New sim computer on the way.

Good day from PEI Canada,

 

The Alienware in my signature suffered a motherboard failure (so Dell says), so under my warranty they are building me a complete new system. It seems they cannot get a motherboard for my system.

I will be adding, once it gets here, a second NVMe M.2 1t and 1 SSD 1t.

 

For now I am going to live with the 16G of DDR5 until the price drops a little.

 

This is quite an upgrade from the original and is being covered 100% by Alienware.

 

Looking forward to getting it here about the middle of December.

 

Hal

Edited December 2, 2021 by PEIRascal
Fixing images.

What an awesome failure! In all seriousness I'm not surprised Dell can no longer source their proprietary motherboard for a 9th-gen Intel chipset. What I am interested in is what FPS difference you will see in performance of that 12-gen i7 coupled with an RTX 3080 Ti assuming you keep the same previous settings (and monitor resolution). From what I've read so far DDR5 memory offers no real world noticeable gaming performance improvements regarding FPS over DDR4.

 

Having done a recent high end build myself just for MSFS I'm looking to buy a pre-build mid range for my nephew with an RTX 3060, and hence the interest in what your former system's performance was with an RTX 2070 (they are essentially equal in most game benchmarks). I would build him one but of course 3-series GPUs cannot be found out there in retail stock/price which is going to be our new normal well into next year if not beyond even after the RTX 4-series are introduced.

Edited December 3, 2021 by N069NT

As long as your nephew stays at 1440p or less, he should have plenty of performance. At 1920x1200, and a mix of ultra and high settings, I am seeing

Thanks for the comments,

 

I have never really been a FPS watcher. I go by what I see on the monitor. I believe I had it locked at 30 fps but cannot confirm that now.

 

I was running with 3 monitors attached. One for the sim (3 if FSX), one had Little Navmap and Google earth Pro, and the third had my streaming software and any other windows from the Sim that I had open.

 

When I was streaming I had the following running on the computer:

1) The Flight sim - 2020 or FSX, (When running FSX I used the 3 monitors for FSX. Center and right monitor is what I flew on, the left monitor was what I streamed. Switching between cockpit and outside view. Little Navmap was networked to a second computer.)

 

2) OBS streaming software.

 

3) Little Navmap

 

4) Google earth Pro.

 

5) Discord

 

I believe that when streaming I was showing about 35 - 50% CPU usage, and 100% GPU usage.

 

I will report in this thread about the performance of the new system. A good friend of mine, who was and is one of the testers, tells me the system should give me some great surprises. He really likes the 3080 ti and the DDR5 memory.

 

Right now I am thinking that all drives in the new system will be SSD. No mechanical drives. I have room for 2 NVME drives, 1 3.5, and 1 2.5. The system comes with a 7200RPM drive that I am thinking to swap out for a 1T SSD. Good thing is I have all this hardware here out of the old system.

 

Thanks again for the comments. I will be reporting back again.

 

Hal

I wish you luck with Alienware, because when I ordered mine through them, they tried to pull a bait and switch and I ended up cancelling and going with a custom built system. Please keep us posted for I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they end up A: Cancelling your order through an email, and then B: Calling you to make changes. Let us know how you make out.

I wish you luck with Alienware, because when I ordered mine through them, they tried to pull a bait and switch and I ended up cancelling and going with a custom built system. Please keep us posted for I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they end up A: Cancelling your order through an email, and then B: Calling you to make changes. Let us know how you make out.

 

My original unit arrived as ordered 20 months ago. The unit coming now is a no charge warranty replacement.

 

The only problem I have with Dell is there high prices for upgrade parts. Other than that they have been great when issues arise. I purchased the extended warranty and premium support package. Seemed a bit pricey at the time but looking back now it was a bargain.

 

And I will definitely be keeping this thread up to date.

 

Hal

That is quite the premium replacement system. Assuming it all comes as promised you will be flying along very nicely.

 

Pat

Update on the computer.

 

The new sim computer is up and running. Had my first flight on it last night.

 

For those that mentioned it, the computer arrived equipped exactly as promised. Here is what I did before firing it up:

1) It shipped with a 256g NVMe m.2 drive for the operation system. I had a 1t NVMe m.2 that I was using in the last computer that I removed and reformatted for a data drive. I installed this in the 2nd m.2 drive slot to install my apps on.

2) I removed the 7200rpm 1t HD and replaced it with a 1t Sata SSD. (Will use it elsewhere)

3) I installed a 2nd 1t SSD in the available expansion spot.

4) I will be installing externally a 1t SSD

 

This gives me a computer that is completely solid state.

 

Today I set up the computer and installed MSFS Premium Version. After all items installed I went for a GA flight. I actually flew the last flight plan I used before the failure. Was a very enjoyable time, as I had not flown since Nov 11/21.

 

On good thing I can say is that I did not lose any of my control settings (I have 4 controllers connected plus the keyboard and mouse.) or any entries in my log book. Since this data is stored on the cloud it was still there waiting. This sim even found my Manual cache stored on one of the SSD's.

 

I have to say that Dell, Alienware, looked after me. It was somewhat longer that I expected, but the result is everything I could expect and much more on top.

 

For those who commented, thank you for your interest and contributions. Happy camper here back in the air again.

 

Hal

Hal,

 

Glad to see they did not stiff you on the computer. Hope you have the best of luck with it and enjoy your new rig!

Hal,

 

Glad to see they did not stiff you on the computer. Hope you have the best of luck with it and enjoy your new rig!

 

Thanks. It appears to be working fine. Will know better after a week or two. Did a stream on twitch tonight to start balancing the audio for my streams.

 

I have a minor bit of screen tearing when panning inside the cockpit. Working on eliminating that now. Found a few suggestions that worked for others, so hopefully one will work for me also.

 

Merry Christmas

 

Hal

I now have MSFS and FSX up and running.

So I guess you all do know that the company that makes Alienware was purchased by Dell several years ago...

Yes.

Is yours the case that hinges open? Looks like a big white TicTac?

 

That is a great spec for a replacement, one of those odd situations where a failure resulted in a win! The game will run awesomely. Even more significant is that you snagged a good gfx card in this day & age of global GPU silicon shortages.

 

I need to get on the case, this old PC is 13.1 years old.

 

Enjoy the virtual flying! :)