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txnetcop
October 3rd, 2009, 06:53
Great FSX/FS9 gaming system -Note this only applies to FSX/FS9 gaming and most current games on the market. This proposed system runs CRYSIS and FARCRY 2.0 very well and can be done for less than $1500 depending on your other peripherals you choose.


Disclaimer:
CASES and Video Cards, are subjective and prone to prejudice as certain mfgs are liked by certain people so pick what you like, but the parts I suggested tested extremely well for a medium to high Mid Range system which should be affordable for those building units now or in the next couple of months.

High Mid-range and Mid-range system build
All dollar amounts are in USD and will vary in NZ, Austrailia, Asia, and Europe


Why did I chose the components I chose?
This was based on testing done at TechCorp rated for dependability, power, cost, and easy of installation. Guys you want to build for the future which is around 2-3 years. Some of you are still simming on 5 year old systems-I commend you. However if you are looking to build today for what may be out there tomorrow this recommended system is very upgradeable.


Why didn't I recommend Penryn Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad now that prices are way down?

There is nothing wrong with the Core 2 Quad Q9550 and above or the Core 2 Duo E8400 and E8600 for power gaming, however they are old technology and outgoing, you want to build for at least the next two years and the prices on the Nehalem cores are cheap. You can build a decent Nehalem core system for less than $1500 USD the Penryn core would cost very close to the same amount of money.

I also note that the E5200-E7400 small game systems are fairly powerful for flightsimming when OC'd to 3.4GHz or better on the Gigabyte EP45 motherboards-this was something that Harleyman and I had discovered by accident. The price is right too-under $600!


Where is i9 core in this?

Being tested now and wow is this thing a mover and shaker-not available retail yet. Besides this is for a medium to high mid-range system

Why not AMD or Intel i5?

Intel i5Core
Both Lynnfield and Bloomfield are great newcomers however they are limited to Dual channel mode and PCI Express 2.0 16X and 8X in SLI. While that may not matter so much in gaming now it could matter a year from now. Triple Channel memory is still the fastest memory albeit a little harder to OC than Dual channel and if I used SLI would want 16X speed across the board. The prices are so low on i7 why buy i5 for power gaming?


AMD
If you choose AMD I recommend the AMD 955 and 965 Black Edition as their cores are not locked and they are powerful. I also recommend ASUS Crosshair III-Best, ECS A785GM-M, Gigabyte 790FX, or MSI 790FX-SB750 boards



CPU(this is strickly for building a medium to high mid-range system):
Best
Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz-$569.00
Very Good
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor D0 Stepping only-$259.00


Motherboard(Triple Channel memory capability-and two to three PCI Experss 2.0 16X for SLI or Crossfire):

Best-ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard-$289.00

Very good-cheap too:
ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard-$169.99
Review
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2864/asrock_x58_extreme_core_i7_motherboard/index.html
http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/motherboards/1923_1.html



CASE(A great must be a cool case and easy to work in):

Best-Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum-$134.00

Very Good-Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case-$159.99

Honorable mention HAF922 -great case and runs very cool-scored an 8 at Maximum PC and some of the guys at TechCorp have one


MEMORY-(Triple Channel memory is still the fastest memory for video and 3D rendering)

Best-CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D - Retail $189.00

Very Good-OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK $129.00

Honorable mention: If you can find it Mushkin REDLINE series only 1600mhz

Disclaimer:
I did not mention cards over $260.00 as it really did not affect FSX or FS9 that much in frame rates-however it matters in other games!

Video Card (this area is a little subjective but I will give my view-based on tests at TechCorp for FSX/FS9 use):

Nvidia
Best-EVGA 896-P3-1171-AR GeForce GTX 275 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card-$259.00

Very Good-MSI N275GTX TwinFrozr OC GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 TwinFrozr cooling OC at 666MHz-$214

Very Good-Economy-MSI N260GTX-T2D896-OCv3 GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card-$164.00

ATI:

High end
ASUS EAH4890/HTDI/1GD5 Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card-$214.00

Low end
HIS H485QT512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported IceQ4 Turbo Video Card-$129.00



COOLING(Another highly subjective area and various forums have so many opinions on it-however this tested the best at TechCorp):

BEST-$69.00
Air-Noctua NH-U12P tested best in cooling and noise level-fits all current CPUs and compares at the very top with one of the best liquid cooling systems-Ikonik Ra X10
Guru 3D review
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ikonik-ra-x10-liquid-review/13

Tweaktown review:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1259/noctua_nh_u12p_cpu_cooler/index.html



Hard Drives are somewhat subjective too:

I recommend any hard drive that has SATA 3.0 32mb cache 500GB or better-All drive have made some real stinkers but Western Digital Black Edition seem to be the most dependable. I also recommend a separate drive for FSX.

I cannot make a recommendation on SSD drives at this time as more testing is being done as to which one has the best combination of read/write speed and dependability

YES! There are more good products out there but these were the best tested under the criteria given above. I'm sure others will recommend differently and that is their prerogative

That's all until more testing is done on the new Lynnfield and Bloomfield i3 and i5 CPUs and motherboards. This is my story and I'm sticking to it

NOTE: These are not the prices I charge for building a unit-this is what it would cost you to build your own.
Ted

harleyman
October 3rd, 2009, 07:57
I want one of each please....


I will gladly pay you tommorrow for a hamburger today...!


Nice research ted....:applause:

dswo
October 13th, 2009, 11:20
Thanks for posting this, Ted -- it's exactly the kind of information I'm looking for.

jdhaenens
October 20th, 2009, 08:49
Thanks, Ted, it's getting about time for a new unit for me as well. Looking towards the future, Win 7 and all, do you have a preference for a DX-11 Video card yet? LOL...I guess it would have to be ATI right now...

Jim

txnetcop
October 21st, 2009, 05:03
Jim I am not a fanboy of either Nvidia or ATI. I can't afford to be as a test engineer for TechCorp. There are a lot of reviews done that are not really credible because they skew their judgment based on personal likes and dislikes.

I have a very fast MSI Twin Frozen GTX 260 that I love. At TechCorp three of us just tested a Sapphire ATI HD5850 and HD5870 was the cat's pajamas. The HD5870 stomped on all of the GTX 285/295s we were testing. I also owned a very nice BFG GTX285OC that I gave to someone else. That BFG GTX outscored everything in it's class in our testing. Usually BFG is not that great but this one was.

Nvidia knows that they are having serious driver problems with their equipment. ATI has invested the bank in getting faster, better video cards to the public. If they don't they won't be around if AMD bites the dust. They want to be bought and do that they have be a solid contender.

If I were buying today just to fly FSX I would get either an HD5850 or GTX 275/285. Brand names I cannot mention, do some homework. I can tell which houses do the best reviews because some of our guys are the reviewers. Guru3d, ExtremeTech, MaximumPC, and BitLabs. Not a fan of the OC reviewer labs or of Toms's.

If I were buying a card for gaming in general it would be the HD5870 or HD5850 you can get beat the price/performance ratio on those video cards.
Ted

jdhaenens
October 21st, 2009, 05:38
Thanks, Ted. It will be a few months before I actually build so I will keep myself plugged into the sites you mentioned. The reason I said ATI was that doing a search on Newegg on "DX-11" only yielded ATI cards.