111 replies to this topic

[G-BOAC]

Dear All,

Been a while since I've really been active, having now completed my pilots license a huge cost burdern I have more time to relax and I think it may be worthwhile investing in a new PC.

My friend gave me his order inventory for a GTX 570 1280mb, Intel Core i7 3.06GZ 1366 8mb cache, 1TB HD, and a OCZ 6GB DDR3 Ram (3x 2GB),  Antec 900 200mm top fan. Coolermaster GX 750W PSU, SATA DVD RW HD, 750GB HD SATA,  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium.



I need some good UK stockists, I am currently looking at ebuyer.

My monthly budget  = £400-490  so will have to pay over a period of at least 3-4 months.


Recommendation for any parts? that will all sync and work well for FSX + Microsoft Flight (When it comes out) and I also want to be able to watch BlueRay movies.

Edited by G-BOAC, 29 November 2011 - 05:46 PM.

[G-BOAC]

I've come up with the following -



What SSD/HDDs should I get?  and version of Windows 7??

[_BD6_]

Looks good but if you're on a budget, you don't need a 1000w PSU. 650 to 850 will suffice.

[G-BOAC]

bl00mfield, on Dec 1 2011, 02:40 PM, said:

Looks good but if you're on a budget, you don't need a 1000w PSU. 650 to 850 will suffice.

Oh that would help actually, but I always thought the higher Wattage from a PSU the better the PC will run, or is that not the case much anymore?

[_BD6_]

G-BOAC, on Dec 1 2011, 09:51 AM, said:

Oh that would help actually, but I always thought the higher Wattage from a PSU the better the PC will run, or is that not the case much anymore?

No that was never the case actually I don't think.

The system you listed may put out 500w or so.. But for future upgrades you may want to look at a 750 or 850w.

[Charlatan]

If it's mostly for FSX, and not other games, I would be tempted to swap the 2600k for a 2500k and the GTX580 for either a 570 or 560Ti

[_BD6_]

Well actually, if the main focus is on gaming - definitely go with the 2500k. The hyperthreading offered by the 2600k is not going to be beneficial in games.

[162db]

Charlatan, on Dec 1 2011, 03:10 PM, said:

If it's mostly for FSX, and not other games, I would be tempted to swap the 2600k for a 2500k and the GTX580 for either a 570 or 560Ti

Keep the 580 and the 1000 watt power supply in case you decide to add another 580 later on. Sure FSX won't be the only one you play when the newer simulators are released? The 2500k will save you money over the 2600k but the 2600k will perform a bit better due to the extra cache and possibility of higher overclock if you plan on overclocking.

[_BD6_]

162db, on Dec 1 2011, 08:02 PM, said:

Keep the 580 and the 1000 watt power supply in case you decide to add another 580 later on. Sure FSX won't be the only one you play when the newer simulators are released? The 2500k will save you money over the 2600k but the 2600k will perform a bit better due to the extra cache and possibility of higher overclock if you plan on overclocking.

Both the 2500k and 2600k overclock the same in a daily use situation.  Even a 750w supply will handle 2 580's.

[162db]

bl00mfield, on Dec 1 2011, 07:05 PM, said:

Both the 2500k and 2600k overclock the same in a daily use situation.  Even a 750w supply will handle 2 580's.

I've seen more consistent higher overclocks from the 2600k. From what I have seen, many people with 2600k have achieved 5 ghz on air while most 2500k owners were getting 4.6-4.8 ghz on air. But it all depends on what chip you get. Plus, the 2600k has 8mb cache vs the 2500k's 6mb cache.

The extra cache does help a bit which explains why in some reviews you may see a 2500k clocked to 2600k speeds but the 2600k perform better. The 750 watt may be able to handle 2 580's but what happens when you start overclocking? I prefer headroom.

[_BD6_]

162db, on Dec 1 2011, 10:29 PM, said:

I've seen more consistent higher overclocks from the 2600k. From what I have seen, many people with 2600k have achieved 5 ghz on air while most 2500k owners were getting 4.6-4.8 ghz on air. But it all depends on what chip you get. Plus, the 2600k has 8mb cache vs the 2500k's 6mb cache.

