Good choice there

That's what I like to hear!   :smile:

Hope there's some silicon in there too

I think you will be very pleased with that rig, enjoy.

Great! Thanks! 

 

One final hurdle is deciding between the manufacturers of the GTX 970. I've heard about such (minor?) issues like coil whine from some of the cheaper cards...

 

Should I go with the Zotac (http://bit.ly/1vwNlWo) or the MSI ( http://bit.ly/10yI7Nz )? Is it really worth the price difference? 

I've got the MSI, but the Zotac will do you fine.  The Zotac also has a 5 year warranty compared to 3 on most other brands

I'd like to chime in on Zotac's Nvidia cards.  I took a chance and bought one when Zotac was a new name in computer components.  Mine was a 8800GT with a factory overclock, 512 MB of RAM.  It has survived four CPU upgrades and two motherboards.  I replaced it once with an EVGA 760Ti factory overclock card which almost immediately died.  EVGA replaced the card and it is still in its cardboard box, but that old Zotac 8800GT is still working like new.

Nice one stans, 

 

I'll bear that in mind. As it happens the Zotac card has gone up, so the MSI Gaming edition is now at the top of the list. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/mikejr/saved/TZWKHx If the Zotac one comes down before the end of the week I'll happily be going for that instead.

 

All in, at £1,120 with everything, it is 224% over budget! Oh well, that's a forte of the UK at the moment!  :rolleyes:

 

Better be worth it!  :Praying:

Here you go http://www.ebuyer.com/667937-gigabyte-gtx-970-windforce-3x-4gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-3-displayport-gv-n970wf3oc-4gd

I've got the MSI, but the Zotac will do you fine.  The Zotac also has a 5 year warranty compared to 3 on most other brands

 

Can you find a link with this info?  My current GTX 570 from evga had a lifetime warranty (in 2011 EVGA changed their warranties to three years).  I was a little miffed to see EVGA's new cards are all 3 yr even if you get a high end 980...  If ZOTAC is really 5 years they'll get my money.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-071-ZT&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

I have that exact card.

 

No coil whine, overclocks well and doesn't throttle in benches, even in my tiny ITX case.

 

Don't forget to register as the card only comes with a 2 year warranty if you don't register it in time.

 

Noise wise it's quiet on the stock profile but I like to run it at high speed to keep my motherboard temps down.

Nice one, Zotac it is - love that 5 year warranty. Plus... I've actually found it on offer with a free game!   Updated specs: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/mikejr/saved/TZWKHx

 

Had/having a few of things bought for me since it's Christmas (how convenient!) and that's already a big help. 

 

Also I've decided to go for the dedicated SSD option on which to run FSX - is this worth it with this system? Is 250GB enough? 

 

Final question, I have 4 case fans (2 of which came with the case), all PWM control, and just bought this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400747567451?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT since the mobo only has one fan header, my question is, with all the fans being 4-pin, and only one of the pins on this adapter obviously having useful 4-pin connectivity, will all the fans still have controllable RPM; isn't that the point of this adapter? (Better explanation here: http://www.gelidsolutions.com/products/index.php?lid=2&cid=11&id=63&tab=1)

I run FSX and Windows on the same SSD and anything like mesh that can be run from a mechanical drive on a USB 3.0 external drive.

 

Once it's all up and running I only ever see the odd ping of HD activity light and I really don't feel the need to get a dedicated FSX SSD.

 

I don't use photo scenery though, maybe it helps that?

I think that with my current experience of running FSX (everything on one 500GB HDD), even with just a handful of add-on planes, no scenery and even with a defrag loading times of FSX can take up to 5 minutes and flights about the same. 

 

I might not necessarily have FSX on one SSD entirely, just have some add-ons such as scenery located on a HDD (1TB WD Black to be precise). I plan on having the OS on one standalone 60GB SSD so it would be impractical to have FSX on this too. From what I've read around it cuts loading times dramatically, but is so dramatic to be worth £70-odd? Who knows. :unsure: