At Last: Time to Buy a New Rig (computer)

[Flight-Simmer (Pete)]

I hope this is the best forum for this post.

 

I have been waiting a long time to for the right time to buy a new drive which will replace my aging laptop.

 

The undermentioned quote is from my local computer guy who builds a lot of gaming computers, I briefed him by telling him that flight simulators, FSX specifically is very resource intensive and that we need to throw as much CPU at this as I can afford.

 

The quote below is a starting point to massage and adjust as required. He has quoted a system which he says is top notch and we can downgrade if required.

 

Well, my budget is $2000 but I can go a little more if it's worth it. I am not an expert nor do I pretend to be.

 

I am thinking about leaving FSX SE behind, although I like it, and thinking about Prepard3D.

 

I would appreciate all opinions from anyone who cares to give theirs.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

Intel i7-6700
Gigabyte Gaming Motherboard
4 x LPX DDR4 2133Mhz 8GB (total 32GB)
Cougar Pioneer Case
Cougar 800W Modular PSU
Samsung 500GB SSD
Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200rpm
Gigabyte GTX 980 4GB
DVD Burner
$2800

[Nick Cooper]

I'll put this into General Discussion for you.

Tips and Tricks is meant to be answers, not questions.

 

That would be a very capable PC.

If you wish to be a little nearer to your budget and your intention is

to run FSX or P3D and you have no other reason for so much RAM,

you would easily get away with 8 or at most 16GB.

A GTX 970 graphics card would also be more than adequate.

You could also settle for a much smaller SSD, say 120 GB and

use it for your operating system, it is pretty well documented that

the only benefit to FSX or P3D of an SSD is the reduction in the initial

loading time.

[Adam Banks]

To add to Nick's suggestions:

 

1) Go for P3D. I still run FSX but much prefer P3D. Apart from a few cosmetic issues (clouds/water) I think it's a better/more stable platform and much better at splitting off GPU resources from CPU resources. I find I can generally run P3D with most sliders one more notch to the right and still get better performance. Not very scientific, but you get the drift!

 

2) I'd be careful about the overall size of the drive you put your sim on. My P3D drive is already over 100Gb. I agree with Nick - SSD will reduce initial load times and maybe the menu selection speed (when generating aircraft lists etc.) but won't have too much of an impact in-sim. Mine is now SSD (after being on a regular HD for years) and the difference is noticeable, but not earth shattering. P3D loads scenery much more smoothly than FSX (no wierd "popping up" as you fly) so an SSD won't necessarily help there. However - if you go from one world region to another (which the Unified Look-up now allows you to do more seamlessly) then loading up the new scenery set *will* be quicker with SSD.

 

My HD failed on my work laptop (my sims are on a separate games/desktop box) and I replaced it with an SSD. The whole system is much faster - both in boot-up and general operation ... and it's blissfully *quiet*. So ... if you're running your sim from a laptop, I'd say build in some redundancy - stick with 500Gb, sensibly partitioned for better housekeeping.

 

Note: the usual FSX vs P3D caveats. You may need to re-buy some of your favourite add-ons (not ORBX, thankfully!) ... so that may eat into your budget. With a bit of care, 99% of your FSX aircraft can be made to work in P3D without the Estonia Migration Tool (or similar).

 

Do a search for JV's topic on the laptop he's running his sim on these days. The topic includes some sample pics from PAVD (Valdez).

 

Adam.

[jmorvay1971]

2 hours ago, Adam Banks said:

To add to Nick's suggestions:

 

1) Go for P3D. I still run FSX but much prefer P3D. Apart from a few cosmetic issues (clouds/water) I think it's a better/more stable platform and much better at splitting off GPU resources from CPU resources. I find I can generally run P3D with most sliders one more notch to the right and still get better performance. Not very scientific, but you get the drift!

 

2) I'd be careful about the overall size of the drive you put your sim on. My P3D drive is already over 100Gb. I agree with Nick - SSD will reduce initial load times and maybe the menu selection speed (when generating aircraft lists etc.) but won't have too much of an impact in-sim. Mine is now SSD (after being on a regular HD for years) and the difference is noticeable, but not earth shattering. P3D loads scenery much more smoothly than FSX (no wierd "popping up" as you fly) so an SSD won't necessarily help there. However - if you go from one world region to another (which the Unified Look-up now allows you to do more seamlessly) then loading up the new scenery set *will* be quicker with SSD.

