[Pirate]

Hi guys, I have a little bit of money to spend... though I didn't think it would be enough to upgrade my system, until I found this 'gaming bundle'...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... &U=strat15

And wondered if anyone out there has advice on whether or not it is a good idea... currently my system (which is really showing its age) is:

AMD 3400+ skt 754 running at 2.6, 1.5 gb ram PC3200, ASUS Extreme N6800/TD GeForce

[GeneralPsycho]

Although this bundle is at an amazing price, there are some issues:
The graphics card is one weak point in the system as I see
AMD were wounderful processors until Intel came out with Core 2 architecture-which had higher clock speeds(this game loves high MHz)
There are also 3 gb of RAM, as far as i know, its DDR2 so, running it 'not in double channel' can bog your system by a little, but you may not notice a difference.

I do not see anything else, hopefully more people will see this post and help you out :wink:

[KG64_Cnopicilin]

What is your budget? You could find some more as good prices. I agree with general, the GPU isn't very powerful, but that bundle is way better than your system now. You can always combine some parts if some part isnt that good than system you have nowadays.

[Pirate]

Thanks Generalpsycho, to be quite honest the price is the only thing that has me looking at this system... the graphics cards performance is going to be a bit of a mystery the 'hybrid sli' function allows the onboard graphics and 8500GT which comes with the package to work together... at up to 40% fater than the onboard alone... though the performance of the onboard is not good. Together it would probably(?) better than what I have right now.

Edit: KG64_cnopicilin, this is my budget essentially... there isn't much in my current system compatible with this - thats the issue, upgrading isn't an option with such an old system. Standard things like disk dirves will be swapped in. I imagine my ram would hamstring the faster stuff with the bundle - though I'll give it a go just to see the results.

[GeneralPsycho]

Thanks Generalpsycho, to be quite honest the price is the only thing that has me looking at this system... the graphics cards performance is going to be a bit of a mystery the 'hybrid sli' function allows the onboard graphics and 8500GT which comes with the package to work together... at up to 40% fater than the onboard alone... though the performance of the onboard is not good. Together it would probably(?) better than what I have right now.

Edit: KG64_cnopicilin, this is my budget essentially... there isn't much in my current system compatible with this - thats the issue, upgrading isn't an option with such an old system. Standard things like disk dirves will be swapped in. I imagine my ram would hamstring the faster stuff with the bundle - though I'll give it a go just to see the results.

What I would suggest, wait a couple of months, get more money, and with maybe 1000 dollars, you can build a system that will play this game no problem including all the mods.

[Paulo Hirth]

I am using a intel e8400, 2xgf8800 SLI 4GB DDR 1066, is working perfect with all settings game and driver settings in maximum.

I dont need more than this yet.

[{HVY-E}Jinxx]

Pirate,

See the E-Mail I sent you.
Will help out with anything else you need.

[ROSOBORONEXPORTCORP]

I'd wait for SOW:BoB's specifications to come out (Oleg promised a tentative estimate around mid-summer).

Generally ram is good for flight simulators (more important then videocard and about as important as CPU).

For the price a good joystick or TIR is probably just as good for improving the experience

[Pirate]

Ok thanks for the advice guys, I have decided to go for it and hope for the best. I'm on a seriously limited budget at the moment and there really aren't any viable alternatives in terms of performance vs cost. The biggest downside I have discovered is that the hybrid sli requires Vista... which I only found out by trawling through forums.

Waiting for SOW isn't an option, partly because I'm not that patient. And wether or not I know the specs it won't improve my financial situation - so either I have this new rig which might perform on low settings before upgrading, or my current one which would just burst into tears. Whatever happens I will have upgraded the gfx card, RAM and possibly the CPU by the time it is released.

I won't be shelling out the cash until tuesday probably... so if anyone finds a better bundle available in the UK I would love to hear from you

[Erg./JG54_crazty]

To play il2 with that setup that offers you its far than okei but with AMD you cant go far + the card has low memory (256) so any game with higher demands it wont run so good.If you all rdy have a medium pc that can get a card with cost about 100$ like a 9800 or higher with 1gb of memory it worth the update.i have a monster pc (chek previous threat http://allaircraftsimulations.com/forum/...r+s0crazty) and i have lot of experience about gaming demands.Now about BOB i think it will run smooth with an nvidia 9800gt so think carefully about what you need but try to avoid AMD processor its realy bad.Sorry for my english but if you need any help pm.

[Pirate]

Thanks guys, I have decided agaist that bundle in the end... I have read some bad reviews of the board, and whie it is still a good offer I have upped my budget and I'm going for this:

Intel Core 2 DUO E5200 2.5GHZ Socket LGA775

Asrock P43 Intel P45 DDR3 Motherboard

2GB PC10666 1333Mhz DDR3 Memory

Same price as the previous one, but no graphics card, will be getting a 8800gt probably. A much better system I think you will agree.