Switching to FSX for FTX, need new computer help, beginner

[Guest markabcan]

Hi all,

This is my first post here and all the hype around FTX has finally sold me and I'm buying a new FSX/FTX computer.  I'm looking for something that will run extremely well/smoothly and won't require another upgrade for a while.

I'll be buying Alienware by Dell as i'm not advanced enough to put together my own system plus they offer reasonable financing.  Anyways, here are the specs:

-i7 3.33ghz, 8mb cache

-12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - (6x 2048MB)

-1TB RAID 0 (2 x 500GB SATA-II, 7200RPM, 16MB cache HDD)

-Single 2GB GDDR5 ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 5970

-Single drive 24X CD/DVD burner

-Alienware liquid cooling system

-1.1W power supply

Please, any advice, suggestions, or comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance,

Mark

[Valcor]

I would hope you overclock that processor with liquid cooling available.  You should be able to get over 4.0ghz.

Other than that, I think your just trying to make us normal computer spec folks jealous 

[Maurice_King]

-i7 3.33ghz, 8mb cache

  Good Processor

-12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - (6x 2048MB)

Waste of money as I have seen NO evidence of increased performance with this amount of RAM

-1TB RAID 0 (2 x 500GB SATA-II, 7200RPM, 16MB cache HDD)

Ditch RAID and use a pair of SSD's

-Single 2GB GDDR5 ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 5970

Supposedly a very good card.

-Single drive 24X CD/DVD burner

Normal

-Alienware liquid cooling system

Over Rated and if you have good Air flow un-necessary

-1.1W power supply

I assume this is supposed to be 1.1 Kw Big overkill  650-750 Watt would be plenty.

[Guest markabcan]

-i7 3.33ghz, 8mb cache

  Good Processor

-12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - (6x 2048MB)

Waste of money as I have seen NO evidence of increased performance with this amount of RAM

-1TB RAID 0 (2 x 500GB SATA-II, 7200RPM, 16MB cache HDD)

Ditch RAID and use a pair of SSD's

-Single 2GB GDDR5 ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 5970

Supposedly a very good card.

-Single drive 24X CD/DVD burner

Normal

-Alienware liquid cooling system

Over Rated and if you have good Air flow un-necessary

-1.1W power supply

I assume this is supposed to be 1.1 Kw Big overkill  650-750 Watt would be plenty.

-I think I will get the processor factory overclocked to 3.6GHz, this will keep the warranty intact.

-How much memory can FSX properly utilize? 6GB, 9GB? There is also an option between 1067MHz and 1333MHz memory, presumably 1333MHz is much better?

-Unfortunately dual SSD or even SSD is not an option due to cost, is RAID 0 the next best thing or is there no benefit to this compared to a single drive? Will the lack of SSD be a system bottleneck?

-Will there be a performance gain between the 2GB ATI 5970 compared to the 1GB ATI 5870 card? Just making sure this isnt overkill...

-I can leave the liquid cooling out if not neccesary...presumably there will already be a sufficient air cooling system

-I have adjusted the power supply to 875Kw if this is sufficient.

[John Venema]

I am running my i7 920 at 4.2Ghz on air, and it's rock solid stable. I would go for an nVidia 285GTX over an ATI card. Prices have fallen in advance of the new nVidia cards due March 26th, so a good time to purchase.

Defintely get 6GB of DDR3 RAM if you can. 12GB is overkill I agree, I only have12GB because I edit > 2GB photoshop images with hundreds of layers.

Just get one SSD for FSX. They are pretty affordable at the 128GB size, which is all you'll need unless you plan to invest in 100's of GB of photoreal (not recommended).  For example, my FSX installation with all Orbx products installed and several dozen aircraft comes to 117GB.

[Guest markabcan]

I am running my i7 920 at 4.2Ghz on air, and it's rock solid stable. I would go for an nVidia 285GTX over an ATI card. Prices have fallen in advance of the new nVidia cards due March 26th, so a good time to purchase.

Defintely get 6GB of DDR3 RAM if you can. 12GB is overkill I agree, I only have12GB because I edit > 2GB photoshop images with hundreds of layers.

Just get one SSD for FSX. They are pretty affordable at the 128GB size, which is all you'll need unless you plan to invest in 100's of GB of photoreal (not recommended).  For example, my FSX installation with all Orbx products installed and several dozen aircraft comes to 117GB.

Well, after talking to Dell the only SSD option is an 256GB drive which in itself is an $805 option so quite cost prohibitive.  After some researrch regarding RAID 0 it appears that the benefit is minimal to non existant.  Here is a possible solution, have Windows installed on a basic 7200RPM and have a second 10,000RPM drive running only flight simulator...what do you guys think?  My main concern is a stutter free experience, is this a reasonable expectation with the above discussed configuration and hard drive solution?  If SSD is really an important part of a stutter free experience I will spend the cash but I'd just like to make sure...

Also the 285GTX is not an available card but the 295GTX is available, is this just an update and also an excellent option?

Thanks again!

[Ian Routley]

I agree with both JV and Mozz ... you don't need 12Gb of RAM ....  I upgraded from 6G to 12Gb.  It helped Photoshop CS4 64bit quite a lot (7Gb photoreal master-file anyone?)

it did squat for FSX.

I know Mozz doesn;t like RAID0 ... I must say that as a cost effective alternative to SSDs it is not bad ... not quite as quick, but offers reasonable performance for the cost.

SSDs will be cheaper (soon?) ... but I think what you are proposing is fine, with the extra overclock.

My personal bent ... I would put the money you save on RAM into a separate system drive and keep FSX on its own array... then you can swap your drives easily when SSDs become cheap.

Defintely overclock to 3.6 if that is available, or higher.  3.6 seems to be the sweet spot for i7's in my (limited) experience.

[Maurice_King]

I wouldn't say I don't like RAID, I just don't think it's worth the dramas it can cause people because they don't understand it and if the correct steps are not taken when things do go wrong you could stand to loose the lot.

Personally SSD's are by their application far superior to RAID for the home user based on their speed.

[Barramundi]

g'day mark

Im not the best person to give tec advise on your system but I can say having just built my first system was the best decision I made! besides saving a couple buks i thoroughly enjoyed the experience and im sure you would too

seeing your on this forum i can defiantly say you'll be in good hands! I can see maurice-king and hcorne already gave you good advise so far!!

besides if you decide to build your own system im sure these guys will be able to help as they just got me out of trouble building my system!!

anyways I think enjoy it, have fun and just dont blow the budget!!! sure you can go all out and get the latest tech but after all, the way I saw it is that after a couple years your gear will be outdated so i (personally) did not want to overspend too much seeing that more then likely i will be wanting an upgrade in two years time.  So I managed to get myself a pretty darn good sys i reckon all for under $2000 (which I think is cheap)

Cheers

Bara

Ps just curiouswhats the general conses here regarding tweaking w7 for better performance?? (not that Im complaining)