12 replies to this topic

[Lee_2012]

I've been looking into getting myself a PC that will be soley for FSX and my first stop was to look at some ready made Gaming machines available, There are two pre-built machines that look to be pretty good that  fit my budget of around £500

My  Hardware knowledge isn't great, so I'm hoping to pick the brains of those of you more technically advanced than I, but from looking at these two machines, it would seem to me that the CCL Kestrel II is the better of the two (although cheaper) and that either of them will give me better performance than what i'm getting from my I-mac (Specs in sig) ?

Below are the two rigs, that are available, as they stand with no customisation - the green bracketed text is how I'd probably customise in the hope of having FSX running to as best as I can get with my budget (Around £500-£600) however, my suggestions due to  lack of hardware knowledge maybe way off, so suggestions would be most welcome  

CCL Kestrel II
Processor - Intel Core I3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivy bridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (Intel Core i5-2500k 3.3GHz Quad Core Processor)  
RAM - 2x transcend Jet Ram 4GB Memory Module PC3
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D2V Motherboard
Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda SATA 6GB/s 1TB Hard Drive
Graphics Card - Gainward GeForce GTX 650 1GB Graphics Card PCI-E DVI HDMI VGA
Power Supply - FSP 400W 80plus Certified Power Supply Unit

CCL Hawk II
Processor - AMD Bulldozer FX-4170 4.2 GHz Quad Core
RAM - 2x Transcend Jet Ram 4GB Memory Module PC3
Motherboard - GA-78LMT USB 3 Motherboard
Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda SATA 6GB/s 1TB Hard Drive
Graphics Card - Value Choice 7770 OEM Graphics Card (ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GT640 Graphics Card 2GB)
Power Supply - CCL Choice 450W 80+ High Efficiencey Power Supply

--

Couple of questions, to help clear up some confusions I've been having whilst looking around at hardware  

• a GeForce GTX 650 1GB Graphics Card PCI-E DVI HDMI VGA  nessicarily going to out perform the ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GT640 Graphics Card 2GB whilst running FSX
  
• Is that AMD Bulldozer going to out perform that I5-2500K whilst running FSX
  
• I chose the ( i5-2500k 3.3GHz ) over the ( i5-3570K 3.4GHz) which is also available as customisation and within my budget as i've read good things about it within the FSX community. If this isn't so correct, then please say

Edited by Lee_2012, 04 January 2013 - 05:37 PM.

[_TW_]

Both systems will disappoint you big time if your main goal is FSX.  Out of all those choices, the 2500K is the best for gaming (the 3570K is a slightly faster, but runs much hotter so you'd need to spend more money on a good CPU cooler if you're overclocking).  You also need to make sure you pair it up with a Z77 motherboard because you will need to overclock the CPU to get the best performance out of FSX.  As far as the video cards are concerned, they are both horrible choices for FSX.  You need to get at least a GTX 660.

Edit: Sorry if the above is coming off as a bit rude, but I'd rather you save up a bit more and get a system that you'll be satisfied with.  If you go ahead and get either one of those systems above you will be disappointed once you load up FSX.

Edited by _TW_, 04 January 2013 - 05:47 PM.

[Lee_2012]

_TW_, on 04 January 2013 - 05:46 PM, said:

Edit: Sorry if the above is coming off as a bit rude, but I'd rather you save up a bit more and get a system that you'll be satisfied with.  If you go ahead and get either one of those systems above you will be disappointed once you load up FSX.

Not rude at all, just honest, and this is why i came here.  as I know there are lots of people here that know better than me about hardware.  I just get confused with it all after a while LOL.

Not the choice I wanted to make, but I reckon it would possibly cheaper and I'd get more bang for bucks (as far as running fsx) if I built my own rig from scratch, would you agree?  it would be a steep learning curve for me though.

Edited by Lee_2012, 04 January 2013 - 06:11 PM.

[_TW_]

You definitely will save money building it yourself granted you buy the parts at e-tailers with good prices(like Ocuk, Aria, etc)!  Putting it all together really isn't that hard at all to be honest, I like to think of it as the grown-up version of Lego's.  The components can really only go together one way; patience is really all you need.

Once you have everything installed, you can then load your operating system and then there's a whole new learning curve as I take it you've never overclocked anything before.  Optimizing everything will be the toughest part I reckon but we are here to help and can definitely guide you through the process.

What sort of monitor resolution will this new system be connected to?

Edited by _TW_, 04 January 2013 - 06:15 PM.

[Lee_2012]

_TW_, on 04 January 2013 - 06:14 PM, said:

What sort of monitor resolution will this new system be connected to?

If i were building my own from scratch, which by the looks of things is my best option, then I'd be buying the monitor too - so I'd get the monitor to suit the need.

Edit - If i hunt round for some hardware choices, then would folk be able/happy  to confirm if they're compatible or not  (I'm open to suggestions, so feel free to suggest hardware components, that would work well for me)

Edited by Lee_2012, 04 January 2013 - 06:24 PM.

[_TW_]

2500K/3570K whichever costs less
A Z77 chipset motherboard (Gigabyte, ASUS, ASRock, MSI are good brands)
4 or 8GB of DDR3-1600 RAM (if going with the 3570K I'd look at faster RAM)
GPU - Like I said at least a GTX 660
Power Supply - At least 500W that's rated 80+ Bronze or higher (Seasonic, Corsair, Antec have good quality units)

[Lee_2012]

_TW_, on 04 January 2013 - 06:40 PM, said:

2500K/3570K whichever costs less
A Z77 chipset motherboard (Gigabyte, ASUS, ASRock, MSI are good brands)
4 or 8GB of DDR3-1600 RAM (if going with the 3570K I'd look at faster RAM)
GPU - Like I said at least a GTX 660
Power Supply - At least 500W that's rated 80+ Bronze or higher (Seasonic, Corsair, Antec have good quality units)

Cheers for that, that's a good start for me to go hunting with

Edited by Lee_2012, 04 January 2013 - 06:45 PM.

[Lee_2012]

Ok, so, here we go, I've put this lot together (hopefully it's all compatible) and it is just about in my budget, if I wait a month or so, but it's well worth the wait if i'm going to have a machine that will run FSX as it should run, and enjoy as good performance and graphics as FSX (and budget) will allow.  Again, I'm open to suggestions


Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z77
Processor - Intel Core I5-2500 3.3GHz
Graphics - EVGA GeForce GTX 600 Superclocked 2GB PCI-E DVI HDMI  
RAM - Corsair Vengeance Performance Memory Module 8GB 2X4GB DDR3 1600MHz
Power - AeroCool Stricke - X 500W 80+ Bronze
Net - (not yet decided - but easy to find)
HD - Seagate Barracuda SATA 6Gb/s 1TB
DVD - Sony 24x Int DVD-RAM SATA Black Bare AD
MON - Asus VE228TR 21.5" (1920X1080)
Case - Gigabyte Sumo Alpha Gaming Case

EDIT : BTW Over-clocking is completely new to me, but not shy about playing around with software and coding etc and with guidance It should't be a problem

Edited by Lee_2012, 04 January 2013 - 07:59 PM.

[George1]

If your going to overclock in the future, I would high recommend a CPU cooler from Corsair or NZXT etc.

[Lee_2012]

Thanks for that George1 I will add that to my list of hardware to get, i think what i'm gonna do, rather than compromise, is to build it step by step, that way I can get the best hard ware I can to run flight sim, so if it takes 2 months to complete, then so be it, at least i know I've got a machine capable of anything FSX can throw at it.

[SwitchFX]

I don't know about the UK at the moment, but a 3570K costs the same as a Sandy Bridge or often times less.

3570K
Z77X-UD3
GTX 660 Ti
180 GB SSD
600 Watt PSU
8 GB DDR3
DVD-RW drive


You really only need those bare essentials, aside from a monitor, that is. I don't get the point of flashy cases, but I'm old fashioned like that. A case with enough fans is good for me. To buy the parts over a long period of time is a bit silly because then you run the risk of something being faulty and being outside the return period.

[Lee_2012]

SwitchFX, on 06 January 2013 - 10:41 PM, said:

To buy the parts over a long period of time is a bit silly because then you run the risk of something being faulty and being outside the return period.

Ok that makes sense when you put it like that

SwitchFX, on 06 January 2013 - 10:41 PM, said:

I don't get the point of flashy cases, but I'm old fashioned like that.

Yep, I could definitely loose the Gigabyte Sumo Alpha Gaming Case for something more basic, makes perfect sense

Edited by Lee_2012, 08 January 2013 - 07:03 AM.

[FSX_Gamer]

I am using i3 2100 and GTS 450 and 4GB Ram. Will upgrading to i5 3550 and vga to AMD HD 7850 help my PC run FSX in high settings smoothly?