Think she'll turn and burn?

[Mike..]

This is so far what I am thinking of doing for a new Dell. But first, here is what I am running now...

Dell Dimension 8400
Intel Pentium IV 3.4 Ghz w/HT technology
2 Gigs DDR2 Ram
200 GB HD
GeForce 6800 PCI-E X16 w/256mb

Even with these current specs FSX mind as well be an old Atari game as far as I'm concerned. The shuddering and flopping around and especially crashing AC because the framerates are so terrible really frustrated me so I took it off my current machine. So here is my newly purposed rig to take the place of my ageing 8400.

Dell XPS 420
3.0 GHz Core 2 DUO E6850
Vista Home
4 GB DDR2 Ram
320 GB HD
GeForce 8800 GTX PCI-E X16 w/768 MB mem
425 Watt power supply
very nice looking case with built in LED.

What do you guys think? Think I would be able to fly FSX with max sliders and turn and burn with this rig? Comments appreciated.


Mike

[MWISimmer]

If everything is patched/set up correctly FSX should run fine, just not at Max sliders..
I'm a bit sceptical about the PSU for that rig, but hey, Dell know best  :P
However you will see a world of difference.

[Wii]

You could get Vista Ultimate 64-bit to improve that 4gbs DDR2 RAM. Yes, that computer will burn the the ground. (Ok, maybe not.) But I think you need to hit AT LEAST a 600w power supply. The power supply is for the safety of your computer more than performance...Vista 64-bit not as much of a big deal but you should be able to max FSX with very good FPS.

[Wii]

[quote]If everything is patched/set up correctly FSX should run fine, just not at Max sliders..
I'm a bit sceptical about the PSU for that rig, but hey, Dell know best

[MWISimmer]

[quote][sarcasm] but hey, Dell know best

[Mike..]

As far as the power supply goes I don't see anywhere when I was building it that I could change it out to a bigger one. Vista Home doesn't run at 64 Bit? Whats Ultimate got that Home doesn't other than the multimedia package? I don't see anything in the recommended spces for FSX that says you have to have Ultimate. :-?


Mike

[MWISimmer]

Vista Home doesn't run at 64 Bit?

Vista comes in both 32 and 64 bit versions, if it's advertised as "Vista" it's usually 32 bit. "Vista 64 bit" would denote the latter... obviously.

Whats Ultimate got that Home doesn't other than the multimedia package? I don't see anything in the recommended spces for FSX that says you have to have Ultimate. :-?

You don't need Vista Ultimate to run FSX.. you don't even need Vista, it will run in XP albeit without DX10.

[Wii]

As far as the power supply goes I don't see anywhere when I was building it that I could change it out to a bigger one. Vista Home doesn't run at 64 Bit? Whats Ultimate got that Home doesn't other than the multimedia package? I don't see anything in the recommended spces for FSX that says you have to have Ultimate. :-?


Mike

You don't have to have Ultimate, just thought it would last longer but whatever suits you best.

[Slotback]

Dell sucks. Home built it.


There are some things I would change:

X38 mobo
Windows Vista Home Premium
Intel Core 2 duo Q6600
And a PC POWER AND COOLING powersupply with single +12v rail at over 600 watts.
2x1gb memory

Overclock everything. Spend the money you saved on your wife or something.

[Ashar]

Spend the money you saved on your wife or something.

What a great tip...I bet she'd be more than happy to take the money

[ozzy72]

I bet she'd be more than happy to take the monet

But where would she go with the father of impressionist painting? I mean where do you take a chap called Claude?

[Ashar]

I bet she'd be more than happy to take the monet

But where would she go with the father of impressionist painting? I mean where do you take a chap called Claude?

Duly noted and corrected...It sucks being caught by a teacher...

[ctjoyce]

My thoughts on the matter.

1st: The 4GB of RAM will NOT be recognised by Vista 32. 32 bit operating systems have a 3GB RAM cap, 64bit operating systems a 16TB RAM cap. So if you want those 4 sticks your going to have to spring for a 64bit OS to actually get what you are paying for.

