Just ordered a new system

[OBIO]

Yep...Newegg.com just got a tad over $800 of the tax return money. And in a couple weeks, I will retire the old P4 system with its 6 leaking MOBO capacitors. FS9 has run really well on my current system. Sure I get a bit of stutter around some of the detail rich airports, but I do most of my flying out in the bush, so that is generally not a problem. This new system will EAT detail rich airports for breakfast.

MSI X58A-GD45 LGA 1366 MOBO
Intel Core I7-950 Quad-Core processor with a clock speed of 3.06Ghz.
MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768MB DDR5 video card
6Gig Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) ram
Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 1TB Sata drive
Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 700watt power supply
Cooler Master RC-692-KKN2 CM690II ATX Mid tower case

Operating system, which I will order in a few days, will be Win 7 Ultimate.

Final HD configuration will be:

C drive: 250gig SATA
D drive: 500gig SATA
E: drive: 1T SATA

Will also bring on line a dedicated file server PC with 3 500gig IDE hard drives. And I have my original 120gig external HD.

I should have storage and archiving abilities out the yin yang.

Well, now if my hands stop shaking long enough, I will go try that amazingly detailed Stearman.

OBIO

Oh, forgot about the new monitor I ordered. ACER 19 inch non-wide screen LCD panel. I don't like wide screen PC monitors.

[Duckie]

Hey Congrats OBIO! You will really enjoy your new system.

Cheers,
Steve

[OBIO]

I just realized that I will also have to order a new DVD/CD drive. I was going to use the two IDE optical drives from my current system...but the new MOBO is IDE free...no old school technology on it at all. So, Newegg will get a bit more money from me.

OBIO

[Desert Rat]

Oh, forgot about the new monitor I ordered. ACER 19 inch non-wide screen LCD panel. I don't like wide screen PC monitors.

Obio,

I'm with you on that one, wide screen is for movies, happy to leave it that way. Your new system sounds pretty decent, I have a 1TB dedicated to FS, amazing how quickly it fills up though, to many sims and installs of soon eats up the space, lol.

enjoy your new rig,
Jamie

[OleBoy]

This is excellent news OBIO. You're going to have a real nice system for another 8 years with plenty of room for upgrades along the way :ernae:

[Dangerousdave26]

I love my wide screen monitor almost as much as I Love My Wife. :icon_lol:

Hint Tim

When you go to load up your OS make sure that only the drive you want to be as C:\ is connected to the system.

Otherwise Windows might assign other drives as low letters and install the OS on E or F or worse on my last rebuild when I forgot to do that it installed Windows on L:\ which does not work for some software.

[rich12545]

Ditto on the monitor. Mine has been going on the blink so I wanted a new one. Went looking for a 21-22" non-wide monitor but couldn't find any. So I ordered a 24" wide for about the same cost as a 19" non-wide. I was very leery at first but did some research and found they are GREAT. Got it from tigerdirect and it will be here Tuesday. Looking forward to its arrival.

[rayrey10]

Tim,
LUCKY!!! Congrats on the new system!

[hurricane3]

Your a lucky guy Obio ,though you more than earned it. Congrats. By the time I get my FS9 install back to where I want it ,my puter will probly die and I'll start over.Although I wish I understood all of what you described it sounds like a dream system. Can I be in your will?
Never mind your going to be going strong long after me.

[Willy]

Congrats on the new comp. I've been running a ViewSonic 19" "square" LCD monitor and really like it.

[AndyG43]

I find it difficult to cope without widescreen now. My 'monitor' is actually a 22" LG Widescreen HDTV, with my PC acting as a full blown media centre!

Obio, that sounds like a really great system, although Jamie is right about how quickly you'll fill up that storage!

[OBIO]

I'm not really worried about running out of HD space. My current C drive is a 160gig IDE drive and of the 149gig of available space, I have 30gig in use and 119gig free. I have the 500gig SATA in my current system as my sim drive. Of the 465gig of available space on the drive, 81.6 gig is used and 384gig is free....and that is with 3 modified, tweaked and HEAVILY populated installs of FS9, all my mesh and scenery folders, my photoshop files, a ever growing collection of aircraft and car pictures, an ever growing collection of pin up photos and art work, and 21gig of my sister-in-law's files that I recovered from a HD that died in her system.

I have a policy..if it isn't used, it isn't kept. That is why my garage is clean and open and I can park my mini-van in it and still have room to do a full tire rotation and brake job.

OBIO

[awj112]

Hopefully this does not mean you are going to abandon FS2004 for the bright, shiny world of FSX...

