hi simmers, i am planning to invest in this pre build gaming system , it is quite expensive 2700 bucks. what do you think ? would that computer be good for fsx?

 

INTEL QUARDCORE 7 3.6 GHZ 10 MB CACHE

750 WATT THERMALTAKE POWER SUPPLY

THERMALTAKE OVERSEER RX-FULL

16 GB DDR3 CORSAIR RAM PC 1600

90 GB CORSAIR 2.5 " SSD DRIVE

SEAGATE 2TB SATA DRIVE (DVD BURNER BLU RAY READER)

1X N VIDIA ASUS 2GB GTX 670

1 HDMI 2DVI 1 DISPLAY PORT

2X INTEGRATED 10/100/1000 LAN PORT

ASUS RAMPAGE IV

8X USB 2.0 PORTS 4X USB 3.0 PORTS

7.1 CHANNEL INTEGRATED HD SOUND

2 PIECE STEREO SPEAKERS W/SUB

RAT 7 MOUSE AND RAZER ANANSI KEYBOARD SET

WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE 64

3 YEARS PARTS AND WARRANTY LABOUR DEPOT

27" ASUS MONITOR VE27UQ

1920X1080 RESOLUTION W/ 2MS RESPONSE

10,000,000:1 CONTRAST RATIO.

 

 

 

thx simmers henry

Make sure you take an i7 K-version you can overclock. absolutely necessary for FSX !!

 

Take your SSD a bit bigger, at least a 128 GB.

If you plan to put Windows 7 - 64 bit and FSX on it, take a 256 Gb if you can afford it;

I have an 160 Gb Intel 320 SSD and have only 50 Gb left now with my expanding FSX.

 

For the rest: great machine!

 

PS: very recommended reading stuff: http://#####.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/

I'm not sure who the builder is so I can't comment on that....however...just commenting on the parts..

 

+1 to everything Bartbear said.

 

If you're planning to overclock that. Make sure the CPU is the K model so that its unlocked.

 

If you can, bump the size of that SSD. 90 is pretty small. If you can...go at least 128...preferably 256.

 

I can speak from experience when I say that the "Rat" series of mice is awful. Google that "RAT 7" and you'll see what I mean. They are neat because they look kinda cool, and they are extremely configurable, but alot of people are having trouble getting them to track correctly. Some folks have trouble finding a surface that it likes to track on. For others they just end up having strange quirky tracking issues. It has something to do with the Twin-Eye sensor they use. I picked one up a few months ago, and it was nothing but frustration until I exchanged it a few weeks later. I exchanged it for a Logitech G700 and never looked back. Thats one of the best mice I've ever had, you can use it wireless or wired, its got a clutch on the mousewheel to allow it to free spin for rapid scrolling, a ton of programmable buttons, onboard storage of profiles, and its been great.

 

Overall, just based on the parts list...maybe its me but that looks a tad expensive for that list.

 

If you have the option, and some of those peripherals are add-ons that aren't part of your package (Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, etc.), you might want to investigate whether you can get them cheaper by ordering them separately from your favorite online retailer (Amazon, Newegg, etc.). Sometimes you can save alot of money that way, and often get products that are better than those offered by the vendor. Other times, the vendor is passing discounts on to you and you won't be able to beat the prices. Its worth checking though.

Make sure you take an i7 K-version you can overclock

What you guys are saying about the CPU is rubbish...

Mine is not a K at all, mine is the i7 3820, 10mb cache, and is overclocked from 3.6 to 4.8GHz

 

As for the SSD drive, if you only have a tight budget for such a small drive, then pick a systemboard that has RAID built in and just go with 2 x 1TB drives in RAID0 and you will see how fast it is..

 

I built 2 identical systems, 1 with 2 x SSD in RAID0(SATA3) and 1 with 2 x 1TB WD drives in RAID0(SATA2), both overclocked to 4.8GHz, and the speed difference between them is barely noticable during loading/booting up, zero difference when using the OS, and ZERO difference when loading or running FSX...

