-
There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.
If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.
Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.
The Staff of SOH
OT:New PC
- Thread starter LouP
- Start date
txnetcop
Charter Member
Sorry to ask but this is like my second homeand I know I will get good advice. I don't have the time or patience to make my own so where is a good place to get a nice pre-built.
thnx,
LouP
How much have you set aside to buy a new system? What other games or applications do you use a computer for? Do you have a personal preference as far as AMD or Intel? Do you have a personal preference concerning video cards ATI or Nvidia? This is a good place to start.
Ted
LouP
Flight Sim Junkie
OK,
Thanks guys. My ideal system that I would have set up would be an i7 960, with a GTX-285, at least 9 gigs of RAM, at least an 800 watt power supply, titanium sound blaster, 300 gig velociraptor (or maybe 2 if the price is right , but no RAID), no water cooling, quiet, and upgradable. I actually looked and configured the Alienware but am having secound thoughts about the small case and the liquid cooling. I probably would have configured an XPS 730 but they don't offer them anymore. seems like they are trying to replace that line with the Alienware. The studio XPS just doesn't quite cut it for me but I would settle for one if I had to, (maxed out), but I think that the PS would eventually come into play only being 475W and non-upgradable.
LouP
Thanks guys. My ideal system that I would have set up would be an i7 960, with a GTX-285, at least 9 gigs of RAM, at least an 800 watt power supply, titanium sound blaster, 300 gig velociraptor (or maybe 2 if the price is right , but no RAID), no water cooling, quiet, and upgradable. I actually looked and configured the Alienware but am having secound thoughts about the small case and the liquid cooling. I probably would have configured an XPS 730 but they don't offer them anymore. seems like they are trying to replace that line with the Alienware. The studio XPS just doesn't quite cut it for me but I would settle for one if I had to, (maxed out), but I think that the PS would eventually come into play only being 475W and non-upgradable.
LouP
Check your MB manufacturer's website first, then try the rest of the net, but do not hope in miracles. Usually, the actual best MBs for home use are limited to a max of 16Gb top.
As for the question about a good PC... while I can understand that not everyone wants to build his own PC, the best choice is to find a reliable technician that builds you a good PC tailored to your needs. May I suggest this for references: http://www.hardware-revolution.com/the-secret-behind-designing-the-400-gaming-pc/
we just had a custom PC built for an employee of mine. She wanted a faster machine for video editing.
i dont know the exact specs, but it's the latest quad core, 8gigs ram, nvidia 285, etc...all running on XP 64. It cost only 1,500 or something ridiculously low for such a fast machine (but no keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc...just the box). Since it's for work, there are no games installed on it yet. But i'll bring in Prototype and Crysis Warhead on Monday and see how fast they can run at 1920x1200...
it's amazing how cheap fast PCs are getting. Even 2 years ago, a machine like this would have cost around 3,500-4k USD.
Btw, for desktops, you don't need Alienware. Just copy/paste their specs and have a third party built if for you using the exact same parts. You'll save about 500-1000$! Only go w/ them if you want a gaming laptop...
-feng
i dont know the exact specs, but it's the latest quad core, 8gigs ram, nvidia 285, etc...all running on XP 64. It cost only 1,500 or something ridiculously low for such a fast machine (but no keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc...just the box). Since it's for work, there are no games installed on it yet. But i'll bring in Prototype and Crysis Warhead on Monday and see how fast they can run at 1920x1200...
it's amazing how cheap fast PCs are getting. Even 2 years ago, a machine like this would have cost around 3,500-4k USD.
Btw, for desktops, you don't need Alienware. Just copy/paste their specs and have a third party built if for you using the exact same parts. You'll save about 500-1000$! Only go w/ them if you want a gaming laptop...
-feng
Toastmaker
Charter Member 2016
For pete's sake, man - be sure you have a good, high capacity external drive for BACKUPS !! And use it for anything important to you !
Seriously.
Seriously.
Wing_Z
Charter Member 2011
You can set core affinity in XP, so do not expect miracles from WIN7.
Be aware that running FS9 at 2GHz feels like a Pentium IV...even if there are 3 other cores looking after the malware and other tasks
Double video cards also are a waste of time.
FSX btw also suffers from the clock speed malady (SP2 tried to improve slightly on this), and so is doomed because they ain't doing clock speed anymore. FSX users thus are trapped under a glass ceiling...the old fast machines aren't good enough, and the new machines CPU's are too slow...they will come back to FS9 and see the light, probably.
Be aware that running FS9 at 2GHz feels like a Pentium IV...even if there are 3 other cores looking after the malware and other tasks
Double video cards also are a waste of time.
