Fellow flight simmer/RW pilots,

 

In the next few months I will be investing in a new rig. The important choice I have is whether to build it myself, or pay someone to do it. I know the cost benefits of building one yourself, but how hard really is it? Is it all snap together or all soldering? If it isn't such an impossible feet, I am considering doing it myself. That way I can fly the NGX with fsx close to maxed out. I want to invest a good $1000-1500 into this. An Alienware at about that price will get me 8GB with an i7 3.4 Ghz, but what could a homemade one get me up to? Keep in mind I have never built a computer before let alone broken the seal on one. I understand all of the basic components (motherboard, power source, graphics card, memory (RAM), case, power supply, optical drive, cooling system, USB/other ports, operating system, hard drive...etc) and limitations, such as cooling, space, and power requirements, but I am on the fence as to whether I could actually do it. Thoughts, comments, concerns?

 

Morgan Wiley

If you can use a screwdriver you can build a rig.

Don't make the usual novice mistakes like forgetting the board's standoffs or applying thermal compound to the CPU before installing the heatsink and you'll be fine.

There's plenty videos on youtube

Newegg actually has some decent videos:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Store/Computer.aspx?name=Computer-Hardware

My current rig is home built and was my first one. I was expecting it to be much harder and when it was all done I actually thought I must have done something wrong because it was so easy. I love my machine and it was 100s cheaper than purchasing something equivalent. My only regret was not getting a larger case because it got cramped in their pretty quick.

I consider myself very good with "computers"...at least from a software/systems perspective. I work for one of the world's top two IT firms and do know a thing or two about the software side of things but have little experience in hardware. My very first home-build is the rig you see in my sig. I will tell you I was super excited when I got all the parts delivered, but a little concerned about the actual putting together of this machine. I will tell you what...everything in modern PC's is laid out so simply and was put together with such little effort by me, I thought for sure I had to be doing something wrong it was so easy to build. You almost can't put the wrong "thing" into the wrong "hole" on modern ATX motherboards. I highly recommend doing it yourself. Not only will it save you some $$$, but you will learn a lot, and dare I say, bond a little bit with your machine at the same time. You will be more inspired to take care of your rig when you've put your own effort into building it.

 

It took me about three or four hours, including getting the thermal paste just right underneath my 212+ cooler. Do it yourself! There's no reason not to!

 

EDIT - I struck through the "so easy something was wrong" line because I posted before reading others' posts and saw the post directly above mine said the same thing! LOL!

 

EDIT2 - Stay away from major companies' pre-built stuff...even if they include the fastest *stock* processors, they are usually locked down so you can't overclock. I.e. your Alienware example might be a i7 2600, vs. my i7 2600K which is fully unlocked and can be overclocked. While 3.4GHz x 4 is quite fast, to run FSX very smoothly, it is nice to overclock that 3.4 up to 4.6 or higher. With the non-K 2600 processor, you can't do that.

Not only is it easy and fun to build your own, it gives you the confidence to do your own upgrades and to fix your own problems in the future. Following from what NoahBryant said, it's important to start with a good sized case with easy access and room for larger graphics cards, larger CPU coolers and extra fans.

Sounds good, thanks guys. Here is what I came up with:

 

 

Processor: Intel i7 Sandy Bridge 3.4 Ghz 2600K

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070 $320

 

Case: Corsair Obsidian 650

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139006 $200

 

Power Supply: Sea Sonic X750

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151087 $160

 

Motherboard: Asus P8Z77Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131820&Tpk=13-131-820 $209

 

Optical Drive: Asus 24X DVD Burner

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204 $20

 

RAM: G. Skill Rip Jaws Series 16GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231309 $80

 

Graphics Card: MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127582 $320

 

Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM 3.5”

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533 $140

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231476

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231476

 

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115072

 

Any reasoning in particular for stepping down the processor and RAM? Is it that 16 GB and an i7 really doesn't help much performance wise?

16GB is overkill. 8GB of faster RAM (much faster in this case) for less money, is a better choice.

As for the CPU, there are plenty threads discussing 2500K vs 2600K. Another option is to wait a few days for the new Ivy Bridge I5 3570K or I7 3770K (same thing here, save your money and get the I5)

Early reviews have the new chips 3570K / 3770K overclocking worse than expected and running hot too, but it might still be a better option due to their better performance per clock: A 3570K at 4.5GHz seems to perform more or less like a 4.7GHz 2500K, and you get PCIe 3.0 (that may or may not help)

 

For PCIe 3.0 you also need a 600 series GPU. So far only the GTX680 is out, but word is soon there will be the 670 and 670Ti available

 

BTW, you didn't pick an aftermarket cooler for a build that is meant to be overclocked, at least it should be

Processor: Intel i7 Sandy Bridge 3.4 Ghz 2600K

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115070 $320

 

 

The 2700K much better at OC'ing. Found in THIS guide made recently by Word Not Allowed.

I have the i5 2500k, and, even at stock speeds, (I haven't learned how to overclock yet... :mad:) it performs great. I wouldn't buy a 2700k like Ben because the Ivy Bridge is coming out soon and I would just get those. However, they might be expensive since they're brand new. You can get an i5, and a great motherboard, knowing they're good products for less than a new product which nobody has and may be unreliable. (Which I doubt, because Intel rocks)

Soldering .... ha ... that brings back the memories .... building an old Fischer stereo kit. Step 14-182C. Solder the cathode pin of tube A77 to the circuit board location GG-447. Todays youngsters missed a lot.

I would save on the i7 and go for the i5, mine rocks and then you could get yourself an SSD.

I can only agree with the previous posters here. I decided to go that way last year because of the costs I could save. Before putting all parts together I only had my hands on the case and the CPU for cleaning, but never really knew how to connect all the cables from the PSU until that day. While I ordered some parts (too me 2 months to buy ALL parts, I built it from scratch so I bought all parts and didn't use any of the old PC. Except my around 10 year old HDD which still works!!

 

I watched about a billion (Okay probably less..) different videos and when I had the PSU arrived i didn't struggle at all and got everything set up within minutes. :) I was proud a bit too, and enjoyed setting it up.

 

Don't worry, it's really easy you just need to watch some vids to have an idea how everything works and needs to be connected, which cables are used where etc.