Air-Cooled Intel Mobo & Processor, Etc. to Run FSX

[glennmartin]

Hello Everyone,
Scene-setter: I am preparing to buy a new set of full-tower desktop PC components. The new desktop PC will run a suite of software titles, notably including the following: MS Windows 7 Pro - 64 bit with 32 bit XP mode available; MS Office 2010 Pro. Plus; MS Project Pro. 2010; IBM SPSS Grad Pack (Statistics Apps.); Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro.; and MS Flight Simulator X and (hopefully) 11. I want to use an Intel mainboard and air-cooled only processor up to a quad-core type.
Question: Any suggestions on a suitable Intel mainboard, processor, memory, and graphics card to power a 20" LCD flatscreen? Any recommended power supply ~ 500 watts? What components worked for your system? Thanks, Glennmartin

 

[sadams04]

Not sure of your budget, but the build below can be used for reference. Ready to be overclocked, and for a second HD 6950 down the road if you ever need additional graphics muscle...

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k - $220

CPU COOLER: Hyper 212+ - $28

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 - $160

RAM: GSkill 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 1.5v 8-8-8-24 - $70

Graphics Card: XFX HD 6950 - $200 after MIR

OS / Boot Hard Drive: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD - $200 after MIR

Storage / Apps Hard Drive: SAMSUNG F4 2TB - $80

Case: Antec 900 - $100 after MIR

Power Supply: XFX Core Edition 750w - $85 after MIR

DVD Burner: Samsung Black - $20

$1163

 

[abekl]

I can't recommend the Antec 900 at this time because it is really starting to show it's age. Nothing is tooless, and there is no USB 3 port. I personally would look for a different case with at least some tooless attributes, and USB 3 up front.