In our first series we explored the joystick issue. It's time to turn our attention to the soul of the flight sim experience, the machine it is played on. As the complexity of the simulation increases so does the horsepower needed to run it. The days of Red Baron on a 386/16 are long gone. Try US Navy Fighters '97 on that CPU !!

As we speak the newest CPU's are being released. The AMD K6 series, the Cyrix M2, and the Pentium 2 among others are the latest and greatest. MMX, 3D graphics cards, and new wavetable soundcards are all the big ticket items with the cost attached to them. Can you tell me how many sims make full use of all these advanced features ? I'm still waiting for an answer but I can assure you it is not many. This is our starting point of entry. The newest and best means that last years newest and best is not that any longer along with the price.

Let's start with motherboards. Any motherboard that is purchased today regardless of the CPU you intend to get should be PCI based with 72 pin SIMM capability. This applies to the 486 crowd, but it is an important fact that VESA Local Bus and ISA based video is history along with 30 pin SIMMs. Today we are looking at motherboards with 75mhz and 83 mhz bus speeds and jumperless configurations. For well under $100 you can get a Pentium class or a 486 class PCI board. It is important to try for the 512k cache on your pentium motherboard, and for 256k asynchronous cache on the 486 boards. Remember that a good motherboard can survive the next round of CPU upgrades. Currently with the release of the Triton TX boards you can get the HX and VX chipsets at good cost. The savings is on the VX board. I have seen these for as little as $69.00 with a 256k cache.

Memory is still a reasonable cost item. 16 megs are the minimum, and 32 megs works wonders. 60ns speed is what you want. Stay away from 70ns or 80ns at all costs which is the same anyways. If your board accepts EDO ( and Pentiums should ) go for it ! Do not skimp on memory. It is your strongest asset.

Video cards are in a major transition at present. 3D is the big thing .How many games support it ? In the future many will, but for now few. There is a whole host of 3D cards and chipsets vying for the best standard. This looks like it is about to change again. Look closely and you will find that video card prices have dropped in anticipation of the 3D revolution. A good video card will truly help a marginal system perform, but if your needs are basic you can find a decent PCI card with S3 chips and 2 megs RAM for under $60.00 ! I stress the 2 megs as the cost over 1 meg is minimal. Even the 3D cards are dropping. Buy now, upgrade later.

We come now to the CPU; the heart of your system. Purchase the most you can afford ! The price of these will drop as the newer ones are introduced. One of the all time best buys was (and still is) the AMD 5x86/133 chip. This is an enhanced 3 volt 486 chip. The ADZ series (originally for notebooks) ran very cool and is extremely receptive to overclocking the bus speed from 33 mhz to 40 mhz. Being clock quadrupled meant this chip would run at an amazing 160 mhz speed! On a 486 PCI board with 256k cache , a PCI video card and 16 megs RAM, the performance was that of a Pentium 90. It runs US Navy Fighters '97 fairly well with textures off. You can get these chips for under $40.00 now.

If you own an older 486 board that does not support 3 volts, you can purchase voltage reducers to allow this chip to be used. The cost of a voltage reducer and 133 chip is less than $100.00, and produces performance as good or better than the 486 based Intel P83 overdrive chip.

AMD offers a line of Pentium class chips outside of the newest K6 series. This is the K5 family that encompasses the PR75,90,100,120,133 and 166 variations. These are Pentium equivalents. Although the 75-100 chips run at those speeds, the remainder do not run at the indicated speeds, but performance equals the respective Pentium counterpart just as in the Cyrix line. This chips are very cost effective and good. I advise against anything under the PR-100. This chip itself is under $70.00 now. Performance in flight sims is very good along with the Cyrix P133+, 150+, AMD 166 + which are available under $130.00 at present.

The drawbacks ? The AMD and Cyrix chips feature poor FPU ( Floating Point ) performance. Graphic intensive applications suffer along with some games like Quake. Many simmers have mentioned a good video card more than makes up the performance loss. You also need either a newer motherboard or a BIOS upgrade to recognize these chips. The AMD is recognized as a Pentium by sims. The Cyrix is not always recognized though there is a program to remedy this. Personally I own the AMD PR-100 along with the Cyrix PR-166+ and they both perform just fine in flight sim applications.

The new Intel Pentium 2 and MMX has hit the marketplace. The price of the Pentium Classic non-MMX chips along with the Pentium Pro have dropped substantially. The P166 is as low as $159.00 now! It is the time to upgrade if you have the P120 or less in your machine. The newer chips perform that much better. The rule of thumb once again is buy the most you can afford. Purchasing that non-MMX chip will serve you just fine as the simulations optimized for MMX applications are not out just yet.

Looking for a CD/ROM drive to round out your system? Feel the need for speed? A new wave of 16X and 24X machines are hitting the shelves. They work great but at what cost? Next time you go for your software read the basic requirements on the label. You will see that you need at least a 2X, possibly a 4X CD/ROM drive to run it successfully. Your software is optimized and written for this speed. The rest is a bonus!

When you are on a budget you can save money here. With the newest drives costing in the $150.00 range you can find a real bargain on 4X, 6X, and 8X CD/ROM drives. I have found packages that include 2X CD/ROM drive, 16 bit Sound Card, speakers and 11 titles for $29.00 on a closeout. The same setup in 4X was $49.00. I would advise against 2X CD/ROM drives and the 4X CD/ROM drive which is at the lower end at present. The CD/ROM drives to look for are the 8X. These are beginning to clear out as the higher speeds take over. Your software will run great and the cost is as low as $59.00 as I write this.

There you have it. A budget approach to your flight sim needs. This is always a work in progress and your machine should be the same. As a new piece of hardware becomes available you can upgrade your system. While doing this you end up realizing that all the parts you have replaced are now the basis of another machine . Have fun doing it !

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