New FSX system PC - sub $1K suggestions

[delta_lima]

Hello !

Looking for some system suggestions. Am coming from a Dell E2220 2.4 GHz, 3GB RAM PC with a GeForce 9800GT video card on Win XP from 2008. To be honest, it's lasted longer than I thought, and has delivered ok performance. But it's starting to flake out.


Looking to spend no more than $1k, if possible. Wondering if targeting an i5 based system makes sense, and some video card and OS suggestions.


Thanks for any good suggestions.


Regards,


DL

[papab]

Jetline Systems
http://www.jetlinesystems.com/

I purchased one last year and love it,fantastic support from the folks at Jetline
You can see my specs in my signature....
I happen to live 5 miles from their office and have gotten to know the crew...

They are more then $1K but if you want a system that will definitely support FSX and P3D, Jetline is the way to go!

Rick

[ryanbatc]

Build your own...

Jetline is good but way out of your price.

You need something overclock able.

But under 1000.... Tricky to get a very good FSX rig. Especially assuming you need a new case / monitor?

Anyway parts:

i5 4670K
Z87 motherboard like this: http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=13-157-369
8 GB ram - higher speed lower the timings as possible
GTX 660ti at the least
1TB HDD
At least 550W quality PSU (corsair Seasonic OCZ) or 650 of a lesser brand

[delta_lima]

I will keep my current monitor. Should have mentioned it's only the " box" getting replaced.

OS? Win 7 or 8?

thanks.

[Daveroo]

everyone has been telling me win 7,home/pro 64bit...

[Dumonceau]

I will keep my current monitor. Should have mentioned it's only the " box" getting replaced.

OS? Win 7 or 8?

thanks.

Definitely windows 7 64 bit DL!!

Easier to tweak, more stable than 8 which is by any standards a glorified beta.

At work, an M$ representative gave us a free evaluation copy of Win8.1 pro and after testing it for a week, we decided it was not for us.

About the box itself: build your own or have it put together for ya. You'll save a lot of $$$ and will have more performant hardware.

Oh and you won't need expensive liquid cooling for overclocking. My rig runs at 5.4 Ghz now on a simple Scythen Mugen 2 cooler. Temps stay at very comfortable levels. Just make sure that the PSU is powerful enough. overclocked machines with gaming graphics cards should have about 850 Watts. Mine has 1000 Watts, but then I made the big mistake of going SLI...

Good luck with the new rig!

Dumonceau

[delta_lima]

Thanks Dum et al,

Yes, I'm leaning towards building my own. Ive never loaded an OS before - strikes me as arcane and spooky - though the fact that so many folks do it, it's likely not ....

DL

[Dumonceau]

Thanks Dum et al,

Yes, I'm leaning towards building my own. Ive never loaded an OS before - strikes me as arcane and spooky - though the fact that so many folks do it, it's likely not ....

DL

DL,

After careful planning, putting together a rig is not so difficult. The difficult part is actually finding the compatible hardware within your budget. I myself would be more than happy to provide advice and I'm sure that many more here with the knowledge would do the same.

The only difficult thing about assembling a new rig is putting the CPU in the socket, putting the cooling paste on it and the cooler. A second pair of hands would be usefull! ;-) Especially if you have a cooler like mine that weighs about 850 gr.

Modern hardware comes with good instructions that, when followed, should guide you through the assembly process just fine!

A few pointers:

- Motherboards: Asus or MSI are the ones that I prefer
- CPU: Intel i5 or i7, stay away from AMD
- GPU: Nvidia provides THE cards for FSX or P3D
- Cases: Antec cases are not too expensive and provide ample cooling
- Harddisk: I would go SSD but those are expensive. You could also go for Western Digital Velociraptors. A second harddisk for data and backups is adviseable. WD caviar black are very good disks.

Keep us posted please!

D.

[RobM]

You're in Vancouver; if not already done so, have you looked at NCIX yet? They have stores through out the Lower Mainland,

You can go to their site, pick all the parts, including the OS, and then for $50 CDN, they will assemble, test, load and
configure your OS, and give their own 1 year guarantee on the finished product in addition to the manufacturer's
guarantees (some conditions apply of course). They only thing they don't do is overclock.

