New gaming rig - appreciate your thoughts.

I'm in the market for a new gaming rig, with a budget of £1200. Spent the last hour or so on Fierce PC, customising and tweaking and I think I've settled on the below:

 

CPU: Intel i7 7700k 4.2GHz

Mobo: Gigabyte Aorus Z270X-Gaming K5

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz DDR4

SSD: 250GB Samsung 970 EVO M.2

Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240 AIO

PSU: Aerocool Integrator 700W 80+

Box: CiT Blaze Gaming Chassis

 

I'm also considering the below spec, which offers a saving of £200 and has the below hardware differences:

 

Mobo: Asus Prime Z270 P Kaby Lake CrossFire ATX

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz DDR4

SSD: 250GB Samsung 860 Evo

 

 

I'll be exclusively flying the NGX using the boxed version of FSX on Windows 7 Ultimate, but apart from FSX, I only use windows for email and browsing.

 

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this spec, specifically whether the more expensive setup would provide enough performance to warrant the extra cost, and whether 16GB of RAM is overkill for FSX/Windows 7.

 

Thanks!

The computer looks good except that PSU. I never heard of that brand. You want a well-known good reliable PSU. If it goes out it can and will take your whole PC with it. Look for Antec, Coolermaster or even Thermaltake. I use Antec myself and haven't had any issues with them.

 

16GB of RAM for FSX is indeed overkill. In fact, FSX is only a 32 bit application so it can only handle 3 GB of RAM. After that you will get an OOM (Out Of Memory) error. Read my Sig on solving that. 8 GB would be a nice number if all you do is Sim, email and Internet. Keeping in mind any third-party add-ons you might have running like LittleNavMap, AS16, etc, etc. Those two take about 200 MBs of RAM a piece alone.

 

The GTX1050TI is more than enough for FSX. FSX is not driven by the GPU like modern games are. FSX and FS2004 are CPU driven. If you do plan on playing other games, then the GTX1060 would be good to have. I use the GTX1050TI myself.

 

Another point on RAM. You should check the motherboard's QVL (Qualified Vendor List) on compatible RAM. It may or may not make a difference. But in the long run you'll be better off in case of problems and having to do RMAs and all that. Go to the motherboard manufacturer's website and look for the QVL list on that motherboard or just Google it. Your search terms will be, "motherboard name + QVL."

 

You really don't need liquid cooling. The difference between that and air cooled is like 4 or 5 degrees if that. I personally don't want water anywhere near my investment that I can't easily replace. Regardless of what others say. Especially given the marginal temp differences. I use a Cooler Master Evo 212 CPU cooler and it keeps my CPU pretty damn cool. When I fly I average around 45/50 Celsius.

 

Oh! I have that same Gigabyte motherboard! I have had no issues with it. I use the BIOS version right before the other versions that fixed that CPU vulnerability. I don't use that version because A) you also need the Windows patch, B) the update can slow your computer down, and C) the vulnerability largely affects cloud computing servers.

 

Final thought. When you install FSX don't install it to the programs folder. Install to the root of C drive. So the path would be C:\FSX. Reason being is because the programs folder is protected and can cause havoc with add-ons.

If you are planning on a lot of scenery, you may want to get a larger ssd. Some scenery could go on a second ssd. But for example Orbx needs to be installed in the fsx folder. (could be moved out later, but complicated. Best get the larger ssd right away.)

Thanks both for your replies. I've checked the QVL and the Corsair RAM appears to be compatible.

 

SSD wise 250GB always sufficed on my old PC, but I have room in my budget so 500MB certainly might be worth having for the future.

 

Having air cooling, less RAM and a more basic GPU, would leave me a little more budget for the CPU and motherboard, which as you said is more important for FSX. However, I find the mindblowing number of different processors and variants a little confusing.

