Building a PC

[stormtrooper271]

I haven't been keeping track of hardware prices and I was wondering if building a PC for about $700 is a realistic idea, this includes the OS too, but doesn't include a monitor. I would run FSX on this machine. Any thoughts are appreciated.

[txnetcop]

If you use reasonable settings you should be able to run FSX just fine. I built my wife's unit for FSX for $720 a year ago and she runs FSX in Orbx PNW just fine.

Antec 300 Black Case $70
E6800 Wolfdale 775 Socket OC to 3.8Ghz $99
MSI G71M-P25 motherboard $85
4GB Crucial Dual Channel DDR3-PC3 12800 $90
1 Western Digital Black 32mb cache 500GB HD $60
MSI N260GTX TWIN FROZR Video Card $189
Cooler Master Silent PRO M600 $80
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO rev 2 heatsink $30
keyboard and mouse depends on what you buy

If you can spend a little more it would be worth buying the Q9550

[redriver6]

i'm going to be building a gaming pc too mainly to run SoW: BoB but my problem is i've always been a AMD cpu and Nvidia gpu person....but i think now those two don't mix well since AMD bought ATI??

so now i don't know whether to switch to Intel and Nvidia or
AMD and ATI.......

[stormtrooper271]

i'm going to be building a gaming pc too mainly to run SoW: BoB but my problem is i've always been a AMD cpu and Nvidia gpu person....but i think now those two don't mix well since AMD bought ATI??

so now i don't know whether to switch to Intel and Nvidia or
AMD and ATI.......

The desktop that we have is about 5 years old and has an AMD dual core processor and uses Nvidia graphics,which works fine.

[txnetcop]

i'm going to be building a gaming pc too mainly to run SoW: BoB but my problem is i've always been a AMD cpu and Nvidia gpu person....but i think now those two don't mix well since AMD bought ATI??

so now i don't know whether to switch to Intel and Nvidia or
AMD and ATI.......

I understand your dilema. If I were going to build for FSX with AMD I would go with the AMD hex core 1090T and nothing less than the Sapphire HD6870. The model Sapphire that tested the best was the 100314SR. We placed it on an inexpensive but powerful ASUS M4A88T-M/USB3 880G with the 6 Core unlocker-awesome board for the 1090T...it was a HUGE SURPRISE! Not rally an AMD fan anymore because Intel Core i7 is so much faster but I have to admit they have made some huge advances in the last 8 months.
Ted

[redriver6]

The desktop that we have is about 5 years old and has an AMD dual core processor and uses Nvidia graphics,which works fine.

very true...the computer i'm using now has a AMD cpu and Nvidia gpu but i think going forward with brand new hardware that ATI based motherboards are probably going to work best with ATI graphics cards. for instance its almost impossible to find a AMD mobo that is SLI capable...they are mostly all Crossfire capable...and which ever way i go i'm probably going to build one that is capable of using two graphics cards.

understand your dilema. If I were going to build for FSX with AMD I would go with the AMD hex core 1090T and nothing less than the Sapphire HD6870. The model Sapphire that tested the best was the 100314SR. We placed it on an inexpensive but powerful ASUS M4A88T-M/USB3 880G with the 6 Core unlocker-awesome board for the 1090T...it was a HUGE SURPRISE! Not rally an AMD fan anymore because Intel Core i7 is so much faster but I have to admit they have made some huge advances in the last 8 months.

Thanks Ted, you have given me some stuff to look up on Tigerdirect

[dharris]

Hi Ted, sorry to highjack this but didn't want to start a new thread just for one question so would it be worth buying the Q9550 to replace the wolfdale in this pc?
Gigabyte ep45-ud3r
Intel Core2Duo 3.33 GHZ OC E8600 Wolfdale
Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU Cooler
6 GB G-Skill F2-8500CL5
EVGA GTX 260
Antec 750 Bronze power supply
Fsx on 'Raptor drive
Wn 7 64 bit

Fsx is the only game I use although xplane 10 is looking really good. Thanks and Happy New Year!!!

[OleBoy]

If you use reasonable settings you should be able to run FSX just fine. I built my wife's unit for FSX for $720 a year ago and she runs FSX in Orbx PNW just fine.

