Mid range system?

[ryanbatc 12,814]

I'm trying to put together a middle of the road system for a coworker.  He wants to use FSX with his son.  He's totally happy with stock airplanes too...  this guy is NOT a gamer - but he is a pilot and controller like me and he's used to FS2004/X.

 

I tried my best to put together a decent system but lower cost than mine...  I'm having a bit of an issue keeping it below 1000 bucks.  He also wants to burn DVD's.  But we discussed using a 2TB HDD for keeping backups of his movies on there so he can watch on TV too.  I'm not sure what storage route we'll go but at the moment I only have a 240 gb SSD.  It will run Win7 and FSX - and that's about it.  Should be plenty

 

Anyway the proposed specs:

 

Rosewill Challenger Mid case - $60

Corsair CXM 600w modular PSU - $90

i5 3470 3.2GHz - $190

ASRock Z77M mobo - $84

PNY GTX660 - $190

Crucial 240GB MLC SSD - $180

GSKILL Sniper 2x4GB DDR3 2133 Mhz - $80

Asus DVDRW - $20

Acer 21.5" LED - $140

Logitech kb/mouse - $20

Win7 x64 home premium - $100

 

Like I said this rounds out to 1000 bucks and change.  I'd really like to stay below 800.  Can I skimp on the CPU?  Should I just use a 1 TB HDD instead?  Remember I need Win7 and a LED monitor....

 

 

 

[ryanbatc 12,814]

Any comments? Or do we only know monster rigs lol?

[Mossyfly47 18]

Power Shield ZapGuard 6 Way Surge Board Black

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PSZ6NT

 

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CORSAIR HX-1050 1050W 80PLUS SILVER SEMI-MODULAR POWER SUPPLY

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CMPSU-1050HX

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ANTEC NINE HUNDRED TWO V3 GAMING CASE

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INTEL CORE i7 2700K SANDY BRIDGE 3.5GHz 8MB RETAIL BOX

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PLE Gaming Premium System

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I spent about $2300 in Australia 2 years ago system (its a monster rig) but it is still going strong (extremely stable). Most parts are out of warranty. My next future cheaper  system is more about size and portability and getting a good FSX system into a small box to make it portable. I think your system can sometimes only be as good as the weakest link so you need to compare why the high end rigs are important. Saying that I have seen FSX run on  the latest mac book pro laptop I7 Haswell  running boot camp windows 8 and its smooth (don't know what it would be like to have 3 monitors and the resolution)  :ph34r:

 

Go for processors with K for overclock if possible an cooling.....Budget dictates :angry:

[Glynn 405]

 

 

Any comments? Or do we only know monster rigs lol?

 

A bit of lateral thinking here Ryan, sell him your rig, use the cash towards building yourself a new one.

These opportunities do not come along every day.

[ryanbatc 12,814]

I can't see myself getting a new system any time soon. I did want to get a $250 SSD but that's about it. A larger VRAM video card for XP will have to wait. Plus I think my system is worth more than 800.

[ryanbatc 12,814]

Looks like he just wants to run FS9. That should be easy enough. It's actually kinda hard to build an older PC lol! All the parts are generally new online.

[dazz 69]

For FS9 an I3 would do just fine, but personally I'd get that I5 and do without the SSD, install W7 + FSX in a short stroke of some 240GB in the HDD so that he can easily transfer it to an SSD later down the road if he wants to upgrade his storage