AWD9-MAX

[Brett_Henderson]

Ok.. I'll be the one to point out that if you start simming like this computer will allow you to sim.. you'll CRAVE real piloting even more  

I'm serious  

[yf]

Okay my system is ordered, I hope to get the parts soon,

Just "one" part is hard to get, I need the ATI Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire Edition 512MB GDDR4 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

now, ATI is saying its in production, but there is other companies that makes it, the problem is, some third party cards is not clocked at 2000!, can some one ge me were to get that last most inportend pees?!

Thanks
YF

My new Super PC is:
- Intel Core 2 DUO Extreme X6800 2.93GHz processor
- Abit AWD9-MAX
- Corsair 2GB (2x1GB) TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF
- 4 x Western Digital RaptorX 150GB 16MB cache SATA Hard Drives configured in RAID 0
- ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB GDDR4 AVIVO HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
- ATI Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire Edition 512MB GDDR4 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
- Antec NINE HUNDRED Gamers ATX Case (200mm fan)
- Enermax Galaxy 1000W Next Generation ATX PSU

Total cost with installation: $5000.00

[cheesegrater]

Nice. Although, honestly, buying a X6800 defeats the purpose of buying PC2 8888 memory.

Personally, if I was buying a $5000 computer I would want a dedicated sound card. Unfortunately on the Abit board the only PCI slot is blocked when using Crossfire. So, you have to choose between Crossfire/SLI and a 3rd party sound card. I don't know why Abit uses such bizzare layouts, especially on enthusiast boards. An enthusiast is probably gonna want a dedicated sound card with their SLI/Crossfire setup.

ATI, HIS, and Diamond X1950XTXs have memory clocked at 2000MHZ. At least according to newegg.

[yf]

ahhhm..yah, with all the problems the abit MB comes, it still works for me, for sound i'm using M-Audio 410 fire wire, since I'm a studio guy as well, I'm using high end studio monitors, and it is adding lots of flavor at the low HZ, so I can "feel" the aircraft "rolling" on the ground...

I deside to wait untill the ATI crossfire card is ready, and see the impruvment while gaming, I'm affraid to have one card from ATI and the second from third party, maby I'm wrong, if so tell me and I will order the third party crossfire right now.

Thanks

P.s. I wonder what kind of rig Microsoft devalopers use...

[cheesegrater]

I think if you have cards from different manufacturers it work. You can use a X1950XTX with a X1900 on crossfire, so I'm guessing two X1950XTX from different manufacturers will work.

The Sapphire X1950XTX has a lower clock of 1550 instead of 2000. I would try to avoid them.

In the FSX commercial they have on TV it runs like a slideshow. I thought it was sad.

[NicksFXHouse]

Go here:

http://www.atitech.ca/technology/crossf ... urown.html

Those are the certified Crossfire cards. That site will guide you though selection so your purchase will provide ATI certified performance

These are the certified configurations with the matching cards but they do not list the x1950 as of yet in this list:

http://www.atitech.ca/technology/crossf ... figs2.html

Check the matching cards and you will have your answer to what is the best match for crossfire... also, the site will show you where to buy


and I think what you are looking for is here:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... icegrabber

not sure

I like the design of the abit board for heat transfer and overclocking but it would not work for me because I use a few PCI cards, one of which is WIFI and I am not pulling any wires for a motherboard, nor will I loose by ability to watch cable news while I work.

Abit typically either screws up one thing or another and I can't believe they designed a board like that and made it impossible to do much of anything but game.

[cheesegrater]

I think they are using the same mentality they used on the Fatal1ty series of motherboards, which is getting rid of all the features gamers don't use.

[congo]

I wouldn't be too harsh on the Abit board, my mainboard looks silly with all the empty PCI slots  :P

And, as mentioned before, the thing is positively fast.

yf wants a simming machine, and the board he chose looks good for the task, even if it doesn't suit the rest of you guys.

I reckon yf's system is going to be one of the best there is, bag it all you like!

[NicksFXHouse]

I think they are using the same mentality they used on the Fatal1ty series of motherboards, which is getting rid of all the features gamers don't use.

Its probably why the board clocks so well.. it does not have to deal with a busy bus. Controllers on a bus can create O/C instability points.

From a strictly thermal engineering standpoint, the board is top dog.. from an expandability standpoint, its bottom of the barrel

and that second video card will cover areas an overclocker will more than likely need acess to so in my opinion the head engineer is short a few cups of coffee if the primary purpose was to provide a overclocking platform for pure gaming

however, in my opinion for the first time offered on a general public platform the thermal dynamic design is spot on.. tough to pass it up but I think I would hold off for another solution which will copycat the good and provide room to expand Abit better.

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote]I wouldn't be too harsh on the Abit board, my mainboard looks silly with all the empty PCI slots

[congo]

and that second video card will cover areas an overclocker will more than likely need acess to so in my opinion the head engineer is short a few cups of coffee

Lol, poor old Abit engineers have been copping it for so long. I read they lost the main one back in the nForce4 days, so I imagine it's been a struggle getting back into high gear. Nevertheless, they have continued to market and sell plenty of boards, even though these boards have been comparitively cheap. I was shocked to see the price of the one yf chose. They must have a lot of confidence in it to ask that much, it's a real departure from their normal pricing structure as far as I can tell.

[yf]

Thanks to all of you, for helping me building a Real system! I don

[NicksFXHouse]

If your not going to overclock, you really dont need that board. In order to run wide open it requires overclock settings.

As for the OS.. x64 is significantly faster when it comes to allot of programs, however if you are considering it for 3D games, it wont give much more than x32.

I would just stick to x32 however you can download x64 for free evaluation which will hold you off till Vista arrives. You must make sure all the drivers for your cards and the motherboard come in x64.. some dont. If they dont or the drivers are buggy your better off on x32.

[congo]

that way any cheap PC that can handle print shop, should be able to run FSX at high end with some sort of an external DSP processor? Am I wrong or not?

I don't know what DSP is but I think you may be mistaken in your assumption, I can't see "any old PC" running FSX no matter what.

If DSP is a dedicated Sound processor, then realise that only a small percentage of CPU cycles go into the sound processing on modern PC's, probably less than 2 or 3% on a system like the one you just bought.

[yf]

Well,
DSP stands for Digital Signal Processing, and I will explain in more detail,

In old times, recording studios were using 2 inch real to real tape to handle up to 16 audio tracks at the same time, as computers became more powerful, as well the hard drives, many companies came out with DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)