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Computer Good Enough For Flight Simulator?
- Thread starter CaptainRon
- Start date
Thanks Dev. Any favorite hardware review sites you look at. I haven't bought hardware in about 3 years.
BTW, what's with all the cases these days with b!tchin' neon lighting and what not? Kids these days?
Brett
I fall out of the loop after I buy something new. When I need to replace it 2 years later, I am COMPLETELY lost due to the speed of advance of technology. This site has saved my bacon.
http://www.tomshardware.com/
So Gatordev, if you were to buy a laptop that would handle MS Flight Simulator X like a gem, what would it be?
Zilch
This...is...Caketown!
Eh, people have been doing it at least since about 2000 when I built my machine (yes, it's that old, runs like a champ.) But then, people did the work themselves, cutting holes in the sides, installing cold cathode tubes, extra fans for overclocking, sandblasting plexiglass, glossy paintjobs, whatever. Everyone's case was different. My friends all did that stuff, and it reminded me a lot of the hot-rodding I did to my old Mustang when I had it.
Now, though, you can just drop a few more bucks and buy a case with all that stuff pre-fit. Takes the fun out of it, I think.
Zilch
This...is...Caketown!
If you're talking building it yourself, then I like www.anandtech.com. Fly's rec. is good too, but I have a hard time actually finding stuff on Tom's site sometimes. Seems like it's gotten a little too big w/ all their subsections.
@Capt. Ron:
It's a good question, and one I've been researching in passing lately, just in case that random IA pops up. If money is no object, I'd look at Voodoo. My last laptop was from them because they were the only ones that a) had what I needed in time for a deployment and b) didn't have a Dell logo on it. Personally I think they're overpriced, but they are fast systems. You might want to look at Velocity Micro. I just bought a laptop from them for my parents, but it hasn't arrived yet, so now "review" yet. It also wasn't the highest-end graphics since they didn't need it. The prices are pretty decent for what you get, but of course, they're still high because it's a laptop.
Finally, I'd look at Dell. I don't care for Dell much, but they do have reasonably inexpensive machines w/ lots of options. Oh, and of course there's always the pitch for the new Apple Macbook Pros. A bit of a dated graphics card (X1600), but they have C2D chips and can run both OS X and XP.
In my book, hot-rodding is supposed to improve performance.
@ all others: Thanks for the links. Bonus installment time is just around the corner.
Brett
For the Fleet guys, what's a good laptop for first deployment? I don't know much about laptops as far as buying one, as I've always had desktops. I want something that can handle modern games (Half-Life 2 for example), but affordable enough to not break the bank. Oh, and of course plenty of HD space for pr0n.
Zilch
This...is...Caketown!
In my book, hot-rodding is supposed to improve performance.
@ all others: Thanks for the links. Bonus installment time is just around the corner.
Brett
Yeah, good point. It's great to have a good looking car, but working under the hood is a better investment.
I never did the case mod thing with my comp. I figured it's better not to spend the time and money just to have some fool bang up your work of art computer case when I could just buy more memory or something. Same thing with the car. It's gonna get scratched by some idiot in the parking lot. But, your HP is going to be there, regardless.
See my post above. One thing you need to figure out is do you want a 17" notebook that's a pain in the ass to move anywhere with but can sit on a desk and provide entertainment or do you want something smaller that you can use on the ship as well as other places. Granted you'll have a bit more room than I did, but I went w/ a the 15" size of notebook and then hung a flatscreen TV in our room. If I wanted to play games, I had my laptop that was still fairly mobile when not deployed, and to watch movies, we had the bigger flatscreen (19") for all to see (from our racks).
As for stats on the machine, you're savy enough to know to look for the same things you would on a desktop.
Damn...do you know if they're planning on supporting it anytime soon? My system is nearly stable. My video card is acting strange and an RMA may be in order. Anyone have suggestions for other sims? Combat sims other than Falcon 4.0?
You are all computer geeks! I bought my computer from best buy because the salesman said it was cool. I guess I am computer-retarded.
Fetter
Registered User
I guess I'll throw in my two cents here...
I just got a Dell E1505 Laptop for ~$1600 and it plays the FSX (Demo) quite well on medium settings. By quite well I mean >25fps...because that is about all you can expect from this game unless you like to burn money on top of the line systems. I've got 2GB RAM, 2.0GHz Core Duo, and the Nvidia GO 7900 256mb card. CaptainRon, that's what you're going to be looking at if you want to get anything out of FSX worth mentioning it seems. Of course, if you're up for a picture show, you can always drool over the scenery maxed out at 5fps, heh.
What is really neat is plugging the S-video cord up to the TV and playing flight sim on the big screen!
"Verry niiice!" -Borat
I just got a Dell E1505 Laptop for ~$1600 and it plays the FSX (Demo) quite well on medium settings. By quite well I mean >25fps...because that is about all you can expect from this game unless you like to burn money on top of the line systems. I've got 2GB RAM, 2.0GHz Core Duo, and the Nvidia GO 7900 256mb card. CaptainRon, that's what you're going to be looking at if you want to get anything out of FSX worth mentioning it seems. Of course, if you're up for a picture show, you can always drool over the scenery maxed out at 5fps, heh.
What is really neat is plugging the S-video cord up to the TV and playing flight sim on the big screen!
"Verry niiice!" -Borat