Opinion on computer for PM and others

[Gabriel]

Hi guys, good morning. I am starting to think about my future home cockpit. I only have one good PC at the moment where I run FSX. As I am considering to buy the MCP, EFIS, and CDU, I would need another computer to plug all these new hardware and run Project Magenta or Sim Avionics, still to decide. Would you suggest any configuration for this new PC so I can run everything smoothly? Best regards,

Gabriel

[npbosch]

Hi Gabriel,

PM is designed for a network. I have 3 clients.
1 has the PFD/ND captain side , MCP
2 has the EICAS/CDU (2 vga cards)
3 PFD/ND fo side.

All clients are 1 gHz win xp pc with quite low specs. Just take a videocard that is OpenGl compatible.
And it works very fluently with high frame rates. So just buy old second hand PC's and use your money for other things in your sim.

[oal331]

Hi Gabriel,

i have 3 PCs but you can make it also with 2 PCs only.

Here is my idea for 2 PCs:
1st PC for FS (FSX or FS9) with PM's MCP
2nd PC with 2 PCI-E VGAs with 2 outpout each giving the Captains and FO's PFD/ND and both EICAS and Lower Eicas (PM's CG). Also the PM's CDU can run here or in 1st PC, as it is only one or two USB connections and finally the PMSystems.

My Setup is with 3 PCs, because i had 2 low end PCs, one for Captain and CDUs and the other for FO and PmSystems.


Regards

Eddie

[Gabriel]

Thank you very much for your answers. But I would like to share with you my plans:

* I already have one good PC running FSX. Details:

Intel i7 940
Nvidia GTX 295
Corsair Dominator DDR3 6GB
Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB with 2 partitions (1 for OS and another for FSX and addons)

In this PC I will run only FSX plus addons

* For the second PC, I have thought the following:

Intel i7 940 changed from my main PC. My main PC would be upgraded to an Intel i7 960
Western Digital Velociraptor 300 GB changed from my main PC. Main PC would have two SSD, one for OS and another for FSX plus addons
3 Nvidia GTX 460 (so I can have 3 VGAs plus 3 DVIs)
In this second PC I will run just Project Magenta or Sim Avionics (which is the best) and the MCP plus 1 CDU plus 1 EFIS

How does it look like? Would it worth the changes for a better performance? I assume that this second PC would be more than enough for Avionics, but would this upgrades revert positively into my main PC where I run FSX? Thank you very much in advance, best regards

Gabriel

[oal331]

Main PC looks ok, why you want to change it?
If you want something to change buy another HDD or these to SSD.

Don't push so much money to high end PCSs for FSX and for Avionics.....

Eddie

[Gabriel]

Thx Eddie. Reason is that although I have tried to tune FSX properly with some payware scenarios I get a very poor performance, sometimes below 15fps. This is not happening with default ones or at cruise altitude, but when approaching to this payware airports it looks to underperform, so I thought that with a better CPU I would increase performance.

Assuming I dont change my current CPU, would an i5 be enough for avionics? Do you also agree in placing these three graphic cards in the second PC?

Do you have any preference for PM or Sim Avionics?

SSD would give me a better performance in the main PC? Sorry for asking again, but I do not have previous experiences with homecockpits and relative limited knowledge in informatic.

FYI I have decided to buy FDS CDUs and CP MCPs and EFIS. Regards and thanks again

[oal331]

Thx Eddie. Reason is that although I have tried to tune FSX properly with some payware scenarios I get a very poor performance, sometimes below 15fps. This is not happening with default ones or at cruise altitude, but when approaching to this payware airports it looks to underperform, so I thought that with a better CPU I would increase performance.

I have an i7 930 with Nvidia 480 and i also have in some airports with specific payware aircafts such low frames like below 15fps you wrote above. To see the differense you have to overclock your CPU ~ 4.00Ghz (if you know how to do it). I have a very good aircooler but i don't know how to overclock it in safe, so i remain in stock settings.



Assuming I dont change my current CPU, would an i5 be enough for avionics? Do you also agree in placing these three graphic cards in the second PC?

