HI,

 

I know these threads come up on almost a daily basis, so I apologize for being repetitive.

 

I haven't flown in about 6 months because the oc on my current system (built in 2009) finally have out in the spring. The old one is still fine for daily use but not for FSX. It was a great system - the oc at 4GHz held for over 4 years and I used the original FSX and OS install. Following Nick's guides, everything was rock solid until the oc finally cried uncle. Now I'm finally able to build a new system. I fly with a lot of AI, payware scenery and payware aircraft (airliners), but I don't use photo scenery. I'm not sure if I use my ORBX stuff in the new build. I like the reports I'm seeing about FSXSE but I'll probably use FSX Acceleration for the time being. The new system will be built and oc'd by a local store I trust. I plan to part out the old rig. Price is a big concern but I want to do it right. I hope the new system will last 3-4 years. Here is what I am considering:

 

Processor i7-4790K Haswell Quad-Core 4.0GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor BX80646I74790K

MB - ASUS Maximus VII Hero Socket LGA 1150 ATX Intel Motherboard

Memory - 2x4gb DDR3 2400 9-11-11-31 G.SKILL Trident X

Video Card - MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G

Power Supply - Antec HCP Platinum HCP-1000 1000W ATX12V V2.32 / EPS12V V2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Full Modular Active PFC 

Case - Corsair 760t

OS HD 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black (From old system 2009)

FSX HD - Samsung 840 EVO Series 500GB SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TE500BW

CPU Cooler - Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme

 

Two things I am considering.

 

I have a 300GB Velociraptor in my current system. After 5 years, it is 56% full and I'm sure the new install will be smaller for at least a while. I don't care too much about sim load times. Will non-photo scenery load faster as I am flying with a SSD, or are the faster load times with a SSD for the sim to load?

 

Next, the install/build/OC costs $250. If I go with water, the price goes up to $400. I can get a Corsair Hydro H110 for just a little more than the Termalright cooler. Since building my self is not an option (I don't have the patience), Do you think liquid is worth the extra performance (+.4Ghz I am reading)?

 

Thanks for any help or advice you can provide. 

If you don't plan on ocing any further you don't need water. 

 

The faster load times are for the sim to load. It will read the scenery faster while in flight but won't draw it any faster. 

 

Also, why the large price increase for going with an AIO water cooler? That seems a bit steep as there isn't much more effort required. 

Thanks.

 

My understanding is I can get it up to 4.3 on air without too much effort. Maybe 4.8 on liquid. I'd like to get the most bang for the buck and since my air cooler is about $100 and the liquid is about $110, it seems like getting liquid with a little more horsepower may be a good option.

 

I agree, the $400 for a water cooled setup seems a little steep especially considering that the tech even said water was probably easier to install than some of the large air coolers. I'll try to negotiate the price. I think their prices may be left over from a time where liquid was more complicated to deal with. In fairness, they are located in one of the poshest areas in the USA, so they do see bargain shoppers very often.

Rig looks fine, would look for somewhere else tho, 250 to build it is daylight robbery.

Note that your system drive needs SSD more than FSX drive. Cause all data calls pass through the system drive.  I had good cpu OC but wrong HDD setup killed my perf for years.

 

In my case 3x128Gb Samsung SSD in Raid-0 for drive C

 

2 x 500Gb Samsung SSD  in Raid-0  for FSX/P3D drive

Other addons run from 1T HDD

 

Split things off into various drive to avoid bottle neck, use Win7 Resource monitor to check what disks are too loaded in flight, for me, was my C drive, BUT NOT ANY MORE.

 

Also try to get good backup like O&O or Acronis in case those SSD should fail, especially when using raid like me.

 

With what I done on air, I don't need water, just get a case with fans on top, and in summer my portable Air conditioner blows directly into the PC top fans, heat is scared of my sim PC in winter and summer. Using noctua nd15 (3 fan setup).

 

I use 4790 with gigabyte, very easy to OC 4.7 by just selecting auto options, but I intend to take this to around 4.85Ghz soon as I complete current p3d setup.

 

 Save some of that SLI money to get proper SSD raid setup for your system and sim drives. But system drive needs it most.

 

Another tip that helped my 4 years OC @4.6 on previous i7990 last, get rubber pipe to take hot air out back of PC outside the room, cause these i7's are room heaters, that need hot air exhaust to keep room cool for lower cpu temps, else as room heats  up so do your pc temps.

