Okay so after my harddrive died on my 6 year old PC that was rigged for FS9 and served me o so well over the years, i have now been forced (in a way) to upgrade to FSX finally after being without a PC for about 3 months. Now i have looked into this for sometime but i hope by the end of August to have a NEW rig and expect it to look like the spec below...

 

Case: Xigmatek Asgard Case

Power Supply: Corsair CX600 600W Power Supply

Processor: Intel Core i7 3370K 6MB Cache Socket 1155

CPU Cooler: Thermaltake FRIO CPU Cooler

Optimisation and Tuning: Wired2Fire Cable Management, Overclocking & Tuning

Graphics Card 1: Nvidia GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI Express Graphics Card

Memory: 8GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz C9 Dual Channel Memory Kit (2 x 4GB)

Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) Motherboard

Hard Disk Drive One: Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 32MB Cache SATA II Hard Disk Drive

Optical Drive One: DVD-RW 22x

Sound Card: Onboard HD 7.1 Audio

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

 

Costing in and around £1048.00

 

 

Now what my question is to those of you that may take the time to reply is honest opinions on what (if any) changes i should make.

 

I am a keen user of AIG files and AI traffic at high levels. A fan of using Imaginesim, Flytampa, Aerosoft/Simwings, FS Dreamteam, UK2000 & Flightbeam scenerys and Real Enviroment X.

 

And also use PMDG, Qualitywings & Aerosoft aircraft.

 

I am also maybe looking to start using the Limesim Citie X series and maybe Horizon X photographic sceneries for England and Flight1 Ultimate Terrain.

 

With all this said, am i within a barrier where i should still be able to get good performance and frames using these products in FSX on the above spec?

 

Is there a limit to where it really doesnt matter what newest hardware you install..FSX has its own limits in terms of performance?

 

I would much prefer if anyone able to answer did so here rather than attach links...as sometimes the questions i have and the links offered dont always answer the exact question asked....

 

Opinions welcome................

The main thing that hits me Brad, is the GPU. At 600W it's a little on the lame side. I would suggest a 750 or preferable an 850W which would make it relatively future proof.

Okay so im looking at a Corsair 850W alternative from the 600W i listed above...thanks for that tip. Anything else?

Since u are going with an Ivy Bridge I would look into faster memory.

Yeah..I was thinking of the faster memory as well and a better PSU.

 

As far as performance is concerned... after doing your due diligence OC to around 4.5Ghz and applying the various fsx and nvidia tuning here you should have one of the best PC setup that is possible today..with the exception of the super Overclockers and their PC.

 

Even then you may not want to turn on Bloom or even anything more than 2.x low Water if you want a good 30FPS locked frame rate.

 

But the important thing is, your setup looks solid with the two improvements folks here have suggested.

 

Manny

 

IF you can afford it consider a 256MB SSD for FSX or keep it as a future buy when price drops even further. The reason I am suggesting SSD is, I have many of european photo scenery in 6gb Sata III 1 TB HD and the Orbx sceneries on my SSD. I get no blurries whatsoever when flying over Orbx...but when flying over Euro photoscenery I do get some blurries. I am suspecting its the SSD vs HDD.

Yep, what Manny suggested would be very worthwhile. I have two SSD's, a 256gb with FSX on and a 64Gb which holds Win7. Now, while you will not see any difference with actual simming while flying, although some will contest this, you will see a massive difference in the speed that FSX loads at startup. Believe me, it is a very worthy upgrade if you can afford it. I barely wait more than about 20 seconds for FSX to load a flight.

Since u are going with an Ivy Bridge I would look into faster memory.

 

What is an Ivy Bridge....?

This is Ivy Bridge: Processor: Intel Core i7 3370K 6MB Cache Socket 1155.

Yeah..I was thinking of the faster memory as well and a better PSU.

 

Even then you may not want to turn on Bloom or even anything more than 2.x low Water if you want a good 30FPS locked frame rate.

 

IF you can afford it consider a 256MB SSD for FSX or keep it as a future buy when price drops even further. The reason I am suggesting SSD is, I have many of european photo scenery in 6gb Sata III 1 TB HD and the Orbx sceneries on my SSD. I get no blurries whatsoever when flying over Orbx...but when flying over Euro photoscenery I do get some blurries. I am suspecting its the SSD vs HDD.

 

So would the faster memory you mentioned be the 8GB RAM section?...I was going to have this overclocked but do you still think it needs to be faster?

 

And the PSU...As mentioned I will probably go for the 850W model now instead of the listed 600W.

 

Also, one thing I absolutely love about FSX is the water effects....I see you mentioned something about this above including Bloom effects....now; ive been FS9 user till now so I'm unfamiliar with what effect bloom even has on the sim or what effect it has on performance....baring in mind that my main concern is having a large volume of ai traffic included in FSX that will obviously have its kick on performance already....hence why I'm trying to build a PC that can handle FSX with impressive results.

This is Ivy Bridge: Processor: Intel Core i7 3370K 6MB Cache Socket 1155.

 

Ah okay, see you learn something new everyday....so faster RAM you say?

I'll leave others to answer that for you but I believe Ivy Bridge with the Z77 MB can utilize the faster ram and since you are building new and the performance out weighs the cost, use it.

I'll leave others to answer that for you but I believe Ivy Bridge with the Z77 MB can utilize the faster ram and since you are building new and the performance out weighs the cost, use it.

 

I would have to agree. I went with slow memory on my system (see below) over-clocked it to acceptable speeds but I will be getting something faster (stock) soon.

 

Also, defiantly up the PSU, if you skimp on the PSU you run the risk of ruining all the other components.

 

 

I would have to agree. I went with slow memory on my system (see below) over-clocked it to acceptable speeds but I will be getting something faster (stock) soon.

 

What kinda memory would we be thinking of?? I'm not that great what what's good and compatible with the spec I'm building....I'm building this on what other people have recommended...

What kinda memory would we be thinking of?? I'm not that great what what's good and compatible with the spec I'm building....I'm building this on what other people have recommended...

 

Faster memory. Instead of the DDR3- 1600, say like DDR3-2400 like this one,.That was made for the Ivy Bridge processor.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231587

 

About the water.. Yes... 1.x water in FSX is like the fs9 water...and 2.x water (x => Low - high) water is the new FSX water and yes, it is amazing. The primary reason I moved from all my addons for FS9 to FSX earlier.

 

But IMO, 2.low gets you the amazing water... 2.high etc adds to the already amazing water..but the FPS hit is also very high. So I keep it at 2.low (Fsx water without the additional frils like reflections etc). Buf I like AI so I keep that fairly high. So if you like the fsx water so much yeah...Sure go for it, but be prepared to cut something else somewhere. I know still, there is no CPU out there where we can move all sliders to the right and get 60FPS locked under all addons. :)

 

Manny

The main thing that hits me Brad, is the GPU. At 600W it's a little on the lame side. I would suggest a 750 or preferable an 850W which would make it relatively future proof.

A 650W PSU will power any single graphics card build. Even a 600W should be enough for the GTX 670.

Before I would've bought a future proof PSU, but today PC-components uses less and less power so the picture looks a little different.

 

750W or 850W will be overkill for this build.