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View Full Version : My PC died, so I have to build a new one...



Sundog
April 28th, 2009, 22:13
...but the old one served me well. But I need help. I wasn't able to run FSX on my old PC, but this is what I'm thinking of using for my new PC to make sure I can run FSX well;

CPU: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 Nehalem 3.2GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115200)

Option 1 CPU: Intel Core i7 940 Processor BX80601940 - 2.93GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8GT/s QPI, HyperThreading, Quad Core, Bloomfield, LGA 1366 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240164)

Option 2 CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 Processor BX80569Q9650 - 3.0GHz, 12MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Yorkfield, Quad-Core, Retail Socket775 Processor with Fan (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4089666&Sku=CP1-DUO-Q9650)

Or an equivalent AMD.

Vid Card: EVGA 896-P3-1173-AR GeForce GTX 275 FTW Edition 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Supported Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130479)

Case: Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133021)

OS: I'm thinking of VISTA Ultimate.

I need to know if all of that will work well together, if not, what would you guys recommend and what PSU, MoBo, and sound card would you guys recommend?

Also, will I still be able to run FS9 with it? I have alot of money invested in FS9 and would like to still be able to run it for a year or two while I build up FSX. I also have a lot of external HD's, USB, and would like to be able to hook them up to the new system as well.

Thanks! I'm bummed about having to spend the money now, but excited about finally getting a rig that can run FSX. :jump:

Alexraptor
April 29th, 2009, 01:17
Well either choice will be fine with FS9... hey i can run FS9 maxed out with just a Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66ghz, so.... ;)

harleyman
April 29th, 2009, 01:58
I say a Gigabyte Mobo for sure..

Drop the sound card..Not needed

If you go i7 get the 920..Its way cheaper and OC brillianty

Great case..Make sure its the model with the big side fan

The socket 775 Q9650 is just a capaible for FSX as the Nehleham series IMO

Vista Ultimate offers not much over a Regular Vista 64 bit OS..

Power and Cooling is good..I use Corsair 850 with 70 amps to the 12+ rail

I think thats a very good vid card..I use ATI ..



The i7 or 775 will smoke FS9 too


Ram ..I like OCZ..

stansdds
April 29th, 2009, 02:02
My computer smokes FS9 and runs FSX at 24 fps and smooth. What you are proposing should have no problem with running either FS. I'd stick with Intel for the CPU, AMD is still lagging behind in performance.

harleyman
April 29th, 2009, 02:04
I hear the new Phoenom is doing well for FSX if you want AMD...

Alexraptor
April 29th, 2009, 02:53
Actually i say definatley go with a soundcard.
Integrated sound puts an increased load on the CPU something you DO NOT want with FSX.
So a proper soundcard would take the load off the CPU and give more resources to FSX.
However, not all soundcards do this, so one which i would highly recommend is the X-FI XtremeGamer or XtremeMusic.
There are better X-FI cards, but either is a great cheap choice that gets the job done.

kilo delta
April 29th, 2009, 08:09
Nope...there's no necessity for a soundcard in a modern build. The amount of system resouces released by using one is minimal and it's won't have any adverse affect on FSX gaming.....especially so with today's modern cpus. In fact it's been well documented that some Creative sound cards can conflict with some FS addons. I dropped using soundcard's on my systems,particularly those with multiple graphics cards, in order to improve airflow to the card's fans and to aid in the prevention of heat buildup. Modern on-board sound has improved remarkably.
If I were building a pc to run FSX in the morning, i'd go with either the i7 720 or i7 740 (if you have the cash to throw away on the i7 965 then ,by all means you could get that:icon_lol:).

harleyman
April 29th, 2009, 13:08
I think Kilo meant the 920 and 940 CPUs

kilo delta
April 29th, 2009, 14:43
I think Kilo meant the 920 and 940 CPUs

Ooops:kilroy:

Yep 920 and 940, thanks Harley!:ernae:

Sundog
April 29th, 2009, 20:10
O.K., based on your suggestions This is what I've come up with as the latest list. I'm not sure which HD's to go with, so any recommendations I'm open to and if you see anything that wouldn't go well together, let me know. Thanks for all of the responses. :ernae:

CPU Choice1 Intel Core i7 940 Processor BX80601940 - 2.93GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 4.8GT/s QPI, HyperThreading, Quad Core, Bloomfield, LGA 1366 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240164&CatId=4072)

CPU Choice2 Intel Core i7 920 Processor BX80601920 - 2.66GHz, LGA 1366, 4.8GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, Quad-Core, HyperThreading, Bloomfield (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240166&CatId=4072)

MoBo Asus P6T Motherboard - LGA 1366, Intel X58, SATA, SLI Ready, CrossFireX Ready, Triple Channel DDR3 support, RAID, Hyperthreading support (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4366643&Sku=A455-2868)

RAM OCZ Gold Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory - 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048) (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4282839&Sku=O261-7510)

(Optional Combo)
CPU/MoBo/Ram Combo Asus P6T Intel Core i7 Upgrade Bundle - Intel X58 Motherboard, Intel Core i7 920, 12GB Triple Channel DDR3-1333 Corsair Memory (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4488089&Sku=B69-2100)

Vid-Card EVGA 896-P3-1173-AR GeForce GTX 275 FTW Edition 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Supported Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130479)

HD's ? I'm not sure what to go with here. Any suggestions?

Case Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133021)

CD/DVD drive LG Super Multi Blu-Ray/HD DVD-Rom Drive - 6x BD-ROM, 6xBD-R, BD-RE 2x, 3x HD DVD ROM,16 x DVD-ROM, 12x DVD-R, SATA (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4303989&Sku=L49-1012)

PSU Corsair TX750W 750-Watt Power Supply - ATX, 140mm Fan, SLI-Ready, SATA-Ready, 80Plus (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3438609&csid=_21)

harleyman
April 30th, 2009, 01:59
If you know how to OC the 920 is the better choice by far..It OCs better and costs less

Gigabyte MoBos also OC better than the P6T....

Western Digital V-Raptors are great...300 GB ..FSX /Acceleration like their own drive too...

I perfer this PSU for its better rating on the 12V Rail...(70amps over 30 - 40) most offer.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009



Other than that it looks great... Are you really going to use that Blu-Ray DVD....They cost....

Don't forget Vista 64 to use that ram...

kilo delta
April 30th, 2009, 03:01
Are you really going to use that Blu-Ray DVD....They cost....


They're not that expensive,Harley...~€100 and they'll play BluRay and HD-DVD. I have them in a couple of my builds, hooked up to big screen 1920x1080 tv's. Planet Earth in high def has to be seen to be believed!

harleyman
April 30th, 2009, 03:19
I see.. I thought they were pricey.....Thanks for that..:ernae:

I never look as my monitor is only 24" and never connected to a big screen TV...

kilo delta
April 30th, 2009, 03:37
It was the BluRay burners that were extremely expensive (at least the first gen ones).....mine cost me ~1k when I bought it.:kilroy: :monkies:

Sundog
April 30th, 2009, 05:21
If you know how to OC the 920 is the better choice by far..It OCs better and costs less

Gigabyte MoBos also OC better than the P6T....

Western Digital V-Raptors are great...300 GB ..FSX /Acceleration like their own drive too...

I perfer this PSU for its better rating on the 12V Rail...(70amps over 30 - 40) most offer.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139009 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009)


I don't know how to OC, but I figured you guys would teach me. :)
Of course, I was originally considering the 3.2 GHz i7 at first, so I wouldn't have to OC, but it's pricey.

I'm not sure what you mean by a Gigabyte MoBo, I haven't built a PC in over ten years, my last one was purchased.

