Hi, im seriously thinking of upgrading my current computer (intel Core 2 Duo e8500, MSI P45 NEO-F (low/midend), HD4870 1gb) with a new GPU, Mobo, CPU, PSU and case. So pretty much everything is being changed.These are the items im looking at: Intel Quad i7 930/950, Corsair Corsair HX 850W PSU, Antec Nine Hundred Midi Tower, ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 Intel X58, ZOTAC AMP! ZT-40102-10P GeForce GTX 480So, is this a good rig or should i change something? I'd like to keep it at the cost it is right now (about 1500 euros, which is actually more than my current comp costed 2 years ago) Is the motherboard stable/good for OC? Is the case cool etc, would love to hear your opinions on this.Although I've opened up my current computer and inserted HDD's changed CPU and applied thermal paste on the CPU and GPU i have no experience in dealing with modular PSU's inserting a mobo into a new case etc, what should i know before i build this computer? Im keeping the 4g ram, 2 HDD's and a soundcard from my old computer. Thanks in advance

you shouldnt reuse your ram because the i7 9xx series uses triple channel memory and not dual channel. Also use should get a case with better cable management than that one, you can get better cases for the money, for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216&cm_re=cm_690_ii-_-11-119-216-_-Product . Also, are you going to buy an aftermarket CPU cooler? Because the stock Intel heat sink wont keep the processor cool enough to do overclocking.

Thanks, after some more reading it is clear to me that i do indeed need to upgrade my ram aswell (damn this is getting expensive :Worried:) Yes, im thinking of purchasing the corsair H50, would this suffice?About the ram, what are some good bang for the buck ones if i want about 4g?Edit: i took a look at the case you recommended and im impressed, don't know why i went with the antec as my current is a CM as well :P Thanks

I recently built a similar setup; here are my thoughts.Go for the 950, unless you can find an awesome deal on a 930. The higher multiplier gives you more options when overclocking.Every motherboard manufacturer assumes that someone who gets an X58 processor is going to overclock the daylights out of the thing, so you shouldn't need to worry about how well it will handle an overclock. If you want to dig a little deeper, most manufacturers have forums on their websites, and that would be a good place to look and see what people are saying about a board. I also don't think you need one quite as expensive as the one you've chosen, but that all depends on how future-proof you want it to be and what all you plan to do with it.You could probably get away with a 750W PSU, but there's certainly nothing wrong with getting 850W. Good choice on going modular too; I have the 750W TX and now I wish I had spent the extra money on the HX so I wouldn't have had to mess with all the extra cables, haha.Don't waste your money on a GTX 480. If your primary use for this will be FSX, a 460 will be plenty since FS relies much more heavily on the processor. I've got everything maxed out in FSX (granted, with few add-ons), and my GPU came with a modest overclock at 715MHz. I'm able to get it up to 850MHz, but frankly there's just no need for it so I just keep it at the factory clock. That alone will knock about $300 (so I guess about €225) off the price. But if you plan to use it for other games which depend heavily on the GPU and want the performance of a 480, I'd recommend picking up two 460s and running them in SLI. Not only will that save you a bit of money, but benchmarks have consistently shown two 460s to outperform a single 480. If you did that, you'd be better off ignoring my recommendation on the 750W power supply, but it's something to think about.The H50 is solid for an air cooler. There are lots of good ones out there, and unless you plan on doing some crazy overclocking (in which case you'd want water cooling anyway), the H50 will suit your needs just fine.As for RAM, I feel like that's something you don't have to upgrade right now if you don't want to. A triple channel processor should run just fine with dual channel memory; it's just optimized for three DIMMs instead of two. What do you have now? But if you were to bite the bullet, Mushkin and Corsair both come highly recommended and are priced reasonably for what you get.As for putting the actual pieces together, there are lots of good guides out there. A quick google search will give you several; just pick the one that you can follow the easiest.Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info Mike. My current ram is Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 4096MB CL5 yeah after looking at some (omg cant get the underscore away) reviews you seem to be right about the 2x460 topping the single 480, what i am afraid of though is how it will run in FSX. Although i do play other games i want this rig to be able to handle JFK (pmdg aircraft) with custom scenery maxed out in the mid 20's (im used to having mid teens in most major airports as it is) but maybe im asking for too much with todays computers? I have heard both bad things about SLI/CF in fsx, but at the same time many people seem unimpressed with the 480 after the long wait. Anyway im rambling, what i'd like is the most fps for the buck in fsx, and if the rig runs well in other games is a bonus.What would the difference be performance wise between a single 480 and 2 460's in fsx?