Antec 300 Black Case $70
E6800 Wolfdale 775 Socket OC to 3.8Ghz $99
MSI G71M-P25 motherboard $85
4GB Crucial Dual Channel DDR3-PC3 12800 $90
1 Western Digital Black 32mb cache 500GB HD $60
MSI N260GTX TWIN FROZR Video Card $189
Cooler Master Silent PRO M600 $80
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO rev 2 heatsink $30
keyboard and mouse depends on what you buy

If you can spend a little more it would be worth buying the Q9550

Ted, this is very interesting. How much could I beef this configuration up to max it out and run FSX even better? Duo Core isn't it?

[txnetcop]

The E8600 is the best Core-2-Duo and runs FSX just fine if you have a fast motherboard chipset and fast RAM. Combine a GTX285 or GTX460 with it and you will be surprised just how well it runs FSX. For socket 775 I prefer using the Q9550/Q9650 OC'd to 3.7Ghz or better with fast ram and a GTX 285 or GTX460. I have a Gigabyte X-48-DQ-6 and a Gigabyte EP45 DS3P both boards have very fast chipsets. However those boards are very hard to find. If you use AMD same thing applies as long as you have an AM3 motherboard you should do just fine with the 1090T, fast ram, fast video either AMD Radeon or Nividia GTX series.

Tell me you are running for a motherboard and I can tell you what parts work best with it if you do not want to invest in a Core i7 right now. We are still testing all the latest i5 and i7 Core stuff if you want more info on those version 2 boards you will have to wait until next week.
Ted

[OleBoy]

This sounds just like what I want..the duo core gig. I always wanted to go that route, then the i3--i7's came to light and all of a sudden was the rage and most expensive routes. The E8600 sounds like it was the ticket. Not to mention far cheaper in the end

[stansdds]

My E6850, a Core2Duo, that I overclocked from the stock 3.0 GHz up to 3.6 GHz did pretty well. It allowed me to fly in most areas with the graphics at a "medium-high" setting. It did bog down in places like Los Angeles and New York City, but it was still passable. When I added Ultimate Terrain X with it's additional ground vehicle traffic, my dual core CPU struggled a little. Then adding in Active Sky X took a toll on the frame rates, especially when using a FS9 port over aircraft. Then I added Ultimate Traffic 2 and the frame rates took a turn to the south.

Switching to a Q9650 helped me a lot. I found that my particular Q9650 easily overclocked to 3.8 GHz and might go faster, but so far I have not had a need to push it further.

I guess my advice would be that an overclocked dual core is fine with a standard FSX installation, but if you plan on using add-on software, then a quad core really makes more sense.

And I do use a program to assign programs and processes to specific cores. Ultimate Terrain and FSX get to use cores 0,1,and 2, while everything else gets pushed to core 3.

[txnetcop]

My E6850, a Core2Duo, that I overclocked from the stock 3.0 GHz up to 3.6 GHz did pretty well. It allowed me to fly in most areas with the graphics at a "medium-high" setting. It did bog down in places like Los Angeles and New York City, but it was still passable. When I added Ultimate Terrain X with it's additional ground vehicle traffic, my dual core CPU struggled a little. Then adding in Active Sky X took a toll on the frame rates, especially when using a FS9 port over aircraft. Then I added Ultimate Traffic 2 and the frame rates took a turn to the south.

Switching to a Q9650 helped me a lot. I found that my particular Q9650 easily overclocked to 3.8 GHz and might go faster, but so far I have not had a need to push it further.

I guess my advice would be that an overclocked dual core is fine with a standard FSX installation, but if you plan on using add-on software, then a quad core really makes more sense.

And I do use a program to assign programs and processes to specific cores. Ultimate Terrain and FSX get to use cores 0,1,and 2, while everything else gets pushed to core 3.

Yes Oleboy I agree with Stansdds that using the Q9650 makes much more sense when you consider that you can set your cores to run scenery. I had the E8500 and E8600 and none of them ran FSX like the Q9650 in Orbx or with GEX and REX. Set at 3.7Ghz or above it compares with the i7Core 930 in FSX as far as consistent frame rates.
Ted