I've refurbished several desktops and laptops over the years but I have never spent any serious money on a rig.  I've decided that it's now time to build a desktop to run MS FSX reasonably well.  I'm in the planning stages of building a new computer and I'd like some feedback on the hardware I'm considering.

 

MOBO:     ASUS Z87-A 1600 LGA1150 

CPU:        Intel Core i7 4770K Quad Core 3.5GHZ 8MB Cache

Ram:        DDR3 16GB total (two sticks of 8GB each)

Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX580 1536 MB

Power:     750 Watts

OS:          Win 7.0 

 

Will this combination give me enough performance to run FSX reasonably well.  I'd like to know what others think.  Am I heading in the right direction with this???    

For a value build its fine

 

The 580 is pretty old. I just went from a 570 to a 970... The 970 cost as much as the 570 did four years ago.

 

I'd look at a Z97 / 4790K mobo and cpu myself.

For a value build its fine

 

The 580 is pretty old. I just went from a 570 to a 970... The 970 cost as much as the 570 did four years ago.

 

I'd look at a Z97 / 4790K mobo and cpu myself.

 

Thanks for the feedback.  Actually I looked at a Z97/4790K first but I decided on the Z87-A.  I was able to get a 'refurbished' Z87-A MOBO for about 1/3 the cost of the Z97.  Unfortunately the cost factor is of primary consideration.  Also, I'm still using Win XP with which the 580 is compatible.  I will have to purchase the Win 7.0 OS but only if I have enough money left over after acquiring the hardware...

Win xp x64 Pro?

 

I hear ya on a budget. That's a good deal for the mobo.

Win xp x64 Pro?

 

I hear ya on a budget. That's a good deal for the mobo.

Nah, Win Xp Home x32 SP3

 

The  plan is to eventually acquire the Win 7.0 OS, but that's going to take some time.  I'll be lucky if am able to afford buying all the hardware within this year alone.  I've been wanting to build a 'good' computer for several years.  I was hoping that the hardware costs would have come down much farther by now...

Just be cautious with your addons then. The older x86 architecture is prone to OOM's - the rest of us get about 4 GB of virtual address space reserved for FSX . With a 32bit OS you'll only get about 3.2GB

Win xp x64 Pro?

 

I hear ya on a budget. That's a good deal for the mobo.

Well, now I'm not sure if it was a good deal or not.  I ordered an ASUS Z87-A and today I received the refurbished MOBO.  It came in an ASUS factory box clearly labeled "Z87-A"  yet the MOBO itself is labeled as "ASUS M5 A97 R 2.0

 

Apparently it's has an "AM3b" socket  for an AMD CPU.  Can someone tell me what I've got here?  Did I get  ripped off???