computers
 

my computer is just flat out old and bad and i want a new one. i want the new computer to run Flight Sim X pretty well. what kind of computer would do that and doesnt cost a fortune :p ? thanks

I recently had to replace my PC b/c the motherboard was toasted due to a power surge. I replaced it with a gateway GT5228 that has the AMD Live processor, a NVidia (I think) video card, 250 GB hard drive, and 2 gigs of memory. It also offered a Vista upgrade, which i'm still waiting on. Apparently now it's common to get a computer with 200 or more gigs and a gig or so of memory. Unfortunately, I don't have FSX yet so I don't know how it will perform. FS9 works better on this one compared to my old computer that had some mediocre processor, 512 mb memory, and 80 GB hard drive. I bought the Gateway computer mid December and it was the best bang for the buck at the time. I spent $750 on the CPU before rebates.

I built my computer for about $250 after rebates.

I found everything on Techbargains.com just use the "search" function to find what you want.

I have...

1 Gig Memory
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ CPU
NVidia 6150 on-board video
2 40 GB hard drives
Windows XP

I can play with the medium-high settings on Sim X under this confiduration.

Here is what you need or what they recommend

http://reviews.cnet.com/Microsoft_Fl...-31660767.html

I've built several amd for flightsimX you want to get the best your budget will allow. how much are you willing to spend?

You will need 2 gigs of memory. A decent cpu and a good graphic card.
If you have the cash get a alienware. If not get a copy of maximum pc and they tell how to build a gaming computer for about 1500!!!

budget
 

lets say my goal is $600-$800 but i can push it up to $1000

If you already have a computer just up grade the memory with another gigs and find a good graphic card under $500. Here a web site you can visit newegg.com!!!

does that include the monitor keyboard and speakers or are you just talking about the PC itself. If the PC itself I'll get you the best list shortly and where to get the parts from.

Alienware or others of that nature charge a premium price and don't offer a whole lot more then what you can get if you build your own.

Processor doesn't mean everything. An intel 3ghz or amd equivelent will be just fine. It's the memory and gfx card that will make the difference. The speed of the motherboard as well as the speed of the memory.

I did some searching and found this one to be right up your alley.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Athlon-64-X2...QQcmdZViewItem

Put the upgrade for 2gb of memory on it.

Then you head on over to www.newegg.com and purchase a gfx card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122021

This doesn't include monitor or keyboard or mouse but with $300 gfxcard, $450 for the PC you've got one hella gaming setup.

Personally if you get a half decent set of headphones from wal-mart for $20 they will be better than most speakers for gaming.

keep it simple...
 

TD I am not a computer geek or Dell sales rep... but I get excellent results from a fairly new Dell XPS 400 running X-Plane. X-Plane 8.40 is more demanding of computing power than MS FlightSim and I get framerates including predominantly clear skies (high processor demand) of about 59 frames per second. The main things you want are at least 1GB memory, a strong graphics card say 250MB, and the new dual-core processor. Once again I am not a computer geek but nothing speaks like success and I am getting it with this Dell. It was $750 about 6 months ago.

i found this nice desktop package on bestbuy.com
its a eMachines and it seems pretty good. this old computer is emachines and id like to go with emachines again because their computers run well, last a while, and are economically friendly.

here are the specs:
250 GB hard drive
1 GB DDR2 memory
3.0 GHz proc. speed
Windows Vista

its sold out online, so im guessing its a hella deal. here's the link

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....prd67600050001

Wait a while before getting Vista?
 

Speaking of Windows Vista.....I've heard that it has some drawbacks:

--uses a lot of memory, so computers without a lot of RAM may have problems

--may not run all your old programs and peripheral devices

--a "Service Pack 1" is already being worked on to fix some of this

--the main advantages of Vista are things you never see, like security improvements

Anyone have more/better information?

Windows Vista runs almost all the programs. Just like XP it has the ability to emulate previous operating systems. However if you are going to game you might want to stick with XP for a bit. THen look up black viper's XP tweaks. You'll improve your system speed a decent amount.

Vista has a huge install. Over 30gb just to install so there goes diskspace. Since it uses that much more space it takes that much longer for the harddrive to accesss all of it. Startup times are less. Overall performance is less(for now). Also it tries to do things a little differently. It does use up more processes. After an install of vista you can be looking at 40-50 processes and that's before you even get any programs running. Each process requires a thread. A processor can only process one thread at a time. A dual core processor can process two threads at a time. That's why some programs are "multi-threaded" so they can utilize more than one processor.

Vista offers great security and a very nice GUI(Graphical user interface). It also has a bunch of nifty things built in. For instance it comes with Outlook already on it so you don't have to purchase office. You can easily manage contacts ect on it.

Vista takes an average of around 5fps(frames per second) off normal games. I have no idea what it will do with FS X. However do a little research and see if FS X is 64bit compatible. If it's designed to be optimized on a 64bit CPU then you can get windowsXP 64bit that way you can have the improved performance of XP and utilize the 64bit performance increase.

I've been using vista for about 2 months now. My desktop runs XP but my laptop has 2gb memory and runs vista. There was a noticable speed difference when vista went on my VIAO. However since I just use it for media and business it's just fine. However XP is more refined and better for gaming.


HASSAN DO NOT GET THAT MACHINE.

