Hello all. After a few years off i have been bitten by the bug and it is time to get into FSX again, and with that its time for a new build. I have been out of the loop for a while when it comes to PC components. I went on new egg and put some things together and just would like to run it by everyone here for some advice. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know, i would like to get the most for my investment. Right now the price is $1650 including monitor, i would be willing to go up to $1900, even $2000 if there is something that would give a great improvement over what i have now. I have a 500GB HDD right now on the list, but am curious about SDD's. Would i see a great improvement in performance if i would shell out for im assuming a 256GB? SDD for FSX? Or should i just save the money and add another HDD for FSX only? And also, i have windows 8 in the cart but i think ill end up going with windows 7? One last thing, im going to wait till Haswell comes out and see how that is, i would just have to change the processor and motherboard and everything else will still work, correct? I do plan on OC'ing, do i have enough cooling with that single CPU fan, i dont plan on doing an extreme OC, maybe 4.3-4.5 ghz? Thanks for any help!!

 

               COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD5000HHTZ 500GB 10000 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM   ASUS GTX660 TI-DC2O-2GD5 GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card   CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC ...   Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model 997092

 

ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

 

Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K

 

ARCTIC COOLING A7P-75000023 92mm CPU Cooler

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there,

 

Great hardware selecions.

 

As to your storage setup, this is my setup for you reference as I have quite happy with it.

 

For OS and smaller programs, I have an SSD 80GB will be enough, depends on what you want to install.

 

A larger HHD like 1 to 2 TBs for larger file storage and backups.

 

For FSX, I use a 120GB SSD, and alot of users here would have said that the loading performace is much better and the blurries is almost elimiated as well as the overall performance had increased (less stuttering), so in my opinion, a SSD drive is worth the money.

 

In order to get the best overall performance in FSX is to have a balanced system, meaning the highest overclocking with the best memory timing and also, not to modify too much in the fsx.cfg.  Keep your system clean and onyl install what you need, that applies to FSX and other programs.

 

 

A friend of mine had made a new rig with SSD's in it. He had them replaced twice. So be carefull if you buy one of those. If you want to combine speed, storage, quality at not to high prices the WD Velociraptors is a very good choice in my opinion. It does make a difference using speedy disks esspecialy when loading this heavy "game".I use a WD Velocity [500GB] in my rig just for FSX, I use 1TB in RAID10 for the system [safe and fast] with ordinary HD's The clue with X is still processor speed. I've got the i7 980 pumped up to 4,2 GHz [watercooled with one of those neat small out of the box watercoolers - 64 C max in "X". Your system look very good indeed to me.

Mine is pretty similar and I've been pretty happy with it.  I think I have the specs in my profile.  I have it OC to 4.5 and will keep it there.  I have a few small tweaks to do but once I got it to 4.5, I've been really happy.  I'm running a SSD and different cooler (Corsair H100)

I see that you have 2 GPU's listed is that for SLI configuration?  If so FSX does not support it.

Don't bother with that CPU cooler. It's no better than the stock intel cooler.

 

If you plan on overclocking which I assume you do then you need to go for something better. A Hyper 212 at minimum I would say: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

 

Otherwise it may be worthwhile going for one of the all in one water coolers like the H100i etc.

thanks  for the replies. now im just going to wait on haswell to come out and see if its worth the upgrade

 

adam