Advice for the Pro's

[flewpastu]

My current system setup is as follows

Q9650 OC to 4.00
4 Gigs of ddr 2
8800gtx
2 250 gig hd's running in raid 0
vista 64bit
1000 watt PS
Koolance cpu/video card coolant setup

Ive ben running fsx with acceleration for a couple of years now and my buddy purchased windows 7 Pro and does not like it for the games that he uses. I am going to reformatt my hardrives (alot of junk in there). My question is should I just stay with vista or should I chance it and reformatt with windows 7. Is there any benifit from windows 7. My system still has got some life it yet so Im not ready for the latest and greatest in cpu,ram,vid cards. Id like to get some opionions from the guys here that have both systems.

Thanks In Advance

Bill

P.S. I dont know if it matters but I partioned the hardrives with OS on drive c and FSX of drive D

[harleyman]

I have Vista 64 and Win7 64


I still perfer XP Pro.... I think its faster..To me vista and Win 7 still have that darned lag opening apps....AGRRRRRR XP snaps them right open ...

[flewpastu]

So in your opinion Harleyman, should I stay with vista, I know you have expierence in this area.
And should I add more ram or is that a waste.

Bill

[harleyman]

Personally I see no real need to move to Win7 just for FSX..Others may disagree. but they probably don't have 5 comps running FSX eighter...LOL

Win7 is was cool for other things, but I feel FSX is not one of them..


And yes,,,If you stick with Vista 64, more ram may help..depending on what you have already...

If that is in good shape, maybe a bigger Vid card only...

really need more system specs to tell that.

What speed is your DDR2 mem and what MoBo does it run on ?

[flewpastu]

Mobo is Asus striker 2 formula and ram is Gskill 2 extreme 1000 (I think on the ram)

Bill

[harleyman]

These are the mem specs on that board.....


4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR2 1066/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*Refer to www.asus.com (http://www.asus.com) or this user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors Lidts).



You are tapped on speed there...you could however spen a small fortune and run a 4X2 set of mem..That would mean redoing your OC again too.



My money for upgrade would be in a vid card if anything... But your GTX is no slouch eighter.






I say do nothing if it all runs well now...I have yet to see worthwile gains moving to the i7 i5 i3 cores ... A good Quad(socket 775 ) will handle FSX all day long...And you have one of the best in the Q9650...


Just avoid any and all X2 cards as I find that FSX hated them....

[hey_moe]

Hi Bill, I really like Windows 7 and to me it is very user friendly. I also have XP Pro and Vista both in 64 bit. I also am using W7 in 64 bit.I have never really cared for Vista. XP Pro and W7 have been my best OS. I am currently using Window7/ 63 and Window7/32 on the same computer. I have enjoyed both OS's and I haven't had not one burp or BSOD. To me it runs better and boots faster than Vista. I installed W7/32 on da wife's pooter and if she loves it. She had XP and then Vista. She hasn't had one problem with the OS...which is a big plus for me...lol. I guess if you have a hard time with change ya might wanna stay with Vista. If you want a beta copy of W7 to play with let me know. I have a beta copy of W7/64 and 32 bit along with the keys....Mike

[harleyman]

Yea Win7 is a good OS for sure..just had little to no advantages for FSX in my opinion..

I love the page snap to feature it has, and DA gadgets..LOVE them...but they don't fly planes at all....LOL

[hey_moe]

H, to me I feel W7 does a better job in gaming and FSX...but thats me...Mike

[txnetcop]

Well I was gonna stay out of it but I think I have a different flavor to add. I have seen significant gains in FSX with the i7Core system and Win7, not so much in fps but over experience and especially DX10 which I hated when using the 775 boards. However I found in multiple tests that if you have a QX Extreme CPU on a 775 motherboard then there are gains with WIN7 64 bit only if you use more than 4GB of memory and have a good, fast GPU video card. Load times are faster, seek for scenery is faster. In other words if set up correctly you should really enjoy a smoothness and agility you can really see and feel! Not that a standard Q9650, a fast motherboard, and fast memory will not have, but it is an altogether different feel! DX10 is actually amazing with the i7Core OC'd 920 and 950(my favorite is the 950)
Ted

[Lionheart]

If only we could get you Einsteins to make a small cold fusion reactor or Arc fusion reactor (like in Iron Man), then we would really be making great jumps in the technology field....



man....

Liquid helium cooled RAM chip sticks, liquid hydrogen tri-quad cores cooled with liquid nitrogen, 10 64-Gig relayed Solid State flash hard drives, 32 Gigs of Ram, dual graphics cards...



.....................just to fly in FSX, lol...



Bill

[harleyman]

Oh yea.. I never fly Sp2..I never remember about DX10 or know anything about it...

[harleyman]

H, to me I feel W7 does a better job in gaming and FSX...but thats me...Mike


You certainly aren't alone in that opinion..There are tons that agree with you about that...

[Sky~6]

I have Vista 64 and Win7 64


I still perfer XP Pro.... I think its faster..To me vista and Win 7 still have that darned lag opening apps....AGRRRRRR XP snaps them right open ...
Me too...after 2 months of the 'new' Win7 64.....I went back to XP Prox64....much faster....

[flewpastu]

Thanks guys, now the pondering, to do or not to do that is the question ?

Bill

[txnetcop]

Bill let me help you a little. If you have Black Edition or 32mb cache hard drives get rid of sata the way you have it set up now may actually slow FSX. Go ahead and put your operating system on C and FSX on D that is a sound idea but kill RAID 0 if you do that. Your 8800GTX cards will not do as well with DX10 preview with Windows 7-don't know why but the 8800GTX did not perform as well with Win7 on FSX as the newer GTX260, 275 and 285.
Ted

[dharris]

Always refreshing when the man pokes his head up and delivers intel from on high. Listen to Ted, you won't go wrong. I tried a lot of things, and with Ted's help, fsx is really smooth. Almost gave up on it, kept chasing fsx with new hardware, but with a peanut butter budget, it was hopeless, until Ted gave me some advice. Thanks for the input Ted.

[flewpastu]

Thanks for the advice Ted, so would you go with the windows 7 edition, and yes I have 2 250 gig HD'd with 32meg cache. And I wouldnt be opposed to a newer vid card as suggested.

Bill

[harleyman]

Thanks guys, now the pondering, to do or not to do that is the question ?

Bill



Dual Boot............................YES And see for yourself..get a stopwatch...BUT yes DX10 is far superior on Win7 I am told....