Thank you for your inputs. I have decided that if a couple extra hundred is what it takes to create the system that I need, then I will bite the bullet and do so.

 

Here is what I have decided that I will run on FSX...

 

Add-Ons:

1. PMDG 777 (installed)

2. FSDT Los Angeles (installed)

3. REX4 Textures (to be purchased)

4. Weather (Opus or Rex...Whichever one is kinder to my frames and/or looks better, suggestions?)

5. City sceneries (to be purchased)

 

Planned Hardware:

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/                  (*Will overclocking that i5 really make that big of a difference?)

 

With that being said, I guess my question is..... Can this set up handle a consistent 30FPS with the above add-ons set to their maximum settings? If not, which settings will have to be reduced?

I forgot to add Active Sky Next as a candidate as well!

My last desktop build with an E8500 duo core overclocked to 4.2 and a GTX 480 runs FSX very well with VATSIM. Granted I used it purely for IFR training with REX, Genesis Mesh, and a few decent Megascenery kits. Don't get lost in the hype. Most real pilots dont fly around, staring at the ground the entire flight looking for stutters and monitoring frame rates. Personally, I'm more concerned with which controller I'm gonna call next, what I'm gonna say, and how to set up my next approach. In my FSX the weather is always below minimums and I'm lucky if I break out on an approach.

My last desktop build with an E8500 duo core overclocked to 4.2 and a GTX 480 runs FSX very well with VATSIM. Granted I used it purely for IFR training with REX, Genesis Mesh, and a few decent Megascenery kits. Don't get lost in the hype. Most real pilots dont fly around, staring at the ground the entire flight looking for stutters and monitoring frame rates. Personally, I'm more concerned with which controller I'm gonna call next, what I'm gonna say, and how to set up my next approach. In my FSX the weather is always below minimums and I'm lucky if I break out on an approach.

E8500? What are your display settings....

 

Not sure about you but when I was flying I looked at the ground all the time.... Of course this was for my initial license and not instrument training.

Indeed, the better plan is to spend more now for a substantial upgrade.  Check out my pc specs for a computer I built a few months ago for $1300.  Expensive, yes.  But I can fly without endless tweaking and dissatisfaction.

Randall

Will my GTX 660 be my weakness or the i5 4670k?

 

I have tested out the Active Sky Next demo on my current set up and it seems to do fine even in the extreme weather conditions. I am convinced that it will run even better with my new set up.

 

However, how will the REX4 textures affect my frame rates with my planned set up?

$1300 get you decent pc but with decent mobo and CPU with run one monitor 660 gtx gpu will be fine at 1080p in most settings. Run 3 monitors 780 gtx with lots AA and sampling needed cleanup the picture. GPU seems more benefit in Xplane 10 than fsx.

I can't spare close to the amount of money some people seem to be throwing at their FSX computers.

How you say you want to use your FSX setup tells me where you'll have to compromise is on the Graphics card and that means you can't use high levels of AA all the time to remove shimmers. So no 2xSGSS AA in clouds.

 

Here are the basics for a decent performing 'budget' computer for FSX.

 

The single most important thing for FSX is the CPU+RAM.

 

Intel i5 4670K

Getting the i7 is not cost effective for anyone on a budget unless you mainly plan to use FSX with photo scenery.

 

8GB 2133Mhz CL10 RAM (or better)

Can you find RAM that is faster for say $10 more it might be worth it. But don't spend excess amounts on it. The few $ you save on slower kits are not worth the saving.

 

A cheap z87 or z97 motherboard. If you have a few $ to spare don't pick the most basic one.

 

A 120GB SSD. Yes, an SSD. You gonna need a drive to put Windows and FSX on anyway and 120GB SSDs are now cheap enough, and is enough for what you say you want to install and it keeps stutters away and give you speedy load times. If you need more storage later on you can always add a HDD or another SSD (not so budget).

 

A 3rd party CPU air cooler. Don't spend big bucks. The reason overclocked Haswell run hot and won't overclock further is not mainly due to the cooler.

 

A 500W PSU from a reputable brand. Haswell sips power even overclocked. And you won't be using multiple high end GPUs anyway. You don't need any more wattage. If you can get more Watts for less you obviously do that but don't pay extra for it.

 

GPU wise is where you'll be able to save a lot of money without giving up much FSX performance. A Nvidia 650ti Boost or higher 600 series would do it. I'm even gonna be bold enough to say that I think even a 750 would work alright as long as you don't crank up the AA. But this is where you save money if you have to. You can also always upgrade the GPU later on. If CPU developments are gonna continue at the same pace it has the last few years the rest of your computer will last you many years as long as you update the GPU later on.

 

A case to put it all in

 

64bit Windows 7

Screen

Mouse Keyboard

Joystick

DVD drive

 

That's my recommendation for a budget FSX PC

How you say you want to use your FSX setup tells me where you'll have to compromise is on the Graphics card and that means you can't use high levels of AA all the time to remove shimmers. So no 2xSGSS AA in clouds.

 

Here are the basics for a decent performing 'budget' computer for FSX.

 

The single most important thing for FSX is the CPU+RAM.

 

Intel i5 4670K

Getting the i7 is not cost effective for anyone on a budget unless you mainly plan to use FSX with photo scenery.

 

8GB 2133Mhz CL10 RAM (or better)

Can you find RAM that is faster for say $10 more it might be worth it. But don't spend excess amounts on it. The few $ you save on slower kits are not worth the saving.

