Started compiling my list of parts to finally build a PC for simming. Its mostly for P3D but some FSX till PMDG releases their birds for P3D. I'd like some feedback on the parts list. First off, I am not looking for killer FPS like I see posted by some AVSIM members and on other forums. I'm looking for a smooth, solid mid 20's to 30FPS locked in heavy clouds at KSEA Orbx PNW at night in something like the NGX or 777. There will be overclocking at some point. My list is:

 

nVidia 780ti 

 

Intel 4790k

 

Asus Maximus VII

 

G.Skill DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model 

 

Samsung Evo 240GB SSD (Boot)

 

Seagate Baracuda XT (Sim)

I would go with the 970.  If you're only simming, you can OC the 970 to just of if not equal to 980 specs. Save yourself a view dollars. My personal opinion. 

Looks like a very good system to me. I let my SSD hold all programs since it's faster than the mechanical hard drive which holds files that are subject to be modified more often and basic data files.

 

You should see decent frame rates mostly due to the graphics card I think. I did some basic looking around with CPU usage while using both FSX and P3D. I've got a six core AMD FX-6350 and I found that core 0 was in use 100% while the other five cores were utilized at about 10% average. It could be that the system monitor was the only thing using the other five cores!

It would be nice if the developers of P3D made use of hyperthreading...now, that would be smooooooth flying!

Why a HDD for the sim? That will slow down loading. You don't need a 240Gb SSD for the OS. Get a 120Gb for the OS and a 240Gb for the sim plus addon scenery etc.

 

Otherwise looks okay although I switched from Asus to Gigabyte mobo because of a frozen BIOS clock problem. I wasn't alone. Wouldn't touch Asus again.

120 SSD for the OS

250-512 SSD for the FSX/P3D

 

Gtx 970 over the 780... 980 if you can spare it

Updated list based on recommendations:

 

EVGA GTX980 Superclocked 4GB DDR

 

Intel Core i7-4790K

 

Corsair Hydro series H100i liquid cooler

 

Asus aximus VII Hero Z97 Motherboard

 

Corsair Vengeance 2 X 8GB DDR3

 

Corsair Obsidia 450D Black ATX Case

 

Corsair RM series 850 watt PSU

That should get the job done...and then some!

You don't need 16Gb of RAM. 8 is sufficient.

Unless you use XP10 hehe

 

I might have missed it but what video card are you getting?

I don't see a 980 as worth it over a 970 unless you are multi-screening and even then I'd consider overclocking and setting the money aside for big Maxwell and seeing what happens.

Very interested in the preformace once you get it all up and and running Chris M

 

Josh

Unless you use XP10 hehe

 

I might have missed it but what video card are you getting?

 

I'm looking at getting into XP10 to be honest.....

 

I'm looking at one of EVGA's nVidia 980's......

If you do go XP id get 16 GB ram as a minimum...

The new scenery updates (mainly the visibility increase) are said to easily use 8-16GB of ram - 32GB wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

And a 980 should be great.  I think the Ti version is coming out in Feb ( 8GB VRAM) - a bit overkill unless you had triple monitors or 4k monitor etc - but XP10 will also eat vram.

 

I'm planning a 970 4GB once the prices come down a little (hopefully when the Ti card comes out!)

The best build for P3D V2.4 will also be the best build for FSX. A good compromise for XPX would be to up the RAM from 8GB to 16GB. If I remember correctly More DRAM will hinder your Cache or NB OC on a Haswell CPU. But I am no expert:-)

If you multitask a lot like me more is better.  Chrome x64 loves RAM.