Kory Miller 1054117 Posted October 13, 2008 at 09:21 PM Posted October 13, 2008 at 09:21 PM Hey guys, I work at Circuit City and yesterday during a morning meeting we were informed by management that the store had been instructed by district staff to have a firesale on our overflowing list of open box items. Thanks to this I walked out with a Acer desktop that was on clearance for $379 at the low price of $150. I know this is a bottom budget pc but I plan on using it for parts to build a new budget pc for FSX. I am happy with the processor (E2180) and I have read that it is a monster overclocker tho I am slightly concerned about the low amount of L2 cache. After reading many reviews I have decided to stick with the e2180 and shoot to oc it to 3.0 ghz from the stock speed of 2.0ghz. I feel that this 50% boost will give a good difference in performance. However the next areas I need to address is memory and a video card. The stock build is running integrated video off of the mobo so that is my first priority. What would you guys recommend for a video card that is under 100 bucks but will give decent performance ? For memory I currently have 2gb (2 X 1gb) pc5300 in the pc. I plan on upgrading that to 4gb (2 x 2gb) pc5300 for a added boost. Any suggestions in general ? I know this is a low quality rig but I am hoping with a few cheap upgrades I can run FSX decently without dropping a ton of money. Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Kory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Kolin Posted October 13, 2008 at 09:55 PM Posted October 13, 2008 at 09:55 PM Unless you're hitting memory limits (and even with FSX, I don't run into problems with 2GB) you're exceptionally unlikely to see any performance boost with the extra 2GB of RAM. I'd plow the money into a new video card. Cheers! Luke ... I spawn hundreds of children a day. They are daemons because they are easier to kill. The first four remain stubbornly alive despite my (and their) best efforts. ... Normal in my household makes you a member of a visible minority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Bonnett 1053110 Posted October 13, 2008 at 10:23 PM Posted October 13, 2008 at 10:23 PM Unless you're hitting memory limits (and even with FSX, I don't run into problems with 2GB) you're exceptionally unlikely to see any performance boost with the extra 2GB of RAM. I'd plow the money into a new video card. Cheers! Luke Agreed. Go for the video card first. But if you have the extra money after that, definitely go in and add more memory as FSX and Vista combined do have a tendency to use it real quick. And if the machine is DDR2, you should be able to get it for dirt cheap from the usual online retailers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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