New help with something odd

[DBE]

You can simply upgrade your RAM to 1 Gig by purchasing 512Mb.

[American Jet]

Ok, lol Im gonna have to make this bold...
Will someone please look for a 512mb RAM card and give me the link?!?
Please search circuitcity.com or bestbuy.com

[=HPSF=Jarhead]

American Jet wrote:
AMD Athlon XP Proccessor it says 3000+ im guessing 3000Ghz
160BG 7200RPM Hard Drive
NVidia 6200 128Mb Graphics card.
Its an Emachines T3085, DVD+CD Rom,5USB Ports, 512mb RAM,Cable Internet.
Anything missing?

I pulled your machine specs online to take a look at it.

Unfortunately it seems like you may be at a disadvantage when it comes to FSX.

Your nForce 2 motherboard only supports AGP based cards as you lack the PCI-E slot needed to get into the X1900 series or the 7XXX/8XXX geforce cards.
So unfortunately the 8800 series is out unless you upgrade your motherboard. Also that board looks to be a socket A CPU motherboard, so your chip
upgrade possibilities seem limited to the Athlon XP series. Basically no AMD 64 or AMD 64 x2 dual core.

When your machine came out it was a great mix of power and speed, however even over the last 4 months since I built my last machine things have changed.

As for the ram it looks like your box has 512megs of PC2700 ram in I believe 2 slots. Since your machine only has two slots you will need to buy new
sticks. Your motherboard only has a bus speed of 166, so PC3200 ram would slow to PC2700 speeds.

But even bumping your ram to 1gig or the max 2 gig and getting a good vid card like the 7800GS/7900GS you still won't squeeze a ton of power out of
your rig. So investing the $300-400 for this, the money could be spent better on a new system.

Recommendations (if you want to take them)

#1. Check out some of the Core 2 Duo or AMD 64 X2 barebones from Tigerdirect or another company. A barebones kit should work because you already have
a monitor/keyboard/mouse, DVD burner and a harddrive. You can then add a better PCI-E vid card and more ram. Most barebones are preassembled cases
with the motherboard, chip, powersupply and ram installed. You will need to add a video card, sound card (if you want something besides onboard),
extra ram, and whatever else. Getting new harddrives and RAIDing them would be good.

OR

#2. Build a whole new machine. It is not as hard as some people make it out. Plus, forum members can be of great help in picking out components.

OR

#3. Upgrade your current PC. With the amount of things you will need to swap out, you will essentially be building a new rig. So see #2.

Most bang for the buck = get something new

Hope this helps and sorry if it is a long post.

[American Jet]

I dont want it to be like an Alienware computer, I just want it to be strong enough to get FsX working right. I was actually getting ready to
buy a PCI-Express 256mb graphic card. Would you know about how much it would cost to get the motherboard upgraded so the PCI-
Express card would work, and I can get 1Gb or Ram without a problem?

[=HPSF=Jarhead]

American Jet wrote:
I dont want it to be like an Alienware computer, I just want it to be strong enough to get FsX working right. I was actually getting ready to
buy a PCI-Express 256mb graphic card. Would you know about how much it would cost to get the motherboard upgraded so the PCI-
Express card would work, and I can get 1Gb or Ram without a problem?

Alienware boxes are far overpriced and would never recommend one unless you have money to burn.

As for a new motherboard, I have never seen a socket A motherboard running PCI-E. Since socket A's were not produced when PCI-E came out.

So you are going to have to replace the MB, CPU, and RAM to get a PCI-E vid card.

If you are set on keeping the current rig about all I could see you doing is grabbing a 7800GS AGP ($250-300) or ATi X850 ($150) and swapping out your
ram for 1gb ($150).

You can probably get a better deal on PC3200 memory which should fit, it will just run slower.

Hope this helps

[American Jet]

Lol you may have noticed in the posts that Im not that great in Computer English. SO lets try and use just plain English. Whats does this
mean?:So you are going to have to replace the MB, CPU, and RAM to get a PCI-E vid card. How much would these things cost...? Yeah
and I might not buy the new 1gb until January or Febuary.

[Ceemosp]

In short and in plain english: If you are going to upgrade your pc the only thing you MAY be able to use will be the pc-case !

Your motherboard does NOT support any new CPU nor graphics card. If you get these new components you also will need new ram as
most cpu's nowadays are supporting faster types and using the old memory would just slow it down. While you're at it, you also want to
get a new harddrive (Serial ATA aka SATA)....and don't forget a new power supply........

My advice: Keep the old pc as a side-rig that you can easily integrate into a small network (you just need a router) you can run other tasks
on and build a NEW PC from SCRATCH.

Unless you have money to burn you may want to wait until Spring 2007 - after all the hype about new CPU's and graphics has vanished
and the prices gone down - before doing this.

Greetz Carsten

[MFC_Goose]

Ok for your computer parts never buy in store. They over price. I suggest buying from http://www.Tigerdirect.com. They have every computer part
that you can think of. Once you find out what kind of mother board you have you can determine your processor options. As for the video
card check the slots and find out what you have. PCI-E is the best at the moment but sounds like at best you'll have a PCI slot. Its the
white ones if you have any. Tiger Direct has video cards that will fit in this slot and are capable of running FSX but it wont be amazing. I
run the Nvidia 6200 Turbocache 256Mb on my machine (PCI-E) and it runs FSX at 20fps (what i have it locked at) with nice graphics. For
added speed for your computer look into faster hard drives (check the buffer memory size it actually affects how fast you can access
whats stored on your hard drive.), more RAM (memory), faster processors, and better video card (most onboards share RAM with the
motheboard, having a stand alone card with its own RAM will make video smoother.) I know you asked for MODS only but i am an A+
certified technician as im sure some of these people are. Also you said you have an E-Machine ands its a bit old, you will probally need to
upgrade the power supply to support added peripherals. The older emachines had a problem with not having power supplies big
enough to power anything more than what came on them from the factory. Thats about all i can think of right now. Just buy a new
computer, that would solve most of the problem. I hope some of this helped, i didnt read all the way through to see if you had gotten your
answer yet. Oh and you can download DirectX 10 to most any graphics card, it should work on that one you have.

[pj_3]

"Oh and you can download DirectX 10 to most any graphics card, it should work on that one you have."

Not so, Goose. DX 10 is hardware specific, and the only DX10-certified gpu yet released is nVidia's 8800.

http://www.evga.com/articles/333.asp

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814150205

I think "American Jet" is going to be with FS9 for a while yet. FSX is very nice, and has lots of bells and whistles - but it's pushing most guys
with high-end pc's to do some fearsome tweaking to get FSX to perform even moderately.

The fact seems to be that this lad - from his above posts - has neither the money to buy, nor the technical knowledge to build a decent FS9 pc on his
own - let alone an FSX pc. My only advice can be to put your trust in the most knowledgeable friend you have, and have him build the best you can with
what parts and money you can scrape up. There is nothing you can easily add to your system which will make FSX "useably" work on it - period.

[American Jet]

Lol Pj is right, I can only deal with things outside the computer not inside, I do think I have a PCI slot, but my cousin whos a computer tech
will come and suggest to me whats good. I dont buy online because my mom is using her credit card and she doesnt like to. Hopefully
somehow I can get this fixed without having to rob a bank.

[Airliner]

There is nothing you can easily add to your system which will make FSX "useable"

I agree. When I started my upgrades, I made all kinds of mistakes - one of them almost a hugely painful mistake (monetarily!) Wait, is
that even a word? Anyway, I nought a CPU and then found that it exceeded the specs for my motherboard! Doh! But, I was able to sell it
for more than I paid! HELLO!

Unless you know A LOT about what you're doing, it's better to have someone else do the work but, make sure it's someone you trust, not
some bloke out to stuff your machine full of junk and take all your money!

I skimmed through this thread so, excuse me if I repeat anything. First thing is the motherboard - this is the key to the whole system. You
need to know that it will support everything you plan on throwing at it - namely the key gaming components: CPU, Video card, and ram.
Sound cards are secondary. If you want crossfire, that requires two AGP slots but as most video cards are switching to PCIe now, you'll
probably want to go that route. I'm not sure if there are boards with two PCIe slots.

So, you should see what you want for a CPU, video card and ram, then find a board that will support all three. It doesn't sound like your
current system can be upgraded, so you'll be looking at a complete rebuild - unless...

My model was to upgrade in stages. I used Ebay and yes, I know it CAN be dangerous which is why you MUST know what you're doing.
First, I looked at everything I could salvage on my current system - monitors, drives, case, etc. Then, I made a plan - get the highest
processor I could for my board - in my case at the time, it was an AMD Thunderbird 1.3 GHz. Then, I checked the memory - I had 1 512MB
stick of generic ram, PC133. YIKES! That would have to go but, it would not fit a new system. So, what I needed as a base would be a
new motherboard, new CPU and new memory. I bought each of these as I found what I wanted. Then, after taking my old junk out and
dumping it all into the new setup, I sold the previous board with CPU/HS/Fan and memory and made back some of what I had spent on
the new parts. I also got a better power supply. Once I had the base setup, I went on getting better components. I would buy a new cpu,
install and test and then sell the old one. Bought new high performance ram and then sold the lower performance, etc. I know have an
AMD Athlon64 system with 2GB of XMS ram, a 256MB ATI 9800XT video card and FSX is, not cruising but acceptible. And all the
upgrades, after reselling old parts, came out to a few hundred bucks! So, it CAN be done.

Again, make sure you know EXACTLY what you're looking for first. You need to find out all about front side bus speed, memory timings,
video cards, etc. before even THINKING of sinking any cash into anything. Been there - done that. Nothing is worse than spending a few
hundred dollars on THE part that you think will make all the difference and then - it is incompatible with your current hardware! AGH!
Study up! Google can be your friend.