New Build for Flight Sim

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bradrcfii

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Sep 17, 2010
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As the title suggest, building a new machine for a flight sim, Prepar3D. These sims need CPU clock speed. I planned on installing the OS on the M2 SSD and the application on the PCIE SSD. I want to be sure I have enough PCIE lanes for the GPU,M2 drive and the Intel Optane SSD..

The following is my component list.

Motherboard ASRock Z370 Taichi LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel Z370 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU Intel Core i7-8700K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.7 GHz (4.7 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W BX80684I78700K Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630

GPU 1080

Memory G.SKILL TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Intel Z170 / Z270 / Z370 / X299 Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C16D-16GTZKW

M2 Storage Intel Optane M.2 2280 32GB PCIe NVMe 3.0 x2 Memory Module MEMPEK1W032GAXTW-For Windows 10

PCIE SSD Intel Optane SSD 900P (280GB, AIC PCIe 3.0 x4, 20nm, 3D XPoint)

Hard Drive WD Black 2TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD2003FZEX

Optical Drive ASUS DVD-Writer 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24F1ST - OEM

Case EVGA DG-76 Matte Black Mid-Tower, 2 Sides of Tempered Glass, RGB LED and Control Board, Gaming Case 160-B0-2230-KR

Power Supply Seasonic FOCUS Plus Series SSR-750FX 750W 80+ Gold ATX12V & EPS12V Full Modular 120mm FDB Fan Compact 140 mm Size Power Supply

CPU Cooler EVGA CLC 240 Liquid / Water CPU Cooler, 400-HY-CL24-V1, 240mm Radiator, RGB LED with EVGA Flow Control Software


 
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Z

zyh1987

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Mar 16, 2018
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To answer your first question, all your drives combined will not go over the maximum pcie lane limit.

here are my thoughts on the two optane choice,
is there a reason for the m.2 2280 since you are using 900p?

i'm under the impression that the two product are targeted for different use.

the 32 gb is mostly used as a cache drive on your hdd,(if not the only use, and can only attach to root drive), in this case, i would assume it's the harddrive? else using optane cache on optane ssd is pointless.

900p is a very good ssd equivalent. from specs, it's faster than the 32gb optane .

you won't benefit from the 32gb optane at all for os.

my suggestion will be take out the optane drive and replace the hd with a sshd,
it will
a) boost your hard drive performance
b) no need to worry about pcie-e lane being used up.
 
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bradrcfii

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jaslion

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Dec 17, 2012
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You can also use amd storemi to make your own sshd with a big cache which is much faster than a normal hdd.
Or just get a 1tb ssd really.
 
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bradrcfii

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Thanks so much for your response. I read somewhere isolating the OS is a good thing for performance. I understand you recomend taking the m2 off the list but not sure what you mean by "replace the hd with a sshd". I was going to use the the 2Tb Hard Drive for backups and other general use. What is a sshd?

If I take the m2 out, the boot drive will be the Intel Optane SSD 900P

Thanks,

Brad
 
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jaslion

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Dec 17, 2012
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Isolating the os for performance is something that you want to do when you are running it on an hdd. If you are running it on an ssd it really does not matter at all. For games (even a flightsim) a normal 860 evo sata ssd will be plenty fast and will allow you to get a much larger size for the price.
 
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zyh1987

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sshd is a solid state hybrid drive, it looks like a harddrive, but actually has a small ssd and a controller for it, so it will cache frequently used data in ssd, giving a faster experience compare to traditional hard drive.
 
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zyh1987

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Mar 16, 2018
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won't use the word overkill, it's more unnecessary as your 900p is much better.

900p
Sequential Read (up to)
2500 MB/s
Sequential Write (up to)
2000 MB/s
Random Read (8GB Span) (up to)
550000 IOPS
Random Read (100% Span)
550000 IOPS
Random Write (8GB Span) (up to)
500000 IOPS
Random Write (100% Span)
500000 IOPS


vs optane 32gb

Sequential Read (up to)
1350 MB/s
Sequential Write (up to)
290 MB/s
Random Read (8GB Span) (up to)
240000 IOPS
Random Read (100% Span)
240000 IOPS
Random Write (8GB Span) (up to)
65000 IOPS
Random Write (100% Span)
65000 IOPS
 
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bradrcfii

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OK. I will drop the M2 from the list. The 900p will do all the work. The hard drive is not active when using the flight sim, just a utility drive. My last build while being a pretty strong computer two years ago, still suffered short one second stutters as it loaded new airport data as the aircraft came within range. That system had a SSD drive. Since then, the app was converted to 64 bit but I still want to be sure I have the quickest file loading capabilities. $400 for 280Gb drive kind of hurts but I think I will stay with the 900 Optane.
 
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