Parts to build new rig

[modelr]

Ok, I finally broke down and bought the guts to upgrade my 4yr old HP Mediacenter computer. Am wondering how it will do compared to my old one.

Now, mind you, my old rig, which I'm still running right now, at one time would run FS9 decently, until a whole bunch of errors were introduced during a spike that occured when a car hit a power pole during a major defrag, about two years ago. I'm STILL finding missing/damaged files thru-out my system. My entire library of personal stuff was screwed up, over 5GB of stuff, as well as a lot of FS stuff, both loaded and saved. I have been redoing everything, where possible, but still couldn't get a decent flight in, because about every 8-10 minutes, the sim would pause, and do a complete reload of scenery and textures, and for some reason, this would take as much as five minutes or more to complete. And that included after two reloads of the program! Oh, I use "Ultimate Defrag 2008" and defrag after every major scenery/texture program load/change.

Anyway, here's my old system specs:
HP Pavilion m7463w Media Center
Intel Pentium D 3.0GHzx2
4GB RAM Kingston KVR533D2, DDR2 1GBx4
NVidia GeForce 8500GT w/1GB memory
SATA 300GB HDD, 270GB for computer use, 9GB for original program recovery, on separate partition
Realtek onboard sound feeding Logitech 80W 5.1 surround sound.
OS was, until last week, XP SP3, 32bit.
Present OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. (NO complaints, so far.)

I could get 19-20FPS consistently, (locked at 20FPS) with most sliders 1/2-3/4, AI at 90% (and I have ALOT!) as long as I wasn't looking directly at a frame killing scenery/city/airport. Even then, I would average in the 10-12FPS area, except in places like downtown Las Vegas/New York/Chicago areas where I had some rather high scenery installed.

I also had FSX installed, but didn't fly it much. Sliders were usually turned pretty much off. I could get 12-15 FPS tho', on average in open areas. Hi scenery brought it to it's knees.

My new rigs parts:
AMD Phenom II X4 810
Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P Mobo
2BG Samsung 1333MHz DDR3 memory (to be upgraded to 8GB (three more sticks) when the store gets it in next week)
ATI Radeon HD5750 Video card 1G GDDR5 memory
500W power supply
Aspire X-Cruiser case

My FS systems are being reloaded, entirely from scratch, on their own, (one for each system, FS9 and FSX) 1TB WD external USB2.0 HDD.
MY OS upgrade was loaded on a new SATA 500GB internal HDD

Any comments?

[harleyman]

At first glance you should see big improvements..


BUT


The mobo is DDR3..Is that running tripple channel ram or dual channel ram..And what ram did you get?? DDR3 dual or tripple


What bit is the video card? 128 or 256 or the new 440 something (I think)??

[modelr]

Harleyman, it's oem type, from DIT computers. http://www.ditcorp.com/index.asp?url=IND

There is an outlet here in town, so...

I didn't know about those differences in RAM, but I can give you numbers off the label:
Samsung brand, 2GB 2Rx8 PC3-10600U-09-10-B0

The mobo manual says "Dual Channel Architecture" Support for 1666(O.C.)/1333/1066MHz
I think the salesman said these are 1333MHz sticks. The ad on the website says 2GB 240-PIN DDR3 SDRAM PC3-10600 1333MHZ (http://www.ditcorp.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=MEMGEN2KD3%2D1333&eq=&Tp=)

128 bit on the video card memory.

I might mention that I am not after blazing speed with all sliders pegged, nor do I do any other "games" on my unit. Strictly a home unit for minor stuff, and FS (primary use). All I am after is comfortable cruising in my GA or warbird aircraft, without constant stuttering. I realize that in very high graphic areas, I'm going to get a slow-down, but I can live with those. My eyes do not see the minute details that a lot of the members talk about, sometimes even when they are pointed out, so. I'm more of a "hobbyist" than a "fanatic", if you know what I mean.

Oh, and my monitor is an older Proview 24" class widescreen (22" visible) LCD.

By the way, I'm not going to unbox, or install anything, until I get the rest of the memory, so if there are any recommendations for something different, without breaking the bank, I'm open to suggestions.:kilroy:

Thanks for the remarks.

[harleyman]

Nope...I see its a confihured computer now..

That means you need not worry about the ram at all......Its a done deal..

The only thing I see about it is the Vid card being a 128 bit...

BUT...FSX likes the CPU much more than the GPU for sure.....

You will see a big difference in it...No doubt about that


You can go ahead and play with it while waiting on the extra ram..will not hurt a thing...

Have fun, its a real improvement from where you were for sure...

Only thing I would change is the vid card if it were mine..

I would go with an ATI 4890 that was 1 gig and 256..About 40 more bucks but worth every cent...

If you needed to find the extra money for the card (if you did switch it ) would be the memory somehow...

Your 8 gigs of memory will not do much for FSX...If you went with just a 6 gig set (3X2) then you just found the extra money for the vid card upgrade...


You will maybe not be to impressed with that vid card choice I think...



Oh Happy Holidays

[modelr]

Thanks for the info, Harleyman. I'll look into that. Thanks for the reply.

Going to put the old HP guts back in it's case and give it to wife, she just uses a small Acer netbook for e-mail and web surfing.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. :ernae:

[harleyman]

My post seems confusing so I will recap my thoughts for clarity


Use the same ram...Just a 6 Gig set(not 8 gig) 3X2

Extra money saved use on vid card change to ATI 4890 1 gig 256 bit


Merry Christmas

[guzler]

Thanks for that Harley. I'l be gettig a new rig in 2010 and on a big learning curve to understand what is needed. The only challenge my computer faces is FSX, so I want to get one that will give me smooth game play with UT2 and lots of scenery / planes installed.

Your comments above have helped me...do I go for 6gb ram or 8 ? 6 is the answer and put the saving some where else.

Merry Christmas fellow simmers

[warchild]

:;chuckles:: this has to be the only game in the world where you almost need to become a hardware engineer to be able to enjoy it..

[modelr]

:;chuckles:: this has to be the only game in the world where you almost need to become a hardware engineer to be able to enjoy it..

Yes, but it is so much fun, lol. :wiggle::applause::mixedsmi:

[modelr]

Well, I finally got the 4890 Video card 4 days ago, Sat the 26th. So I spent Sunday assembling the new one. This included removing everything from the case, which was basically everything from my HP Media Center. Took two days to finally get it working, because I had to reinstall Windows 7, on another hard drive. Wouldn't recognize the original hard drive from the HP. Then spent two days getting FSX working right.

Long story short, it rock's! With just 2GB memory, basic loads of FS9 and FSX, UT and FSG only add-ons, so far, and mostly default settings, first test flights the frames never dropped below their locked settings, 25 in FS9 and 20 in FSX. With my previous system, 15 was average in FS9, except over water, where 20 would hold. In FSX, 10 was nearly impossible, thus it was almost never used.

And just before I logged on, the UPS man delivered my other two sticks of memory!! So, now I gotta try it out again. And now I'm gonna finally get to try out all the add-ons I been getting, but not using till I could do this upgrade. Looking forward to many enjoyable hours. Had to give up a new R/C plane this winter for this upgrade. The boss lady said "one or the other, not both!" The new rig won the coin toss.

My new specs
AMD Phenom II X4 810 2.6GHz
Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P Mobo
6GB Samsung 1333MHz DDR3 memory
ATI Radeon HD4980 Video card 1G GDDR5 memory 256 bit.
500W power supply
Aspire X-Cruiser case
Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS

[harleyman]

YEA Enjoy yourself there.....

Its gonna be fun from here on out....:ernae: