Looking at building new PC

[Shaun]

Hi

I'm looking at building myself a new PC

Mainly fly helicopters around in FSX with VLC and orbx pnw.
Also want to be able to run Arma II and BI's new take on helicopters. (which i just brought and found my current graphics
Card is a bit past its use by date )

I have been looking at an i7 2700k and MSI N580GTX Twin Frozr II/OC.
Need a mainboard, ram and PSU to go with it aswell.

Budget is around the 2k mark.

Any advice is much appreciated!!!

Shaun

[happytraveller]

Exciting times ahead for you!!

I am running the i72500K, and have it overclocked to around 4.7 GHz. One thing that I learnt AFTER I had assembled the new computer was about the power supply. I bought a bigger power supply than I needed, thinking of the future. This came with LOTS of extra wires for connecting, so looks something like an octupus. I found out later that you can buy some power adapators where you just plug in the number of wires that you need, so a much neater and easier solution. For the next computer, I would go for one like this, as it makes cable management much easier and tidier.

I also have the MSI Twin Frozr, it seems to work very well, and the overclocking software that it comes with is fine. I also went with a MSI motherboard, again, this has worked fine. One good thing with MSI is the control panel that it comes with makes overclocking very easy, and a good alternative to overclocking via the BIOS. The Coolmaster HAF case has kept things cool as well. The only real difficult part of building was attaching the cooler to the board, that was a bit fiddly due to the way that it was screwed in. I put nearly all of the computer together using a Swiss army knife.

Perhaps consider a SSD for putting Windows on, and also consider adding a decent sound card as well.

You will have fun, and FSX will not be the same again!!

smooth landings.

[deeknow]

Hey Shaun,

Good times ahead mate, always great fun choosing and building a new machine. Take a read of the following threads if you havent already, lots of posts about components etc
http://nzff.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16197
http://nzff.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15950
http://nzff.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15689

And I reccomend you hit one a forum like avsim.com and troll their hardware sub-forums, LOADs of threads there, lots of advice, some good some not so, but is a great source of info if you have the energy to wade through it, e.g.
http://forum.avsim.net/forum/325-hardware-discussions/

I'd echo HT's comments above re the PSU, be sure to by a "modular" power supply so you only have the cables that are required and no spares waving about in the case. Check out this pic of my new build, has a modular PSU, kept things nice and clean, easier to work with when swapping bits around, and improves air flow a little I'd expect

[Shaun]

Hi Guys

Thanks heaps for the replys.

I have been looking over different forums, but there is alot of different options an opinions
I' learning some good stuff though.

I'm still on the fence about whether to try and build something up from scratch or get a prebuilt.
I will also have to look at the costs involved, while it would be great to build something up most often
pre-assemebled (whatever it is) is going to be more affordable.

Heres an example of one of the pre-builts I have come across, what would the pro's and con's of this setup be?

PC Intel i7-2600 3.4GHz 6M
Antec 902 No PSU Evolved Ultimate Gamer case Black
Seasonic X-Series 760W PSU - 80Plus Gold modular
ASUS P8P67 LE LGA1155 Intel P67 DDR3 Quad CrossFire SATA3 USB3 ATX Motherboard
SuperTalent D3-1600 16GB Memory Kit
EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX580 1.536MB DDR5 2DVI / Mini HDMI PCI-Epress Video Card
Seagate 2TB SATA3 6GB/s Hard Drive
Intel 80GB SSD X25M MLC High Performance 2.5 Hard Drive
Microsoft Keyboard & Mouse
LG Elecetronis BH10LS30 LightScribe 10x Satat Blu-Ray Optical Drive
Viewsonic VX2453MH-LED 24" Monitor 1920x1080 2ms 2 x HDMI Black Edifier M1350 2.1 Speaker Set
MS Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit

Again thanks for the help

Shaun

[metalnwood]

QUOTE (Shaun @ Dec 12 2011,10:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Guys

Thanks heaps for the replys.

I have been looking over different forums, but there is alot of different options an opinions
I' learning some good stuff though.

I'm still on the fence about whether to try and build something up from scratch or get a prebuilt.
I will also have to look at the costs involved, while it would be great to build something up most often
pre-assemebled (whatever it is) is going to be more affordable.

Heres an example of one of the pre-builts I have come across, what would the pro's and con's of this setup be?

PC Intel i7-2600 3.4GHz 6M
Antec 902 No PSU Evolved Ultimate Gamer case Black
Seasonic X-Series 760W PSU - 80Plus Gold modular
ASUS P8P67 LE LGA1155 Intel P67 DDR3 Quad CrossFire SATA3 USB3 ATX Motherboard
SuperTalent D3-1600 16GB Memory Kit
EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX580 1.536MB DDR5 2DVI / Mini HDMI PCI-Epress Video Card
Seagate 2TB SATA3 6GB/s Hard Drive
Intel 80GB SSD X25M MLC High Performance 2.5 Hard Drive
Microsoft Keyboard & Mouse
LG Elecetronis BH10LS30 LightScribe 10x Satat Blu-Ray Optical Drive
Viewsonic VX2453MH-LED 24" Monitor 1920x1080 2ms 2 x HDMI Black Edifier M1350 2.1 Speaker Set
MS Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit

Again thanks for the help

Shaun

The con would be that it is not the 2600K which you can over clock. Any of those chips will hit 4.5 and given the other components , i.e. ssd, 16gb ram, GTX580 it seems like a system that would be assembled based on the 2600K, not just the plain 2600.

[Airtrainer]

I don't know if I would go with an i7 model CPU. The only real advantage from what I can workout over the i5 is the 'hyperthreading' which most games don't seem to use (though if you and doing video and loads of rendering I've heard the HT is worth the extra $$. You can save quite a bit geting the i5 2500K with pretty much the same clock speed and OC possibilties.

[737NG]

Hi

I too am looking at a new PC to run FSX at high settings (pre built though as I cannot build one myself).

I have been looking at the following:

http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/systems/sp...er.asp?spid=690

I would get it with O/S for around $1920

OR

http://www.compulink.co.nz/index.php?route...;product_id=460

Which is about $1790

They are pretty much the same in my opinion (except the price) but I am unsure which one is ultimately better. I haven't bought off either computer lounge or compulink, any advice on this/ past experience?

Thanks (I hope I am not hijacking this thread).

[Dontcopy]

Computer lounge was named the best online store by Pricespy, I use it all the time, never had aproblem, and the prices are usually the best.
The Computerlounge PC uses better components eg 560ti vs 560 it also has a nicer case and Power supply, you might wan't to ask about the brands from the Compulink site because thay are not listed and not all brands are equal, although 8gb DDR3 1600mhz may sound good, for all you know it could be poor quality.

I would say, go with Computerlounge, the components are great and the pricing is reasonable.

[737NG]

Thanks for the reply Dontcopy

I had decided on the computer lounge rig but then before I was ready to order I came across PC Force. Reviews for them seemed very positive and I have looked into the following computer systems from them (computer lounge is still a big option)

http://www.pcforce.co.nz/index.php?main_pa...roducts_id=1668

http://www.pcforce.co.nz/index.php?main_pa...roducts_id=1665

+o/s

After my research I found that generally the nvidia cards are better than AMD but the AMD card is 2gb. Furthermore, there are some cheaper rigs with the i7-2600 and AMD cards e.g. http://www.pcforce.co.nz/index.php?main_pa...roducts_id=1683 but I have read the i5-2500k is better for gaming. Opinions?

I am on a tight budget so any savings I can get from buying elsewhere would be great (I thought that the 2nd link was very similar to http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/systems/sp...er.asp?spid=690 )

Thoughts?

Thanks

[Airtrainer]

The AMD vs NVIDIA debate seems to always be going on and really comes down to personal preference a lot. Though there are a few games out there that seem to work better with one GPU over the other. I'm a NVIDIA man myself and am looking at getting a GTX560Ti or GTX570 for my rig depending on what is out when I finally have enough $$$.

The i5 2500K does "seem" to be more suited to gaming, I wouldn't say it's better just that you are getting a better bang for your buck (in my opinion). As with an i5 you aren't paying extra for the hyperthreading feature; which doesn't seem to have much effect with a lot of games. I was originally going down the i7 route but after a lot of research I decided to save the extra $$ and will get an i5 2500K or its replacement Ivy Bridge CPU.

I would go for CL myself as I have bought quite a few items from them and have had excellent service and support. Free freight and good prices certainly help too. Certainly can't wait to buy the rest of my components.

[737NG]

Thanks for the replies

I have decided on this from Computer Lounge:

Motherboard ASUS P8Z68-V Intel Z68 DDR3 USB3+SATA3 Raid SLI+ CrossFire LGA1155 PCI-E | More
Processor 1 Intel Core i5 2500K Sandy Bridge 3.30GHz 6MB 95W LGA1155 | More
CPU Cooling 1 Prolimatech Megahalems Rev. C CPU Cooler | More
Memory 1 Mushkin Blackline FrostByte 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 (996995) | More
Hard Drive 1 Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST31000524AS 32MB 6Gb/s SATA3 | More
Video Card 1 EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX560 Ti DS Superclocked 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E | More
Optical Drive 1 ASUS DRW-24B3ST 24X DVD Writer SATA | More
Power Supply Corsair TX650 V2 Enthusiast Series Power Supply | More
System Case Lian-Li LanCool Dragonlord PC-K62B Black Interior w/Window | More
Warranty Standard Warranty 2 Years Return to Base | More
Build Standard Hardware installation and configuration + OS install if purchased | More
O/S Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

I can't wait to finally upgrade from FS2004 to FSX after having FSX since it came out but being unable to run it!

[deeknow]

QUOTE (737NG @ Dec 15 2011,10:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have decided on this from Computer Lounge:

Nice work. Pretty much identical spec to the machine I just built. Let me know once you've built and and ready to have a look at overclocking, maybe we can compare notes as we go. Mines running stock at present.

[Airtrainer]

Strange question, is the stripe on the EVGA 560Ti yellow or a greenish colour? I've seen pics of it looking both colours but have never seen it in the flesh.

[deeknow]

Yeah its a kind of yellowy-green, not like the green-green NVidia colour