Moving to the dark side

[Trans_23]

I know that thread title has been used a few times before. :icon_lol:

I just bought FSX Gold on Amazon.com. I have the FSX RTM version and a beta of Accelerator. I tried it once went it was first released and it was unusable FPS wise. I have done a video card upgrade since then along with another gig of RAM. The motherboard and processor are still the same. I will list the specs at the bottom for helpful comments. I am also going to upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit. I am running XP now so I plan on buying the full version, formatting the drive, ect.
Question #1 (of many I am sure) Can I still run FS9 on the same computer? I currently have 2 internal hard drives and one external. Right now my C drive is 120 gig and the 2nd drive is one terabyte. I am probably going to swap out the 120 gig for something larger. Any suggestions?

Specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64, 2400 MHz (12x200) 4000+
MB: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Memory: 2x 1 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-3-2-5 @ 200MHz)
Video: nVidia GeForce GTX 260 (896 MB)
The Creative audio sound card I have will be incompatable with Windows 7 so I will invite suggestions for that also. I haven't shopped for a sound card in a few years but the last time I did, Creative was pretty close to the only game in town.

I tried once to figure out how to overclock but gave up on it. I was afraid of smoking the whole system. It is still something I would like to learn though. I have been lurking in this forum for a little while now and with the stuff that is out now, as far as addons go, is just to tempting to wait any longer. With more and more members joining Transload using FSX, it is time for me to start adding FSX aircraft to our fleet. It still is important that I can use FS9 also as most of our members still use it.
Any suggestions are welcomed and I will continue to look around this forum for more information.

Cheers!

[MCDesigns]

Hi Dan, your CPU is going to be your bottleneck, but with reasonable settings you should be able to enjoy FSX.
As for overclocking, ask harleyman or TXnetcop about it, they are very knowledgeable in this dept and in setting up FSX.

Another thing to keep in mind from someone that used to run a VA. There is more work involved in scenery and even just repainting aircraft for FSX than FS9 as there are more options you have to consider and do, best of luck!!.

[Trans_23]

Hi Dan, your CPU is going to be your bottleneck, but with reasonable settings you should be able to enjoy FSX.
As for overclocking, ask harleyman or TXnetcop about it, they are very knowledgeable in this dept and in setting up FSX.

Another thing to keep in mind from someone that used to run a VA. There is more work involved in scenery and even just repainting aircraft for FSX than FS9 as there are more options you have to consider and do, best of luck!!.
I figured the CPU might be a problem. I built this computer at least 3 years ago. I might have to look into some more new parts.

[falcon409]

If it's still possible to find a Motherboard that will fit your chassis size, then that would be something you might look into. Amazing how inexpensive they can be if you shop around and it would move you into at least a dual core or even quad core system with a CPU to match.

[txnetcop]

Trans you can overclock your Athlon x2 unit until the cows come home and it will still be very anemic in FSX. You can move to a reasonably priced 955 or 965 Black Edition that has shown to be very impressive with FSX if you just want to stay with AMD. I move to Intel i7-860 at least on an 1156 board of your choosing (cost not that much different from AMD 955 CPU, DDR3memory, motherboard) and be done with it. If other top performance games are important to you I would spend the extra money and go with an X58 1366 socket motherboard and a i7-920 minimum(my favorite now is the i7-950)! Welcome to the DARKSIDE!
Ted
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[Trans_23]

Thanks Ted. I would go with an Intel chip this time. I wasn't that pleased with my AMD chip when I installed it. I just never saw an performance increase that I thought I would. It is funny that you mention the X58 as I was on Newegg after I posted here last night and put one on my wishlist there:

ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157163)
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202)
OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365)

That totals to $609. After reading some reviews there I was leaning towards the EVGA offering of the X58 as their customer service gets rave reviews and I often, if there was a bad review on there products, someone from EVGA would post a comment offering assistance and included a phone number. That is the first time I have seen that at Newegg.

In my computer specs I posted last night I forgot to mention that I have a 600 W power supply. I assume that this would still be enough for this upgrade. I would, however, like to get a modular power supply to eliminate unneeded wires in the case.

[Brett_Henderson]

12-18 months is tops for an upgrade window.. in otherwords; 2-3 years is well past where it's worth putting a new video-card on top of an old CPU. You've probably seen this, in that that 260 didn't help much running FSX.

FSX is SO CPU hungry, that in the FPS arena, even your fairly decent 260 will be "waiting" on all but an Intel quad-core running at nearky 4Ghz.

Since you've already gotten 3 years out of that CPU/board.. I wouldn't do anymore piece-by-piece upgrading. Bite the bullet and go with a whole new build. Wait and save if need be. Any money thrown on your current platform will be wasted.

As for sound-cards.. On-board sound on modern boards is more than good enough for gaming. It's all digital anyway. The only reason I've seen for a sound-card in FSX, is if you want your ATC on a seperate device.. I.E .. ATC on a headset, everything else on speakers.


