The High End PC Project  

The purpose of this page is to present a high performance machine for flight simulation. While price was still
a consideration it's not the primary goal here. Overall this system represents the best balance of top-end performance and capacity at a good price.

Note: All specifications are from Mwave.com and as such reflect typical mail order pricing at the time of compilation.

Updated - 5/11/04

 
Case & Power supply ANTEC PLUS1080AMG FILE SERVER TOWER W/TRUE 430W (PENTIUM 4 READY) ATX POWER SUPPLY $115.00
     
Motherboard ASUS A7N8X-E DLX NVIDIA nFORCE2 CHIPSET ULTRA ATA133 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xAGP(PRO)/5xPCI/3xDDR W/SATA, DUAL LAN, 1394, USB 2.0 & AUDIO $97.00
     
CPU AMD ATHLON XP 3200+ 400MHZ OEM W/O COOLING FAN $174.00
     
CPU Cooler THERMALTAKE VOLCANO 11 COPPER BASE COOLING FAN FOR AMD SOCKET 462 & INTEL SOCKET 370 PROCESSOR W/3 & 4 PIN CONNECTOR (SUPPORT UP TO XP 3400+) $30.00
     
System RAM
2 - CORSAIR CMX512-3200C2 64X64 400MHZ 512MB CL2 DDR DIMM W/HEAT SPREADER
 $274.00
     
Hard Drive SEAGATE 160GB ST3160023AS SERIAL ATA150 7200RPM 8MB 8.5MS $119.00
     
Video Card ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB 8XAGP DDR (OEM - POWERED BY ATI) $286.33
     
DVD/CD-ROM PLEXTOR DUAL 12X4X16X/DVD+RW 8X4X16X/DVD-RW 48X24X48X/CDRW EIDE INTERNAL W/SW $204.53
     
     
     
  Total $1299.86
Please note that this is just the box, not a complete system. You'll still need to add a keyboard, mouse
monitor and speakers. If you're a Mac user then these components can simply be switched over from your
present system. Of course the OS is another issue. If you're already a Windows user then you can simply
install from your existing disk, just as long as it's not XP. If you're a Mac user then search E-Bay for a copy
of Windows 98 or bug one of your PC using friends for a borrowed copy. If you have a choice, try to run
Windows 2000 or XP, if possible.

How fast is it?

This system is powerful enough to run MSFS at excellent frame rates with settings at maximum, FSAA and
screen res. set to high levels. The fact is, frame rates will simply not be much of an issue with any current flight sim. In X Plane (7.xx) performance will far exceed that of the best G5 and in fact will be far in excess of what's needed to run the program.

How expandable is it?

This is designed to be a top end machine so you probably won't need to add or upgrade anything for a long time. When you do finally feel the need to replace this system it will most likely be with a 64 bit CPU and motherboard. By that time 64 bit technology should be much more mature and lower in cost then it is today.