I was going to get a new rig a while back but never got around to it and since then with all the new hardware coming online I had to rethink my parts. 

 

I did some googling and reading NickN's guides and came up with the following specs for an FSX rig:

 

CPU: i7-4770k

 

MOBO: Asus Z87 Pro

 

GPU: Gigabyte GTX780 OC

 

RAM: G Skill Trident X 8GB, 2400mhz CL10

 

HDD: 2TB Western Digital black for storage, media, games and files

 

SSD: 512GB Samsung 840 Pro for Windows and FSX

 

Power Supply: Corsair HX850 watt V2 gold

 

Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 or Corsair H110

 

Case: Coolermaster HAF X

 

OS: Windows 7 home 

 

 

With the RAM, would a G Skill Ares 1866mhz CL9 or Corsair Vengeance 1866mhz CL9, both 1.5V vs 1.65 for the Trident be better? Or would you recommend a Ripjaws X 2133mhz CL9 1.5V? I can't seem to find 2400mhz CL9 RAM here. 

 

 

I plan on running the machine for a good while without worrying about upgrading and plan on installing a lot of scenery addons like FTX, Orbx, REX etc so want to start off with a fair bit of horsepower.

 

One question regarding motherboards, is there any compelling reason to go with Asus boards vs Gigabyte vs MSI for things like utilities, audio quality, overclocking ability, stability etc? 

 

 

 

 

cheers

Not much wrong with that rig. Very nice!

 

Asus or Gigabyte? I think this is personal preference, I am biased toward Asus where Gigabyte also has a good rep.

 

As far as memory goes, I again am biased, this time toward G. Skill. One thing I personally always stick to, I don't go over 1.5v as recommended I believe, if you are on a Intel CPU and I always look for CL9 or an even lower number if I can find it. This is based on my own personal research.

 

Regards,

Nice rig.

Mems i would go for the 2133 G-Skill, the best solution for haswell is cl9 2400 .

You can not look only at the first number cl9 its booth latency and ram speed that make difference. Haswell have no problems with 1.65v stronger memcontroller than Sandy bridge and Ivy bridge.

In general for haswell i recomend mems with samsung chip but most chips today ar hynix,

You can not look only at the first number cl9 its booth latency and ram speed that make difference. Haswell have no problems with 1.65v stronger memcontroller than Sandy bridge and Ivy bridge.

Interesting, thanks, I did not know that.

 

Regards,

Interesting. So with Haswell, 1.65V is a non-issue? Just wondering because researching online and reading countless forum posts I was left with the impression that 1.5V is recommended. 

 

I'm having trouble finding 2400mhz CL9 RAM here, so I guess I'll have to settle for CL10 or 1866mhz CL9. 

 

My shortlist:

 

G. Skill Ripjaws X 2133mhz 9-11-10-28-2N, 1.5V

 

G. Skill Ripjaws X 1866mhz 9-10-9-28, 1.5V

 

G. Skill Ares 1866mhz 9-10-9-2N, 1.5V

 

G. Skill Trident X 2400mhz 10-12-12-31, 1.65V

 

Corsair Vengeance Pro 1866mhz 9-10-9-27, 1.5V

 

Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866mhz 9-9-9-24, 1.5V

 

 

Right now I am leaning towards the 2133 Ripjaws or 2400 Tridents. 

I've read some posts suggesting that keeping Windows and FSX on seperate drive is good due to "read files" and things like that ( i have no idea what these read files and stuff are), but I've also read that with the latest SSDs there is no performance gains from seperating Windows and FSX, and that there is no framerates to be gained from having FSX on an SSD vs a normal HDD. 

 

Right now my plan is to place both the OS and FSX on a Samsung Pro 840 512gb SSD, but will there be any advantage in using seperate drives? It's got me thinking, alternatively I'm considering using a 256gb SSD for Win7 and its apps, a 500gb or 1TB Velociraptor for FSX and addons, and a 1-2TB WD Red or Green drive for files, media and storage. 

 

The cost of purchasing a 256gb SSD, 1TB Velociraptor and 2TB WD red drive is just about identical.

I was going to get a new rig a while back but never got around to it and since then with all the new hardware coming online I had to rethink my parts. 

 

I did some googling and reading NickN's guides and came up with the following specs for an FSX rig:

 

CPU: i7-4770k

 

MOBO: Asus Z87 Pro

 

GPU: Gigabyte GTX780 OC

 

RAM: G Skill Trident X 8GB, 2400mhz CL10

 

HDD: 2TB Western Digital black for storage, media, games and files

 

SSD: 512GB Samsung 840 Pro for Windows and FSX

 

Power Supply: Corsair HX850 watt V2 gold

 

Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 or Corsair H110

 

Case: Coolermaster HAF X

 

OS: Windows 7 home 

 

 

With the RAM, would a G Skill Ares 1866mhz CL9 or Corsair Vengeance 1866mhz CL9, both 1.5V vs 1.65 for the Trident be better? Or would you recommend a Ripjaws X 2133mhz CL9 1.5V? I can't seem to find 2400mhz CL9 RAM here. 