They also offer specials with free shipping in Canada from time to time, so maybe worth looking into.

I went this route with them a couple of years ago with with a $1600 CDN build before taxes, but including the $50 build fee,
and I was very pleased with the results. Mind you, I had spent 6 months researching all the parts I wanted, and making sure everything would be compatible, before I ordered, so that may have helped.

Just a thought.

Thanks - Rob

[delta_lima]

Hey Rob,

Yes, I know NCIX for a few accessories I have bought over the years (cables, modems, etc.).

They are indeed a great vendor option (FROM WHOM) - but prior to going to them, I was looking for some FSX-specific spec recommendations (WHAT). They are a bit more expensive than some of the online suppliers (TigerDirect, Canada Computers) - but the peace of mind may just be worth it.

Thanks to some great suggestions. I've had to play/trim here and there - so, I think I've got a rough sketch of the WHAT: A snip from my spreadsheet ...


<tbody>




$ 70.00


CASE
Mid tower - Corsair Carbide 200R












POWER
500 W - Corsair


$ 70.00









M-BOARD
Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H Socket 1150 Intel H87 Chipset


$ 109.00









CPU CHIP
Intel Core i5-4430 Quad-Core Processor


$ 195.00









COOLING FAN
Cooling Master Hyper 212 EVO


$ 36.00









RAM
2 x 4 GB RAM


$ 96.00









HDD
Seagate Desktop HDD 1TB 3.5" SATA3 64MB Cache


$ 68.00









VIDEO CARD
GeForce GTX 650


$ 140.00









SOUND CARD
n/a












OPTICAL DRIVE / DVD
ASUS 24x DVD/Writer


$ 25.00









ETHERNET CARD



$ 18.00









SUBTOTAL, W/O OS



$ 757.00

</tbody>

Still drilling around what kind of sound card (Sound Blaster is all I've ever used) - so between that and the OS, I'm likely close to the $900 mark, and then taxes = $1000.

Any really bad choices there I should avoid?

Thanks,

DL

PS - pricing is off the best I could find from Canadian online retailers. Most of SOHers being American, the prices are higher than I could find in the US, and while ordering and shipping them all is a possibility, I'm not sure all that incremental freight, headache, and time to cross the border to my PO box is worth it - but I'll certainly research that.

[Bjoern]

CPU: i5 4670K or a regular i5 4670 if you don't want to overclock.

Mainboard: Something around $100. For overlcocking, take one with a Z87, otherwise one with a H87.

RAM: 1600 MHz or better. 8 GB is enough, more is a waste unless there's a supercheap offer.

Video card: Any model with a GTX670 or GTX770 chip. Good bang for the buck.

Hard disk: Get a SSD. Even if it's one with only 128GB for $100. They're so much faster than regular, mechanical hard drives. If you can get 256 GB without paying your butt off, go for that. Both have enough space for Windows and FSX.

PSU: $70 for 550W or so should do the trick. The key is not to go for quantity, but quality. Take one from a more popular brand and do not fall for no-name PSUs with lots of watts.

Case: Anything goes. Try to go for one with the least amount of screws and adequate space.



- Edit:

Your suggestion looks like a good start.

1. Ditch the ethernet card. Virtually all mainboards have a gigabit ethernet port by default.

2. Can you go for a GTX660.

3. The tower doesn't have to be that expensive.

4. SSD!

5. Onboard sound is okay unless you're one of these whack auto fetishists.

6. The H87 boards aren't overclockable. Also, try to get one with only one PCIE 2.0/3.0 slot (Z87-DS3H). The second PCIE slot is useless anyway as it only supports Crossfire which is exclusively meant for AMD.

7. Can you find a better CPU?


Everything else is okay, you're on the right track.

[McFlingwinger]

Might I suggest pcpartpicker(dotcom)
its a great site to help visualize your build, and price it out. I second ditching sound and Ethernet cards.

If you go i54670k, as I have, I also suggest the evo212 cooler...only 30 bucks and is great for my 4.4 overclock. If you're hesitant about that, just do a little reading up/YouTube research. It really is quite simple. So is building the system yourself...looks kinda hard if you haven't done it before. But it really is simple. Especially with most people, on this site included, willing to be so helpful.

There's plenty of tutorials out there, once you get everything unboxed, shouldn't take more than an hour to slap it all together and boot it up! Good luck

[Rudyjo]

I would not go any lower than a 750 watt power supply.
I built my computer about a year ago, it was the first time I did it, it was not hard, there really isn't that much inside a computer.
I watched " Building your own computer" at the Newegg website about 5 times, when I actually got around to building it, it seemed like I had actually done it a few times.
There's nothing like turning it on for the first time, It's hard to believe that it was so simple and that it works!
I used the intel i5 and overclocked it to 4.3. It has run FSX great, I'm very happy with it.
I ordered everything from Newegg, everything was on time and just what I ordered, I would recommend them.

Get a tower that has space for lots of fans, I went with a CoolerMaster tower.

[Naismith]

Pop into NCIX.ca they are great re advice, support etc and in Richmond & Langley.

Ooops should have read the whole thread!

Still worthwhile mentioning them again PLUS they are also in the USA (CA I blv)

[manfredc3]

Keeping budget in mind I would upgrade the GPU from a 650 to at least a 660, and look for a psu of 750W.

Why the ethernet card? The motherboard already has a NIC onboard.

I built my rig two years ago, and it took me a few months to research components.

[expat]

I recently went crazy on a max end rig (Intel Core i7 4770K, 1150, Haswell, Quad Core overclocked to 4.4Hz; GTX 780 also o'clocked), and it is peaches and cream.

However, no matter how high, medium or low end you go, the one thing I did with the strong recommendation of SOH members here was to get not one, but two SSDs. I also bought a cheap internal mechanical HD for storage and kept an additional external storage drive. Four drives in all.

But the key thing was to put W7 (64 bit Pro) on the first SSD ("C") drive along with all other non FSX applications, eg Outlook, iTunes, IE, Chrome, etc and then install FSX - and only FSX - on the second SSD ("D") drive. I have now the most stable install and running of FSX in ten years and very quick load up times with the change to SSD's. If you can swing it, 2 x 256 gig SSD's plus if you can port over one of your old mechanical drives to use for storage and backup you will have a great setup.

[Chris Sykes]

Heres a few things you need and must considder that others have commented on already. I have a system that has 1x SSD for the O/S and 4x Velociraptors! 1 for Prepared, another FSX, the other two are My Documents and large install files. Everything is backed up to the Home Server.

PSU - Dont Scrimp on these, always go for a known brand (Coolermaster, Corsair, Antec, EVGA etc) with a good Warrenty! I have just got an 1300w EVGA with 10 years Warranty!
HDD/SSD - Try to have at least 2x drives, one for the O/S (Fastest as possible) and another for your Data/Applications. I recommend a 250gb SSD for your O/S, this gives you room to install an O/S and other essential apps that need to be on the SSD (such as photoshop) while allowing the SSD to operate at optimal capacity. Have another SSD or High speed Velociraptor for your program installs, My Documents and other junk, (My Documents and programs best moved off O/S drive incase of O/S drive fail or corruption)
HDD/SSD Sata Speed - Your going to need to check what drive/s you prurchase are going to work at max speed with your motherboard sata connections, for instance the new drives and Motherboards have 6Gb/s speeds.
RAM - The price difference between 8 and 16 GB isnt much, if your running other games such as BF4 etc then its wise to get the 16GB over the 8. Also get as high speed as you can afford and compatable with your board. !!!One thing to make sure is the RAM works with your motherboard! Check the Qualified Vendors List as many make the mistake of buying RAM that wont work with their MoBo!!! Tripple and Quad Channels dont intermix too well!

[Bjoern]

What's with the 750W+ craze?

I used to run an overclocked Q series CPU, three HDDs, a GTX2xx series video card, two optical drives and at least five fans on my 520W one and never had it quit due to overstress in years.
Surely it can handle a more power efficient i5 and GTX6xx series card...

