My X-mas present to myself!

[skysurfer2010]

I just ordered a new Dell XPS 720 PC for flight sim X. I had a PC built from IBuyPower right around the same time last year that I sent back due to it being a lemon after numerous issues. Then that money went to something else. So I've been without my Flight Sim X for a year now and going crazy!

Here are the specs:

XPS 720 (750w PS and 680i chipset)
Windows Vista home premium
Q6600 at 1066mhz
NVidia 512mb 8800 GT video card
2gb DDR2 SDRAM 800mhz
250gb hard drive


And I also ordered a shiny new 22" widescreen Samsung LCD to replace my 19" Sony non widescreen LCD.

I'm pretty excited. This is even better than the last system I built. My last PC only had an E6600 dual core, however it did have the 8800 GTX video card. I'm hoping I'll be happy with the 8800 GT, but from everything I've read about that card I should be pretty pleased.

The system cost me $1500 and the monitor was $270. I've done so much shopping around over the past year but never committed to anything. Once I found out the Dell came with a 750w power supply and the 680i chipset I was sold along with that price. I just don't have the time and knowledge to build my own PC or else I would have gone that route.

One question though. Will that video card be enough to run the new LCD on 1600x1050 settings?

[GunnerMan]

Shoulda got 4 GB of ram but thats an easy fix someday  The GT is a great card. It can OC very well and its overclocked performance rivals or equals the GTX base performance. It should handle that res pretty easy with most games. FSX will tax it pretty hard but I wouldnt hope to see a GPU reallly shining in FSX untill we see some cards with 1 GB of vram.

[skysurfer2010]

Thanks! I chose to keep the price low and in the future add another hard drive, more ram, and probably a blue ray drive once the prices come down. Plus right now Vista doesn't recognize more than 3gb of ram I think, I could be wrong on that.

I can't wait to fire up FSX again! And I definitely can't wait to see it on that shiny new monitor on 1600x1050 settings! My current 19" monitor maxes out at 1280x1024.

[GunnerMan]

No XP dosen't see more than 3 GBs, Vista 32bit will support 4 Gbs of ram but the 64 bit version can support much more.

The 64 bit architecture can support up to 17,179,869,184 gigabytes of ram and Vista(depending on what version you have) supports up to 128+ Gb of ram.

[NickN]

Vista x32 is the same as XP x32 when it comes to RAM. It will only allow up to about 2.6-2.8 gigs of 4 to be used and that is only possible if the proper hacks are in place. By default it will not use any more than 2.

It requires a 64bit OS to use the full amount and beyond

[ThatOnePerson]

Vista x32 is the same as XP x32 when it comes to RAM. It will only allow up to about 2.6-2.8 gigs of 4 to be used and that is only possible if the proper hacks are in place. By default it will not use any more than 2.

It requires a 64bit OS to use the full amount and beyond

When I had a 32 bit version of xp, it recognized a full 3 gigs, I never hacked it either. Is that just an oddity I suppose?

[jimcooper1]

One question though. Will that video card be enough to run the new LCD on 1600x1050 settings?

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Let's answer your question rather than get diverted off-topic and talk about RAM.

Your video card will easily handle 2 monitors of that size so one will not even break a sweat!

(And 2GB of RAM is all you need with your chosen OS)

Regards

Jim

[SubZer0]

Vista x32 is the same as XP x32 when it comes to RAM. It will only allow up to about 2.6-2.8 gigs of 4 to be used and that is only possible if the proper hacks are in place. By default it will not use any more than 2.

It requires a 64bit OS to use the full amount and beyond

When I had a 32 bit version of xp, it recognized a full 3 gigs, I never hacked it either. Is that just an oddity I suppose?

It's different with everyone. I've read people getting 3.8 and such, and others getting only around 2.2. When I get my 4GB of RAM, I'll have to get a x64 OS.

[skysurfer2010]

One question though. Will that video card be enough to run the new LCD on 1600x1050 settings?

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Let's answer your question rather than get diverted off-topic and talk about RAM.

Your video card will easily handle 2 monitors of that size so one will not even break a sweat!

(And 2GB of RAM is all you need with your chosen OS)

Regards

Jim

Thanks!

[GunnerMan]

I read on MS website last night that the 32bit counterpart supports a max of 4 GBs.

[jimcooper1]

I read on MS website last night that the 32bit counterpart supports a max of 4 GBs.

Supporting and USING are two different things.
http://www.brianmadden.com/content/arti ... ally-mean-
http://experi3nc3.wordpress.com/2007/12 ... t-utilise/
http://compreviews.about.com/od/memory/a/Vista4GB.htm
etc

Regards

Jim