October 6, 201312 yr Hi everyone, I'm planning on building my own PC in January. The primary goal will be to run FSX, but I will probably use it to stream media to my TV as well. I was hoping to get some feedback from everyone here. I'm pretty happy with the build and have worked with others to come up with the parts list, but I always appreciate additional feedback. I will probably hook up a bunch of peripherals over time (i.e. yoke, rudders, throttle, radio, etc.) I plan have this PC hooked up to 3 monitors and then install it on the Volair Sim flight chasis (http://www.volairsim.com/) The link to my parts list can be found here: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/GLaDOS/saved/2l5p Thank you in advance for any feedback! It is always very much appreciated!
October 8, 201312 yr How much of an overclock do you plan on doing? Not sure you need a liquid CPU cooler unless you plan on cranking it up to say close to 5Ghz or faster. You don't mention if there will be any other games played, other than you want to use it as a media center computer as well. If the only game to be played is FSX, you could save quite a bit of cash and get a quad core i5 processor over the i7. It has pretty much been proven that the i7 doesn't get you any noticeable performance out of FSX over the i5 processor.
October 9, 201312 yr Author Hi SWFan - thanks for the feedback! Everything I've read so far suggests that FSX is a CPU-intensive program, so the more speed I can safely get out of my CPU, the better as far as I am concerned. I was figuring to get to the 4.5 GHz range if it was stable - if I could safely go past that, though, even better. I was on the fence about the liquid cooling since so many people had suggested it but I didn't have any experience with it. But the unit seemed very easy to install. I figured if I was going to build a higher-end PC, it would be best to future-proof it as best I could, in case I needed to up the CPU speed in the future. I'm still a bit on the fence though. As far as other games, I mostly planned on running FSX (with a bunch of add-ons over time) and making it my media center. I thought about throwing on some other "light" games over time such as Train Simulator, Steam games, an old Star Wars flying game. Nothing as intensive as FSX though. If the i5 will get the job done, then I will certainly have to look into it.
October 9, 201312 yr Hi everyone, I'm planning on building my own PC in January. The primary goal will be to run FSX, but I will probably use it to stream media to my TV as well. I was hoping to get some feedback from everyone here. I'm pretty happy with the build and have worked with others to come up with the parts list, but I always appreciate additional feedback. I will probably hook up a bunch of peripherals over time (i.e. yoke, rudders, throttle, radio, etc.) I plan have this PC hooked up to 3 monitors and then install it on the Volair Sim flight chasis (http://www.volairsim.com/) The link to my parts list can be found here: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/GLaDOS/saved/2l5p Thank you in advance for any feedback! It is always very much appreciated! Why Ivybridge and not Haswel? Haswel will give you 10% better performance I understand. The Corsair H100i is a closed loop water cooler. The Noctua NH-D14 air cooler is more efficient and quieter. If you want the best closed loop cooler, look at the Corsair H110. You will need a case big enough though. For enclosures, the new Corsair 750D is out. Fantastic case, a bit bigger than the old 650D. The 750D will take the H110. The H100i is certainly NOT overkill. It's no better than a top of the range air cooler. And as said, there are air coolers more superior. Just because there's water in the cooler, don't be fooled into thinking it's anything like a full blown custom water cooling loop... it's not.
October 9, 201312 yr Author Why Ivybridge and not Haswel? Haswel will give you 10% better performance I understand. The Corsair H100i is a closed loop water cooler. The Noctua NH-D14 air cooler is more efficient and quieter. If you want the best closed loop cooler, look at the Corsair H110. You will need a case big enough though. For enclosures, the new Corsair 750D is out. Fantastic case, a bit bigger than the old 650D. The 750D will take the H110. The H100i is certainly NOT overkill. It's no better than a top of the range air cooler. And as said, there are air coolers more superior. Just because there's water in the cooler, don't be fooled into thinking it's anything like a full blown custom water cooling loop... it's not. To be honest, I just heard a lot of good reviews about the Intel Core i7 3770k - it wasn't really about Haswell vs Ivybridge. I was just trying to find a CPU that flight simmers said worked well for them. After reading your post I did some quick research and found mixed reviews on the Intel Haswell chips - some said they were great and others said that an OC'd Ivy Bridge was comparable for less money. I guess I'll have to read into this one more. I was originally on the fence about water cooling units. I was looking for advice on a different flight sim forum about building a new system and the H100 came highly recommended for use with the parts list I currently had (which is very close to the list I posted here). I'll have to look into the NH-D14 - I'm not sure about switching cases yet, so I'll have to see about the Corsair H110
October 11, 201312 yr After reading your post I did some quick research and found mixed reviews on the Intel Haswell chips - some said they were great and others said that an OC'd Ivy Bridge was comparable for less money. I guess I'll have to read into this one more. There's less than a £30 difference in the price hear in the UK, so for me, I would say it's better to go for the latest CPU architecture. Both Ivy bridge and Haswell have TIM between the IHS and die, formerly Intel used fluxless solder. So both architectures have limits as far as "extreme" overcloking is concerned. However, many delid the CPU and replace the TIM, thus increasing the degree of overclock feasible. I'll have to look into the NH-D14 - I'm not sure about switching cases yet, so I'll have to see about the Corsair H110 Don't know much about your enclosure. You would have to look at the dimensions on the Noctua website to make sure it fits. The D14 is very large. I'm not saying the H100i is a bad cooler, far from it, it's one of the best, but in terms of cooling efficiency there are better. Worth remembering that closed loop coolers can leak, air never can. How common leaks are is the question, I would say probably rare, but then only the manufacturers know for sure. Temps here, overclocked and under load... http://www.guru3d.co..._review,13.html H100i 76 degrees Kraken X60 70 degrees [Noisy higher RPM fans] Corsair H110 72 degrees [Very quiet] NH-D14 72 degrees [Very quiet] Noise levels here... http://www.guru3d.co..._review,11.html .
October 18, 201312 yr Why Ivybridge and not Haswel? Haswel will give you 10% better performance I understand. IMHO price point of mobos better. To be honest, I just heard a lot of good reviews about the Intel Core i7 3770k Same, money to be saved there vs Haswell.
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