NZFF

Hi my name is Neil, I'm from Beaumont in sunny sunny (not this time of year) Central Otago and Iv been flying sims since fs98. Any how that aside I have been given a pc that was no longer needed for free. Its stats as follows

AMD Athlon II x4 630 2.8GHz
4GB RAM Trancend JM1333KLU-2G
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD500AAKS 500GB SATA Hard Drive
Nvidia Geforce 7025
Hyena DR-8360BTX PSU (350W)

Now in current form FSX is barely playable so my plan so far is to get a better GPU something like a Nvidia gtx 660ti and a bigger PSU to run it (thanks to a tax woohoo). So I guess what im asking is what other sugestions do people have bearing in mind that I have a limited budget. I know that an I7 with 16gb of ram and a gtx 690 would be grate but im wanting to see wat I can get out of this machine. I currently run Fsx on a core duo 2.6GHz with 2G of ram and a wee geforce 9300GE so anything will be an improvment. Thanks in advance. Let me know if you need more info.

Hi Neil

I'm thinking you will be dissapointed with the result.

What motherboard does it have?

If you can change the MB to an intel based chipset with the 1155 socket and pop and i5 3570 on there it will give you the best performance increase for your buck.
The CPU is about $310 in NZ at the moment and you should be able to get the MB for about $150 give or take. GTX660 is around $300 - $400 plus your PSU. You should be able to transform that system for no more than $1000.

Personally I reckon its better to do it properly and go for new everything if your upgrading. Its a once in three or more years job but you never regret it.

Hi the MB is an asus m4n68t. thanks for the replys I realize that changing out the MB and cpu to an i5 will give me bang for buck but i dont have a spare grand to throw at it at the moment so will have to save up my pocket money haha. But in the mean time was woundering what I could do in terms of stuff that I can swap to the new MB later on eg RAM, something that I dont know much about as in whats good or not? And also would there be any sence in upgrading to the likes of the amd phenom II x6 BE 3.3GHz or the littler x4 BE 3.2GHz cpu's as they have the same AM3 socket (depends on price I spose)?

Oh ok, that's a reasonable motherboard.
So with a faster processor & the other upgrades you mentioned in your first post it should run FSX ok.
You didn't mention the OS. It will need to be x64 to use 4G or more ram.
If youre on a budget get used parts.

I have this for sale on Trade Me and it would suite that MB it also runs FSX very well with most sliders maxed, I had it running on an Asus MB-M4A89TD Pro

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=617008969

Yip it has windows 7 64bit Os. Thanks for the trade me link will look into that, tho I see it closes soon so will have to suck up to she who holds the credit card haha. Also wat sort of psu should I be looking at ie how many watts and what brands good?

Check this link

http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx

Popular brands:
Corsair
Silverstone
Antec
Enermax
Thermaltake

Not in any particular order.

I am currently running one of these & like it.

http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=790268

A 500 should be ok for your needs.

Cheers Rocky any help on understanding RAM ie how much, wats fast and whats reliable

Have a read of this.

http://fsrijnmond.airworld.nl/PDF%20bestan...vsim_1-2013.pdf

Have now. Thanks so much, very helpful, I've always wanted the fsx how to bible

waggonwheel wrote:

QUOTE (waggonwheel @ Jul 31 2013,8:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have now. Thanks so much, very helpful, I've always wanted the fsx how to bible

Here is another link you may find helpful:

http://www.flightsimworld.com/forums/topic...ht-simulator-x/

Note the piece called: "A brief History of FSX"