[Fireskull]

Hey Fireskull

Nice guide, enjoyed reading it, can I get your advice

I have a Dell Computer on its way to me, since my faithiful older computer died a couple of weeks ago with my IL2 on it (Noooooooo)

I am getting a Dell Inspiron 580s with the following specss, can you please give me your thoughts to what settings I will be able to run IL2 at.

i3-530 Core (2.93GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 4MB Cache)
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
6GB RAM DDR3 1333MHz (3 x 2GB)
ATI Raedon 1GB DDR3

These hardware specs are set, I am not going to upgrade as I believe this will be enough, considering my last system specs

2 Cord Duo (E5300)
Windows Vista Home Premium 32 Bit
2GB RAM
GeForce 7300GT

With those specs, I could run a 120 Plane mission with no shutters

I would please like your advice, as well as any extra tips you have, I should get the PC in 2 weeks, I was running IL2 Sturmovik 1946 HSFX 4.11 before my computer crash

Hello, Foxman

"ATI Raedon 1GB DDR3" is what I quote from you. A bunch of cards have about 1 GB DDR3. What is your specific graphics card?

The i3-530 should be a dual core chip and will managa the running of IL-2 fairly well. Since it has two cores, then you probably will want to run IL-2 assigned to the second core. The Operating System is primarily assigned to the first core so naturally you don't want IL-2 sharing the same core with the OS. Another option to try is to run IL-2 in both cores and enable multi-threading in your graphics card Control Panel. The assignment of cores is covered in this tech topic.

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit is the way to go. You will have slightly better performance of IL-2 with the 64-bit over the 32-bit. Great choice here.

6GB RAM DDR3 1333MHz (3 x 2GB) is plenty of RAM. It's hard to have too much and you have the upper limit of what I would recommend for IL-2. This RAM clearly shows that you probably can run IL-2 better with Multi-Threading activated, and probably both cores, too. Running in the second core still might be the best option. You must test to be sure.

I looked at the specifications of the Dell Inspiron 580s at several websites and I feel that it is a good deal, a nice value.

You will definately be able to run Perfect Water in OpenGL Mode (water=2 for ATI in the conf.ini file). How to get Perfect Water and other Optimizations is covered in this tech topic, of course.

Congradulations on a good selection of computer. Let me know about the exact graphics card model and I will give you more information according to its capabilities for IL-2. Fair enough?