Hi, I've owned a very slow PC for oh, about 7 years now...I need to upgrade...VERY soon. (Probably should have upgraded a long time ago but never really considered it.) Anyway I got Flight Sim X when it came out in 2005 or 2006, I don't remember...and ever since then it has run like crap. I'm lucky to get 20 FPS on medium-low settings! And if I go ultra-high, it won't even load a flight for me! It just sends me an error report, as if they think that will make me feel better.
The only parts of my PC that don't suck are the power supply, graphics card, case, CD/DVD drive, and hard drive. I need a new CPU, motherboard, RAM, and a copy of Windows 7 64-bit. First off for a motherboard, I don't want to spend more than $150. I've heard from many that Asus is a great brand so I'll probably look into them. For my processor (the most important part) I'm looking at somewhere between $120 and $160. Now, now, I know you are going to say "Spend an extra 50 bucks go for the i5 K version!!!" but I do NOT want to spend 50 extra dollars on such a CPU. I understand buying a cheaper 2300 or something for $180 but I'm on a budget here! I'm an unemployed 15-year old high school sophomore who has a thin wallet!
So I've been looking at the new Ivy Bridge line and the "shunned" Bulldozer series. AMD seems to be a lot more easy on the bank while Intel wants you to take out a loan for one of their products. As bad of things I've heard about Bulldozer, they happen to be right at the price point I need.
And then there's the NEW AND IMPROVED IVY BRIDGE I3 everyone's been NOT talking about! FYI, I am considering it...Maybe. For some reason, I just think that hyper-threading is wasted technology when it comes to a processor as cheap as an i3. I mean, why won't Intel just take out HT, pop in 2 more REAL cores, bump the price up a little, and BAM! Who even uses dual-core nowadays? Not me, I'm still left in the dust with a single-core!
Back to FSX: Well, FSX is one of the most CPU intensive games ever devised for the personal computer. More than BF3, BC2, Skyrim,....WHATEVER. People on forums are always saying "Yeah I have an i7 and I can max out FSX at 100 FPS! So SUCK IT!!!" Of course I would kill to have that kind of performance (OK maybe not kill a person, how about a carrot or something?) I just want to have good FPS on medium/high settings and not have any lag. NOTE: DO NOT LOOK UP FSX SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AFTER READING THIS! (which has probably taken you a while, sorry.) THOSE REQUIREMENTS ARE TOTALLY WRONG, THAT'S WHY MY DAD BUILT A PC AS WEAK AS MINE!!! Heck, Black Ops won't even start up on my system.
Anyway, thanks for reading this extensive article that I'm sure you are regretting right now because you could have cooked up a nice Hot Pocket and had a late-night snack in the time it took to read this.
By the way, any suggestions?
The only parts of my PC that don't suck are the power supply, graphics card, case, CD/DVD drive, and hard drive. I need a new CPU, motherboard, RAM, and a copy of Windows 7 64-bit. First off for a motherboard, I don't want to spend more than $150. I've heard from many that Asus is a great brand so I'll probably look into them. For my processor (the most important part) I'm looking at somewhere between $120 and $160. Now, now, I know you are going to say "Spend an extra 50 bucks go for the i5 K version!!!" but I do NOT want to spend 50 extra dollars on such a CPU. I understand buying a cheaper 2300 or something for $180 but I'm on a budget here! I'm an unemployed 15-year old high school sophomore who has a thin wallet!
So I've been looking at the new Ivy Bridge line and the "shunned" Bulldozer series. AMD seems to be a lot more easy on the bank while Intel wants you to take out a loan for one of their products. As bad of things I've heard about Bulldozer, they happen to be right at the price point I need.
And then there's the NEW AND IMPROVED IVY BRIDGE I3 everyone's been NOT talking about! FYI, I am considering it...Maybe. For some reason, I just think that hyper-threading is wasted technology when it comes to a processor as cheap as an i3. I mean, why won't Intel just take out HT, pop in 2 more REAL cores, bump the price up a little, and BAM! Who even uses dual-core nowadays? Not me, I'm still left in the dust with a single-core!
Back to FSX: Well, FSX is one of the most CPU intensive games ever devised for the personal computer. More than BF3, BC2, Skyrim,....WHATEVER. People on forums are always saying "Yeah I have an i7 and I can max out FSX at 100 FPS! So SUCK IT!!!" Of course I would kill to have that kind of performance (OK maybe not kill a person, how about a carrot or something?) I just want to have good FPS on medium/high settings and not have any lag. NOTE: DO NOT LOOK UP FSX SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AFTER READING THIS! (which has probably taken you a while, sorry.) THOSE REQUIREMENTS ARE TOTALLY WRONG, THAT'S WHY MY DAD BUILT A PC AS WEAK AS MINE!!! Heck, Black Ops won't even start up on my system.
Anyway, thanks for reading this extensive article that I'm sure you are regretting right now because you could have cooked up a nice Hot Pocket and had a late-night snack in the time it took to read this.
By the way, any suggestions?