Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support |
My new build runs FSX like a demon |
DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic" Marietta, GA
2,241 legs, 8,967.3 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online 1,899 legs,
7,760.4 hours ACARS 75 legs,
196.3 hours event 2,277 legs, 9,102.2 hours total 91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
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Posted onPost created on
July 31 2007 13:40 ET by Luke Kolin
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In case anyone's interested, UPS finally delivered my E6750 yesterday, three days after every other component arrived.
I've mated it with an ABIT IP35-E motherboard, which uses the latest Intel P35 chipset rated at 1333FSB. newegg had a sale on 2GB of G.SKILL DDR2-800, and I got a 320MB EVGA 8800GTS which is slightly overclocked at the factory. It's paired with my existing I/O subsystem, which is now a trio of Ultra-160 SCSI 15K drives. (I replaced the old 10K 9GB boot drive with an 18GB 15K drive I had gotten earlier.)
The CPU starts up at 2.66 Ghz, with a quad-pumped 333FSB for 1333. Since the E6750 has an 8x multiplier, I then boosted the FSB to 350 for a 1400Mhz FSB and the CPU overclocked to 2.8Ghz. Restarted, booted fine and ran memtest. Then boosted the FSB clock to 375 (1500FSB, 3.0Ghz CPU). Rebooted, ran memtest. All is good. Then cranked the FSB all the way to 400, so I could run the RAM at its DDR2-800 rating and had the CPU at 3.2Ghz. Here I needed to up the voltage for the RAM from 1.8V to 1.85V, which is a trivial amount - and actually an awful lot of DDR2-800 requires more voltage than spec to run; a lot needs 1.9V or 2.0V. Ran great! A nice 3.2Ghz overclock out of the box, and I only stopped because I got lazy.
The IP35-E makes overclocking easy; there's a nice BIOS menu that allows you to easily tweak clock frequencies and voltage, and if you go a touch too far - just hold down INSERT when restarting and it clocks down to stock. Couldn't be easier.
Fired up FSX SP1, and took the Fleet 757 for a little VFR tour of Toronto. Frames locked at 22. Since it was running great, I kept turning up the autogen, detail, terrain complexity and mesh size, and had them all almost to the right before it started slowing down a touch. The level of detail when you crank FSX up is absolutely amazing; looking at Lawrence Park just southwest of VIXAN - it looks just like it does from the air!
Absolutely stunning, and it's amazing what these Core2Duos can do. I suspect I might have had even better results with the QuadCore, but I run a number of single-threaded processes as well and want the extra raw clockspeed the E6750 can give me.
Cheers!
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA950
Senior Captain, B737-800
Joined on November 19 2002
Online Quadruple Century Club
Millennium Club
Million Mile Club
Events Double Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
"Houston, We have a Problem" Nazareth, PA USA
1,210 legs, 2,875.1 hours
1,147 legs,
2,716.7 hours online 886 legs,
1,977.2 hours ACARS 206 legs,
484.9 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
July 31 2007 16:19 ET by Anthony Piasecki
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Interesting Luke,
I just read a review of the EVGANforce680ISLI Board, Only because I want the Quad Core SLI when DX10 hits mainstream, The reviews came from Maximum PC. As Much As I like the ABit board you have, EVGA seems to be the only mfg out there as I type sporting the 680I Chip. I Love My NVidia, Sorry I am going to sport 1 8800Ultra for now, and when the $$$ permits throw the second in there SLI Havent really decided which Drive/s I plan on throwing in, but they are definitely going to be 10K or better, I Like the Idea of SCSI, But i may be making this more complicated then I want , 4 SATA 2 drives at 10K 16Mb cahe should surfice for an all around Gaming rig/Ripper
Any thoughts on this, always nice to get a Real Techy opinion
Anthony PiaseckiSenior Captain, B737-800
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DVA3672
Senior Captain, A320
OLP DISPATCHER E-MAIL
Joined on October 29 2006
B757 100 Club
50 State Club
Two Million Mile Club
Bi-Millennium Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
US Capital Club
Toulouse Millennium Club
Online Fifteen Century
"Chris, NOT in Seattle" Northeastern United States
2,534 legs, 6,223.1 hours
1,537 legs,
3,252.2 hours online 2,243 legs,
5,407.0 hours ACARS 4 legs,
6.0 hours event 2 legs dispatched, 19.5
hours
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Posted onPost created on
July 31 2007 16:59 ET by Chris Frasure
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'bout time! welcome to the dark side!
