Another "New PC Advice" Question

**Arkycharlie** · November 4th, 2008, 17:35

When I got into flight simming, I owned a very anemic PC and am getting very frustrated by having to keep all of the sliders at the low end of the scale. I'm not ready to build myself and am looking for the best I can get in the under $1500 range. I'm considering the Acer Aspire AM5621-EQ9300A Core 2 Quad Q9300(2.50GHz) 8GB DDR2 1280GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit currently listed at $1,049 at Newegg. It would be a huge improvement over what I have now. Any thoughts or suggestions as to whether or not this would be a good choice would be greatly appreciated!

charlie

harleyman · November 4th, 2008, 19:13

Everything that you are showing looks like it should do OK...Bit I think that a Quad @ 2.50 is underpowered......

FSX likes to be over 3.0 and 3.4-3.6 is ideal or higher...Were you planning to have it Overclocked?

I switched from Vista to XP SP3 and from a quad (Q9550) to a E8600@3.33 and its sweet....... Plus I left nvidia for a 4070X2 ATI and have not been sorry...

However I am having an issue but its not from the parts ...I think its my monitor.......

**SirBenn21** · November 4th, 2008, 22:17

Originally Posted by Arkycharlie

When I got into flight simming, I owned a very anemic PC and am getting very frustrated by having to keep all of the sliders at the low end of the scale. I'm not ready to build myself and am looking for the best I can get in the under $1500 range. I'm considering the Acer Aspire AM5621-EQ9300A Core 2 Quad Q9300(2.50GHz) 8GB DDR2 1280GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit currently listed at $1,049 at Newegg. It would be a huge improvement over what I have now. Any thoughts or suggestions as to whether or not this would be a good choice would be greatly appreciated!

charlie

I got the Q9300 and had to OC (From 2.5 to 3.3) it to get any decent FPS with the sliders in respectable positions.
So if you don't like to OC your CPU, I would agree with harleyman. Get a better processor.

Ben.

***guzler*** · November 5th, 2008, 01:00

Hi Arkycharlie,

I was asking some questions recently about a new computer, might be worth reading this thread ...

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...ead.php?t=1372

Regards

***kilo delta*** · November 5th, 2008, 01:07

You won't ever need 8GB of memory..........save a few quid by getting 4GB and upgrade your cpu. Don't bother with the Nvidia card, instead opt for an ATi HD4850 or , if you can spare a little more, a HD4670.

harleyman · November 5th, 2008, 05:23

Originally Posted by kilo delta

You won't ever need 8GB of memory..........save a few quid by getting 4GB and upgrade your cpu. Don't bother with the Nvidia card, instead opt for an ATi HD4850 or , if you can spare a little more, a HD4670.

Kilo Delta means the 4870 as the second choice....

YEA..The ATI cards are HOT.........Beautiful colors and performance from them...

Why not build your own?

***kilo delta*** · November 5th, 2008, 05:35

Yep...4870....:costumes:

**Arkycharlie** · November 5th, 2008, 08:00

Guys, I greatly appreciate the advice and suggestions!!! Actually, I looked again at the specs of the PC that I had in mind, and it will not fit the space that I have available at this time. I can go no taller than 16 1/2" and the Acer is almost 18" tall. Harleyman, the idea of building my own PC appeals to me, but I have doubts that have the technical know-how. My experience to date is limited to installing RAM, a new video card, and various PCI and PCIe cards. If I should decide to move in that direction, you guys have given me plenty of food for thought as far as the key components. I wonder how constrained I would be in having to use a case as short as 16 1/2".

Harleyman, I saw your specs (below) in the other thread that guzler very helpfully pointed me to. About how much money would be involved in something along these lines? Could your components reasonably fit in a shorter case? Again, all the advice and guidance is VERY much appreciated!!!

Case: Thermaltake VH8000BWS BK
Power: ThermalTake W0178RU 850W RT SLI Edition
MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-X48-DQ6 775 X48
CPU: INTEL|C2D E8600 3.33G 775 6M
CPU Cooler: Artic Pro 7
GPU: VISIONTEK Radion 900250 HD4870X2 2G
Mem: OCZ 2X2 @ 1066
HD1: 150 Gig Raptor @ 10,000
HD2: 300G VelociRaptor @ 10,000
OS: XP Pro SP 3

harleyman · November 5th, 2008, 09:02

Lets see...That build as is was 2,200.....

