First Custom FSX build

[Plugpennyshadow]

This thread should be a sticky!  One of the best Nick advice threads on building a i7 project from scratch for the i7 leaning simmers.

[G1000Pilot]

ok guys! Here is the last few items that are on there way now!

i7 940

GTX 285 Superclocked

300Gb Velociraptor HD (dedicated FSX drive)

Now to review how to set up the system correctly! Stay tuned for pics and status updates.

THANK YOU SO MUCH NICK! I am sure there will be more questions in the coming days  ;)

[G1000Pilot]

Everything has arrived. Tonight I will put the Graphics card in, the processor, and boot her up for the first time!

[NickN]

Everything has arrived. Tonight I will put the Graphics card in, the processor, and boot her up for the first time!

The only thing that bothers me is the original list I posted was back in December when a lot of good memory product now available was not on the market

A step up would be these at CAS 7

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227381

and a further step up would be these at CAS 6, although expensive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820226061


If you purchased from the link in the beginning of the thread that was OCZ 8-8-8 memory from the beginning of December.. although its good memory you would be far better on CAS 7 than CAS 8

[G1000Pilot]

Nick,

do i put the drive as IDE, RAID, or ACHI???? When i try to install windows it says none of the drives can be used but it does show their respective names.

[NickN]

ENHANCED: IDE

DO NOT USE RAID OR AHCI

Then you must reboot, go back into the BIOS and set the drive you wish to boot/install Windows in the boot list on the  BOOT menu under BOOT PRIORITY

Make sure the first device is the CD/DVD as it must boot first to run the Windows install disk

the second device can be USB or Legacy

Third device, the hard drive that you want to install Windows on and boot to


Read your manual and make sure you are connected to the motherboard on the right SATA ports too

[G1000Pilot]

Nick,

I changed it to Enhanced: IDE  As long as it shows this in BIOS we are good to go right?

When I formatted the 300gb VR I justed used the 4069 Cluster, let me know if I should re-do it at a different level. This drive is DEDICATED to FSX.


Anti-Virus: Any reccomendations? I am going to go through the VISTA optimization tonight, but I do not remember reading anything on anti-vi.


Tonights goals: Nhancer, O&O (should I run this now even though I have not even used the drives), and obtain anti-vi/spyware removal per your advice.


I was amazed how everything has come together so far, it was not as hard as I thought..... although the true test will be FSX  :o

[G1000Pilot]

Everything has arrived. Tonight I will put the Graphics card in, the processor, and boot her up for the first time!

The only thing that bothers me is the original list I posted was back in December when a lot of good memory product now available was not on the market

A step up would be these at CAS 7

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227381

and a further step up would be these at CAS 6, although expensive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820226061


If you purchased from the link in the beginning of the thread that was OCZ 8-8-8 memory from the beginning of December.. although its good memory you would be far better on CAS 7 than CAS 8

I will upgrade when I get my new CPU cooler eventually. Maybe it will be cheaper then too

Again, I cannot thank you enough for helping me out. After this is all up and running I will have to by the scenery add-ons  :)

[NickN]

[quote]Nick,

I changed it to Enhanced: IDE

[G1000Pilot]

I am assuming i should do Nhancer just after FSX is totally installed?

also, where do i purchase your ground environment product nick?

[NickN]

I am assuming i should do Nhancer just after FSX is totally installed?

also, where do i purchase your ground environment product nick?

Nhancer can go in at any time.. setting it up comes after everything is installed

If you are looking for GE its located here

http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=gexusacan

After installation open the interface and make sure you click the UPDATES button in the interface and download update 1.08. Close the interface, install the patch, then run the interface.

If you do not use UTX you only need the first 2 options.. if you use UTX then install all 4

[G1000Pilot]

UPDATE:

So far so good guys! I reformatted the VR hard drive to 64k clusters and downloaded all the updates for Vista 64 (that took a while!). Tonight I am going to try and install NOD32 and O&O v11 as well as all the goodies that came with my ASUS MB.

The Asus motherboard kicks major butt! It makes everything extremely simple and I highly recommend it. As Nick is teaching me the things I need to do it is becoming more and more apparent as to the attention of detail they put into this board. Overclocking is going to be much more streamlined from what I can see.

[G1000Pilot]

UPDATE:

OO and NOD are installed! FSX is installing now..... Stay tuned  ;D

[G1000Pilot]

hey Nick i have FSX installed with SP1/SP2 installed.

any way to check what version of DirectX i have?

after i make sure i have DX10 i will get my fsx addons

Also, i have gotten the blue screen of death twice when clicking on some website right as vista asks my permission to view it, at least it seems like.

any ideas?

I will stop here until i hear back!

Thanks!

[NickN]

If you have Vista.. you have DX10 (which you WONT be using for FSX anyway)

Just make sure you have the latest DX updates as the link was provided in my FSX install/tune list

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

As for Vista... review this post and go down the list...

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_p ... 126#174126

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_p ... 127#174127

it corresponds to my WindowsXP post and how to tune the OS for performance except it takes into account the nonsense in Visa like UAC, SEARCH and MS PRETENDER (defender)


So what YOU do is go through the links above.. then finish by going down the XP list I posted at the top of the FSX forum.. the items that you already did SKIP and then finish off by running the defrags after all software/addons are installed.

With Nhancer 2.5.1 you must be running Net 3.5. Make sure you have Net 3.5 installed. I know Vista comes with 3.0 but I dont know if they upgraded that on their disk or if it will come with Windows Update patches.

Thats another thing too.. make sure you are fully updated from Windows Update.

Also.. newer Nvidia driver may not be the best. I am not sure what video driver you are running. If you installed the one from the CD that came with the card you may need to upgrade that. Let me know what video driver version you are on.



BSOD's do not sound good.. could be related to something on the website Vista does not like but that one I am not sure.. I would need to see the error message.