Hoping for Feedback on a new Computer system

[Skittles]

Hi All,

I haven't been around the technological side of computers for a while. Too busy flying.

I left out a case, power supply (I know I'll need at least 600W) and CD/DVD intentionally, I'm more concerned about compatibility issues.

So here's what I'm looking at with a $1000 budget +/- 10%
[color=#666666][list][*]ASUS AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX Motherboard

[CD.]

I'm a bit out of the loop too, but I'd say don't bother with the SLi set up and use the money for more RAM.. plus what you pay for 2x 80Gb HDDs you may as well get a 500Gb+ single drive (the price difference will be negligible).

[Skittles]

I'd say don't bother with the SLi set up and use the money for more RAM

I've heard that SLI isn't all that it's been hyped up to be, but will FSX or any other games actually use more than 2GB? I've never seen all my memory get used. Can you or anyone explain this? How can having more memory be better than two cards? I'm not being sarcastic, just asking? I don't know.

...plus what you pay for 2x 80Gb HDDs you may as well get a 500Gb+ single drive (the price difference will be negligible).

I saw this coming... You are correct, but that would defeat my drive configuration plans. It's a long story covering years of trial and error.

[The Snake 87]

You could probably get 2x 250 gb drives then, or mix and match it. Unless all you use the computer for is fly, I personally would recommend 2 larger HDD's.

[Skittles]

You could probably get 2x 250 gb drives then, or mix and match it. Unless all you use the computer for is fly, I personally would recommend 2 larger HDD's.

I do appreciate your comments... I used to have 4-250GB drives and found I never came close to using all that space. I kept one for Longterm storage and sold the rest. I've been using smaller drives separately and in RAID and found them to be sufficient for my uses.

[The Snake 87]

That seems like a good idea. It doesn't break the budget like you said, and it gives you more than enough space.

[jaime]

as for SLI what is does supposidly is one card will take care of one half of your screen 9top half) and the other card will deal with the bottom half...and as for having the video ram it takes some of the work load off your main RAM...though I dont think SLI makes much difference unless your running extreamly GPU intencive things...infact Im considering pulling one of the two cards out and turning off SLI...I just dont think its doing anything for me...plus what games use the SLI crap? thats one thing I want to find out....

[Skittles]

...though I dont think SLI makes much difference unless your running extreamly GPU intencive things...infact Im considering pulling one of the two cards out and turning off SLI...

Yeah, I'm thinking of scrapping the SLI idea and getting a better card. I'll still use my current vid-card for a third monitor.

[Mazza]

Looks like a solid, nice setup, well anythings better than what you got now 

[Slotback]

1. Bigger drives are usually faster, especially so when they're nearly empty. Get dual 320gb drives or similar. Drives are cheap, anyway.

2. Get 4gb memory. I have two gb and run low on memory during games such as Crysis : Warhead to the point where it uses the pagefile and LAGS. When I exit games Windows is extremely slow as it loads everything back into memory again from the pagefile. 4gb is the norm since about 2007.

3. Single Radeon 5770. It's a good card with DX11 support so it should last, however I am unsure how well it will perform in FSX. You'll have to ask Nick.

Or GTX 275.

Or 5850 if you can afford it.

Yeah, I'm thinking of scrapping the SLI idea and getting a better card. I'll still use my current vid-card for a third monitor.

Not sure if that's even possible, and if it was then it would be inadvisable as the X1050 would be a massive bottleneck.

[Skittles]

[quote]Looks like a solid, nice setup, well anythings better than what you got now

[Skittles]

Yeah, I'm thinking of scrapping the SLI idea and getting a better card. I'll still use my current vid-card for a third monitor.

Not sure if that's even possible, and if it was then it would be inadvisable as the X1050 would be a massive bottleneck.

I wouldn't use it for a FSX display other than maybe GPS or ATC comms

[Slotback]

I am not sure if that will eliminate a bottleneck still.  Are you sure?

Also, look into the mini-display ports on newer ATi video-cards.

[Skittles]

[quote]I am not sure if that will eliminate a bottleneck still.

[NickN]

adding cards for MM can be tricky

it really depends on the motherboard and how it handles PCIe bandwidth and requests to the buss

Many boards when you add more than one card reduce the primary slot to x8 meaning, you are choking FSX

Thats the first thing you need to find out.. if the slots will run the full x16 on the cards of choice

Dual core cards = useless
SLi = Useless

I am in the middle of a product launch so I dont have time to research..  I would however highly suggest Intel over AMD for the platform