Rank in order of importance - upgrades

[bailey_girl]

  What is the best hardware to upgrade for effectiveness on flight Simulations?  What features should one look for?  Can you please rank the list below from most to least important.  
  Also, I have a good system that can run FS2002 very well with almost all display options at or near max.  Based on my computer description below, can you reccomend the best upgrade for me that will aleviate what little stuttering and lag does exist?

Processor (CPU)
- Hyperthreading?
- 64 bit?
Motherboard
- chipset?
- fsb speed?
- 4x or 8x AGP?
RAM
- type?
- amount?
Video Card
- amount of ram?
- chipset?
Hard Drive
- size?
- ATA or DMA?
Cooling System
Operating System

Thanx,
Athlon XP 1800, shuttle 266 fsb motherboard, Xtasy GF4
ti 4400 128 MB video card, 512 MB  SDRAM, 30 gig 7200 RPM ata 133 hard drive.

[Tchkinjiu]

For your Processor, I would go for the Hyper, but if you can afford it, go with the 64 bit.

For the motherboard, I would would go for the AGP 8x, but then I don't know much about motherboards.

Ram, just go for the DDR SDRAM, about 512MB atleast, go for 1GB for ultimate performence. If you can, the corsair is the more expensive, but better one.

Go for the 256 MB Vid card, such as 5900 Ultra GeForce.
But if thats out of your price, go for either the, 5600 Ultra 128MB or the 9800 Pro 128MB.

A Good size to go for is 120GB, I have 30GB right now, and have half left, after about 3 years, 120GB should last you.

Spring for the ATA brand, mine.

[Daz]

dont get the geforce 4 ti4400 its poo get the ti4200 instead 128mb version it rocks and its cheaper

[swanny338]

CPU: AMD 64
Mobo: Asus K8V Deluxe
       Chipset: VIA K8T800 + VIA VT8237
       8x AGP

Video Card: Asus ATI Radeon 9800XT
RAM: Kingston, corsair, or OCZ just get at least PC3200 DDR
Harddrive: 120 Gbs will do fine
Cooling: get a nice heatsink. i would recommend the Zalman CNPS7000A-CU Heatsink it is compatible with the AMD 64

OS: WinXp

the above is mobo is strictly for the AMD 64 ;-) so is the RAM

Tomorrow... I will do a P4 Hyperthreading setup for u
       

[swanny338]

CPU: Pentium 4 3.06 Ghz
Mobo: Abit IC7
Video Card: ATI radeon 9800 XT
RAM: Kingston, Corsair, or OCZ PC3200 or above, best would be PC3500
Harddrive: 120 Gigs
Cooling: get a nice heatsink. i would recommend the Zalman CNPS7000A-CU Heatsink it is compatible with the P4

OS: WinXP



Just so u know, the AMD 64 setup would be better..

[Iroquois]

The Athlon64 is quite expensive. An Athlon 64 3200 costs about $476US. The Athlon64 FX costs $828US.
Anyone know the differeance between the Athlon64 and Athlon64 FX?

[4_Series_Scania]

I'd be looking at the Intel "Extreme edition" p4 with an Asus P4C800 (800fsb) Deluxe "Canterwood" mobo
Certainly an Nvidia FX5900Ultra I'm not sure if the extra for a 256mb card is really worth it though, 128MB should be fine.
Surely theres still some life in that ti4400? - no slow card even by todays standards......
Plenty i.e. 1GB + of DDR400 ram, make sure its dual channel!
Win XP Pro for the O.S.
7200rpm HD with large cache should be ok for loading times...

Depends on the size of the piggy bank really
However, a faster CPU (depends on what your mobo will support) such as an XP2800+ along with some DDR RAM instead of the 512mb SDRAM you've currently got will really give that ti4400 a kick in performance, its your money, but if I were you, I'd up your current setup a little,sit bacvk and await the new P5 from Intel.
This will then be the time to either go and buy a real top notch setup based on 64bit archetecture or pickup a comparitive bargain by getting some of the last (now current) p4 kit.

Make any sence??

Paul.

[geezer]

It all depends on the money you can spend and whether you build it yourself or not.

Processor: 64 bit programs are not widely available yet and might not be for a while. Your decision here rests on how long this PC will have to last you. My choice would be an 800Mhz FSB Intel 3.2Ghz.

Motherboard: most of the top ones are similar and not much of a factor. Get 800Mhz FSB and 8xAGP only and 4 RAM slots for up to 4GB of RAM if necessary in the future.

RAM: Crucial is the best there is. Get AT LEAST 1GB - your mobo will most likely hold 4 sticks so you can expand later if necessary. The RAM should be DDR400 (PC3200) only.

Video Card: If you can afford it, go for the 256MB models but the above mentioned nVidia Ti4200 is a very good choice with 128MB. That is what I have and I am very satisfied with it.

Hard Drive: No brainer here - Go with Maxtor SATA. I use 2 hard drives, one for the O/S and its associated programs and one for the Sim. Drive0 is 40GB and partitioned into 2 equal segments. The O/S is on C: and the other junk is on D:. This drive is the master on controller0 and the CD unit is the slave to that one. Drive1 is 120GB partitioned 4 ways and is the master on controller1. The first partition (E:) is 5GB in size and has my swap file - nothing else. The second partition on this drive has the Sim and the others have my "hangars" and "maintenance shacks." Both drives have to be the same speed and are 7.2k. Remember, SATA.

Do not spend extra for RAID functionality on either the mobo or the drives. You are not running that kind of system and you have to have at least three drives for RAID to make sense (RAID5) (RAID0 uses two but is only mirroring)

Cooling system: Buy a good case, at least 400W ps and case fans, you will be fine.

O/S: Why, SuSE Linux, of course!! Seriously for you for Simming probably WinProXP. I use Win2kPro and will not have XP for any amount of money but most of you folks don't share my revulsion of ol' Bill and think XP is the "bees knees."