Using the drivers on the CD will work fine but will be at least a couple of months out of date, definately best to fetch the latest ones from nvidia.com that might help performance a bit.

If the Windows device manager is reporting the correct speed (not just the 2800 ID tag, but the actual 2.08Ghz) then that rules that one out.

If its just LFS and no other game that hasn't shown a marked improvement, perhaps it'd be worth trying a fresh new install of LFS. Would rule out any LFS-specific settings at least.

I've had packages come through marked as a $180 gift as "toy car parts" before with no fees..

I would guess the destination country will be responsible for taxes. Like when you import goods from the US into the UK, you have to pay UK VAT & customs fees (if the silly plonker didn't mark it as a gift ), but you don't pay the local sales tax from where you purchased in the US.

Couple of things to check - latest drivers from Nvidia.com, and removed the old ATI drivers cleanly?

Is the CPU set to the correct FSB? The amount of Athlon XP machines I've worked on in the past that were set to 100mhz when it should have been 133 or 166mhz..

Do you have Hardware Vertex Shading enabled in LFS? Without that enabled you'll get a performance hit. And do you have any anti aliasing or antisoptic filtering enabled in the video card drivers? They effect the framerate quite a bit.

Another thing to check is for any background processes that might be keeping the CPU busy - ran a spyware & A/V scan recently?

Onboard sound is a nonissue these days, I've not used a dedicated sound card in years and haven't noticably suffered because of it.

TBH you should be getting very good performance, my old system was an Athlon 3000, 1GB Ram & 6600GT AGP card, and that rarely dropped below 40fps on a full grid, and averaged 70-80fps while racing.

The G25 does have a H pattern. Internally it doesn't look like it, to facilitate being a dual mode shifter but it does the job and feels like one.

Sorry but quality don't come cheap, the Logi setup is the cheapest commerical one you can buy right now. Worth every penny too IMO. If you can't justify forking out the £160 or so, it can be done on the cheap. Pick up a Logitech Wingman FF joystick (£15 on ebay), take the handle off, put a universal fit gearknob on (£10 for a cheap one), use the FFshifter software found on RSC, and bingo you have a pretty nice shifter. For a clutch pick up a cheap wheel like a MS Sidewinder from ebay (Under £10 total normally), and use the pedals for a clutch/handbrake alongside your current ones. If your looking for a main wheel/pedal set as well a DFP can be had for £50 or under these days. So thats £85 to set it up. Or you could double that figure and get a much higher quality setup with 2 year warranty, and a lot better resale value in the long run.

Not really..the cheapest option in production at the min is the Logitech G25 as far as I know..but you can very easily use the pedals off a 2nd wheel next to your main set, and use one of them as a clutch. Not as nice but does the job fine. Pedals from an MS Sidewinder work great for this, and it sells for under a tenner on Ebay.

Didn't much like it on the desk. Always used my Act Labs one next to the wheel as it was angled (bit like the shifter in a lot of people carriers), but the Logi one works better lower down. Not pratical for everyone to do but does feel nicer.

Unfortunately both the Sony's and Technics are ruled out by price - both seem to be in the £80-£100 range, which is more than I want to spend. My home stereo didn't cost much more than that (Panasonic AK520).

Bob, you have a PM about those Beyerdynamic's.

Thanks for the advice & link, looks like a good selection there. I'll be using them pretty much all the time in a deskchair so no need for earplug things or portable headphones. I don't need perfect quality sound when on the bus, they're just for gaming when I don't want to disturb other people.

I think closed backs would be better for me because they'd contain the sound better..is there much quality difference between open/back ones?

Any particular reason your thinking of flogging the Beyerdynamic's?

You can mod the DFP quite extensively if you choose to, either via aftermarket bits from FREX or a bit of DIY.

For the pedals, try sticking a bit of dense foam under the brake pedal. Makes it noticably firmer. If you get spiking issues with them (like not reporting full throttle, or having it jump between 0-10%) have it all apart, secure it in as good as you can, and coat moving bits in a teflon grease. Didn't have mine apart ever again after doing that.