[wombat666]

What's with the 750W+ craze?

I used to run an overclocked Q series CPU, three HDDs, a GTX2xx series video card, two optical drives and at least five fans on my 520W one and never had it quit due to overstress in years.
Surely it can handle a more power efficient i5 and GTX6xx series card...

I run a Corsair AX1200W Modular PSU, and I'd rather have more power and not need it, than not have enough and need it in the near future.
And really, the price of a good quality 'brand' PSU is not expensive, you get what you pay for.
:mixed-smiley-010:

[expat]

This fella (Corsair tx650) handles all I can throw at it:

http://www.corsair.com/enthusiast-series-tx650-v2-80-plus-bronze-certified-650-watt-high-performance-power-supply

[Bjoern]

I run a Corsair AX1200W Modular PSU, and I'd rather have more power and not need it, than not have enough and need it in the near future.
And really, the price of a good quality 'brand' PSU is not expensive, you get what you pay for.
:mixed-smiley-010:

I know that getting some load off the power grid to avoid costly throttlebacks in the power plants is much appreciated by the operators of said plants, but as long as I have to pay for it, I much prefer going just for as much as needed.

[wombat666]

I know that getting some load off the power grid to avoid costly throttlebacks in the power plants is much appreciated by the operators of said plants, but as long as I have to pay for it, I much prefer going just for as much as needed.

We went Solar some time ago, very successfully I might add.
Even began selling power back from our last residence, our new renovation will have enough Solar panels to run heating, lighting and enough left over to resell........:encouragement:

[Bjoern]

Solar or not, I still think 1300W are overkill. ;)

Do you have any means of storage for excess electricity like batteries or something?

[delta_lima]

OK - system parts ordered from NCIX.

500 Corsair power - I'm looking to power the pc, not run an EW emitter - I should be good. Went to the 660 card, but didn't do SSDs. Kids have to eat, car needs gas, you know ... plus my other habit... now that's riding season, my Austrian gal needs some attention ...

Testing out new lighting/wiring ...

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j187/delta_lima/KTM%20690/54CF7626-2CDB-42B8-91BB-6CC7E5B3AC77_zpsi0kiplwd.jpg (http://s80.photobucket.com/user/delta_lima/media/KTM%20690/54CF7626-2CDB-42B8-91BB-6CC7E5B3AC77_zpsi0kiplwd.jpg.html)


Out on the trails ....

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j187/delta_lima/KTM%20690/2014%20Spring%20DSBC%20ride/430D74C8-E31C-46B3-A218-F33D2BB76B2B_zpswwt1anzf.jpg (http://s80.photobucket.com/user/delta_lima/media/KTM%20690/2014%20Spring%20DSBC%20ride/430D74C8-E31C-46B3-A218-F33D2BB76B2B_zpswwt1anzf.jpg.html)

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j187/delta_lima/KTM%20690/2014%20Spring%20DSBC%20ride/E10366C2-4776-4203-8F2D-7703D3B5EBFE_zpssnho1gaq.jpg (http://s80.photobucket.com/user/delta_lima/media/KTM%20690/2014%20Spring%20DSBC%20ride/E10366C2-4776-4203-8F2D-7703D3B5EBFE_zpssnho1gaq.jpg.html)

Anyway, I'm happy thus far - under $1K all in - well all know saying "mission accomplished" prematurely is gauche, so I'll officially report back once it's all put together. Should be this weekend.

Finally, a HUGE thanks - got a few PMs with suggestions/offers of help - thanks to all - much appreciated.

DL

[delta_lima]

OK - probably a bit ahead of myself - but am curious ...

For those that are in both FSX and/or just P3D v2 ... will this system be adequate to run that sim? I've heard conflicting accounts of performance results of FSX vs P3D v2 ....

I don't know if I'd even be prepared to take that step - if it means not running some of my favourite ports - and especially the Calclassic and MAIW scenery, then I am probably not going to. But it'd be nice to know, capability-wise ...

thanks.

DL