My FS9 has it's own drive, but I may need something bigger than 300GB, as my FS9 install is around 200GB and still growing, and I would assume FSX files tend to be larger than FS9 files, but I could be wrong there, I haven't really looked.

As for the burner, I was looking for a burner that could burn everything. It's burning DVD's and CD's that are important for me, but, this system will be networked in my home addition and connected to the flat screen TV, so that's kind of why I was leaning towards the HD-DVD. Of course, I could always put this one in and a standard DVD/CD-Rom burner, I suppose.

I'll correct/update my list during lunch, since I'm doing most of my posting from work, since my "old server" at home is a slow machine to surf from.

harleyman
April 30th, 2009, 07:18
Gigabyte Mobo...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128362


You can get a 250Gig on up HDD (make sure its got 32MB cache) for FS9 and your OS and all applications and programs


They FSX on its own V-Raptor HDD ..Very fast like that..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136322



A nice HDD with 32 MB cache http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319 For your OS and FS9 and all the rest




Leave FSX all alone then




Understand about the Burner .....:applause:

kilo delta
April 30th, 2009, 07:57
As for the burner, I was looking for a burner that could burn everything.


If it's the same model that are in my htpc systems it won't burn BluRay or HD-DVD.....it's read only. It'll happily burn CD/DVD though.:)

Sundog
April 30th, 2009, 10:19
OK, based on the excellent advice I've received from you guys, below is what the system will look like, for now. I have just a few more questions;

1) Will I also be able to run IL-2 on this system, or have any problems running my Photoshop/3D-Studio Max/ AutoCAD?

2) If I OC this, can I un-OC it? Or is that just done to the CPU? I'm thinking of upgrading the CPU once prices drop on the faster i7's.

Anyway, here's what it looks like based on your guys input :applause:

Updated per Kilo Delta's and harleyman's recommendations below.

CPU Intel Core i7 920 Processor BX80601920 - 2.66GHz, LGA 1366, 4.8GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, Quad-Core, HyperThreading, Bloomfield (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240166&CatId=4072)

MoBo GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128362)

RAM OCZ Gold Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory - 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048) (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4282839&Sku=O261-7510)

Vid-Card EVGA 896-P3-1173-AR GeForce GTX 275 FTW Edition 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Supported Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130479)

HD (OS) Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319)

HD (FSX) Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136322)

Case Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133021)

CD/DVD drive LG Super Multi Blu-Ray/HD DVD-Rom Drive - 6x BD-ROM, 6xBD-R, BD-RE 2x, 3x HD DVD ROM,16 x DVD-ROM, 12x DVD-R, SATA (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4303989&Sku=L49-1012)

PSU CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009)

Cooler COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055)

Thermal Compound Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007)

Thermal Compound Cleaner Arctic Silver ACN-60ML (2-PC-SET) Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100010)

Anti-Static Strap Rosewill RTK-002 Anti-Static Wrist Strap (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899261005)

kilo delta
April 30th, 2009, 11:33
Factor in a good aftermarket cpu cooler too, as you'll be overclocking...this would be perfect http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055
The 12GB memory kit is not really necessary...6GB will be plenty

That system will run Photoshop/3DMax and Autocad without breaking a sweat. Gaming will be a breeze too...especially if you overclock...4ghz+ seems easily attainable with the i7 920.

harleyman
April 30th, 2009, 11:48
Yup...The V-8 cooler is killer... cooler section)...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835702007


get some Artic Silver thermal paste and cleaner - prep too....A wrist strap helps too....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100010

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899261005

harleyman
April 30th, 2009, 12:43
I had picked the wrong artic Silver Compound ..its been corrected now though...




A big thanks to txnetcop for the great eye on that....:ernae: master

fcfcfc
May 1st, 2009, 03:11
Just wondering if an ATI like a HIS HD4870 1GB ICEQ4+ would do as well? I also saw a 4890 1GB recently - is this better than the 4870?

harleyman
May 1st, 2009, 03:48
Thats a smokin card.......

