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FrozenGate by Avery

I have a decision to make

Exactly. Bionic and IE nailed it. Alienware is crap, analogous to to the notorious Wicked Lasers in this forum. It's just marketing bluff, and you can easily build a better custom PC for half the price of an Alienware.

Let us know how everything goes!

Cheers.
 
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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 Yet it is rather old, and outdated.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.


The price isn't too bad I plan on getting this one.

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.

I will look into your link but on the flightsim forum I have recently joined I asked them about it and this was their response. And sorry but right now I would rather not upgrade the motherboard because I think you need to reinstall the OS and I don't have the disk also your CPU is quad core and only 2.8GHz so it would not work nearly as well as the 3.3GHz dual core I am planning on getting.
If you have at least SP1 installed, FSX will use more than one core with the caveat that it will only use the additional cores for loading scenery data. The main sim processing is limited to one core, and will always be limited to one core. There is nothing anyone outside of Microsoft can do about this. And yes, this why it is commonly recommended to overclock CPUs to 4GHz+. FSX was developed at the tail end of the single core era, and is designed to run better on faster cores, not multiple cores. Developing for multi-core CPUs and systems is very different than for single cores.

I will look into building my own PC in the future if I have $ for it my current one was actually built by a friend of mine who works for geek squad, I think he just used spare parts he had and the only thing purchased where the monitor and RAM. Also I am not sure what I am going to I don't think I can make a thread in the B/S/T section for my laser it would be too depressing but if someone gives me an offer I may accept it :whistle:. The things I can sell are the batteries 2x18350, the charger (can charge 2 batteries at a time it's for 16340 and 18350 I got it from orbtronic), a couple protected 16340's also from orbtronic, an eagle pair of goggles (brand new)(will only sell if laser sells), and of course the laser :cryyy:. I am still trying to decide if it's worth it to part with it but of course what practical uses does it have? Besides burning which smells up my entire room for a few hours (worth it though lol) and admiring the beam what useful, everyday uses does it have? Compared to a better CPU I could play a lot more advanced games my only concern is what happens if I get bored of them and want a laser to burn random things?
 
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I understand. :)

It's interesting why MS wouldn't design FSX for multi-core CPU's as that's the current trend.

However, I actually would prefer higher frequency CPU's rather than going multi core.

It's a pity your motherboard only has two RAM slots. I have a stack DDR2 RAM chips that are sitting around.

Good luck! :beer:
 
What do you guys think is a good amount for building a powerful, custom computer? $1,000 ?
 
This should make a very decent setup:

CPU: Intel 2500K..........................$220
Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V.....................$210
RAM: Samsung 4X4GB 1333MHz......$80
GPU: nVidia GTX 550 Ti.................$110
SSD: Samsung SSD 830 128GB.....$170
HDD: Existing HDD...........................$0
PSU: Coolermaster eXtreme 500W....$35
Case: Whatever you like!

Total: ..........................................$825 + case

Phew, that was a lot of aligning. :)

So save some money up, and replace the entire desktop!
You'll feel so much better than upgrading your components one by one.

Cheers!
 
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The price isn't too bad I plan on getting this one.

I beg to differ. For an older CPU, that's A LOT.

What do you guys think is a good amount for building a powerful, custom computer? $1,000 ?

Depends how much power you actually need.

You can build a pretty decent system for a lot less if you're patient, and watch for sales. To build a super gaming rig will be more expensive though.

My computer is now 1-2 generations old, it's still capable of playing any game out there on at least medium settings, most are fine on high, and ultra high, for example skyrim is maxed out, so is starcraft. Next upgrade will be to SSD, and a better video card.

The great benefit to building your own computer, is you can build in the ability to upgrade in the future. The pre-made towers, upgrading them is a lost cause imo.


This should make a very decent setup:

CPU: Intel 2500K..........................$220
Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V.....................$210
GPU: nVidia GTX 550 Ti.................$110
SSD: Samsung SSD 830 128GB.....$170
HDD: Existing HDD...........................$0
PSU: Coolermaster eXtreme 500W....$35
Case: Whatever you like!

Total: ..........................................$745 + case

Uhm... you forgot ram :p

I would drop the SSD from the configuration for now... aside from start up, and opening programs, there is no significant increase in performance, when the program is already open and in use.

Also go with a more powerful PSU, and video card. For exactly double you can grab a gtx 480... which will play most games out not, at max. For case, also don't go super cheap... mid tower is ideal for first built.

It's also often cheaper to go 1 generation back when it comes to computers. For example, a gtx 480, will run everything just as well as a gtx 570, but for about $50 less. Meanwhile the six series cards are coming out... :D
 
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Uhm... you forgot ram :p

I would drop the SSD from the configuration for now... aside from start up, and opening programs, there is no significant increase in performance, when the program is already open and in use.


Also go with a more powerful PSU, and video card. For exactly double you can grab a gtx 480... which will play most games out not, at max. For case, also don't go super cheap... mid tower is ideal for first built.

It's also often cheaper to go 1 generation back when it comes to computers.


Whoops, thanks for pointing that out!


While it's true that there's no performance increase in open programs, I find that a SSD saves me LOTS of time during boot up and loading programs. My laptop, equipped with a Samsung SSD 830 512GB, boots in 13 seconds and 10 seconds excluding POST. Programs open instantly, and since you're building a desktop, a small SSD for the boot up drive would be critical. Even a 64GB SSD would suffice. Definitely worth it.

Cheers! :)
 
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InfinitusEquitas, I'm just wondering, do you have a preference between nVidia and ATI and also between Intel and AMD?

Cheers!
 
I'm an intel, and nvidia fan.

Intel tends to dominate, imo, when it comes to higher end processors. On a budget I would use AMD without hesitation though. I can't say that I ever actually had problems with either.

In the ATI vs nvidia arena, I had a nightmare of a time with an old radeon card, and it's drivers... this was years ago granted, but it left a sour taste. Ever since I've been using nVidia cards.

In benchmarks, it's really a toss up between the two. Last time I delved into it, nVidia was further ahead in terms of single gpu cards, so that's why I grabbed the gtx 460... well that and I overclocked it to perform better than stock 470's, without any problems.
 
I'm an intel, and nvidia fan.

Intel tends to dominate, imo, when it comes to higher end processors. On a budget I would use AMD without hesitation though. I can't say that I ever actually had problems with either.

Very true, but this is disappointing because AMD doesn't create enough pressure for Intel for it to create better processors. Heck, even AMD's hexa core CPU's are slower than my quad core i7 860!

I wish they were head to head, just like AMD vs nVidia.

Thanks for your input. :beer:
 
Very true, but this is disappointing because AMD doesn't create enough pressure for Intel for it to create better processors. Heck, even AMD's hexa core CPU's are slower than my quad core i7 860!

I wish they were head to head, just like AMD vs nVidia.

Thanks for your input. :beer:

Me too.

I think we might see the emergence of another cpu brand eventually though.

For the moment, AMD just doesn't have the resources to compete with Intel on a level field.

Meanwhile more work is being done with cpu's for phones and tablets.
 
Well I'm not going to sell my laser I do however have my fishtank for sale if anyone wants it they can have it for $250 just let me know of course if you live far shipping will be an issue I have it on ebay here. And no I will not do a trade my parents would kill me lol :D
 
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