what do you folks think

[Mr. Midnight]

Here are the specs im thinking of going with for FSX


HARD DRIVE ---------- Western Digital Caviar SE WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s


RAM ----------- G.SKill 2GB (2x1gb) 240 Pin, DDR2, PC2 6400


MotherBoard ----------- ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail


CPU ----------- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core


Graphics CPU -------------- EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3


Cooling ------- ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler


Power Supply ----------- Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W ATX12V v2.01



thanks.......Robert

[Kennair]

Hi Robert,

Those specs are very similar to mine that I built earlier this year and it runs FSX very well. I also have a second video card and run 4Gb RAM on Vista64, and I overclocked the Q6600 to 3.0Ghz. It does depend on how you intend to configure FSX i.e. how many monitors and their resolutions etc. You will still have to tweak your FS config in order to get good framerates though.

As well as this hardware I would highly recommend getting a good defrag program to keep it all clean. I use Ultimat Defrag and swear by it. It'll do more for your system than getting a faster processor, even better if this PC is dedicated to FS.

Ken.

[AndyT]

I would also add a second video card. Two of the same for best results.

[jmig]

Robert, I would put in 4Ggs of RAM. It is cheap and it does make a difference.

[warvet]

Actually John,
4 gig of ram is no different than 2.5 or 3 simply because Windows still has not got to point where it can take advantage of 4 gig. So i would save money buy 2 gig and wait to see if you need to upgrade by that time ram will be 1/2 price JMO

Tim

[Kennair]

Actually John,
4 gig of ram is no different than 2.5 or 3 simply because Windows still has not got to point where it can take advantage of 4 gig. So i would save money buy 2 gig and wait to see if you need to upgrade by that time ram will be 1/2 price JMO

Tim

Unless you install a 64bit operating system. Both XP64 & Vista64 will make use of the full 4Gb as they have an upper RAM limit of 128Gb (I think?). If you only intend to install XP or Vista 32 bit versions then Tim's correct, you'll only access a max of 3Gb (and I think you need a tweak to get hold of anything above 2.5).

Ken.

[PascalHaldenstein]

Folks
as I'm not very familiar with pc hardware or software I've one question. such a defragger from www.disktrix.com ,as Ken mentioned it, is it really very useful to increase the performance of the PC.
does anybody else have good experiences with this defragger.
thanks

[AndyT]

Thee are only 2 worth having.
The one by O & O, (O&O defrag) and the one by Disktrix (Ultimate Defrag).

[jmig]

Actually John,
4 gig of ram is no different than 2.5 or 3 simply because Windows still has not got to point where it can take advantage of 4 gig. So i would save money buy 2 gig and wait to see if you need to upgrade by that time ram will be 1/2 price JMO

Tim

Tim, I was quoting ( as well as my recollection is correct) the computer experts at Sim-OutHouse. There was, before the server crashed, a series of threads on computers for MSFS. It was stated by more than one person that although, your statement is correct on the surface, windows will use some of the extra RAM to run the OS. This leaves more available for FSX. I think this only works on multicore CPUs which the Q6666 is.