Hello!

Thats it ive enough! Spending nights just gaping how amazing the PMDG 737 NGX is on youtube videos etc. I'm a VATSIM flyer i never use flight sim no more just for "free flying" I'm currently a FS9 user but i was thinking that FS9 is becoming a bit outdated now and the future as bad as it sounds is looking quite bleak for FS9 with current developers targeting FSX. It is true, FS9 is almost 10 years old now i think myself it's time to move onto the dreaded frame rate unfriendly FSX. So i'm intending to use FSX with a lot of add ons; REX, ASE, UT Europe and some payware aircraft. I want a rig quite a cheap one (will have to be AMD) which is capable of running FSX with all sorts of add ons. (NO dreaded OOMS as well!) I won't be using AI traffic which i know can be a Frame rate killer. So i've decided with the upcoming summer hols i'm going to work my &@($* off and finally get my hands on the PMDG NGX and move onto FSX. So what can you reccomend on a £200 or less budget. I'm talking Ram graphics and processors.

 

Thanks,

Tom

£200 ..... your going to need ALOT more than that.... not possible.

Haha! Let us know how it worked out. Or did you loose a 1 in the post? 1200 might get you close...

Tom,

 

I would rather keep my money and save some more. For an FSX machine with 'reasonable' performance with sliders toned down you should be aiming for at least an £800-£1000 rig - and that's bare bones. Overclockers UK have some good budget gaming options.

Erich

In agreement with all above:

 

Yeah, sorry to be blunt, but 200GBP for a FSX PC as you describe is completely unrealistic.

 

To be honest you may as well stick with what you have for the moment, even if you don't move to FSX yet. Don't forget that systems are getting ever more powerful, and cost can only reduce as technology progresses. Going forward, look to build up a much more substantial cash fund with which you will be able to properly spec. the system you obviously want.

 

Best of luck :)

You can probably get a used computer off ebay that can run FSX decently, but you'd need it to be fairly old (older quad core or dual core) with an older graphics card.

add another 0 and you will be in the ball park ;)

Like everyone else...

 

You can't run FSX for 200 gbp

 

The video card alone will cost 200 easy...

fs9 can look almost like fsx with the right addons......look at my signature for some fs9 goodies which will change your mind for now until you buy a new rig. My last addon was "Ultimate Water Advanced" by Zinertek which transformed my fs9 water into fsx looking water, simply amazing addon.

 

I do fly fsx also but i have spent more $$ into fs9.

fs9 can look almost like fsx with the right addons......look at my signature for some fs9 goodies which will change your mind for now until you buy a new rig. My last addon was "Ultimate Water Advanced" by Zinertek which transformed my fs9 water into fsx looking water, simply amazing addon.

 

I do fly fsx also but i have spent more $$ into fs9.

 

FS9 is better in some regards than FSX!

There are a lot more free addons for FS9. Like KBOS.

If you buy the FSDT and FlyTampa airports they can be used on FS9 as well as FSX with no more to pay.

A video card, well you can get one for about $150 AUstralian and that is probably 100GDP or even less.

While these guys are giving huge figures, they are for super rigs.

True, with lots of addons you will need a super rig. At Aerosoft's EDDF (I think I need to retune my Nvidia drivers) I am getting 10FPS or so with no traffic, 6.7 FPS with traffic(the airport looks like EDDF in real life though with tonnes of Lufthansa jets everywhere and buses running around). And my machine isn't overclocked but it is an i52400.

The NGX doesn't take up a lot resources, it is the airports and traffic that do.

With a good video card you can get decent graphics with a reasonable FPS.

But, if you are going to spend 1200 pounds, that is an overclocked supercomputer with an awesome video card. Probably with cooling too.

For 200 pounds you will just get a motherboard, CPU and maybe some memory. That is if you go for the most basic (but still works!) motherboards. Wouldn't think of overclocking that though. For 350 pounds you would have a case and video card on top of that. All you need then is a hard disk. And no you don't need to spend megabucks to get that either. For 450 pounds you can have a full system. You just need to buy the OS Win 7 is awesome. I bought the 64 bit edition.

 

So do your own research to see what you can get for your money.

Tall order, but you could just about do it for 300 notes, if you are prepared to cannibalise your old PC...

 

You'll be wanting an I7 or I5 processor, that'll cost you about 150 quid, plus another tenner or so for a cooling fan if it doesn't come with one. Then you'll need the motherboard which has the socket that can take that processor, which will be at least another 50 quid, probably nearer to 80-100. You'll need the RAM for it too of course, unless you plan on using your old RAM, although it depends on the form factor of your old motherboard's RAM, if not, that'll be another 40 quid. Ideally you probably want DDR3 RAM, since anything less will be a bus speed bottleneck. 4 Gigs minimum, preferably 8 or more. Good tip here by the way, put your RAM chips in the slots nearest to the CPU rather than the ones furthest from it, it makes your PC run ever so slightly faster if you do that.

 

With those bits as a minimum upgrade, you could use all the existing components on your present PC in combination with the new components you bought. So, ripping everything out of your old PC case (carefully, since you'll be using a lot of it again), you'd then sling in the new motherboard, then the processor, and the RAM, then reuse your old graphics card (if it isn't too old, you will get away with that because FSX uses the CPU more than the GPU), power supply unit, hard disk drives and DVD/CD drives. Thus it is just about possible for 300 quid if you utilise old bits from your current PC. Some better cooling fans might also be necessary, but they can be had for a tenner a pop.

 

Potential problems with doing that are your PSU not having the wattage to handle the new processor, or possibly not having the plug to fit your new motherboard's power socket. If that happens, you'll need about another 50 notes for an adequate PSU. Places such as Maplins are good for high power PSUs for a decently low price, but don't go too cheap, the PSU is a weak link in any PC if it can't put out stable power to the rails.

 

Take a look at Custom PC magazine (UK newsagents sell it). They regularly have articles on how to make a budget gaming rig for about 400 quid. That might also be a useful approach to getting something together which could run FSX well if you are not very clued up on computer bits and pieces.

 

Here's a good UK website for inexpensive PC parts, and even if you don't buy from there, it's a good place to look at bits and compare compatibility and rough pricing: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/

 

If you don't want to build something yourself, try looking online at places such as PC World. For example, this one would probably run FSX pretty well for about 750 quid, the staff there are usually complete morons (not always, but as a general rule), so don't expect good advice from them, but they do have some bargains if you look with a careful eye and do a bit of research:

 

http://www.pcworld.c...290850-pdt.html

 

Ignore all that twin graphics card SLI and Crossfire bollox too incidentally unless you want to play Skyrim at 2000 pixels wide, you don't need that kind of graphics capability for FSX to run well.

 

Al

Great post Al, as usual!