MDF86

Haha, fair enough! Thanks for all your help mate. Thanks to you fine people I think I know what I'm going to go for now, so here is my "final" shopping list... Intel i5 3570K CPU ASUS P8Z77 MOBO 8GB Corsair 2000Mhz RAM 1TB WD Caviar Black 7200RPM HDD Gigabyte GTX660Ti OC 2GB Corsair 750W PSU Corsair Carbide 300R case with 2 extra Apache ultra silent fans Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU cooler So that's it...I think! What do you reckon? Any last minute recommendations to improve/refine? I'm already pretty close to budget so can't really be anything too drastic! Cheers

Thanks Ben. What determines how much voltage is required then? What makes a chip "good" or not? Thanks

Ok, I'm sold, I shall be going for an IB. A couple of questions though... 1) Am I ok to OC to ~4.5 without delidding if I get a good cooler? 2) Is it worth spending an extra £80 on the i7 3770k or would you save the extra and go for the i5 3570k? I understand the i7 wont offer any advantage for gaming, however I also do a fair bit of photo editing. Thanks

Ben I'm not willing to de-lid...so in that regard would I be better off sticking with SB or still going with the IB CPU? For what it's worth my PC would only ever be on for 2-8 hours at a time, it's not on 24/7. Martin

Thanks all, plenty to mull over. Still considering spending the extra on an i7 processor to get the best I can afford - any thoughts on that? Which one would give the best extra performance over the 2500K/3570K within budget? Santi - the RAM is so cheap it seems silly to go down to 1333 or 1600 to save almost nothing, so thought I may as well get the fastest I could afford. If I do go for 16GB, how would this be arranged? 2 x 8GB sticks or 4 x 4GB? Sorry that's probably a really dumb question.

You're right Vic, I'd love an SSD to get those faster load times but just doesn't seem worth it when I'm already fairly close to budget. I am now in a quandry about whether to go for the 2500K or 3570K however! Money isn't the deciding factor. Reading around it seems the 2500K has better overclocking ability and runs cooler, which would be an advantage for me as I live in a warm apartment anyway. I'm fully confident in my friend's ability - he built my last PC for me and everything's been great, it's just not up to FSX sadly due to the hardware inside it!

OK, will take a look at the 3570K - will I need to do this "de-lidding" thing on it? The thought of taking a razor blade to a £200 processor fills me with dread! Looking at reviews on pc building forums etc, it seems the 2500K has better overclocking potential than the 3570K as well as running cooler. Anyone have any experience on these two cpus? Also could anyone answer whether or not it would be worth upping the RAM to 16GB? Thanks!

Hi Rich Thanks for your input - I do actually have some experience with this company from years ago. I've just configured the exact same system with them and it comes in at £975 which is about £100 more. I know it's not a lot but I'm fully confident in my friend's ability to put the PC together and I can use that £100 to better effect elsewhere. What are your thoughts in general on the sort of performance I can expect from what I've suggested? Would it be worth doubling the RAM?

Thanks for your input also. Martin

OK thanks Ben. Seems about the same price as the Gigabyte - what are the differences? Motherboards mean nothing to me! What are your thoughts on the rest of the shopping list? Anything inherently wrong with the other components I've chosen? Anything you can do better for the money? Cheers Martin

Hi Everyone I'm a long term lurker around these parts! After several years of happy FS2004 simming, the time has come to step up to FSX. But before a software change can happen, a big hardware refresh is required. I've been reading many threads and guides about this for some time, but a lot of this is very unfamiliar territory to me! I set myself a budget of £1,000 that I really cannot exceed, and that has to be for absolutely everything. So, I've come up with a shopping list! And I would really appreciate those who know more about this than me casting an eye over it and letting me know your thoughts, any room for potential improvement within budget, and any other thoughts you may have about the parts I've chosen. I know full well that I'm not going to be able to run everything at max - neither do I want to. What I do want, is a massive increase in visual eye-candy over FS9 as well as playable frame rates which make it enjoyable and smooth most of the time! I want to be able to use add on airports, aircraft and things like REX to fly in challenging weather without the system grinding to a stutter! Anyway, enough of my ramblings! Here is my shopping list: CPU Intel i5 2500K (to be overclocked once I know what I'm doing!) http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i5-2500k-unlocked-s1155-sandy-bridge-quad-33ghz-hd3000-igp-850mhz-6mb-cache-95w-retail £167 MOBO Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3-B3 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-p67a-ud3-b3-intel-p67-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-raid-sata-pcie-20-(x16)-atx £96 RAM 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866MHz http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(2x4gb)-corsair-ddr3-vengeance-jet-black-pc3-14900-(1866)-non-ecc-cas-9-10-9-27-xmp-150v £39 GPU Gigabyte GeForce GTX660Ti (comes with free "Borderlands 2" - nice little bonus!) http://www.scan.co.uk/products/16-08-2gb-gigabyte-gv-n66toc-2gd-geforce-gtx-660ti-2gb-w-borderlands £250 HDD 1TB Western Digital 7,200RPM http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-western-digital-wd1003fbyx-re4-enterprise-24x7-35-hdd-sata-ii-3gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-ncq £78 PSU Corsair TX750 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-corsair-enthusiast-series-tx750m-modular-85-eff-80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan- £89 CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO http://www.scan.co.uk/products/cooler-master-hyper-212-evo-4-heat-pipes-direct-contact-with-120mm-quiet-fan-lga775-1155-1156-1366-a £27 Case Corsair Carbide 300R http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-carbide-series-300r-black-mid-tower-gaming-performance-case-with-usb-30-w-o-psu £59 OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit £73 So, all in all, coming in at £878, leaving just over £100 for extras, and paying my friend in whiskey who will build the thing for me! I don't need a monitor as I have a 26" HD TV which is not being used, which I plan to use for FSX. Does anyone else use an actual LCD TV for gaming? Any thoughts or potential problems with this? It's full HD and only a couple of years old. Also, the case can accommodate 6 120mm fans and comes with 2 included. Will I need to buy any extra fans to put in the case with a dedicated CPU cooler as well? I think that's about it! As I said I'd really appreciate some input from you guys about whether I've got the best I can get for my budget with this set up. I'm open to new ideas and suggestions. Cheers Martin