Flight Sim Hardware - HELP!

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Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 2

:confused: Hi all - Im still "cutting my teeth" in the flight sim world and part of that process for me is "tweaking" the Dell computer I bought. It came with a Radeon x300 graphics card which I want to upgrade now we have FSX. The problems start now I want a Radeon X1950 pro pci-e 512mb - Im told that my PSU at 305watts isnt enough to support this. Does anyone know if I can upgrade the PSU too - If I can - is it a standard size? I'm told a 550watt will do it but I dont want to buy one then find it doesnt fit in the case!! I cant find this info anywhere in the manuals and Dell will only want to sell one of their own psu's. All this trouble just so I can make my wife a fligth sim widow!! Im want the ultimate in flight sim realism (as much as my wallet will allow!) - All help gratefully recieved.

Original post

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 6

New?

How old is this Dell PC you bought? You should have been able to get an XPS 710 with an nVidia 8800 series video card. You will also need at least 1GB ram and a 7200rpm hardrive. You need a Core 2 Duo processor also. I have the nVidia 7900 GS 256mb video card and I have to keep all settings turned down halfway. I can turn all the settings up all the way in FS 2004. I have the 2.66 Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB cache, 250 GB 7200rpm hardrive, 2 GB ram.

:D

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 2

Hippie Help

Hi there, my pc was bought at the end of '05. its a dell 5100 with P4 processor intel(R) 3.2Ghz and 1 Gb ram . Im not looking for the best of the best cos my pocket doesnt go that deep! But i can strech to the radeon x1950 and a new psu to supply it. BUT - not if i have to start upgrading my motherboard and dvd drives too?!?......Its poewrfull enough just now but stutters when i run fsx and id rather upgrade the graphics card than compromise and lower the settings!
Do you think I should just stick with a radeon x1650 which requires no further upgrade to my pc? Its still 10x better than what i currently have in the x300?!?
Dale

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 6

Yes.

I would also stick with FS 2004 for now. You will have alot more fun flying it with higher settings and you can get it cheap if you don't have it.

Cheers.

:cool: