New Computer

[MentorMan]

Hi fellas,

At Xmas I'm going to be getting a new PC for Flight Sim - most likely FS9 at the moment.

Here are the current specs:

Black & Silver ATX Tower Case
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4600+ 1MB SKT-AM2
ECS K8M890M0M-M S/V/L M-ATX 2000MT/s
2GB DDR2 PC-5400 667 MHZ (2 x 1 GB 667)
XpertVision 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS SUPER HDMI PCI-E
600W PSU
320 GB SATA HDD UDMA 300 7200 8MB
SAMSUNG 52x CD-ROM BLACK (IDE)
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL 5.1
ASUS Wireless LAN 54Mbps PCI
4 X USB 2.0 PORTS
Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise
MS WINDOWS XP HOME SP2 - 32 BIT
ACER LCD MONITOR 19" WIDE X191WA SIL/BLK
OCTIGEN SLIM KEYBOARD PS/2 RET

all this for £551 = 1,485.74 NZD

Can you tech experts offer some opinions on this system? Of course I want my graphics to be awesome as well as scenery with good FPS lol - just an all in one package really.

Cheers.

[brownbox]

"SAMSUNG 52x CD-ROM BLACK (IDE)"
Maybe a DVD rom at the least, or you wont be able to install FSX in future.

Your CPU is alright, but you may find it might lack the extra oomph you want. I would aim for something a little faster. Perhaps you could change over to Intel. Even the Core 2 Duo E4300 (the most basic core 2 duo) is slightly faster than the 4600+

The 8600GTS will be a nice card, and will be sufficient as Flight sim is not graphics card limited.

I would find out the manufacturer of the PSU. Remember, a 400 or 500W PSU from a high end brand could easily beat a no name brand 600w PSU.
See this list for more details on this
http://www.flightsimulationforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1145

"MS WINDOWS XP HOME SP2 - 32 BIT "
A very nice choice. If you are only flight simming, you will be sorted for a couple of years or so. If you are planning on any other gaming, you may be looking at an upgrade to vista.

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL 5.1
Unless your planning to run a huge 7.1 home cinema system, you will be alright with this

"320 GB"
If you are a very serious simmer, you will fill this up very quickly. Aim for atleast 500GB.

ECS K8M890M0M-M S/V/L M-ATX 2000MT/s
Havnt heard of this before, so dont really have any comments on it.

Last but not least, you will need a joystick of some kind. Im sure other members of the forum will have some suggestions on this.


Dont get me wrong, this will be a very nice package system, but there are some areas which could use improvement. Is it coming pre assembled and delivered for that price?

[MentorMan]

Hi brownbox - thank you for the contructive advise - i appreciate it.

That price includes VAT and shipping yes. And Yes they build it for you and then send it.

I've got a CH Yoke and Quadrant so Im sorted on that front.

I'll come back with another set of specs - maybe with a intel processor.

MentorMan

[MentorMan]

QUOTE (brownbox @ Dec 9 2007, 07:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"SAMSUNG 52x CD-ROM BLACK (IDE)"
Maybe a DVD rom at the least, or you wont be able to install FSX in future.

Your CPU is alright, but you may find it might lack the extra oomph you want. I would aim for something a little faster. Perhaps you could change over to Intel. Even the Core 2 Duo E4300 (the most basic core 2 duo) is slightly faster than the 4600+

The 8600GTS will be a nice card, and will be sufficient as Flight sim is not graphics card limited.

I would find out the manufacturer of the PSU. Remember, a 400 or 500W PSU from a high end brand could easily beat a no name brand 600w PSU.
See this list for more details on this
http://www.flightsimulationforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1145

"MS WINDOWS XP HOME SP2 - 32 BIT "
A very nice choice. If you are only flight simming, you will be sorted for a couple of years or so. If you are planning on any other gaming, you may be looking at an upgrade to vista.

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL 5.1
Unless your planning to run a huge 7.1 home cinema system, you will be alright with this

"320 GB"
If you are a very serious simmer, you will fill this up very quickly. Aim for atleast 500GB.

ECS K8M890M0M-M S/V/L M-ATX 2000MT/s
Havnt heard of this before, so dont really have any comments on it.

Last but not least, you will need a joystick of some kind. Im sure other members of the forum will have some suggestions on this.


Dont get me wrong, this will be a very nice package system, but there are some areas which could use improvement. Is it coming pre assembled and delivered for that price?

Right brownbox I've had another go and came up with the following - I looked at Intel but when I saw the price with what I wanted with the processor - it was too much.

Here:

Black & Silver ATX Tower Case
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 5200+ 2MB SKT-AM2
ECS K8M890M0M-M S/V/L M-ATX 2000MT/s
2GB DDR2 PC-5400 667 MHZ (2 x 1 GB 667)
XpertVision 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS SUPER HDMI PCI-E
600W PSU
500 GB SATA HDD UDMA 300 7200 16MB
SAMSUNG 52x CD-ROM BLACK (IDE)
SAMSUNG 16x DVD-ROM BLACK (IDE)
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL 5.1
ASUS Wireless LAN 54Mbps PCI
4 X USB 2.0 PORTS
Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise
MS WINDOWS XP HOME SP2 - 32 BIT
OCTIGEN LCD MONITOR 19" WIDE 251059NSOTG BLK/SIL RET
OCTIGEN SLIM KEYBOARD PS/2 RET

As you can see I have made some appropriate changes e.g. upgrade the Hard Drive to 500 GIG and added a DVD-ROM

Any better? What can i expect in terms of graphical and FPS performance?

Thanks

[ronindanbo]

have to disagree with Brownbox in respect of your soundcard, I would reccomend you get an off board card as the performance differences are quite noticeable.

[brownbox]

Very nice indeed.

What can i expect in terms of graphical and FPS performance?
In FS9, you will be able to run full settings on fullscreen, with 30+ FPS. With FSX, you will need to take your settings down a couple of notches, maybe to medium- high to get solid framerates, however, around busy airports, you will suffer framerates in the 5-10's

Ronindanbo brings up a good point about the soundcards. You may want to look into a cheap 5.1 soundblaster.

[gokanru]

The ECS Motherboard would not be a board that I would pick,I would prefer an Asus or an Abit as I think they perform better.Also I agree about the sound card being a seperate unit,performance wise it is a better option.Memory,2 gb is great but go for higher if you can afford it,800 beats 667 anyday.At the end of the day,you can only get what you can afford,but I will never regret getting a core 2 duo cpu,it was worth the wait.

[brownbox]

QUOTE (gokanru @ Dec 10 2007, 11:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

but I will never regret getting a core 2 duo cpu,it was worth the wait.

I agree 110%

[VH-CC1]

C2D. LOVE IT, ( E6850 )