I hate to sound like Clark Howard.... but maybe buying a PC isn't the right thing to do right now. Honestly, is it ever?

 

Anyhow, my thoughts are this... whether you over pay on price or pay interest, neither are ideal situations. With Christmas right around the corner, I can't imagine that Newegg will not run another promo, soon. I built a system for a family member last holiday season on a zero financing plan.

 

I'd wait.

 

Welcome to the forums! This is a great community, you'll enjoy it here!

 

Now, down to business.

 

Guys, I prefer to finance.

 

A) I have a difficult time giving up $1500 at one time.

B) I ALWAYS take advantage of special financing offers and pay off debt within the term I purchased. (Which is why at the age of 22 all three of my credit scores are 740+)

C) It's just easier for me pay it off over a given time than to fork it all up at once and be on an overly strict budget for the rest of the month.

 

I'm an EMT, not an engineer. I'm grossly underpaid... People at McDonalds probably make more than I do. I'm not debt free either. I'm paying off books and other things that I purchased for school and have several other bills. I also am driving a truck with a 5.7L V8. It also has the thirst for gas to match it's size. Between going to work and school, I am driving around 3500-4000 miles a month. Gas is expensive.

 

I'm simply looking for opinions on the X51. Like I said, I know it's nowhere near the system of choice for most (if not all), but I just need something that will run FS for the next 2 years until I can manage to build. I've been out of the loop for a while, so I've lost touch with today's technology. I'm trying to brush up on my knowledge as we speak B)

 

I just would like to know what type of performance I should expect out of the specs given for the X51 in my original post? :rolleyes:

To whom it may concern,

 

As a moderator I won't bash anything or anyone.

 

However, it would be irresponsible for me to remain quiet and not to state openly and firmly that any laptop you can buy will not run FSX anywhere near as well as a well designed performance desktop like those designated in these Hardware forums. A performance laptop will cost you more and deliver far less.

 

That is a fact.

 

Kind regards,

That is indeed a fact. heehee Imagine taking a 3ft x2ft x1ft Rig with 1ft long GPU and all the gear, and that's got fans going all over the place and they spin up when you get in the cockpit, and it all gets hotter quicker if you don't clean up the fluff, and fiddling with fsx.cfg does not make it run faster even though you tried setting MAGICALLY_INCREASE_FPS=60...then condense it to fit in a volume the size of an A4 Pad and expect to get FSX going properly then :}}

Assuming Alienware allows bios/overclock tweaking, get an Aurora with a K processor so you can try to get an oc of at least 4.5Ghz. Dump the 555 and get the 560Ti upgrade for free. The X51 cpu is not overclockable nor robust like FSX can soak up. You'll want the fastest cpu and best overclocking for it you can get, all other specs are plenty decent enough with the Aurora lineup.

I purchased an Alienware in 2008, literally maxed out EVERY single option they had. I remember having it shipped to my police department and my co-workers thinking I was on the take because of all the crazy stuff I ordered. I don't regret the purchase at all -- while pricey you definitely do purchase the name, warranty, and support.

 

I will say I recommend their product based off their good name, performance, and how they stand behind their product. I had to send my first Alienware back 6 times to Florida to be worked on by techs because FSX kept crashing. I was NOT happy. However, I was surprised they took responsibility for their machine as much as they did. Pleasantly surprised that is.

 

The CEO personally got involved with my case and assigned his assistant to contact me and express his apologies. He even granted me a rather generous line of credit in the store and told me to build whatever machine my heart desired and he would send it to me at no expense (more than I already paid). He even sent me a UPS, new keyboard, mouse, the whole nine yards. And upgraded my monitor to a 27 inch Dell.

 

Of course I maxed EVERYTHING out and they sent me the computer without question. They even threw in a free gaming laptop for me. Never had a single issue with the second machine they sent me and really think they have a good customer service department.

 

The computer runs great to this day and still can run new games with full sliders.

 

Wow that's really cool of them. Great service. Good to know....

 

Lee

I'm thinking that I will pick up the R4 and then do a CPU and Video Card swap in the next 6 months. Their prices for K's are outrageous.

 

I'm highly impressed with Digital Storm systems as well. I keep finding myself looking at their website.

 

Whats the story with 3570K Processors? How do they stack up to the 3770K?

 

Another though of mine is just to load up FS9 on my XPS and enjoy the crap out of it. I know that my laptop will run it without a hickup and all of my addons are for FS9 as well.

 

FSX is only tempting to me because of some of the aircraft I've seen. The Lancair and Duke made my mouth start to water!

Chase,

 

Glad you liked the digital storm website. It has an uncanny knack of "drawing" you in slowly

 

Jokes apart, I just think they give you a lot of options for systems vis a vis dell and others. From mid range to higher end machines, they have it all. I think, they also source custom components that you would like in particular that is not offered by them.

 

Either way, whichever route you take, I wish the best for you and hope your system gives you hours of pleasure running FSX

 

Cheers,

 

Dinshaw.

To whom it may concern,

 

As a moderator I won't bash anything or anyone.

 

However, it would be irresponsible for me to remain quiet and not to state openly and firmly that any laptop you can buy will not run FSX anywhere near as well as a well designed performance desktop like those designated in these Hardware forums. A performance laptop will cost you more and deliver far less.

 

That is a fact.

 

Kind regards,

 

Couldn't agree more. My post was unclear - I bought a laptop from Maingear for work, not FSX. They're one of a few builders offering custom laptops, and I needed a better-than-standard keyboard and a fully Photoshop-capable rig. But my FSX systems are always desktops - I wouldn't go near an FSX laptop. Maingear offers gaming desktops, as, of course, does Alienware. That's what I'd buy for FSX, if I wasn't too busy de-lidding an Ivy Bridge. Wish me luck!

 

Glad you liked the digital storm website. It has an uncanny knack of "drawing" you in slowly

 

No joke!

 

I just finished watching the instructional videos at Newegg on building your own. I've never built one myself, but have had one constructed by a store near my home. I just pieced together a fairly decent system for $1,215. Granted, I'm sure I could bring the overall cost down, but I have it configured with a Corsair case that is nearly $200 (awesome cable management features, acrylic window, and it's nice and large) and a $150 Modular PSU (I HATE an un-organized mess of wires). This PSU would allow me to use what I need without excess wires cluttering up my case.

 

So to be honest, I think I'm going to go with the majority and wait. An alienware would run me about another 500 and still wouldn't offer the performance I can get by building it. Until I decide to pull the trigger, I'll be enjoying FS9 on my XPS with all my add-ons. I've run FS9 on it before and it doesn't even hiccup. So until I make the jump to my build, I'll be hanging back with FS9.

 

Here's everything I have picked out..

 

i5-3570K w/ Cooler Master Hyper 212

ASRock Z77 Extreme4

8GB Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz

OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD (Will be for W7 and FS)

WD 1TB 7200RPM 6.0Gb/s (Data and other games)

EVGA GTX 660 2GB

Corsair Obsidian 650D Mid-Tower

SeaSonic X750

 

$1,214.91