Developers, please feel free to chime in here as well because it's your products I will be using this system for to compile my reviews with.
So far I am looking at the below specs:
- 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3770 processor 3.4GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology up to 3.9GHz
- Intel B75 Express Chipset
- 12GB DDR3 Dual-Channel Memory
- NVIDIA Geforce@ GT630 Graphics with 2GB of Discrete Video Memory
- 2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Now I was thinking to attempt a factory overclock to 4.0 or 4.3GHz, add liquid cooling, i.e Corsair H100 Liquid CPU Hydro Series (good enough cooling??) and perhaps a better GPU. Will the GPU listed do proper justice or should it be upgraded as well. And if so, to what?
Basically, these are the best specs I could find thus far for the money I want to spend factoring what I will also need to pay over the top for upgraded parts and labor.
Basically, these are the best specs I could find thus far for the money I want to spend factoring what I will also need to pay over the top for upgraded parts and labor.
Good path or bad path? I am looking to make this happen as soon as this weekend... and as late as whenever...
Even my wife think it's ridiculous that I haven't upgraded yet. Now that's pathetic.
Here is my current system for those asking. I bought it back in 2010 and it was always meant as a temporary system to hold me over as my previous system before this crashed and I could not live without my FS. I am sure you all understand.
- Intel Core i7-860 2.8GHz with turbo boost to 3.3GHz
- 8GB DDR3,
- 1.5TB HDD,
- ATI Radeon HD5850,
-D'Andre
29 comments:
NVIDIA GTX680.
Despite FSX not being all that GPU dependent, it is still important to have a decent graphics card. To be honest that GT630 should probably be replaced with at least a 660Ti(or even a 560Ti. This will ensure you will have a crisp looking fsx (running along side nvidia inspector) and also achieving great frames.
If that's gonna be a problem money wise may I'd suggest getting 8GB of ram or just getting 1TB of hard drive space.
what are your current rig specs??
i would say not to overspend
getting a good deal for your money will give you a good feeling and also make your reviews more realistic for buget pc users
say core i7 2600k users + 2nd hand graphics card about £550 for this sort of rig
but i understand that you might need a fast machine to test all those new addons???
Well it's 12GB ram and the hard drive is 2TB... I'll check out those cards you both just mentioned.
too bad we all cant make an FS community donation account to help fund the MS team to improve the FSX engine! or possibly help encourage the return of the ACES team. Then perhaps all this high end hardware reguirements would be a little more realistic! just my thoughts.
Yes I do but you also make a very good point. I posted the current rig and specs for you.
Ugh, don't get ATI.
Get a Nvidia 680 or 670.
In order to overclock, go with a Z77 chipset motherboard such as the ASRock Z77 Extreme4. Will make a great combo with the 100i. Graphicscard, no point in getting the GT630, go with the 660TI. Also why 12Gigs of RAM. For FSX, 8GB is more then sufficient.
Check the Avsim hardware forum for the best recommendations. A ton of quality info over there.
I would suggest a 256GB+ SSD for sure.
Something like the Sandisk SDSSDX-480G-G25 with 480GB or OCZ VTR1-25SAT3-256G with 256GB.
Also I would suggest using P3D instead of FSX.
And personally i would go for a 1GB graphics card. Other wise you could get problems with out of memery's. As we all know FSX/P3D are 32bit programmes so can only take 4GB VAS. So if your graphicscard eats up to 2GB you are getting a hard time loading scenery and that kind of stuff
I'd like a FS community donation for my new rig :)
Dom
ADX
Just wait for Prepar3d 2.0, then donate your money to Lockheed Martin ;-)
Fair enough. I havent even tried P3D yet. May have to give it a try. Im doing a few upgrades here in the next couple weeks, so may be a good time to swithch eh?
Wait for Haswell ... possibly the last PC desktop cpu as we know it. Out by June.
BTW have you EVER attempted to defrag 2 terra hard drives? Best of luck buddy.
GFX card:
***ALWAYS BUY NVIDIA*** You'll need Nvidia inspector to configure FSX.
If you don't have much money to spend on a graphics card, never buy the cheapest current gen card, like a GT630. Go for a last gen 550Ti or 560Ti, either new or used.
CPU:
Ivy Bridge runs hotter than Sandy Bridge due to Intel's use of low quality TIM. Expect 4.7/4.8 GHz with a H100 and hitting the thermal limit of ~95C with Prime95 running flat out. I recently purchased a last gen Sandy Bridge 2700K at great expense from a Ebay seller in Israel and I pushed it to 5GHz at 93C. Note FSX will never push your CPU as hard as Prime95, even at full load with Hyperthreading enabled, so expect ~75C at full load, which is fine. In fact you don't really need to be Prime95 certified stable because FSX just doesn't push the CPU that far, even though it's very CPU dependent.
NOTE the CPU will require a disproportionately large increase in VCORE voltage once above ~4.6GHz, but as long as you're below 1.5v you're fine. I'm at 1.44v at 5GHz on my 2700k.
Also a brand new Corsair H100 has thermal paste pre-applied so you don't need to worry about applying thermal paste yourself.
Power Supply:
For overclocking, ALWAYS GET A BRAND NAME HIGH POWER Power supply unit. My Antec 850W PSU is serving me well with no problems over many overclocking attempts. Remember good graphics cards require a separate power cable from the PSU.
Motherboard:
I use the Asrock Z77 Extreme 4, which is commonly available and both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge capable, plus it has DIRECT VCORE CONTROL. I've found precise overclocking without that function (i.e. offset VCORE only) to be relatively difficult.
