Pc Upgrade Q's......

[No Longer Active]

As my sim is slowly coming together, I think that my PC could do with upgrading at the mo and would like to replace a few bits!

I currently have a motherboard with a 2.4ghz DualCore CPU, but would like to upgrade my PC to Core2Duo as my motherboard also accepts this (but not Core2Quad unfortunately).

At the same time, my PC also has just 2gb or RAM on one stick, I will add another 2gb or RAM to up this to 4GB, More than the maximum that Xp32 can use.

My GFX card is a naff little HD3650 Radeon HD Card with dual outputs, but would now like to use this card for the gauges and would like a brand new graphics card for main visuals, I have a 500watt power supply so could easily handle a better gfx card.

Questions.....

1) If I replace the cpu with an upgraded cpu, will I need to re-install windows, will the computer see the new cpu as a new pc and give me problems?....

2) What is a good graphics card that wont break the bank, it must be better than my card at the moment but thinking of keeping the new card still an ATI card to illiminate problems. Thinking of £70-80 for my new gfx card...what can that buy? I don't understand gfx cards (can't keep up with them).....

Thank you

Alex

[kiek]

1) If I replace the cpu with an upgraded cpu, will I need to re-install windows, will the computer see the new cpu as a new pc and give me problems?...

No you do not have to re-install windows after a cpu upgrade.
I recommend to buy the hightest freq dual core cpu your mobo supports. A quad core cpu does not make much sense for FSX, while it still uses 1 core at full speed and sometimes another core to load sceneries. A high speed dual core is much better then a lower speed quad core.




2) What is a good graphics card that wont break the bank, it must be better than my card at the moment but thinking of keeping the new card still an ATI card to illiminate problems. Thinking of £70-80 for my new gfx card...what can that buy? I don't understand gfx cards (can't keep up with them).....
FSX is cpu bound so you really do not need to go for the most powerful (and power hungry) video card.

W.r.t. the RAM, it is important to have two banks of memory with exactly the same specifications... so buy 2 x 2Gb new I would say, it is not very expensive.

regards,
Nico Kaan

[No Longer Active]

Hi thanks for the information, by the way I am using FS2004 as FSX is a little slow on my current configuration.

Maybe I could upgrade to FSX..... will say a Core2Duo @ 2.88Ghz w/4gb RAM run FSX?

Thank you very much.

Alex

[No Longer Active]

I am thinking of this CPU:

http://www.pcupgrade.co.uk/productdetails.asp?ProductID=6326&categoryid=338

With 4gb Ram

Alex

[kiek]

I'd go for the fastest one E8600... or at least E8500 (maybe you can buy a used one, a few months ago I sold my E8500...)

[No Longer Active]

Hello Nico, is there a difference between Socket 775 and LGA775 just that on ebay it lists cpu's as these 2 types?

Thanks,

Alex

[jackwall]

Socket 775 is LGA775 .. same thing .... so no worries there.

Good luck with the upgrades. There is some good advice above especially about using the same RAM. Try to get the same manufacturing batch also. This is not ultra critical and it's only possible to try an get serial numbers that are very close to each other on each stick!

[No Longer Active]

Hi there,

Thanks for the answer! I am looking at getting the exact same make and model of Ram as to what I have in the computer already. It will cost a little more, but like I say will be worth it.....

I think I will be going for the E8500 cpu, due to their excellent price. This will make my machine an fs9 screamer!

I Still need another PCI-E graphics card, but totally in the dark as to what to get.......

Cheers....

Alex....

[jackwall]

The E8500 will do great in FS9 or FSX if you choose to go that way. If your PC is only for FS, then you in good territory .... actually you are in good territory either way unless you into video editing big time or need the full capabilities of true multi core software.
MSFS is not that really albeit FSX SP2 does significantly improve multi core usage.

Anyway, Graphics ...
It kinda comes partly down to resolution in so far as you need to choose a card that is cabable of what ever resolution you play at. FS may not be GPU intensive but it's not going to hurt having headroom either. So the balance is cost vs performance again but with the knowledge that for FS you don't need to go to the top shelf [ meaning most expensive/newest]

Totally subjective but take a look at the ATI Radeon HD5770 for a starter. It's a good price and a good FS performer.

[wledzian]

For the graphics card, stick with a Radeon for driver compatibility. In your price range, an HD5670 combined with the E8500 should do very nicely with the eye-candy turned way up.

[No Longer Active]

Hi All....

Because my budget is limited I ended up going with the E7600 Core 2 Duo CPU which is 2 x 3.06GHz, which is an extreme upgrade as compared to my naff Dual Core E2200 which is a mere 2.20GHz, will sell my old CPU to buy an extra 2GB of Rendition RAM which will take me up to 4GB.

My PC is going to be a real FS9 screamer!

I will let you know the results!

Cheers,

Alex

[No Longer Active]

New Update:

Was having problems with the E7600 CPU, it kept on crashing, blinking, blue screen messages, and was just re-setting itself! The PC would not completely shut down, so I knew there was something up!

It turns out the my Motherboard doesn't accept the E7600, but accepts the E7400 and E7500.

So the CPU has been sold on ebay (after listing it for one hour). I sold it for £50 and is putting another £30 towards it to get the E8400 which IS supported!

Lets see how this goes, this CPU is a 3.00GHz x 2 chip (Core 2 Duo).

Alex