The reason I say this is
*while you've had luck with emachines they have a high fail rate
*the machine comes with components you already have so you won't be maxamizing your dollar/performance
*This machine has integrated graphics card which simply will not be able to run FS X. It uses 256mb shared memory which means it will use 256mb of your 1gb memory. Meaning you then only have 768mb for the system and your games or other programs
*Since the video is integrated it doesn't have a GPU(Graphics processing unit). Basically a processor that is dedicated to running the graphics. Because it doesn't have one of these that means the CPU will have to not only process the data for the game now but process the graphics as well. This will nail performance like a mofo and eatup the bandwidth of the entire system because it's having to send the data to the cpu and back vs. just sending the data to the gfx card and letting it handle all the work internally. Even with a fast FSB(front side bus[speed at which the processor and memory talk to eachother])you have to have a graphics card so that it can process everything graphical "inhouse" and let the CPU do what it needs to do.


Here is what you need.
*****As some said 1gb memory works. If you can get two then spring for it. Make sure it's DDR II hopefully 533mhz.

****You want a minimum of a 7200rpm harddrive. If you can get SATA(serial ATA) it has faster access times.

****2gb memory if available. 1gb is fine but if you get 1gb you better stay on XP.

****64bit processor. I only say this because they usually have higher cache(memory on chip) which is a biggie. Speed of processor is important but anything Intel over 3ghz or AMD(usually cheaper) over 3400+XP is good.

****Sound card I completly go cheap on. If it's digital that's about all you need.

****Graphics card!! Make sure it has at least 256mb memory. Make sure it's PCI-E(pci express). Also make sure it is DirectX 9 compatible. They almost all are. In the future games will be dx 10 but you'll pay premium to get that now.


Find a system that has these things. Write them out and let a sales rep help you if need be. Bestbuy generally has higher prices. Try dell or gateway if you want. But KNOW what you want by looking on-line. Hell even order on-line. My job there was to upsell. I avereaged $298 service one month. That meant whoever I sold something to paid $298 out of their pocket for warranty and many times was on a $399 or less system. I did that by keeping someone on the phone, agreeing with them, then using that and pushing until they bought it. I felt so dirt I had to quit the place and vowed never to buy from them. If something is going to break it will be withing the first month or two. That would be motherboard ect. Anything else that breaks like the monitor isn't covered by warranty anyway. Any DVD burners ect that might break you can replace for 1/10th the price of the warranty after the initial year.

What ducky said. Emachines are glorified typewriters.

Hp
 

thanks for the advice toiletduck it helped alot.
i went to hp and looked at some good deals.

HP m7790e series

i customized it for a total of $1,200:
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ dual-core - 2.6GHz

-2GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)

-400GB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Drive

-256MB NVIDIA GeForce 7500LE, TV-Out, DVI, VGA

***if anyone recommends anything different, customize the way you would and post... thanks

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...=m7790e_series

Call them and see if you can get better graphic card. Try to see it the have any Nvidia 7600 gs or 7300 gs. They dont cost that much more but much more performance.

Broke down and purchased a new computer, which should be delivered in early March (UPS, don't let me down!!). It has Vista. I'll report back as to its virtues or lack thereof. Unfortunately, Microsoft is committed to this product and we'll just have to live with any of its shortcomings.

It is stable. They put as much money into it as the US did to put a man on the moon.

As promised, the UPS girl came by the house and delivered my new Dell XPS 210 with Vista. (The UPS girl sure looked a lot like dckozak's avatar! My husband stared at her until his eyes went buggy). Anyway, the Comcast guy also made an appearance and while he was stringing cable outside the house, I was frantically putting the computer together. I am going from Millennium Edition to Vista; that's like, that's like, well, like flying a biplane to flying the F-18.

The "problem" I have is that the XPS "will not release the IP address to the modem." Basically, I cannot get online. As I understand it, Vista doesn't want to release any information or data without having it pried out of its bony clutches. All I want to do is get started on my taxes! :)

Will report again after the repairman comes by tomorrow.

Dell XPS 210
 

here's how i customized it

**Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6700 (4MB L2 Cache,2.66GHz,1066 FSB)

**4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 4DIMMs

**320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

**256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro (Video Card) (is it good enough?)

**Windows Vista Home Premium

****toiletduck if you get a chance to read this give me your advice....its really helpful lol

I build PC's for fun and sell them. Recently this was one of my PC's that went really quick and can run any game out today. Hope this helps.

Specs:

CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

Motherboard : ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Hard Drive : Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Power Supply : Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W Power Supply with Three 12V Rails 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, C-tick, CCC, CB

RAM : OCZ Gold Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Video Card : EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card

Case : NZXT Zero Black/Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case

CD Slot 1 : SONY Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 40X CD-ROM IDE DVD Burner

CD Slot 2 : SONY Black 52X CD-ROM IDE CD-ROM Drive Model CDU5225

Floppy : SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Model MPF920 Black

And A Cool Thingy ( supposed to go with the case but sold seperatly, talk about bs lol. its on their website ): NZXT SENTRY 1 Controller Panel

EDIT - And dont get Vista. Microsoft releases its products and for the first 5 months you test it out for them, report your problems, and they fix it. So its buggy and very unstable. I choose Windows XP MCE. Very stable, updated, and fast in terms of the low RAM needed to run it.