[OBIO]

Hopefully this does not mean you are going to abandon FS2004 for the bright, shiny world of FSX...

Have no fear of me leaving FS9. I have far too many hours invested in getting FS9 to look and act the way I want it to, too many planes that in my hangar, too many hours spent getting those planes set up to MY way of flying to EVER leave FS9.

There are a handful of freeware planes for FSX that I will check out....Wozza's Texan, some by Piglet...but there is a drought in FSX when it comes to the planes that I like to fly....there is no Cessna T-50 Bobcat, no Cessna 140 float plane, no Grumman G44A Widgeon, no Piper Super Pacer, no Lockheed Electra L-10 A and L-10 E. FS9 has blessed me with 3 installs packed to the gills with planes that I enjoy flying..some of which I fly A LOT....but FSX does not offer that many of the planes that I enjoy flying...at least not FREEWARE...and you all know that I am a FREEWARE FREAK! Not that I won't support a payware creator from time to time when the price is right and the plane is one that I will fly often enough to justify the money spent, but by and large my sim installs are freeware based. If I were to go to FSX, I would be stuck flying the out-of-the-box install..and that just isn't great enough to drag me away from FS9.

OBIO

[rpjkw]

I'm very happy for you, Tim. And a little jealous, too.

Here's hoping you'll enjoy your new rig in good health.:ernae:

Bob

[aeromed202]

Glad you're getting a bit more enjoyment out of life. You gonna let Deb push the ON button? Oh sorry, she knows about this right?

[Matt Wynn]

Glad you're getting a bit more enjoyment out of life. You gonna let Deb push the ON button? Oh sorry, she knows about this right?

theres a joke here best summised as .... it's been a while since a woman pushed the right button for me... :icon_lol:

[robert41]

Looks like a very good system.

[OBIO]

All the parts for my new system are here. A nice pile of parts it is. About an hour or so ago, I unboxed the Cooler Master CM690 Advanced case.....it's big, it's black and chrome, it super cool. I spent a good hour just staring at it, counting all the drive bays, playing with the drive holder slider thingies, checking out all the places I can install 120 or 140mm cooling fans.

Hopefully Sunday I will begin building the system. Tomorrow I have to make a run to a hardware store to pick up a new bathroom faucet (luckily the one Deb wants is on sale) and install it, pick up a toilet wax ring and a couple sheets of water resistant/mildew and mold resistant underlayment in preparation of tearing up the ugly old carpet from the bathroom and laying down some nice (and luckily cheapish) vinyl tiles that look like stone of some sort. Also have to do some electrical work at my sis-in-law's place and get with my brother-in-law (Deb's other sister's hubby) and make arrangements to spend HOURS and HOURS and HOURS working on their 4 computer systems. So hopefully Sunday I can begin building my system and getting all my files on the current system archived to my external HD for transfer to the new system once it is fully up and running.

I did have to make a return already...the 19"ACER monitor I ordered from Walmart.com. It was a VGA only monitor and the graphics card I ordered does not have VGA output..just DVI and HDMI...so I ordered a 19" non-Wide Screen ACER with DVI input. Set me back an extra $40...but that was more than covered by ordering the Builders OEM Win 7 Ultimate package instead of the retail package of Win 7 Ultimate...saved a hundred clams with that little slight of hand.

OBIO

[rpjkw]

Nice weekend planned, Tim, especially Sunday. Enjoy yourself and don't forget a brewski or two.

Bob

[Desert Rat]

Tim,

glad it arrived and lucky you got your monitor sorted. I have a converter cable that for just your problem, but not a worry now, but they are out there.

Just ordered a RAM upgrade, PSU upgrade (a long time issue due to my extra drives installed) with necessary cables and a new case fan. My olé Quad thingy will have to struggle on a while (Q6600), just checked my processor price on Amazon, £200. I only paid £150 for the whole rig a couple of years ago new, it was a steal from ToysRus, they had no idea what they were selling, lol.

Regarding the floor tiles, I've tried vinyl tiles, real tiles, etc. My advise, forget it, water gets through the gaps and in no short order, you have cracked mortar (real tiles) or peeling/curling Tiles (vinyl). Currently have very expensive ceramic tiles, (they were there when we moved in, with underfloor heating) they still suffer cracked and broken mortar. My advise is go for linoleum, no joins to let water through, as they say in the adverts, does exactly what it says on the tin. Not as nice as tiles, but how many folks do you invite to view your bathroom?

Jamie