EDIT: oops.. you already responded,,

[RyanJames170]

I have found that FSX likes 5 things
1. a CPU with alot of GHz i have seen a 5.7 Ghz P4 out run a 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo :S
so a multi core CPU needs lots a GHz and cach is another thing i likes too.. on the end of quads.. there DO not get any better FPS the a dual core but there a lil smother..

2. RAM FSX is RAM hungery especially running all of the latest addons i have seen it above 2.0 GB so a idea system would have 4 GB or more RAM and it helps if its faster Ram too..

3. GPU it likes is GPU too i am not sure if its the amount of RAM on it or the speed of the GPU but i seen a FPS/smoothens increase over the 8800 GT 512 when i went to a GTS250 1 GB card..

4. it likes a Fast HDD to run from becse its always looking for scenery stuff.. my FSX got faster and less jerky when i got WD caviar black.

5 for what ever reason when i put my cach onto a separate 75 GB HDD and all it dose is cach it sped stuff up some but it also did speed up the system a little too.. probably because the main HDD wasent trying to do cach duties and looking for program stuff too.

[Trans_23]

12-18 months is tops for an upgrade window.. in otherwords; 2-3 years is well past where it's worth putting a new video-card on top of an old CPU. You've probably seen this, in that that 260 didn't help much running FSX.

FSX is SO CPU hungry, that in the FPS arena, even your fairly decent 260 will be "waiting" on all but an Intel quad-core running at nearky 4Ghz.

Since you've already gotten 3 years out of that CPU/board.. I wouldn't do anymore piece-by-piece upgrading. Bite the bullet and go with a whole new build. Wait and save if need be. Any money thrown on your current platform will be wasted.

As for sound-cards.. On-board sound on modern boards is more than good enough for gaming. It's all digital anyway. The only reason I've seen for a sound-card in FSX, is if you want your ATC on a seperate device.. I.E .. ATC on a headset, everything else on speakers.


EDIT: oops.. you already responded,,
Thanks Brett. I guess I would be basically doing a new build. The video card was purchased recently for multi-monitor support and with the idea that an upgrade would soon be in the offering. I guess it would be worth my while just to get a whole new system and keep the old for FS9. Of course that adds a whole lot more to the equation. It is food for thought. Thanks for the advice on the sound. I use an USB headset now to achieve the ATC/sounds separation.

[Trans_23]

I have found that FSX likes 5 things
1. a CPU with alot of GHz i have seen a 5.7 Ghz P4 out run a 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo :S
so a multi core CPU needs lots a GHz and cach is another thing i likes too.. on the end of quads.. there DO not get any better FPS the a dual core but there a lil smother..

2. RAM FSX is RAM hungery especially running all of the latest addons i have seen it above 2.0 GB so a idea system would have 4 GB or more RAM and it helps if its faster Ram too..

3. GPU it likes is GPU too i am not sure if its the amount of RAM on it or the speed of the GPU but i seen a FPS/smoothens increase over the 8800 GT 512 when i went to a GTS250 1 GB card..

4. it likes a Fast HDD to run from becse its always looking for scenery stuff.. my FSX got faster and less jerky when i got WD caviar black.

5 for what ever reason when i put my cach onto a separate 75 GB HDD and all it dose is cach it sped stuff up some but it also did speed up the system a little too.. probably because the main HDD wasent trying to do cach duties and looking for program stuff too.
I remember a thread in here somewhere about the 2 versus 4 cores. I will have to check it out again. Thanks for the info.

[RyanJames170]

I remember a thread in here somewhere about the 2 versus 4 cores. I will have to check it out again. Thanks for the info.

yeah there isent enough suport for a Quad for it to realy do much.. i think all u can realy do there is chage in to core 3 and 4 and let every thing else run on 1 and 2 but i think that involves a little bit of work..

but if your going to go with a Quad go with a one that can be OCed well.. the Q9650 or Q9550 would be worth it i think u could with a good PSU get the Q9650 up to 3.60-4.0 Ghz but i know my E8400 screams at 4.0 Ghz

[hey_moe]

The Quad core is ok but to me the dual core should do the trick. I really didn't see that much of a difference in the frame rate area. Now if you are doing any type of multi tasking, the Quad will come in very handy.

[n4gix]

Since everyone seems to have overlooked one of your questions...

...yes, you can have FS9 and FSX installed. However, there is a 'gottcha' that can possibily bite your butt.

Install FS9 first, then FSX. Doing the inverse has -on occasion- caused some Registry problems for some folks...:icon_lol:

[Trans_23]

Since everyone seems to have overlooked one of your questions...

...yes, you can have FS9 and FSX installed. However, there is a 'gottcha' that can possibily bite your butt.

Install FS9 first, then FSX. Doing the inverse has -on occasion- caused some Registry problems for some folks...:icon_lol:
Thanks for that. :guinness: