Simviation Forum - New computer build, HELP NEEDED!!

Jun 25^th, 2010 at 12:06am

motostu93 Offline
Colonel
Santa Barbara, CA

Gender:
Posts: 32

Im in the market for a new comp. my previous one is old and tired. It had E2200 dual core @ 2.2 Ghz and a ATI 4350 card on 4gb of ram. it barely could handle FSX on okay setting.

Im looking to upgrade.

heres what im thinking for part spec. can anybody tell me how well this will do playing FSX and on what setting? thanks

Intel core i7 930 @ 2.8 GHz
Liquid Cooling
8GB DDR3-1333
ATI Radeon HD 5670 1GB
MSI X58 PRO-E Mobo
700 Watt PSU
1 TB HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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Reply #1 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 12:35am

NNNG Ex Member

Great processor.

Liquid cooling pointless unless you're an extremely hardcore enthusiast. Otherwise run on stock cooling if you're not overclocking, or decent air cooling (Noctua D14 for example) if you are. Noctua D14 performs the same as lower end water cooling anyway, only cheaper, as does Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme.

You need tri-channel memory which comes in sizes of 3gb, 6gb or 12gb... All 8gb pairs of memory are dual channel then you will NOT get full performance from the processor. Get 6 gigabytes of DDR3-1600 with a CAS latency of 6, 7, or 8. The lower the faster.

That videocard is a lower midrange one which is not any good for FSX. My 3 year old card that I just replaced is faster... Get a Nvidia GTX 470, or GTX 480. 480 is slightly faster.

I don't know much about that motherboard. If overclocking I would personally get a Gigabyte X58A-UD5, or ASUS P6X58D. MSI doesn't make bad products though so it should probably be good. Gigabyte X58A-UD3R is decent and cheaper than the UD5..but might not be as good at overclocking...

It is best to know exactly what power supply it is. A generic 700 watt powersupply will not run the system, a high quality 700 watt PSU will run that system easisly. In my opinion get an Enermax MODU87+ 700 watt, Corsair HX-750 750 watt, Corsair AX-850 850 watt, Enermax REVOLUTION85+ 850 watt, Seasonic X-series 750 watt. Antec Truepower New 750 watt is pretty decent too.

Any 1tb HD should be good as long as it is not a 'green' or 'eco' model since they are slow.

Operating system is fine.

in conclusion:

Core i7 930
Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme
6gb DDR3-1600 CAS #7
Nvidia GTX 470
Gigabyte X58A-UD5
Seasonic X-series 750 watt
Western Digital BLACK 1 TB HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

And with those parts, you're good to overclock the processor from 2.83ghz to over 4ghz. Basically it's the system I would buy if I had the money. Should run FSX very well with processor at stock, extremely well if overclocked.

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Reply #2 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 1:18am

motostu93 Offline
Colonel
Santa Barbara, CA

Gender:
Posts: 32

Quote:

Great processor.

Liquid cooling pointless unless you're an extremely hardcore enthusiast. Otherwise run on stock cooling if you're not overclocking, or decent air cooling (Noctua D14 for example) if you are. Noctua D14 performs the same as lower end water cooling anyway, only cheaper, as does Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme.

You need tri-channel memory which comes in sizes of 3gb, 6gb or 12gb... All 8gb pairs of memory are dual channel then you will NOT get full performance from the processor. Get 6 gigabytes of DDR3-1600 with a CAS latency of 6, 7, or 8. The lower the faster.

That videocard is a lower midrange one which is not any good for FSX. My 3 year old card that I just replaced is faster... Get a Nvidia GTX 470, or GTX 480. 480 is slightly faster.

I don't know much about that motherboard. If overclocking I would personally get a Gigabyte X58A-UD5, or ASUS P6X58D. MSI doesn't make bad products though so it should probably be good. Gigabyte X58A-UD3R is decent and cheaper than the UD5..but might not be as good at overclocking...

It is best to know exactly what power supply it is. A generic 700 watt powersupply will not run the system, a high quality 700 watt PSU will run that system easisly. In my opinion get an Enermax MODU87+ 700 watt, Corsair HX-750 750 watt, Corsair AX-850 850 watt, Enermax REVOLUTION85+ 850 watt, Seasonic X-series 750 watt. Antec Truepower New 750 watt is pretty decent too.

Any 1tb HD should be good as long as it is not a 'green' or 'eco' model since they are slow.

