New member, building new computer. Feedback appreciated.

[PHMUdreamin 0]

Hey guys,

 

Getting back into flight sim. I am by no means a hardware (or software) guy, but my brother is much more knowledgeable and he has put together a proposed build for my new flight simming computer. Would appreciate any feedback on this rig's capabilities with respect to what I want to do. Right off the bat I will be using FSX and DCS, but might check out X-Plane 10 and other stuff down the road. I would like to use FSX with some photo-real scenery and payware aircraft such as the A2A C182 with TrackIR smoothly.

 

The specs can be found here: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GX4Yzy (The build is already a little over the max budget I had in mind)

 

So what do you guys think? Any changes you would make (taking $ into consideration)? Look forward to learning more here. Thanks all.

 

 

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

This looks like a good system for flight simming.

 

I might spend the extra dollars and get the 4790k cpu.

 

Personally, I like Windows 7, but that may be hard to get, these days.

[ryanbatc 12,774]

Looks good.

 

I'd change RAM to 16 (2x8) if you're are looking at using XP10

 

I'd go with Win7 - some users are having issues with addons.

[Bob Familton 14]

I'd go with a lot more storage. I have a 256D SSD and wish it was a 512G. Looks good otherwise. My FSX is over 90G alone. Bob.

[max2770 74]

Hey guys,

 

Getting back into flight sim. I am by no means a hardware (or software) guy, but my brother is much more knowledgeable and he has put together a proposed build for my new flight simming computer. Would appreciate any feedback on this rig's capabilities with respect to what I want to do. Right off the bat I will be using FSX and DCS, but might check out X-Plane 10 and other stuff down the road. I would like to use FSX with some photo-real scenery and payware aircraft such as the A2A C182 with TrackIR smoothly.

 

The specs can be found here: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GX4Yzy (The build is already a little over the max budget I had in mind)

 

So what do you guys think? Any changes you would make (taking $ into consideration)? Look forward to learning more here. Thanks all.

 

Hello!

 

The CPU is fine - I don't know if you plan on overclocking, if you do, I'd go with a Corsair water cooling solution.  

 

This motherboard is great, but might not be the top choice for extreme overclocking (still absolutely great for anything reasonable, great quality for the price).  

 

I would definitely add a second HDD, preferably a WD Black series.  For more budget-minded customers, I'm a big fan of the WD Black² DualDrive 120GB SSD + 1TB HDD  which is a great way to have your OS on a SSD and still 1TB for other stuff.  Unless you're a big fan of extreme photoscenery, right now, FSX and P3D don't really benefit from being on a SSD - besides, 256GB fills up very, very quickly.

 

For FSX/P3D, your RAM is fine, but I'd definitely upgrade to 16GB+ for X-Plane, and if you do any kind of image/video processing.

 

You would benefit from Windows 7 if you can get it - and it will be upgradable to Windows 10 in time.

 

Finally, I'm a big fan of the 900 series and the 970 you picked is a great one.

 

Overall, great system.  Don't hesitate if you have any questions, and welcome back in the hobby!

[ryanbatc 12,774]

If you start FS just once for the day I agree about HDD vs SSD.

 

Myself being a tester, I'm frequently opening and closing FS. The time difference is worth it for me. Many addons on my old 1 TB spinpoint HDD: 4 min load, same on new 500GB 840 Evo: 45 sec

 

It's a luxury item no doubt but I'd buy one again.

[max2770 74]

If you start FS just once for the day I agree about HDD vs SSD.

 

Myself being a tester, I'm frequently opening and closing FS. The time difference is worth it for me. Many addons on my old 1 TB spinpoint HDD: 4 min load, same on new 500GB 840 Evo: 45 sec

 

It's a luxury item no doubt but I'd buy one again.

 

I figured since the OP is already maxing his budget, I'd suggest the cheaper option.  At the amount of stuff there is in my P3D folder (120GB and counting), I can't justify a 250GB SSD just for that purpose right now.  I've done it for customers, and will probably end up doing it eventually, though.  For a tester, it sure sounds reasonable.

[Djang0 1]

I'd up the RAM a little and consider 8GB 1866MHz, 2133MHz or 2400MHz (and as Ryan said 16MB for X-Plane 10). Bear in mind that 2400 and many 2133 modules have XMP profiles setting a voltage greater than the Haswell standard of 1.5V, typically 1.65V (with Haswell the memory controller is onboard the CPU).

[PHMUdreamin 0]

Well it took me a while to finally pull the trigger, but I did. The total came out to quite a bit more than I planned on spending after splurging on a few items (CPU & SSD) and taxes :o . Thanks everyone for your input. Looks like I'll probably give P3D a try, and one of the A2A aircraft. Can't wait to start preparing for my instrument rating on this rig! 

 

Final build:

 

Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon Processor 4.0GHz 5.0GT/s 8MB LGA 1150 CPU

Noctua NH-U12 S for Intel LGA 2011,1156,1155,1150 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/3+,FM1/2 Sockets, U Type, 5 Heatpipe,120mm CPU Cooler Cooling

ASUS Z97-A ATX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150 Motherboards Z97-A

Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5 inch SATA3 Internal Solid State Drive

Asus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card

Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory

Asus 24x DVD-RW Serial-ATA Internal OEM Optical Drive DRW-24B1ST (Black)

TP-LINK TL-WDN3800 Dual Band Wireless N600 PCI Express Adapter, 2.4GHz 300Mbps/5Ghz 300Mbps

Seasonic SSR-650RM 650W 80 PLUS Gold ATX12V/EPS12V Power Supply

Fractal Design Define R5 No Power Supply ATX Mid Tower (Black)

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit

[ryanbatc 12,774]

Looks great!