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Custom PC Reccomendations!


Lawso221

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Hey guys,

I've been buzzing around your website for quite a while now. I've downloaded the demo for Tazzie and it looks and performs fantastic. When I buy you're package, it'll be my first pay-ware FSX.

But before I buy it, I need a new computer. My current specs are a bit old, but... yeah:

Nvidia 6600gt

2GB RAM

Intel Pentium 4 CPU @ 3.00GHz

112GB HD

And Some Asus Mobo 

Now, the computer I'm looking at is this one: http://www.scorptec.com.au/system/102 .

Its called a Venom Core i7.  :o

The Price limit is basically the price of the PC above, so if any of you could steer me in a direction, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks, Lawso

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Hi Lawso ... that system looks almost there ....

Scorptec are pretty reliable and helpful (I've found) - and they built my corei7.

If you are happy to overclock the thing yourself - the i7-920 is great ... or if they'll do it for you.  At stock speed it doesn't really shine.  If you are really unhappy to clock it - get a faster processor (for my money - get the 920 and do some simple clocking - it is pretty easy)

64bit O/S is a must for FSX (in my book) - Win7 would be worth waiting for ... not much longer now.

I'd splash on:

More RAM: 6Gb or 12 Gb (remember that i7 will do better with 3x or 6x sticks to use all three channels properly)

and

GTX285 2Gigabyte card - FSX is a texture laden beast with addon scenery and aircraft - and more Vram is great.

Don't get SLI or a GTX 295 - there is no benefit to you in FSX (unless you play other stuff).

and a FAST Drive (Velociraptors, RAID0 array, or SSD if you have lots of money to spend on it)

FSX is about to become MUCH more enjoyable for you.

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...

Thanks for the quick response! I don't have to much money to play with but what would be the most needed upgrade from that PC? My current PC had 1GB RAM until I upped it to 2GB, but I didn't notice a difference, is that going to be the same story with this computer?

I'm going for a fly now, so I'll come and see if theres more responses later tonight.

Thanks again, Lawso

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How's this sound:

Cooler Master Elite 335 Mid Tower Case

Intel Core i7 920 CPU

Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME Motherboard

Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1866C9DF 6GB (3x 2GB) Memory

Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Standard, 1024MB 256-bit GDDR5 (PCIe x16)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB HDD (Sata)

Sony AD7240S 20x Internal Double Layer, (Sata),

Thermaltake ToughPower QFan 750W Power Supply

Zalman CNPS9900LED CPU Cooler

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, SP1, 64-Bit + Windows 7 upgrade thing.

BenQ G2220HD 21.5" Widescreen LCD Monitor

All up, that's $2,381 from Mwave. Anyone ever done business with them?

Sounds like a better deal than Scorptec plus this has a moniter 8).

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Sounds pretty good.

Haven't had much experience with the 4890 - and there seems to be a bit of a preference for Nvidia chips around here.

The Extreme Motherboard is good for clocking ... I was going to get one, but there was a two month wait back then  ....  ???

You can;t go too far wrong.

With regard to RAM - if you are running a 32bit O/S then Windows won;t use > 3.5 Gig.

FSX won't use more than 2Gigabytes, but you will benefit from Windows having breathing space.

VideoRam (graphics card) is another matter -- you will use extra Vram - especially with detailed aircraft, texture addons, and (of course) airports.  1Gig is pretty decent though.

Enjoy ...

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The problem with this PC is that I can't select any Nvidia Card or more than 6gb of RAM, if I could, I'd use what you've mentioned.

I'm trying to base my PC off the one in this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yQPTD2VTjQ . Look how well it performs!  ;D

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One of the guys here uses Radeons in his Chernobyl PC. He gets "pretty good" performance. ;)

i think people tend to stick to what they know.

I'd ring them Wrt the RAM issue.  Most people dont need much RAM and most people dont run a 64bit OS

i am a relatively recent convert now (read: zealot)

you do have to make sure you get exactly what you want - otherwise you'll be forever wondering.

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There's no magic used in that video :)

Firstly, the video was captured with the desktop resolution locked to 1280x720 and FSX running in windowed maximized mode with unlimited frames and with no sync in FRAPS (the video capture tool). That kept my FPS solidly locked at 25FPS the whole time and allowed full audio sync. Without running FRAPS I would be getting 50-60 FPS at that airport at that resolution, easily.

Secondly, as has been mentioned, FSX is all about having the highest CPU clock speed thrown at it - it's the single most important element of the performance puzzle.

So that video is using a cheap i7 920 overclocked to 4.0Ghz in a large case with plenty of fans and a top-end CPU fan. Total cost of that PC with all the other components was ~AUD$4500

So really, you get nothing for nothing. You'd need to set aside a budget of around AU$3000+ to get similar performance, and the focus needs to be on overclocked CPU, fast RAM and a good video card like the 285GTX. Everything else is in the 'nice to have' category.

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Thanks Ian and John,

I'll probably wait for Windows 7, hopefully theres some newer and better stuff by then.

Just need two questions answered:

RAM, what should I look out for, what performs better and such?

HDD, do they really matter? Eg, would a 250gb @ 7200rpm perform the same as a 1.5TB @ 7200rpm? I don't need to much space cause I'm only using 50GB now! :o

Lawso

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Hey,

What would you upgrade on this? DATCOM (one of the local PC shops) recommends this for me :-\ . He said I can try it our, but if its not good enough, he'd upgrade the parts to what I wanted. Overall Price is $1360, nice price or not?