You have assembled a machine that will perform exceptionally well, particularly with the i7-4790K, I upgraded to this about 3 weeks ago with an Asus Z97 Gryphon socket 1150 MOBO and an EVO SSD dedicated FSX drive. The CPU is giving a solid 30fps(as set) in FSX and P3Dv2.4 at around 4.0ghz, I've read it can be overclocked to 5.0ghz comfortably. I have not found the need for any overclocking. I have all the settings set to max with no lag or stuttering or the dreaded blurries. I'm only running an Asus R9 270X GPU, your GTX 980 is far superior.

 

I don't think you need to improve on your proposed system.

Thanks for the advice.

 

I may do SSD in the future but I am really trying to save a little cash by wiping my existing Velociraptor and 1TB OS Drive. By doing so, I have got the system down to about $1,600. I have no idea why anyone would buy a rig off the shelf. I have made a couple changes and I did find out that they'll install a closed water system for the same price as air. I'm not sure if I'll get much better temps with the Corsair H110 than air but it is about the same price as a really nice air cooler and much more compact. Also, I decided to go with 16GB of memory - not sure why I originally picked 8. I know FSX won't use 16 but... I changed the mobo because the z87 boards are sold out at Microcenter - I need to buy the CPU and mobo from Microcenter to get a bundle deal.

 

This is the final version - much of it ordered last night:

 

Processor: i7-4790K Haswell Quad-Core 4.0GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor BX80646I74790K

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VII Hero Socket LGA 1150 ATX Intel Motherboard

Memory: G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 10-12-12-31

Video Card: MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G

Power Supply: CORSAIR HX Series HX1050 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Corsair

Case: Corsair 760t

CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H110 

That is almost an identical setup to my PC that I built last July. The 4790k is an excellent CPU however it does run a little hot (this is common to all Haswell chips from what I read) so it is good you upgraded the cooler. I ordered the Corsair H110 as well for increased cooling, but right now I am running an upgraded heatsink fan that is twice the size of the stock one the 4790k comes with and it keeps it super cold. I performed a stress test on my CPU and it stayed under 70C the entire time under 100% load so the H110 water cooler will be more than enough as far as cooling goes. Also regarding CPU speeds, the 4790k runs standard at 4.0GHz but it has a "turbo mode" which runs it at 4.4GHz with no issue. I don't know too much about this turbo mode but I know it isn't the same as OCing the chip and I've read that people have OCed their 4790ks to 4.8 and sometimes even 5.0, however I have been plenty happy with the 4.4 mine is putting out now.

 

The motherboard I have is the ASUS Maximus VI Extreme so it is a little older than the one you ordered but I will say I had a memory issue with it due to the BIOS being out of date. I'll leave the link the the post I made about it just in case you come across a similar issue and want to reference it. http://forum.avsim.net/topic/457870-pc-freezing/#entry3144409

 

I think I have the same RAM or at least something similar. I know it is 2x 8GB G.SKILL sticks, can't remember the exact model.

 

When I built my computer the 700 series was the latest series in the Nvidia graphics cards so I went with the EVGA GTX 780Ti and this thing is a monster. Pretty much every game I have runs about 60 FPS constantly while on max settings. FSX being...well...FSX I don't get that kind of constant performance, but I have never seen a drop below 30 frames so I am still really happy.

 

For storage I wanted to have everything on a SSD, I didn't want to deal with HDDs anymore. I went with the Samsung 840 1TB SSD. It is a fantastic SSD but if I could do it over I would have bought a separate, smaller SSD for my OS to run on and then use the 1TB for everything else. Or, if I had the money, I might have even bought a separate 128GB or 256GB SSD for FSX too and ran 3 SSDs (that would be pretty awesome). I will probably end up buying another SSD at some point because I filled up 1TB pretty quick (although FSX probably only accounts for about 150GB of it, including a clean backup version of FSX).

 

I have a 1000W EVGA power supply that is very similar to yours so no issue there.

 

Case is just personal preference, just make sure it is big enough because these graphics cards are huge. I was going to go with a mid-sized case (I didn't know how large the 780 was at the time), luckily a friend convinced me to go with a full size. I have a CoolerMaster (again can't remember the exact model) but it is a full size case with plenty of fans so it has good air flow and helps cool everything.

 

Overall that is a good system and since it is similar to mine I am positive that you will be very pleased with it.

This is remarkably similar to the system I just built except for the GPU (EVGA 980 SC). Even without the GPU, it ran FSX great with frames in the 30 to 60fps depending on the situation. I am using water cooling (H100i) with an overclock to 4.6GHz.

 

Those components will run FSX with no real issues.

 

Good luck!! 

Thanks again for the help. System should be home tomorrow night (would have been a week ago if it wasn't for Newegg).