 

Based on benchmark tests, the i7 8700K is the faster processor despite its 3.7GHz clock speed compared to the 7700K's 4.2GHz, presumably because it has more cores. But I guess the tests are more relevant for processes that use multiple cores, so as far as FSX is concerned, would it be wise to stick with the CPU that has the faster clock speed?

 

I've taken on board your advice regarding the PSU - will probably go for a Corsair model as I had in my last rig. And I always have FSX in the C drive, it just makes everything simpler!

 

Thanks again for your advice :)

Have a look here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

 

Since FSX is single threaded, that is the list you want to look at. The 7700k will perform very well, and it's actually the CPU I want to get to replace my i5 6600k even though the 6600k does a great job, I just want to get more single threaded ability that I can muster.

 

The chief thing about CPUs is not the clock speed, but rather their architecture. You could take my very old Pentium 4 @ 3.0 GHz CPU and compare it to my i5 6600k @ 3.8 GHz. If you think it's faster because of a measly 800 MHz bump you'd be wrong. The i5 is faster do to the architecture. That's why that single threaded Passmark list is arranged from fast to slow, and it has nothing to do with CPU clock cycles.

 

Corsair is a good brand. So that will suffice.

 

If you went with a CPU that's newer than a 7700k then you need to use Windows 10 as that will require a 300 series motherboard and the motherboard manufacturer will only have Win 10 drivers. Those newer CPUs would be called Coffee Lake. The 7700k is Kaby Lake. A Kaby Lake CPU will run under Win 7, except you need a patch from Github in order to get updates from MS. Pretty damn dumb and MS tries to get everyone to use Win 10. If of course you are already using Win 10 then you can get a Coffee Lake CPU for a little more single thread ability, though I don't think it will be much compared to the 7700k.

 

Yes, install FSX outside of the programs folder on C drive directly.

If you went with a CPU that's newer than a 7700k then you need to use Windows 10 as that will require a 300 series motherboard and the motherboard manufacturer will only have Win 10 drivers.

 

I misspoke. I just found out that there are in fact 300 series motherboards that have Windows 7 drivers. Though I'm sure there's not many of them. So it looks like you could indeed go with a Coffee Lake 8th or 9th generation Intel CPU and Windows 7. But as I mentioned, if you want to get M$ updates you'll need that patch from Github. I don't know what it's called, but someone else here might know, and I can look it up if you need it.

Not having to upgrade to W10 was a must, W7 is perfect as a gaming platform. I think I was being little naive when customising a PC for FSX only - as my 12 year old pointed out I wasn't taking into consideration my obsession with Lara Croft, and apparently the new Tomb Raider is a bit of a resources hog! He also politely pointed out that I'm not the only one in the household who likes gaming and despite my boys loving their Wiii, I think they have a hankering for the new Star Wars games.

 

So with that in mind, I stuck with the 7700k (mostly because the 8700K was out of my price range) and went for the best setup within my budget - something that would run FSX nicely, but that should also cope with games that don't rely mostly on CPU power. Here are the final main specs:

 

i7 7700K

Aorus Z270X Gaming K5

GTX1060 6GB

Corsair vengeance 3200mhz 16GB

 

With all the other parts in came in at just under £1200. I'm not planning on upgrading again for a long time, so fingers crossed the spec will keep us all happy for a good few years. I also went for a Corsair PSU and cooling as they lasted well in my current rig

 

Will report back on how FSX performs, both at factory speed and with some careful overclocking.

 

Thanks again for your help!

You're welcome. Like I mentioned though you will not be able to use Microsft updates with a Kaby Lake CPU and Win 7. It's BS, but that's what I have read. In order to accomplish that you need a patch/hack over at Github.

 

 

Here it is: https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc

 

I haven't used it, but I may need to when I finally stop procrastinating and get an 7700k myself.

 

And I say this all the time on this forum. Do NOT install FSX to the programs folder. Create a folder on C drive and name it FSX. Install there. All you do is point the FSX installer to that folder. Your path would be C:\FSX.

 

This is exactly what I have done.