 

My HD failed on my work laptop (my sims are on a separate games/desktop box) and I replaced it with an SSD. The whole system is much faster - both in boot-up and general operation ... and it's blissfully *quiet*. So ... if you're running your sim from a laptop, I'd say build in some redundancy - stick with 500Gb, sensibly partitioned for better housekeeping.

 

Note: the usual FSX vs P3D caveats. You may need to re-buy some of your favourite add-ons (not ORBX, thankfully!) ... so that may eat into your budget. With a bit of care, 99% of your FSX aircraft can be made to work in P3D without the Estonia Migration Tool (or similar).

 

Do a search for JV's topic on the laptop he's running his sim on these days. The topic includes some sample pics from PAVD (Valdez).

 

Adam.

Good suggestion to refer to the OP to John's new rig, but be aware that the current cost for that rig is in upwards of $3000 USD, way more than what the OP wants to spend, and I can relate to the OP's pain and strain.  Unfortunately, new things have come to light now that are making me re-evaluate my current situation with my current sim, as I cannot afford a new upgrade to my laptop, since my current one hasn't hit a year old yet.

 

Evaluating hardware vs. sim can take a long time to research.  I recommend not jumping at the first opportunity and taking the time to read about others' experiences and what they have and how it all works.  

[Flight-Simmer (Pete)]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, I just want to make mention of the fact that I am going with a separate drive (case) rather than a laptop. I am also toying with the notion that  I may make it a dedicated drive and keeping my laptop for every day, however with that said, it may prove to an inconvenience rather than a convenience.

 

[Jethro VH-JET]

2 hours ago, PetesaHut said:

Intel i7-6700   "k" variant required for any potential O.C - k variant also offers the Virtual machine if you need that facility 
Gigabyte Gaming Motherboard   OK - MOBO level and features unknown
4 x LPX DDR4 2133Mhz 8GB (total 32GB)   8 or 16Gb is plenty
Cougar Pioneer Case   Yes - but consider what cooling it offers and the cooling you will be using - there are plenty of case brands and styles to choose from
Cougar 800W Modular PSU  Good
Samsung 500GB SSD  Probably overkill if using strictly for OS
Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200rpm  Good - I have a WesternDigital Blue same spec for FSX sim and addons
Gigabyte GTX 980 4GB   Or a GTX970 to save a few dollars and would be the top end of what is needed for FSX 
DVD Burner
$2800

 

I notice your dealer has offered an i7 6700 CPU it would be better if you revised this as any potential Overclock will require the "k" variant "i7 6700k".

I agree with Nick on the RAM  8 - 16Gb RAM is plenty. A 250Gb SSD for your OS would suffice, 1Tb HDD for your Simulator & addons which is what I use. I imagine you will have Win10 OS freshly installed ( don't forget all the .NET versions need to be active and installed with W10) If you are going to opt for P3D as your Sim then a 750Gb SSD would be the better option for the sim and addons (I don't know yet if the same extraction and unpacking requirements (disk space) will be required by FTXCv3 / OrbxDirect Download but you should keep this in mind with regard to your OS drive and Simulator drive capacity) The PC case is important as far as internal space & airflow so quite possibly a Mid tower will be narrow and cramped if you were to fit an Air/fan cooled tower/heatsink to your CPU (which require more case width). Instead of the stock Intel cooler/heatsink/fan. Or a Corsair H80i closed loop liquid cooler which would fit.  The Pioneer MidTower ATX case looks ok (nothing to write home about) but there are some nice cases around to better suit your future needs around AU250.00 of your overall budget.  I will leave the Case recommendations to others as mine is a full tower and probably nolonger available model, its a monster case with perfect airflow for maximum air cooling. (See specs below) As to the cost you should come in somewhere around your current budget by reconfiguring your actual hardware requirements, but I agree a desktop system will not offer any portability / convenience as a laptop, but a comparable Gaming Laptop will be quite a bit more expensive. 

[Jon Clarke]

I posted in another topic regarding the current price on a 1060 GPU which you may want to look at. It is a comparison between the 980 and 1060

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060

[Neil]

For the SSD, go for a minimum of 250 GB. The operating system (Windows 7 or 10), will take up most of a 120 GB SSD. Windows makes a lot of use of C: drive for temp files, updates, user profiles etc. and on my system this can take up to 90GB! Cleaning up my OS drive has become a routine task. Leave the SSD for the OS.

[FILOU]

In your case...

 

-I7 6700k

 

-SSD 1 TB

 

-GTX 1070

 

-MIS Z170A Gaming pro carbon

 

-Crucial ballistix Sport DDR4-2400 (2×8) 

 

-LEPA (ENERMAX) MaxBron 800W

 

-Windows10 (64)

 

Don't thinking to much about P3D...Take it without hesitation. 

