CPU, Motherboard, GPU...

[f65d87s99j36x78r2]

Hi there,

I've just joined and this is my first post. My computer world is being turned upside down. For a long time now, about a year, I've been planning to build a new computer (I've built them before), primarily for FSX. I had my heart set on a AMD 965 BE, MSI 790 (or 890 now), and an XFX 5850. I would start basic and eventually plan to overclock and watercool. I have acquired a few basics thus far, nothing that pins me down to the heart of things:

Case: Lian Li PC-A70F with 3 x 120 top for radiator.
Silverstone 1000W modular power supply.
TFC Triebwerk fans.

But I'm trying to remain open minded, and now I'm starting to rethink things since so many seem to mention that for FSX Intel and NVIDIA is probably the better way to go. So I'm wondering now about an i7 930, NVidia 470, and I have no clue about Intel motherboards.

Should I stick to my original plan, jump tracks, or what? Any solid advice will be greatly appreciated. I want the performance, but I also want to be comfortable with what I'm building (I've been an AMD fan for years).

Thx,
Dave

 

[lowriderflow]

Well a budget would be very helpful... if you got lots of money to throw at it, it's going to be a different build than if you're just trying to get the most bang for your buck.
1000watt power supply?! why did you buy this? Do you plan on running 3 video cards?

Assuming you're on a budget, an i5 750 with a Palit sonic platinum 1gb GTX460 (cheaper tahn 470 but nearly as fast), mid level gigabyte mobo (1156 socket) with 2x2gb of DDR3

if you can spend more, i7 920 with 3x2gb DDR3, two EVGA superclock gtx460's in SLI, 1366 socket mobo SLi certified (two lanes of x16)

 

[o1die]

I use the i3 530, and it's plenty fast when overclocked. I view the 930 as overkill, but it depends on what games you plan on using. Frys had the 930 for $259 the other day, which is almost as cheap as microcenter. The 1156 boards have the new sata 6.0 and usb 3.0 features; many 1366 boards don't have these yet. Look for a package deal on the board and cpu; 1156 will save you at least $100 over 1366 for the motherboard.

 

[enzo matrix]

The i7 would be faster and the CPU is very important for FSX. I would lower your GPU in order to get a faster CPU.

There's a couple more options with the 1055t and the 1090t. FSX is capable of using all 6 cores so that would be pretty nice if you want to stick with AMD. The 1055t if you overclock or don't want to spend $300 or the 1090t if you have $100 extra for a paltry 0.4GHz speed increase.

As for Nvidia over ATI? Never heard this. And since FSX doesn't use any Nvidia proprietary technology, I don't see why this would be true. Then again, Nvidia has shoved their noses in developer's faces so much it's rare to see a game that doesn't say "Nvidia" with that echoy voice before the game starts. When was the last time you saw an ATI logo before playing a game?

1000watt power supply?! why did you buy this? Do you plan on running 3 video cards?
Copy and paste that! You don't need more than a 600W PSU, and even that's a bit overkill.

 

[f65d87s99j36x78r2]

Well a budget would be very helpful... if you got lots of money to throw at it, it's going to be a different build than if you're just trying to get the most bang for your buck.
1000watt power supply?! why did you buy this? Do you plan on running 3 video cards?

Assuming you're on a budget, an i5 750 with a Palit sonic platinum 1gb GTX460 (cheaper tahn 470 but nearly as fast), mid level gigabyte mobo (1156 socket) with 2x2gb of DDR3

if you can spend more, i7 920 with 3x2gb DDR3, two EVGA superclock gtx460's in SLI, 1366 socket mobo SLi certified (two lanes of x16)

I bought a large supply to futureproof the setup, despite the fact that things are getting more efficient in some respects. Also to provide for the water cooling pump and extra fans at some point. I'm hoping that this case and power supply will carry over into future computers beyond this one.

There is definitely a budget. For the CPU, motherboard, memory, and GPU I have about $800 allocated. After that I've got the hard drives and software to take care of, but I'd rather not get into that here.

Oh, and thanks, guys, it's already getting interesting and educating.

Dave

 

[f65d87s99j36x78r2]

The i7 would be faster and the CPU is very important for FSX. I would lower your GPU in order to get a faster CPU.

There's a couple more options with the 1055t and the 1090t. FSX is capable of using all 6 cores so that would be pretty nice if you want to stick with AMD. The 1055t if you overclock or don't want to spend $300 or the 1090t if you have $100 extra for a paltry 0.4GHz speed increase.

As for Nvidia over ATI? Never heard this. And since FSX doesn't use any Nvidia proprietary technology, I don't see why this would be true. Then again, Nvidia has shoved their noses in developer's faces so much it's rare to see a game that doesn't say "Nvidia" with that echoy voice before the game starts. When was the last time you saw an ATI logo before playing a game?

1000watt power supply?! why did you buy this? Do you plan on running 3 video cards?
Copy and paste that! You don't need more than a 600W PSU, and even that's a bit overkill.

NVIDIA over ATI?: It's said a lot on flight sim sites. Don't know why, they just claim it's faster?

 

[f65d87s99j36x78r2]

Well a budget would be very helpful... if you got lots of money to throw at it, it's going to be a different build than if you're just trying to get the most bang for your buck.
1000watt power supply?! why did you buy this? Do you plan on running 3 video cards?

Assuming you're on a budget, an i5 750 with a Palit sonic platinum 1gb GTX460 (cheaper tahn 470 but nearly as fast), mid level gigabyte mobo (1156 socket) with 2x2gb of DDR3

if you can spend more, i7 920 with 3x2gb DDR3, two EVGA superclock gtx460's in SLI, 1366 socket mobo SLi certified (two lanes of x16)

Wow! This Palit board sounds like something hot. Sounds like they've been around, but I never heard of them.