While I'm waiting for the parts to be delivered (Tuesday) for my new build I thought I'd make a rambling post with the specs of my new build and planned install sequence. I've been running a Q9450 for several years and it just can't keep up with everything I've added over the past 14 months, with the biggest hit coming from the FTX airports like YMML. I have done very little with OC'ing. Using the built in level-up selections in the Asus Striker board my system will freeze occassionally, which takes the fun out of spending 30-60 minutes on a pre-flight in the NGX and not making it to the destination. The new box will be FSX-only (I will consider installing Steam on it down the road). I will disable all non-essential services (e.g. indexing, Defender, updates). So, here goes:

 

CPU: i5-3570K

Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V DELUXE

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series (2 x 4GB) 2400 (PC3 19200)

GPU: EVGA GTX 670 FTW 2GB

HD0: Crucial M4 256GB SSD

HD1: ST31000524AS 1TB 7200

Optical: LITE-ON DVD Burner

PSU: SeaSonic X750 Gold

HS: ZALMAN CNPS9500

Case: Corsair Graphite Series 600T CC600TM

 

It's been several years since I've sliced up my fingers on the fins of a Zalman cooler, so I thought it was time to try again. I'll use a drop of Arctic Silver 5.

 

I have a 124-step install checklist with all of my product keys and links to the install files. Here's an abbreviated version in the order I'm planning:

 

Windows 7 Pro

Windows Updates

Set swap (aka paging file) to 0 and turn off system restore and other non-essential services.

CoreTemp

CPU-Z

GPU-Z

OCCT

-Test- Check stability and try some OC'ing but reset to stock before continuing.

Saitek Hardware

TrackIR

FSX+SP1+SP2 (I should be able to install FSX on the SSD with the OS. I currently use 98.9GB for FSX)

-Test- Run initial tests and apply tweaks (e.g. Bojote) to maximize FPS.

FSUIPC4

-Test-

UTX

GEX

-Test-

FTX AU + NZSI

FTX AU Airports

-Test-

FTX NA

FTX NA Airports

-Test-

FSDT Airports (KLAX KLAS KDFW KORD)

-Test-

REX Essential

-Test-

PMDG 737-800

PMDG 737-600

PMDG 737-800 SP1c

PMDG 737-600 SP1c

PMDG 737 Liveries

-Test-

PMDG JS4100

PMDG JS4100 Liveries

-Test-

feelThere E-jets v.2

McPhat Studios E-jets V2 Combi

-Test-

FS2Crew 737NGX

FS2Crew JS41

-Test-

FTX Lancair IV-P

FSDT GSX

-Test-

Ultimate Traffic 2

-Test-

Flight Sim Commander 9.2

Navigraph Updates

Radar Contact v4.3

 

At each test point I'll run at stock speeds to baseline my performance. I plan to run different combinations of scenery and airports with the NGX once I've install it. Before that I'll probably fly the kite and 172 and use Orbx BOB for ground-level tours.

 

Stock scenery & airports (e.g. NGX Tutorial 1)

GEX/UTX scenery & stock airports (KMSP-KDEN)

GEX/UTX scenery & FSDT airports (KLAX-KLAS or KMSP-KORD)

FTX AU & FTX High-impact Airports (YMML/YBCS/YBBN/YSCB)

 

If, by some miracle, everything runs great at stock speeds, I'm done. I don't care what the min FPS is showing as long it's smooth and realistic (25 is as good a 60 for my eyes). Obviously, I'd like some headroom in FPS to minimize the effect of dips. More likely, if I still see some slide-show performance at KORD or YMML then I'll use the OC results from my initial testing to see how much I can improve performance.

 

I just counted and I've got 54 product keys. I sure hope they reactivate on the new box without too much hassle. (and I'm glad my wife hasn't asked how much I've spent on FSX in the last 14 months)

Very nice build, everything looks solid to me, except for turning off the paging file

I would also suggest splashing out and get a copy of FSX Gold. So much easier then all those SPs. Also (and I have no good logical reason for this), I would suggest FTX NA before FTX AU.

 

Very nice build, everything looks solid to me, except for turning off the paging file

 

 

Dario,

 

I'm currently running 8GB. I just turned off the swap a couple of weeks ago and haven't really noticed a difference. About half of my 8GB is used as cache (I realize that's dynamic), so I didn't see the point in taking an extra 3GB off of the HD. It always seemed odd to me that, with more physical RAM than I ever use, to have the HD cache what's in RAM at the same time that the RAM is caching the HD (if that makes any sense).

 

I would also suggest splashing out and get a copy of FSX Gold. So much easier then all those SPs. Also (and I have no good logical reason for this), I would suggest FTX NA before FTX AU.

 

I agree. I ordered FSX Gold, which will save some time, and opportunities to mess up.

oh nvm

I would suggest investing money on a top of the line cooling system for the CPU. From what I hear those ivy bridge CPUs tend to heat up a lot for the amount of overclocking they do. Trust me, you're going to want to overclock when you see how easy it is and the performance gains you get from it. Just research around the web to see what you need to do, and you shoul be fine. Honestly, I would probably suggest just getting the sandy bridge CPUs to save a little money that you could invest into something else, you're going to end up at around the same clock speed with either of the two CPUs, and the 2700,and 2500ks have the advantage of running a littl cooler, ao you might end up running at an even higher speed than with the new gen cores.

