BUFF

"two weeks" (or when it's ready)

You'll struggle - he live in Wales

JM is right - the F3 has a longer fuselage as well as a different nose/radome & of course the underside is also configured with semi recessed missile bays. Anyone need them I've got a lot of F3 photos as my local RAF base is home to 2 operational F3 squadrons plus the F3 OCU.

Russo has had 1 in development for a long time & afaik it's getting really close to release but real life has a habit of interfering with development cycles ...

I though that you were getting your own AWACS platform? Afterall that's part of the reason that the IAF deployed to the UK this summer , to learn AWACS procedures.

Forum's fine, download does seem slower.

Possibly a driver issue? How about an X1950 Pro AGP ~£120? of course that's £120 (price of your P35-DQ6) not going towards your upgrade ...

there's some nice footage from the GW of a Buccaneer taking out a taxiing transport with an LGB

The Jaguar is an old school jet, not fly by wire. Speak to any Jaguar pilot & they'll tell you that whilst they love it that you do have to keep on top of it.

X38 is the latest Intel chipset & is their "high end" desktop chipset. The Gigabyte is the first mobo using it to be available in retail but all the main mobo manufacturers will have one or a couple. You can upgrade later to a faster CPU but that board only has DDR2 slots so, no to DDR3. Gigabyte will be doing a DDR3 version the X38T-DQ6 but unknown at this point when it will ship & how much it will be - plus of course the current cost of DDR3 is a killer for little or no gain with current systems. Some mobo manufacturers will be doing X38 mobos with both DDR2 & DDR3 slots (you can only use 1 type at a time) but historically that type of design tends to be not as good as a board dedicated to 1 type but it does give a bit more flexibility for the future. Early results say the X38 with DDR2 is no quicker than a P35 chipset board but where reviewers say that they are seeing gains is with DDR3 & Penryns (see below). For my part I'm probably going to wait for Penryns to launch & DDR3 to come down to a sensible price at which time I'll probably buy an abit IX38-MAX (assuming reviews are good of course but I expect that they will be). Of course, I can afford to wait as I already have 3 Core 2 Duo systems here. If I were you & looking to buy now I would just go with a P35/DDR2 system as X38/DDR2 doesn't really seem to offer gains & the RAM for X38/DDR3 is ludicrously priced atm (hopefully will change by Spring). Latest production Core 2 CPUs are 65Nm process (like the GO stepping q6600 that I recommended as opposed to the older B3 stepping), the 45Nm CPUs are the next generation of Intel's Core 2 (Penryn). They are expected to show performance gains. with the mobo being so new there is as yet little info on what fits & more importantly what doesn't. Give it a week or so & there should be more info available. I think that you mean a Q6600 GO stepping RAM Corsair 800hz 4GB DDR2 6400 (your suggestion) HDD Seagate Barracuda – 320 GB ref STY 3320620AS latest is the SH-S203/BEBN & you would probably want to buy a silver bezel to match your silver case. NEC/Sony do a silver SATA DVDR/RW AD-7170S-0S for much the same price but it's a bit noisier. FLOPPY Teac Floppy drive FD-CRZ the latest & best is the 8800 Ultra but imo the small improvement over the GTX isn't worth the big price increase. & I think that you mean is nVidia better than AMD/ATi - at this point AMD/ATi have nothing to touch the 8800GTX (the 8800GTS/XT2900 is 6 of one/half a dozen of the other) OS Windows Vista there are many & like most things you tend to get what you pay for. Things to watch out for are: does it use the right type of connector for your peripherals (PS/2 or USB)? the type of video connection to suit your monitor - DSUB or DVI cheaper KVMs usually have a limit to the display resolution that they can handle well, check that they can handle whatever you normally use. your existing one is probably ethernet or USB connected - if so yes, it should plug straight into your new mobo. Presumably your old mobo has an integrated LAN adapter or a NIC card installed? Chances are that it will be ethernet 10/100Mbps. Your new mobo will have a gigabit (10/100/1000) integrated LAN adapter but if your old system is 10/100 there is no point in buying a gigabit switch as the network will be limited to the max of the old system - 100. I think that we should deal with all your networking questions separately from the tower build. the 8800GTX is a long card but afaik that case will take it - it's not a small case, in fact the reverse. The PSU should be able to power it all, the RAM should work etc. etc. - afaik it should all fit/work together.

I don't know even where to start to compose a reply. The armed forces deserve respect (same as the police, fire department etc.) even if someone personally may not agree with certain aspects & after all they only do as directed by the executive. I don't agree with petty politicians but I wouldn't deny them the right to stand for election.

interesting post & comparing the size of the development teams involved ThirdWire obviously come out as punching above their weight.

Somebody like SCAN will build it for you & give you a guarantee although of course you'll pay for the service. I could build it for you but I'm always a bit worried about shipping complete systems. Whereabouts are you in case I know anyone reasonably local? I agree that the best way to learn is to do it yourself & will stand you in good stead in future. I can give you reasonable advice/help but ultimately I won't have your exact components to play with - the biggie being the mobo although I can download a manual for it no problem. Btw the DQ6 is being discontinued to avoid overlap with Gigabyte's lower X38 mobo.

& there are quite alot of hybrid sytems COGAS, COGES, CODAG etc.

If you mean the Gigabyte P35T-DQ6 that's a DDR3 only mobo & won't take the RAM that you have chosen. The DDR2 version is the P35-DQ6. The X38 chipset mobos are just starting to show up & are ~ £180. Personally I wouldn't pay £610 for a QX6850 when the £165 Q6600 GO stepping is exactly the same CPU bar the default fsb & it doesn't have unlocked upward multis. A very easy overclock will get you the 3.0GHz & save you £450 (some of which you can put towards a better heatsink/fan than the stock Intel one). I honestly wouldn't get that IBM CD-R/RW (unless you are reusing it) but get a SATA DVD-R/RW (the Samsungs being the quietest that I have used & you can buy a silver bezel for a couple of pounds). As for the gfx card if you have all this cash to throw around that means that you can also afford an nVidia 8800GTX which would be a further improvement - imo save money on e.g. the CPU & spend it on the gfx card. Broadband modem - normally these connect by ethernet into the LAN on the mobo. You can buy a basic external Belkin adsl modem/router 1 for about £10 if you need it & a better one probably £30-40. You should check with your ISP what they say though Networking - if you are only running 2 PCs then the Gigabyte has dual nics so you could connect your other PC into 1 & the ADSL modem/router into the other using internet sharing. Alternatively buy a modem/router with an inbuilt switch - if you can confirm that your old PC is only 10/100 it will save the expense of a gigabit router/switch as that will be the bottleneck in the network. If you only have 1 monitor, kb & mouse then you will want a KVM switch to save continuously swapping plugs between the 2 towers. If you can screw things up & plug them in you can build a PC (being able to read manuals also helps). The actual physical assembly is pretty easy, tidying it up (hiding cables etc.) takes more time & installing the OS & software will probably take the longest. The advantage of doing it yourself is that you will learn, gain confidence & have a far better knowledge of your system which will make future upgrades easier.

worked OK for me the other night.