Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support |
Dude.... You're not getting a Dell |
DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic" Marietta, GA
2,241 legs, 8,967.3 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online 1,899 legs,
7,760.4 hours ACARS 75 legs,
196.3 hours event 2,277 legs, 9,102.2 hours total 91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 16:45 ET by Luke Kolin
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Lynne needs a new PC, so in the time-honored tradition, she'll be getting my castoffs and I'm in the hunt for a new PC. I've started spec'ing out some new equipment, and it got me thinking about the "ultimate" flight sim PC and how much it cost. Based on what I saw, I could put together a system very close to AlienWare's offerrings, with the following specs:
2.6C Pentium IV
1GB PC3700 DDR RAM (this combo allows the P4 to be overclocked to 2.85Ghz and the FSB from 800Mhz to 920Mhz)
ABIT IS7 i865 motherboard
2 36GB 10,000 RPM SATA WD Raptor drives in RAID0
ATI Radeon 9800 128MB
CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive
Plantronics Headset/Mic
2.1 Speaker system
Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004
CH USB Yoke
CH USB Pedals
CH USB Throttle
.... all wrapped up in a funky 6-fan case (yellow, green, red, blue or black) with matching mouse/keyboard:
How many people would be interested in one, for $2400 ($1950 without the CH stuff)?
Cheers!
Luke
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA1006
Senior Captain, B737-800
Joined on December 17 2002
Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett Century Club
Northeastern United States
177 legs, 384.6 hours
82 legs,
179.0 hours online 57 legs,
112.4 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 17:33 ET by Tim Abbott
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I got my 2.6ghz P-IV 128 mb nVidia GeForce 4 vid card 512 mb RDRAM from gateway for less than that, and it came with a free upgrade from a 15' flat panel to a 19"flat panel and that was last year...just a thought. But I do LOVE the case!! No, really I do!!
Tim
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DVA953
Senior Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on November 17 2002
50 State Club
Double Century Club
Online Double Century Club
"V1 means V1..." West Lafayette, IN USA
214 legs, 376.8 hours
211 legs,
373.0 hours online 117 legs,
223.6 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 17:34 ET by James Brickell
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Here's what I'd buy if I was filthy rich:
Raidmax Storm 847 Mid-Tower ATX (picture attached, sweet case)
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Edition
AMD Athlon XP Barton 3200+
1GB Samsung 400MHz DDRAM
Sony 16X DVD-ROM
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (120GB, 8mb buffer, 7200RPM)
AOpen KM858U USB Keyboard/Mouse Combo
AMS MNL17AXW 17" LCD Monitor
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Aopen Silver Titanium GT Speakers
ATI Radeon 9800PRO 128MB
Windows XP Professional
For a grand total of: $1936.93 (without shipping, from directron.com)
If only..
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DVA953
Senior Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on November 17 2002
50 State Club
Double Century Club
Online Double Century Club
"V1 means V1..." West Lafayette, IN USA
214 legs, 376.8 hours
211 legs,
373.0 hours online 117 legs,
223.6 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 17:38 ET by James Brickell
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http://www.directron.com/storm847.html
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DVA1295
Captain, B737-800
Joined on August 08 2003
Southeastern United States
44 legs, 93.2 hours
37 legs,
84.1 hours online 12 legs,
21.0 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 17:38 ET by Jason Colick
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I agree go with the AMD, its better for games(in my opinion). I also like the Asus motherboard.
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DVA953
Senior Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on November 17 2002
50 State Club
Double Century Club
Online Double Century Club
"V1 means V1..." West Lafayette, IN USA
214 legs, 376.8 hours
211 legs,
373.0 hours online 117 legs,
223.6 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 17:40 ET by James Brickell
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The Asus board is pretty sweet..my friend has it in his machine..
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DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic" Marietta, GA
2,241 legs, 8,967.3 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online 1,899 legs,
7,760.4 hours ACARS 75 legs,
196.3 hours event 2,277 legs, 9,102.2 hours total 91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
|
Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 17:40 ET by Luke Kolin
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I'm sure you got it for less - the CH USB equipment adds $500 right there. That and the dual Raptors plus the 9600Pro will blow any name-brand disk and video subsystems out of the water.
If I were to delete the drives and replace them with a standard 7200rpm 120GB drive, and use a 9600XT I could probably knock off another $200. At that point, however, it wouldn't be an ultimate system anymore.