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DVA4180
Senior Captain, MD-88
OLP
Joined on March 08 2007
Online Century Club
Long Beach Century Club
50 State Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Have A&P - Will work for peanuts!" Van Buren Charter Township, MI
351 legs, 783.1 hours
193 legs,
388.4 hours online 340 legs,
759.3 hours ACARS 20 legs,
41.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 02 2007 07:05 ET by Joseph Schwab
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so, how much $$$ did all of that set you back? I am looking to replace my dead desktop....
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DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic" Marietta, GA
2,241 legs, 8,967.3 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online 1,899 legs,
7,760.4 hours ACARS 75 legs,
196.3 hours event 2,277 legs, 9,102.2 hours total 91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
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Posted onPost created on
August 02 2007 10:01 ET by Luke Kolin
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The whole set of parts set me back around $1000, but I didn't include a case, power supply or storage in that since I was reusing my existing storage subsystem. An E6750 is around $225, the motherboard was $100 or so, the RAM was $90, the video card was $275 and the LCD was around $225. You can save a bit on the CPU by going with an E6550 instead of the E6750.
Tony, I'm highly skeptical of SLI. I don't dispute that it provides a non-zero boost to performance, but I question whether the cost is worth the performance increase. This also depends on the games and other workloads you put on the PC. I do a number of single-threaded operations (like compressing the installers; those involve LZMA compressing up to 200MB of data) where the actual clockspeed matters more than the number of cores. But for Flightsim, you might actually be well off with a Q6600.
The other thing I'm religious on is Intel chipsets. The 680i seems to run rather hot on the northbridge, whereas all of my Intel chipsets back to my 486/DX266 days have run rock solid. I just finished up extracting a VIA Apollo Pro PentiumIII motherboard out of a server, and I'm glad to never again see that steaming turd of a chipset. The P35 in my motherboard runs great, stable and overclocks to 1600FSB from 1333. The thing you will want to look for in a motherboard is NO CHIPSET FANS. They are cheap, flimsy and regularly fail after squealing and whining. My IP35-E has beefy heatsinks on the chipset; passively cooled with nothing to break.
Cheers!
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA2086
Senior Captain, B767-300
E-MAIL
Joined on January 12 2005
Online Double Century Club
Six Century Club
50 State Club
Sharpsburg, GA USA
643 legs, 1,866.3 hours
505 legs,
1,417.9 hours online 418 legs,
1,380.2 hours ACARS 63 legs,
196.8 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 02 2007 10:02 ET by Chris Williams
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Are you using Vista or XP?
Chris WilliamsSenior Captain, B767-300
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DVA2253
Senior Captain, DC-8-61
COMM
Joined on April 01 2005
Everett 250 Club
Online Century Club
Eight Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"I'd rather be flying!" Church Hill, TN USA
862 legs, 1,344.5 hours
108 legs,
165.2 hours online 299 legs,
485.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 02 2007 10:42 ET by George Lewis
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I'm looking really hard at the E6850 and the IP35 series motherboards as well... it'll have to wait another month at least, but it's good to hear that about the IP35 motherboard...
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DVA950
Senior Captain, B737-800
Joined on November 19 2002
Online Quadruple Century Club
Millennium Club
Million Mile Club
Events Double Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
"Houston, We have a Problem" Nazareth, PA USA
1,210 legs, 2,875.1 hours
1,147 legs,
2,716.7 hours online 886 legs,
1,977.2 hours ACARS 206 legs,
484.9 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 02 2007 12:25 ET by Anthony Piasecki
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Actually I am going to Water cool the North bridge and South Bridge chips as well as the CPU and GPU, I have not decided on doing the Ram as of yet, but if it is only a matter of a few bucks more, I may as well go for broke and cool the whole deal. Q core is definitely an option for me, everything is going in a server case, so room is bountiful for Tubing and Wire chasing, Actually like the Black Pearl board they have, already set up for Water, just waiting a tad on the prices to drop , when AMD releases there new chip set.
