Another FSX Build question. Need some advice from the Gurus on Hardware choice.

• I7 2600K
• Asus P8Z68-V B3 Motherboard
• Corsair Vengence CMZ8GX3MA16000C8 8G DDR3 Memory
• CoolerMaster HAF X Case
• ASus Xonar DG Soundcard
• Corsair AX850 Power Supply
• Corsair H80 CPU Cooler
• EVGA GTX 580 3GB
• 2 WD Caviar Black 1 TB Hard Drives

Thanks in advance Andrew Dixon

Do you really need the soundcard? 2500K seems equally as good for FSX purposes unless HT is useful to you for other programs, then keep with the 2600K Everything else looks good. Maybe an SSD if you can push it?

+1

Soundcard not needed? Andrew Dixon

I have that sound card. If you get it or any other Xonar, disable "GX" at the bottom right corner of the control panel. It crashes FSX and many other apps.

I have that sound card. If you get it or any other Xonar, disable "GX" at the bottom right corner of the control panel. It crashes FSX and many other apps.

Might ditch the card. Thanks Andrew

Another FSX Build question. Need some advice from the Gurus on Hardware choice.

• I7 2600K
• Asus P8Z68-V B3 Motherboard
• Corsair Vengence CMZ8GX3MA16000C8 8G DDR3 Memory
• CoolerMaster HAF X Case
• ASus Xonar DG Soundcard
• Corsair AX850 Power Supply
• Corsair H80 CPU Cooler
• EVGA GTX 580 3GB
• 2 WD Caviar Black 1 TB Hard Drives

Thanks in advance Andrew Dixon

Hi Andrew, Except for the sound card it looks like a golden list to me. Great choices. Kind regards,

Thanks everyone for your advice, time to part with some money! Thanks Andrew

Great rig mate, you and FSX will be best friends with that rig

I'm a little confused by the choice of memory. I figured you would want to go with CL7 on a rig like that or even 2133 CL9. But I know prices are much much steeper in Australia. Looks great otherwise. I don't know anything about the plain vanilla Asus P8Z68 mobo. Just make sure people have still been able to OC to 4.5+ on it.

I have CL8 1600mhz. Also tried CL6, CL7 and CL9 at 1600mhz and noticed zero difference. From my own findings (and after reading the article linked) I dont think the Sandy Bridge memory controller is that fussy. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

I'm a little confused by the choice of memory. I figured you would want to go with CL7 on a rig like that or even 2133 CL9. But I know prices are much much steeper in Australia. Looks great otherwise. I don't know anything about the plain vanilla Asus P8Z68 mobo. Just make sure people have still been able to OC to 4.5+ on it.

Hi Corey, I didn't think the P8Z68-V Pro B3 was the Vanilla board? Could you recommend a more suitable one. Also I was of the understanding that Sandy Bridge could only use 1600 memory @ 1.5 V. On the Asus website this memory was one that was suited to the board. Could you recommend some suitable RAM. Thanks Andrew Dixon

Sorry Andrew, I thought you were getting the plain P8Z68 instead of the Pro, so no worries! The Pro is a fine board! You can run 1.65v memory just fine with Sandy Bridge. As Glenn said above, it won't make much difference, but it has been measured by Dazz and I using the FSXMark11 benchmark. Sandy Bridge is really able to take advantage of higher bandwidth making 2133 CL9 a good choice, but you can't go wrong with 1600 CL7 either. I say all this with US memory prices in mind. Memory prices have dropped like a rock here making the fastest memory sets a no brainer for a high-end rig like yours. But if the cost for better memory is much more in Australia, it's really not going to make any discernible difference. See the thread from Dazz' memory testing here, it's great reading regardless of what you decide to go with: http://forum.avsim.n...cy-and-latency/

Corey is this better memory? It is rated to 1.6 Volts, Also what would be the advantage to updating to the deuxe version of the board?G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH (2x4GB) DDR3 Thanks Andrew

That's an excellent memory choice. If the extra cost is marginal, go for it, but don't break the bank. I can't remember all the differences between the Pro and the Deluxe. More power phases that you don't need. I think the Deluxe's mobo heat sinks are screwed on instead of clipped on. I believe the Pro has a cmos jumper instead of a button (I despise jumpers). No major differences really. Performance-wise, they're the same.