Classic British Flight Sim

PC Advisor (April issue). There is a group test of Vista PCs and several supporting articles, including graphics, and XP vs Vista performance. The PCs are in the £750 - £1500 range.

Thorough comparisons of running "Company of Heroes" and "Fear" show markedly reduced frame rates in Vista :shock: The conclusion being that graphics hardware and drivers from both ATI and nVidia are several months away from optimisation. They say if you're looking to Vista to revitalise your existing software you're likely to be disappointed.

Their advice on buying a new Vista PC now is to get a dual-core 64bit machine with 2Gb of DDR2 RAM and a 300Gb HD. For graphics they recommend getting a DirectX 9.0 card with as much memory as you can and upgrade to a DX10 card when the price drops below £200 (currently the cheapest is £292).

Their best buy is the Arbico CD1950EX at £1249, but the best machine is the Mesh E6700 X-Treme PCA at £1,499. (You may want to ask Tony Madge about buying Mesh before taking the plunge! )

I was going to get a new Evesham quite soon as they are doing 0% interest over 18 months but I can't see the point yet. I'll probably wait until next winter now and see what the situation is then :roll:

Ian

Hi,

I've decided against Vista for the time being and am sticking with XP Pro. Just taken the plunge today and have ordered bits to build new PC. Components ordered :

Microdirect:
Asus P5B DLX mobo
Core2Duo E6600
2 x 250GB Samsung spinpoint HDD

Overclockers UK:
Geil GX22GB6400UDC 2 x 1gb RAM
Connect3D X1950XT 256MB

eBuyer:
Corsair HX Series 620W Modular PSU

This little lot will go into my existing Lian Li case. Hardest decision was the GC. In the end I went for the best value fastest card that I could justify spending my dosh on bearing in mind I may wish to upgrade it when ATI release a DX10 card and the prices come down somewhat.

Glad I decided against Vista.

Rgds

John

Sort of puts hard experience into what has been the feeling and impression thus far of Vista.

Still the best option seems to be wait, carry on saving and look again later.

Thanks for the link Ian

Garry

Hi John

Your system will be almost identical to mine.

same bits apart from.....
I have 2gb of Kingston HyperX 1250 mhz Ram & a sapphire X1950XTX.

I got the ram cheap as my local special ordered it for a customer that then said he didn't want it. (I wanted 800 mhz ram).

I use a Freezer pro & heatsink & fan and have been running continously @ 3.3 ghz for 3 months apart from driver update reboots http://www.artic-cooling.com for cooler.

Fast as **** & stable as a rock

Regards
Rick

John - approximately how much do you expect to spend on those components? I assume you are using your existing monitor as well as the case. Can you use your existing copy of XP or will you get an OEM one with the HDs?

Ian

Hi Ian

Give or take a few pence :

Microdirect:
Asus P5B DLX mobo £113
Core2Duo E6600 £191
2 x 250GB Samsung spinpoint HDD £45 each
(total inc p&p £401.43)

Overclockers UK:
Geil GX22GB6400UDC 2 x 1gb RAM £118
Connect3D X1950XT 256MB £135
Samsung DVDRW £22
(total inc p&p £284.61)

eBuyer:
Corsair HX Series 620W Modular PSU £87
(p&p free)

All inc VAT.

Rgds

John

Thanks very much for that info, John. That sounds quite a reasonable price for the spec. I think I might have to consider building my own, but as it would be my first complete build I won't use any existing components but build it separately and take my time.

Cheers for that

Ian

I agree I would build my own next time but that will have to be a while yet
Vista well I think it is a case of brigging it out before they are ready, like anything new once its bugs are sorted it should be fine, howver that may be a while and a fast XP machine will beat a Vista ...until MS turn off support for XP as they will surely do to get Vista sales up :think: