Another ones of those spec me threads...

Michael_10 · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:30

Hi everyone.

I've been building and rebuilding my PC over the last few years, but I've had a special request. My grandad a few years ago made the switch from PC to Mac, but he is missing being able to play his Flight Simulator game. I don't think the iMac is powerful enough to run it through boot camp, so he's asked me to whip together something capable of maxing out the game.

From what I've read the game is processor intensive. Been having a look and do you think one of the new Bulldozer quad cores (cheaper than going down the i5 route) combined with something like a 550 or 560ti gpu would work well? I'd pop 8gb of RAM into it aswell for good measure.

My other idea was to save money on a monitor and try to hook the pc up to the 24" iMac, I take it this could easily be done?

Many thanks,

Michael

mickyflinn · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:44

So does he need a whole system or part ? operating sytem, etc

Incapable · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:56

I'll start us off then

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked *** 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (01G-P3-1363-KR) £99.99
(£119.99) £99.99
(£119.99)
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £77.99
(£93.59) £77.99
(£93.59)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £70.82
(£84.98) £70.82
(£84.98)
XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £32.49
(£38.99) £32.49
(£38.99)
Bitfenix Outlaw Gaming Case - Black £28.32
(£33.98) £28.32
(£33.98)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £25.99
(£31.19) £25.99
(£31.19)
Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B3ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £14.16
(£16.99) £14.16
(£16.99)
* Sub Total : £349.76
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £72.05
* Total : £432.31

Online finance options now available

Ethermaster · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:10

Incapable said:
I'll start us off then

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked *** 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (01G-P3-1363-KR) £99.99
(£119.99) £99.99
(£119.99)
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £77.99
(£93.59) £77.99
(£93.59)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £70.82
(£84.98) £70.82
(£84.98)
XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £32.49
(£38.99) £32.49
(£38.99)
Bitfenix Outlaw Gaming Case - Black £28.32
(£33.98) £28.32
(£33.98)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £25.99
(£31.19) £25.99
(£31.19)
Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B3ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £14.16
(£16.99) £14.16
(£16.99)
* Sub Total : £349.76
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £72.05
* Total : £432.31

Online finance options now available

Everything but the Intel Core i3 2120 for some unknown reason Microsoft Flight Simulator X doesn't seem to like it very much same goes for the bulldozer range it seems, i don't think you can avoid the i5 route... but not the 2500k more the 2300 one

Incapable · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:23

Ethermaster said:
Everything but the Intel Core i3 2120 for some unknown reason Microsoft Flight Simulator X doesn't seem to like it very much same goes for the bulldozer range it seems, i don't think you can avoid the i5 route... but not the 2500k more the 2300 one

Where did you hear that? Googled it but found nothing.

Ethermaster · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:27

www.flightsim.com forums

im a keen flight sim player too, these guy's only seem to live to play flight sims

Ethermaster · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:31

FS9 uses a single core of the CPU. It also renders both the objects and textures using mostly the main CPU and not the graphics processor. Your CPU clock speed is the determining factor for FS performance that includes FSX.

Sorry for the double post...

Incapable · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:32

Last flight sim i played was 98. That along with monster truck madness.

Michael_10 · 22 Mar 2012 at 08:18

Hi thanks for all the suggestions! To answer someone question, yeah I'm looking for pretty much a full build. If FSX is dependant on a processor core would it be good idea to go for one of the bulldozers clocked at 4GHz, and this would have an advantage over a lower clocked i3 or i5. Also this machine is entirely just for playing the game and considering the price of hard drives, would it be better just to get a 120gb SSD?

kristmace · 22 Mar 2012 at 09:38

Any idea of a budget? If you set a limit, someone can spec the best available for that amount.

Michael_10 · 22 Mar 2012 at 18:23

Aiming to keep it around £400

jamesfreddie · 22 Mar 2012 at 19:35

Michael_10 said:
Aiming to keep it around £400

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x OcUK HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £88.79
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £80.40
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £37.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £482.14 (includes shipping : £12.50).

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £88.79
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £46.99
1 x Gigabyte H61M-S2PV Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £39.60
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £37.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £390.34 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Michael_10 · 22 Mar 2012 at 20:45

That some great specs there, thanks very much! Do you think it would be worthwhile replacing the i3 for a higher clocked bulldozer CPU?

Incapable · 22 Mar 2012 at 21:06

Michael_10 said:
That some great specs there, thanks very much! Do you think it would be worthwhile replacing the i3 for a higher clocked bulldozer CPU?

Post 4 may be of interest.

Ethermaster · 23 Mar 2012 at 07:59

Don't get me wrong it does work with both the i3 and bulldozer you justmay run into problems

which is why i said the entry level i5 as its cores are bigger and fsx is cpu intentive not gpu

thenewoc · 23 Mar 2012 at 08:18

Id go for the 2500k and be done with it, seems a false economy to me to skimp on such parts.

feck199 · 23 Mar 2012 at 11:50

I've recently been trying to spec a computer for someone, different needs but,

I really cant seem to bring myself to suggest anything lower than an i5 2500k. It easily adds £60 just for the cpu with the i3 build, The motherboard already allows for overclocking.

Its very straight forward to do, and with flight sim been the main use its bar far a well worth improvement if the money can be found.

In response to Bulldozer, i'm sure most would just say don't go with Bulldozer. A program would have to be very well designed to really make good use of 6 cores. An i5 capable of over clocking to 4ghz, and showing next to no signs of getting hotter Or 4.4/3.6ghz with a extra cooler. Will work so much better!

shadow_boxer · 23 Mar 2012 at 12:35

I would recommend getting the i5-2500K. FSX loves high clock speeds and will make the most of the extra cores without doubt. Also as it is a 32bit programme it won't use more than 4GB of RAM so no need to get crazy amounts. 8GB is the sweet spot as FSX will have plenty and Windows will obviously use some too. As for the graphics card, older generations of AMD cards 4000/5000 cards weren't as good as their NVIDIA counterparts but there was a shader fix. As for whether this has been rectified with the newer cards I'm not sure. I went from a GTX260 to a overclocked GTX 470 with custom cooler and still get 99% GPU useage through MSI Afterburner! If you just run the stock game with little or no addons then you can get away with older/slow GPUs. As a minimum I would go for a 1GB GTX460 and pair it with a Z68/i5-2500K. OK it may well be a bit higher than your hoping to pay but once you overclock your CPU FSX will be brilliant!

Edit

Also don't forget FSX can't make use of dual graphics cards so SLI/Xfire is a waste, so no point in getting a future proof motherboard/power supply.

shadow_boxer · 23 Mar 2012 at 12:40

OK, a tad over what I would call a budget gaming PC but for FSX well worth it.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £169.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked *** 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (01G-P3-1363-KR) £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £80.40
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DL002) £77.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £46.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.95
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £597.28 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Worth shopping around too, as the 460 often appears a bit cheaper elsewhere on special deals.

Ethermaster · 23 Mar 2012 at 13:09

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £163.99
1 x ZOTAC GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £95.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DL002) £77.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 430W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £47.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £37.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £31.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £536.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Is what I personally would consider as price is an issue for you, and remember for the first month or so you could easy run FSX on normal settings on the iGPU build into the Intel Core i5 2500K and buy the extra GPU (if required) at a later date but imh you could save your money abit more and go with the H67 board like I have spec'd over the Z68 as overclocking would not be required.... unless your putting a load of addon's onto the game as the i5 is quick enuff to being with.

As myself and shadow_boxer have stated for FSX you really don't need a powerful GPU just a lot of clock speed on ONE to TWO's core's on the CPU as the game it CPU intentive, so the more CPU speed the better really.

Now we just need to wait for the Gran Master Stulid to spec you now