1st time PC build

[hitter439 4]

Greetings to all!I have decided to build my first PC with the hope that i will be able to switch to FSX and run it better (and at less cost) than upgrading to another pre-built PC (currently have a Dell). I am not that PC literate but have been reading / researching the posts on this forum for a couple of months to get better educated and help make the decision(s) on which components to purchase. I do not need to have all sliders set max to the right, but do wish to have a system that can take most of what FSX (including some add-ons) can throw at it and perform quite well. I have decided to purchase an i7-2600k and a GeForce 570 or 580 video card. From reading the forum posts it appears a general concensus is that it would be necessary to overclock the 2600k processor to 4.5 or 4.6 ghz to obtain a very nice FSX experience. With the aforementioned in mind, I am unsure what other components (i.e. power supply, motherboard, RAM, cooling fans, etc.) would be a good match for the 2600k at 4.5 - 4.6ghz (don't want to get too agressive) and the GeForce card. I have been reading various posts concerning RAM timing, max voltages for overclocking, BIOS settings, motherboard issues for the SB processors, etc. and have frankly become a bit concerned that I would purchase incompatible components and / or not "set" them correctly.So, if there is a fellow simmer(s) that has the same processor / overclock setting and video card enjoying a nice FSX experience that wouldn't mind sharing your other system components / settings, I would very much like to duplicate them (once the system is built I also plan to use Nick N's FSX guide). Thanks very much for your help.

[kjjj11223344 48]

Greetings to all!I have decided to build my first PC with the hope that i will be able to switch to FSX and run it better (and at less cost) than upgrading to another pre-built PC (currently have a Dell). I am not that PC literate but have been reading / researching the posts on this forum for a couple of months to get better educated and help make the decision(s) on which components to purchase. I do not need to have all sliders set max to the right, but do wish to have a system that can take most of what FSX (including some add-ons) can throw at it and perform quite well. I have decided to purchase an i7-2600k and a GeForce 570 or 580 video card. From reading the forum posts it appears a general concensus is that it would be necessary to overclock the 2600k processor to 4.5 or 4.6 ghz to obtain a very nice FSX experience. With the aforementioned in mind, I am unsure what other components (i.e. power supply, motherboard, RAM, cooling fans, etc.) would be a good match for the 2600k at 4.5 - 4.6ghz (don't want to get too agressive) and the GeForce card. I have been reading various posts concerning RAM timing, max voltages for overclocking, BIOS settings, motherboard issues for the SB processors, etc. and have frankly become a bit concerned that I would purchase incompatible components and / or not "set" them correctly.So, if there is a fellow simmer(s) that has the same processor / overclock setting and video card enjoying a nice FSX experience that wouldn't mind sharing your other system components / settings, I would very much like to duplicate them (once the system is built I also plan to use Nick N's FSX guide). Thanks very much for your help.

If you don't plan on doing any intense video editing or rendering, etc. then I recommend getting a 2500k as fsx doesn't use hyperthreading and you could save some money. As for graphics card, I recommend a 460 or even newer 560. These cards have a great price/performance ratio and are plenty for FSX. As for motherboard, much of the people on this forum have an Asus motherboard (I think the majority have the p8p67 pro), but I don't know if you might want the new z68 chipset. My original board (same as my signature but non b3 version) died, but I think it is because I had a psu with bad noise/ripple protection. The particular model board I have has vdroop problems so it gets tricky overclocking it. For CPU cooler, I can't really recommend a specific one, but I have read that the h70 is great for overclocking. As for RAM, I can't really recommend anything in particular (you can to your board's website and see a list of compatible RAM). For HDD, it depends on if you want any SSD's, but for HDD's, the western digital ones are popular. As for PSU, the one I have fits my needs, and I read somewhere that it has good noise/ripple protection so that is why I got it. I hope some of this helps.

[hitter439 4]

Thanks very much! Maybe a 2500k processor would be enough...will also take a re-look at video cards,the 560 in particlular. Your discussion of noise / ripple protection and vdroop issues are things I would not be aware of....hopefully I am not getting in over my head in trying to build my own PC.

[kjjj11223344 48]

Don't worry about the build. I actually custom bought my pc, but the motherboard died and I decided to purchase a new power supply. So I had to rebuild the pc and it is actually quite easy. From what I've read, only this motherboard I have and the UD4 version have vdroop issues. As for noise/ripple, just make sure you are getting a good quality psu (don't go cheap here or you'll have the same problem of components dying), and you should be fine.