Greetings friends,

 

I took the plunge and I'm leaving FS9 and 2D panel flying behind.  I've done hours of reading and video watching to build a 2016 machine within my budget and I need some help with the last part, selecting and setting-up the drive/drives. 

 

This machine is exclusively for flight simulation and I want to run P3D V3+ and try X Plane.  I read a theory about installing two different drives and where to put the OS and where to put the sims, but I cannot seem to find that discussion again.

 

So far I have:

i6700K Skylake

Corsair H110i GTX

ASUS Z170A

Ripjaws V (2x8GB) DDR4 3200

EVGA 220-G2-0850-XR power supply

Corsair Airflow 750D case

and waiting for:

EVGA GTX 1080 Non-reference

 

Can anyone please offer some advice or provide a link on what drive or drives a best suited for this type of build and where to install the OS and sims?

 

Thank you very much,

 

Greg

 

Hi Greg,

 

I think NickN summed it up well here about 1/3 of the page down  http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html

 

If your budget will allow a SSD that is large enough to hold all of your stuff is the best option.  Second choice is multiple SSD's that will hold all of your stuff.  Third choice is SSD for OS and mechanical for other.  Fourth is dedicated mechanical for OS and separate mechanical dedicated to FS.  Least desirable is a single mechanical drive.

 

Not all SSD's are faster than all mechanicals you have to do your homework.  Generally Samsung EVO, is a good choice with the Intel 750 pci-e the decadence.

 

SSD's generally provide for faster load times, do not improve fps and certainly are not the deciding factor of system performance.  Drive selection (like all other component decisions) should be based on what you can afford, else what you are willing to spend in order to satisfy your wants. 

Looks like you have a good sized budget. Your motherboard supports M.2 drives. These drives use the PCIe bus instead of the SATA bus which are much much faster than modern SSDs over SATA. My recommendation would be the Samsung 950 Pro (read speeds are 2.5GBps which is 25x faster than a mechanical drive). 256GB if you are a bit tight on money, but I recommend 512GB for future proofing and to allow very large scenery addons like FTX products.

However, for what you pay for a 512 Gb Samsung 950 Pro, you could buy a 1Tb 850 Evo. Although the 950 Pro is definitely faster, in the real world you probably won't notice the difference unless you're running them side-by-side, particularly if you haven't previously used an SSD.

However, for what you pay for a 512 Gb Samsung 950 Pro, you could buy a 1Tb 850 Evo. Although the 950 Pro is definitely faster, in the real world you probably won't notice the difference unless you're running them side-by-side, particularly if you haven't previously used an SSD.

 

This.

 

If you care obsessively about benchmark results or have a near-unlimited amount of money, get the M.2 drive. In all other situations, get the regular SATA3 drive and spend the money on something more worthwhile.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

near-unlimited amount of money, get the M.2 drive

Look up the prices of the those two drives and report back. 

Kylan, my point isn't that the 950 is a tremendous amount more than the 850. It's not, the price delta is only around $100. I'm not suggesting it's infinitely expensive.

 

But unless you have an unlimited amount of money, then there's always something limiting you, budget-wise. And instead of spending that $100 on something that has no effect outside of synthetic benchmarks, I'd spend it on something that did make a difference, whether it be an upgraded video card, a larger SATA SSD, a larger monitor (1440p is awesome!), additional controllers or perhaps some payware.

 

Cheers!
 

Luke

Hi Greg,

 

I think NickN summed it up well here about 1/3 of the page down  http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html

 

If your budget will allow a SSD that is large enough to hold all of your stuff is the best option.  Second choice is multiple SSD's that will hold all of your stuff.  Third choice is SSD for OS and mechanical for other.  Fourth is dedicated mechanical for OS and separate mechanical dedicated to FS.  Least desirable is a single mechanical drive.

Thank you Gary.  I was afraid Nick's bible was not up to date with M.2 and such.  You really summed it up perfectly.  If one large SSD is the best option I'll do that.

 

Looks like you have a good sized budget.

I appreciate your input Kylan!  I'm over budget already, but choose to buy in stages to get a good result.

This.

Vortex and Luke, Thanks for the all the information.  I came to the right place to ask for help.  You guys are the best.  I appreciate your help.

 

Greg