one more time......

[jimmyp42002]

ok, i talked with my mom, we can ONLY get from dell because she has credit there.

Heres a simpler list for a cheaper yet more powerful computer.

Intel® Core™2 E8400 (6MB,3.0 GHz, 1333FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
Red Bezel Chassis
6GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
1TB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
No Monitor
Dual ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB GDDR4
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

$1,689

hows that sound for running FSX?

I think i'll overclock the CPU to 3.2GHz.

[JSkorna]

Hi,

6GB is over-kill. Stick to 4GB.

Two drives in RAID is overkill. Go with a large single drive.

Do you really need 2 DVD drives?

No need for dual video cards.

That should save about $400.

[jimmyp42002]

the 6GB comes default

that was only $50 to upgrade from 250GB to 1TB RAID, 1TB single is like $400 extra

2 dvd drives is what it came with....

i have some games that could use the 2 video cards

acually its more expensive the other wya around with this model. the 2 video cards is only like a $30 upgrade from the Nvida. Technically its only like a $100 savings removing those.

[JSkorna]

Hi,

I'm sure Dell has other models with 4GB memory, a single, large hard drive, one DVD drive. You will not gain any performance in FSX with dual cards except at ultra-high resolutions. But, it's your Mom's money. Bottom line is that it will run FSX well!

[loki]

What was the upgrade from with the dual video cards? Few games really benefit from dual video cards. As the 3870s are not high end cards any more, it is quite likely a single current mid to high end card would be faster than even 2 3870s in Crossfire.

If you go with the RAID array, make sure you have a decent backup plan. If either drive dies, or the RAID array fails for any reason, your data will be gone.

[Michael E.]

What's the L2 cache size?

[CPSBruce]

i have some games that could use the 2 video cards

You play games that use two monitors?

[loki]

He probably means he plays other games that could benefit from a Crossfire setup with the dual Radeon cards. There are also games that do use multiple monitors as well.

I am still curious as to what the dual video cards was an upgrade from though.

[clamman]

ok, i talked with my mom, we can ONLY get from dell because she has credit there.

Heres a simpler list for a cheaper yet more powerful computer.

Intel® Core™2 E8400 (6MB,3.0 GHz, 1333FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
Red Bezel Chassis
6GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
1TB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
No Monitor
Dual ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB GDDR4
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

$1,689

hows that sound for running FSX?

I think i'll overclock the CPU to 3.2GHz.

E 8400 is a nice processor for over clocking. Got mine overclocked to 3.6 without even breaking a sweat. All depends on the motherboard though.

[Paxx]

E 8400 is a nice processor for over clocking. Got mine overclocked to 3.6 without even breaking a sweat. All depends on the motherboard though.

... which is a Dell, so don't plan on doing any overclocking.