Thanks for the info Mike. My current ram is Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 4096MB CL5 yeah after looking at some (omg cant get the underscore away) reviews you seem to be right about the 2x460 topping the single 480, what i am afraid of though is how it will run in FSX. Although i do play other games i want this rig to be able to handle JFK (pmdg aircraft) with custom scenery maxed out in the mid 20's (im used to having mid teens in most major airports as it is) but maybe im asking for too much with todays computers? I have heard both bad things about SLI/CF in fsx, but at the same time many people seem unimpressed with the 480 after the long wait. Anyway im rambling, what i'd like is the most fps for the buck in fsx, and if the rig runs well in other games is a bonus.What would the difference be performance wise between a single 480 and 2 460's in fsx?

You'll definitely need new RAM; DDR2 won't work with that board or any other that will support an i7 9xx.I honestly can't tell you much about that scenery (although I'm sure others can), but as a rule of thumb FSX benefits most from CPU, then RAM, then the video card, in that order. I can't speak on the performance of a 480 vs. 2x 460s in FSX, but my guess would be that the difference in performance is minimal. If you're looking for the best bang for the buck, I'd start with just a single 460, get everything set up the way I liked it, then see how I like the performance. You may very well find that one 460 is all you need. I have fairly detailed freeware add-ons at PAJN and CYXY (the biggest airports I fly to, but certainly smaller than KJFK), and with my setup the frames usually hold steady in the 20s and 30s near the airports in the Aerosoft Beaver. Away from the airports, it's more like 50 or 60, and that's when flying low and slow with mountains all around.Also, with the money you'd save right off the bat, you could invest in a good water cooling system, which should let you push the processor up in the neighborhood of 4.4GHz. I would think that would benefit FSX more than a $500 GPU. I was always afraid of water cooling though... something about putting water in a box full of electronics just didn't sit well with me, haha.

haha yeah, i saw some pictures where people had put some kind of cement like isolation all over their motherboard to shield of the condensation...Anyway with 2 EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1GB PhysX CUDA (Its a swedish website sry) i was able to afford 8gb of Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 4GB CL9and still get under the previous 1600 euro. You are probably right about the 460 being close to 480 in performance, that fsx is primarily CPU dependant is something i've heard as well, numerous times. Could you/or someone else take a look at the GPU i linked, again sorry for it being in swedish but i guess newegg etc have them as well. These come with 1gb ram (so not a decrease compared to my 4870) and with a bios update the clock is at 720 mhz.

I've read numerous reviews about the heatsink on that particular card being kind of noisy. I use the Gigabyte model, and it's silent until you runs the fans at full speed (and by then, the engines are going to be drowning it out anyway). I originally wanted the MSI, but it was sold out at the time; it's also widely praised for being quiet.Based on the Newegg reviews, though, I'd steer clear of the Gigabytes for now, because it seems they've had a bad run of them lately. Guess I was lucky to avoid that (hopefully, anyway).Also, I don't think you'll see much diffference between 6GB and 8GB of RAM, so I'd suggest getting a triple-channel kit instead. While it'll certainly run OK with dual-channel, it was designed for triple-channel, so I would think that the lower amount would be offset by the fact that it's running with what it was made to use best. Of course, you can always get 9GB or 12GB, haha.

Thanks, after some more reading it is clear to me that i do indeed need to upgrade my ram aswell (damn this is getting expensive :Worried:) Yes, im thinking of purchasing the corsair H50, would this suffice?About the ram, what are some good bang for the buck ones if i want about 4g?Edit: i took a look at the case you recommended and im impressed, don't know why i went with the antec as my current is a CM as well :P Thanks

H50 is fine but if it leaks, which I have heard of that happening, then it could fry your motherboard, graphics card etc. I would play it safe if i were you and get a good air cooler like the coolermaster hyper 212 plus. That just my opinion, its not necessary but if it were me i wouldn't want to risk it.

