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Rank in order of importance - upgrades (Read 394 times)

Oct 20^th, 2003 at 12:00am

bailey_girl Offline
Colonel
Minnesota, USA

Posts: 21

What is the best hardware to upgrade for effectiveness on flight Simulations? What features should one look for? Can you please rank the list below from most to least important.
Also, I have a good system that can run FS2002 very well with almost all display options at or near max. Based on my computer description below, can you reccomend the best upgrade for me that will aleviate what little stuttering and lag does exist?

Processor (CPU)
- Hyperthreading?
- 64 bit?
Motherboard
- chipset?
- fsb speed?
- 4x or 8x AGP?
RAM
- type?
- amount?
Video Card
- amount of ram?
- chipset?
Hard Drive
- size?
- ATA or DMA?
Cooling System
Operating System

Thanx,
Athlon XP 1800, shuttle 266 fsb motherboard, Xtasy GF4
ti 4400 128 MB video card, 512 MB SDRAM, 30 gig 7200 RPM ata 133 hard drive.

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Reply #1 - Oct 20^th, 2003 at 12:34am

Tchkinjiu Offline
Colonel
"Toph"
Aberystwyth

Gender:
Posts: 1187

For your Processor, I would go for the Hyper, but if you can afford it, go with the 64 bit.

For the motherboard, I would would go for the AGP 8x, but then I don't know much about motherboards.

Ram, just go for the DDR SDRAM, about 512MB atleast, go for 1GB for ultimate performence. If you can, the corsair is the more expensive, but better one.

Go for the 256 MB Vid card, such as 5900 Ultra GeForce.
But if thats out of your price, go for either the, 5600 Ultra 128MB or the 9800 Pro 128MB.

A Good size to go for is 120GB, I have 30GB right now, and have half left, after about 3 years, 120GB should last you. Grin

Spring for the ATA brand, mine. Grin

But if you can, the RAID is the ruler, and get atleast 7200 RPM.

Can't help you on the cooling system, but for the O.S. go for Windows XP Pro. Very quck and speedy!

But, from what I have heard, comps are going from a 8x AGP to a 16x AGP. And the new intel 5 should be coming out fairly recent next year.

I hope this helps! Grin

-Jesster

« Last Edit: Oct 20^th, 2003 at 6:00pm by Tchkinjiu »

"Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little."

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Reply #2 - Oct 20^th, 2003 at 10:53pm

Daz Offline
Colonel
in the morning im making
WAFFLES!
Leeds, UK

Gender:
Posts: 1171

dont get the geforce 4 ti4400 its poo get the ti4200 instead 128mb version it rocks and its cheaper Cheesy

AMD athlon XP2800+ @2.34ghz&&Epox 8RDA3G 400 fsb, 8x AGP&&1024MB DDR400 PC3200&&XFX 256MB FX5950 Ultra (oc 525/1.04)&&40 gig maxtor 7200rpm&&80 gig seagate baracuda 7200rpm&&

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Reply #3 - Oct 20^th, 2003 at 11:30pm

swanny338 Offline
Colonel
Switched from PC to Mac
and loving it
Houston, Texas

Gender:
Posts: 1140

CPU: AMD 64
Mobo: Asus K8V Deluxe
Chipset: VIA K8T800 + VIA VT8237
8x AGP

Video Card: Asus ATI Radeon 9800XT
RAM: Kingston, corsair, or OCZ just get at least PC3200 DDR
Harddrive: 120 Gbs will do fine
Cooling: get a nice heatsink. i would recommend the Zalman CNPS7000A-CU Heatsink it is compatible with the AMD 64

OS: WinXp

the above is mobo is strictly for the AMD 64 Wink

so is the RAM

Tomorrow... I will do a P4 Hyperthreading setup for u

Still have a nice PC but I just switched to a hella nice mac

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Reply #4 - Oct 22^nd, 2003 at 11:58pm

swanny338 Offline
Colonel
Switched from PC to Mac
and loving it
Houston, Texas

Gender:
Posts: 1140

CPU: Pentium 4 3.06 Ghz
Mobo: Abit IC7
Video Card: ATI radeon 9800 XT
RAM: Kingston, Corsair, or OCZ PC3200 or above, best would be PC3500
Harddrive: 120 Gigs
Cooling: get a nice heatsink. i would recommend the Zalman CNPS7000A-CU Heatsink it is compatible with the P4

OS: WinXP

Just so u know, the AMD 64 setup would be better..