Operating system is fine.

in conclusion:

Core i7 930
Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme
6gb DDR3-1600 CAS #7
Nvidia GTX 470
Gigabyte X58A-UD5
Seasonic X-series 750 watt
Western Digital BLACK 1 TB HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

And with those parts, you're good to overclock the processor from 2.83ghz to over 4ghz. Basically it's the system I would buy if I had the money. Should run FSX very well with processor at stock, extremely well if overclocked.

how much would your recommended spec cost? and ive always had ATI cards is Nvidia better or is personal preference? and im interested in OC'in but i know very little about it and how to do it. ive watched vids on it and its all a foreign language to me. lol

thanks man.

is the OC'in something i could do my self? how easy is it? is it true you can do it just through the BIOS.( and no im not even 100% sure what BIOS is.)

like i said HELP NEEDED. noob at the helm here.

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Reply #3 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 1:45am

NNNG Ex Member

Quote:

how much would your recommended spec cost?

Since I removed watercooling, it shouldn't cost much more than the PC you posted. About $1450 using prices from newegg not including case which would add around $100.

Quote:

and ive always had ATI cards is Nvidia better or is personal preference?

In general GAMING applications, the graphics card hierarchy in terms of speed goes something like this:

Radeon 5970, GTX 480, Radeon 5870, GTX 470, Radeon 5850, GTX 465, GTX 285, Radeon 5830, GTX 275, Radeon 4890, GTX 260 216, Radeon 5770, Radeon 4870.... (slower cards go here).

However, FSX is somewhat peculiar in many ways, so what's good for general gaming is not the best for FSX.

FOR EXAMPLE:

The Radeon 5970 is actually two Radeon 5850's stuck together and sold as one card, and FSX has no use for dual graphics cards so the Radeon 5970 is pointless for FSX. The 5970 is extremely expensive anyway.

Furthermore, a resident guru said the Radeon 5870 was approximately as fast as a GTX 285 in FSX. However benchmarks have shown the GTX 470 and 480 being significantly faster than the GTX 285 in FSX, therefore I can deduce that the GTX 480 is the fastest card for FSX, and the GTX 470 is the second fastest card for FSX, both being much faster than the GTX 285 and Radeon 5870. I have not tried this, however, it's just from what I've read and what I have been shown. The GTX 470 is an extremely good gaming card also.

I have no brand preferences except to Seasonic, Gigabyte and ASUS, but there are good reasons for that. I have used many Nvidia and ATi cards, never had a problem with any of them so I recommend what ever card is best at the time of posting. I previously was using an Nvidia card, but I upgraded to an ATi simply because the ATi card at the time of purchase was better than the equivalent Nvidia card. Basically, there's a reason for everything I post.

Quote:

and im interested in OC'in but i know very little about it and how to do it. ive watched vids on it and its all a foreign language to me. lol

You can just stay with stock cooling and downgrade the motherboard to Gigabyte X58A-UD3R if that is the case. Then upgrade to a Tuniq or Noctua when you're ready to overclock. It takes a while to learn though.

Quote:

is the OC'in something i could do my self?

Yes - but it can void the warranty if they find out. Also changing the heatsink voids the warranty if they find out. As always it puts more stress on parts of the computer that can make them fail - but then again, I've never fried anything. And I know plenty of people who overclock and will continue to overclock because they consistently do not damage there computers by overclocking.

Quote:

how easy is it?

It's really easy, just you need to know how to do it. It took me a few months of occasional reading till I felt comfortable doing it.

Quote:

is it true you can do it just through the BIOS.( and no im not even 100% sure what BIOS is.)

Yes.

It's system setup. When you turn on the PC before Windows starts to load, all this crap will pop up on the screen that will say things like, "PRESS DEL TO ENTER SYSTEM SETUP". And then go press delete a few times and change settings.

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Reply #4 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 1:56am

motostu93 Offline
Colonel
Santa Barbara, CA

Gender:
Posts: 32

NNNG your the man! thanks for the info.

well from what you said i need to back down on the spec a tad bit. i only have 1200 maybe 1300 max to spend. if its not to much to ask would you mind spec'in up a list of parts for a complete system that you would recommend for FSX and other light gaming(Real Flight G 4.5, NFS Shift). And if it was a capable spec for OC'in that would be killer. because i think eventually i will OC.

thanks man

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Reply #5 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 1:58am

NNNG Ex Member

motostu93 wrote on Jun 25^th, 2010 at 1:56am:

NNNG your the man! thanks for the info.

well from what you said i need to back down on the spec a tad bit. i only have 1200 maybe 1300 max to spend. if its not to much to ask would you mind spec'in up a list of parts for a complete system that you would recommend for FSX and other light gaming(Real Flight G 4.5, NFS Shift). And if it was a capable spec for OC'in that would be killer. because i think eventually i will OC.

thanks man

Sure.