 

Woops: didn't see that you had already chosen a heating system, you could always go for a water cooling system for better performance anyway. :)

...so I didn't see the point in taking an extra 3GB off of the HD...

I suspect you don't really know that much about cacheing or memory models so instead I will simply point out that 3G out of the 1000 and more you have is really not much of a sacrifice.

I suspect you don't really know that much about cacheing or memory models so instead I will simply point out that 3G out of the 1000 and more you have is really not much of a sacrifice.

 

Actually, I'm a software developer with 39 years of experience, from mainframes down to PC's, so I do know something about caching. I deal with business applications, not operating systems, so I don't know the nuts and bolts of how Windows manages paging. I know that virtual memory is most useful with multiple processes that need to allocate more RAM than is phsically present. And the higher the ratio of allocated memory to physical memory, the slower the apps will run because of the swapping that's required. But with desktop systems these days routinely having more RAM than they require, it appears to me that swap space might be unneccessary. But Windows might still have perfectly valid reasons to swap things in and out of RAM. I'm not concerned about 2 or 3GB of space, but the time it takes Windows to perform the task. With the new build it might not matter anyway, especially if I let Windows put the swap on the SSD. I may run some comparison benchmarks with and without swap just to see if it makes any difference. Or maybe, by that time, I'll just want to get back to flying.

Hey mate,

 

Personally I would stick with the Sandy Bridge. You have so much more room to clock, which is ideal for FSX.

 

 

Also look into the Dark Rock Pro 2 cooler, it is absolutley amazing, I could easily clock to 5ghz on air.

 

 

Alex

I know that virtual memory is most useful with multiple processes that need to allocate more RAM than is phsically present.

Correct

And the higher the ratio of allocated memory to physical memory, the slower the apps will run because of the swapping that's required.

Not correct.

Swapping occurs if the memory required to be allocated exceeds physical memory. Swapping to a preallocated and prepared location is a lot faster then swapping to the default file system. This is why windows (and most other OS) provide a managed mechanism for swapping. Simply turning that mechanism off, as you are proposing, has no impact on when things will be swapped out of RAM and onto disk, it will only affect where on disk it will go and how long it will take.

Swapping to a preallocated and prepared location is a lot faster then swapping to the default file system. This is why windows (and most other OS) provide a managed mechanism for swapping.

Yes

 

Simply turning that mechanism off, as you are proposing, has no impact on when things will be swapped out of RAM and onto disk, it will only affect where on disk it will go and how long it will take.

 

My turn: Not correct. Turning off the paging file means nothing will be swapped to disc because there's no paging file to swap it to. Once you start running out of memory (RAM + max page file size) you will get low memory warnings from Windows, if you're lucky..

 

But I'm coming around on your larger point that paging files are a good idea.

 

Tonight I found a series of articles that Mark Russinovich (a co-founder of Winternals) wrote several years back on the Microsoft TechNet blog called "Pushing the Limits of Windows". They covered physical memory, virtual memory, paged and nonpaged pools, among other things. In the virtual memory article he describes how to compute how much swap to allocate using the difference between the Commit Charge Limit and the Peak Commit Charge, after loading all the programs you normally run along with their data sets. He says that, while some programs may run better with no swap, in general letting the system swap pages out of the paged pool will free up memory for better uses, such as disc cache. This indicates to me that swapping occurs even if all of the RAM hasn't been used up by applications, because Vista and Win7 love to allocate RAM for cache. He wrote a free utility that's available from TechNet called "Process Explorer". On a System Information window it shows the Commit Charge Limit (total RAM + max swap), Current Commit Charge, and Peak Commit Charge. With those you can see how close or far your current session is from running out of memory.

Hi Larry,

 

Just read your post and was just curious on something and if you could answer for me?

 

When you have installed something and then you say test but what do you actually do ?? Is this by using the cessna 172 and flying around the specified airport or doing this with the PMDG 737-800NGX etc.

 

I'd be interested to know as it's maybe something I can look at doing when I purchase a pc good enough to run FSX

 

Thanks

 

Jason

when I purchase a pc good enough to run FSX

Sorry for the derail, but that sentence doesn't mean much anymore. Two minutes on ebay and I found this for £89 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-DESKTOP-PC-COMPUTER-SET-WITH-MONITOR-KB-MOUSE-CABLES-WINDOWS-XP-INSTALLED-/180889993724?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item2a1de241fc

Its not brilliant but it will run FSX.

Sorry for the derail, but that sentence doesn't mean much anymore. Two minutes on ebay and I found this for £89 http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2a1de241fc

Its not brilliant but it will run FSX.

 

What do you mean? And what was that link for ??

The link was to a machine on ebay that is good enough to run FSX and has a buy it now price of £89.