FSX btw also suffers from the clock speed malady (SP2 tried to improve slightly on this), and so is doomed because they ain't doing clock speed anymore. FSX users thus are trapped under a glass ceiling...the old fast machines aren't good enough, and the new machines CPU's are too slow...they will come back to FS9 and see the light, probably.
I've wondered about this with the slower clock speeds on the newer CPUs. With FS only running on one core, you're still limited by the clock speed.
Thinking about building a new machine myself. But more to really run FS9 rather than FSX.....
Well, FSX was a interim project to raise some bucks in the meantime. The real successor of FS9 would have been FS11, a little like at the start of the millennium with the FS98/2K/2K2 debacle...
Problem is that people, in a critical conjuncture like the actual, is less ready to give away money for nothing (to quote a certain song) and M$ got mortally offended that their funds-raising interim software received such a unjustifiable poor welcome, hence courageously decided to bail out from the business of simulation (not only flight simulation, Train Sim 2 too went in the Porcelain Throne). :toilet:
It takes guts to be a coward. People like me WILL remember and be EVEN MORE wary. :violent:
Cazzie
SOH-CM-2024
Wing_Z,
I hear all this scuttlebutt about SLI and CrossFire not effecting sim rates too, but FSX is living proof to me that SLI, even though FSX is not SLI-ready, performs better with SLI enabled. FS9 could care less.
Without SLI in FSX, my frame rates show as great, but the plane stutters and hops like a cartoon. With SLI enabled, it gets the same frame rates, but is now stable and smooth. I can't explain why, I don't know enough about it, but I do know that for me on my system, going SLI in FSX is most necessary or I simply couldn't fly in it.
Caz
I hear all this scuttlebutt about SLI and CrossFire not effecting sim rates too, but FSX is living proof to me that SLI, even though FSX is not SLI-ready, performs better with SLI enabled. FS9 could care less.
Without SLI in FSX, my frame rates show as great, but the plane stutters and hops like a cartoon. With SLI enabled, it gets the same frame rates, but is now stable and smooth. I can't explain why, I don't know enough about it, but I do know that for me on my system, going SLI in FSX is most necessary or I simply couldn't fly in it.
Caz
Wing_Z
Charter Member 2011
Heh. Amen.
But I didn't want to steer the discussion into FSX-bashing.
Cazzie, I didn't get good results in a Crossfire setup, but that was Vista, and I'd be the first to admit I am stupid about FSX.
Heck, this is an FS9 forum, I didn't even want to mention FSX.
One last thought about FS9 though.
My box runs it beautifully, but if I had to change something I would add a 10,000rpm HDD for common texture loading.
I still get an occasional stutter when it has to go paging through 100GB of bmp's. :d
Just out of interest, here's a look at what my FS box does when loading this thread's scenery
LouP
Flight Sim Junkie
Hi All,
Well I pulled the trigger. I did a lot of research and finally made a decision. I even approached my brother who builds PCs for a living but did not go that route. Thank you all for your help with this and I appreciate the pms and all. I know there will be much groaning but this is best for me.
I ordered an Alienware Area 51 with the following specs: http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desk...1/pd.aspx?refid=alienware-area-51&s=dhs&cs=19
CPU - Liquid cooled i7 950
OS - Wndows 7 Home Premium
RAM - 6GB Tri Channel DDR3, 1333MHz
Video Card - 1GB GTX 285
Hard Drive - 1 TB SATA-II
Sound Card - Craetive Sound Balster X-Fi Titanium
The rest is the standard on the set-up
I know that I had originally said that I was going to get the velociraptors but after doing the research, I came to the opinion that the best way to go would be with a SSD instead but it's my opinion that there needs to be a little more perfecting on these drives before I would want to buy one, so I figure I would purchase one down the road and plop it in then. I am excited about getting my new toy but am dreading the set-up lol.
Thanks again,
LouP
Well I pulled the trigger. I did a lot of research and finally made a decision. I even approached my brother who builds PCs for a living but did not go that route. Thank you all for your help with this and I appreciate the pms and all. I know there will be much groaning but this is best for me.
I ordered an Alienware Area 51 with the following specs: http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desk...1/pd.aspx?refid=alienware-area-51&s=dhs&cs=19
CPU - Liquid cooled i7 950
OS - Wndows 7 Home Premium
RAM - 6GB Tri Channel DDR3, 1333MHz
Video Card - 1GB GTX 285
Hard Drive - 1 TB SATA-II
Sound Card - Craetive Sound Balster X-Fi Titanium
The rest is the standard on the set-up
I know that I had originally said that I was going to get the velociraptors but after doing the research, I came to the opinion that the best way to go would be with a SSD instead but it's my opinion that there needs to be a little more perfecting on these drives before I would want to buy one, so I figure I would purchase one down the road and plop it in then. I am excited about getting my new toy but am dreading the set-up lol.
Thanks again,
LouP