Cheers!
Luke
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic" Marietta, GA
2,241 legs, 8,967.3 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online 1,899 legs,
7,760.4 hours ACARS 75 legs,
196.3 hours event 2,277 legs, 9,102.2 hours total 91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 17:45 ET by Luke Kolin
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I considered that, especially when a 2500+ Barton can be had for under $90, plus another $80 or so for an nForce2 motherboard. However, the C-model P4s have HyperThreading, which can make the system more responsive under load, and the FSBs seem to be so much faster nowadays.
In a $2,400 PC an extra $120 or so doesn't seem to make too much of a difference.
Cheers!
Luke
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA1441
Captain, B727-200
Joined on November 28 2003
Rapid City, SD
35 legs, 64.0 hours
28 legs,
52.8 hours online 1 legs,
1.6 hours ACARS 2 legs,
3.6 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 17:57 ET by Patrick Ealy
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I currently have a 500 mhz Athlon 1 with a 133 mhz FSB. My vedio card is a Radeon 9200 with 128 mb DDR RAM on it. For System Ram I have 768 mb SD RAM. I have a 4X DVD and the manufacture is IBM! This was the last computer they sold to Best Buy in the state of Illinois. I'v had it for over 5 years and it is about time to retire it. Amazingly it still works for all the new games such as Americas Army 2.0A and should work with FS2k4. I'v gotten about an additional 2 years out of it by simply adding more RAM and a new vedio card. To anyone who has a computer that is over 1 ghz and is a pentium or athlon and thinks they need a new computer because their old computer's speed is too slow, you should consider just adding more RAM and a better vedio card if necessary. I am going to purchase a computer that will have the new Athlon 64 bit chip, the new 1 ghz FSB, a read/write DVD and atleast a 160 gig hard drive running at 10000 RPM. I expect to replace my current 500 mhz dinosaur in about another year.
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DVA953
Senior Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on November 17 2002
50 State Club
Double Century Club
Online Double Century Club
"V1 means V1..." West Lafayette, IN USA
214 legs, 376.8 hours
211 legs,
373.0 hours online 117 legs,
223.6 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 18:03 ET by James Brickell
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You think yours is a dinosaur? Mine is a 450mhz Gateway, 192MB Ram, and a GeForce 2 MX440
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DVA1407
First Officer, CRJ-200
Joined on November 13 2003
Southeastern United States
5 legs, 7.3 hours
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 18:31 ET by Kyle Ferriss
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That looks really cool, except I'd go with a blue color if I could afford it, I'll just go to the store some other day and make one.
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DVA1044
Senior Captain, B767-300
Joined on January 12 2003
Century Club
"Fly Delta Jets" Roswell, NM USA
127 legs, 388.8 hours
62 legs,
199.3 hours online 2 legs,
5.2 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
December 27 2003 19:29 ET by Lloyd Arms
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I also prefer the AMD Based systems. I'm running the 3000 Barton Core w/400 FSB, Gig of PC3700 DDR on a Gigabyte MB with Nvidia chipset which is dual channel. Luke you definately want the WD Raptor drives. I'm running one in my system and it makes a considerable difference over the 7200 SE WD w/8meg buffer.
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DVA1295
Captain, B737-800
Joined on August 08 2003
Southeastern United States
44 legs, 93.2 hours
37 legs,
84.1 hours online 12 legs,
21.0 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
December 28 2003 07:47 ET by Jason Colick
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I don't think you have to worry about system load in FS9, it mostly uses RAM(a lot of it) and video card. I'm running the A7N8X DLX with a 2GHz, 512GB of RAM, and an ATI 9500Pro. I have no problems at all running FS9 even with high video settings and all my add on programs and windows running in the background. I would say focus on the RAM and video card.
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DVA872
First Officer, B737-800
Joined on September 30 2002
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Fort McCoy, FL
30 legs, 62.6 hours
11 legs,
22.2 hours online
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Posted onPost created on
January 10 2004 19:59 ET by Charles Patterson
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speaking of new computers..... i finally got mine....my old computer was broken for a good 6 months and i just got my new one today..or now it was yesterday...a 2.4 pentium celeron kept it cheap....come to find out that my flight sim 02 cd is scratched and now i cant even install 02...now i need some money to buy 04....nice......
Charles
Charles PattersonFirst Officer, B737-800
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