Hey all,

 

So after many years of having a much outdated computer, I've been looking into buying parts for a new computer, and having my friend who is an IT guy build it for me. I was just wondering what everyone's thoughts were regarding weather to buy a Haswell or an Ivy Bridge processor... I'm not really sure if the extra money is worth it. In addition, I was wondering if overclocking is absolutely necessary to run FSX smoothly with addons such as PMDG, AS 2012, GEX and so on. Thank you.

As far as CPUs go, I would refer to this guide:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

 

I think Overclocking is definitely worth it - FSX is CPU bound, the faster it is, the less stutters, etc. you will see!!!

Overclocking isn't absolutely necessary, but it's a nice step to add, as it will improve FSX performance.

 

In my opinion - I'd go for the Haswell processors. The power consumption rate is lower and you get a lot more performance with the i7 chips compared to previous gen chips.

Best bang for the buck right now is i7-4790k from a cost perspective.

 

Ivy Bridge will outperform Haswell according to most reviews I've read, although the upgrade path for Haswell is better.  IB is a dead socket for upgrade paths.  That's my understanding.

 

Regarding $, I'm running a i7 3770k on a Sandy Bridge board using Ivy Bridge bios and OC'd to 4.93 GHz on water cooling.  Lots and lots of bang for the buck, but the i7 3770k is it, the end of the road for my board.

Thanks for all the help, I will probably go with the Haswell once I save the cash. I just had one more question regarding hard drives; is it ok to have a regular hard drive for Windows and then a SSD for FSX? And how much should the SSD be, 128, 512 etc. 

 

Edit: Is 240GB enough for a FSX- only drive?

Edited May 16, 201412 yr by bariboy16

I had two SSD's, both 240Gb, one FSX and one OS, but moving to 512 on the FSX drive.  Make SURE FSX stuff only is on the SSD. 240Gb is enough.

Haswell at 4.7 outperform a IB 3770k at 5.1,and best bang for bucks is the 4670k until realease of the 4690K and 4790K but wait to the middle of june.

have a Z97 board GA-Z97X-SOC Force that i run my golden 4670k at 5ghz on water cooling.