I've read numerous reviews about the heatsink on that particular card being kind of noisy. I use the Gigabyte model, and it's silent until you runs the fans at full speed (and by then, the engines are going to be drowning it out anyway). I originally wanted the MSI, but it was sold out at the time; it's also widely praised for being quiet.

Im using a hd4870 at full rpm right now, with headphones, don't think ill be bothered by the noise Really for me its all about performance, is the MSI one good performance wise?Hmm, dual channel is ram, empty, ram, empty, right? If so how is triple channel set up?

H50 is fine but if it leaks, which I have heard of that happening, then it could fry your motherboard, graphics card etc. I would play it safe if i were you and get a good air cooler like the coolermaster hyper 212 plus. That just my opinion, its not necessary but if it were me i wouldn't want to risk it.

Hmm, yeah that would be nasty. Isn't there some kind of warranty? The fan you're talking about, would it have a big effect vs stock cooler?

Im using a hd4870 at full rpm right now, with headphones, don't think ill be bothered by the noise Really for me its all about performance, is the MSI one good performance wise?Hmm, dual channel is ram, empty, ram, empty, right? If so how is triple channel set up?

There's probably very little difference in performance since it's the same basic card, although I have to say the heatsink on the MSI just looks like a beast and probably cools better than any other, which might help with overclocking. That's pure speculation, though. For what it's worth, the EVGA and MSI are at the top of the list in terms of positive reviews on Newegg for that particular card.A triple channel motherboard, like the one you picked, will have six RAM slots instead of four, and it'll most likely be set up in that same alternating scheme. I think my EVGA says to use 1 and 3 for dual channel, and 1, 3, and 5 for triple channel, but I'd have to look at the manual to be sure.Also, +1 on the Hyper 212 Plus. Most don't recommend going past 3.5GHz on the stock cooler, but with the 212 I was able to comfortably reach 4.0GHz (at least with HT off, which FS has absolutely no use for). Other air coolers, such as a Noctua or Prolimatech, might let you get a little farther, but I didn't want to pay twice as much for one of those.

Ok, thanks a lot for your replies, im a lot wiser now than i was half a day ago :PWith the help of both of your very informative replies, this is what im probably going to buy: Corsair HX 850W PSU, Intel i7 930 (im still thinking about the 950 although at the vendor im buying at it is not available at untill the end of the month, dont know if i can wait that long :P) If i only want to OC to 4ghz (only lol...) will the 930 cause me problems?Anyway: Cooler master CM690 II Advanced Black, ASUS P6X58D Premium, EVGA (or MSI hmm.) Geforce GTX 460 1GB, Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU, Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 6GB CL9 and lastly windows 7 64bit EN ;)Im still open to the MSI version, and the 950 is ofcourse the one i'd chose but most of the ones on avsim that i've read about having a 4ghz OC are using the d0 920. Damn i dont know.. Im probably an idiot for even considering buying the 930 when the 950 could be mine for the same price in a month...

Sorry for the double post, im thinking of buying a HDD while im at it, any tips on good, fast 1TB drives?

Sorry for the double post, im thinking of buying a HDD while im at it, any tips on good, fast 1TB drives?

go for the Western Digital Caviar Black 1tb the sata 6 gb/s version http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533&cm_re=western_digital_caviar_black_1tb_7200-_-22-136-533-_-Product

I read some more about the EVGA 01G-P3-1373-ER which seems has an external exhaust function where it exhausts warm air out of the case, in other words i think it is a very good case for SLI. Speaking of SLI do you think that a 3xSLI mobo like the P6X58D is suitable for high temp and demanding cards like the GTX 460 1GB? I read about a review (not the External Exhaust however) where they had knocked off 10C from the top card (to 74C load) by placing the cards 2 slots apart instead of the maximum 1 slot apart in a 3x-SLI.EDIT: By the way when buying the Cooler Master Case, is it wise to buy extra fans, or are the ones on already sufficient? Same with the Cooler Master Hyper 212, does it need anything, like thermal paste etc that isn't included?