Just a note ... the previous post is by no means an advertisement to begin manufacturing PCs for people ... I simply wanted to thank everyone for the excellent advice given on this forum and to offer ONE "lucky" (your opinion may vary) contestant the chance to have one of the PCs created for them ... AT COST ... no profits involved.

Martin:

 

That Corsair Carbide 300R is an incredibly clean and professional looking case isn't it?

 

As far as the cube ... it is really neat ... but it would be too wide to fit under my desk. 

 

C. T.

I've been reading through the forums looking for hardware tips and tricks ... always trying to test these theories of mine against reputable manufacturers.  I have to say I've been most impressed with JetLine Systems.  Even though they charge a hefty premium on their builds (always about $1,000 over what you can get better parts for on Newegg) for the person not willing to ground and pound their own systems into submission, paying that $1,000 premium for them to accomplish hardware testing ... performing overclocking ... testing for DOA parts or subpar performing parts ... installing Windows and MSFX ... giving a one or three year warranty and tech support for as long as you own the system ... dedicated tech support ... taking testing as far as performing a test flight in FSX ... options for high quality parts (PC Power and Cooling PSUs ... ASUS motherboards ... SSDs ... etc.) ... is so worth it.  If you notice, their lowest power system uses a Corsair PSU ... not too shabby.

 

Man, I wish I had found these guys before wasting my money on CyberPowerPC ... and not to mention spending so much time coming up with four variations of my own builds.

 

Now, I have to spend a day putting the new system together, testing it for functionality, installing and patching Windows, performing stress testing and benchmarks, burning the PC in for at least 24 hours, installing and tweaking MSFX, performing my own overclock and verifying stability, testing with AIDA64, MemTest86 and 3DMark11 and updating the BIOS for the new mobo ... and then ... have to be my own technical support for the lifetime of the system.

 

The $1,000 premium doesn't sound all that bad anymore ... especially when you take into account that I bill out $45.00/hr for 8 hours per day times two days ($1,000 - $720 ... which equates to $280 for a year of peace of mind).  Oh yea, did I mention the three days I spent researching parts ... trying to determine if this will fit there or if the PSU has enough juice to run the components. 

 

As we all know, OC'ing can become troublesome over time ... they do it as a part of the system ... and they support the machine after you own it.

 

Yea, JetLine Systems is the way to go.  As an example ... a Haswell rig OC'd to 4.4GHz with an SSD and a data drive, liquid cooling, 8GB of memory and standard other things only costs $2,794.  Before doing all this work I would have said "Oh my God".  But after I've come to fully understand what it takes to create a quality, stable OC'd rig that is already configured to work with FSX ... what a deal.

 

C. T.

To be fair I think we have given you plenty of parts to pick from to build a PC with that will dominate FSX.  You can spend $2800 on a JetLine system and have everything OC'd, which is complete overkill, or you can spend $1,500 on a PC that will dominate FSX and anything else for years to come.  I built my FSX PC for $900, OC'd it to 4.4 GHz, and it runs FSX on Max (more or less).  You don't need to overclock everything to get Max performance on FSX.  Even more to the point, if you aren't a hardcore overclocker and you just want to OC your CPU than buying all these ridiculous parts is wasting your own money.  There is no such thing as a 'future-proof PC', you just need to build the PC that will do what you want it to do.  Buying top of the line parts isn't going to do anything for you if you only intend on OC'ing the CPU or so.  For example, practically every motherboards current max speed on RAM is 1600 MHz.  It doesn't do you any good to buy anything above 1600 if you don't intend on OC'ing the RAM.

 

You don't need a data drive.  A good air-cooler and heatsink will push that Haswell to 4.5GHz - I'd be more worried about VCore than I would be temps (if you want a good life out of your CPU).  Like I said previously, I'm using a $35 heatsink/CPU fan.

 

We aren't going to tell you what parts to buy - it is your money and you can do with it as you please.  There are plenty of parts in this thread that we have recommended that will exceed anything you will throw at it - and also the parts where you are wasting money (e.g. 16GB 2400MHz RAM).  If you aren't going to overclock absolutely everything in your PC, and push everything to their absolute limits, than you need to realize you don't need all these ridiculous parts.  If you do want to do all these things than have at it, but I don't know what more you want us to tell you.

 

I'm saying this because you are clearly thinking about this WAY too much and you don't seem like you are a hardcore overclocker, and you are therefore just making this much harder on yourself than it ever needs to be.

