hello fellow simmers, this is my first post after being a long term reader of the forum. i am going to buy a new system just for fsx. i had an old XPS710 and ran it smoothly but it died a few months back, hence the new machine. it will be a dell, i know building is better and cheeper but i will need to option of paying the system over 2 years as i dont have £900 to spare straight up on a desktop.

 

i am looking at the dell XPS 8500 and alienware x51.

 

xps

 

 

3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB)

Operating System

Windows 8 64bit, English

Monitor

Display Not Included

Memory2

8GB3 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz

Hard Drive

2TB Serial ATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive

Video Card

NVIDIA® GeForce GT 640 1GB DDR5 Graphics Card

Optical Drive

16x DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)

Keyboard

 

 

x51

Processor

Intel® Core™ i5-3330 (6M Cache, up to 3.2GHz)

Operating System

Windows 8 64bit, English

Monitor

Display Not Included

Memory4

8GB5 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz

Hard Drive

1TB Serial ATA (7,200 rpm)

Video Card

1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660

Optical Drive

 

Any help would be appreciated, other suggestions regarding dells are welcome.

 

 

 

 

Hey,

 

I won't steal anyone's thunder on advice, but I am glad to see you jumped from being a reader to a reader and a writer.

 

Welcome to AVSIM!

 

Kind regards,

<p>Your CPU choice on the Dell setup is better than Alienware but just keep in mind that the ability to overclock your CPU is highly advantageous is the Fsx world. Only K version CPU's have unlocked multipliers allowing you to do this. I think the GT 640 might be inadequate though. The 660ti is generally regarded to be the minimum for an Fsx dedicated PC. Regards</p>

I'll echo the same sentiments above:

K CPU for overclocking

GTX 650 or better or you're severely holding back your CPU by using such a slow GPU

Thanks for the feedback guys, had a look at putting the K type CPU in the machine but i cant justify spending another £500 odd on system. Looking at a Budget of £1100-£1200 tops. I really do appreciate the help and the time spent answering my topic. 

500? You must be looking at the 6 core chips. That's not what we're talking about. The 3570K or 3770K are what you want, and they will add minimal cost.

Yeah 500, sorry please forgive me I'm good with the PC once I have it but not to clued up on the numbers that make it up. I don't suppose u could show me the full specs I need to run fsx with smooth performance and great graphics with my budget of £1200

 

Many thanks

If you are willing to give building a try, you can get a really good system for that budget. Building a computer is far easier than it sounds, and will save you a ton. For fsx, I would recommend something, like this: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/snowingairlines/saved/1std

At least get the K version CPU and overclock it yourself. Going from a native 3.5 Ghz to something in the 4.5 Ghz range will net you more gains in performance at a relatively low cost than anything else will. Just remember to get some aftermarket cooling before attempting an overclock.

Yeah 500, sorry please forgive me I'm good with the PC once I have it but not to clued up on the numbers that make it up. I don't suppose u could show me the full specs I need to run fsx with smooth performance and great graphics with my budget of £1200

 

Many thanks

 

Ok, I'll try to  make this as simple as possible.  See the chip you have in the first PC configuration, 3770?  Add a K on to the end of that.  That's what you want.  Also, you probably don't want a Dell because you likely won't be able to overclock.  Try a place like  overclockers.co.uk, they can build a system for you and they can even overclock it for you.  

Thanks for the tips, I had a look at the overclockers site and the systems look much better for the cost and they do finance to help spread the cost, we may be on to a winner.

This is of the overclockers site.

 

The Titan "Dragon Army" is based on the latest MSI Gaming series motherboard, designed to provide gamers with best-in-class features and technology. Backed by the imposing looks of MSI's dragon, each system is an engineering masterpiece tailored to gaming perfection.

The Best gaming Weapons At Hand
- The highest frag and the lowest lag with Killer E2200 NIC Gaming LAN
- Gaming device port optimised for gaming mice with high polling rates reducing delay by 8x
- Top quality audio solution with Sound Blaster Cinema
- Watercooled, overclocked Intel i5 3570K Quad Core CPU wil never leave you lagging
- A choice of the latest MSI DirectX 11 Graphics to power through the latest games

U]System Specification
- Case: NZXT Phantom 410 Enthusiast Gaming Case - Red
- Power Supply: Corsair GS 600w PSU 
- CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz Ivybridge CPU
- Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming Series (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard 
- Cooler: NZXT Kraken X40 140mm Water Cooling Unit
- RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Primary Hard Drive: 1TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache Hard Drive (SSD/HDD Options Available)
- Secondary Hard Drive: SSD/HDD Options Available
- Graphics Card: MSI GeForce 650Ti Boost 2048MB Gaming Series Graphics card (default choice, options available)
- Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 7.1 HD Audio (gaming sound card upgrade options)
- Optical Drive: OcUK 24x DVD+/-RW SATA Drive 
- Operating Systems: No Operating System installed - Choose from Windows 7 or 8

 

is this more the thing i need to great performance with add ons?

Just a reminder that if you intend to overclock you may well need to upgrade to better cooling.  

is this a better cooler? Corsair H60 Watercooler

hi guys thanks for advice again, i have been reading this and that on the forum and searching. But all the different opinions and stats are spinning my head. Could someone if they have time and can help be able to go on to overclockers.co.uk, dell.co.uk or a similar site and build a system that i would need to run FSX smooth with reasonable settings and add ons. many thanks, Paul