I have a decision to make

[brendon7358]

Upgrade computer or keep laser I am quite an avid flight simmer and I would like to upgrade my processor but to do so I would need to sell my laser hmmm is it worth it?:thinking: I use my computer a lot more than I use my laser but on the other hand I play flight sim and use my laser about the same amount of time. What do you guy's think? (although your opinion is probably biased quite a bit lol)

 

[ryansoh3]

Heh... more details please!

Current CPU, future CPU, laser that you wish to sell?
What's your current computer configuration?

Cheers!

 

[brendon7358]

Heh... more details please!

Current CPU, future CPU, laser that you wish to sell?
What's your current computer configuration?

Cheers!

I wish to sell my 1.2W :cryyy:. My current configuration is this

and I would like to upgrade my CPU I am not yet sure of what I am going to upgrade it to but probably to around 3.3GHz+ because currently I get 5fps in my flight sim which makes it practically impossible to function + random crashes every 1/2 hour.

p.s. I also really haven't played flight sim in a while because of this but if I can get it to work properly I would probably play it a lot more than I use my lasers plus the upgrade would help countless other things on my pc currently I can't really even play with good graphics on most things because I would get like 2fps. Also my flight sim only uses 2 cores so the 4 I have now is no use to me.

p.s.s. I think I may get this one maybe...

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Your flight sim has low FPS because your video card sucks. That 9500GT was a low-end card when it was first released.

As for the remainder of your system. It's not great, but it's still quite usable. Your CPU is probably just fine. Yeah, CPUs are faster nowadays, but Core 2 Duo Quads are still pretty decent and most games are not CPU-bound. What you're lacking: RAM and a decent video card.

Here's what you buy:

Upgrade your RAM to the most you can fit into your computer. You can probably fit 8GB, and since you're running Windows 7 64-bit you can utilize it too. RAM is DIRT CHEAP, so don't scrimp on that, and your whole computer will be able to do more with more RAM (I'm using 12GB and am seriously considering kicking that shit up to 24GB for good measure).

Buy a better video card. Your card is numerically 3-generations-old or something, and effectively the same card as a 5-generation-old card because they just rebag those old card at the low end. Follow this guy's advice on buying a new video card because you are limited in what you can fit in your machine. You'll probably be stuck with a GT440, but it'll be far better than what you're using now. Look on Newegg or Amazon.com for a video card, but remember to follow the advice of the guy in the forum above, because you're limited in powering that card.

Overall, you'll probably spend like $150-$250 to upgrade in my estimation. Better than selling your lasers.

 

[brendon7358]

Your flight sim has low FPS because your video card sucks. That 9500GT was a low-end card when it was first released.

As for the remainder of your system. It's not great, but it's still quite usable. Your CPU is probably just fine. Yeah, CPUs are faster nowadays, but Core 2 Duo Quads are still pretty decent and most games are not CPU-bound. What you're lacking: RAM and a decent video card.

Here's what you buy:

Upgrade your RAM to the most you can fit into your computer. You can probably fit 8GB, and since you're running Windows 7 64-bit you can utilize it too. RAM is DIRT CHEAP, so don't scrimp on that, and your whole computer will be able to do more with more RAM (I'm using 12GB and am seriously considering kicking that shit up to 24GB for good measure).

Buy a better video card. Your card is numerically 3-generations-old or something, and effectively the same card as a 5-generation-old card because they just rebag those old card at the low end. Follow this guy's advice on buying a new video card because you are limited in what you can fit in your machine. You'll probably be stuck with a GT440, but it'll be far better than what you're using now. Look on Newegg or Amazon.com for a video card, but remember to follow the advice of the guy in the forum above, because you're limited in powering that card.

Overall, you'll probably spend like $150-$250 to upgrade in my estimation. Better than selling your lasers.

No matter what upgrade I do I would need to sell my laser. And FSX (my flight sim) uses mainly CPU and for it to run well it needs at least 3GHz to run well and it only fully uses 1-2 cores so the less cores the better, I was looking into upgrading my video card at a later date and my RAM is DDR2 and from what I could find 4gb is the max possible without spending $180+ (I have 2 ram slots). :undecided:

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Consider keeping the laser, and selling the computer instead, to build another one.

The problem is, your computer is not very upgrade friendly, and as more time passes, it just becomes that much more outdated.

Form factor: microATX - 24.4 cm (9.6 inches) x 24.4 cm (9.6 inches)
Chipset:
Northbridge chipset: Intel G33 Express
Southbridge chipset: Intel ICH9R
Memory sockets: 4 x DDR2
Front side bus speeds: 1333/1066/800 MHz
Processor socket: 775

You have no empty ram slots, and a shitty 350W PSU.

Upgrading the CPU might buy you some more time, but will be a waste of money imnho.