I'll do that in a couple of hours./....

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Reply #6 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 2:01am

motostu93 Offline
Colonel
Santa Barbara, CA

Gender:
Posts: 32

Quote:

motostu93 wrote on Jun 25^th, 2010 at 1:56am:

NNNG your the man! thanks for the info.

well from what you said i need to back down on the spec a tad bit. i only have 1200 maybe 1300 max to spend. if its not to much to ask would you mind spec'in up a list of parts for a complete system that you would recommend for FSX and other light gaming(Real Flight G 4.5, NFS Shift). And if it was a capable spec for OC'in that would be killer. because i think eventually i will OC.

thanks man

Sure.

I'll do that in a couple of hours./....

thanks man. i will be up late. no rush

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Reply #7 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 3:22am

NNNG Ex Member

K i'm getting drunk for the night so make that tomorow.

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Reply #8 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 3:27am

motostu93 Offline
Colonel
Santa Barbara, CA

Gender:
Posts: 32

Quote:

K i'm getting drunk for the night so make that tomorow.

no problem. im studying up and i think my brains not running very stable. lol

i will check back in, in the morning

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Reply #9 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 7:49am

NNNG Ex Member

« Last Edit: Jun 25^th, 2010 at 1:10pm by N/A »

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Reply #10 - Jun 25^th, 2010 at 3:50pm

motostu93 Offline
Colonel
Santa Barbara, CA

Gender:
Posts: 32

Thanks again NNNG i will look around. and see if i can get it right at 1200. i think i might downgrade the case a little to save some $. what would be a good site to learn about building. i read a bit on it last night, and i feel somewhat confident i could do it. im just not 100% sure on what parts to install and what time.

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Reply #11 - Oct 25^th, 2010 at 8:26pm

motostu93 Offline
Colonel
Santa Barbara, CA

Gender:
Posts: 32

bringing back my old build thread, i held of for a while but im back at it now. heres my latest thoughts on what i want. with the specs below how good is it for FSX?

Rosewill Blackbone ATX Mid Tower
Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366
ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
APEVIA ATX-AQ700W-BK 700W ATX12V
EVGA GeForce GTX 465
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s
LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner

And any recommendations? thoughts?

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Reply #12 - Oct 25^th, 2010 at 9:59pm

NNNG Ex Member

Change graphics card to a factory overclocked GTX 460 256 bit with a core clock of over 800mhz, like one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130581

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130575

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127534

Those cards are much faster than any GTX 465, while being quieter They will even match the GTX 470 in most situations while having a price tag similar to the GTX 465.

They come with factory overclock (guaranteed to work, under full warranty, etc) which makes them MUCH faster. The card in this review is very similar to the cards I linked.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Point_Of_View/GeForce_GTX_460_TGT_Beast/28.ht...

Also, there are many different kinds of GTX 460, remember you want one of those that I linked with a >800mhz core clock, 256 bit bus interface, otherwise you'll be loosing on a large amount of performance.

_________

Also that PSU is fairly cheap yet has a high 'wattage', which probably means that the wattage rating is probably peak rather than continuous (i.e. it's probably not a 700 watt power supply). They also probably rated it at a very low temperature. It might be good, but I am not familiar with that PSU (I'm in Australia, don't sell them here so I haven't heard of any thoughts on it, and can't find a review). IMO grab a Corsair HX-650, HX-750, they will supply 650 watts / 750 watts respectively continuously even in 120 degree F heat and have a 7 year warranty.

_________

You might be able to save some money by getting a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1tb hard disk. Up to you, both disks are very good.

__________

Other than that, you're looking good from what I can see.

Also if you're building yourself make sure to read / watch how to do it, or try to get someone to do it who has done it before. Or get a shop to do it. I say this because I've seen people fry hardware over stupid mistakes.

couple of things to watch out for:
1. dischage static on the case before touching anything.
2. Make sure the motherboard is mounted correctly.. it should be sitting above the case on the risers.
3. do not force the CPU in.
4. line up cpu before you put it in.

There's plenty of guides on the web on how to do it, I don't know of any particular guide that's best though.

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