i have a few questions about buying a new FSX PC

[Daveroo]

yes i know ive been on about this for a long time..but im having a hell of a time saving up the money,its funny,if i had a monthly bill to pay,id be all over it..but to try to set aside money for later...nuh uh..cant seem to do it...but im still going to buy me one no later than the end on 2015. but i still have questions.

first and foremost..if i buy a pc that will have two hard drives,or what i want is two SSD's and then a third bay,id like to know if its possible to install my "vista 32bit" hard drive along with the two SSD's which will have win 7 64bit?..id like to just take my HDD im currently using,install it,then copy files like all the FTX-Orbix stuff,the installers,to the new SSD's..i mean..to use the installers i have nutted away on this hdd,and open them to the ssd.....god i know i type in circles..but im typing as im thinking..so thats rare...:encouragement:...

then people have said to use a SSD to install the OS and FSX ,then everything else to go to the second drive,which most said should be an HDD..why?...and if i were to do as told..which SSD should be the larger? (im hoping to have two the same size..)and when im done with all my installers on this HDD,should i move them to the second SSD,and then format it to the win7 64bit?..and put the installers back?...

i hope someone can decipher this mess and give me guidance..

Daveroo

[heywooood]

yes i know ive been on about this for a long time..but im having a hell of a time saving up the money,its funny,if i had a monthly bill to pay,id be all over it..but to try to set aside money for later...nuh uh..cant seem to do it...but im still going to buy me one no later than the end on 2015. but i still have questions.

first and foremost..if i buy a pc that will have two hard drives,or what i want is two SSD's and then a third bay,id like to know if its possible to install my "vista 32bit" hard drive along with the two SSD's which will have win 7 64bit?..id like to just take my HDD im currently using,install it,then copy files like all the FTX-Orbix stuff,the installers,to the new SSD's..i mean..to use the installers i have nutted away on this hdd,and open them to the ssd.....god i know i type in circles..but im typing as im thinking..so thats rare...:encouragement:...

then people have said to use a SSD to install the OS and FSX ,then everything else to go to the second drive,which most said should be an HDD..why?...and if i were to do as told..which SSD should be the larger? (im hoping to have two the same size..)and when im done with all my installers on this HDD,should i move them to the second SSD,and then format it to the win7 64bit?..and put the installers back?...

i hope someone can decipher this mess and give me guidance..

Daveroo

Dave - by the time you are ready to purchase a lot will have changed WRT hardware pricing and capability...
on the subject of multiple HD's - with a solid state drive I no longer think it is necessary to split FSX and the OS from the rest of your files as was done in the past with mechanical drives - simply because the new SSD's are capable of instant retrieval...whereas the older mechanical drives took longer (in milliseconds) to locate specific files for the processor to use...so that, if you had a mech drive with all of your software on it - it would take longer to load items than if you had two mech drives with FSX your OS and maybe the anti-virus software on one, and all other files on the other.

the only reason I believe to install two SSD drives would be for the storage space...not speed.
as to your other questions I'm sure someone will help you out...I only have win7 running on my rig

the other advantage of SSD's is that you no longer need to run defragment programs - that's a time saver for sure

[GypsyBaron]

I just went through the 'new PC' exercise after my i5-2500K desktopp died.

I had a system built as follows:

i7-4790 @ 4.4Ghz CPU (4.0Ghz stock, overclocked easily to 4.4 Ghz)
Corsair Hydro Series H80 water cooling
ASUS Z97-A MotherBoard
Corsair 2x8GB 1600 Mhz DDR3 memory
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB
Corsair RM series 650W power supply
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
2X WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM 500GB Drives
1X WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM 1TB Drive
1X WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM 2TB Drive
Corsair Carbide series 200R case
Windows 7 Pro X64

My previous system was a dual-boot Xp Pro x32 / Win7 Pro x64 with 2 hard drives.
I had Win7 Pro x64 installed on the new system on the SSD, divided into 2 equal partitions. I had an unused copy of
FSX Gold that I installed on the 2nd SDD partition at "X:FSX"...the old system had FSX at "X:\Microsoft FSX" so I just
shortened that on the new system.

With FSX installed I then copied my old FSX files over to the new system using an inexpensive SATA to USB external
drive Docking Station (UNITEK Y-3022) that saved me a LOT of time and effort in moving a majority of the content
from the old drives to the new.

As for the OrbX stuff, I use an aliased approach for both the "Addon Scenery" folder and the "OrbX" folder, moving them
to the root of two partitions on the 7200 RPM drives on the new system. These 'drives', "J:Addon Scenery" and "O:OrbX" get
'installed' in the empty folders in the FSX directory. I started using this approach when I created the dual-boot config
on the old system so that I could 'share' these aliased 'drives' between my Win7 FSX install and my Xp Pro FSX install. Works great.

I had to edit many of my shortcuts that I kept on my desktop to access the various FSX files as the paths were different
to varying degrees from those on the old system. That was just post-install housekeeping.

I did do a re-install of my A2A Accu-Sim aircraft after first saving copies of them on an empty partition on my 2TB drive.
This insured the copy protection was handled correctly before I them moved my old, highly customized versions back to the
new FSX install. I also ran the 'setup.exe' files on several of the other programs I had moved to the new system as I sometimes
changed their location or just needed to get the registry entries in place.