So personally, my vote is for saving up some more money, selling off the one you have, and building a new one.

Upgrade your RAM to the most you can fit into your computer. You can probably fit 8GB, and since you're running Windows 7 64-bit you can utilize it too. RAM is DIRT CHEAP, so don't scrimp on that, and your whole computer will be able to do more with more RAM (I'm using 12GB and am seriously considering kicking that shit up to 24GB for good measure).

While I wholeheartedly agree with everything else you said, I don't about ram.

Most people rarely need more than 4gb. Personally I went from 6gb to 12gb, and noticed exceedingly little difference. So even with ddr3 ram being dirt cheap right now, an upgrade is not always needed.

 

[brendon7358]

Well I was thinking of getting this but I don't have a job right now and it is hard to get one but I'm trying so therefore the only money I will be getting right now is $100 on Christmas. The CPU upgrade would mostly be a temporary fix until I can get a new computer but frankly I think I would use a new CPU a lot more than a laser :undecided:

 

[Bionic-Badger]

It may be better in the long run not to bother with a new video card with your current system. A "new" video card, because you have special requirements, may even cost more than far better cards that don't have the special requirements. Waiting until you have a better mobo/CPU/PSU might be a better idea.

The first thing you should try is maximizing your RAM on your computer. FSX likes CPU as well as RAM, so you might as well max your RAM because it is such a cheap upgrade. It'll make everything else perform better too. Also remove your old FSX.cfg and give it some good tweaks to see how it helps. Still bear in mind that your video card is very low-end, and 5fps is very abnormal performance at your CPU/RAM level.

 

[brendon7358]

It may be better in the long run not to bother with a new video card with your current system. A "new" video card, because you have special requirements, may even cost more than far better cards that don't have the special requirements. Waiting until you have a better mobo/CPU/PSU might be a better idea.

The first thing you should try is maximizing your RAM on your computer. FSX likes CPU as well as RAM, so you might as well max your RAM because it is such a cheap upgrade. It'll make everything else perform better too. Also remove your old FSX.cfg and give it some good tweaks to see how it helps. Still bear in mind that your video card is very low-end, and 5fps is very abnormal performance at your CPU/RAM level.

I have DDR2 ram and only 2 slots so upgrading that is not possible without spending even more than a new CPU would cost. I will look into that site and it's weird my FSX will get 20-30fps then after I takeoff drop to 2-5fps then crash it is very annoying.

I could not find any of the things mentioned on that forum in my FSX.cfg am I supposed to add them or something?

 

[Bionic-Badger]

While I wholeheartedly agree with everything else you said, I don't about ram.

Most people rarely need more than 4gb. Personally I went from 6gb to 12gb, and noticed exceedingly little difference. So even with ddr3 ram being dirt cheap right now, an upgrade is not always needed.

I dunno, I've seen a good difference, mostly because I've had games use up substantial amounts of RAM on their own, leaving little for the OS, or the OS has to do swapping a bit. Even Firefox nearly always uses about 1GB of RAM on its own, so just sitting here not playing any games I'll be using 6GB, but with games it'll crank up to 8 GB or more on occasion.

As for FSX, is one of those older games that is CPU intensive, but can also use quite a bit of RAM. The later patches that allow usage above 3GB or so. Whether Brendon's crashes are OOM-type I don't know, but it's a $40 upgrade or something, and overall improves a computer in my experience.

Also there's another benefit to having tons of RAM: you can disable your pagefile. After I reached a high RAM threshold I found that my pagefile's size never exceeded my RAM, so I could just do without it. It's nice not having to use the disk at all for virtual memory.

That CPU upgrade might be decent for his machine though, especially for FSX. Though he ought to check whether he can tweak the game to use more CPUs instead of investing a lot into an old 2-core processor as an interim solution.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

I have DDR2 ram and only 2 slots so upgrading that is not possible without spending even more than a new CPU would cost. I will look into that site and it's weird my FSX will get 20-30fps then after I takeoff drop to 2-5fps then crash it is very annoying.

Ouch, you're right. I forgot how much DDR2 costs these days. Not a mere $40-80 upgrade. Maybe the CPU is your only real option for FSX short of a major upgrade.

Here are some other tweaks.

 

[brendon7358]

Ouch, you're right. I forgot how much DDR2 costs these days. Not a mere $40-80 upgrade. Maybe the CPU is your only real option for FSX short of a major upgrade.

Here are some other tweaks.

Now your gettin it lol. How difficult/ easy is it to install a new CPU? And what do you think of the Alienware desktop? If I get a job I wanna get that. Also as for those tweaks I couldn't find any of them in my .cfg maybe it is a different version of FSX? I have the deluxe version.

p.s. I have been trying to play a train sim lately and I get 2fps with minimum setting's it's called Railworks 3 would CPU upgrade help that too?