Anthony PiaseckiSenior Captain, B737-800
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DVA3461
Senior Captain, B737-800
Joined on August 20 2006
Online Double Century Club
Quatercentenary Club
"Get er' Done!" NY USA
486 legs, 1,296.8 hours
416 legs,
1,110.1 hours online 288 legs,
733.8 hours ACARS 33 legs,
87.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 02 2007 19:13 ET by Joshua Clement
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Mine can run FSX with everything Maxed and I still get around 20-25 FPS. I also have the Dual Core X2.
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DVA4295
Captain, B767-300
Joined on April 05 2007
Online Century Club
Double Century Club
Stratford, CT USA
212 legs, 397.9 hours
194 legs,
368.4 hours online 190 legs,
356.7 hours ACARS 3 legs,
6.7 hours event 19 legs dispatched, 10.0
hours
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Posted onPost created on
August 02 2007 22:07 ET by John Alusik
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i think the best combination will be is a motherboard with an AMD chipset. then you get a ATI video card along with corsair RAM, 8GB should do it. the you get the soon to come out AMD Phenom. its going to be AMDs Quad-Core. the difference between an AMD and Intel, is that Intel's Core 2 Quad is like a Dual-Dual core i read. they just put 2 dual cores together. but AMD Phenom will have 4 cores that will all work together in a single dye. i'm saving up tp get one of those. if u were to do that build with a AMD X2 it'll cost you between 1400 and 2000, if u build it yourself of course. plus... AMDs have always had a faster FSB, even my single core AMD 64 has a 1.6ghz FSB
John AlusikCaptain, B767-300
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DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic" Marietta, GA
2,241 legs, 8,967.3 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online 1,899 legs,
7,760.4 hours ACARS 75 legs,
196.3 hours event 2,277 legs, 9,102.2 hours total 91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
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Posted onPost created on
August 02 2007 22:31 ET by Luke Kolin
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I wouldn't be so optimistic about AMD's prospects, or performance. I'm quite unconvinced that the AMD K10s are going to match Intel's Quad-core offerings in the short- and medium-term. Intel can do volume production of 2.6Ghz quad-core chips right now, and everything I've seen about the Conroe cores tells me that the ONLY reason why we're not seeing E6900 and E7100 models is that Intel doesn't have any reason to release them. They could probably sell a 3.4Ghz Core2Duo right now in volume. AMD cannot touch that.
I wouldn't buy into too much of the hype regarding what "true" dual or quad core is. A dual core processor is one with two cores on the same SOCKET. Whether they are on the same die or two dies really isn't all that important; the socket is what restricts your communication to the rest of the system. If anything, dual dies means higher yields and therefore lower costs.
One last note; AMD K8 chips have *never* had an FSB. The Front-Side-Bus is only present on Intel and AMD K7 chips; it's the link between the chip and the north bridge memory/PCI controller. AMD K8 chips have HyperTransport and no north bridge, which while it can be clocked higher in certain cases but carries somewhat different traffic and therefore the frequencies cannot be directly compared. There are some cases where the AMD solution is superior (namely, memory latency) and others where it is infereior (DMA between the video card/disk and memory).
I'd look at the benchmarks before buying (don't even get me started on the ATI video cards), but if I was an AMD shareholder, I'd be worried.
Cheers!