Pentium 4 Quad Core 2.8Ghz

A Pentium 4 Mobo

4gb DDR2

Gigabyte GeForce 9800 GTX

500gb HD

Med ATX case with 850watt P/S.

DVD Burner

Thanks in advance!

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Hey,

What would you upgrade on this? DATCOM (one of the local PC shops) recommends this for me :-\ . He said I can try it out, but if its not good enough, he'd upgrade the parts to what I wanted. Overall Price is $1360, nice price or not?

Pentium 4 Quad Core 2.8Ghz

A Pentium 4 Mobo

4gb DDR2

Gigabyte GeForce 9800 GTX

500gb HD

Med ATX case with 850watt P/S.

DVD Burner

Thanks in advance!

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Lawso ... a Pentium 4 Quad core is two generations old.

Pentium III

Pentium IV

Core2Duo (Dual and Quad)

i7

I think that would be vastly inadequate for what you want ... and in a totally different league to what you were looking at.

Are you sure it's a Pentium IV he's offering you? ... not sure where you would get one (except second hand).

That would be a LOT of money for a very old architecture system.

(If that is really his starting offer for a "kick-ass" system , then RUN AWAY!!  Now!)

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Lawso ... a Pentium 4 Quad core is two generations old.

Pentium III

Pentium IV

Core2Duo (Dual and Quad)

i7

I think that would be vastly inadequate for what you want ... and in a totally different league to what you were looking at.

Are you sure it's a Pentium IV he's offering you? ... not sure where you would get one (except second hand).

That would be a LOT of money for a very old architecture system.

(If that is really his starting offer for a "kick-ass" system , then RUN AWAY!!  Now!)

Well I'm not sure if its Pentium 4, he wrote it down as 'P4'. You can see I'm not the best with this stuff ;D . He also wrote 'P4' Motherboard. I've no idea what he means but I looked it up on Google and it came up with Pentium 4.

And sorry everyone for my weird post that included a quote from the post before it, I have no idea how it got there or how I did it. :P

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There are alot of people saying the gtx 285 is the card of choice right now. my system has a bfg 285 oc. and my guy at xtremepc (in canada) sent an email to me saying the benchmarks are amazing!!! tie all that to a i7 950 and 6gb of 1600 ram on a p6t v2 and I think I may have a beast on my hands!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just bought for $2000:

Intel Q9950 Quad CPU

GA EP31-DS3L Mobo

Kinsgton 2x2GB 800mhz( :( ) RAM

320GB Sata II HDD

And... GIGABYTE 285GTX 2GB Video Card ;D

He's given me XP Pro for now, but he's got something going on with getting me Windows 7 when its out. The PC included some pricey software aswell.

I've gone From 9~ FPS (locked at 24) to 24FPS when locked and 50FPS~ when on unlimited, flying around YSSY!!!

I'm just about to purchase the Avalon Airshow Edition FTX Australia, some airports and also REX 2 from the Flight Sim Store. Before I do I'd just like to know how big the Avalon Airshow Edition thing is (rounded to nearest GB, or as acurate as poss).

Also, I'm allowed to get 2 airports, I've already selected Tamworth but I've no idea what the other airport should be. I'm not interested in YMMB.

Thank You!!!

~Lawso

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Also, I'm allowed to get 2 airports, I've already selected Tamworth but I've no idea what the other airport should be. I'm not interested in YMMB.

Get Hervey Bay airport! YHBA.

Alright.  :)

Thanks

----------------EDIT---------------

Hey guys,

Just purchased:

Australia SP2 DVD (Avalon Airshow Edition)

Orbx - FTX: AU YSTW Tamworth Airport

REX - Real Environment Xtreme v2.0

Orbx - FTX: AU YHBA Hervey Bay Airport

The one problem is that I've ordered all of them and I can download all except the FTX SP2 Avalon Airshow Edition thing. I selected to get the DVD because of our download limit but the FTX SP2 thing didn't have that option, so I thought you had to download it. But theres no option to download! Help please!

Thanks

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The one problem is that I've ordered all of them and I can download all except the FTX SP2 Avalon Airshow Edition thing. I selected to get the DVD because of our download limit but the FTX SP2 thing didn't have that option, so I thought you had to download it. But theres no option to download! Help please!

Thanks

FTX SP2 Avalon Airshow Edition ONLY comes with DVD. So there's NO download because file is way too big I think.

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"FTX SP2 Avalon Airshow Edition ONLY comes with DVD. So there's NO download because file is way too big I think."

If you own Avalon Airport YMAV you can download the free airshow expansion form the freeware page:

BONUS FOR YMAV AVALON AIRPORT - Airshow 2009 mode!

To commemorate Orbx's attendance at the Avalon Airshow 2009, we've create a free addon to the Orbx YMAV AVALON AIRPORT scenery. This addon will make the airport come alive with all the temporary buildings, tents, corporate hospitality, grandstands, crowds added to the scenery. You will also see an amazing array of static aircraft on display, and finally - see actual AI aircraft movements during the show.

This is a fun addon so you can enjoy your own "virtual airshow"

ZIP File Download Size:  25.5MB

Project Leader: Graham Eccleston

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