The extra cache does help a bit which explains why in some reviews you may see a 2500k clocked to 2600k speeds but the 2600k perform better. The 750 watt may be able to handle 2 580's but what happens when you start overclocking? I prefer headroom.

MOST people don't run 5ghz daily. The 2600k may clock higher for benchmarking, but at daily numbers there is no visible difference.

750w can handle overclocked 580's and a CPU, believe me. I've seen similar setups with less power.

But yes, more headroom is always nice. Although if on budget I wouldn't fret over having a 750-850w PSU (geesh, I have a 850w and I don't think it's even breaking a sweat.)

Edited by bl00mfield, 01 December 2011 - 11:07 PM.

[_TW_]

- 2500K over 2600K for reasons already clarified
- A better pair of 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM.  C8 over C9
- GTX 560 Ti 448 Core 1.28GB over 580. Highly Overclockable for even more performance.
- A better quality motherboard (in my opinion)
- A good CPU cooler to ensure good temps when overclocking
- XFX 650W 80Plus Silver PSU.  Strong single rail, enough to handle 2500K overclocked and even two of those 560 Ti's (which you should not need at all for FSX or MS Flight). Very high quality PSU.



The rest you can order from ebuyer.  This shopping list was put together on OCUK

Edited by Toby Werner, 01 December 2011 - 11:16 PM.

[_BD6_]

Is that the new 560ti, Toby? A bit behind here.

[jcrouse55]

It sure looks like it to me DJ

[_TW_]

Yeah they are castrated 570's with 1 SM disabled.  Just another way for Nvidia to clear stock and keep it interesting for the buyers I guess.

[jcrouse55]

Toby Werner, on Dec 1 2011, 11:33 PM, said:

Yeah they are castrated 570's with 1 SM disabled.  Just another way for Nvidia to clear stock and keep it interesting for the buyers I guess.

Great way to put it Toby  

[G-BOAC]

Hello Guys,

I sort of went off the idea of upgrading as I had a very busy period of coursework and now I have the time to re-look into it.

The PC I currently have is probably 4 years old(since I purchased it) but the technology is probably from 2007/early 2008.  It's had many fantastic hours of use, I've successfully managed to run FS2004 and a heavily tweaked version of FSX dooable for the last year, but it's getting on now and clearly I need to get an upgraded computer.

Windows Vista, Nvidia 9600GT, 2.4GHZ Quad Core Q6600, 4GB DDR3 RAM and two 500GB HDDs.


My FSX






It ran FS2004 pretty neatly, and ran FSX to a standard that it was playable to an extent with okish frames and low max settings, and that was after many days of tweaking.  

But it's beginning to come at the end of it's life cycle, which is not bad considering the battering I had gave it in my teen years and besides I want to go on step further and I was going to fork out almost £1500 over a period of a year or so for a new build computer, I have spoke to many people and looked at the parts they have used and the sort of performance they get.


I have just looked at building the PC, and a company on ebay that build the same ###### thing for less of the price and someone I know has already used them and brought the exact specifications that I wanted to go for.


I don't just play FSX, but I also use it for Video creation - visit my page at http://youtube.com/robbiegarrett for some of my videos.   And recently I have used Photoshop, so all stuff that requires a lot of processing.

I have just had a look into there specifications and they don't seem to a 2500k for a decent price or with decent specifications, but that's not a problem if I have the money to spend on a better processor.


Option 1 -


Intel I7 2600K 3.4Ghz, 1tb HDD, 8Gb DDR3 1333 PC10660 RAM, Nvidia GTX 560 Ti 1Gb , Asus P8Z77-V LX Motherboard. Elite coolermaster 310 case. 750W PSU  Â£667.00





Option 2 -  



Intel I7 2700K 3.4Ghz, 1tb HDD, 8Gb DDR3 1333 PC10660 RAM, Nvidia GTX 560 Ti 1Gb , Asus P8Z77-V LX Motherboard. Elite coolermaster case. 750W PSU   £678.00




So what do I spend my money on?? what is more worth it, there's only £11 difference (but this could be spent on the USB data transfer cable/Windows 7)

Both do not come with Windows 7 64 BIT, so that's another thing to add to the cost.   Does anyone know a good well know retailer that will sell one for as cheap as?? on ebay/amazon or in London??


These are the result of the 2600k performance....










