FSX: New Computer

[Guest]

Hello,

I am a flight simulator enthusiast with the FSX Deluxe version. My current computer is getting old and I wanted a new computer for 2012 that I don't have to build myself, but buy straight off the shelf. It would be helpful to get a wide range of price options. Thank you in advance for any input!

Matt

 

[C12Friedman]

Although a higher end off the shelf model will run FSX okay, I'm going to provide you three builder options that specialize in "gamers". You'll get a prebuilt machine with components most of us use (rather than the generic, barely upgradable, cookie cutter machines).
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/
http://www.ibuypower.com/2012/Columbus-day/specials.html
http://www.cybertronpc.com/HOME~Cat~GAMERS.htm
See what you like, then run the specs by us, we may have slight improvements

 

[Guest]

I'll have a look. Thank you very much!

 

[Guest]

Hello. So I was able to customize a computer with the following specs: NZXT Gamma Gaming Case; Intel Core i5-3570K (4 x 3.40 GHz) Processor, BYO Bundle; 4 x 2GB DDR3-1333 Gaming Grade Memory Module; 500GB 7200RPM Hard Disk Drive; NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card 24X DVD+/-RW DL Opitical Drive; Micrsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-Bit Edition; HKC 26" LED Widescreen Monitor (N2612); Microsoft Wireless Desktopn 800 Keyboard and Mouse 2LF-00001. Any thoughts?

Thanks again,

Matt

 

[C12Friedman]

Looks pretty good - I do have a suggestion or two but where are you shopping and what is your budget? I think you can make it just a tad better for FSX.
The 3570k is a good choice of processor, FSX does like overclocked speed (the Intel k series are unlocked for overclocking) over multiple cores - an SSD (doesn't need to be bigger than 60GB) for OS/boot drive would be a good option also (IMO)

 

[Guest]

Thanks once again for your reply. I need to stay under $1000. I found all these components at great discounts from a new service by Walmart. I would love to hear your suggestions.

Matt

 

[C12Friedman]

Not bad, I was wondering most about the motherboard included since that will dictate overclocking ability (or even lack thereof). Give me a while (10hrs or so, have to go to work now) I'll see if I can come up with a few useful improvements

 

[Guest]

Ok. Thanks again...

 

[C12Friedman]

Here's what I got from CyberpowerPC - it's $36 over your budget
CyberPower Z77 Configurator (NO MONITOR)
$1036
*BASE_PRICE: [+649]
Case: Thermaltake Commander Mid-Tower Gaming Case [-4] (Black Color)
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
Cooling Fan: Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Motherboard: [CrossFireX] GIGABYTE Z77-DS3H
Memory: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+11] Freebies: None
Power Supply Upgrade: 430 Watts - Corsair CX430 V2 80 Plus Certified Power Supply [+14]
Hard Drive: 60 GB Intel 520 Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s - 550 MB/s Read & 520 MB/s Write [+14] (Single Drive)
Data Hard Drive: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 7200 RPM HDD [+91] (Single Drive)
LCD Monitor: * 24" Widescreen 1920x1080 ASUS VS247H-P LCD [+157]
Keyboard: AZZA Multimedia USB Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: AZZA Optical 1600dpi Gaming Mouse with Weight Adjustable Cartridge
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)
Service: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Rush Service: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS
*_PRICE: (+1036)

Although on the surface it may seem to be the same(or near to), there are a feew differences. An SSD, to make booting, loading of programs faster. Slightly better (I assume) power supply, faster ram, and a for sure overclockable motherboard (with cooling to help that).
It is an option for you

 

[Guest]

Hi again,

Apologies for late reply. Pardon the ignorance, but could you explain the difference between the two and the advantages of yours?

Thanks so much,

Matt

 

[C12Friedman]

Just a few things make up the difference - inclusion of SSD for OS/boot drive (increases some speeds), faster ram (probably not a noticable improvement), aftermarket cooling for overclocking (FSX likes overclocking), overclockable motherboard, high quality power supply, that's all really, just little things...

 

[Guest]

Ok. I'm looking to buy the PMDG 737 NGX, as well. It runs $60-$70. That would put me around $1100. Do you think that with the setup I found I would be much worse off than with the one you suggested? What would I be sacrificing if I go with mine? It's just a matter of funds. It's just that I'm in high school and I don't have that much "wiggle room"

Thanks as always!

 

[KenwoodGT]

OP is trying to stay on a tight budget. If I were you, I'd invest in a good hard drive instead of a SSD and HDD configuration in this case.

You could go with the 60GB SSD, but in 8 years Windows itself will be the only program that will fit on that drive. (From personal experience, my dad's P4 machine's 80GB hard drive is full from Windows XP and AOL. That's it.)

I don't know how long you plan on keeping it, but I like to plan ahead.

I also don't know how demanding FSX is, flight sims aren't my forte. I have heard that there's a flight sim out there that's resource happy. Is it FSX? Does FSX prefer more cores or a high clockspeed?

I understand not having a lot of "wiggle room", I'm in HS, too. You're lucky you have a budget of $1000, I'm stuck with a budget of $700.

 

[Guest]

Ok... So is there a difference between an OP, SSD, and a hard drive? Are you saying I should go with a hard drive? Could you explain that? Sorry about asking so much questions. Thanks so much for your patience...