Still have a nice PC but I just switched to a hella nice mac

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Reply #5 - Oct 23^rd, 2003 at 10:46am

Iroquois Offline
Colonel
Happy Halloween
Ontario Canada

Gender:
Posts: 3244

The Athlon64 is quite expensive. An Athlon 64 3200 costs about $476US. The Athlon64 FX costs $828US.
Anyone know the differeance between the Athlon64 and Athlon64 FX?

I only pretend to know what I'm talking about. Heck, that's what lawyers, car mechanics, and IT professionals do everyday. Wink

&&The Rig: &&AMD Athlon XP2000+ Palomino, ECS K7S5A 3.1, 1GB PC2700 DDR, Geforce FX5200 128mb, SB Live Platinum, 16xDVD, 16x10x40x CDRW, 40/60gb 7200rpm HDD, 325w Power, Windows XP Home SP1, Directx 9.0c with 66.81 Beta gfx drivers

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Reply #6 - Oct 23^rd, 2003 at 7:32pm

4_Series_Scania Offline
Colonel
He who laughs last, thinks
slowest.
Stoke on Trent England U.K.

Gender:
Posts: 3638

I'd be looking at the Intel "Extreme edition" p4 with an Asus P4C800 (800fsb) Deluxe "Canterwood" mobo
Certainly an Nvidia FX5900Ultra I'm not sure if the extra for a 256mb card is really worth it though, 128MB should be fine.
Surely theres still some life in that ti4400? - no slow card even by todays standards......
Plenty i.e. 1GB + of DDR400 ram, make sure its dual channel!
Win XP Pro for the O.S.
7200rpm HD with large cache should be ok for loading times...

Depends on the size of the piggy bank really Wink

However, a faster CPU (depends on what your mobo will support) such as an XP2800+ along with some DDR RAM instead of the 512mb SDRAM you've currently got will really give that ti4400 a kick in performance, its your money, but if I were you, I'd up your current setup a little,sit bacvk and await the new P5 from Intel.
This will then be the time to either go and buy a real top notch setup based on 64bit archetecture or pickup a comparitive bargain by getting some of the last (now current) p4 kit.

Make any sence??

Paul.

Posting drivel here since Jan 31st, 2002. - That long!

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Reply #7 - Oct 23^rd, 2003 at 9:58pm

geezer Offline
Colonel
Raleigh, NC

Posts: 30

It all depends on the money you can spend and whether you build it yourself or not.

Processor: 64 bit programs are not widely available yet and might not be for a while. Your decision here rests on how long this PC will have to last you. My choice would be an 800Mhz FSB Intel 3.2Ghz.

Motherboard: most of the top ones are similar and not much of a factor. Get 800Mhz FSB and 8xAGP only and 4 RAM slots for up to 4GB of RAM if necessary in the future.

RAM: Crucial is the best there is. Get AT LEAST 1GB - your mobo will most likely hold 4 sticks so you can expand later if necessary. The RAM should be DDR400 (PC3200) only.

Video Card: If you can afford it, go for the 256MB models but the above mentioned nVidia Ti4200 is a very good choice with 128MB. That is what I have and I am very satisfied with it.

Hard Drive: No brainer here - Go with Maxtor SATA. I use 2 hard drives, one for the O/S and its associated programs and one for the Sim. Drive0 is 40GB and partitioned into 2 equal segments. The O/S is on C: and the other junk is on D:. This drive is the master on controller0 and the CD unit is the slave to that one. Drive1 is 120GB partitioned 4 ways and is the master on controller1. The first partition (E:) is 5GB in size and has my swap file - nothing else. The second partition on this drive has the Sim and the others have my "hangars" and "maintenance shacks." Both drives have to be the same speed and are 7.2k. Remember, SATA.

Do not spend extra for RAID functionality on either the mobo or the drives. You are not running that kind of system and you have to have at least three drives for RAID to make sense (RAID5) (RAID0 uses two but is only mirroring)

Cooling system: Buy a good case, at least 400W ps and case fans, you will be fine.

O/S: Why, SuSE Linux, of course!! Seriously for you for Simming probably WinProXP. I use Win2kPro and will not have XP for any amount of money but most of you folks don't share my revulsion of ol' Bill and think XP is the "bees knees."

Imagine...

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