IanatSTN From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2003, 577 posts, RR: 4 Posted (9 years 2 months 4 weeks 2 hours ago) and read 4923 times:
Hi Guys,
I am currently looking to buy a PC for FS2004. I have come to the conclusion that my current PC, a PIII 800mhz, 512Mb Ram, 32Mb Graphics Card is not up to the job, and I have researched for hours and the best deal that I came up with is as follows.
Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz 533FSB
ASROCK P4VT8,6 Channel Sound, LAN, 8x AGP, Serial ATA
512mb DDR RAM PC3200
Maxtor 40Gb HD 7200Rpm
ATI Radeon 9600 128Mb
This system will be costing me aprox £380, $704.
Some questions to you are, how is anyone with a similar system coping with FS2004? What sort of FPS are you getting at various slider settings? Will I be able to run a lot of AI packages, possibly Ultimate Traffic and still be able to cope?
Also any suggestions on the system itself are more than welcome.
Any suggestions, comments and answers are really greatly appreciated!!
Jutes85 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (9 years 2 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 4881 times:
Everything looks good. I'd buy another stick of 512mb, FS loves 1GB. You should have no problem running AI Packages like Ultimate Traffic 2004 at 100%. My System:
Athlon 2200+
1GB PC3200
80BG HD
MSI FX5900 128MB
As you can see, it is not the best one around. However, I've been able to tweak some settings with my Video Card and FS.cfg. I also have some cloud performance packages that can allow me to run at 100% 3D clouds with no problem. I range around 15-20fps in LAX and JFK with Ultimate Traffic at 100% so it does not bother me.
You should have no problem with a little tweaking.
JBirdAV8r From United States of America, joined Jun 2001, 4459 posts, RR: 22 Reply 3, posted (9 years 2 months 3 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 4858 times:
Man, where did you get those "cloud performance packages"? I have the following system:
Dan2002 From United States of America, joined Dec 2002, 2055 posts, RR: 5 Reply 6, posted (9 years 2 months 3 weeks 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 4811 times:
Never Ever , get a video card that is PCI, slow as hell , go with AGP for your new PC, if it didnt already hav a AGP vid card.
A guy asks 'What's Punk?'. I kick over a trash can and its punk. He knocks over a trash can and its trendy.
KLM777 From Netherlands, joined Dec 2003, 372 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (9 years 2 months 3 weeks 5 days 18 hours ago) and read 4794 times:
Ian@STN your configuration can definitely do the job, although I agree with the replies above that you should add another 512mb memory module.
PCI video cards are not favorable indeed, but they can hardly be found today. As always, you can spend more money to get a better FPS, but I understand it's a tradeoff between price and performance. You can add the 256mb video card, but it will cost you dearly. Your current configuration will run FS2004 very well so I would save that money...
One thing I've said before on this forum: A computer is as fast as the weakest link, so everything should be in balance, there's no point in buying a fast videocard when you are using a relatively slow CPU (which is not your case, but it's not the fastest either). On top of that, it's more advisable to buy a computer just one step behind the latest models. It'll be fast enough to run your current programs (including FS) and with the money you save you can buy a new (1 step behind) computer earlier again. Otherwise you'll probably run into upgrading single components one at a time, which disturbes the 'as fast as the weakest link'-theory
Syncmaster From United States of America, joined Jul 2002, 1983 posts, RR: 14 Reply 9, posted (9 years 2 months 3 weeks 5 days 16 hours ago) and read 4787 times:
I have a Dell Inspiron 8200...everything at Max, 1600x1200 resolution, runs like a dream....
Kingsford From Ukraine, joined Nov 2003, 427 posts, RR: 4 Reply 11, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 4712 times:
I have Dell Dimension 8200 : 2Ghz and 512MB but I am getting Dimension 8300, 3.2 Ghz and 1024 MB because it was not yet the ultimate machine to use FS9 (Elaborate a/c and rich scenery : Not a good mix)
Aviationwiz From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 953 posts, RR: 4 Reply 12, posted (9 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days ago) and read 4695 times:
Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz 533FSB
ASROCK P4VT8,6 Channel Sound, LAN, 8x AGP, Serial ATA
512mb DDR RAM PC3200
Maxtor 40Gb HD 7200Rpm
ATI Radeon 9600 128Mb
Looks good, just a few things.
1. I would recommend an Asus motherboard over an ASROCK, I like the P4C800-E Dlx. the P4P800 Dlx. might be what your looking for.
2. Go for a P4 2.6C (800MHZ FSB) over the 2.8B (533MHZ FSB) the 2.6C has the hyper-threading, and the faster front side bus, you will notice it go faster.
3. Be sure to get RAM from a good company, not some cheap bargain RAM.
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