Planning a New Rig......

[MudMarine]

I want to start building a new flight-simming rig. I'm just looking for some thoughts, ideas on what is a good CPU for P3D and FSX. This is the CPU I'm looking at.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115095

Thanks for any help! :mixedsmi:

[ZEUS67]

What I always do is go to Alien Ware, see the specs for the best rig and go from there.

[kjb]

I'm no expert and won't pretend to know where development of P3D is going, but I would say it's a good choice. As things stand now, it's all about processor speed and cores with minimal load on the graphics card.

[Lionheart]

V-Ram is a big thing. Alot of people are running out of memory on huge scenery packages, the sims are locking up and crashing. Its traced down to V-Ram, which is video ram in the graphics cards.

Running two high performance, high memory GC's in tandom will help get past this issue.


Remember, these two sims (FSX and P3D) are both 32bit programs, so they can only use like 6 or 8 gigs of RAM (regular memory RAM). So using 32 Gigs of RAM with a Windows x86 OS is just not going to help.



Bill

[ZEUS67]

32 bit software can only use up to 4 Gbytes RAM, even if the OS (windows) is 64 bit. The OS can use UP to 2 GBytes RAM. The safest choice is to use 8 Gbytes RAM. That way, the OS and ancillary software (anything that gets loaded with windows) have over 4 Gbytes of RAM to play with, and P3D (or FSX) has 4 Gbytes to use for its own.

[Lionheart]

32 bit software can only use up to 4 Gbytes RAM, even if the OS (windows) is 64 bit. The OS can use UP to 2 GBytes RAM. The safest choice is to use 8 Gbytes RAM. That way, the OS and ancillary software (anything that gets loaded with windows) have over 4 Gbytes of RAM to play with, and P3D (or FSX) has 4 Gbytes to use for its own.


Thanks Zeus,


I didnt know the details. Good to know.

[MudMarine]

Thanks guys! I really want to build a machine that treats FSX and P3D like its Bee-Atch! I'm sick of messing around!:mixedsmi:

[warchild]

it depends on how much your willing to invest.
The main goal with fsx / p3d is to push as much data through the cpu as is possible, and there are a few ways to do this.
1. buy a modo uber expensive cpu with a lot of cores and put eight to sixteen gigabyte of memory in there for it to pull from
2. buy a normal 2,4,or six/eight core cpu, and back it up with a three board sli array and cuda ( matrixing in over 900 cores ) and then add eight to sixteen gigbyte of ram
3. (what i plan on doing ) buy a multi processor server MB capable of at least two i7s or 9s, add in 32 gigabyte of ram, toss in your favorite graphics card, and have fun..

with the detail and sophistication implied by the direction that flight simulation software is taking, more powerful ( not neccessarily faster ) machines will be required. Those same implications also show that that sophistication and detail is growing at an amazing rate, requiring a machine that is capable of some certain amount of longevity as it grows. Thats the main reason all my recommendations seem a little over the top. you want something that will be able to handle whatever comes at it over the next five to seven years.

another extremely important thing to consider is cooling. Heat not only destroys a machine, it slows it down.. it makes it harder for the machine to do what you want it too.. Fans simply will not work well.. they're ok for a grade schooler typing a math report, but for serious graphics and cpu throughput, you need something a bit more powerful. I've used water to cool mine for the last six years, but, it isnt enough with these new games and graphics capabilities. Liquid nitrogen is still not realistic ( and costs a fortune ) but, there are micro refrigeration cases available that will keep your cpu and system at a nice and balmy near freezing temperature, allowing the machine to work at optimal efficiency.
Pam

OH and, dont fall into the speed trap.. dont pay attention to the gigaherz of the cpu. although its important, its not as near important as the ability to perform operations. Lets say i have a 2.4 gigaherz cpu. it can do just so much work right?? some people will tell you that its because its only a 2.4 gigaherz cpu and you should buy a much faster one ( and pad their wallets with income ). BUT, lets take that 2.4 gigaherz cpu and add a second one.. hey, they're cheap these days right?? so now, we have a machine that runs at 2.4 gigaherz, but is doing twice the work of a single 2.4 ghz cpu. add more cores and the computational power increases exponentially. and your still running inexpensive, slow cpus, but doing more work per second than the expensive fast cpus.
check this page out. http://www.nvidia.com/object/tesla-supercomputing-solutions.html

[MudMarine]

Thanks for the advice everyone! What I'm looking for is what CPU (ex. i7 intel) works best, with what motherboard etc........I want a parts guideline so I can start building.

[TuFun]

Thanks for the advice everyone! What I'm looking for is what CPU (ex. i7 intel) works best, with what motherboard etc........I want a parts guideline so I can start building.

These guys build systems for FSX and here's graph of the components tested. You may want to check their computer builds for some ideas on components.

http://jetlinesystems.com/performance.php

[MudMarine]

Now that's what I'm looking for! Thank TuFun!

[ZEUS67]

Here are my rig specifications:

INTEL Core i7 2600 3.4Ghz
INTEL Dz68DB Motherboard
2 DDR3 4GBytes Corsair RAM
1 TBytes HDD Seagate SATA
ATI Radeon HD6850 1GB RAM
Corsairt TX750W Power Supply unit
Plus a Top of the Line Case with 6 fans and a Very Large Cooling Fan.

[MudMarine]

Next question......how does it handle FSX? Do you have any Orbx scenery? And what kind of FR do you get?


Here are my rig specifications:

INTEL Core i7 2600 3.4Ghz
INTEL Dz68DB Motherboard
2 DDR3 4GBytes Corsair RAM
1 TBytes HDD Seagate SATA
ATI Radeon HD6850 1GB RAM
Corsairt TX750W Power Supply unit
Plus a Top of the Line Case with 6 fans and a Very Large Cooling Fan.

[ZEUS67]

Next question......how does it handle FSX? Do you have any Orbx scenery? And what kind of FR do you get?

I don't have Orbx scenery, but this is my development rig. I use it for FSX and P3D exclusively. Both of them work very well and I get high FPS count and that's without the need to overclock the CPU.
I also have two monitors connected to the video card, again without problem.
I wish I can place ORBX or anything else but that's a big no when developing, since they introduce unknown factors to the logic.

As far as I can see, this is a high-end rig. Copied from the top-of-the-line game rig at Alien Ware. I just changed the NVIDIA for ATI due to $$$. And some other stuff that didn't need to be that high-end like the motherboard. I was offered a gamer motherboard but that one was a whooping $400 and frankly the specs weren't that high for the price.

[kjb]

The motherboard can make a difference. When I was helping Doug Horton with his Computer Pilot system articles, he had an Intel and I had an ASUS. The rest of the specs were virtually identical. In fact, he was running SSDs and I wasn't (Intel gave him all the hardware!). In our FSMark tests, mine was always significantly faster, especially in the Win7 64 tests.

[MudMarine]

KJB.......and your board would be? ASUS what? TY

[kjb]

That one's a little older system I use in the office now, a P5N32E-SLI with an i975 Extreme CPU. I got lazy on my latest desktop and just bought an HP with a 3960 and liquid cooling. I've built my own for years, but just didn't feel like it this time :)