New HP Customer Computer advice

[christiaan 4]

Please give advice on this computer for FSX.

 

As my present HP is having difficuty managing all my add-on product I am looking around what the best replacement would be within

 

my budget. I can wait before replacing.

 

The one I have found  has the following specs.

 

Intel Core i7-6700 quad core

 

CPU 3.4 GHz, max 4.0GHz

 

Cashe 8MB

 

Memory 16 GB DDR4 (2x8 GB)

 

SSD 256 GB, HD 2 TB. ( ne extra space for a third one)

 

Discrete Video card AMD Radeon R9 390X

 8 GB GDDR5

 

Another new Hp PC has a Nvidia graphic card  GeForce GTX 1070 but only has a SSD 128GB & 1TB HD.

 

Questions.

 

Why is NVidia prefered to than Radeon, would I get issues with my FSX with all my add-ons ( at present nearly 1 TB divided between

 

two discs Ë" (FSX) & "L" (Mega Scenery Earth.).

 

The "C" disk has a few FSX files connected to sceneries  in the FSX main folder, the rest is personal stuff. Total files 400GB

 

Can I put everything which is related to FSX on the 2T Disc or is there any components which need to be on the SSD,

 

Any suggestions welcome.

 

 

 

[scottb613 1,186]

Hi Christiaan,

 

If money is tight - you should really consider cutting HP out of the picture - you're paying them a lot of money to assemble the PC for you... It's really not that hard to build your own - just takes a bit more of your own time to research the parts - then about 8 to 10 hours work depending on how fast you work to assemble everything and get the OS running... Best of luck...

 

Regards,

Scott

[Gavenger 18]

Are we allowed to link to a website that makes assembling the necessary parts for a PC?  A one stop shop that will handle all the compatibility issues for you?

 

Cause if so, there is one (and I know most of you know what it is) and it takes the heartache out of making sure your getting parts that work with each other.

[netshadoe 144]

I agree with Scott.  Stay away from the HPs, Dell, or any other name brand.  You are paying for the brand name and are limited with what you can choose.

 

The cheapest, and ultimately, the best way to get the system you want is to build it yourself.

 

If you're not up to doing that, I would look up a local computer store (not Best Buy, or any other big box stores) and have them build it for you to the specs you dictate to them.  They will assemble it, and "burn it in" to make sure it's all good to go.

 

Either way, you have WAY more flexibility in what you will get inside your computer case....and yes, you get to choose the case too!!  :wink:

[christiaan 4]

Thanks for the quick replies.

 

I do not have the knowledge or nearby friends who could  assemble a PC for me with me.

 

Also the HP is a ready made shop model where alterations like changing to another video card is not possible.

 

The local PC shop would probably charge me more than the HP computor if you check the price of individual

 

components.

 

I live in the Netherlands.

[Glynn 405]

My advise would always be build your own but if that's not possible then stay away from brands like HP and Dell that use motherboards and cases that will limit your upgrade possibilities going forward.

 

Try these guys.

 

https://www.alternate.nl/PC

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Don't be afraid to build a PC.  If you can use a screwdriver and read directions (or just watch a Youtube video) there's no monetary reason not to.  The time investment varies with complexity, but if you don't go crazy with a full custom water cooling loop then the time investment is minimal.  Realistically you can build a PC in a few hours.  

[Gavenger 18]

You would be surprised that the local PC place may not be as expensive as you think.  I know the following website is US centric, but it could go a long ways as to fining compatible parts and will really help you in judging your budget.

 

www.pcpartpicker.com

 

Theres plenty of Youtube videos out there to help you assemble the system, and if your only doing air cooled systems everything is really plug n play with not a lot of opportunity to screw things up too badly.  Just make sure not to do any of this while standing on carpet.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

use this site, it's specific to the Netherlands: http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/

[christiaan 4]

Any info about my question on Radeon and FSX on one HD

[Chock 17,769]

Personally, I disagree with 'not going with HP'.

 

Whilst it is true that you might pay for a brand to some degree, the reality is that companies such as HP can create stuff at a decent price because of the economy of scale allowing them to source components in bulk, with the attendant lower costs that affords them. So that means you can go to somewhere like Tesco Online and buy a fairly decent PC for not a great deal of money, since places like that also buy in large numbers and also benefit from a similar economy of scale.

 

And that is in fact what I did with my present PC (it is an HP and I did get it from Tesco Online), i.e. I bought something which I knew had a decent motherboard and decent RAM and a decent PSU, but a fairly mediocre GPU, with the intent to replace the GPU immediately, which I did. And that ended up working out cheaper than it would have been if I'd knocked the thing up myself, and of course it was an easy 'build', because literally all I had to do was undo two screws, yank out the GPU and put a shiny new one in, took five minutes and works great. Think the entire thing ended up costing me about 500 quid, and that included the cost of the better GPU.