 

 

I plan on running the machine for a good while without worrying about upgrading and plan on installing a lot of scenery addons like FTX, Orbx, REX etc so want to start off with a fair bit of horsepower.

 

One question regarding motherboards, is there any compelling reason to go with Asus boards vs Gigabyte vs MSI for things like utilities, audio quality, overclocking ability, stability etc? 

 

 

 

 

cheers

 

 

Regarding the H110 or NHD-14...

 

The H110 is one of the few all-in-one water coolers that actually does out perform the D14, while still remaining quiet.

 

So the decision for you, is in regard to the possibility of leaks and how likely you think they would be.

 

If you're happy that the risk of leaks is minimal, and your case is adequate for the big H110 rad, then that would be your best choice.

I've read some posts suggesting that keeping Windows and FSX on seperate drive is good due to "read files" and things like that ( i have no idea what these read files and stuff are), but I've also read that with the latest SSDs there is no performance gains from seperating Windows and FSX, and that there is no framerates to be gained from having FSX on an SSD vs a normal HDD.

 

Right now my plan is to place both the OS and FSX on a Samsung Pro 840 512gb SSD, but will there be any advantage in using seperate drives? It's got me thinking, alternatively I'm considering using a 256gb SSD for Win7 and its apps, a 500gb or 1TB Velociraptor for FSX and addons, and a 1-2TB WD Red or Green drive for files, media and storage.

 

The cost of purchasing a 256gb SSD, 1TB Velociraptor and 2TB WD red drive is just about identical.

There are definitely advantages to separating your FSX from everything else (including your O/S) since doing this some builds ago, I have had much better stability. I don't believe increased FPS was ever the intent of separate drives.

 

In any case, it is a proven fact that you should not install FSX into the"Program Files (X86)" directory, should you choose to use the same HD as your O/S.

 

In any case, it is a proven fact that you should not install FSX into the"Program Files (X86)" directory, should you choose to use the same HD as your O/S.

 

Except that I do it, without any issues.

 

But it is indeed the conventional wisdom.

 

 

With the RAM, would a G Skill Ares 1866mhz CL9 or Corsair Vengeance 1866mhz CL9, both 1.5V vs 1.65 for the Trident be better? Or would you recommend a Ripjaws X 2133mhz CL9 1.5V? I can't seem to find 2400mhz CL9 RAM here. 

 

Build looks good, RAM speed and CL isn't going to make much of a difference unless you plan to overclock considerably. Dual channel is ok, but quad channel does allow more bandwidth and if overclocking your write speeds will be about 25% faster than dual channel.  But be warned, RAM speed settings and timing are a major source of CTD's or other mysterious errors.

 

If you plan to use considerable Photo scenery then 512GB SSD is going to be used up quickly (I've almost filled up 3TB of SSDs).  Make sure the SSD is plugged into an SATA III and not a SATA II port (manual should identify these).

 

The Coolmaster HAF is an excellent case (very good at allowing heat to exhaust out).

 

The Coolmaster HAF is an excellent case (very good at allowing heat to exhaust out).

CM is my personal favourite when it comes to cases. As per my sig, I have the HAF XM and besides the air flow qualities, I just love those two Hot Swap bays.

I have FSX residing on its own dedicated Samsung 840 Pro SSD and Windows and all other apps on another identical SSD. FSX is installed in its own file folder, not the default X86 one. Everything has been installed, tuned, and tweaked per NickN's bible. Could not be happier. As has been stated, SSD's do not add frames. however, quicker sim and texture loading, faster system boot times, no de-fragmenting, the ability to fill to 90% capacity with no performance loss, and no moving parts is reason enough to opt for one over an HDD. If needing a ton of storage capacity, it might  be cost prohibitive to go with an all SSD setup. Regards

Dual channel is ok, but quad channel does allow more bandwidth and if overclocking your write speeds will be about 25% faster than dual channel.

If you go for 2011 SB-E IB-E not Haswell Z87 it support not quad channel only dual channel  channel A and B with 4 x 4 16gb

If you go for 2011 SB-E IB-E not Haswell Z87 it support not quad channel only dual channel channel A and B with 4 x 4 16gb

 

Yes.

 

Unless one is doing some extreme overclocking (and needs 6 cores), it's better to stay with the 4770k and dual channel for FSX ... more to be gained there.

Something to consider, bus memory performance vs. cache performance:

 

Bus memory performance

 

 

Cache memory performance

 

 

As you can see there is 400-500% performance difference going to the Cache.  In other words, if it's not in the Cache you pay a price, so even if you go PC3-12800 vs. PC3-17000 for bus memory, you aren't looking at much of a difference in real performance (relative to Cache performance).

 

Here are the JEDEC standards for DDR3:

 

 

 

These are just JEDEC standards, some memory manufacturers don't follow these standards so there is no "qualified" testing at whatever rated specs the memory manufacturer suggests ... so take that for what it's worth.  My opinion is to go with DDR3-1600 CL8 JEDEC.

 

DDR4 and Broadwell (DT) will be out next year which should help out FSX some more.

 

Rob