Starting a new hobby: FSX

[brianemwd 0]

A friend of mine is a pilot and he took me from NC to Illinois so I could pick up some business equipment. He has a 4 seater Comanche. Though I was terrified most of the flight, for some reason I cannot get flying out of my mind. He told me that FSX is a good flight simulator so I purchased FSX Gold. To my surprise my sons love it and we decided to build a semi serious FSX computer for 2014.

 

I have a quite of bit of computers, most of them I built myself. I plan on using the following computer for FSX and I would like to know if you all recommend me upgrading anything:

 

OS: Win7 Home Premium (64bit)

CPU: i5-2500k @ 3.30 GHZ

16 Gig of memory (G.Skills Ripjaws)

Nvidia GForce GTX 580 Ti

Corsair 240 Gig SSD

Corsair 650w Power Supply

 

The only thing I think I may need to upgrade is the video card. 

 

The other question I have is what do most FSX enthusiasts prefer? A single monitor setup or multi-monitor? I am thinking of going with a 3 monitor setup. Any input on this would be helpful.

 

Thank you for any input.

Brian of North Carolina

[Aamir 2,907]

That seems like a fairly okay computer for FSX, but there a few things you need to remember:

 

• 240GB may be cutting it a little too short if you plan on installing a ton of addons.
   
• You're going to want to oveclock that processor, so look for a good cooler. I recommend Corsair's H100 series (sealed liquid cooling), it's worked fantastically for me, however others may recommend air cooling. Whichever you choose is up to you, just make sure it's quality and does the job well.
   
• AFAIK, there is no such thing as a GTX 580 Ti, so you may be referring to a GTX 560 Ti, in which case I do recommend that you think of at least a 580, which would be adequate under heavy cloud coverage with some decent anti-aliasing.
   
• 16GB of memory is absolutely not required. I recommend 8GB, especially if you're budget constrained. Spend the extra kip on some other upgraded components e.g your GPU.

 

All in all, I think that computer would run FSX just fine as you've configured it, but you'll have to sacrifice some graphical quality, no doubt. Take a look at my suggestions and see what you can do with them.

Good luck!

[brianemwd 0]

Thanks Aamir. This is the computer I already have so having 16 gig is no extra cost as I spent the moment already. You are correct about the 560. It was a typo on my part. 

 

I don't want to sacrifice any graphic quality and I have a decent budget so feel free to recommend a reasonably price video card. Do you think I should just upgrade the CPU? I don't know how to overclock. I have a decent air cool system on the CPU but I can check out the liquid cooling. I like Corsair's product line so I will check it out.

 

What is your opinion on a multi-monitor setup? Is it possible to run 3 three monitors on one video card?

Brian

[Aamir 2,907]

 

 

What is your opinion on a multi-monitor setup? Is it possible to run 3 three monitors on one video card?

 

With a powerful enough one, yes. I wouldn't think a 560 would be enough to push to 3 monitors.

 

Although, to be very honest with you, if you're not comfortable overclocking, I'd upgrade the GPU to a 680 and get Prepar3d V2. Sure, there are teething problems, but a patch is incoming after the new year, so, it's looking bright!