Processor Upgrade

[bjratchf]

Has anyone decided to do a processor chip upgrade because of FS2002? I am thinking of doing mine, and am asking if there is anything I should watch out for, or any online guides I should follow... I did here that FS2k2 was a processo dependant game- which is true at least for the AI traffic: the more traffic I have, the more the sim accesses the hard drive for information, dropping frame rates like crazy...

Thanks,
Brendan

Brendan Ratchford
CEO, GlobeLink Aviation Group AG
http://globelinkva.tripod.com

[Captain_Slarty]

What have you got now ?

Captn S.

http://www.captainslarty.com/images/737/slarty2.jpg

[bjratchf]

right.. that would be helpful wouldn't it....

Dell Optiplex GX1 450mhz is the processor power
Grapics card is a Voodoo 5500 PCI (which without AI traffic gives great frame rates with full sliders.)

My dad thinks that I am crazy to upgrade the processor, just get a new computer since speed is so cheap these days. What do you think?


Brendan Ratchford
CEO, GlobeLink Aviation Group AG
http://globelinkva.tripod.com

[lydoss]

Yes, I've been considering it. I have a PIII 500 with 384 MB of RAM and a TNT2 Ultra. I'd like to get the max my motherboard can handle - a PIII 1 Ghz, slot 1, secc2, which costs about $200 to $240. With my 500, my framerates are ok, with sliders high. I get anywhere from 5 to 10 on the ground and 20 to 50 in the air. My PC, a Compaq I bought in '99, for an outrageous price, btw, came with 128 RAM - I added two 128s to improve my flightsim.

I'm also looking at the possibility of building a PC as well.
That is one reason I haven't committed fully to the purchase of a new cpu.

Good luck,

Mike

[drew_tex]

for around $250 you can sometimes pick up AMD athlon or P4 motherboard + CPU bundles. Speed is on the low end but its a good way to step up the tech level in your system. Then when prices fall, snap up the speed you want.

I used to run on a PIII 850mhz with a Herc 3d Prophet Ultra.

Now I run on AMD XP 1800+ with same vid (+more mem) and I couldnt imagine running FS2002 on my old system.

For all those folks with PCI graphics cards: UPGRADE TO AGP!
Bus is much faster.

[Captain_Slarty]

Hi Brenden

yep, its probably time to upgrade.

For fs2002 you could reuse the v5 no probs.

regarding processor, the best bang for the buck is the AMD athlon XP series - any one is great - go for the best you can afford.

you will need a mobo based on the via kt266a or kt333 chipset. - again, any reasonably well know make is kewl - asus, abit, gigabyte etc.
go for ddr ram - pc2100 or pc2700 if you can find it cheap !.

any reasonable cooler will do.. try to make sure the fan is a ball bearing unit. otherwise, dont worry about it. ;-)

Hope that helps.

Captn S.

http://www.captainslarty.com/images/737/slarty2.jpg

[jackhall]

Brendan, I've been researching the heck out of things, as I'm close to an upgrade. I've determined the Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus is the mobo that seems to have the fancy of Tom's Hardware Reviews and of Maximum PC. My CPU will probably be the Athlon XP1700+, maybe the 1800+. Anything above that and the cost goes up disproportionate to the increase in performance. Add 512MB of 2100 DDR RAM and that will do it. My VooDoo5500 is an outstanding video card that will serve for some time to come. I also have enough HD for the time being, so all I need is the three items listed above. If you have at least a solid 300W power supply in a mid tower case, you don't need that.

With careful shopping, you can do the lot $400. I have my notes at work with vendor names and prices, so I can't cite that here, but go to Tom's Hardware (www.tomshardware.com) and use his 'price search' engine.

Jack

[bjratchf]

Thanks for that info!

I also have found some cheap new machines that one can get the speed and memory- for 800... and under. http://ubid.com was the place.

Well, I am heading back to Germany now, so most of these things will be done in the summertime, which will probably see more changes in speed and memory advances and costs.

Thanks again for all your suggestions, and this post will probably be helpful to others too.


Brendan Ratchford
CEO, GlobeLink Aviation Group AG
http://globelinkva.tripod.com

[jackhall]

Brendan, remember that you get what you pay for, and all computers are not created equal. I named very specific components, not just by brand, but by model, since they performed quite well in the several tests I reviewed. There are other very good components out there and, at the end of the day, all of us opt for what we want.

For top performance, though, you should research and research again. Your research should include details as to what O/S works, what drivers work, etc. I took a quick peek at the ubid site and the computers are generic, no-name beige boxes. No one honestly knows what is inside. My bet is it's marginal, but maybe not.

Have fun with your purchase, whatever it is.

Jack