Hi GentlemenI'm going to put a new FSX system together. Some of you have a lot more knowledge then I do, when it comes to matching up a rig. So I'm going to take adavantage of your wisdom.I've decided on the mb and the cpuASUS Rampage III Extreme ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 4PCI-E16 PCI-E4 CrossFire SLI SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X 6 Core LGA1366 Gulftown 3.33GHZ 12MB ProcessorIf you guys could help me out with the ram and the rest it would be greatly appreciated.thanksFloyd

Hi GentlemenI'm going to put a new FSX system together. Some of you have a lot more knowledge then I do, when it comes to matching up a rig. So I'm going to take adavantage of your wisdom.I've decided on the mb and the cpuASUS Rampage III Extreme ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 4PCI-E16 PCI-E4 CrossFire SLI SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X 6 Core LGA1366 Gulftown 3.33GHZ 12MB ProcessorIf you guys could help me out with the ram and the rest it would be greatly appreciated.thanksFloyd

The Ram, I am not sure, but as for the video card, a water cooled EVGA 480 GTX FTW would be a match for FSX. SLI or Crossfire is not helpful for FSX.Get it right here!

Well, I went with your recomendation for the graphics cardI ordered: -EVGA 1536MB, GeForce GTX 480 Hydro Copper FTW-ASUS Rampage III Extreme ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 4PCI-E16 PCI-E4 CrossFire SLI SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard -Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X 6 Core LGA1366 Gulftown 3.33GHZ 12MB Processor-Corsair HX1000W CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX 20/24PIN ATX 80A 12V Afc Modular Power Supply W/ 140MM Fan-Corsair XMS3 Dominator GT CMG6GX3M3A2000C8 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-2000 CL 8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit -Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drivealso ordered a Swiftech liquid cooling systemI think i'll wait another year on the SSD drivesI have put together about a dozen systems over the years, this will be my first high-end liquid cooled one.

Floyd -Being a non techie, I don't give advice on hardware forums, but it looks like you are planning a single hard drive. I believe that conventional wisdom is that FSX likes to reside on it's own dedicated hard drive. From what I have read over and over, here, is that the second hard drive is more often than not the WD Velociraptor 10,000 rpm drive. Fwiw.Bruce

That RAM you chose is less than top-shelf, considering everything else listed for your build. You should really consider replacing it with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820226121.Consider this: the latency of cas 8 1600 is 10 ns, for cas 6 1600 it's 7.5 ns.That's 25% better and for FSX/gaming latency is as important as throughput.

That RAM you chose is less than top-shelf, considering everything else listed for your build. You should really consider replacing it with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820226121.Consider this: the latency of cas 8 1600 is 10 ns, for cas 6 1600 it's 7.5 ns.That's 25% better and for FSX/gaming latency is as important as throughput.

Sorry for sounding like a noob, but is the "ddr3-1600 6-8-6-24" faster then the ddr3-2000 8-8-8-24?

Well, I went with your recomendation for the graphics cardI ordered: -EVGA 1536MB, GeForce GTX 480 Hydro Copper FTW-ASUS Rampage III Extreme ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 4PCI-E16 PCI-E4 CrossFire SLI SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard -Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X 6 Core LGA1366 Gulftown 3.33GHZ 12MB Processor-Corsair HX1000W CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX 20/24PIN ATX 80A 12V Afc Modular Power Supply W/ 140MM Fan-Corsair XMS3 Dominator GT CMG6GX3M3A2000C8 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-2000 CL 8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit -Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drivealso ordered a Swiftech liquid cooling systemI think i'll wait another year on the SSD drivesI have put together about a dozen systems over the years, this will be my first high-end liquid cooled one.

That is an absolutely great choice. You have just bought the very best model of the very best single graphics card in the world! You are going to love it!Stephen

Sorry for sounding like a noob, but is the "ddr3-1600 6-8-6-24" faster then the ddr3-2000 8-8-8-24?

Lower CAS (6-8-6) is better for FSX than ddr3 running at 2000mhz, at CAS 8.However the DDR2000 stuff would give you some OCing headroom if you were REALLY pushing your CPU to the limits.Still I'd get the lower CAS latency stuff

Well... dropped the Corsair ram and changed to the "Mushkin Enhanced Ridgeback 6GB 3X2GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 CL6-8-6-24 240PIN Triple Channel Memory Kit".Also after looking at the prices of the Velocirapter's, I decided to try out a "OCZ Vertex 2 Extended 120GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD" for my FSX drive. I recieved the gtx 480 today, boy does she look sweet.

Just picked up the last of my components. Starting the build :(

SSD Vertex 2 for FSX sweet!!!!!Everything else, is now a great match.

Well...I got her all together, OC her to 4.3ghz, installed FSX, did all my tweaks which were minimal, installed orbx PNW and Vancouver+All I can say is WoW!fps set to 30, Blew through Vancouver with the FA18 at mach-2 and I couldnt believe it, couldnt even see the scenery load, it was just there. Flight was so smooth and fluid, I waited a long time to get FSX to run like this.Now to spend the rest of the evening installing the rest of my addons.Floyd

Congrats!I'm really looking forward to upgrading to two Vertex 2. I'm hoping for a price drop.Please share the final set-up. OS. What drive? FSX. What drive etc.Thanks.Jose