How big a PC would be overkill with the Parhelia ?

[Conker]

Since I am about to buy a PC for FS9 I have a question

I want to use Parhelia 128 MB AGP x 8 as my only graphics card.

What should I look for in a PC to get the most out of this card ?

I want a good computer - but since the Parhelia isn´t the fastest card in the world - I don´t want to spend a lot of money on computerpower that won´t be used.

Can you help me ?

Thanks from Soren, Denmark

[SpiralDragon]

whats your budget range?

[Conker]

I actually don´t know - that really depends on when I buy the system.

The longer I wait - the more money I will have saved up - but then again, I don´t want to buy more than the Parhelia can make perfect use of.

[Kruzin]

Moved to Matrox Hardware

[Leoncatz]

2 x Athalon 2000 MP+
Nice Dual Althalon Board w/8x AGP slot (Tyans are nice boards)
1 x 1GB RAM (Registered ECC is a little more expensive but maybe required for some boards)

For a decent price to boot.

[UtwigMU]

I have a nice Tyan dual Athlon board and it's AGP4x only like the rest of 760MPX dual Athlon boards.

As for original question:

I noticed little scaling going from Celeron 1.1A@1.46GHz =~ 1600+ to dual Athlons @2.26GHz =~ 3000+.

I'd say about 3000+/3.0 is where Parhelia would proabably not show significant benefit from faster CPU - this is if you intend to play games.

[Mehen]

Athlon with a Barton core, 2500+ or faster (great value), any Athlon64, or any P4 w/ hyperthreading.
DO NOT get a dual athlon MP... I have no idea why anyone would want that.

[Conker]

What is the deal with Athlon ?

I thought the 64 bit processor wasn´t all that great for 32 bit flight simulators running on 32 bit operating systems ?

Maybe I am wrong ?

[Marshmallowman]

Fastest processor for running x86 32bit code = athlon 64

You also get amuch better upgade path with all the amd 64 variants.

[G400SG16mb]

the Athlon64 bit is an evolution of the 32bit Athlon XP. Being 64bit doesn't make it "bad" for running 32bit software at all. But an Athlon64 bit system will cost you alot more because it is newer and faster.

The best value for money right now for those on a budget is to get an Athlon XP 2500+ for 166MHz front side bus, PC3200 ram, then set the front side bus to 205MHz so the chip runs at 2260MHz

[Conker]

Which of these 2 systems would you choose ?

Which of these 2 systems should I choose - the Athlon version is a fair bit cheaper.

AMD 64 CPU
• X-Terminator ATX 400Watt.
• CD-Rom 52x Speed.
• Mainboard SL-K8AV2-RL.
• 6-CH Surround 5.1.
• RJ45 10/100Mbit.
• Dual 800MHz/1600MHz FSB.
• Multi (AGPx4/x8), 5xPCI.
• ATA-133, SATA, RAID 0-1.
• Chipset VIA-K8T800/8237.
• 1 GB DDR 400 ram
• Athlon 64 3000+ FSB400 512 K

CPU Prescott
• X-Terminator ATX 400Watt.
• CD-RW 52x, DVD 16x.
• Mainboard SL-865PRO2-FG.
• 6-CH Surround 5.1.
• RJ45 10/100/1Gbit.
• Dual 533MHz/800MHz FSB.
• Multi (AGPx4/x8), 5xPCI.
• ATA-100, SATA, RAID 0-1.
• Chipset INTEL-865PE/ICH5.
• 1 GB DDR 400 ram
• Pentium 4 Prescott 3000mhz FSB800 1 MB

The above systems can not be changed - so which one would be better and why ?

[UtwigMU]

The first system doesn't have CD-RW and only has CD-ROM (you can get an optical drive of choice latter).

It also only has 100Mb LAN, which is not a problem as you proabably won't have Gb switches. When you'll switch to Gb LAN, you will be able to purchase a Gb network card cheaply.

Otherwise, the major factor is the CPU.

The motherboard you're getting in the first system is socket 754, which is going to become replaced by socket 939, although CPUs will be made for S754 for quite a while. S939 is better as it offers:
- bigger upgradeability
- dual channel memory support

It is also more expensive.

Since your previous system was 800MHz Celeron, I'd guess you're the type of person that purchases a whole system every 3-4 years, so upgradeability is not as important, as any system that you purchase now, won't be upgradeable without replacing majority of components by your next upgrade cycle.

As for which CPU: Generally games favour Athlon64, although, you should really check benchmarks of games/software you intend to run on sites such as ace's, anand, hardOCP and techreport.

Otherwise, with Athlon64, you will be able to get WindowsXP 64-bit, and running 32-bit apps under 64-bit OS in 64-bit mode will give you performance gains. Also games and high end applications will likely take advantage of 64-bit.

ETA for WinXP 64-bit is end of this year and apps will start coming out in numbers proabably by end of next year.

As for upgradeability of AMD vs Intel: Both Socket 754 (AMD) and 478 (Intel) are being replaced by S939 and SocketT/LGA775. Highest 478 P4 is 3.6, highest 754 A64 is 3700+, there might be faster 754 Athlons.

[Conker]

Actually I have just found this system that looks more up to date - am I right ?

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Cooler: Thermaltake Alu Cooler, 21 dB
Board: ASUS K8V Deluxe, 8x AGP, 4x USB 2.0, 2x FireWire, SATA
RAMÂ_: Kingston 2 x 256 MB Dual PC3700
Graphics: Club 3D 256 MB Radeon 9600Pro
Harddisk: Maxtor 160 GB, 7200 RPM, silent, 8 mb cache
Net: Asus 3COM 10/100/1000 Mbit onboard
Sound: ASUS 5.1 Surround Sound, onboard
DVDÂ_: LiteOn 16x48 Speed
KabinetÂ_: Artemis Miditower, 300W, USB front

[a_h]

@Utwig: don't be that sure that the 64bit Win will improve the performance. Actually I've read that e.g. OpenGL suffers a big performance hit under Win64...

Furthermore you need mature 64bit drivers for *all* components, if 1 is missing you don't get the 64bit mode (parhelia drivers?!).

Nobody said 32bit apps will run any faster on a 64bit os, why should they?

Hey, I'm sure you already read the 64bit linux reviews, I wasn't impressed. Nothing to wait hard for.

The Athlon64s are great cpus (expecially the Cool'n'Quiet ones!), but I don't think that you got to wait for WoW64...

Cheers, Hannes

PS: @Conker: don't get a multiprocessor machine. I'm not aware of a single game (quake3 included) that uses the 2nd cpu to give greater performance.

Duallies are great multitaskers, great for video work, but pointless for games (do you need some extra-smp-troubles?)

[Conker]

Thanks

Can you or anyone else confirm that this system is a good one ?

Originally posted by Conker
Actually I have just found this system that looks more up to date - am I right ?

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Cooler: Thermaltake Alu Cooler, 21 dB
Board: ASUS K8V Deluxe, 8x AGP, 4x USB 2.0, 2x FireWire, SATA
RAM�_: Kingston 2 x 256 MB Dual PC3700
Graphics: Club 3D 256 MB Radeon 9600Pro
Harddisk: Maxtor 160 GB, 7200 RPM, silent, 8 mb cache
Net: Asus 3COM 10/100/1000 Mbit onboard
Sound: ASUS 5.1 Surround Sound, onboard
DVD�_: LiteOn 16x48 Speed
Kabinet�_: Artemis Miditower, 300W, USB front