I went to Best Buy looking for a gaming computer, figuring that's what I'll
need for this video card and Flight Simulator.  I found the asus
cg5270-bp004 for $650.  The reviews I've found have been good.

It has expansion interfaces: 1 x Display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub
(HD-15) , 1 x Display / video - DVI-Digital - 24 pin digital DVI , 1 x
Display / video - HDMI - 19 pin HDMI Type A , 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) - 6
pin FireWire , 1 x Network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T - RJ-45
, 1 x Audio - SPDIF output - TOSLINK , 10 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 pin USB Type A
( 4 front, 6 rear ) , 1 x Storage - eSATA-300 - 7 pin external Serial ATA

My questions are:

Do you think my current IDE interface 200GB Maxtor ATA drives work with it?
How about my external USB case for my drives?
It doesn't have a firewire connection for my old iPod, can an old card
work?  Is there a cable that I can plug into a USB slot with USB on one side
and Firewire on the other?


On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 5:24 PM, David Gillett <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> On 2 Dec 2009 at 15:22, Diane wrote:
>
> > *I'm planning on getting a new computer and want to get a good video
> > graphics card for Flight Simulator X Deluxe.  I found a computer with
> > an NVIDIA nForce MCP61 Chipset, but I don't know how much memory it
> > has.  It was recommended that I get one with at least 1 GB of RAM.  It
> > was also recommended that I get an NVIDIA Geforce 9800 GTX or above.
> >
> > Does anyone know about graphics cards?
>
>
>   "nForce" is, I believe, nVidia's line of motherboard chipsets,
> nothing to do with video.  I've had a couple of machines with
> their chipset -- on one, I could never update to XP SP3 because
> if they ever produced a compatible IDE driver, I couldn't find
> it.
>  On another, and also on a machine owed by a friend, the
> onboard Ethernet died.
>
>  In my book, that's three strikes.  I will not be buying
> another systemwith an nForce chipset as long as I have any
> choice.
>
>  nVidia and ATI are the two main players still making Video
> Graphics cards such as the GeForce series.  I've personally been
> happy with both.  But I hear some people prefer one or the
> other.  Your best bet might be to try to find a forum of Flight
> Simulator players and see which they recommend.
>  (I play Second Life, and I hear folks there recommending
> nVidia despite three issues introduced by nVidia drivers in the
> last year.  But those issues may relate ONLY to Second Life, so
> they wouldn't affect you....)
>
> David Gillett
>
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