Hi,

 

I'm not up to date on what hardware is good or not with regards to running PMDG stuff and other add ons. This seems to fit in with my budget.

 

Could someone kindly tell me if this system is OK?

 

I am literally hovering over the buy button but want to confirm if there is anything blindingly obvious that i shouldn't buy? I have a small budget to tweak this with so anything sensible will be much appreciated.

• COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
  
• Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache
  
• ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
  
• 8GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P(2 x 4GB KIT)
  
• 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
  
• 120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
  
• CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE
  
• COOLIT ECO II FAT BOY PUSH/PULL CONFIG LIQUID CPU COOLER
  

I think you should get a Sandy Bridge processor because from what I've heard, it has a very minimal improvement for FSX over the Sandy Bridge series, and it's also more expensive. (If you change this, remember that you must change your motherboard for one that is compatible with the LGA 1155 socket)

 

Instead of a GTX 680, you could get a GTX 560 ti or GTX 580. No need for a GTX 680 for FSX.

Edited June 5, 201214 yr by linux731

Thanks Linux731, that would actually save me a bit of money too. I keep getting conflicting views over the Ivy Bridge and Sandy thing :) I have been told i can overclock this cpu quite a bit which is something i will have to read up about. Looking at your specs can you run FSX at full settings with add ons?

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply btw.

Muley, your proposed build looks good, and if you can swap in some faster RAM you'll get even better performance. I disagree with the other poster's assertion, and would simply point you to the FSXMark 11 and Ivy Bridge threads here as evidence. Besides, there's little cost difference between Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge anyway, might as well get the newer, faster tech.

For Ivy Bridge versus Sandy Bridge, please see the topic on page 3 of this forum:

Ivy Bridge / Sandy Bridge: What would you chose?

I can get a little faster RAM if i get the slightly lower spec GFX card. Thanks TechguyMaxC sounds like a good idea. I know it's not an exact science to get it right but i just wanted to make sure i wasn't doing anything obviously wrong. I have in the past with pc rigs and it's been a face slapping moment when it was pointed out.

 

Cheers!

Is this a pre-built system? RAM prices are astoundingly low, the 2133MHz 8GB kit I have was only $10 more than the 1600MHz stuff, one shouldn't need to adjust the graphics card choice on account of that unless the choice is forced by a builder that is inflexible.

Just had a read through that thread on page 3 dmwalker. Lots of people saying that the Sandy Bridge is the way to go from lots of Sandy bridge owners. I have seen the same argument on a forum that says the same thing but in favor of the Ivy Bridge all for different reasons granted. So as long as it's not a major problem im gonna stick with the latest stuff for the simple reason that i will probably not go for an immediate overclock and just see how it goes.

Truth is, it doesn't really matter. Both are going to perform more or less the same. I guess I would go with a 3570K if I was to buy something now, but you can't go wrong either way

iMHO I would step down the video card. 2 gig of video ram will change the way fsx allocates ram. It will try and address that ram first and it will hit a hard limit at 4gigs since that's all the program can allocate. I would point you to some a thread talking about it but I am typing this on my iPad. Do a little more searching on the video card before you buy. The rest looks good.

 

 

 

DJuan Carter

Just my 2 cents lol dont skimp on a video card I have bought a boat load anyone who says this one is good enough does not have a clue every video card upgrade I have made has made quite a difference other than the cpu the gpu is the most important piece of hardware in my book even my gtx580 is going to be getting dumped for that new gtx690 that thing is a beast and if someone says it wont make a difference in a big way is full of crap lol dont skimp on video card thats a no no. PS what ever you buy for a cpu overclock it and put a water cooler on it if you are going to do it do it right :) Dazz says "I guess I would go with a 3570K if I was to buy something now" Hes right. Hope all this mumbo jumbo helped a little bit. Oh yah make sure that cpu can be overclocked before you buy it.

iMHO I would step down the video card. 2 gig of video ram will change the way fsx allocates ram. It will try and address that ram first and it will hit a hard limit at 4gigs since that's all the program can allocate. I would point you to some a thread talking about it but I am typing this on my iPad. Do a little more searching on the video card before you buy. The rest looks good.

 

 

 

DJuan Carter

 

This does not apply to 64-bit Operating Systems.

This does not apply to 64-bit Operating Systems.

 

The OS is 64bit but FSX is still a 32bit bit program that was recompiled during sp2 to run properly on 64 bit machines. It will still only allocate 4 gigs max. Actually its less..

 

Check this link for more information..

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/353625-why-is-a-3gb-graphics-card-not-good-for-fsx/

 

DJuan Carter

Right, but it's not the app that handles the reservation of RAM for the graphics card, it is the O.S. and a modern 64-bit O.S. like Win 7 doesn't have this problem. What you're talking about is something that was relevant and true in the days of Windows XP. It is no longer.

Right, but it's not the app that handles the reservation of RAM for the graphics card, it is the O.S. and a modern 64-bit O.S. like Win 7 doesn't have this problem. What you're talking about is something that was relevant and true in the days of Windows XP. It is no longer.

 

Read the Technet article quoted from that link and the posts that Ryan made. FSX will not take or use more then 4 gig of ram. Be it video RAM that could be used to bump up your AA settings or RAM allocated for aircraft or or add-ons. The extra ram does help with other programs outside of FSX such as ActiveSky for REX for weather Topcat or an EFB.

 

DJuan Carter