Your Views on This PC

[MentorMan]

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/index.php?page=results

Good enough for FS9??

What can I expect from that PC in terms of:

a) frame rates
B) graphic performance
c) loading times

Thanks

[Zöltuger]

can you post the specs? that link leads to nowhere

[ooOO00OOoo]

The link said BUY THIS PRODUCT! ONLY 76POUNDS

??????

[MentorMan]

sorry..wrong link

Ill have to cut and paste:


Processor (CPU)


AMD ATHLONâ„¢ 64 X2 5600+ (2.8GHz) 2 x 1MB L2 Cache (Socket AM2)

Memory (RAM)


2048 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)

Motherboard


ASUS® M2V: DUAL DDR II, S-ATA, x16 VGA, 4 PCI

Operating System


WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£70)

USB Options


6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk


160GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk


NONE

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)


NONE

1st CD/DVD Drive


20x DVD±RW/RAM/Dual Layer + Lightscribe (48 x CD-RW) (£17)

2nd CD/DVD Drive


NONE

Graphics Card


512MB GEFORCE 7900GS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

2nd Graphics Card


NONE

Sound Card


6 Channel Realtek ALC 660 High Definition Audio (Onboard)

Modem


NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities


ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (ETHERNET)

Floppy Disk Drive


1.44MB - 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive

Memory Card Reader


INTERNAL 57 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case


Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB

Power Supply & Case Cooling


600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£61)

Processor Cooling


STANDARD CPU COOLER

[ooOO00OOoo]

Looks like a good system.
FS9. Ultra high on everything with good frame rates. Sorry i don't have fs9, but judging by how well fsx goes on my system it seem like a previous version would work great. Looks like a great deal. Good luck

[MentorMan]

Cool!

What type of frames with default and Add-on photorealistic scenery would you say?

[victor_alpha_charlie]

and you're getting this for $270 NZD? i got ripped off...

[lowellyerex]

Should be fine for FS9. You will have to add a sound card to that, that audio solution will be no good with FS9. Get a Creative 2ZS or X-fi (note: tell them to ensure they disable the onboard audio in the BIOS).

Also, I'd add a second 160 GB SATA hard drive in a RAID 0 array if you can afford it. It should not add more than 40-50 pounds to the price, incl extra setup time.

[ooOO00OOoo]

Some onboard sound is better than a sound card. On some reviews people can't tell the difference

[Bingobob]

Should do the Job

[ooOO00OOoo]

I have no idea about frame rates but this might give you an idea.
I think i get 20+ frames everywhere except anding in large cities(america, NOT nz)
my specs:
7600gt
Athlon64 3700
768mb RAM
250gbHar Drive 7200rpm
Creative xfi fidelly music
So my graphics are generaly medium - medium low but i get good frames.

[lowellyerex]

Some onboard sound is better than a sound card. On some reviews people can't tell the difference

Well ok, but that's not the experience I've had with the Realtek chip and FS. I have experienced audio quirks including crackling and popping with FS and every onboard audio solution I've tried.

Other games may fare better, but there can be hidden costs. I recently read a review of the X-Fi chip (actually X-RAM, the dedicated audio RAM on the high end card - conclusion, it's not worth the extra money), and was surprised to see the difference in frames-per-second the sound chip can make to a game like Battlefield 2 (see here) - an increase of 8-10 fps over the Realtek onboard audio. Now, I have no evidence that there will be an actual FPS improvement in FS, but you will definitely get better sound, I guarantee that! Also, your CD's will sound better (the reviewers you mention obviously didn't have the X-Fi Crystallizer turned on!)

[ooOO00OOoo]

It will give you better frame rates(sound card) because it is less work the motherboard has to do by itself. I play Battlefield 2 and a good sound card but can't tell a difference because i bought th s/c in america a week before installing. It was installed 3 weeks after i played bf2 so i couldn't remember how good the sound was in the first place. A sound card will give you frames but at a cost. The frame rate increase is not too great, maybe only one or two frames

[Alex]

I've got a similar system (slightly more RAM, faster processor - different Graphics card but sorta equal) and with pretty much all settings turned max I get a good 15-20 frames almost all the time.

Alex

[ardypilot]

That is a really good system for running FS9. With my old 2.4ghz celaron I can squeeze an average of 16FPS on my system. You will proberly get upwards of 25 on something like that, with fairly high settings on your scenery sliders too.

[brownbox]

With the system in my signature, i get a steady (limited) 30fps with everything on max, and at 1600x1200 with AA and everything turned on.

[Charl]

Some onboard sound is better than a sound card. On some reviews people can't tell the difference

Well ok, but that's not the experience I've had with the Realtek chip and FS. I have experienced audio quirks including crackling and popping with FS and every onboard audio solution I've tried.

Other games may fare better, but there can be hidden costs. I recently read a review of the X-Fi chip (actually X-RAM, the dedicated audio RAM on the high end card - conclusion, it's not worth the extra money), and was surprised to see the difference in frames-per-second the sound chip can make to a game like Battlefield 2 (see here) - an increase of 8-10 fps over the Realtek onboard audio. Now, I have no evidence that there will be an actual FPS improvement in FS, but you will definitely get better sound, I guarantee that! Also, your CD's will sound better (the reviewers you mention obviously didn't have the X-Fi Crystallizer turned on!)

You're right about the sound quality - onboard does an OK job for most games but music definitely wants something more.
What's your recommendation on a great-sounding best-bang-for-the-bucks sound card?

[Charl]

With the system in my signature, i get a steady (limited) 30fps with everything on max, and at 1600x1200 with AA and everything turned on.

With the system in your signature you have a serious cooling issue.
How on earth do you stop it melting down?
Or do you only run it in 30-second bursts?

[Zöltuger]

You're right about the sound quality - onboard does an OK job for most games but music definitely wants something more.
What's your recommendation on a great-sounding best-bang-for-the-bucks sound card?

Remember: Vista only uses software rendering for sound, so your uber expensive hardware is esentially useless because the CPU takes care of it.

[lowellyerex]

Interesting point Zoltuger. I haven't looked into this in great detail, but to be more precise, Vista does not provide support for hardware Direct 3D accelerated audio. The future for game audio under Vista will be Open AL, which is only currently supported by the Creative X-Fi processor as far as I can tell.

Of course with dedicated audio hardware you will still get the benefit of excellent general sound quality for music etc. as well. Dedicated hardware, especially X-Fi, is not useless under Vista, in fact I'd say in future it may be essential. Also, it is not "uber-expensive". My OEM X-Fi XtremeGamer audio card cost me $160.