Processor 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3450 processor (up to 3.50 GHz) Operating System Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English Memory² 8GB³ Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz Hard Drive 1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 620 1GB DDR3 Warranty 1 Year ProSupport with 1 Year NBD Limited Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis Recommended Upgrade Dell Recommends: Windows^®7 Professional

 

or

Processor 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (3.40GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.90GHz) Operating System Windows 7 Professional, 64bit with XP Mode Installed Memory² 8GB³ Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz Hard Drive 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache Video Card AMD Radeon™ HD 7570 1GB DDR5 Warranty 1 Year ProSupport and 1 Year NBD Onsite Service

 

 

This was copied directly from the Dell website so these are their computers I take no credit for any of the information provided.

Second one, except put a nvidia 660ti or therabouts in it. Think about a water cooler if you want to overclock. Also, 2133 Mhz RAM will help performance according to some a little bit.

Do either of you know a cpu that has most of those items?

Would a NVidia GeForce GT 640 do better than the AMD 7570 or no?

Second config but with-:

1) i7 3770K (not i7 3770)

2)Good Z77 chipset based motherboard for overclocking.

3)GTX 660Ti. If not possible then a gtx 660 should do as well. Nvidia performs much better in fsx. Even for games other than FSX 7570 is just not good enough.

4)A decent air cooler for overclocks upto 4.5-4.6 Ghz. Beyond that you may need a water cooling solution or a high end air cooling solution like Noctua NH D14(i personally don't like the bulky looks of this cooler).

5) Faster RAM if possible.

6) At the very least a good 650w PSU.

 

Alot of money can be saved if you build your system by yourself rather than buying a pre-built system from dell. Sometimes these pre-built systems have locked BIOS and overclocking them becomes a nightmare.

 

Regards,

Rohit

I don't know if I'm capable of building my own PC.

 

Either way, I'm on a serious budget (like $700 or less!) so is there any home-built ideas any of you may have? I really am clueless when it comes to things like this. I just want a decent increase in my old 10 FPS w/ PMDG 737 NGX computer...

I did mine a few years ago from these guys. There are of course plenty of other sites out there too.

 

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_ASUS_Z77_Configurator/

 

At least worth playing with. I'm in a similar situation in that I want to upgrade. But am looking at upgrading my processor/video card. Constrained by what is compatible with my motherboard, which is making it a bit tricky.

Guys, that's Dell, don't go recommending things like K series CPU's or monster video cards that the PSU will not handle and probably Dell doesn't even offer.

 

Actually, among those two the first option is better. This is a clear case of I7 fever.

Guys, that's Dell, don't go recommending things like K series CPU's or monster video cards that the PSU will not handle and probably Dell doesn't even offer.

 

Actually, among those two the first option is better. This is a clear case of I7 fever.

 

Yes, exactly. One member above suggested cyberpowerpc, which I haven't heard anything bad about. That is probably where my new rig comes from. For homebuilt, go to newegg and buy what you need. You can save many dollars that way.

AMD Phenom II X6 1045T 2.70GHz AM3 Processor

AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz 512KB 45NM 125W 4000MHZ

 

For m, which would be a better option? I'm looking to go from an X4 950 @ 3.3 to something with a little more speed. Unfortunately a completely new machine isn't an option at this moment. Just curious. Thanks.

Second one, 700 dollars right now, plus tax, as has been said, save for a gtx 660 (don't get the oem version) would work fine.