Hi guys,I have already had a chat to Ryan about my pc but would like a fairly general discussion about it. In case you don't already know I have blown up my pc by trying to run something off a portable hard drive but, I shall put that behind me and rebuild. I was looking at a few components for my pc, the CPU, a new GPU, upgrading RAM and a new motherboard for the new CPU as I was using a core 2 duo at 3.00ghz.So what's best, an i7 2600k at 3.4ghz which I could overclock to 3.8ghz or something else. I would like to know what motherboard would work best with the i7 2600k as well. I know fsx is more a CPU game but which GPU would work best, Ryan said it should be over 1gb as the 512mb are not going to cope with multiple addons. I am currently running XP Professional 32 bit and was wondering that because fsx is a 32bit game would it really be worth upgrading to Win 7 64bit and purchasing around 6gb of DDR3 RAM, I am also not very confident with Win 7 as our school has upgraded and now their computers are rubbish compared to what they were when they were on XP. I am also curious about purchasing another hard drive that I can put all the fsx stuff onto so I don't clog up C drive and would that slow fsx down at all.I have a fairly large budget and would be prepared to save to be able to futureproof my machine.ThanksAndrew Cary

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131702CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&Tpk=2600kRAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150517&cm_re=6970-_-14-150-517-_-ProductPower Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139015CPU Cooling: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181013Hard Drive 1 (FSX & OS only): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227597Hard drive 2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533Dvd Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204You can remove the parts which you don't need to upgrade but I recommend replacing everything as you're case will probably not fit everything, dvd drive will probbly be ide ect..Total price for everything: $1,811.71 before shipping

Anyone agree with this, if so I might wait for my pay day and start building. Anyone kow what kind of FPS over say and orbx airport in a J41 with REX I would get with this. (Haven't got REX yet but it is on my wishlist)Thanks Andrew CaryP.S. Is this an American site and could I buy from a closer shop and do the same.

I disagree on the AMD video card in Danny's list - get a GTX570 based card instead, Nvidia cards work much better in the FSX engine. The RevoDrive is going to be more hassle than it's worth too - for that price you can get a bigger standard SSD. Check out the Corsair 600T case too.

I disagree on the AMD video card in Danny's list - get a GTX570 based card instead, Nvidia cards work much better in the FSX engine. The RevoDrive is going to be more hassle than it's worth too - for that price you can get a bigger standard SSD. Check out the Corsair 600T case too.

Ryan is 100% right. I build custom computers for a living, and I can confirm. If you're on a tight budget and can't afford the 570, the GTX 560Ti is good as well. For an SSD, look at the Corsair Performance 3 series SSDs. They offer read speeds of 410 Mb/s. I have the 128 GB Corsair Performace 3, and it kicks butt!

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130610SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233154Also, you should get the 2500k instead of the 2600k. The 2500k is the same as the 2600k except that it doesn't have hyper threading. FSX doesn't utilize HT though, so you can just save some money.

Hand on, what is the SSD, is it the RAM or the hard drive(I am not the one building it thankfully)Regards Andrew Cary

Also, you should get the 2500k instead of the 2600k. The 2500k is the same as the 2600k except that it doesn't have hyper threading. FSX doesn't utilize HT though, so you can just save some money.

No I think I will futureproof it and do you have a link to the GTX570 GPU, I want this to be the best, I have just got an advertising gig so that is funding the project.

If you want to futureproof and also the best, I would pick this PSU instead of the Corsair AX850:Seasonic X-750Seasonic X-850It's supposed to be the same one (Seasonic makes some of the Corsair PSUs) but some AX series corsairs suffer from electrical noise. No big deal really, but if you are going to shell 150 - 200$ get the original.750W will have you covered for SLI if you want to go that route in the futureAn SSD is a very fast drive with no mechanical parts

Hand on, what is the SSD, is it the RAM or the hard drive(I am not the one building it thankfully)Regards Andrew CaryNo I think I will futureproof it and do you have a link to the GTX570 GPU, I want this to be the best, I have just got an advertising gig so that is funding the project.

An SSD is a hard drive. The traditional hard drive has disks and a writing head that writes information into the disks. These have been the standard since forever, but they are now considered slow and unreliable. An SSD is a hard drive with no moving parts, as Alex said above, and it can access information nearly immediately instead of having to search for it like a regular HDD. This means that your system will load things super fast. GTX 570: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130613I use EVGA nearly exclusively for GPUs because the quality is outstanding, and the customer service is excellent.

I say go the AMD route and save almost half the money. Intel/nvidia being faster for Fsx is just a myth. At 1080p the difference in FPS is no more than 2 o 3 frames and as you go up in resolution it almost dissapear. If in doubt check my youtube channel "rguilarte" to see my amd system in action!

I say go the AMD route and save almost half the money. Intel/nvidia being faster for Fsx is just a myth. At 1080p the difference in FPS is no more than 2 o 3 frames and as you go up in resolution it almost dissapear. If in doubt check my youtube channel "rguilarte" to see my amd system in action!

2 or 3 frames? do you know it first hand? because it's not true by a long shot sir. I sold my AMD stuff and I'm never looking back, at least until AMD gets his act together or we have a GPU bound sim that is

- Case: Antec 1200 Case with White LED case fans.- Power Supply: Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1000W- CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz Sandybridge overclocked to 4.60GHz- Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Deluxe Intel P67 (Socket 1155) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION **- Cooler: Corsair H70 CPU Cooler- RAM: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit- Hard Drive: OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB and Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB 6GB/s SATA-II 32MB Cache- Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card- Sound: Realtek 7.1 Channel Sound (On-Board)- Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BD-ROM / 16x DVD Writer Drive - Black

- Power Supply: Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1000W

Overkill, and with ripple issues. There're tons of better options than that

How come no one is specifying the 990X CPU and the Radeon 4 GB 6990 video card? I know they are the most expr\ensive, but they gotta out perform a dual 580 card and the i7 CPU right?

I'd like to correct you. The 990X IS an i7 CPU. Anyway, in certain areas, it does outperform the 2600k, but by a very negligible amount. Certainly not enough to justify the $1000+ pricetag. Remember though, that the 2600k outperforms the 980 & 990 in other areas. ATI's drivers do not work well with FSX at all. In fact I'd say that FSX combined with ati's drivers is verging on disaster. If you want a good fsx rig, you've got to go the Nvidia route. ATI doesn't have AA either. This means that a lot of the textures in fsx are going to have jagged edges due to this. If you were doing CoD or something ATI may rock, but trust me (this is my job) Nvidia works way better when it comes to fsx.