[Nick Cooper]

Don't forget there is a budget to be considered here.

[FILOU]

18 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

Don't forget there is a budget to be considered here.

Yes i undersdand Nick.  The budget is repected.

 

Can be also:

 

The SSD can be 500 GB.

Memory can be 8 (2x4)

[Mikelab6]

Great machine !

 

My suggestions :  Overall is great

1. For about the same price as the GTX980 go with the new GTX1070

2. Go with 16 G of ram instead of 32 G

3. Power Supply : I don't know about the Cougar brand quality. GO with good quality PSU (CORSAIR, EVGA Supernova etc) for long term problem free operation.

 

Mike

[Flight-Simmer (Pete)]

I have created a summary of all the information so far, in the hope of making it easier to see what all the recommendations are.

 

My first Quote which needs to be reduced to around $2000 or a little over.

 

Something else my dealer mentioned was that in his opinion, no additional cooling was required as we are not overclocking, not overclocking is what I would prefer, but any more comments about that?

 

I am over the moon with all the detailed responses, sure takes a lot of the worry off my mind about making the right decision.

 

My first quote:

Intel i7-6700
Gigabyte Gaming Motherboard
4 x LPX DDR4 2133Mhz 8GB (total 32GB)
Cougar Pioneer Case
Cougar 800W Modular PSU
Samsung 500GB SSD
Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200rpm
Gigabyte GTX 980 4GB
DVD Burner
$2800

RaM: 8 or at most 16GB, I agree with Nick on the RAM  8 - 16Gb RAM is plenty, Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4-2400 (2×8), Memory can be 8 (2x4),

 

Video card: GTX 970 graphics card would also be more than adequate, For about the same price as the GTX980 go with the new GTX1070,

 

Motherboard: MIS Z170A Gaming pro carbon,

 

SSD: a much smaller SSD, say 120 GB and use it for your operating system, stick with 500Gb, sensibly partitioned for better housekeeping, A 250Gb SSD for your OS would suffice, 1Tb HDD for your Simulator & add-ons which is what I use, If you are going to opt for P3D as your Sim then a 750Gb SSD would be the better option for the sim and add-ons, For the SSD, go for a minimum of 250 GB. The operating system (Windows 7 or 10), will take up most of a 120 GB SSD. Windows makes a lot of use of C: drive for temp files, updates, user profiles etc. and on my system this can take up to 90GB! Cleaning up my OS drive has become a routine task. Leave the SSD for the OS, go with SSD 1 TB, SSD can be 500 GB, 

 

CPU: I notice your dealer has offered an i7 6700 CPU it would be better if you revised this as any potential Overclock will require the "k" variant "i7 6700k", Go with aI7 6700k,

 

Case: a Mid tower will be narrow and cramped if you were to fit an Air/fan cooled tower/heatsink to your CPU (which require more case width). Instead of the stock Intel cooler/heatsink/fan. Or a Corsair H80i closed loop liquid cooler which would fit.  The Pioneer MidTower ATX case looks ok (nothing to write home about) but there are some nice cases around to better suit your future needs around AU250.00 of your overall budget.

 

Power supply: LEPA (ENERMAX) MaxBron 800W, GO with good quality PSU (CORSAIR, EVGA Supernova etc) for long term problem free operation,

 

OS: Windows10 (64),

 

Sim: P3D, thumbs up from everyone, You may need to re-buy some of your favorite add-ons (not ORBX, thankfully!)

[jsapair]

Just go to Costco and buy what ever is flying off the shelves. KIDDING! I agree that 16 GB RAM is way more than adequate. My rig is 3-4 years old, running an i7 3820 and an Nvidia 760 with a CoolerMaster 1000W PSU.. Recently revamped to a Samsung 520 SSD partitioned to take the OS and FSX, with a one TB HDD for scenery and whatever. I also think that a full tower case may be overkill. I've got this monster on my desk that will take 6 HDD's and 4 SSD's. Way more than I'll ever use. Just didn't know how huge a full tower was when I ordered it. Lots of empty space in that case. Bigger is not always better. Could save you a few bucks.

[aero-3fsx]

With the mainboard you may be able to make some savings

Find out exactly what you need then only get that as ASRock for example has many versions, each with a set of features which each add to the cost

I used my old 256Gb SSD for FS while using M.2 for OS - both Samsung

increasing from 1Tb to 2 or 3 is not a lot more, better future proof than not