After doing a bunch of shopping around, I decided on http://www.digitalstormonline.com/'>Digital Storm?

Less expensive than JetLine.  Currently 10% off all custom builds, and comes with a 4-year warranty, with plenty of build choices. And you can custom order nearly any component.

Arwen: Digital Storm ... now they are the best recommendation yet ... and probably the crowning glory of the thread.

 

Greg:  There are all types of people needing/wanting all kinds of things when it comes to their builds ... I think that this thread has pretty much covered the ins and outs of all types of systems.  We have offered at least three vendors (and covered the caveats and benefits of each), identified components (both excessive and inexpensive), provided options for both hard core over-clockers and casual users.

 

This thread has accomplished what I intended it to accomplish ... I now have the information required to build a top of the line system, that will satisfy my future urges to travel down the road of overclock heaven if I so desire and satisfy my need to take pride in creating my own visually appealing system.  You see, even though I'm "wasting" my money on "ridiculous" parts ... that is your opinion.  My need was and is to create a top of the line rig, for as cheaply as possible, that is not only highly functional but aesthetically pleasing as well.

 

Sure, people are going to look at the components and take pride in the fact that they are knowledgeable enough to identify cheaper components that are just as functional.  That is their need ... that is what makes them feel good about themselves ... more power to them.

 

With that, I believe this thread can now wind down ... and let future users of its information benefit from the knowledge contained herein.

Also ... check out Digital Storm ... I (and many others) are pretty impressed with the quality of their builds.

 

C. T.

CT, my project went from bad to worse yesterday, at least for my wallet

 

By coincidence I met a guy at work who put me in contact with a company who specialize in extreme builds. One thing led to another and they are now mocking up a phase change cooled Haswell / Titan system to see what can be accomplished.

 

He was quite sure to be able to guarantee 5,4 GHz with -45C on the block and below 60C on the CPU with HT disabled.

 

I'll make a new build thread here in HW and post the component list as soon as I get around to it.

CT, my project went from bad to worse yesterday, at least for my wallet

By coincidence I met a guy at work who put me in contact with a company who specialize in extreme builds. One thing led to another and they are now mocking up a phase change cooled Haswell / Titan system to see what can be accomplished.

He was quite sure to be able to guarantee 5,4 GHz with -45C on the block and below 60C on the CPU with HT disabled.

I'll make a new build thread here in HW and post the component list as soon as I get around to it.

Shall follow your build, no problem with -40 to -45c with the haswell @5.3 - 5.4 but

Be avare that need a CPU little better than avarge some have hard to do 5.4 to 5.5 on

Dyice -60 on block and 6ghz on Ln2 .

As you now i have one SS in chassi and another one only for benching with a big Rotary compressor. The big one is only for tuning the system before put the Venom with Ln2.

 

Iam not sure that i gone run the SS on the FSX Pc , i test some watercooling parts the heart is a Koolance rp452x2 running to D5 pumps in series and a 560 radiator not

Decided witch CPU block i have Ek supemacy koolance 380i and phobya uc2 lt ( dont be fooled by the test at X systems he youse a "baby pump "with low pressure and low flow that the Pobya block dont like).

For the titan it be a Ek block

Thanks Hasse, I was going to reconnect with you and Techguy (?) before I do something overly stupid anyway

 

I don't know if I need cooling on the GPU, I thought that the inside of the cabinet would be cold enough? I am building to get FSX to run as good as money can buy, not necessarily to set a record. The builder suggested it though, but he isn't the one paying

 

I am going to Oslo on Friday to see what the guys have accomplished so far, I am veary of the noise from the phase fan though. What is cool is that they have a large pool of processors in stock, and it was my understanding that they got to return those that is not up to par.

Oh my gawd ... I had to resort to Google to figure out what you guys were talking about :rolleyes: , and here ... me thinking the option to delid was bold.  LN2 ... phase change cooling ... whew.

 

Any whooo ... I did find this Maximum VI Series UEFI Guide for Overclocking ... also, and this is embarrassing ... I was sitting in the Dr.'s office waiting for my daughter to get out and I ran across this on my IPad ... Noctua NH-D14 is incompatible with the Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR3 2400 RAM ... so too is the Thermalright Siver Arrow SB-E.  So, screw it, the case I'm using fits the Corsair Hydro Series H100i.  It fits nicely in the top of the HAF-X 942 and enters into a symbiotic push/pull relationship with the two Coolermaster Megaflow 200mm red LED case fans I put in the top.  It also, hands down, outperforms the air coolers and leaves a much smaller footprint in the case as well.  I also ordered (just to see how good they were) the same fans but manufactured by BitFenix ... and man they were sooooo cheap ... returned those as well to FrozenCPU ... (20% restocking fee ... stay away from them unless you know what you are buying).

