I had this idea for a while now – when I did install my original copy of Flight Simulator X, I did not really pay attention to separate the FSX Files from the Operating System – they went into the default \Program Files (x86)\ directory and have been sitting there ever since. Lately, I had been starting to pick up on my Flight Simming again (which I did not do for quite a while before) and one of the things that came to mind was optimizing the system performance. But there is only so much you can do if the system is installed and has been used for a while. Those two unused disks floating around and the fact that I cannot install Flight Simulator X: Acceleration Pack when the FSX Copy on the disk already has an FSX SP2 installed, made the decission easy: let’s install a brand-new system on the given hardware but with a better distribution and let’s only put those items on that I really need for flight simming (in other words: clean up!).
So first things first, a new operating system is required – Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit is the OS of choice for me – that plus the required drivers and base system software should be enough to take me through the day. So here are the hardware specs for the syetem:
- CPU: Intel Core2Extreme QX9650, 3GHz, QuadCore
- Motherboard: Asus P5Q
- RAM: 4 x 2GB Kingston DDR2-800
- nVidia GeForce GTX 275 with 896MB RAM
- 1x Samsung SyncMaster 204B, 1x Samsung SyncMaster 245B
- 1x Samsung HD300LJ (300GB) for Operating System
- 1x Samsung HD403LJ (400GB) for FSX & AddOns
I am considering putting a third disk in (but I need to mount the frame first) so I can distribute OS – FSX – FSX AddOns – but first I want to find out how the separation onto two HDDs impacts the performace.
So let’s get going with the base system installation…