Which motherboard/CPU combo?

[creel]

Hi,

am looking at upgrading my PC to be able to properly run MS FlightSim 2004 on it, can someone please recommend the best type of motherboard/CPU combo as well as Video card etc.?
Am really only interested in FlightSim, not really into other games and do not require LAN capability (multi player) either.
Thanks for advise!
Cheers
Holger

 

[Rik]

It depends where in the world you are?
How much you have to spend?
Are you an intel or amd man or not bothered?

 

[creel]

In Australia, from what I've read AMD is supposed to be better for gaming than Intel...but I am not very familiar with all the different makes and their ability.
Budget....well up to A$400 for motherboard & CPU, CPU I am guesing 2.5G+...I can then buy Video card, RAM etc separately...
My current setup is reallly not good for gaming, the video on FlightSim is jerky and way too slow.....

 

[Rik]

Also, what have you got at the moment? Is any of it salvageable?


Also, fill in your profile so we know where you are without having to ask, there are a few other auzzies here on techspot who, if they know where you are from, are good at helping!!!!

 

[creel]

not worried about what I got at the moment......I will remove existing motherboard from tower and replace with new motherboard.
I have 2x HD's, one I will re-format and re-load with XP and this HD will only be used for FlightSim, nothing else, so this way I can choose at startup from which HD to boot from.
If I have to upgrade PSU, then that is OK too, I think current one is 350W or thereabouts.

 

[Rik]

With a new mobo, your old windows installation wont work!!!
How big are the hard drives and what ata speed are they (if you know)?

 

[creel]

thats fine, if I have to re-format and re-load XP on both HD's so be it...no problems!..I will backup all required data and then re-load onto non FlightSim HD.
HD speed have no idea, one is 250G and the other is 80G

 

[Rik]

The 250 is almost definately an ata 133 and the 80 isprobably the same or ata 100.

You need to decide if you want to go 32bit (if parts are still available) or 64bit and if you want amd or intel.

See if you can find any australian online shops for prices and post the links up in this thread.

 

[creel]

thanks for that.
I have spoken to some tech people here, for now I am going for a Socket 939, Nvidia® NF4 Ultra, 2GT/s HT, Dual DDR400, PCI-Express, Gigabit LAN, SATA 3Gb/s, 7.1 CH Audio mobo, not yet sure which CPU to go for, will get 2x SATA HD's, at least 1GB RAM maybe 2GB, for Graphics card will probably stick with Nvidia, looking at GeForce 6600 V+ 512M DDR PCI EXPRESS or maybe LEADTEK PX6800 TDH 256mb PCI EXPRESS, but am still looking and reading up and upgrade the PSU as well......

 

[Rik]

Wow, and there was me thinking you didn't want to spend too much!!!!!

 

[creel]

hehehehehehe...yeah well...the more I read up and spoke to people, I realized that I may as well spend some more and get pretty good gear, this way I shant have to worry about upgrading for a while....I hope!