I would also like to know where I can get a computer USB-USB data transfer, so I can easily transfer my stuff over to the new PC without having to spend lots of money in as little time as possible.

Kind Regards,

Robbie

[G-BOAC]

Hello,

I've got two options of the same PC, with a different case. One will come with four fans, the other which is more expensive comes with the standard bog 2 fans.

Option 1 - with just two fans, but a really nice case.

Or

Option 2 - with two extra fans, one at the front and one more extra at the side.


I do plan to overclock the 2700k, so please do let me know what is my preferred option.

Edited by G-BOAC, 24 May 2012 - 08:58 AM.

[G-BOAC]

Hello,

I am still undecided, but the idea of building my own and from a few website that I've read on the internet.  To get the most performance from FSX.

I was pretty keen on buying a PC all in one go, but I seriously don't want to spend all my hard earned money all in one go, so over a period of few months I can probably build something a lot better than the one I found on ebay and could go into the amount I want to spend.   So from a little research and using this website I have found the following products, which should work pretty well together. http://jetlinesystem...performance.php

Using a combination of overclockers UK and ebuyer.co.uk I have managed to make an inventory for around about £1339.96 at current prices and including some of the aforementioned parts.

• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit (This is obviously needed due to the 8GB RAM)
  
• OCZ ZX Series 850W 80+ GOLD PSU Fully Modular PSU ( I decided on a more powerful PSU because of the 580 GTX, and the possibility that I can overclock the 2700k)
  
• Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 Socket 1155 DVI VGA HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard (This recommended motherboard is fairly cheap and goes well with the i7 2700k according to ebuyer)
  
• Intel Core i7 2700K 3.50GHz Socket 1155 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor (I have a very good look around and apparently it's one of the best CPU's around, and it's got quite modern architecture being one of the fairly recent ones, and It can be highly overclocked at a lower voltage)
  
• VELOCIRAPTOR 500GB 3.5IN - 10K RPM SATA 6 GB/S 64MB CACHE IN (I have seen that the velociraptors whilst very expensive, are very good for installing FSX etc on)
  
• Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CAS8 1.5V Non-ECC Unbuffered (I choose this ram because it has a fairly good CAS)
  
• Antec 902 Nine Hundred Two V3 Gaming Case ( I will likely buy this straight away,  (It's got very good reviews and comes with an advanced cooling system with 1 rear 120mm led blue exaust fan, a top 200mm TriCool blue led exaust fan.  2 front 120mm blue led fans and for £93 it's not a bad bargain, and also comes with a space for a side 120 x 25mm fan mount.)
  
• 2 x StarTech.com SATA Serial ATA Cable 0.3m Red (These I guess are for the HDD/SDDs)
  
• OCZ 240GB Agility 3 2.5" SATA-III SSD - Read 525MB/s Write 500MB/s 80,000 IOPS (Still undecided what SDD to go for, but this one has just come out and looks the dogs B*****cks!)
  
• PNY Geforce GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5 DVI HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card (Found this quite cheaply on overclockers more so than ebuyer, so definately one to get as it's a very good GPU)
  
• BeQuite Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler (This was recommended above, so I will take that one so long as it fits in the case)

One question I have is, is there anything I am missing??  I don't have enough to buy this all in one go... but over the rest of May I can probably purchase the case, motherboard and CPU as well as the power supply. With June/July purchasing the rest, and with the Olympics coming up I should have a little bit more money as I won't be going flying in such restricted airspace real world.      Will be an interesting time, but what do you think??

[_TW_]

SATA cables are provided with your motherboard.  I would go with a Z77 chipset motherboard as there were quite a decent amount of updates put into Z77 motherboards to the older Z68 boards.

The power supply is still overkill.  It's a great choice, no doubt about that, but even a 650W PSU would be enough for that rig.  Look for one that has a single 12v rail, preferably also Silver or Gold 80Plus rated.

If you're going to go with an SSD, I would steer clear of OCZ.  Their SSD's have a lot of known problems because of the firmware they use in them.  I would suggest Kingston, Crucial, Mushkin, Samsung, or Intel if you're going to go with an SSD.  If you have to go with OCZ, only go with the Agility 4.

Everything else looks good.  If it would save you a bit of money you could always go with the 2600K over the 2700K as its the same processor and can be overclocked just as high.