New pc - but which components?

[vidarf]

It's time to scrap the OLD FS computer. Pentium 4 2.0 ghz, 540mb ram, a 250mb AGP graphics card... Forgettit!

BUT - I have NO clue on what to order. What does FSX (and possibly XP10) demand today? The idea is to be able to run FSX maxed out on a projector screen. No wrap-around visuals for now. That will have to wait.

From what I've found out, I've put together this list:

   
Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 16GB
Kit w/4X HyperX 4GB DDR3, CL9-9-9-27, 240pin

OCZ SSD Agility 3 Series 2.5" 120GB
SATA 6 Gb/s (SATA3.0), 525MB/500MB/s read/write, SandForce® SF-2281

Seagate Barracuda® 1TB
SATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3.0), 64MB Cache, 7200RPM, 3.5"

Corsair TX V2 750W PSU
ATX 12V V2.3, 80 Plus Bronze, Standard. 4x 6+2-pin PCIe, 8x SATA, 140mm Vifte

Intel® Core i7-3770K Processor
Socket-LGA1155, Quad Core, 3.5Ghz, 8MB, Boxed w/fan

ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77, Socket-1155
ATX, Z77, DDR3, 2xG3+1xG2-PCIe-x16,SLI/CFX, Lucid Virtu, HDMI, DP, UEFI

Gainward GeForce GTX 670 2GB PhysX CUDA
PCI-Express 3.0, GDDR5, DVI-D+DVI-I, native-HDMI, DisplayPort, 915MHz

What do you guys think?

Is the PSU enough or possibly too much?

Or should I set my sights on a slightly less powerful system? One option for me would be to use a projector up front and two smaller monitors on each side to give some immersion.

IF the system will be capable of running a 3 projector visual system, I'm very happy. But that is not the goal for the time being.

[tennyson]

Vidarf,
I'm no expert, but I've been building these things for a good many years.

That spec will certainly do what you want, but I think you should look at a 240gb SSD (I have the OCZ Max IOPS 240gb) and with just all of my FSX stuff and Sim A, I have less than 40 Gb left.

I'd also go for a bigger PSU, maybe an 850 or even 1000watt. It's amazing how unstable a system can be with an underpowered PSU.

The rest looks great.

Just my 2c,


Frank Cooper
P.S. I've been building my sidewalls, with your plans. Great job, mate!

[vidarf]

Hi Frank, thanks for your inputs. I'm thinking just the OS on the SSD, FS+++ on the secondary HDD.
Bigger PSU will be ordered.

[Kennair]

Vidarf, I think everyone will have their own take on the best system specs however those look pretty good for today being a balance between budget and performance.  I agree you should look at a 1000w PSU as that video card will take quite a bit when running FSX.  Overclock the MB to something around 4.5G should be a doddle for that CPU and FSX should rocket on a single screen.  Open 3 windows for wrap around views and watch it sink however.  Still very flyable but frames will drop unless tweaked.

1 point however, you mention putting FSX onto the secondary drive and the OS on the SSD.  I think you should look at the reverse.  Don't know what others think but FSX needs the speed not the OS.  Once Windows is loaded and with FSX running it doesn't do much else.  FSX however needs to load textures as you fly so will benefit from the speed of the SSD.  I have Win7 loaded on a 1TB mechanical drive (primary partition) and FSX on an SSD.  If you want ultimate performance however get two SSD's, their cost is coming down enormously, or as a very good alternative put the OS on a Raptor.  Whatever you choose, put FSX on the SSD by itself.  Oh, and of course follow Nick's guide to installation and tweaking of both Win7 and FSX.

Cheers,

Ken.

[vidarf]

Great, thank you! Two SSD's seems to be the best way then. I'll look into the MB and the CPU a bit - I understand the ivy bridge CPU's could suffer from heat when over clocked. And I really, really don't want to go down the water-cooling road again if I don't have to. I played around a LOT with that some years ago (I ran a big hardware review site, Overklokking.no. I published the first review of Artic Silver 5, got slashdotted and the servers tanked! ). Good thing is that I only need a CPU block and some hoses. Could probably run the system without any fans, but I really don't want to do that.

Would two graphics cards do me any good? SLI and all that illudes me a bit...

[vidarf]

OK, this is the final setup - I think.

746635 ASUS P8Z77-V, Socket-1155 ATX, Z77, DDR3, 2xG3+1xG2-PCIe-x16,SLI/CFX, VGA, DVI, HDMI, DP, WiFi, DLNA, UEFI
623456 Corsair TX V2 850W PSU ATX 12V V2.3, 80 Plus Bronze, Standard. 4x 6+2-pin PCIe, 8x SATA, 140mm Vifte
650784 Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCIe PCIe-x1, 5.1 Surround, Core3D, Dolby Digital, THX TruStudio Pro, CrystalVoice
751369 Gainward GeForce GTX 670 2GB PhysX CUDA PCI-Express 3.0, GDDR5, DVI-D+DVI-I, native-HDMI, DisplayPort, 915MHz
660225 Intel® Core i7-3770K Processor Socket-LGA1155, Quad Core, 3.5Ghz, 8MB, Boxed w/fan
585007 Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 16GB Kit w/4X HyperX 4GB DDR3, CL9-9-9-27, 240pin
741950 Kingston SSDNow V200+ 240GB 2.5" SATA 6 Gb/s (SATA3.0), 535MB/480MB/s read/write, SandForce®
660432 Samsung DVD±RW Writer, SH-222BB SATA, DVD±R: 22x DVD+RW: 8x, DVD-RW: 6x, DVD-RAM: 12x, Bulk, BLACK
653050 Seagate Barracuda® 1TB SATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3.0), 64MB Cache, 7200RPM, 3.5"

OS on the barracuda, FS++ on the SSD. Soundblaster audio card because a friend told me onboard audio would take a lot of CPU power (he play WOW, and get a 150 fps drop when audio is activated!).
And yes, I know there's no case in the mix. I have several "lying around"...

Thank you for your help, guys!

[Kennair]

Looks good.  There's quite a bit of info out there currently on overclocking ivy bridge, just keep it moderate and you should be ok.  The Noctura range of non-water fans are well noted for overclocking.  It's not that they overheat but more that they can be over-voltaged as they utilize a different voltage structure.  Keep within the parameters and thoroughly bench test.  They are all built to be overclocked these days but that doesn't mean you have to, as Nick says, fully install and configure with stock clocking, only overclock as the last procedure after everything else is stable, however you may find overclocking isn't necessary, particularly on a single screen system.

It's also quite well know that modern onboard sound cards are more than adequate for FSX these days.  You can't really translate the experience of games like WOW onto FSX as they work very differently.  In the earlier days sound did make a hit on FSX but I haven't seen that problem in years with modern boards and onboard sound.  Others might disagree but I'd save a few dollars and use onboard sound.

Have fun with the build,

Ken.

[vidarf]

Thanks, the components are ordered (phew!). Decided to go for the sound blaster anyway, just to be safe. I also ordered a matrox triple head 2 go digital. Will buy 3 27" monitors for the outside visuals, or perhaps 3 40" LED TV's (I work at an electronic store, so 3x 40" LED's would not set me back too much! ). projector and wrap-around will have to wait... I need to eat too!

[XOrionFE]

When I built mine last week I went with two 300 gig WD 10k velociraptor drives for now instead of SSD.    This is because I believe the SSDs are going to get bigger and come down significantly in price over the next year.   this was based on all the stuff I have read and a few friends that follow them pretty closely.   That said, if I stay the course with XPlane as my sim of choice it is say later to swap it onto an SSD because with xplane you just copy the folder to another drive and redirect your shortcuts and your done.  A little harder to move with FSX.

I usually use the Noctua coolers in the past but this time I decided to go with the Corsair H100 water cooled unit which is all self contained and compact.  It was a breeze to install and the CPU head is so small that it allows for much better airflow within the case than the bigger air cooled units.    When I overclocked my 3930s up to 4.9 I was still seeing temps stay in the 66-70 degree range under prime 95 stability testing with this cooler which to me was phenomenal.   I don't like to run quite that high and would prefer to keep under 66 but running the sim would never hit those kind of numbers like prime.    That said, the 4.9 proved to be to much for stability and I found that 4.7 worked much better.   I decided though to drop them back down to 4 for now until I know everything else is fully stable then I may crank up some more.    I cant speak for FSX on mine right now but on xplane I didn't notice much if any noticiable frame rate gain between 4.0 and 4.7.    The 3930s are hexcore processors.

Like Ken said though, be sure to follow Nick Needhams FSX and Windows 7 setup to the letter and you will be happy.  My overclocked i7 960 based system with Noctua coolers (1 yr old now) was running FSX quite well with TH2go and 4 undocked views for warping.

Your setup should work nice.

Scott