Simviation Forums

Until a bundle upgrade (AGP) is uffordable,
If I put now :-

1. an AGP gfx 6600 GT (

We need your mainboard model number and revision number if applicable, and any other mainboard info you have in order to determine your request more accurately. "home build" doesn't give me much to go on.

SATA support and performance benefit depends on that mainboard info.

Brand is not so important, though some manufacturers excel at producing faster or overclockable video cards, they achieve this by using more expensive high quality components which may or may not be reflected in the price of the card. Basically, video card choice is very tricky, with manufacturers using a variety of smoke screens to hide the details from the public. Be careful and do thorough research on your card..... or ask for opinions once you narrow your selection down to a few specific cards.

My only thought on this is most often PC World don't give any good deals. Check out the link to OCUK in my siggy.

If your PC will really benefit from the huge potential speed available then you might want to get a Raptor drive. They are standard SATA drives and read very fast indeed. BUT the 10000rpm come at quite a heavy noise price I believe. The largest they make ATM is 74Gb.

My drive is a Western Digital Caviar SATA, and that will read at a nice healthy 50Mb/sec, which is plenty fast enough IMHO.

I haven't got any first hand 6600 experience, but I do know that the Aopen Aoleus 6800LE comes without temperature sensors and other makes of it do.
Dan  ;)

I'll add that hard drive speed should only be considered as an upgrade after the rest of your system is thoroughly upgraded and tweaked, as the extra speed from a fast hard disk is usually only going to help alleviate other system inadaquacies and it's not a cost effective solution in general. There are specific uses for very fast drives. For instance,

With a very small pension and a rather large wife,
I can only buy utility low end staff, and may put aside future-proof ideas. It's only my FS9 with fsNav and the greedy VFR scenery.

Maxtor Sata HD perhaps around

[quote]
I may stick to the PCW shop in case of returns, dispite

Thnx Rob,
Appreciate it, but all the waiting and the post and the worry !!!....and God forbit the repacking and reposting
all become too much for an old fogy. And then the VIZA?

I avoid all these things, but may yeald to it, will see.

luke

And then the VIZA?

If you buy with "VIZA" you should also be automatically insured on your purchases.
Rob.

Luke,

While our respective hardware is somewhat different, we do share a similar domestic situation. In light of that fact, may I recommend a couple of alternatives?

You will, (or at least should), see a dramatic improvement in performance due to a video upgrade, but alas, we also share a common conundrum........ to upgrade our video cards with financial prudence.

I could advise you to look at a cheaper high end "socket A" chipset/CPU future upgrade, this will provide reasonable support for your intended video card.

However, it's really not a good idea, because soon, and for just a few pesos more, you should be able to get into a 64bit socket 939 system. I saw in your other post that you are interested in a 64bit upgrade eventually.

In light of this, buying an AGP based G card is really not the best move unless you plan on sticking with your present rig for a year or two.

The reason I say this is because the better 64 bit upgrade options, (and soon to be affordable), will preclude AGP Graphics cards, and you will need a PCIe based G Card. AGP support is not found on the better 64bit mainboards, and this makes our upgrade a very expensive proposition, as it means that we need:

64bit mainboard (current choice is a no brainer - nForce4 ultra or SLI on socket 939)

Socket 939 64bit CPU (a venice cored 3200+ minimum with a view to overclocking should suffice)

Some good quality and overspec RAM (2 x 512mb PC4200, (500mhz), Kingston modules are fairly cheap)

A decent PCIe G Card (the 6600GT's are always cheaper in the PCIe version than the AGP equivalent)

Anyway, it's food for thought, and saving up for that lot is gonna be a challenge, but it will be worth it in the end, and you'll be set for a while with some decent modern hardware.

Congo thnx again,
Present mobo takes MAX Athlon2000+ (1.8ghz ?)

Hope to stay with this only a few months more, and would like to use FS9 + Visual Scenery  if possible.

Then, definately S 939 64bit nForce4 & CPU 3200.
Kingston if cheaper than Crucial.
As SATA is not a grate boost to FS9, can I use IDE?

So PCI Expr seems a must. but will not be able to use now  FS9 + Visual Scenery.  ??

And then you say if I get the AGP 6600gt now, they may not make mobos with it then?            A dilema.

Regarding my other post, how to "....run win98 progs in compatibility mode using WinXP...." ? as I use a lot of those those and are the only reason for dualboot.

Thnx for the gen on HDs. If Sata & Raid are best on Raptors then I'll skip Sata.

I'll see about PSU after the upgrade, but the cheaper seem a good idea. In UK I had no pwr problems.

looking out for more info,         luke

[quote]Until a bundle upgrade (AGP) is uffordable,
If I put now :-

1. an AGP gfx 6600 GT (

Well Paul,          I would be an old fool if I harried.

With your experience one has to be convinsed, but what do you thing should cost at the low end (only use FS9 & Visual Scenery), this sort of thing below:-

S 939 64bit nForce4 & CPU 3200+. 1gb mem, in PCI-E

Gfx around the 6600 GT performance.

As SATA is not a grate boost to FS9, can I use IDE?

thnx again,     luke

IDE is fine Luke.

Why would your FS9 + Visual Scenery not work on PCIe?

All hard disk transfers take too long as far as the rest of the system is concerned.

The bottleneck is relieved by running programs in memory and keeping hard drive access minimal.

In applicatons where very large data tranfers are the norm, (video editing ? ), the PC can finish the job slightly faster at the higher spec.

Good to see the 6800GT at a more sane price now. Nice spotting that Paul

Forgive my ignorance. I was looking for confirmation whether if I bought an 80gb IDE now, would it work later on an nForce4 PCI-E.
I gues the answer is yes.            luke

Forgive my ignorance. I was looking for confirmation whether if I bought an 80gb IDE now, would it work later on an nForce4 PCI-E.
I gues the answer is yes.            luke

The answer indeed is "Yes" Luke.  :)

An IDE would be fine, but, if your board supports SATA then I'd go for that, as it is slightly quicker than IDE also, your case won't get filled with bulky IDE ribbon cables!

The drives will cost almost the same regardless of IDE or SATA on a like for like basis.

That siad, I have an 80GB IDE Seagate Barracuda HD and jolly good it is too! - Damn cheap these days as well !  ;)