FSX loves it too..

I just used it in an new i7 build and he loves it....

But it did die...A fluke..but HIS will replace it quickly ... NewEgg if within 30 days and the UPC is intact and not used for a rebate...

fcfcfc
May 1st, 2009, 04:43
Thanks Harleyman - you are referring to the 4890? Is there a need to replace the stock fan with something better?

Also, I am about to use WideView. Do you think if I just have 3GB instead of 6GB and 5 PCs driving 5 displays, would there be a noticeable performance degradation?

I have been watching this thread with great interest. Really appreciate everyone's knowledge and helpfulness here. Planning this new cockpit (first time) has taken forever with a few false starts; the hardware (instruments and control esp) part has been particularly painful. Sorry for some of the dumb questions I ask from time to time.

harleyman
May 1st, 2009, 10:28
No need to touch the vid card fans..ATI and nvidia have tools to manually run the fans at any speed you want for good cooling....

^ gig would be better...i have heard that there is a price to pay running manymonitors..But with extra PCs..i don't really know about that ...

Sundog
May 4th, 2009, 11:41
Everything's ordered! Thanks for all of the help. Of course, once it's all together, I'll be checking the OC-ing thread and getting info on how to do that for maximum performance. Although, that's probably about two to three weeks away, because I'm also in the middle of moving right now. I can't wait to be up and running at the new place, though.
:jump:

harleyman
May 4th, 2009, 11:44
Good luck moving...Just hollar back when you are settled and upgrade that puter and want some help......:icon29:

Sundog
May 7th, 2009, 09:57
Thanks,

The moving is on-going atm, but...

All of the parts are in and all I can say is that tower is HUGE!!! It has eleven bays in the front :::salivates::: Hard drives, I luvs me some hard drives. OK, I really do have alot of programs, but I'm getting really excited now. I just have to figure out if I want to go with a Vista DX-10 set-up or a Win XP SP3 set-up. Decisions, decisions...

harleyman
May 7th, 2009, 10:15
Cool....I love new rigs..building a new one now...LOL


I like XP SP3 for FSX personally



Good luck...

Sundog
May 8th, 2009, 13:14
My friend, who is actually putting it all together, he's an IT guy, told me there is a switch box where you can physically set the system to boot up with one or another HD, each with a different OS on it; as opposed to a dual boot system. I'll probably go that route and set up one drive with Win XP SP3 and the other with Win7 (64bit).

I'll set up all of the programs I run for modeling, engineering, and graphics on/with the XP drive, including FS9, and then I'll set-up FSX to run with Win7. That way, I have FS9 to get all of my FS fun with and the Win7 side to develop FSX with. If it crashes, then I'm just losing my FSX install at worst, which I haven't even purchased any add-ons for yet; although I do have a list ready to go. ;) But if FSX is relatively stable on it, I'll just make sure to back up my config file regularly, so if it crashes, I can get back my settings relatively quickly.

harleyman
May 8th, 2009, 14:32
Sounds like a very good plan..There are lots of FSXers that are using Win7 64 bit and have no problems I know of..You should be good to go that route I think...

Sundog
June 9th, 2009, 11:56
Well, we've had one "glitch" so far. We had to take the fan out of the door, because it was interfering with the CPU. I hope that doesn't effect temps too negatively.

We also found the switch I'm going to add to switch between the Windows 7 side and the XP SP3 side of the PC. Win7 side will be FSX and XP will be FS9 side.

Here's the switch. (http://www.cooldrives.com/2posaiisw5in.html)

harleyman
June 9th, 2009, 14:15
Too bad about the heatsink hitting the fan...

You can set up a dual boot and not need that switch.....

