Guys, this will be my fist system build ever, used computers for years and years but mostly a new laptop and haven't had a desktop computer in about 6 or 7 years.

 

Been about 12 years since i bought a desktop paid about 2K GBP for something all that time.

 

Anyway yes this is just another thread on a system, my system is going to be a general one for a bit of all things, work and gaming, but a large part of the gaming will be FSX etc.

 

After reading this thread for 'literally' years and doing some research i've finally settled on this: (see below)

 

I've mostly been a lurker and learningn alot by reading others posts.

Products Amount Asus P8Z77-V PRO MB, Socket 1155, Intel Z77 Chipset, 4x DDR3, SATA3, USB3.0,

WiFi, GbLAN, 8 CH, D-Sub, DVI-D, DP, HDMI, Quad SLI/CrossFireX, ATX $239.00 CoolerMaster HAF X, Black, M-ATX / ATX / E-ATX / XL-ATX, No PSU, I/O Panel USB 3.0 x 2,USB 2.0 x 2,

IEEE 1394a x 1, e-SATA x 1, Audio x 1, Mic x 1 $195.00 Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX Power Supply, 140mm fan, Modular Cables, 80Plus Silver

certified, Universal AC input 90~264V $219.00 Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H100 High-performance CPU Cooler,

2011/1366/1156/1155/775 and AM3/AM2 compatible $159.00 G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 Kit, PC-19200 (2400Mhz), Trident X, 10-12-12-31,

Removable Heat Spreader, Dual Channel Kit $135.00 Intel Core i7 3770K (3.50Ghz / 8MB / LGA1155 / Quad Core / Overclocking Enabled) $399.00 LG Blu-Ray Writer, 14X BD-WRITE , 16X DVDRW $105.00 Logitech Z506 Surround Speakers 5.1, 75 watts (RMS), Ported, down-firing subwoofer,

3D Stereo, Dedicated bass control $89.00 OCZ 256GB SSD, 2.5", Vertex 4, SATA III, Read 550MB/s, Write 465MB/s $299.00 Palit Geforce GTX670 (915Mhz), 2048MB DDR5 (6008Mhz), PCIE3.0, Dual DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI $439.00 Seagate 2TB Barracuda, SATAIII, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache $123.00 Product Subtotal $2,401.00 Freight Charge $0.00 Surcharge $0.00 Grand Total $2,401.00

 

My original things was to setup a budget of about 2K, this is AUD, aussie dollars the machine will likely be purchased from Scorptec as they appear to have a good reputation.

 

At any rate - this will be my first build and i'm looking forward to it, hopefully all will go smoothly and hope to eventually overclock to 4.6 - 4.7 GHz, but will see how it goes, looking to try and get a high 40's average FPS according to FSXMark11 and much smoother flying compared to what i'm used to.

 

My current laptop will do about 17 or 18 FPS average under this FSXmark11 so it should be a huge step up.

 

 

Couple of things:

 

Prefer the 3730K to 3530, the machine is not just for FSX and i think its slightly more balanced system with a better CPU

 

Slightly concerned with the GPU, hoping the Palit GTX670 is just as good as the Asus/EVGA, the computer shop has a special on this at the moment so its a bit cheaper than the others, in fact they dont appear to have much stock of Asus/EVGA 670 or 670 cpu.

 

Planning on a single 256GB SSD; in time when prices drop will get a larger one for the General OS and programs and put the FSX exclusively on the 256GB SSD here, but for now all will live on that; FSX folder on laptop currently about 35GB but this will probably grow.

 

Seagate for backup etc,

 

OS will be Win7 x64 for now, but would probably try Win8 when its more stable or a much later beta.

 

Delighted to hear any comments or feedback where you think i've gone wrong

 

cheers

 

-roger

Looks like a solid build, Roger. The only things I would point out are, 850W is overkill, 650 is more than enough and will save you a good $100. In regards to the graphics card Palit don't have a particularly good reputation for customer service. But, you get what you pay for and as you said, they're a lot cheaper. Also OCZ has a pretty poor reputation with the reliability of their SSDs. Take a look at the SanDisk Extreme 240GB, it's one of the fastest yet one of the cheapest, and has so far proven reliable. I bought one a few weeks ago for $250. A bargain.

 

Scorptec has a good reputation but they're on the pricier side too. Take a look at PC Case Gear, they're also very good and tend to be a bit cheaper. No walk-in service and pickup 9-5 only, so I tend to get stuff shipped from them these days. If that suits you then I think you'll be very happy with them.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

Looks like a solid build, Roger. The only things I would point out are, 850W is overkill, 650 is more than enough and will save you a good $100. In regards to the graphics card Palit don't have a particularly good reputation for customer service. But, you get what you pay for and as you said, they're a lot cheaper. Also OCZ has a pretty poor reputation with the reliability of their SSDs. Take a look at the SanDisk Extreme 240GB, it's one of the fastest yet one of the cheapest, and has so far proven reliable. I bought one a few weeks ago for $250. A bargain.

 

Scorptec has a good reputation but they're on the pricier side too. Take a look at PC Case Gear, they're also very good and tend to be a bit cheaper. No walk-in service and pickup 9-5 only, so I tend to get stuff shipped from them these days. If that suits you then I think you'll be very happy with them.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

 

Mike, thanks for your feedback,

 

Yep, i'm thinking the 850w is perhaps better as it allows me more options later if i want to buy another 670 GPU in a years time when they are much cheaper and get the benefit on other games not FSX as such, better to only have to buy a second gpu rather than a new psu as well.

 

Maybe a 650w would run 2x670GPU but hopefully the 850 gives more breathing space.

 

The vertex 4 ocz hopefully are a bit more reliable,

 

look to build this tomorrow, its gonna take a while i think

 

cheers

 

-roger

Well, all sorted now,

 

Bought the stuff on Friday, put together on Saturday, just overclocked this morning using ASUS AI Suite II to 4.5GHZ, cpu at about 50-55C on prime 95 for 8-10mins - and will keep it there for a while before trying 4.7 or 4.8 maybe next week.

 

Build was pretty straightforward, but had to put the motherboard in twice, i didn't quite have enough room to put the backplate on the H100 so had to pull the motherboard out to do that.

 

thanks again for all comments in this thread really helped me put together a decent system and hoping for high frames when i get D3 and FSX up on it ...soon

 

cheers

 

-roger