 

Of course if you're gonna do something like that, then a bit of research is useful, i.e., make sure the motherboard and the sockets and bus speeds are okay. But so long as you do that, then you will know that the odd tweak or upgrade will be feasible.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Any info about my question on Radeon and FSX on one HD

 

You can put whatever software on whichever drive you like.  Many people run FS on one drive and the OS on another.  As for the Radeon, it's been the case for some time that Nvidia is just plain better for Flight Sim.  Can you run FS on a Radeon?  Of course.  Will you get good results?  Probably.  They won't be quite as good as what you'll get with an equivlent Geforce though.  

 

Personally, I disagree with 'not going with HP'.

 

Whilst it is true that you might pay for a brand to some degree, the reality is that companies such as HP can create stuff at a decent price because of the economy of scale allowing them to source components in bulk, with the attendant lower costs that affords them. So that means you can go to somewhere like Tesco Online and buy a fairly decent PC for not a great deal of money, since places like that also buy in large numbers and also benefit from a similar economy of scale.

 

And that is in fact what I did with my present PC (it is an HP and I did get it from Tesco Online), i.e. I bought something which I knew had a decent motherboard and decent RAM and a decent PSU, but a fairly mediocre GPU, with the intent to replace the GPU immediately, which I did. And that ended up working out cheaper than it would have been if I'd knocked the thing up myself, and of course it was an easy 'build', because literally all I had to do was undo two screws, yank out the GPU and put a shiny new one in, took five minutes and works great. Think the entire thing ended up costing me about 500 quid, and that included the cost of the better GPU.

 

Of course if you're gonna do something like that, then a bit of research is useful, i.e., make sure the motherboard and the sockets and bus speeds are okay. But so long as you do that, then you will know that the odd tweak or upgrade will be feasible.

 

This approach works for some.  Namely those who have no desire to upgrade or tinker with their PC.  If that's you then by all means take this route.  OEM systems generally have a number of limitations which either limit your upgrade potential or eliminate it altogether.

 

Power supply capacity and case designs are limiting factors for those wishing to upgrade OEM systems.  The case design has two impacts on upgradeability, physical layout and interior volume dimensions.  If your OEM has opted to utilize a non-standard orientation for the motherboard, for example, you may not be able to replace it.  The same effect occurs when the OEM utilizes non-standard motherboard standoff placements.  Sub-optimal drive tray mounting is another physical limitation which may prevent you from fitting a graphics card of a certain length.  Many graphics card makers now create their own custom designed PCBs in-house which can be absurdly large, over 12" long in some instances.  Non-standard CPU cooling retention mechanisms are another limiting factor which may prevent you from upgrading your cooling.

 

Oh, and you can throw overclocking right out the window.  Maybe you don't care to overclock, and that's fine.  Then again, maybe you should take a look at the link I posted earlier and see what kind of performance you're missing out on.

[Chock 17,769]

All true, but like I said, with a bit of research to ensure anything you buy can be tweaked in any way you might have planned, it's certainly a workable option. But having built stuff from scratch in the past, I'm aware that I may possibly be a bit more savvy than some in choosing something from their range which I knew would be okay to upgrade easily enough. But I do certainly agree with you that in most cases, a bog standard PSU you find in many systems might not be able to handle additional stuff or facilitate the power that a better GPU might need in terms of both power output and indeed connectors.

 

Either way, when building something yourself or tweaking up a PC you buy complete, what really matters most is ensuring that the components you buy, or plan to change, all harmonise well, which again is about doing your research. One only has to look at the numerous posts you see on Avsim where people have tons of fast DDR RAM or a behemoth of a GPU and still can't figure out why they cannot get frame rates up on something like FSX. But it's really no mystery if one does enough research; one badly matched component in terms of bus speed or whatever, can and will bottleneck a system that to most people might look like it could run anything with ease, and something with what to many looks like it might not handle things well at all because of a lesser GPU, CPU or amount of RAM etc, can in fact outperform other machines if it has no bottlenecks in how it throws data around its component parts.

[Gavenger 18]

You could always buy a workstation class system from Dell or HP (Precision or Elite Z*** respectively) but then you throw your budget right out the window again

[christiaan 4]

Checked Alternate, but after viewing reviews, regarding after support service, on their site I am not buying there.

 

Also looking into ASUS Desktops.

 

Thanks to everyone who have contributed to this topic it was very much appreciated.