Sundog
June 10th, 2009, 21:40
Now that you mention it, based on everything I've read of Windows 7 and what we're seeing in the sytem so far, with a Win XP mode/virtual system built into it, I may just leave windows 7 as the only operating system and just use it's built in XP boot for FS9.

txnetcop
June 20th, 2009, 06:42
I agree! I love Win7
Ted

Sundog
August 28th, 2009, 18:35
OK, now I'm not liking Win7 so much. I re-installed FS9, since I have so much add on payware for it, I'm not discarding it, at least until I can get FSX up and running and some good terrain updates in it anyway.

So, this is my problem. I did a fresh install of FS9, however, I can't add any scenery manually. When I go to add the scenery and select the folder, it's as if it doesn't see the folder. Sort of the same behavior you would see in XP if you tried to add a folder that didn't have a scenery folder in it. It just "selects down" within the folder instead of adding it. Scenrry that is auto installed without doing this, I don't have any problem adding. Any ideas on why I'm having this problem?

I also noticed that where the FS9 config file is located, there wasn't a scenery config file in it. I copied over an old install scenery config and just had the default sceneries in it and tried to add a new scene with it, but to no avail. Hopefully, one of you guys knows how to fix this.

harleyman
August 28th, 2009, 19:21
Make sure that you have unchecked *Show Hidden files and Folders*


To manually install any scenery into FS9 I always make a new folder..Call it whatever I want(usually the name of the scenery)


Inside that folder I place two more folders..One called scenery and one called textures....Scenery into scenery, textures into textures...


Then I add the main folder ( with the 2 sub-folders) into my add- on scenery folder in FS9..


That then must be activated in the sim scenery library manually...

Close FS9 and restart it and the scenery will be there...



hope this helps..

Sundog
August 29th, 2009, 22:39
Yeah,
That's how I do things. In fact, I usually have my add-on scenery broken down by country and in the case of the US, by state. It makes it easier to manage and that way, as new sceneries are released, it makes it easy to check and see if I have an older version or a version by someone else installed, JIC of conflict.

However, you know how you select the name of the add on scenery your are installing, and the name shows up and you click the button and it adds it? Well, when I select the scenery's name, for example, "Boston Logan V2," instead of the name showing up in the hierarchy, it just opens the folder and I am looking at the scenery and texture folders. It's as if all the sceneries I wish to manually add are "invisible" to FS9 on Win7. I'm trying to figure out why it won't recognize them.

As I said in my post above, this the type of behavior you would see in FS9 on WinXP, if you had a "Scenery name" folder without a scenery folder within it. But I do have the scenery folder and the texture folder within them and all is correct, but FS9 still won't see it. If I figure it out, I'll certainly let you know.

Thanks.

harleyman
August 29th, 2009, 23:19
Hmmm Ok....Now I have a clear picture of whats going on...


Like you, I am clueless why its doing that..

It should select it and add it to the library, not open it and show the folders inside...

Try adding this post into the general area and see how others with Win7 are doing it.

kjb
August 31st, 2009, 08:49
It's a Windows7 RC1 "feature". Right click after selecting the area and it should add normally.

Sundog
August 31st, 2009, 21:37
Thanks kjb, it turns out my Win7 has the RC1 "feature." Add-ons now adding on. :ernae:

idancesafetydance
September 23rd, 2009, 14:55
I hear the new Phoenom is doing well for FSX if you want AMD... Yes it is. The benchmarks show 3Ghz (not OC'd) phenom 940, preforms better than an I7 at 3.4Ghz. My Phenom 940 is at 3.6 Ghz and I run it on maximum settings, with 35 FPS smooth.

Sundog
March 23rd, 2010, 18:06
OK, this actually pertains to add-on developments for FS. Many of the programs I have are older 32bit programs that will only run in XP. So, I have the MS virtual XP installed and I can run it. However, it won't allow me to change the color adjustment, it only allows 16 bit and the "advanced" tab under the display settings tab is disabled. Does anyone know how I can enable this to adjust my monitor settings, since 16 bit won't cut it.

You guys already know my vid card from this thread, my monitor is a Dell S1909WX LCD display for ref.

Thanks in advance.