Hi there,
short background story before the question.
I mostly use my machine to run Flight Simulator 2004, and will keep doing it like that for some years, since FSX (new FS version) capable hardware is out of my budget.
My initial box was: P4 3.0 + Asus P4P800-Deluxe + 2x512 DDR400 + ATI 9600 Pro + OEM 350W PSU.
At a certain point I decided to invest in a new GPU and bought a Sapphire ATI X1950 Pro 512 and a new Enermax Liberty 500W PSU.
Now I want to assemble a two-PC multi monitor flightsim setup. In that setup, one of the PCs is dedicated to run 3D graphics, for which my older configuration would be quite OK, so I will put my 9600 Pro and OEM PSU back.
I will end up with an X1950 Pro and Enermax 500W as spares to be used on my new more powerfull box, which will be dedicated to the more demanding 3D graphics. The intention is that new box would have two good performace gfx cards, to drive four monitors (non-SLI/Xfire).
So, after reading a lot of reviews & forums, looks like ASRock 4CoreDual is a good choice, since I have a restricted budget.
Now the questions:
- My intention is to go for ASRock 4CoreDual + C2D E4400. Good and cheap, correct?
- Would it be wise to add, as a second gfx card, a X1950 Pro 512 PCIe? My feeling is that keeping the cards the same when using dual cards is better, particularly when it comes for drivers, etc. Is that correct?
- I know about the bottlenecking of the X4 PCIe slot. Would the fact that I would also be running a performing gfx card on the AGP slot result in further bottlenecking on the already poor X4 PCIe slot? After reading the review on ocworkbench, I got the impression that the bottleneck exists, but is noticeable only in high resolution, and at normal 1280x1024 (my prefered resolution) things go well. I have no information on how this goes when using tow cards at the same time.
- Can I use my Enermax 500W to drive such a rig? A new PSU would ruin my budget, or at least delay my buyings.
- I have a spare set of 2x1Gb PC2-3200 (DDR2-400) Hynix memory. Is that memory compatible at all with this board? If yes, its lower speeds would be have a sensible impact in reducing overall performance of the box?
Thanks a lot for you answers & information sharing.
Best regards
short background story before the question.
I mostly use my machine to run Flight Simulator 2004, and will keep doing it like that for some years, since FSX (new FS version) capable hardware is out of my budget.
My initial box was: P4 3.0 + Asus P4P800-Deluxe + 2x512 DDR400 + ATI 9600 Pro + OEM 350W PSU.
At a certain point I decided to invest in a new GPU and bought a Sapphire ATI X1950 Pro 512 and a new Enermax Liberty 500W PSU.
Now I want to assemble a two-PC multi monitor flightsim setup. In that setup, one of the PCs is dedicated to run 3D graphics, for which my older configuration would be quite OK, so I will put my 9600 Pro and OEM PSU back.
I will end up with an X1950 Pro and Enermax 500W as spares to be used on my new more powerfull box, which will be dedicated to the more demanding 3D graphics. The intention is that new box would have two good performace gfx cards, to drive four monitors (non-SLI/Xfire).
So, after reading a lot of reviews & forums, looks like ASRock 4CoreDual is a good choice, since I have a restricted budget.
Now the questions:
- My intention is to go for ASRock 4CoreDual + C2D E4400. Good and cheap, correct?
- Would it be wise to add, as a second gfx card, a X1950 Pro 512 PCIe? My feeling is that keeping the cards the same when using dual cards is better, particularly when it comes for drivers, etc. Is that correct?
- I know about the bottlenecking of the X4 PCIe slot. Would the fact that I would also be running a performing gfx card on the AGP slot result in further bottlenecking on the already poor X4 PCIe slot? After reading the review on ocworkbench, I got the impression that the bottleneck exists, but is noticeable only in high resolution, and at normal 1280x1024 (my prefered resolution) things go well. I have no information on how this goes when using tow cards at the same time.
- Can I use my Enermax 500W to drive such a rig? A new PSU would ruin my budget, or at least delay my buyings.
- I have a spare set of 2x1Gb PC2-3200 (DDR2-400) Hynix memory. Is that memory compatible at all with this board? If yes, its lower speeds would be have a sensible impact in reducing overall performance of the box?
Thanks a lot for you answers & information sharing.
Best regards
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