2nd: Build yourself. The 450W PSU that dell includes is the absolute minimum that you should consider running that system on. An upgrade to a 500W would be needed just for the addition of an extra hard drive or second DVD drive.

3rd: I do not agree with the notion of "Overclock everything. Spend the money you saved on your wife or something." If you don't already have a monitor and a OS disk 9 times out of 10 you end up spending exactly the same, or sometimes less than you would with a OEM, the only difference is you have choice in case, and who makes your parts. Also if you don't know what you are doing here, you have the potential to trash a brand new $230 motherboard or processor when you overclock without proper cooling, or by pushing a VCore too high.

The one positive about Dell's XPS series is their XPS specific customer service and warranties are absolutely great. Its a completely seperate department in the company, and the guys on the other end of the phone are in Ireland or the US and actually know what they are talking about. On one call I made when I needed help getting drivers for my Bluetooth card for XP (turned out the card had fried, wasn't a driver issue) I actually had a nice chat with the guy about how he figured out how to run his XBox through his laptop wireless card so that he could get Live anywhere. So the XPS stuff is a lot different than their normal line.

So here is my bottom line. I would only go for 2GB of RAM instead of 4, and spring for the Q6700 / Q6600 or just save the cash. I can tell ya that FSX will run fine on 2GB of RAM even in Vista.

Cheers
Cameron

[Mike..]

The Dell actually came with 3GB of Ram to start, I just added the extra stick. I did away with the monitor I have a nice one already and it took 350 off the price. I didn't really need the keyboard or mouse either, they were more or less complmentary and didn't change the price. It had a GeForce 8800 with 512 but I beefed that up as well. As for build your own, I'm not made of money so this is the easiest for me and technically I am building it through Dell with what I would want if I had the money to build it myself. But you Guys are right. Think I'll do a little more research into what I built. I really would love to run at 64 bit though. I thought with the new specs listed above I could stay above the gamming curve another three years like I have with my current system. It wasn't until Crysis and FSX I realized I need to get back on top of my game. I do enjoy building though. When I first got married I built one that lasted over 4 years before the MB crashed. Dell was a easier and great way out of the debt of building from scratch when I needed a rig almost imediately. I go do some more research and see what I come up with. Thanks guys. I'll post more here for your opinions shortly.


Mike

[Mike..]

My thoughts on the matter.

1st: The 4GB of RAM will NOT be recognised by Vista 32. 32 bit operating systems have a 3GB RAM cap, 64bit operating systems a 16TB RAM cap. So if you want those 4 sticks your going to have to spring for a 64bit OS to actually get what you are paying for.

2nd: Build yourself. The 450W PSU that dell includes is the absolute minimum that you should consider running that system on. An upgrade to a 500W would be needed just for the addition of an extra hard drive or second DVD drive.

3rd: I do not agree with the notion of "Overclock everything. Spend the money you saved on your wife or something." If you don't already have a monitor and a OS disk 9 times out of 10 you end up spending exactly the same, or sometimes less than you would with a OEM, the only difference is you have choice in case, and who makes your parts. Also if you don't know what you are doing here, you have the potential to trash a brand new $230 motherboard or processor when you overclock without proper cooling, or by pushing a VCore too high.

The one positive about Dell's XPS series is their XPS specific customer service and warranties are absolutely great. Its a completely seperate department in the company, and the guys on the other end of the phone are in Ireland or the US and actually know what they are talking about. On one call I made when I needed help getting drivers for my Bluetooth card for XP (turned out the card had fried, wasn't a driver issue) I actually had a nice chat with the guy about how he figured out how to run his XBox through his laptop wireless card so that he could get Live anywhere. So the XPS stuff is a lot different than their normal line.

So here is my bottom line. I would only go for 2GB of RAM instead of 4, and spring for the Q6700 / Q6600 or just save the cash. I can tell ya that FSX will run fine on 2GB of RAM even in Vista.

Cheers
Cameron

Does the Q6700 / Q6600 have the capabilitiy to run 64 bit? Thanks for the insight!

Mike