Building a high performance FSX rig

[Futurepilot10 0]

Hi AVSIM community,

 

I'm planning to build my first FSX rig. I'm a first timer PC builder.

 

I'm going for the following:

 

* CPU: i7-3770K (overclocked as stable as possible)

 

* Mother Board: Asus P8Z77 (here is where I need help, I see so many different models, I was thinking to use the P8Z77-V Deluxe - $284.99 Microcenter - but I also see the P8Z77-V PRO LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel - $204.99 Microcenter -, could you please try to help me understand the difference?, I plan to hardwire the internet cable directly to the PC, so I really don't need WIFI.

 

* RAM: Corsair Dominator GT series 8GB (4GB x 2), DDR3, 2133 MHz, CL 9

 

* GPU: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 SC, 2 GB

 

* SSD: Samsung 830 Series 256GB MZ-7PC256D/AM (For both Windows 7 and FSX + some Add-Ons)

 

* Hard Drive: WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB (For personal files)

 

* PSU: Corsair 1200 Watt 80 plus Gold

 

* CPU Cooling System: Corsair Hydro H100

 

* Case: Cooler Master RC-932-KKN5-GP HAF 932 Advance Full Tower Case (Not firm desicion yet)

 

Please let me know what do you think... If I should consider changing/adding a/some component (s) please let me know your specific recommendation.

 

Thank you VERY much!!!

[Ben Cap 89]

 

* Mother Board: Asus P8Z77 (here is where I need help, I see so many different models, I was thinking to use the P8Z77-V Deluxe - $284.99 Microcenter - but I also see the P8Z77-V PRO LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel - $204.99 Microcenter -, could you please try to help me understand the difference?, I plan to hardwire the internet cable directly to the PC, so I really don't need WIFI.

 

 

Unless you need the nearly useless extra features on the Deluxe version, stick with the standard P8Z77-V Motherboard.

 

* PSU: Corsair 1200 Watt 80 plus Gold

 

The Corsair AX750 would be a much better bang for buck. 1200 watts is total overkill. Your system at max load would never pull anymore than 550Watts....

 

 

* RAM: Corsair Dominator GT series 8GB (4GB x 2), DDR3, 2133 MHz, CL 9

 

I recommend something a bit more affordable. - GSkill Ripjaws DDR3 2133 CL9.

[ryanbatc 12,770]

If money is no factor that's an impressive rig. Yeah the 1200 is a bit much. Simply buying a sold 750w will be plenty. Seasonic x750 gold will be fine - which is what I use.

 

Correct you don't need wifi on your main rig unless you'll only have access to wifi hotspot.

[Great Ozzie 101]

Your system specs are pretty close to what I recently assembled. Differences:

• Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-WS
  
• Ram: G.Skill F3-2666C11D-8GTXD
  
• GPU: I used an EVGA GTX 580 from another system
  
• PSU: I'm using a Corsair AX1200i (1200w) because I HATE skimping on PSUs and I think it the "lifeblood" of a system. E.g. I knew I was going to oc and didn't want a psu with poor / mediocre / wobbly voltage specs affecting the oc.
  
• HD: using a WD500 gb drive I had as a spare for my NAS... but... I had chosen (almost bought) that exact model WD drive, the WD1002FAEX
  

 

I have 2 of the exact Samsung 830s you list... one for the OS and a 2nd for D: (FSX drive). Here's some example load times:

• Restart to logon screen: 30sec
  
• Windows "all loaded" by 1:15 (this from restart)
  
• FSX Initial Loading: 8 secs
  
• Default "Fly Now" (ultralight / fair wx): 6secs
  
• C172 Trainer @ KJFK 31L Gray & Rainy Wx: 21sec
  

 

could you please try to help me understand the difference?

 

Go to www.newegg.com - pick the boards you want to compare... then "compare" this link does just that:

http://www.newegg.co...9^13-131-819-TS

 

Your case seems to be well liked @ newegg:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811119160

 

HTH's

-Rob

[SteveK 0]

Hi,

 

Welcome to the world of PC buiding, you're gonna love it.

 

As I have recently, like a month ago, also built a new FSX rig, I would liketo make a few suggestions here and share some experiences.

