Had a serious elecrical storm last week ..even with a decent surge suppressor it seems that my mobo took the brunt.
It was an ASUS p4t533-c 1 gig RAMBUS with a 2.8 P4.
I have about 650$ to play around with at the moment(banker has me on lockdown), question is what do I go with Intel or AMD and what board,what ram and what CPU will do me right?
I fly LOMAC, PF, FS2004, and Falcon.
Suggestions?

P4, DDR2 1 or 2GByte, XTX 6600GT PCIe ( review ), and Audigy 2ZS I'd go for.

Speaking of which, I just got a new mobo and processor (Gigabyte 8195P with a P4 3.2 HT O'clocked to 3.7) Unfortunately, the onboard sound is a piece of junk - It won't let me plug my headphones and microphone into the front panel!

Any recommendations for a good (trouble-free) sound card?

No suggestions on the sound HB but just to let you know I've been Gigabyting (845PE Titan HT)for almost 3 years without a lick of trouble!

Yep, Ruger - Gigabyte is an excellent board - I've used them before; stable, overclockable, etc. That's why I was surprised that I can't use my headphones unless I plug them into the rear panel. Kinda messes up my voice activated commands, and the reflecters on my mic boom for trackIR. My last Asus board didn't seem to have a problem with that.

p.s. - Zuki - my new setup was less than $600 not counting the video card. I used the DDR ram from my old Asus P4b 533 system with no problem, so that kept the cost down. I'd reccommend Intel, as IL-2/FB/PF supports Hyperthreading.

And sorry for hijacking your thread

I think you're screwed on the ram. I don't believe there are any boards that take RAMBUS anymore. I've got exactly the same board as you and I dread the prospect of it dying.

Gyre

Kinda reminds me of Sony betamax vs VHS , sigh... :p

:)

In these days and age, when was the last time you bought anything VHS ?