Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support |
New computer? |
DVA2835
Captain, MD-88
Joined on January 19 2006
Online Double Century Club
Triple Century Club
"Do it right" Huntington, WV USA
337 legs, 223.8 hours
290 legs,
191.1 hours online 326 legs,
215.0 hours ACARS
|
Posted onPost created on
October 18 2007 08:45 ET by Ralph Lawhon
|
I am thinking about a new computer and the question is this; Do I build my own or buy another box version? I do a few picture things along with E mail, however the biggest use is for flight simming. Now with that said would some of you computer guru's give me your thoughts? My budget is around 2 grand.
If you say box pc's then what brand? I have had success with Dell. If I do it piece meal, then should I maybe use one that is already figgured out, such as I have seen in Toms Hardware? I want all the pieces to work together, and my knowledge of such things isn't that great.
The other part of the thing I am concerned with is programing it to get the best from it that it can give. The bios is somewhere I seldom go.
Give me your thoughts,
Ralph
|
DVA4965
Senior Captain, B737-800
Joined on September 07 2007
Online Quintuple Century Club
Million Mile Club
Millennium Club
Everett Millennium Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Saratoga Springs, UT USA
1,195 legs, 3,500.8 hours
566 legs,
825.5 hours online 1,174 legs,
3,437.6 hours ACARS 26 legs,
51.6 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
October 19 2007 02:25 ET by Alan Cluff
|
I recently bought an HP with Core 2 Quad CPU, 4GB RAM, Nvidia 8500GT with 512MB, 350GB Hard Drive running Vista Ultimate for under $2,000 (without monitor). It runs FSX very well. the base model is the d4995y. Take a look at it on the HP site. I highly recommend this machine.
Alan CluffSenior Captain, B737-800
|
|
DVA4845
Captain, B777-200
Joined on August 11 2007
Everett 250 Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary
Quatercentenary Club
"Born To Fly...The 777" Darwin, Northern Territory Australia
407 legs, 1,875.8 hours
60 legs,
320.2 hours online 399 legs,
1,824.8 hours ACARS 9 legs,
47.4 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
October 19 2007 05:28 ET by Tom Janke
|
if you know your way around building a PC i think thats the way to go so you dont get screwed on the labour charges. If you're not confident then i wouldnt risk it.
atm Intel Core 2 Duo's and Core 2 Quad's are the best CPU's. with GFX cards is a much of a much between 8800's and 2900's from what ive read around the place the 2900XT's are the best bang for buck GFX card around. at least 2gb of RAM, if you're planning on running vista go for 4. Crucial, Geil, G.Skill and patriot are some of the better brands around. go for 800MHz or above with decent timings. Hard drives, optical drives, case, and Monitor are all for personal taste. PSU go at least 600W to be on the safe side running all the hardware.
btw, this is all based on how tech is here in australia at the moment
|
DVA2835
Captain, MD-88
Joined on January 19 2006
Online Double Century Club
Triple Century Club
"Do it right" Huntington, WV USA
337 legs, 223.8 hours
290 legs,
191.1 hours online 326 legs,
215.0 hours ACARS
|
Posted onPost created on
October 19 2007 08:20 ET by Ralph Lawhon
|
My Dell is about 4 years old. I updated the power supply to 400 watts. Would it be feaseable to just update it to core 2 Quad and a new graphics card. I have 2 gig of memory already. The sound card and hard drive are good. I will be staying with Windows X. I hate to put this PC out to pasture as it works great except for FSX and it will run that, however it isn't the greatest.
|
DVA950
Senior Captain, B737-800
Joined on November 19 2002
Online Quadruple Century Club
Millennium Club
Million Mile Club
Events Double Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
"Houston, We have a Problem" Nazareth, PA USA
1,210 legs, 2,875.1 hours
1,147 legs,
2,716.7 hours online 886 legs,
1,977.2 hours ACARS 206 legs,
484.9 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
October 19 2007 08:51 ET by Anthony Piasecki
|
With a Budget of 2 G's you can build a pretty sweet machine, I kind of went a little over that myself Anyhoot, depending on your flavor of north and South Bridge chips for the intel, there are two very popular flavors, The X38/ICH9R chip from intel for the crossfires, and the 680i chip for Nvidia. Both have the capability for Higher Ram 800/1066/1200 buses for your tweaking Pleasure.
Boards: ASUS , EVGA are your best bets here Mid stream boards the P5N32ESLI 680I chip, Maximus Formula x38/ICH9R chip from ASAUS, EVGA's 122-CK-NF68-A1 680I board NVIDIA only.
Processor; The new Q6800 core is out, I heard a lot of raves about it, don't know the benches on it yet, but a good bang for the buck the E6700 or E6870/1333mhz chip is what I have and in 64Bit mode is sweet.
Memory, check your boards compatibility on this one but Corsair is the way to go, if your budget hungry, Super Talon is good for the Novice user on the above boards, can't over clock it much but it performs ok. 3Gigs top on an XP box, if you are going to run Vista, I would drop the extra gig in there, when in doubt and the price is right go for four and just use three until you make the jump into Vista. If that still does not wet the appetite, VISTA and XP will perform quite well with just Two gigs and still give you a nice performance boost.
HD's Raptors all the way, biggest expense in the whole system, next to the VC.
PSU 620 or better, no more than 800 is needed for everyday computing gaming, If your going to overclock get a 900W.
Case to your desire, Make sure that the Hard driv slots are side mount the Nividia and ATI cards are long.
PS: These are just my opinions of what is Good and what is not,
Sound XFi
Digital: depending on what you plan on burning down the road Blue ray will be the future, but I would pull a standard CD/DVDRW and through it in for now, if all your doing is Backing up or burning MP's
Shopping around for all of this you can build that rig for 2G's with no problem, Happy Hunting
The specs I threw out there are just personal flavor, your mileage may vary depending on what you intend to do down the road
Anthony PiaseckiSenior Captain, B737-800
|
|