Hi There,

 

I have through my son recently got into FSX and have been amazed at the quality of addons that are available that make this piece of software very realistic.

 

I have been thinking about buying a new PC for this project and would like some advice from you experienced guys as to whether or not this is a good PC

 

Asus CM6870-CA-3AA

3rd Gen i7 3770 @ 3.4GHZ

16GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHZ

Nvidia GT630 2GB DDR3

2TB SATA Drive

300W Power supply

 

I know to get peek peformance I would need to upgrade both the graphics card & PSU but other than that is this a good PC to handle FSX plus various scenery addons. I can get this PC on sale for $900 in Canada.

 

Alternatively I have been looking at a Dell Alienware PC that is $1,500 which includes the following

3rd Gen i7 3820 Overclocked to 4.1 GHZ

8GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHZ

Nvidia GTX555 1 GB DDR3

 

I do not mind spending the extra money on the Alienware if it is going to be worthhile in the long run. But if the Asus is a good enough starting point with upgrading a couple of components down the road then I would also consider this.

 

As always with these forums I really do appreciate any help or advice that is offered.

 

Can't wait to start building my home cockpit :rolleyes: !!

 

Richard

Either would do well. most important is to get the cpu overclocked as high as possible, it has the biggest effect, also you will need at leat a 800W PSU to be safe these days, and read reviews on the power supply you choose as they are not all as they seem, Dont get cheap on the power supply.

Believe you can find your answere and more by looking through thre following.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/forum/326-mobo-ram-cpus-other-hardware/

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Either would do well. most important is to get the cpu overclocked as high as possible, it has the biggest effect, also you will need at leat a 800W PSU to be safe these days, and read reviews on the power supply you choose as they are not all as they seem, Dont get cheap on the power supply.

 

I would agree that a 300W power supply will not cut it, and the GT630 is an entry level GPU. Not adequate to run FSX.

 

The 555 is much better, and a 660 would be the current technology card to shoot for. (Not geek level, but very good.)

 

Check a small PC shop near where you live and see if they can assemble something good for $1500 - should be possible.

 

Edit: I just checked and the Alienware can be equipped with a 660 (do not go for dual cards!).

Well worth the $100 upgrade price. That will do the job, nicely.

Thanks guys,

 

So would it be safe to say that the Asus PC with an upgraded GPU & Power supply a little further down the road would be a good investment. I guess the reason I am hedging towards this is that it's from a national chain and I can go right back to them with any warranty issues. I know the one thing that the Asus doesn't have is an overclockable processor. Is this really necessary seeing that it's a pretty fast processor in the first place with a good amount of RAM to compliment it

 

Thanks for your help

 

Richard

There are lots or problems with them build IMO,never get Alienware,it's a piece of junk.

 

You want an i5 or i7 and get the K version and at minimum a GTX 660 Ti

 

You need a K version CPU to overclock (FSX loves OC'ing)

 

If you want very good FSX performance build your own PC,it will work out cheaper as well!

 

A GT630 may look good because of that RAM but trust me its not good!

I would build it yourself. If you can make a home cockpit you can easily piece together a nice system: http://www.newegg.ca/ http://www.ncix.ca/ etc

 

Yes, you definitly want a "K" series cpu

 

Here's what I would get as a baseline:

 

3570K

P8Z77-V-Pro

8GB 1866mhz ram (2x4 gb)

750w quality psu (Seasonic, Corsair)

GTX660 (ti preferred but the 660 is very nice too)

Aftermarket cooler for your cpu (H80/H100/Noctu- DH14 etc)

Win7 x64

Thanks guys,

 

So would it be safe to say that the Asus PC with an upgraded GPU & Power supply a little further down the road would be a good investment. I guess the reason I am hedging towards this is that it's from a national chain and I can go right back to them with any warranty issues. I know the one thing that the Asus doesn't have is an overclockable processor. Is this really necessary seeing that it's a pretty fast processor in the first place with a good amount of RAM to compliment it

 

Thanks for your help

 

Richard

 

No, this system will not run FSX properly, so "upgrading later" is not an option..

 

You've got to start with a system that will run FSX well, day one, or you are wasting your money (IMHO) B)

 

Ryan's proposed system (above) looks good to me, and if you do not want to assemble it yourself, suggest looking for a local PC shop, rather than a national chain..

Just to add a thought..

 

If you would like to leave something for future upgrades, I would suggest leaving

out the custom cooler and the overclocking and just start up the system at default settings.

 

If brand names are important to you, you can get an ASUS motherboard and GPU.

The processor would be Intel in any case.

 

It should run FSX nicely. When you want better performance (in the future), you add the cooler,

overclock the CPU, put FSX on an SSD, and possibly upgrade the GPU.

Thank you again for your advice,

 

So I have looked at some pricing and I may consider my own build. I have done it in the past. My question now is an i5 3570K good enough or should I go with the i7 3770K?

 

The basic specs would be:

 

i53570K or i73770K

Asus P8Z77-Pro

8GB DDR3 1600

Asus GTX660 (May go for the GTX670 if an i5 is the better buy)

Coolermaster case

750W PSU

 

Quite excited about this little project, it's been a wile since I built my own PC :rolleyes:

 

Richard

Thank you again for your advice,

 

So I have looked at some pricing and I may consider my own build. I have done it in the past. My question now is an i5 3570K good enough or should I go with the i7 3770K?

 

The basic specs would be:

 

i53570K or i73770K

Asus P8Z77-Pro

8GB DDR3 1600

Asus GTX660 (May go for the GTX670 if an i5 is the better buy)

Coolermaster case

750W PSU

 

Quite excited about this little project, it's been a wile since I built my own PC :rolleyes:

 

Richard

 

For FSX the 3570K is fine. I'd get the GTX670 for that swap and then make sure your 750w psu is nice brand like Seasonic or Corsair.

I agree with the 3570K, and would save some money and stick with the 660 B)

 

Coolermaster case is a good choice also..

 

The "ultimate system" comes later with overclocking, SSDs etc..

Thanks Guys,

 

Off to do some shopping !!

 

Richard

Ok I went shopping the other night and now have a new PC with FSX on it

 

Asus P8Z77-V Pro

i5 3570K

Kuehler H20 920 Liquid CPU Cooler

8GB Kingston Hyper X Performance DDR3 1600

Asus GTX 660 TI

Asus 24X DVD Burner

OCZ ZT 750W PSU

WD 1 TB 6GB/S Sata 3 (SS Drive will come later)

Coolermaster CM690 II Case

 

All in all I spent around another $150 than I would have done if I had got the original system from Futureshop, What was I thinking !!!

 

I even negotiated the shop to assemble it for me for $40. They did a sweet job too

 

Everything is now loaded and I have a working FSX Acceleration with REX 2.0. ORBX PNW & My Traffic. Still got my addon aircraft to install but first I am going to start tweaking FSX.

 

I am going to run for a week with stock settings before I start to OC. Is there a tutorial on overclocking with the Asus motherboard?

 

Thanks again for everyone's help. I now have a pretty nice rig.

 

Richard