 

[KenwoodGT]

OP = Original Poster (you )
SSD = Solid State Drive - Newer technology, more expensive, much faster than a hard drive
Hard drive = Chances are you know what a hard drive is.

Since you're trying to stay under a budget, invest in a good hard drive. Seagate and Western Digital make good hard drives. Look for a drive with at least 16mb cache (my hard drive has 8mb, it's a huge bottleneck), 32mb is optimal, and is 7200rpm. Read the reviews, look for fast read/write times (I get 1.75mb/s, which is beyond awful. 100+ is recommended) and reliability.

 

[mohammed_43]

ok y ppl wanna go I5 not I7 ? walmart has better deal see this cuz I wanna buy it
http://www.walmart.com/ip/ZT-Affinity-870-Desktop-PC-with-Intel-Core-i7-3770-Processor-16GB-Memory-23-Monitor-2TB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-7-Home-Premium-with-Windows-8-Pro-U/20976863
im like this man wanna wanna buy new PC around 1000 and i found better monitor look at this
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sceptre-32-Class-LED-720p-60Hz-HDTV-1.88-ultra-slim-E325BV-HD/17013297#

 

[KenwoodGT]

The i5's $100 cheaper. You can even get the Xeon E3 equivalent of the 3770 for $250.

I doubt you need the hyperthreading. There isn't a graphics card in that system, do you think you want a graphics card? I don't know how demanding FSX is, but I'm pretty sure you;ll need a graphics card.

Is Sceptre even a good brand? Their picture quality is mediocre compared to Samsung, Dell, and Acer.

 

[mohammed_43]

The i5's $100 cheaper. You can even get the Xeon E3 equivalent of the 3770 for $250.

I doubt you need the hyperthreading. There isn't a graphics card in that system, do you think you want a graphics card? I don't know how demanding FSX is, but I'm pretty sure you;ll need a graphics card.

Is Sceptre even a good brand? Their picture quality is mediocre compared to Samsung, Dell, and Acer.

yes I need and I can got it by 120$ , and it has more ram and space on it with 24 led . as I said i'm still looking for me too , that why I'm asking why I5 not I7

 

[Guest]

OP = Original Poster (you )
SSD = Solid State Drive - Newer technology, more expensive, much faster than a hard drive
Hard drive = Chances are you know what a hard drive is.

Since you're trying to stay under a budget, invest in a good hard drive. Seagate and Western Digital make good hard drives. Look for a drive with at least 16mb cache (my hard drive has 8mb, it's a huge bottleneck), 32mb is optimal, and is 7200rpm. Read the reviews, look for fast read/write times (I get 1.75mb/s, which is beyond awful. 100+ is recommended) and reliability.

I'll have a look at some hard drives and I'll probably get back to you by Friday. Thanks for the help!

 

[KenwoodGT]

yes I need and I can got it by 120$ , and it has more ram and space on it with 24 led . as I said i'm still looking for me too , that why I'm asking why I5 not I7

I confused you for mkcabrera. I don't really care about your needs since this isn't your thread.

 

[mohammed_43]

I confused you for mkcabrera. I don't really care about your needs since this isn't your thread.

will asshole sinc this place for helping ppl out I said what I need its better to have a new thread. plus I did not ASK ur sh it

 

[KenwoodGT]

Calm down. No need to get fired up over a sentence.

 

[Guest]

OP is trying to stay on a tight budget. If I were you, I'd invest in a good hard drive instead of a SSD and HDD configuration in this case.

You could go with the 60GB SSD, but in 8 years Windows itself will be the only program that will fit on that drive. (From personal experience, my dad's P4 machine's 80GB hard drive is full from Windows XP and AOL. That's it.)

I don't know how long you plan on keeping it, but I like to plan ahead.

I also don't know how demanding FSX is, flight sims aren't my forte. I have heard that there's a flight sim out there that's resource happy. Is it FSX? Does FSX prefer more cores or a high clockspeed?

I understand not having a lot of "wiggle room", I'm in HS, too. You're lucky you have a budget of $1000, I'm stuck with a budget of $700.

So I apologize, again (Lol), but I think the computer I customized had both an SSD card (8GB) and a 500GB hard drive. I don't know if you saw the specs or not that I first posted above that I found at Walmart... I could be completely wrong and I may not be even remotely close to talking about the SSD card and the 8GB thing I'm talking about is not the SSD card. (Lol).

Thanks again for your help

 

[NoUserBar]

I don't see how a 8gb SSD card could help anything unless it's inside a mobile phone, camrea, or transferring files from drive to drive etc.

An SSD is a very fast hard drive that has good shock resistance, but low GB storage space. A harddrive is breakable should you drop it, is slower by a large margin than SSD (but used to be the norm) and has huge GB storage.

SSD $120 for 126 GB harddrive $90 for 1 terra byte GB

just some info not all of it

sorry if you knew that already

 

[KenwoodGT]

I thought I replied to this already? lol

NoUserBar summed up what I thought I posted :S.

While a SSD is much faster than a hard drive, it's more expensive. It's like comparing a Lamborghini to a Toyota. Toyotas are usually people carriers and are slower but can carry more people, while a Lamborghini is much faster, but only seats 2.

A quality hard drive is still very fast and is more affordable, which makes it a better choice for the budget consumer.