New Possible PC....Looking for Advice

[Wittpilot]

I put this in the FSX Guides Forum too, but thought I'd put it here too to see if anybody had any input...

Okay, So, Long story short, my gaming PC,( a Quad Core, 8 gigs of RAM, & a GeForce GT120) just miracously turned itself off, and won't come back on... Replaced Power Supply, no go.... I'm done with this thing... I've had probems since I bought it... I shouldn't invest in a new PC, I don't need one.... But I do like FS, and I've played computer games since I was 5..... I am thinking about a system like this.... Ted has already provided a lot of help... He is quite a guy... I'm just throwing this out there incase any of you guys have any input....


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Intel i5/i7 Sandy Bridge CPUs :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz Quad Core 8000K<o:p></o:p>
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Intel i5 / i7 CPU Fans :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: white; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">Coolermaster Hyper101, Vertical, 2 Copper Heat Pipes, Extra Quiet CPU fan<o:p></o:p>
</TD></TR><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 3"><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">

Intel i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge Motherboards :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">MSI H67MS-E43 (B3), H67, Onboard Video, DVI & HDMI, SATA3, GB LAN<o:p></o:p>
</TD></TR><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 4"><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: white; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">

DDR3 Dual Channel memory :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: white; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">8GB (2x4GB) PC10600 DDR3 1333 Dual Channel<o:p></o:p>
</TD></TR><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 5"><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">

Hard Drives :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">500.0GB Western Digital 7200RPM SATA2 UDMA 300 16m cache<o:p></o:p>
</TD></TR><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 6"><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: white; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">

DVD Recorders :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: white; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">LG 22x DVD Recorder Dual Layer +R/RW -R/RW<o:p></o:p>
</TD></TR><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 7"><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">

Sound Cards :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">Realtek HD digital audio (onboard)<o:p></o:p>
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Network Cards :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: white; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">Ethernet network adapter (onboard)<o:p></o:p>
</TD></TR><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 9"><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">

Cases :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">APEVIA X-Cruiser 2 Black, Side Window, front USB,iEEE,Temp control<o:p></o:p>
</TD></TR><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 10"><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: white; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">

Case Fans :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: white; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">Case Fan 120 mm Extra Quiet DC fan<o:p></o:p>
</TD></TR><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 11; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes"><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">

Power Supply :<o:p></o:p>
</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND: #deebf7; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt">Logisys 600W ATX Power Supply, SLI & X-fire ready<o:p></o:p>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Price for all of that is about $840... free shipping, and no tax...
Was thinking about a video card in the $130-150 range... Ted suggested the GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit..... it's at Newegg and is $114 after a mal-in rebate...

Also, that price does not include Windows...... which kind of kills you at $120 a pop....

What do you guys think?

-witt

[AndyE1976]

If your budget allows I'd stretch for the 2600K and the P67 motherboard so you can overclock it to 4ghz or more.

All the other bits look great and if you find yourself in a position to go further it's easy to increase memory or change out video cards, but the CPU and MB are really the core of the system so it's worth putting a little bit more into that at the start I think.

Also make sure you get a 64bit version of Windows 7.

I run an i7-960 overclocked to 4ghz with 12gb 1600mhz RAM and a GTX580. With case that ran to $1400, but I was able to keep the PSU and hard discs from my old rig. I can run FSX maxxed out even in PNW, the only problem is FSX can't cope with FSX being maxxed out and I still get the odd out of memory exception in high density areas! If it were a 64bit app then it would cope much better.

[Wittpilot]

Thanks Andy,

Unfortunately I really have no desire to overclock it... I did read up on that though... the regular 2600 is strictly for non-overclocked systems, and the 2600k is for those who wish to overclock it. Honestly, my budget doesn't allow for the system as it stands, so I am really pushing with the system I posted...

Thanks though!

[mfitch]

This system is slightly better than the system I was running up till last week. You will get plenty of FSX performance out of it. This includes complex sceneries and planes like Orbx PNW and A2A with accusim. Check all the graphics cards the day you buy: the sale of the day can be quite good.

[Wittpilot]

I think I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet on this one... Only live once right?

[Wittpilot]

So I did some researching on Newegg on some of the products in that build. And after reading reviews, I've decided to up the MB & the Power Supply... as both in the previous build had pretty bad reviews...


<table width="95%" cellspacing="2"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#deebf7"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">Intel i5/i7 Sandy Bridge CPUs :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz Quad Core 8000K</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">Intel i5 / i7 CPU Fans :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">Coolermaster Hyper101, Vertical, 2 Copper Heat Pipes, Extra Quiet CPU fan</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#deebf7"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">Intel i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge Motherboards :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">Gigabyte GA-H67MA-UD2H B3, H67, onboard video, DVI & HDMI, X-fire, SATA3, USB3.0</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">DDR3 Dual Channel memory :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">8GB (2x4GB) PC10600 DDR3 1333 Dual Channel</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#deebf7"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">PCI-Express Video cards :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">HD Onboard 3D graphics HDMI+ DVI Dual head (only if listed with board)</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">Hard Drives :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">500.0GB Hitachi 7200RPM SATA2, UDMA 300 8m cache</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#deebf7"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">DVD Recorders :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">LG 22x DVD Recorder Dual Layer +R/RW -R/RW</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">Sound Cards :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">Realtek HD digital audio (onboard)</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#deebf7"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">Network Cards :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">Ethernet network adapter (onboard)</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">Cases :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">APEVIA X-Cruiser 2 Blue, Side Window, front USB,iEEE,Temp control</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#deebf7"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">Case Fans :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">Case Fan 120 mm Extra Quiet DC fan</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9;" align="right">Power Supply :</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#000080">CoolerMaster eXtreme Power 550W Extra quiet ATX Power Supply, SLI & X-fire ready</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#deebf7"> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color:#4178B9" valign="top" width="171" align="right"> System Condition:</td> <td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color:#000080" valign="top"> All system components are brand new. System is assembled and tested. All drivers and manuals are included.
If you ordered operating system (Windows) it will be installed and configured with all drivers</td></tr></tbody></table>

[fxsttcb]

I would seriously look at a hard drive with 32MB cache, your texture loading microstutters will be reduced with the bigger buffer.
Your PSU is underpowered for anything but an entry level video solution.
I'd trade 4 of the 8GB of ram for a better drive and PSU...Don

[edit]Here is a link to an all inclusive list with sufficient power and good graphics that is known to work well:
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?228788-The-time-has-come...&p=1570777#post1570777
Overclocking is so easy with Sandy Bridge that you should consider trying it, at least up to the limits of using stock voltage.

[stansdds]

Onboard video is fine for most business computers and internet browsers, but generally very bad for games and especially flight sims. 550W PSU is pretty low too, probably ok for onboard video, but for flight sims it's not gonna work.