New computer - thoughts on this setup...

[spooly83 0]

I am looking in to buying a new computer for FS and being that I am not even close to an expert in this topic, I am hoping someone can give me some feedback on this combination of options and let me know what I am missing (or what I can remove or scale back)

• Processor : INTEL® Core™ i7-2600 3.40GHz (3.80GHz Turbo) Quad-Core, 8MB Cache w/HT
• Graphics Card 1 : NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 550 Ti 1GB @900MHz w/PhysX
• Graphics Card 2 : NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 550 Ti 1GB @900MHz w/PhysX
• Motherboard : MSI® P67A-GD53 SLI/CrossFireX w/USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s
• Processor Cooling : V3 GAMING LC120ZS by Asetek Zero-Service Liquid Cooling
• Memory : 4GB Patriot Divison 2 - Xtreme Dual-Channel DDR3 (2X2G) - 1866MHz CL9
• Operating System Hard Drive 1 : 500GB SATA 7200RPM High-Performance
• Operating System Hard Drive 2 : 500GB SATA 7200RPM High-Performance
• Optical Drive 1 : 24X Dual Layer SATA DVDRW
• Audio : Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Xtreme PCI-E 7.1

What do you guys think? In terms of video cards, am I better off going with 1 card like a GTX 570 or 580 and spending the cash there? The budget will make it difficult to get 2 cards of that caliber....I appreciate your feedback.Chris

[wanabflyer 53]

I am looking in to buying a new computer for FS and being that I am not even close to an expert in this topic, I am hoping someone can give me some feedback on this combination of options and let me know what I am missing (or what I can remove or scale back)

• Processor : INTEL® Core™ i7-2600 3.40GHz (3.80GHz Turbo) Quad-Core, 8MB Cache w/HT
• Graphics Card 1 : NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 550 Ti 1GB @900MHz w/PhysX
• Graphics Card 2 : NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 550 Ti 1GB @900MHz w/PhysX
• Motherboard : MSI® P67A-GD53 SLI/CrossFireX w/USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s
• Processor Cooling : V3 GAMING LC120ZS by Asetek Zero-Service Liquid Cooling
• Memory : 4GB Patriot Divison 2 - Xtreme Dual-Channel DDR3 (2X2G) - 1866MHz CL9
• Operating System Hard Drive 1 : 500GB SATA 7200RPM High-Performance
• Operating System Hard Drive 2 : 500GB SATA 7200RPM High-Performance
• Optical Drive 1 : 24X Dual Layer SATA DVDRW
• Audio : Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Xtreme PCI-E 7.1

What do you guys think? In terms of video cards, am I better off going with 1 card like a GTX 570 or 580 and spending the cash there? The budget will make it difficult to get 2 cards of that caliber....I appreciate your feedback.Chris

Hi Chris. From my limited knowledge:1) If only using for FSX save 100$ and get the 2500k (Don,t make my mistake)2) Again if only using for FSX, SLI isn't needed so one GTX580 can be bought for the price of two 560s. However i do not know your display set up intentions which could affect your number of cards i think.3) In my humble opinion you would be better off with using the cooler in my specs. From what i have read, sealed liquid cooling is not as good as some air coolers and can be noisierIn all though, looks like a dream machine.Regards,

[nikita 241]

Seems a nice beast. If you want to overclock, i hope you forgot to write the ''k'' at the i7. The 2600 isn't overclockable, but the 2600K does it well. I don't know for the GPU, but i've heard that many people are happy with the GTX 560 ti, but your doubled graphics should be also good. You really should have 8gb ram, 4 is what you must have at least. The more it is it gets better. I would take 12gb.

[HammX 0]

Hi Chris ; it looks good but i have few suggestions . 1 ) Do not buy 2 gpu . You will have to deal with miscrostutters . 1 stronger gpu card will be better. 2 ) I would suggest increasing you ram . I use W7 64 bit . It uses 1.5 gb ram itself. Fsx can go up to 1.5 gb also the add-ons behind...... i think you get the point . 3 ) Unless you are a musician or want to record you music , you dont need that audio card . Something much cheaper will be enough believe me. ( I am a musician )

[oskrypuch 36]

Replace the second drive with an SSD, use that as your FSX drive. I love the OCZ Vertex3's.I won't help fps so much, but makes a huge difference in startup and texture loading. Also, if you need to refresh a setup from backup, it is dazzlingly fast.* Orest

Edited January 21, 2012 by oskrypuch

[spooly83 0]

Thanks for the feedback guys - So here are the amendments I am making....- Dropping the 2nd video card and upgrading the 1 card to a GTX 580 1536MB- Going with the standard sound card option- Changing the processor to a 2600K to enable overclocking- Upgrading the memory to 16GB- Looking at options for the 2nd hard drive- WIll ask about other cooling optionsAnything else I am missing? Thanks again for the help!

Edited January 21, 2012 by spooly83

[dazz 69]

I5 2500K8GB is more than enoughDon't forget the cooler if you plan on OCingMaybe also consider a PCIe 3.0 ready motherboard, although you would need to upgrade your CPU and GPU to PCIe 3.0 capable ones once they're released, but at least you'll have the board in case it makes a difference in FSX

[Limp 0]

Yep, I'd go with 8 gigs of ram and one GTX560,70 or ...If possible I'd get one SSD for the OS and FSX and one slower drive for your downloads etc...

[Will Dunn 0]

Not to hijack the thread, but as reference Spooly I'm getting a new computer very soon too, with these specs:CPU - i5 2500k OC'ed to 4.5ghzGPU - Evga GTX 560 ti SuperclockedMobo - Gigabyte GA-Z68XPSU - Corsair Enthusiast TX650 650 WattCooler - Corsair H60Ram - 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600mhzHDD - 2x Caviar Black 500gig 600MBps 7200rpm, one for OS and one for FSXTruly, if you don't absolutely need the 2600k get the 2500k and OC it, saves you a lot of money for other stuff. Also I wouldn't bother getting a 580, I originally planned to but I was told by many people that there really isn't much difference when it comes to FSX. Save your money for addons!! Unless you're planning to have other games?As for ram, 8gig seems to be the general recommended amount. And although I don't have the budget for it I'd go with the others in saying you should get an SSD, they really do sound good, I wish I could've got one. Hope that helps. :)

Edited January 21, 2012 by Will Dunn