I need some new computer suggestions

[tommieboy]

My existing setup is listed in my sig below; I run Win XP Home and plan on running the same thing on my new computer. I'll skip Vista and FSX for now.

My budget is approx $1,500 USD; give or take. I assume I can reuse my case (Cooler Master Centurion), power supply (Tagen 500W), and my video card and monitor (ViewSonic VG2230wm), and DVD player.

Right now I'm more concerned about selecting a motherboard / CPU combination; the rest will fall in place after that. Any suggestions? AMD or Intel? I'm looking for the biggest bang for the buck; no high-end stuff for me at this time.

Thanks,

Tommy

[JSkorna]

Hi,

That is a very good system already for FS04. Why would you want to change anything?

[tommieboy]

Hi,

That is a very good system already for FS04. Why would you want to change anything?

It is a good system for FS2004, but my Photoshop files are dragging my system down as they get larger.

Tommy

[mrogers]

I agree with Jim, sounds like your current pc is a good system. How big is your main HD? Do you have an external HD as well? If you haven't got an external HD, consider getting one to store the photoshop files to take the pressure off your main HD. I bought one not long ago, and its worked very well and I store large files on it, install FS9 scenery in it, and run games like COD4 etc. on it too. Keeps the main HD running good with no pressure on it. Thanks to the guys here in SOH, their help and suggestions were invaluable to me at the time when I was thinking of expanding my HD.

[txnetcop]

I agree with Jim and Mark but if you want to spend a little money update that memory to DDR2 PC8500 1066 your ASUS P5B will reward you and add an external hard drive to take the load off of your main C drive. Or add a second faster 640 GB or 1TB 32mb cache Black Edition hard drive-they are fast for your photoshop and files. Your 965 northbridge is pretty dated but it will respond to faster RAM. I assume you already have the latest BIOS since you are running a Penryn E8500 on the 965 board. These are cheap but effective addons. A quad core Q9550 will make a huge difference in Photoshop as well, this might work on that 965 mb of yours as well. all in all you spend less than $600 and give yourself another 6 months to a year to see what the market brings in 2010.

Check this out on a quad core-now it will operate a little slower on a 965 northbridge board but faster for Photoshop than what you are using.
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/925/1/


Why spend bigger money on anything less than a new i5 or i7Core system? They offer much more bang for the buck, but you will have to switch to either Vista or Windows 7 to enjoy what they offer and you can build a decent setup for less than $1600. I would hold off spending $1500 on anything less than i5 or i7 Core.

Hope this helps

Ted

[Unit453]

I was gonna ask a similar question but I didn't want to jack his thread.

When we go from one system to the next, is there a way to import FS9 with all our modifications and aircraft to the next? Maybe via thumb drive? Thats my biggest hesitation right now is losing everything. As it is right now, I cant even fly anything due to a malfunctioning video card. I can get maybe 10 minutes of flight time before the colors start to distort and I get a blue screen error.

[tommieboy]

I agree with Jim, sounds like your current pc is a good system. How big is your main HD? Do you have an external HD as well? If you haven't got an external HD, consider getting one to store the photoshop files to take the pressure off your main HD. I bought one not long ago, and its worked very well and I store large files on it, install FS9 scenery in it, and run games like COD4 etc. on it too. Keeps the main HD running good with no pressure on it. Thanks to the guys here in SOH, their help and suggestions were invaluable to me at the time when I was thinking of expanding my HD.

I bought an external HD some time ago, but the speed through the USB 2.0 port was slower than just accessing the internal HD direct. So I currently use the external HD to store stuff that I really don't need, but dont' want to trash.

Tommy

[tommieboy]

I agree with Jim and Mark but if you want to spend a little money update that memory to DDR2 PC8500 1066 your ASUS P5B will reward you and add an external hard drive to take the load off of your main C drive. Or add a second faster 640 GB or 1TB 32mb cache Black Edition hard drive-they are fast for your photoshop and files. Your 965 northbridge is pretty dated but it will respond to faster RAM. I assume you already have the latest BIOS since you are running a Penryn E8500 on the 965 board. These are cheap but effective addons. A quad core Q9550 will make a huge difference in Photoshop as well, this might work on that 965 mb of yours as well. all in all you spend less than $600 and give yourself another 6 months to a year to see what the market brings in 2010.

Check this out on a quad core-now it will operate a little slower on a 965 northbridge board but faster for Photoshop than what you are using.
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/925/1/


Why spend bigger money on anything less than a new i5 or i7Core system? They offer much more bang for the buck, but you will have to switch to either Vista or Windows 7 to enjoy what they offer and you can build a decent setup for less than $1600. I would hold off spending $1500 on anything less than i5 or i7 Core.

Hope this helps

Ted


Thanks for the info, I had totally forgotten to check the ASUS website, to see if newer types of CPU's are being supported, since I first purchased the motherboard.

Tommy