Ok, here we go...

[Ultrasweatproof]

Hey guys, new to the boards but have been eying these wonderful products for some time now.  So I'm going to finally put together a system just for FSX. 

I want to be able to fly the upcoming Aerosoft Airbus X into the ORBX YMML,  YBBN and all of the other major payware airports, with real world weather active.

When it comes to military history, real world aircraft operations, weight lifting, etc I am very knowledgeable.  When it comes to computers, I don't know much.  I'd be very greatful if you guys could give me your opinion on these parts before I buy them.  I'm going to buy the parts and try to assemble this thing myself.

1. COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

2. Western Digital VelociRaptor WD740BLFS 74GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

3. Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready

4. G.SKILL 3GB (3 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9T-3GBNQ

5. ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

6. Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920

[Phil Manhart]

1. COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Will work, it would be better to get a larger case, these are quite small and hard to fit a nice video card in. I had to cut into my hard drive cage on mine in order to fit my GTX 480

2. Western Digital VelociRaptor WD740BLFS 74GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

A bit small to fit FSX and a lot of addons. Right now I have FSX, Acceleration, the PMDG 747, PMDG JS4100, FTX AU All, NA Blue, Stark's, Darrington, Coff's Harbour, the Carenado 152 and Mooney, Flight Replica's Super Cub, Real Environment Xtreme, Ground Environment X, Ultimate Terrain X, and a few other payware planes installed and my install is running 59GB in size. Considering that you should have atleast 10-15% of your hard drive empty in order to facilitate a complete defrag, just in my sims state you would be pushing it.

3. Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready

This will work fine if you don't get a power hungry video card, if you decide to get an nVidia GTX 480 or an ATi 5970, you will need to get atleast a 750W power supply to be safe.

4. G.SKILL 3GB (3 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9T-3GBNQ

If you can afford it, get 4GB (2x2GB) in order to use dual channel and eventually go triple channel with another 2GB stick in the future.

5. ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Should work great

6. Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920

Great choice for a processor! If you buy a decent heatsink/fan combo there are a lot of us here who can help you safely overclock your system to get more bang for your buck!

What about the video card?

Overall the system you have outlined above will work fine and get you some good performance (not great) in FSX with plenty of eye candy. It sounds like you are more into the systems operation and heavies, so low and slow eye-candy like lots of Autogen and Scenery Complexity won't matter as much to you as it does to some of us flying closer to the dirt... 

Like I mentioned above, a bigger hard drive and 1 more GB of ram is what I would change first most, but your choice of video card will also make a big difference which you don't have mentioned here.

And last but not least, welcome to the forums!

Phil

[Ultrasweatproof]

Pmanhart, thank you for the detailed reply and warm welcome!

I'm not so much into systems operations as much as I just like big airplanes and awsome sceneries.  Sometimes I load up FS9 just to play around in payware airports for a half hour in the default 172. 90% of my time though is spent replicating commercial flights so I like as much detail on the departure and approach ends of a route as possible.  The best part to the end of a flight is the 10 minutes it takes to taxi to the gate and take in the scenery.  I also would like some performance when it comes to photo real city sceneries.

How does this look as far as an internal hard drive?

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

What do you like in terms of a video card?  ATI Radeon 4650 maybe?  Lastly, could you recommend a good heatsink/fan combo?

[tennyson]

According to the guru's here, mate, there are only 2 video cards to look at.

That's the 285GTX 1gb (OC'd or not) and the newer Nvidia 480.

Look throo the forums here and you will see so many great posts about both of these cards. That will explain why you should look at these two....

Frank

[Phil Manhart]

Pmanhart, thank you for the detailed reply and warm welcome!

I'm not so much into systems operations as much as I just like big airplanes and awsome sceneries.  Sometimes I load up FS9 just to play around in payware airports for a half hour in the default 172. 90% of my time though is spent replicating commercial flights so I like as much detail on the departure and approach ends of a route as possible.  The best part to the end of a flight is the 10 minutes it takes to taxi to the gate and take in the scenery.  I also would like some performance when it comes to photo real city sceneries.

How does this look as far as an internal hard drive?

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

What do you like in terms of a video card?  ATI Radeon 4650 maybe?  Lastly, could you recommend a good heatsink/fan combo?

My pleasure, you will find these the friendliest and most helpful forums outside of AVSIM!

That drive should work great and give you plenty of room for FSX and Windows.

For the Video Card, do not buy anything other than from this list;

~$250 = GTX 275

~$350-450 = GTX 285 / ATi 5870  I would recommend the GTX 285 over the ATi though because of better rendering capabilities

~$500 = GTX 480

Pick your price and you'll know what to get. As always, you get what you pay for, and if you decide to go with the GTX 480 I would recommend using a 750W PSU to provide ample power, it is a power hungry video card.

Keep in mind that while FSX is very CPU dependent (your i7-920 will be perfect), a good video card is absolutely essential for good rendering, and the more you spend on the video card the better.

For a Heatsink/Fan I would go with something like this http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9403/cpu-tri-62/Thermalright_CoGage_True_Spirit_4-Heatpipe_Core_i7_CPU_Cooler_Socket_LGA_1156_LGA_1366.html

Also a link to a nice roundup article of different heatsink/fans http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/23884-intel-core-i7-lga1366-cpu-cooler-roundup.html

The most important thing for buying a heatsink/fan is making sure it will fit your socket type (LGA 1366).

I sincerely hope this helps!

Phil

[Ian Routley]

Ask 3 different people, get 3 different answers.

You are building a solid system.  Remember that FSX can always run "better" so there will always be that alluring upgrade down the track.

