Building a new System for FSX.... Been a looong time

[Guest infsd]

Hi GuysI am getting back to flying after a looooong break. As you can see from the no. of posts and the joining date I couldnt do much flying from the day I joined AVSIM :(...My old system has given up on me so planning to build a new rig.I have seen a lot of threads about performance so I thorught...where else to ask for advice than here :-yellow1 The spec of the system I have in mind is given below. Case Aplus Twin Engine CaseCase P/S Corsair HX Series 620WMotherBoard Asus Maximus Extreme - Intel X38 DDR3 ORMotherBoard Asus Maximus Formula SE - X38 -DDR2CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - G0 SteppingMemory Corsair Twin3X2048-1333C9DHX OR Memory Corsair XMS2 DHX TWIN-X DDR2Hard Drive Western Digital WD7500AAKSDVD+-RW Samsung SH-S203BCDR+-RW Samsung TS-H192C 48x BlackMonitor Samsung Pebble SM2232BW 22"Graphics BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX OC2 HDTV 768MB GDDR3 PCI-EInput Logitech EasyCall Keyboard MX 600 Wireless Laser MouseJoystick Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System I would appreciate if you could given your opinion on the parts I have chosen.Thanks in advance for the help.CheersPrav

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi Prav, that's a good description of 50%. ;-) Which operating system(s), which FS, etc? What kind of use, VFR or dense areas? AI, no AI? Will you overclock? Sorry for bombarding you with questions, Prav. IMHO, you only need a mega computer in dense areas with loads of AI and, for some miraculous reason, Tokio Bay. :-) Maybe this is so upon Davis' (wayupthere) request? Something to challenge his machine. :-) Cheers and kind regards Jaap

[Guest infsd]

Hi JaapThanks for the response.. No problem with the questions... :)I am planning to run Vista Ultimate 64 Bit. This is because the 32bit ones does not detect higher memory incase i decide to increase the mem to 4 GB. Flight sim is goin to be FSX. I do a lot of IFR but some time do VFRs as well. I do use 80-90% AI most of the time and fly in/out of busy airports like LHR, ORD etc with addon scenary.Apart from FSX, I also play a lot of FPSs like GRAW2. I will also use the system for running few servers which I use for work. This is why I chose to go with this spec. Maybe this is so upon Davis' (wayupthere) request? Something to challenge his machine. :-)I sure do hope to get some expert suggestions from him :)... but no intention for a challenge...:)CheersPrav

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi Prav, did you order already? If you didn't, you would probably be just as happy with a 8800GTS/640MB. With Vista, I would go for a X2900pro now, specially with a 1680x screen 'only' - current Geforces won't do DX10 too well because they lack a couple of functions. Radeons are better DX10.0 cards if you need to buy now. As you might have noted, there's going to be a step in DX and current DX10 hardware isn't DX10.1 compatible. DX10.1 hardware is expected for... Christmas. :-) The consternation was great when the DX10 vs DX10.1 infos surfaced, but it's old knowledge really. Make sure you get a PSU with an 8-pin PCI-e connector if you don't want to swap the power supply as well next time you swap your (hi-end) GPU. Personally, I would try to go 4GB from scratch with new systems - specially Vista. So, DDR2..? IMHO, these are bad times to buy hardware if somebody is seeking something with a reasonable lifetime. AMD's AM2 is a dead end street and Intel's Cores are basically a Pentium3 slap-up. Next year will (hopefully!) finally be the year of new CPU architectures. AMD's Barcelona and Intel's first CPUs with integrated memory controllers are on the menu. Yummy! :-) Hope this adds to thoughts, Prav. Kind regards Jaap

[Guest wayupthere]

Hi Prav, Jaap.Well Prav, what Jaap posted below I can go totally along with.Other than that,I'd opt for the following for max performance.Looking ahead, definatly go DDR3, so get the Max Extreme.And get yourself some nice XMS sticks, Other than that that is a nice setup that should/will do a very nice job.Nothing that looks out of place, so can't comment on anything ;)Regards,

[Guest infsd]

Hi Davis/JaapThanks for all the input.@Jaap: I haven't placed the order yet, I am having mixed feelings about the ATI cards... the reviews for the 2900XT doesn't seems to be much impressive compared to the Nvidia ones.. In theory the 2900 can have more RAM (1GB) and have some new technology in it... but does it really have good performance compared to a 8800 Ultra 768MB?? none of the review seems to show how they perform in FSX.. :(I am planning to place the order by this weekend and get the system up an running by next week :)@Davis: About the DDR3 RAM, Is there any latency time/MHz that will give me more performance?? I am not much of a hardware guys so a big Zero for me when it comes to these things.. Would appreciate your suggestion on this.CheersPrav

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi Prav, which reviews did you read? I hope it wasn't Tom's Hardware Guide. :-) My thoughts were just related to the point, that current 8800s are not as good under DX10.0 as ATI's offerings. I agree, the 2900XT isn't really worth it, but the temporary 2900pro is IMHO. This is the Vista GPU I would recommend for the moment being. 8800s are better at DX9, X2900s are better at DX10. AIM, just make sure you get a power suply with an 8-pin PCI-e connector - X2900s already require one. AFAIK, all future hi-end GPUs will want PSUs with such connectors. If you're going to use onboard sound, IMHO, stay away from DIY mainbaords with ADI soundchips --> terrible driver support. @ Davissan, hope you're OK. Lost my communication PC this morning. First post from the replacement... :-) Will email in a quiet moment. Kind regards Jaap

[Guest wayupthere]

Hey Prav,Well if your not intending to overclock, regular DDR3 800Mhz should suffice, sells reasonably cheap too. If you intend to overclock, then go with 1066 and up. Est.Peak Tranfer RateDDR3 800 - 6.40 GB/sDDR3 1066 - 8.53 GB/sDDR3 1333 - 10.67 GB/sDDR3 1600 - 12.80 GB/s What i do strongly suggest, is that you get Low Latency DIMMS, and be sure if more than one stick, get matching pairs.@Jaap,Uhhoh what happend? .. Yeah no problem.. ill wait your mail, whenever you have time no hurries..