I am in the market for a new computer to run FSX

[nigelgrant]

My dealer has proposed the following setup with options for the motherboard and video card, and comments would be very welcome. I think I should be over-clocking to get reasonable performance but the setup is a bit pricier than I really want, $2200 and $2500, and any suggestions on cost paring would also be appreciated.

I have studied Nick’s treatise “Topic: i7 Preliminary Thoughts and Suggestions around FSX” at the SimForums; this is dated November 2008 but many of the comments still seem relevant. There has not been much change in the CPU scene in the interim. Going to the I7-940 still seems to involve quite a cost leap.


INTEL I7 920

ASUS Rampage II Extreme, LGA1366
or
ASUS P6TD Deluxe, LGA1366

3X 2GB RAM KINGSTON 1600mhZ

WD 150GB SATA 10K
2X 500GB HDD SATA RAID

NVIDIA GTX 275 w/896MB
or
NVIDIA GTX 260 w/896MB

Evga Edition Cooler Master 750W PS

CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus

WIN 7 64BIT HOME PRE

I have read some of the posts below and get even more confused! Should I still be considering a Duo core, looks like I could save some money, but Quad seems to be the future?


Nigel
Vancouver


My Current System:

Intel Core2 Duo E6400
Gigabyte GA 965G DS3 mobo
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950XT video card PCI-e 512MB
4GB Transcend 800Mhz DDR2 RAM
Maxtor 80GB 7200rpm hard drive
Maxtor 200GB 7200rpm hard drive
Western Digital 250GB 7200rpm hard drive
LG w2453 LCD monitor
CHProducts USB yoke and pedals
Windows XP Home edition with SP2
DirectX 9.0(c)
FSX SP2
Silverstone Olympia 650W power supply with 54A on 12v single rail
Five case fans – three intake, two exhaust

[mrmaestrom]

Looks good. If you want to save some money then there's some really simple solutions.

• Get the regular P6T, not the Deluxe, you'll still be able to overclock just as far.
• Don't get the Raptor drive. No doubt it faster than a regular 7200RPM drive but I don't think it will make a huge difference, not enough to justify the extra cost over a mainstream drive anyway.
• Pick a lower wattage PSU. A good 550W power supply is capable of running dual video cards, so there's isn't much point getting a 750W model. I'd suggest an Antec True Power New 550W or Corsair 550VX. Or better yet, if you can just keep your current Silverstone PSU.

I'd go for the GTX275 since it isn't that much more expensive than GTX260, and since you're getting such a good CPU you might as well team it with a more powerful card.

Mike

[djt]

A good 550W power supply is capable of running dual video cards, so there's isn't much point getting a 750W model.

Unless nigelgrant decides to stick with the 650Watt SilverStone that's in the current machine I wouldn't recommend anything less then a quality 750Watt PSU, not if you want some sort of upgrade path later on that is.

[nigelgrant]

Thank you for all you responses and I must apologise for not acknowledging these sooner but the Christmas Season caught up with me and I did not have any time to think about new computers.

I am probably going to try a different dealer this time, the new one specialises in gaming and is experienced in over-clocking which provides me with some degree of re-assurance, and will provide the unit over-clocked. The new dealer is also recommending a more powerful cooler, the Coolermaster V8.

I have also decided to get away from the 10,000rpm hard drive since it doesn’t seem to provide any significant improvement, for a significant extra cost. I am now heading towards 3x500GB drives – one for programs and the other two in RAID back-up array for all my data.

He is also recommending an ATI 5770 or 5850 or 5870 video card. However, my present thoughts are to stay with NVIDIA (probably GTX275 or 285) since discussions on the forums suggest today’s ATI cards do not handle clouds and bad weather nearly as well as the NVIDIA. (Quite a contradiction to about five years ago when I switched from NVIDIA to ATI since ATI were the best performers in clouds!)

So my final line-up will probably be as follows unless someone raises some important concerns:

INTEL I7 920 quad core system over-clocked to 4MHz

MSI X58 Pro-E Intel X58 chipset (integrated audio and network) mobo

3X 2GB RAM Patriot Viper II 1600mhZ DDR3

1X 500GB HDD SATA for programs
2X 500GB HDD SATA RAID for data

NVIDIA GTX 275 w/896MB

LG DVD +/- RW drive
LG Lightscribe DVD +/- RW drive

3 ½” floppy

Cooler Master Silent Pro 700W PS

CoolerMaster V8 cooler

Coolermaster Centurion5 case

WIN7 64BIT HOME PREMIUM

Cost $1900Can plus tax

Nigel
Vancouver

[mrmaestrom]

Looks pretty good. I don't think the RAID is a good idea though, you're better off getting an external hard drive, since, while the RAID mirroring would be good in the instance of a hard drive failing, there are plenty more things that can happen such as a power surge or virus that could take out all the drives. If you have an external one it won't be susceptible (or at least a lot less susceptible) to those things.

Mike

[Paxx]

...

INTEL I7 920 quad core system over-clocked to 4MHz ...

Your setup looks good. I would however attempt a more aggressive overclock. FSX performance may be dismal running at 4 megahertz.