 

The specs that you have listed are very similar to my new PC except for a few differences which I'll outline below:

• Great, no, Awesome CPU. I got a 3770K as well and she's a beast. If using mainly for FSX, just remember to disable HT. Although the 3570K was an option for me, I liked the fact that the 3770K had a bit more Cache which could make a difference.
  
• The ASUS motherboards are good, I got myself the Maximus V Gene, but I understand that the ASRock Z77 motherboards are also pretty good at a cheaper price point, if price is an issue to you. They overclock pretty well.
  
• Although Corsair memory is very good, I would suggest G.Skill. I have the Trident X 2400MHz and very impressed so far. 8 GB is also enough for FSX.
  
• If money is no issue for you, then by al means get yourself an EVGA GTX680. As far as best bang for your buck, I would recommend going for the GTX670. The EVGA 670 FTW is a very nice card.
  
• The Samsung SSD's are good, but my suggestion is to have a look at the OCZ Vertex 4, with the latest firmware, one of the fastest SSD's out there. I have a 128GB Vertex 4 SSD for FSX.
  
• With your system, unless you are thinking of running 2 GPU's in SLI, I would not recommend as much as a 1200W PSU. Ben Cap is spot on with his suggestion, although I decided to get the AX850 as I got it at the same cost as the AX750, but go with this rather, 1200W is way too much. In fact, the 750 or 850 will even run a SLI system with 2 600 series GPU'swith ease.
  
• If you want to start with watercooling, the Corsair H100 is a good choice. I have one too and it coold my Ivy Bridge very well, even when pushed to the limit with benchmarks. It's a little bit more tricky to mount than your average air cooler, but still pretty simple. My only advise would be to buy yourself different fans, unless you're happy with noise, a lot of noise. The corsair fans that come with the H100 are good at what they do, but they are very loud at any speed. I got myself a pair of Corsair SP120 quiet edition as replacements and they work just fine. ANother thing I would advise would be to run your H100 water pump at full speed and connect the fans to a seperate fan speed controller, otherwise a good CPU cooler and good starting point to learn about water cooling.
  
• The case is pretty much your personal preference, I got a Corsair 600T White Edition, but had a bit of an issue with getting the H100 radiator mounted in the top with my motherboard, so a bit of planning is required. ASUS tend to put the 8pin CPU power connector very close to the edge of the board at the top, which creates a bit of an obsticle.
  

 

Otherwise, you seem to have a good system going there. Just DON'T rush when you building it. Route as many cables as you can behind the motherboard tray to make your rig look better inside and to help with air flow. If you need help with anything, just ask on the forums.

 

Good luck!

[HUSSAR 254]

Hi,

 

Welcome to the world of PC buiding, you're gonna love it.

 

As I have recently, like a month ago, also built a new FSX rig, I would liketo make a few suggestions here and share some experiences.

 

The specs that you have listed are very similar to my new PC except for a few differences which I'll outline below:

• Great, no, Awesome CPU. I got a 3770K as well and she's a beast. If using mainly for FSX, just remember to disable HT. Although the 3570K was an option for me, I liked the fact that the 3770K had a bit more Cache which could make a difference.
  
• The ASUS motherboards are good, I got myself the Maximus V Gene, but I understand that the ASRock Z77 motherboards are also pretty good at a cheaper price point, if price is an issue to you. They overclock pretty well.
  
• Although Corsair memory is very good, I would suggest G.Skill. I have the Trident X 2400MHz and very impressed so far. 8 GB is also enough for FSX.
  
• If money is no issue for you, then by al means get yourself an EVGA GTX680. As far as best bang for your buck, I would recommend going for the GTX670. The EVGA 670 FTW is a very nice card.
  
• The Samsung SSD's are good, but my suggestion is to have a look at the OCZ Vertex 4, with the latest firmware, one of the fastest SSD's out there. I have a 128GB Vertex 4 SSD for FSX.
  
• With your system, unless you are thinking of running 2 GPU's in SLI, I would not recommend as much as a 1200W PSU. Ben Cap is spot on with his suggestion, although I decided to get the AX850 as I got it at the same cost as the AX750, but go with this rather, 1200W is way too much. In fact, the 750 or 850 will even run a SLI system with 2 600 series GPU'swith ease.
  