Yes it is. My low end PCs running with 3 years old Core2Duo CPUs, with 2GbRam and ATI 3870. PM's s/w GC (for PFD/ND/EICAS), CDU & MCP they don't need something special to run. They just need OpenGL. Some years before i was running them in very old Pentium2 ;-) Pmsystems needs some better performanse but ANY today's PC is ok.



Do you have any preference for PM or Sim Avionics?

As i wrote i have PM's s/w, because 8 years ago it was the only one. I don't know if all the others companies making B737 s/w have all the functionallity and compatibility like PM. I think that you can test both and make your own opinion.


SSD would give me a better performance in the main PC? Sorry for asking again, but I do not have previous experiences with homecockpits and relative limited knowledge in informatic.
SSD is an expensive hobby :D I have one Intell's SSD 80Gb as primary disk to boot Win7 64bit. But for FSX, because the capacity is very important for install terain, sceneries et, i have a 2nd HDD SEAGATE 2 TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA 6Gb/s ST3200064.


FYI I have decided to buy FDS CDUs and CP MCPs and EFIS. Regards and thanks again
For CDU i have 2 from Engravity, they are working only with one USB connection each, in the same PC and they are with green display. I don't know about new FDS's CDUs.
I also have CP MCP Pro & EFIS !!

Best regards from Athens !!!

Eddie

[Gabriel]

Thank you very much Eddie. After seeing your comments, I will not change my actual CPU. I would consider the SSDs and will look for a low end system for avionics. I will keep you posted on my progress. Best regards,

Gabriel

[metamarty]

I can really recommend an SSD. I put together a new PC that is going to drive our training cockpit with an intel i980x 6-core and an SSD. This thing eats FSX for lunch. Disk access times remain below 2 msec while flying. It is loaded with FSX, REX, various addon airports, ultimate terrain and an AI package and I got a screenshot of it running 500 frames/sec.

[Gabriel]

Thank you for all your help. I am fully convinced about upgrading my HDDs on the FSX´s PC to SSDs. Metamarty apart of your SSDs, you have an excellent CPU, this also makes a huge difference ;)

I would like to share with you the following configuration for my second PC. Bear in mind that I do not want this second PC only for Avionics, but also for my daily use (download, Lightroom..etc), that´s why I looked for a medium end system. Please, do not hesitate to criticize if you consider something worthless:

1 Intel i5 760 @ 2.8 Ghz
2 Gainward Nvidia GTS450 GS
1 Antec Earthwatts 2.0 650 watts
1 Antec Three Hundred
1 Asus P7P55D Premium
1 Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB
Corsair Kit DIMM 4GB DDR3-1333
Windows 7 Professional 64 bits

All this is worth € 900 without OS. How does it look like? Regards

[metamarty]

My opinion would be to replace the WD for an OCZ vertex SSD. The price difference is not that great. If you're only going to install FSX on it, even with scenery, an 120 GB SSD should be enough.
It will increase boot time and load perfomance and decrease noise and heat.
Also, be sure to overclock the CPU. Our intel was running 3.3 stock and easily does 4.5 without even increasing voltages and using the stock intel cooler.

Ofcourse, if you toss PM, you're going to save even more bucks. But I'm biased ofcourse. :wink:

[Gabriel]

Yes, I will replace WD for an SSD just for FSX. I would like to overclock my i7 940, but I do not really know how to do it without getting my CPU fried...I am running it now at 3.2Ghz through an application in my BIO (motherboard Asus Rampage II Extreme). I tried to overclock it to 3.66 Ghz (maximum I can do through an application in my Asus) and CPU went to 99º on an stress test, so I decided to leave at 3.2Ghz.

My concern with overclocking is that I have seen many people formatting their systems several times due to OC. Do you like my second PC´s config for avionics and general use? Regards

[metamarty]

The i5 960 is an 45nm processor, so it won't overclock as well as the i980x, but the latter is outrageously expensive, so you should indeed be carefull with temperatures. I always do a burn in test of a couple of hours on full load. Secondary computers can alway be lighter, but I don't know specifically about PM, because I don't use it.

[Gabriel]

Thx. i5 960 is just for the second PC (for avionics), FSX would run only under i7 940. Regards,

Gabriel

[JWS]

I'm running PM on Pentium pc's with Window 98SE, no problemo.

JWS

[Gabriel]

Thank you very much for the info. Rgds