 

So on the whole, I wasted hundreds on those SSD's for minimal performance enhancement..

Flights load a bit faster on the SSD's, but once your flying, zero difference at all..

 

My suggestion would be to ditch the SSD completely, go with 2 of the best 1TB drives you can afford in RAID0 native on your motherboard, ditch the 16GB ram for 8GB (Anything more is wasted) and use the spare cash to upgrade that motherboard from the Rampage IV to a P9X79 Deluxe and get yourself as a minimum, a Corsair H100 CPU cooler...

 

FSX is CPU intensive, big time, and anything you can throw at making the CPU's life easier, and faster, the better, and an SSD drive will not do that, it will just make booting up a few seconds faster, and 16GB ram will leave you with 8GB+ doing nothing at all times.

 

Worth picking a decent case too, like the Antec P28, bloody awesome case... None of those stupid vents all over the side of it like some of the corsair ones, quieter, much better airflow, and lower temps (Know from experience, I know have a Corsair 600T that I cant even give away because they suck) and now have my kit in an Antec P28 getting 10deg lower temp on the systemboard (26deg instead of 36deg)

 

Both of my builds use the exact same kit now, same case, systemboard, overclocked to 4.8 super stable, idle @ 35deg / maxed out at 50deg, fast, and smooth, yet one has SSD's and the other runs on 2 x HDD, with ZERO flying difference at all.. Only difference is load times on a heavily added to system, so things like scenery, airports etc will take a few extra seconds on the HDD's, but you will get far more bang for your buck..

 

That's my experience so far from the last 3+ months of building, tearing apart, rebuilding, replacing stuff god knows how many times, even after reading kostas guide...

5+ months ago I started out with just my opinion of what should work, and ended up with what is now my experience of what works. Neither are the same..

Interesting post Richard, thanks for that.

Interesting post Richard, thanks for that.

Indeed, was even more interesting proving myself wrong in what I "thought" should be awesome" and what actually turned out to "be" awesome..

 

I had a Zalman GS1000 case running my windows home server a while back, and that case was just mega awesome, it really was the mutts nuts, but its new version also doesn't support the Corsair H100 cooler, or any radiator in the roof or back, so I made the fatal mistake of getting the Corsair 600T Mesh, and despite endless re-arranging things, and even after adding 4 fans to the side of it in 4 x push / 4 x pull and then 2 push, 2 pull, I just couldn't get the temps down to what I figured they should be..

 

Stuck in 7 Noctua fans, made zero difference, so then went hunting for a proper case, one that was not vented all over the place like a leaky bucket, and stumbled upon the Antec P28..

 

Well, once all my kit was in, instant 10deg lower idle temps across the systemboard, and much lower top end CPU temps under load, plus you can really feel the difference in the air flow coming out the top, its far more powerful, so the radiator has a much better airflow over it because the case isn't leaking air all over the place.

 

The SSD's are good, don't get me wrong, zero heat, zero noise, and pretty fast windows loading times, but I think for most users who are not doing anything disk intensive, the difference is not so great, so you might only notice it when loading up a fully maxed out FSX with all the add-on textures/sceneries/airports etc, in that your flight loads in 15 seconds instead of 1+ minute..

 

If you edit HD video too, then you WILL notice a big difference using SSD drives, as I notice this when opening or working on a 10GB video file, it opens in seconds, playback of the edit is smooth and exporting it once done is much much faster..

 

From all the cash I've thrown at my system (I don't even want to think about the total amount) the absolute best investment for me was the system-board, the case and the water cooling on the CPU & GPU (I have a full water cooling system in 1 PC and the Corsair H100 + Air cooling in the other)

 

Now I can fly the NGX737 at 30FPS+ almost anywhere except Heathrow (20% traffic/aircraft etc) where its 24+FPS

 

Been quite a learning curve I can tell ya...