• If you want to start with watercooling, the Corsair H100 is a good choice. I have one too and it coold my Ivy Bridge very well, even when pushed to the limit with benchmarks. It's a little bit more tricky to mount than your average air cooler, but still pretty simple. My only advise would be to buy yourself different fans, unless you're happy with noise, a lot of noise. The corsair fans that come with the H100 are good at what they do, but they are very loud at any speed. I got myself a pair of Corsair SP120 quiet edition as replacements and they work just fine. ANother thing I would advise would be to run your H100 water pump at full speed and connect the fans to a seperate fan speed controller, otherwise a good CPU cooler and good starting point to learn about water cooling.
  
• The case is pretty much your personal preference, I got a Corsair 600T White Edition, but had a bit of an issue with getting the H100 radiator mounted in the top with my motherboard, so a bit of planning is required. ASUS tend to put the 8pin CPU power connector very close to the edge of the board at the top, which creates a bit of an obsticle.
  

Otherwise, you seem to have a good system going there. Just DON'T rush when you building it. Route as many cables as you can behind the motherboard tray to make your rig look better inside and to help with air flow. If you need help with anything, just ask on the forums.

 

Good luck!

Steve, is the SSD used as a cache? Also SLI is not recommended with FSX as it does not provide any benefit at all.

[SteveK 0]

Steve, is the SSD used as a cache? Also SLI is not recommended with FSX as it does not provide any benefit at all.

 

Hi Robert,

 

No I don't use it as a cache drive, it's a 128GB and more than big enough for my FSX files. I use it as a second drive in my PC just for FSX, so I have FSX installed in D:\FSX.

 

I have heard that SLi makes next to no difference for FSX, hence the reason why I got a decent single card. The GTX680 was a bit too expensive for me, although I was considering it.

 

Cheers,

[Great Ozzie 101]

1200W is way too much.

 

There's more to picking a power supply than adding a few numbers and then picking a bigger number. :wink:

 

Fwiw the Samsung 840s are soon to be released...

 

Also, I forgot to mention there are vids on youtube like this one that ASUS / newegg do describing mb differences...

 

[Futurepilot10 0]

_{Thank you VERY much to ALL... your suggestions and recommendations will help me A LOT... I will analize all your comments and then share with you the final specs.}

 

_{SteveK is recommending to disable HT on the CPU 3770K if the rig is mainly used for FSX (which is my case). Could somebody help me on how to do that? and if you could explain what is the difference on having enable or disable HT on the CPU.}

 

_{Regarding the Mother Board, I noticed that the deluxe has 10 USB ports in total (6 3.0 and 4 2.0) while the standard models has 6 USB ports total. In the near future I'm planning to buy SAITEK cessna pro flight yoke, pedals and some more SAITEK products. So I will need a considerable amount of USB connections. Maybe I could install a separate USB card PCI-E.}

 

_{Thanks again and please keep recommending or sharing your experiance in bulding a PC.}

 

_{Happy Flying!!!}

[Great Ozzie 101]

SteveK is recommending to disable HT on the CPU 3770K if the rig is mainly used for FSX

 

It's in the BIOS... I had the "weird" experience of when I ran the Asus oc utility, it re-enabled HT... so be aware of that.

 

The motherboard should have some USB ports that will use the ports on the case. A caveat... I had an Xbox controller that worked fine on the case (front) port but the X-65F said, "no thanks... no way" and I had to use a port (from the motherboard) on the rear of the case. May or may not be a problem for you.

 

Srdan Kostic (Word Not Allowed) has worked very hard compiling a Software / Hardware Guide pinned in this forum... definitely worth reading... in fact the entire thread is a good read as a number of other "good fellas" who posted in that thread.

 

Good discussion in this thread http://forum.avsim.n...e__st__75��with w/ Word Not Allowed & Paul J

 

You might want to check SimForums and the advice of NickN (and others) post there. Nick has a good guide when installing Windows and setting up FSX...

 

You have to glean info and use what best works for you... there are some mighty fine (and unmentioned) people here at AVSIM with good, practical experience w/ FSX.