 

A cheap z87 or z97 motherboard. If you have a few $ to spare don't pick the most basic one.

 

A 120GB SSD. Yes, an SSD. You gonna need a drive to put Windows and FSX on anyway and 120GB SSDs are now cheap enough, and is enough for what you say you want to install and it keeps stutters away and give you speedy load times. If you need more storage later on you can always add a HDD or another SSD (not so budget).

 

A 3rd party CPU air cooler. Don't spend big bucks. The reason overclocked Haswell run hot and won't overclock further is not mainly due to the cooler.

 

A 500W PSU from a reputable brand. Haswell sips power even overclocked. And you won't be using multiple high end GPUs anyway. You don't need any more wattage. If you can get more Watts for less you obviously do that but don't pay extra for it.

 

GPU wise is where you'll be able to save a lot of money without giving up much FSX performance. A Nvidia 650ti Boost or higher 600 series would do it. I'm even gonna be bold enough to say that I think even a 750 would work alright as long as you don't crank up the AA. But this is where you save money if you have to. You can also always upgrade the GPU later on. If CPU developments are gonna continue at the same pace it has the last few years the rest of your computer will last you many years as long as you update the GPU later on.

 

A case to put it all in

 

64bit Windows 7

Screen

Mouse Keyboard

Joystick

DVD drive

 

That's my recommendation for a budget FSX PC

Thank you for the advice. So far, I am planning on:

i5 4690k (overclock to hopefully 4.6 or above)

Asus Z87 or similar motherboard

8GB of 1688mhz RAM

1TB 7200rpm internal hard drive (I don't want to get a small SSD and have it be close to full?)

EVGA  GTX660

I am shooting for a 720watt PSU and am planning on a nice big CPU fan.

This set up, along with the case and other small details, will run me about $900. 

That GPU would easily bottleneck an OC'ed i5 4690k. I would rather look for a secondhand GTX580 in stead. Regarding drives: get a 90-120 GB SSD for Windows 7-64, and a 250-500 GB Velociraptor for FSX and addons.

 

BR,

Anders

GTX660 might be bottlenecking that CPU at times at high AA settings, but as the OP said, he is looking for a budget FSX computer. Budget means compromises to cut cost and the GPU/AA is where that will happen. Personally I'd take a GTX660 with PCIe3.0 over a GTX580 with only PCIe 2.0 any day. The GTX660 is actually a very good performer in FSX.

 

You get a 128GB SSD for the price of a 1TB HDD. Of that you can safely use 110GB. Windows+Base FSX install can be made to be under 60GB. That leaves 50GB for add-ons that have to be installed in the FSX folder. He can also get a separate disk later and put add-ons there if he needs ore space. If you have a few $ to spare a 256GB SSD for OS+FSX would give you more space.

 

If you want to go the HDD route you should really have two separate drives, one for the OS and one for FSX. But as a 128GB SSD is pretty much as cheap as you can get a decent HDD drive for nowdays anyway its than better to get one SSD for OS+FSX installation and a separate HDD for add-ons. And as were on a budget and the current FSX stuff would fit on the SSD alone a separate HDD can be purchased later.

 

Don't wast money on a small Velociraptor either. They are very pricey for what they are. The price gap up to an SSD is very small and the SSDs performance is an order of magnitude better. Trust me, I have the 1TB velociraptor and I almost regret buying it given the price fall in SSDs. It's been sitting unused for several months now but I'll have to start using it again as my 1TB SSD is now almost full, and I've bought a few more MegaScenery Earth Ultra res cities that are awaiting installation...

Yep budget and SSD don't belong in the same sentence.

 

If he absolutely has to get a SSD I'd put just windows on it and get a 64 or 128 GB

 

1 TB 7200rpm drive and call it good. WD Caviar black is good or Samsung spin point is good.

I was considering using the 125GB SSD + 1TB hard drive set up, but I don't feel safe with using a 125GB SSD for all my FSX files. I If FSX and Windows already uses 60GB of the "usable" 100GB, that only leaves me with 40GB for my PMDG, FSDT airports, REX4, FTX Global, Active Sky Next, and whatever other software I may choose to add later on. And I can't afford to drop another $100 or so for a 250GB SSD. 

 

Will running a 1TB 7200 hard drive slow my system down? 

Another way I can save costs is by switching to an AMD GPU. Does the Intel + Nvidia combination still stand as the best set up? I have been hearing that AMD cards are now performing better than Nvidia nowadays?

Well a little but FSX will still perform pretty dang well....

 

I had a 120 SSD for FSX - not nearly enough - just bought a 500 GB Evo .... Of course that doesn't help you hehe sorry.

 

If you could splurge id try a 64GB as a minimum for Win7 - 120 preferable - this would at least let you boot into windows in about 10-20 sec

Well a little but FSX will still perform pretty dang well....

 

I had a 120 SSD for FSX - not nearly enough - just bought a 500 GB Evo .... Of course that doesn't help you hehe sorry.

 

If you could splurge id try a 64GB as a minimum for Win7 - 120 preferable - this would at least let you boot into windows in about 10-20 sec

To be honest, I usually leave my computer on, and I have a feeling that this will be the case for this computer as well. You're saying boot up time as in from "cold and dark ;)" to the able to load up FSX stage, correct?

And as for the SSD, if I end up saving significant money from sales and whatnot (I am purchasing parts over the next 2 weeks, looking for deals), then I will go ahead and invest in a 250GB SSD to use as my Windows+FSX folder.