs. PRO.Im planning on using the new system for FS only with older 800 Mhz for WideFs support such as RC3, FSMETEO, etc.In addition, using a pair of e-machine "throw-aways" for Left-Front & Right-Front Wideview functions.Any and all comments, recommendations appreciated especially if the extra CPU horsepower is worth the expense.Many thanks in advance.