Don't skimp on the PSU ...  mine recently blew up, and I'm sure the thing that saved all the downstream componentry was all the safety circuits.  I bought the same one ... with modern video cards, and a tendency to run multiple HDD  I would get a minimum of 750Watts.

Consider installing two drives ...

By modern standards a 300G velociraptor is not large ... but would be large enough for most FSX + add-on installs.  The new gen Velociraptor SATA3 is not much cheaper than an SSD ... and I would give serious thought to extending to two SSDs: one for Windows system, and a slightly larger one (for FSX only)

It all comes down to what you want to spend .... but false economy can be very frustrating.

Video Card - I think only 3 choices at the moment (given the rest of what you're building)

GTX285 or GTX480, or 58XX series AMD (if the user experience I see posted is any guide then the 480 would be the pick, if your budget extends to it)

[Ultrasweatproof]

Frank- Thanks for the heads-up!

Phil- I’m going to go with the 480.  I saw a screenshot post of yours and you seem to be pretty happy with it.

Ian- I figure the best opinions to get are the ones from the users/designers of the very scenery that I want to upgrade to.

Your comment on 300GB not being very big gave me pause since I own all of FSDreamteam’s, Flytampa’s and most of Aerosoft’s and soon ORBX’s sceneries.  At this juncture it looks like an SSD will have to be an upgrade next year.  It appears that I can get 600GB with 2 hard drives for the price it would cost me to get a 128GB SSD.  Definitely going to up the watts on the PSU.

Could you guys please have a final look at my shopping cart to make sure I didn’t miss anything?

1. Thermaltake V9 Black Edition ATX Computer Gaming Chassis with Dual Oversized 230mm Ultra-Silent Cooling Fans VJ400G1N2Z Mid Tower

2. Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

3. ZOTAC ZT-40101-10P GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

4. Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-S-B 850W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready CrossFire Ready, Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply

5.  G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

6. ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

7. Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920

8. Cogage TRUE Spirit 120mm CPU Cooler

[crashmax]

Hi,

Seams all ok but Memmories, CPU and HDD:

Memories are to weak for this system and will slow down all other components. My suggestions are:

Mushkin Redline 3x2GB, DDR3-1600, CL6-8-6-24@1.65V or Corsair TR3X6G1600C7D, 3x2GB, DDR3-1600, CL7@1.65V

The CPU is an "older" one. Take the 930 or if you can the 960

Use two HDDS, one for Windows (I suggest Windows 7 x64 Home Premium) and one for FSX. If you can, take Intel 160GB SSD's

1. Thermaltake V9 Black Edition ATX Computer Gaming Chassis with Dual Oversized 230mm Ultra-Silent Cooling Fans VJ400G1N2Z Mid Tower

2. Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

3. ZOTAC ZT-40101-10P GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

4. Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-S-B 850W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready CrossFire Ready, Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply

5.  G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

6. ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

7. Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920

8. Cogage TRUE Spirit 120mm CPU Cooler

Cheers

[))i7((SLI-Fire]

5.  G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

This ram is not supported by your ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard. Go with what Crashmax suggested for the ram

4. G.SKILL 3GB (3 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9T-3GBNQ

Mushkin Redline 3x2GB, DDR3-1600, CL6-8-6-24@1.65V or Corsair TR3X6G1600C7D, 3x2GB, DDR3-1600, CL7@1.65V

[Phil Manhart]

Like the guys mentioned above, get different RAM and you are good to go. Your new lineup for the PC looks great and will give you awesome performance.

Good luck!

Phil

[Sniper31]

Ditto on the RAM, and what CPU cooler are you going with?

I suggest the Cooler Master V8 cooler. It has surpassed the Noctua nh-u12p se2 as one of the best air coolers available for i7 cpu's, IMO. In the end, either cooler is a great choice.

[Ultrasweatproof]

I know the question about upgrading to fsx is asked hundreds of times a day so thanks for everyone who took the time to respond here helping me make the most out of my investment.

Hopefully I'll have some screen shots and a performance report in the next couple weeks!

[Phil Manhart]

I know the question about upgrading to fsx is asked hundreds of times a day so thanks for everyone who took the time to respond here helping me make the most out of my investment.

Hopefully I'll have some screen shots and a performance report in the next couple weeks!

Congrats on making the switch, you won't be disappointed!

I'll be watching for your future posts, and don't hesitate to ask any questions, there are plenty here always willing (and wanting) to help a fellow simmer out.

Phil

[Ultrasweatproof]

So all of my parts came in today and I've been trying to put this thing together for the last 5 hours.  I'm using all the manuals but am having to fill in the blanks as I go.  I have a 3.5 velociraptor hard drive to load windows on until I get enough cash for a SSD.  Well the hard drive came in a white box with no directions or anything. 

Could someone please tell me what the purple part I circled in the picture is and what connects it to the mother board? 

Everything is installed but I bought an old style CD-DVD ROM and have to get a new SATA model tomorrow.  Then I hope to fire this thing up with a fire extinguisher near by.  Hopefully soon I'll have YBBN on this thing.

[gheeD]

You just need power cable and SATA cable for the HDD, which i can see you have connected in the picture. I'm not sure what that port is you circled in the picture, but atleast my Seagate HDD (not velociraptor tho...) was ready to go after it is connected to motherboard with SATA cable and power cable coming from PSU.

Also, this is a good read that i used when building my computer, only used manual with my component specific problems that weren't covered in the guide. Overclockers.com - How to build a computer.

edit: Yes, i downloaded WD's quick install manual from their website, it also says to connect sata cable and sata power cable, nothing else is needed. But still i dont have any idea what that plug you have circled in the picture is.

[Ultrasweatproof]

Kim- Thanks so much!