My new system has "16 drives"...5 actual physical drives and the rest are partitions:
C,D,E,F,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,X,Y,Z - more or less mirroring my old system configuration.

With 4.25 TB storage space on the new system I had no trouble 'fitting' the old system files from the 750GB and 1TB drives
on the old system. I will put those drives back in the old system and take it in to see about bringing it back to life as
a 'back up' to this new system.

The biggest difference I note on this new system in that with the new CPU and video cards, FSX runs with all sliders
fell max and pretty much stays at 29.9 FPS (locked to 30 FPS) everywhere I fly with OrbX Global, Vector, All of Oz,
NA PNW, CRM, NRM and CA plus open LC Europe.

Plus Win7 boots very fast. FSX still takes a long time to load due, I suspect, to all my addons and modifications. But once
it is loaded it runs very smooth.

Paul

Paul

[Dev One]

But - you do need to make sure that SSD's are not written to all the time as they are with HDD's. SSD's appear to have a life that counts the number of times they are written to & read from. I currently have W8.1 64 bit as the main operating system on a Samsung 120 GB 840 EVO with my old larger HDD's from my previous W7 holding FSX & FS9 as well as Gmax & all my personal files. I had BSOD crashes from the old SSD which seems it was life-ex & managed to clone it to the new one very easy!
The 'puter certainly opens up faster & I think FS9 & FSX load faster that before, but probably not as fast as if they were running on SSD's. Samsungs come with their own software to c;lone from your old system as well as their own set up software that makes the appropriate changes to BIOS etc to favour the SSD operation.
HTH
Keith

[Peg o my heart]

I just went through the 'new PC' exercise after my i5-2500K desktopp died.



Sorry for offtopic, but I am a i5-2500K user too, and do you mind telling me why your CPU died? i5 sandybridge is relatively new , the longevity hasnt been known yet. Thanks

[GypsyBaron]

Sorry for offtopic, but I am a i5-2500K user too, and do you mind telling me why your CPU died? i5 sandybridge is relatively new , the longevity hasnt been known yet. Thanks

It wasn't the CPU. It was eother the power supply, the video card or something on the MB. It was an unusually hot day
here in the San Francisco area. My ambient temp was 80F and I had been flying my A2A Spitfire for about an hour.

Just as I landed and started taxiing in I heard 2 loud 'cracks' and the system died. I believe something arced over or
blew due to temperature. There was also a LOT of dust inside as I had been remiss in doing periodic preventive maintenance.

I was contemplating having a new custom gaming system built around the first of the year anyhow as that was was 'dated' and
at some point I will revisit P3D and would need an upgrade to take advantage of that sims advances over FSX. This just moved
my upgrade date forward a couple of months :)

Paul

[wombat666]

Just build your own Dave.
You could buy the core components on a monthly basis, get the 'bare bones' (MoBo, chip, box, CPU etc) set up first and add the extras as you progress.
Try this out for price comparisons, this is the 'standard' I usually build for customers.

CHIP: i7-4790K Quad Core
MoBo: ASUS Sabretooth Z97 Mk.I LGA1150
PSU: Corsair TX750M Bronze
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 280L Ki
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX970 Superclocked ACX2.0 4GB (x2 in SLI Optional)
OS HD: Samsung SSD 840EVO 500GB
FSX HD: Samsung SSD 840EVO 500GB or Samsung SSD 840EVO 1TB
Backup HD: WD RED 2TB SATA III
Optical Drive: LG CH12NS30 BLU-RAY
RAM: G.Skill RipjawsZ 32GB PC3-19200 DDR3
CASE: FRACTAL DESIGN Define RF4 Black Pearl ATX
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64
:encouragement:

[txnetcop]

Just build your own Dave.
You could buy the core components on a monthly basis, get the 'bare bones' (MoBo, chip, box, CPU etc) set up first and add the extras as you progress.
Try this out for price comparisons, this is the 'standard' I usually build for customers.

CHIP: i7-4790K Quad Core
MoBo: ASUS Sabretooth Z97 Mk.I LGA1150
PSU: Corsair TX750M Bronze
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 280L Ki
Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX970 Superclocked ACX2.0 4GB (x2 in SLI Optional)
OS HD: Samsung SSD 840EVO 500GB
FSX HD: Samsung SSD 840EVO 500GB or Samsung SSD 840EVO 1TB
Backup HD: WD RED 2TB SATA III
Optical Drive: LG CH12NS30 BLU-RAY
RAM: G.Skill RipjawsZ 32GB PC3-19200 DDR3
CASE: FRACTAL DESIGN Define RF4 Black Pearl ATX
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64
:encouragement:

Yep this is the gold standard! Bullet proof:applause:
Ted

[scott967b]

On your Vista 32 hard drive -- probably need to know if it uses IDE, SATA I, or SATA II interface hardware. If SATA I/II probably will just plug in and play. IDE these days, don't know but might be an issue depending on your MB choice. Your drive is probably formatted NTFS and that will be read with no problems. Of course you must assign (or let windows assign) a drive letter, or you could "mount" the file system on the disk within one of your SSD folders. Either way any files like ini files that have drive letter or paths set will have to be adjusted (if you want them to work).

scott s.
.