 

Take your time... be deliberate... google / ask here if not sure what to do. Some people (like my brother... a hardware / software designer / engineer) scoff at the idea of using (e.g. latex) gloves and a (wrist) grounding strap... I nearly always use. Good idea to at least ground yourself before touching a component (don't handle the pcb and touch the contacts) Use good practices like NEVER force anything... don't pull / install components with the psu plugged in. We're getting into winter (here) and RH (humidity) is decreasing making the potential static elec.discharge more of a concern. This isn't the time to drag your feet across a carpet and see how big of arc you can make.

 

There's other stuff like not the best idea to oc then install software... why it helps to look for install / build guides.

 

This Asus board I have has a bizarre behaviour of not letting me into the BIOS unless I unplug the psu ("press the DEL key to enter bios setup... then watch me completely ignore you and go straight to Windows") . There's a work-around (I think it's pressing F8).

 

Enjoy!

 

Happy Flaying!!!

 

Dang... now you have me thinking of going fishing...

 

Edit:

 

I forgot to add...

 

Instead of assembling the whole kit and caboodle... tie-wrapping cabling... buttoning up the case etc... then pressing the power on... you might want to consider "bread boarding" i.e. installing just the cpu & heatsink / ram and hooking up the monitor/keyboard/mouse and see if you can boot. Motherboard NEEDS to be on a non-conductive surface (cardboard works). This way if you have "bad" ram or something, you can find out right away... rather that tearing all that stuff apart and / or trying to work inside a case. Google it (breadboarding motherboard).

[Futurepilot10 0]

Hey Guys... Which one of the following versions of the EVGA GTX 680 GPU you think is better for FSX:

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BGXXB8/ref=pe_250830_26198870_pe_epc_dt1

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BGXWTG/ref=pe_250830_26198870_pe_epc_dt2

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0083YF55U/ref=pe_250830_26198870_pe_epc_dt3

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008AFZ0VQ/ref=pe_250830_26198870_pe_epc_dt4

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0083Y6MWK/ref=pe_250830_26198870_pe_epc_dt5

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007KRX3GY/ref=pe_250830_26198870_pe_epc_dt6

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VBFFWO/ref=pe_250830_26198870_pe_epc_dt7

 

 

Regards to all!!!

[Ben Cap 89]

Hey Guys... Which one of the following versions of the EVGA GTX 680 GPU you think is better for FSX:

http://www.amazon.co...8870_pe_epc_dt1

http://www.amazon.co...8870_pe_epc_dt2

http://www.amazon.co...8870_pe_epc_dt3

http://www.amazon.co...8870_pe_epc_dt4

http://www.amazon.co...8870_pe_epc_dt5

http://www.amazon.co...8870_pe_epc_dt6

http://www.amazon.co...8870_pe_epc_dt7

Regards to all!!!

 

Just go for the most inexpensive. There is no reason to buy an OCed card because it makes little to no difference.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

I'll second Ben's recommendation. It's really luck of the draw on how far your card will OC anyway. I bought a plain jane vanilla 680 from Asus and it hits higher clocks than most every review sample I've seen out there, and that was even before I switched to water cooling.

[Ben Cap 89]

I bought a plain jane vanilla 680 from Asus and it hits higher clocks than most every review sample I've seen out there, and that was even before I switched to water cooling.

 

And my SC 660Ti actually is sometimes unstable at factory OC settings.... I actually had to back the clock down 50MHZ to get mine stable :lol:

 

GPUs and CPUs have massive diversity.

My CPU hits 4.9GHZ @ 1.4Volts. - Yours requires 1.5V for the same clock! (All respect)

 

Shocking that there is so much variation for such a refined manufacturing process.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

And my SC 660Ti actually is sometimes unstable at factory OC settings.... I actually had to back the clock down 50MHZ to get mine stable :lol:

 

That's too bad, you should be able to get it replaced under warranty if it's unstable at stock though.

 

GPUs and CPUs have massive diversity.

My CPU hits 4.9GHZ @ 1.4Volts. - Yours requires 1.5V for the same clock! (All respect)

 

Shocking that there is so much variation for such a refined manufacturing process.

 

Indeed. Makes me want to go buy another 3770k and do it all over again. Then I wake up and punch myself.