For the actual wheel..its easy to fit a real car steering wheel to, and you can also fit a better sequential gearknob to it if you want..2 min job if you have one floating about.

I don't mind spending £50-£60 on a quality set as long as they're going to last me a few years. I'm fully aware quality doesn't come cheap

TBH I thought most slightly insane people didn't sleep much and could be found on forums at this sort of hour. Oh well

I'm looking into purchasing some decent headphones, primarily for gaming use on my PC & PS2 when everyones in bed, and was wondering if anybody could recommend a good set? Main requirements would be having better sound quality than my £8 ones, good cable length (so I don't have to sit right next to the telly for the PS2, seen wireless ones but no idea if they're any good or not), and not too pricey - around £50 or so is my upper limit. I've heard of directionional ones that apparently "fake" surround sound, are these any good? Any and all advise/suggestions appreciated.

Cheers.

I remeber reading that the performance was also modified to match that of the modeled car and not that of the demo car it replaced. Something like a LFSTweak too powerful to be suitable for release.

I voted Blackwood..because thats what I mostly raced it on, because thats where everyone raced when I was into it. But I haven't driven it seriously in a long time, much prefer the tin tops since I started using a H shifter.

Using a 7600GT here, very pleased with its performance espically for the money. Better drivers than ATI too.

FXO sounds brill, sound very fitting for it too. Can't wait for its release.

I completely forgot about the hard points on everything, might have a little experiment later.

Indeed, which is why its unlikely the motors are the cause of the problem. But its still possible.

Who knows, maybe its just caused by a loose motor or a bad gear mesh on one of them.

Perhaps if your driving was smoother you might go faster I don't have problems with the pedals moving side to side but I wedged a plastic container between them and the wall to stop them moving back.

My chair is on wheels, on wood flooring. I think its thanks to the kebab house down the road it doesn't move much. That and having the wheels sideways so its harder to move backwards.

Had to wedge the pedals in as well, but they don't move at all now.

I didn't much like the demo - it ran pretty well on my PC with no lag or framerate issues, but TBH the cars felt crap. Not that they were slow, but you have no real sense of speed (apparently increasing the FOV to 70-80 fixes this), both cars sounded like someones tapping a can of beans under the bonnet half the time, and leaving out the A.I for the demo was a big mistake without giving it multiplayer. And the physics..meh close enough for fun, not in the same league as LFS but I don't think anyone expected it to be.

IMO every game aimed at online play these days should have a multiplayer demo available, perhaps not as generous as LFS's but I don't spend money on driving sims without trying them online first one way or another. If I want offline I'd rather play NFS than hotlap.

I really hope its not an accurate representative of the final game, it crashed when I went for 6th in the BMW (it only has a 5+1spd, but its a habbit to reach for 6th). The installer was bodged, and who decided its better to set the front/rear up on different pages?

True enough - in addition to turning much lower rpm's the motors no doubt use much harder brushes than a typical RC motor as well, but I don't think the motor can be ruled out as the cause of the problem until someone has theirs apart and tries to figure out what causes it.

Why wouldn't the motors be broken in? Very doubtful from the factory but the brushes will wear slightly when first used and this is when they "break in" so to speak.

They do..the face of the brushes in the motor can have a higher resistance turning one way than the other, if they were seated primarily turning one way or if they had serrations for breaking in that were directional. Which can cause a rough feeling when turning the other way. I've seen this effect in many RC motors which are very similar (except for 2 pole vs 5 pole). Why do you think an electric motor arc's more when spinning "backwards"? The brush doesn't make as good contact with the comm. Using a brushless motor they have no directional preference but that would increase the cost, and the complexity of the wheel software.

Mines been louder to the left from day 1 pretty much. It being louder doesn't bother me too much - I put it down to the spring loaded gear, or the 5 pole motors going backwards, but it vibrates a lot more which means if I have keys or my watch etc on the desk they make a hell of a rattle too.

Contemplating having it apart and tightening everything up a bit - but don't want to risk voiding the Logi warranty on the wheel just yet.

Wish I could live off 6hrs sleep a night all the time, if I get less than 7hrs for more than a few days I have trouble motivating myself out of bed