But its slightly overboard.......You could probably get a great FSX rig about 3-4 hundred cheaper...Heres how...

Drop the E8600 for a E8400 or so

Can also drop quite a bit with getting a 4870 or 3870ATI over the 4970X2 thats 550 bucks

If you drop down Vid card you can too drop down somewhat the PSU

And you can save a bundle dropping the Raptors that cost 450 combined... to like the new Seagate 500 or 750 gig with 32 Mb cache for 85 bucks..Great drive there..Hell..get two..one for OS and Apps and one for games....

Plus if you own an OS already thats another 150 or so off...

If you did all that you could build a simular rig for FSX for around 15-17 hundren easy.....

So...Where do you live? Perhaps I can help.....

**Arkycharlie** · November 5th, 2008, 10:30

HM, that is very good information!!! I call myself Arky because I live in Arkansas, which is a pretty good ride from North Carolina, even on a Harley. But I greatly appreciate the offer anyway. I could probably mudddle my way through, as much information as is available on the internet. I would assume that sites like build-your-own-computers.com would be a good place to start. I'm a pretty good internet shopper and have a lot of experience at price shopping. You've given me some very good suggestions for components and this forum is a great place to get FSX-oriented friendly advice. What more could I ask!

charlie

harleyman · November 5th, 2008, 11:04

I built my first a few months ago and it was simple......Not much to it really... You get the same mobo as mine and I can walk you thru the set up over the phone in like 10 minutes....

I've been through Arkansas several times on my Harley....

This is by far the best place to buy components....... Well never mind,you know Newegg...3 day shipping ..No taxes....Great deals.....

Give a shout if you want more help...

**Arkycharlie** · November 5th, 2008, 14:01

HM, many thanks again for the offer of assistance!!! Yes, I am very familiar with Newegg. They're hard to beat, especially on their sales.

Ride safe, but fly like a bat out of

..............

**Butcherbird17** · November 5th, 2008, 17:04

If you do decide to build your own, here is a quickly put together system that would run FSX pretty good and fs9 would FLY.......

) Now this is just to give you an idea on how much cheaper it is to build your own and to put what you want in it.

Joe

**txnetcop** · November 6th, 2008, 02:52

Charlie, sorry I jumped in late I have been very busy with some personal stuff of late. Acer builds a lousy box. If you really don't want to build your own the best thing to do is find a good brick and mortar store that builds custom units and pay through the nose(custom game units start at around $2500), but you can customize and take it back when or if problems crop up. The Walmart units are terrible beyond belief-service is another issue. Ordering on line is risky because you often cannot get good tech help when you need or they charge you for it after the first three hours.

You will also find that unless you can overclock the Q9300 it is a bit anemic for gaming. The Q9550 is better processor stock. The Intel Penryn Core 2 Duo- E7200 and above are even faster for gaming right now, however all new games are utilizing quad core now...FSX does a poor job it however.

I only build game units for Texas residents because of the horrendous shipping and insurance costs out of state. My suggestion is to build your own. It isn't rocket science and there are lots of guys in here like Butcherbird, David L6, HeyMoe, Kilo Delta etc that know their stuff and would be glad to help you.

I also can help you, but I quit doing it for free for various reasons I won't go into, but I am not all that expensive. I also have tons of references.
This set up that Butcherbird has here is a nice under $1200 build and don't be fooled by the low numbers of the approval rating for that board. There are a lot of stupid kids who try to make this into a fast overclocker and really don't know what they are doing. The Gigabyte P45 is an exellent, easy builder.

Here is another nice inexpensive motherboard:
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131299

Hope this helps ya Amigo,
Ted

**Arkycharlie** · November 6th, 2008, 12:18

Guys, you have helped me beyond belief!!! One of my hesitations about DIY is that there are so many components to choose from, I wouldn't know where to begin. The suggestions that you guys provided are right in my target price range and give me a great starting point. In fact, that really settles it for me. Time to start shopping for components. Again, I am very grateful for your time and the extremely helpful feedback!

charlie

p.s.
Ted, what part of Texas are you located in? I grew up in Ft. Worth and come down several times a year to check on my Mom in that area.