 

However, that being said ... there seems to be a consensus that the H100i has a loose mount with the LGA1150 socket.  People are talking about having to purchase washers to use as spacers so the cooler gets a tight fit with the top of the CPU ... I'll keep this thread updated with my findings ... should get it tomorrow or Friday. The link, after you scroll down a bit, depicts pictures of how the spacers work.  This is the first place that I found that helped me visualize what the heck people were talking about.

 

Learning a lot ... but it comes at a pretty steep price ... hopefully those out there lurking on this thread either learn from my mistakes or simply go to Digital Storm and be done with it.

 

Hind sight is 20/20.

 

C. T.

Damn it, I should have noticed there was an obvious issue with RAM clearance there :(

Been there with my ND-14.

 

Well Charles, going through all the process yourself now, you may well find eventually that you won't need anyone to get it done for you for your next builds. That's IMO the best way to get that peace of mind you don't really get with Jetlines, Cyberpowers or Digital Storms. Being able to diagnose and fix problems on your own is priceless IMHO. Enjoy your build! both the build process and that monster rig you're putting together

Here are the specifications for the washers that help fix the H100i problem with ASUS motherboards.

 

And for you Lowe's people they are The Hillman Group 4-Count #8 x 3/8-in Nylon Standard (SAE) Flat Washers

 

C. T.

Some fan technical notes ... on the top of the case are two Coolermaster 200mm fans each rated at 100CFM ... I wanted two fans mounted on the H100i radiator that equaled the total airflow being vented out the top through the 200mm fans. So, that required a 120mm fan rated for at least 100 CFM. This is a tall order, but the Delta 120mm case fan that pushes out 113 CFM ... close enough.

(These are going to be LOUD ... 3,400 RPM at 46.5db each ... standard fans on the H100i ... 2,700 RPM at 37db ... and the Noctua NF-F12 ... 1,500 RPM at 22db ... 93.4 m3/h * .588 = 51 CFM each. This begs the question ... does forcing only an additional 33 CFM / fan through the radiator affect cooling so as to warrant the extra cost and noise?)
 

Then there is this recommendation (this is a must see 40 SP120 fans in a p/p configuration ... great for any rig) ...

 

Here is the kicker ... the goal was to combine the two Delta fans using a GELID PMY 350mm splitter and connect them to CPU_FAN1 header and combine the two Coolermaster fans using the same cable and connect them to the CPU_OPT fan header. This way the Link software could control both sets of fans in relation to the required cooling based on load.

Warning flags started going off (byproduct of my Navy ET training). One particular question being "How many amps can a header provide before damaging the motherboard trace?" Well, a quick read of the manual stated that a fan header can only withstand 1.0A (12W) per ... a quick call to the Delta manufacturer yielded the info that each fan pulls .8A. Combining the two would result in an over amperage condition of .6A per header ... possible damage resulting in a warranty claim (or worse warranty voided).

Then I got sneaky ... I chatted ASUS technical support and asked them this question (knowing that their own manual already gave the answer). Two times I spoke with a technician they stated "Sure ... that won't be a problem" the last time I spoke with a tech she said she didn't know and didn't have access to that type of information.

Warning to the wise ... don't trust technical support in situations like this ... sometimes they don't even read their own manuals.

Fan addendum:

 

The COOLER MASTER Megaflow 200 R4-LUS-07AR-GP 200mm Red LED Case Fans each draw .16A

 

The  Delta 120mm fans each pull .8A.

 

Each Delta fan can be attached to either CPU_FAN or CPU_OPT. 

 

There are 6 other Cooler Master fans in the case ... all of the fans are either 200mm or less.  This means that there are three fan pairs that can be ganged together using GELID PMY 350mm splitters.  Each one of these can be attached to CHA_FAN1, CHA_FAN2 and CHA_FAN3.  All of which are controlled by the AI Suite software available on the ASUS Maximum VI family of motherboards.

 

This means that the entire fan collection on this build will be controlled based upon load.  A very quite machine when browsing the internet ... and most importantly ... when there is a high load ... usually when playing a game ... then and only then will the Delta fans kick in.  This should not be a problem as there is either the constant thrum of jet engines either spooling up or down or explosions going off over the 5.1 surround system.  Either way the Delta fans should not be heard above that din.