NZFF

Been having trouble lately with my computer that I was hoping would be my last, but that's no longer the case. Been talking to a few computer tech friends and trying to sort out the problem I have, but we just can't figure out what's causing it short of multiple hardware failures (which given earthquakes and all those aftershocks it's not hard to believe).

Anyway, thought about getting all the parts from different places, using Pricespy to get them cheaply and building one myself. The problem I have is it would be my first time building a PC, and if a part was DOA I'd most likely end up sending it to the other end of the country, costing extra time and money I don't have. Having done a little research into it, I find the price of building it myself and getting my local PC shop to do it is about $500 for parts + whatever they charge for labour, which in the past hasn't been a whole lot.

Basically what I'm after is any tips, re if all the parts are going to work fine together, which won't etc.

• Case - Antec Nine Hundred V3
• Motherboard - ASUS P6X58D-E ATX Socket 1366
• CPU - Intel Core i7 960 Socket 1366 3.2Ghz Quad
• Video Card - ASUS GTX570 PXI-E GDDR5
• Memory - Corsair Dominator Tri-Channel PC3-12800/1600MHZ DDR3 8-8-8-24 RAM 3x2GB sticks (6GB in all)
• Harddrive - Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM Caviar Blue SATA-3 2x1TB HDD (2TB in all)
• Power Supply - Corsair 850W ATX PSU, modular cables
• DVDR Drive - ASUS DVDRW SATA 24x
• Windows - Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM
• Monitor - Viewsonic 24" 1920x1080 LED DVI

I'm fairly set on that setup, probably only change things around if they're going to be incompatible with each other really. I do have one question in regards with the CPU and the RAM. Looking at this http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37151 it says under 'Memory Types' 'DDR3-800/1066' I'm assuming the Memory is meaning the RAM? If so, does this mean my chosen RAM won't work with it? Or will it just not run at its full potential?

Thanks in advanced guys!

Fantastic question as its something I have been thinking of tackling too. Look forward to the answer. I'm sure once you have all the compatible pieces you will manage to make your own PC, just fine.

Stick with the faster ram otherwise you wont have any room to overclock the cpu without the ram topping out.(and with a computor specked like that, you should be looking at overclocking.) At defauts speeds the faster ram will just run slower but if you decide to overclock then you will have room to play with. Don't rule out the new i7 2600K cpu. Cheaper than the tripple ram setups and awsome turbo boost achieving 3.8Ghz without overclocking. Definately concider this setup. Heaps more power friendly as well. Stick with the choice of video card. Cant go wrong there.

Oh nearly forgot. MAKE SURE you check the required voltage for the ram. Some of those older 1366 boards use the 1.9volt ram v's the new stuff only uses 1.5v ram. Thats something to watch out for. Other than that, go for it. Ive been building my own PC,s for a number of years now and I've never looked back. When your into kitting up for FSX seriously, you've got to take the plunge at some stage othwise your always dependant on outside help and the expenses that come with it.

Good luck.

Had a look at your link. Not sure why the CPU spec list listed ram type. Usually the motherboard will dictate what type of ram to use.

If you have the moolah consider a solid state drive for your operating system....well and your FS if you have a lot of $$$$

Snap!

You're planning to use, just about exactly what I've got. I updated my computer four months ago. Exactly the same MB, but I'm one step down on the CPU (i7 950). My RAM (Corsair DDR3 6MB) has a slightly faster latency at 6. My RAM wasn't listed for the MB either, but it seems to work just fine.

I have a Corsair water cooler, but as yet haven't tried to overclock the CPU as I don't need to (see below)! Same Corsair PSU as you plan - and I'm running two ATI Video cards (with 3 x Viewsonic 23" in Eyefinity mode - that's "woof", I can tell you) and the PSU isn't even grunting yet.

And , yes, if have the "lolly", get an SSD. I have a 120GB Vetrex 2 and it's damn fast - nothing but the OS and FSX is on it though - everything else is on the HDD. I would suggest a 160GB SSD however - with all the FSX Add-Ons I seem to be getting, I'm down to only 30GB left on my 120!! (Do some research on loading Win7 onto an SSD before you start - you want to get it right first time - unlike me who had to do it twice because I missed one crucial step in the BIOS setup)

And the performance? Just incredible - most sliders are hard right except for AutoGen which is set to Dense. I have the Frame Rate set at Unlimited in FSX (but pre-limit to 35 fps outside FSX) and I easily get that most times. Just finished stooging around at Cairns using FTX Aussie Scenery and FTX Cairns Airport and it's a bit cloudy there today, so I was grunting a wee bit at around 24 fps. And the frame rate was almost as good with just the one video card too. I only noticed a minimal improvement (3 - 5 fps) with the second card installed and using Crossfire (SLI equivalent of the NVIDIA card)

I sourced all of my parts from either e-Bay or by looking around for the best deals using PriceMe.co.nz. And surprisingly, I managed to build it up all by myself which is not bad I thought for someone that doesn't even know what latency means!

Good luck. You'll love the results.

Greg

Overclocking is out of the question for this, I really don't see any real reason to do it. If I were to do it I'd lose any warranty on the work the PC shop does, and shorten the life of the components. All for the gain of a little extra power that, honestly, I don't think I need. For FSX or something sure, but I haven't played Flight Sim in well over a year and really have no real desire to start it again. It's more a system for games out this year and before, which it will run fine with.

Having just looked at the price of SSD, those are defenitely out of the question too. Maybe if I were able to sell parts from my current PC I could get an SSD later on, but as it sits right now it's not on the cards.

Have you considered the i7-2600K Sandy Bridge processor?

G'day Peppermint,

Great choice of PSU and GTX570 - using them both with good results. Although I'm using i7 stuff now, it's tempting to go with the latest tech - the Sandybridge route when upgrading. It isn't hard to build your own - you'll be surprised how good it is, and it means when something goes wrong you don't have to call in the tech. I've built about ten now, and have only had two cards and one mobo give trouble, which was an Asus - so I stick with Gigabyte now, just a personal choice - there are plenty of good Asus boards around. By the way, I've recently upgrade to 27" LCD screens, which make a power of difference to the game, and are fairly cheap in Oz - about $370 for LG 2ms response if the budget allows.

I've just had a look at the 2600K, few people have commented on going that route rather than the 960. I was kind of against it, since having to go from a socket 1366 to 1155 to me seemed like downgrading. Now that I've looked, both are new tech by the looks of it. That in its self is a problem I had with my current PC, when I got this one, everything was the latest to hit the market. Drivers were fairly rubbish and only a few months later newer components were out that ran better. I kind of felt like I got the short end of the stick.

I'm on the fence now....having done a quick rebuild, going with the 2600K I can get it made for about $50 less than going with the one I posted. The motherboard of choice if I went with the 2600K seems to have had a recall though, the ASUS P8P67 PRO. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing for track record and if I should look at something different?

As for brands, I've always thought of ASUS and Gigabyte as the same, since I'm going fairly budget in this build I'm going with the brand I know best and heard the most good things about, in this case that's ASUS. My last computer was mainly ASUS gear, the only thing that went wrong with that was a fan on the motherboard stopped working, which didn't seem to cool anything anyway. Gigabyte I've had no experience with though. Circumstances may change though, the shop miht not be getting in anymore ASUS components and I might have to substitue for a Gigabyte version. No big deal either way.



Also have had a decent look at the Antec 900, doesn't seem to great to me now. I have the 1200 now and love it, a big chunky full tower with the USB ports, power buttons in a sensible place and it doesn't have a silly swing door. Ontop of that there's room ontop to put stuff. I'm trying to look for other cases, full tower with 2 USB ports ontop or the front and preferably without a swing door. The closest I've found to that is the NZXT Phantom, but it does have a swing door. Can anyone recommend some good, practical full tower cases?

After a few changes I've nailed it down to this:


Case: Antec DF-85 Dark Fleet Full Tower
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 PRO ATX Socket 1155 4x DDR3-2200 Revised B3 chipset
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K LGA1155 'Unlocked' version. 3.40Ghz Quad
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600MHz 2x4GB sticks in Dual Channel
Video Card: ASUS GTX570 1280MB GDDR5 320bit PCI-E
Power Supply: Corsair 850w ATX Modular cables
Harddrives: Western Digital 1TB 7200rpm Caviar Blue SATA3 x2
Disc Drive: ASUS DVDR SATA
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Monitor: Viewsonic 24" LED 1920x1080 Monitor

All together it's going to end up around close to $3000, bit on the expensive side but oh well. The only problem now is finding a place in ChCh that's willing to do the finance/loan on it, be going through DragonPC for the computer, haven't tried their chosen financers yet. Have had many PCs from them though and they did say that goes on the record when I apply. Good credit rating will help too but with the current situation I just don't know if people are lending on things like computers.....