I have to spec a new computer and I'm lost

[Chairman]

Getting seriously close to new computer time, and the bloke who will be bulding it has asked me for some input on graphics cards and the CPU.

The motherboard we're looking (Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4P) at will run dual PCI-E cards, although I think I'll just run one but not sure what to get, the only thing that's been recommended in here lately was the Nvidea gtx260.

I've said I want a quad core cpu and now I have to pick one, the range is a bit frightening. I've got as far as an Intel Core-2, now I'm stuck in a mass of GHz, cache, fsb and so on ... I've sort of arrived at the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz 6MB cache because it's got half as much cache again and a slightly faster clock than the cheapest intel quad (that's good, right ?), and it's the next one after that down pricespy's list that has lots of prices (i.e. common and popular).

Any comments from people that know about these things ?

Thanks
Gary

[Ian Warren]

Gary .. yip have the 1 gig GTX260 and super cheap at $470 dollars compared to recent 768meg card i fried last week .. have this pc back .. this cooking the Mobo , still dont have sound .. working on that today , proper look tomorrow morn , mean this morn ....
Yesterday , the comms pc crashed , looks a fried power supply ! revolving door at the pc shop would be a good addition

you will be very happy with that card !

[pilot.masman]

to be honest, right now id go for the RADEON 4890 1gb card,

its faster and more powerfule than the 260 and its only $510 O/C'ed
trademe example: 224381157

the cpu i agree, and the mobo is nice

[Chairman]

That's an ATI isn't it ? Someone said a few days back to go for Nvidea for FS as ATI weren't as good at the antialiasing and (some other big word) ?

Thanks
Gary


p.s. why am I not surprised I posted at 2am, and by 2.20am I've got replies from you and Ian

[pilot.masman]

because were crazy

yea i used to steer clear of ati from reviews and such but lately theyve really stepped up and these GPU's are among the best, review : http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4890-review-test/

[benwynn]

The 4890 is a lot better than its predecessors, but as for the GTX260, Not too sure, but I have heard great things about both.

[pilot.masman]

go gtx280, thats parsecs ahead of both

[NZ255]

GTX 285, not much more....but way better

[Chairman]

QUOTE (pilot.masman @ Jun 19 2009, 05:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

go gtx280, thats parsecs ahead of both

That's to be expected, it's parsecs ahead of both of them in price too !


Gary

260 - pricespy cheapest $325 (900mb)
285 - pricespy cheapest $599 (1gig)
280 - pricespy cheapest $747 (1 gig)

[Peppermint]

Unsure if it's just my one in particular, but I found with my GTX280 the stock fan was well short of what it really needs. The stock speed is set at %25 and playing a new-ish game at that setting you'll notice the effects of overheating within 5-10 minutes. Get rivatuner and pump it up to 100 and it can go for 30 mins+.

From what I've heard from many people, out of all the GTX cards the 280 is actually the worse one to get in a the 'Price-vs.value/performance/bang-for-buck' with the 260 being the best and the 285 close behind.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Peppermint @ Jun 19 2009, 11:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

out of all the GTX cards the 280 is actually the worse one to get in a the 'Price-vs.value/performance/bang-for-buck' with the 260 being the best and the 285 close behind.

I concur , the GXT260 equals if not slightly better than my earlier G/card .. i asked the questions and needed quik answers , for this is only patch job till , for the new PC when Win7OS is released , then its hard out .

[pilot.masman]

got lots of disposable income aye?? send some my way call it a birthday present

[hoki1185]

I have just bought a new computer(don't know alot about computers or how they apply to running FSX)so I did some research using articles on this topic I found in the PC Pilot and Computer Pilot mags.The one I settled on was from an article 'Building a Monster Sim PC'.(Computer Pilot Nov 2008).The author claims that going from 2.8 ghz Pentium 4, 1Gb ram.ATI Radon 256mb graphics with slider set on High (12 Fps - very erratic)has improved with his new machine to slider set on Ultra High (65Fps-consistent).New machine specs:Intel Core2 Duo E8400-Dual Core 3.0Ghz,Biostar TPower 145 LGA 775Intel P45 Motherboard, 1Gb DDR2 Ram,Asus EAH4870/HTDI/512M graphics card,Seagate 500gbSATA 11, 600W,Samsung dvd/cd,Aerocool Nitro Gaming chassis and LG 19" widescreen monitor.I have the configurations to get the aforementioned performance.My new machine is similar:Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz 6M 1333MH,Asus P5E Deluxe Intel X48 LGA775 motherboard, 2 Gb x2(4Gb)Adata DDR2 800mhz Ram,Sapphire Radeon HD4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E D graphics card,Seagate Barracuda 1TB 32Mb SATA7200.600w PSU,Vista Home premium etc.Also got a Viewsonic 24" Wide LCD 1920x1080 to run with it but I'm currently running it on a full HD Samsung 32" LCD TV.The cost of the unit without the monitor was $2235 which I thought was fairly reasonable.I was offered the Intel Core i7 920 2.66ghz but this was going to cost another $900.