 

[Bionic-Badger]

On that Alienware desktop: you'll have to select some of the upgrades to get the most out of it. The $700 base machine is pretty weak. I build my own machines so I know exactly what's going into it and how to upgrade them if needs be.

For upgrading the CPU, you should check if that processor is compatible with your system first. It should be, but who knows with the BIOS if it is. You should probably update the BIOS anyway. Installing it physically, well, it's not difficult if you've ever done it before, but you'll need to unscrew things and detach the heatsink, etc. to get it in. I'd read/watch some guides on how to do it.

If you're not seeing anything resembling the tweaks you might be using an old version of the FSX CFG file. Try renaming it to something else and let the program recreate it. If it's really old it might explain why you're getting some shitty performance.

Railworks 3 is a much newer game, so I doubt the CPU would have as much difference as it does on your age-old FSX. It probably needs a good GPU to operate up to speed.

 

[brendon7358]

On that Alienware desktop: you'll have to select some of the upgrades to get the most out of it. The $700 base machine is pretty weak. I build my own machines so I know exactly what's going into it and how to upgrade them if needs be.

For upgrading the CPU, you should check if that processor is compatible with your system first. It should be, but who knows with the BIOS if it is. You should probably update the BIOS anyway. Installing it physically, well, it's not difficult if you've ever done it before, but you'll need to unscrew things and detach the heatsink, etc. to get it in. I'd read/watch some guides on how to do it.

If you're not seeing anything resembling the tweaks you might be using an old version of the FSX CFG file. Try renaming it to something else and let the program recreate it. If it's really old it might explain why you're getting some shitty performance.

Railworks 3 is a much newer game, so I doubt the CPU would have as much difference as it does on your age-old FSX. It probably needs a good GPU to operate up to speed.

The one I selected is compatible here are my motherboard specs as you can see it uses a LGA775 socket and the CPU I would like to get (this) uses a LGA775 socket. Anything else need to be compatible? Also what's BIOS and how would I go about updating it?

p.s. I know exactly why FSX runs so shitty because it only uses 1 core I even tested it as you can see in the first graph it is at the max and the others aren't being used at all causing 8fps. (I apologize for the giant picture but it makes it easier to see stuff when it's bigger)

 

[ryansoh3]

Interesting results.

I see the problem as FSX not being able to handle multi core CPU's.

You should follow instructions here, and see if you can increase the performance, as the single thread instructions are the bottleneck of your setup.

Howto:Activate multi core and multi GPU support - FlightGear wiki

Cheers!

Edit: I have a Asus P7P55D with a Intel i7 860 at 2.8 GHz quad-core that I may want to sell or trade. I mainly use my laptop so I don't have a need for a powerhouse anymore. Let me know if you want to work something out.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

BIOS.

Basically it's the firmware that runs your motherboard. Most newer motherboards you can flash via a bootable USB. Older ones, personally never tried, but iirc you can do it via CD.

The alienware desktop you linked to is a waste of money. If you get it, you will end up regretting it. An i3 processor just doesn't cut it for me personally. The ram is a joke. You're basically paying a hefty premium for the nice looking case.

Lastly, the processor you want is not very cheap. Yet it is rather old, and outdated.

Passmark.

It doesn't even touch the high end CPU's. Link.

If you're patient, you can build yourself a decent computer for not much more than it will cost you to upgrade ram, and cpu on yours.

@BB - If you're using 6GB basically idling, some services you don't need are definitely running. Most of the time I'm under 3, even 2GB when not doing much. For example, right now, using 2.5GB, I have chrome open with 10+ tabs, WMP, digsby (chat client), couple of folders open, and chat client. Usually also outlook, excel and rdp, if I'm working. Only time I'm past that much, is if working with specific programs, or gaming. Even than I don't think I ever hit capacity.

About pagefile... I don't really see the point in disabling it, unless you're using an SSD. I've tried it, didn't notice any difference.

One thing that I would like to try with my next build, probably in 2014, or 2015, will be a ram drive. Right now 8GB sticks can be had for under $50.

Of course the way we're headed, we're also likely to start seeing ram and hard drive (SSD) become integrated, just as we see that same trend with intel and amd adding graphics capabilities in. So idk if when we do start seeing higher capacity ram (16gb, 32gb, 64gb) that it will be quite as cheap.

For the moment, few programs actually require anywhere near that much ram though, and until they do, we're not going to see much speedy progress. Same with LCD's... 1920x1080 monitors are dirt cheap now. I would love to more high def displays start to show up... not going to happen anytime soon though. Most people are still perfectly content with even DVD quality

Edit: In college, ~2002, I was perfectly happy with dvd quality though