RAM:
8GB is more than enough for FSX. All OOM errors are due to VAS problems, not RAM. I use Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B, It's commonly available and stable at 5GHz CPU overclock.
Lastly: ALWAYS USE WINDOWS 7 x64! 64 BIT ONLY or you'll have problems with VAS and OOM CTDs.
I would suggest 2x HD, one for OS and other things and one for FSX.
I would recommend something like this:
- Corsair Carbide 300R (or go for 400R if you want to use H100 watercooler!)
- Corsair HX750W
- ASRock Z77 Extreme4
- Intel Core i5 3570K (no HyperThreading, but FSX does not use in anyway, and great overclocking due to lack of HT!)
- Noctua NH-D14 (best aircooler there is)
- G.Skill RipjawsZ F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH (4x4GB DDR3-2133)
- Gigabyte GV-N66TOC-2GD (2GB version of GTX660Ti)
- Samsung 840 series Pro 128GB (great SSD for Windows)
- Samsung 840 series Pro 256GB (great SSD for FSX)
- LG GH22NS70 (do you really need an optical drive?)
This whole set would set you back around 1300 euros in the Netherlands
perhaps you could add 3 extra 140mm fans (2 in the top and 1 in front) to accomodate the extra airflow for better overclock.
Why don't you just read kostasfsworld for his hardware guide... it is pretty much on the mark with the current recommendations...
You put an overclocked SB/IB i7 into your new PC, you will need to match it with a GTX660Ti/670/680 in order to get the best out of the system.
Whatever RAM you go for, it is best to get RAM that does not necessarily need 1.65V to get the timings you wish. I found low voltage 2133MHz RAM (2X4Gb, 8Gb is adequate for any FSX set up... more might only be necessary if you are planning to do real time rendering work, large Photoshop stuff or video editinig and so on...). If you aim to overclock, be aware that it puts less stress on the CPU if you only have 2 of the 4 RAM banks occupied, so a higher overclock can be attained, ie 2X4 is better than 4X2...
You might have issues with cooling, even with a closed water cooling system, when overclocking IB i7s... the only way to get high overclocks on IB currently is to delid the CPU and replace the thermal interface material, which will void any warranty immediately...
Hard drive: There seem to be no real data on whether FS benefits from having its own drive or not. I placed FSX on its own SSD... You really need a fast drive, something like a Raptor or an SSD to optimize load times. Thinking of all the OrbX style scenery these days, go for the largest you can afford... 512Gb SSDs are now around the €400 mark... I paid that just over 2 years ago for 240Gb!
It is better to have a separate sound card, as its processor will free up CPU cycles...
A
I think you shouldn't rush with this new rig. First, I would buy a new graphics card, than I would wait a few months until the new six core Intel processors arrive - that will mean the older ones prices drop. In my opinion you can't expect too much performance boost from this new system, maybe 20-30% for a lot of money.
I guess he means that you could save the money from the RAM and the disk space and get a better graphics card.
I'd also suggest a SDD. Much faster loading times and no need for defrags!
What's your budget? I'll say don't rush, go to avsim, everything you need to know is available there. Nothing more annoying then buying a new rig & regretting it 2 months later....plan ahead.
I got ACER Predator G3600.
i7 2600 3.4 GHz 8GB Ram ATI HD 6570 1 GB 1T
I tought that was good for FSX. But I get wrong :) . I play FSX at 25 40 fps PMDG 737 NGX sceneries without traffic, no trees buildings.. Only scenery parts. That's good but I need more powerfull :(
I have a...
Intel i7 3770k @ 4.6GHz
EVGA GTX680
8GB 1866mhz RAM
ASrock extreme 6
256 ssd + 1TB
May I just say, FSX still runs like sh*t
D'Andre,
Great subject I’m actually looking to build a new system in July. I would love to hear what you finally end up building and how it performs with FSX and all add-ons applied.
I would agree with the others on going with an SSD 256 GB instead of a 2 TB hard drive.
I recently built my wife a computer for business and used 840 series Samsung SSD and I am impressed with its speed. Keep us updated on what you used and how it performs with FSX.
Please get a Nvidia 680 & I7 CPU. Sorted!
Hahah, its such a crap graphics engine it deserves some sort of award.
WoW! All of you are awesome! I even met one of our readers who flew in today from Germany. For the most part I think we are close. But a quick question. If I get the 660TI 2GB will I have problems with the GPU being 2GB? Just curious. But I might get a 550TI used on ebay.
IIRC you will have problems with the graphics card RAM and the VAS (OOMs) if you use any 32 bit Windows.
Solution: use 64 bit.
User of 3770K at 4.7Ghz here. As far as i can tell i'm not happy about it's performance especially with ORBX sceneries, too much blurries with it.
Also about temps, Ivy Bridge runs hotter than Sandy but it's better on core-to-core performance. So, if you're hitting 5.0ghz on Sandy it equals 4.8 of Ivy Bridge; better perf on lower clock.
Hitting 5ghz is not hard on Ivy, but you will need to delid the CPU and re-apply thermal paste yourself.
Apart from these, dont buy closed loop systems, spend that money to good CPU block, good radiator.
I'm at 4.7Ghz with 3770k also HT enabled, and hitting 80 in Prime95. In P3D, maximum temp is 60-62C with 4 cores at max usage.
Cheers and good luck with building a rig
Well I am still counting on Lockheed Martin to correct the damn code. In the mean time, i have posted some updates on our facebook page.
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