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA3735
First Officer, MD-88
Joined on November 17 2006
"GOD made Man and we made Flight Sim'" Western Europe
27 legs, 66.8 hours
8 legs,
15.1 hours online 17 legs,
28.5 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 11 2007 05:49 ET by Mark Gronan
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I just a E6850 with a an ASUS P5V-VM SE DH mobo and im getting what I think is a crap speed when the it starts up I get the screen that gives you system info and stuff now heres a funny it says
Intel Duo Core 2 E6850 @ 3.0GHZ core speed 600MHZ 66mhzX9 2 CPUs when I run CPUZ it says Core speed is about 1600 and FSB 1066 any ideas my processer should be reading 3.0Ghz and FSB 1333 I think Luke
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DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic" Marietta, GA
2,241 legs, 8,967.3 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online 1,899 legs,
7,760.4 hours ACARS 75 legs,
196.3 hours event 2,277 legs, 9,102.2 hours total 91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
|
Posted onPost created on
August 11 2007 09:37 ET by Luke Kolin
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Download CPUZ and tell us what it says. The Core2Duos will automatically clock themsleves down when under reduced load, but I think your issue is something more than that.
Cheers!
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA3095
Captain, MD-11
Joined on April 28 2006
"KHAAAAAAANN!" Western Europe
45 legs, 105.2 hours
36 legs,
90.3 hours online 44 legs,
102.3 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 11 2007 10:06 ET by Lloyd Dickerson
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Mark, the bad news : The ASUS P5V-VM SE DH is factory set for 1066 FSB. If you'd like to go up to 1333 FSB, then you'll need to overclock it or buy a new board.
First, make sure you've installed the Asus software suite, and disable QFan (It only slows your system down like Luke indicated). Then you can click on Gear (I think that's what it's called from what I recall)... and make sure that's disabled too. Now in the software suite there is an option for performance (I can't remember what its called, I don't use Asus boards anymore) but it allows you to set the FSB and CPU Timing. Slightly increase the FSB (Don't just go for broke, you need to inch it higher to find the sweet spot) and you should find the speed you're looking for. The 6850 is a fantastic CPU - keep at it and you'll find you've got a pretty good system.
Finally, it is important to note that the time it takes to get from startup to the Windows XP loading screen is not indicative of your systems speed. Some Mobos just take longer. The time it takes to get from the Windows XP loading screen to your desktop is however indicative of system speed and how much stuff you have on your computer. (The more stuff installed, the slower your computer will be to startup). I hope that sheds some light on the situation. Happy computing!
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DVA2919
Captain, B777-200
Joined on February 20 2006
Century Club
Online Century Club
Everett Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Proudly All Boeing" Spotsylvania, VA
154 legs, 430.6 hours
138 legs,
407.9 hours online 114 legs,
352.7 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.3 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 14 2007 18:00 ET by Rick Charles
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Luke, Andy, or anyone else who cares to chime in:
I read this thread with great interest. While I am not a computer neophyte I am not one to run a race rig at home. I feel like a language student in the first day of class...able to understand about every fifth word. I would love to have a layman's translation.
My outta-da-box Dell generally keeps me happy. BUT the time has come to take it to the next level or two 'cause flight simming is too darn fun to fly it on a mediocre machine.
I am not one who has the insight and know-how to build my own box (at least I never tried to do it). So, can anyone suggest a good vendor that can put together a nice rig for flight simming on par with what you guys are running without having to mortgage my house? A year ago I went to the AVSIM convention near Dulles and got a flyer from an outfit named Velocity Computers. They sold machines designed for gamers with all the gucci colors and highspeed gadgets, lights, cases, and cooling, etc. I got me thinking.
Happy to take this to an email conversation.
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DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club
"Col. Panic" Marietta, GA
2,241 legs, 8,967.3 hours
240 legs,
553.9 hours online 1,899 legs,
7,760.4 hours ACARS 75 legs,
196.3 hours event 2,277 legs, 9,102.2 hours total 91 legs dispatched, 66.4
hours
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Posted onPost created on
August 14 2007 23:58 ET by Luke Kolin
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I'd start browsing around newegg.com to get a feel for what the components cost. You'll need to assemble it yourself, but I also have some good tutorials on that - the author at www.codinghorror.com had an excellent 3-part episode in his blog recently.
Cheers!
Luke KolinSenior Captain, MD-11
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