[benwynn]

Looks like a very nice machine hoki. Wouldnt bother with core i7 at this stage, from what I've heard it isnt effective, and wont be until such time that windows 7 is release. (Works well on the RC I believe)

[Barrington]

QUOTE (Chairman @ Jun 23 2009, 03:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Getting seriously close to new computer time, and the bloke who will be bulding it has asked me for some input on graphics cards and the CPU.

The motherboard we're looking (Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4P) at will run dual PCI-E cards, although I think I'll just run one but not sure what to get, the only thing that's been recommended in here lately was the Nvidea gtx260.

I've said I want a quad core cpu and now I have to pick one, the range is a bit frightening. I've got as far as an Intel Core-2, now I'm stuck in a mass of GHz, cache, fsb and so on ... I've sort of arrived at the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz 6MB cache because it's got half as much cache again and a slightly faster clock than the cheapest intel quad (that's good, right ?), and it's the next one after that down pricespy's list that has lots of prices (i.e. common and popular).

Any comments from people that know about these things ?

Thanks
Gary

I changed to ATI 4860 recently and had NO END of problems - freezing, crashing, graphics that did not even relate to the scenery on the screen. We spent a month of trials and changing settings but didn't make any difference.
Eventually sent the card back and changed back to NVidia 260GTX+ and it works just great for me..................

[pilot.masman]

did you try a replacement 4860?? it might have been a faulty card.

[Ian Warren]

I should be a politician , Ive done the flip/flop !

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jun 19 2009, 03:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Gary .. yip have the 1 gig GTX260 and super cheap at $470 dollars compared to recent 768meg card i fried last week .. have this pc back .. this cooking the Mobo , still dont have sound .. working on that today , proper look tomorrow morn , mean this morn ....
Yesterday , the comms pc crashed , looks a fried power supply ! revolving door at the pc shop would be a good addition

you will be very happy with that card !

Now with both PC's coming back online , i found the choices i made were little optimistic , the GTX260 in previous saved flights , well were very disappointing and in no would I use ATI/AMD cards .. next choice is the GTX295 , this a 1.8gig should suit till a later upgrade

[scrubcutter]

I'm having real FPS issues (FSX) with my system, and was wondering if any of you PC Guru's could give me advice on upgrading my current system without a complete rebuild? My Specs are:
Motherboard
DFI LANParty UT nF4 SLI Expert

Processor
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual core 4200+, 2.21 GHz (Socket 939) Driver 5.1.2600.0

VG Card
GF 7900 GT, 256MB, DDR-3, Dual DVI, PCI-E Driver 5.1.2001.0

Drive
Seagate Barracuda 120GB 7200RPM SATA Driver 5.1.2535.0

Power Supply
Raidmax RX-420 ATX 12V, 420W

RAM
Crucial Ballistix DDR1 (1GB).

OS is XP SP3, DX9. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Timmo]

The first thing I'd look at doing would be upping RAM After that, look at the graphics card but FSX is not particularly hard on these (you CPU should be fine)

[scrubcutter]

QUOTE (Timmo @ Jul 22 2009, 08:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The first thing I'd look at doing would be upping RAM After that, look at the graphics card but FSX is not particularly hard on these (you CPU should be fine)

Yeah, thats what I was thinking. Pretty sure I can't upgrade the CPU anymore for my socket 939 board anyway. Any recommendations for best type and amount of RAM for my system? I don't want to be throwing too much cash at it when I will do a full rebuild in a year or so.

I have also read on another forum that it helps to have a seperate HD with only FSX loaded onto it. If your primary HD is running close to full as mine is, plus being partitioned for NTFS, then apparently sampling is slower, affecting FPS as well. I had thought about setting up another drive in a RAID array, but I'm not convinced that would make any difference for the cost vs total storage capacity.

Another thought I had was hooking up another VG card with my SLI bridge but a). I have been told that it must be an exact copy, and b). I am not sure whether it would greatly improve FSX performance. I'm pretty sure I would also need to upgrade my PSU if I went down that path as well

Thanks for your reply, it has given me something to think about...