£1500 FSX Build

Sorry for the delay in responding I had to go to work. Firstly thanks for all the great advice, I've used OCUK for my last two builds (spread further apart than ideal ;-) ) and the advice here as guided both of those. Just spotted the errant monitor, I'll sort that in the morning.

I had planned on putting the OS and FSX on the SSD for performance. That's why I went for the 256GB model. I'm well versed with tweaking FSX that's how I've kept it running on my current set up. I'm less comfortable with overclocking but with the help on here I'm hopeful to get the processor cranked up. Shadow your comments on hyper threading match what I'd been thinking so I'll be sticking with the i5. The only decision left to make is if to go with the 1440 or the 1080 one.

Thanks again.
 
Shadow Boxer's build looks good. £400 on a monitor seems a lot, but who am I to say with my two Dell's.

That card should deal ok with the resolution, obviously 1080p will be a lot more comfortable. The Hazro is 75% more pixels than 1080p, but I recon it's still fine and you'll have a banging screen.

The best you can have is a 680 GTX, and these run FSX on triple monitors.
 
Cheers Gents,

I think I'll stick with the 1080p monitor. I was sorely tempted to go with a 680 and 3 monitors but it pushes me to far over budget. My final spec is shown below, if there is a cheepish case that would accommodate this lot shout up. I tried browsing the case section but the amount of choice stumped me.

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Asus VE278Q 27" Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £144.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x XFX Pro 750W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £69.98
1 x Kingston HyperX RED Limited Edition 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3B1RK2/8GX) £43.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £30.98
Total : £1,379.33 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
olivier renault said:
Corsair 300R, Bitfenix Shinobi, for the cheap cases (not 100% sure it will fit in the Zalman Z9+). Or anything above. The Fractal R3 is a nice quiet case.
Click to expand...

Hi Olivier,

The Zalman looks really nice and allegedly will accommodate a graphics card up to 290mm so I think I'm going to take a punt on it. I'm also going for the Corsair memory not the Kingston. Even with the case I've come in under budget which should earn me some brownie points. With any luck I'll be ordering today.

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Asus VE278Q 27" Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £144.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x XFX Pro 750W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £69.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £44.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £30.98
Total : £1,432.93 (includes shipping : £20.10).

 
I have done quite a few FS builds for customers, don't go ATI it is annoying and pointless trying to get it to work properly.

Nvidia are far better for FS imo. I would so highly recommend going 3 monitors as well it makes it look fantastic and makes it much more realistic.

Honestly I would save up a little more and go with the 3x 24" monitors. Then save up more and splash out like so. I have never played a FS before till I started doing that particular build and it really does make you want to go out and purchase 3 monitors etc.

kpvhs.png

Edit: Blurry phone camera picture...
 
Hi Richyyy,

I understand how good FSX looks on a multimonitor display but I've got to run to a budget. It's not so much a case of saving up for the extra stuff as to being able to justify spending more than the £1500 on just one of my hobby's. I'm thinking the rig I'm planning will give me good performance at a decent resolution.

Just out of interest what card is driving the main displays in that pic? I'm assuming your customer is using a second PC connected via WideFS to drive their instrument displays?
 
Richyyy said:
I have done quite a few FS builds for customers, don't go ATI it is annoying and pointless trying to get it to work properly.

Nvidia are far better for FS imo. I would so highly recommend going 3 monitors as well it makes it look fantastic and makes it much more realistic.

Honestly I would save up a little more and go with the 3x 24" monitors. Then save up more and splash out like so. I have never played a FS before till I started doing that particular build and it really does make you want to go out and purchase 3 monitors etc.

kpvhs.png

Edit: Blurry phone camera picture...
Click to expand...

That does look really cool.

Wonder if you'd be better off with massive 1080p TVs versus expensive high res monitors.
 
The 2nd PC was new, however it is quite an old machine now but still runs perfectly for running the two bottom displays.

It is actually only a 560Ti running the 3 monitors, however he uses a triple head to go to convert 1 connection (DVI) to 3 monitors. It is a really nice piece of kit and there is no messing around, it just works. However I think they are quite pricey around the £100-£150 mark I believe.

The graphics card runs it perfectly, the resolution would be slightly higher but he only has one eye so needs it to be a little bigger, but has been tested at higher resolutions and runs fine.

To be honest, his old card (I think a 9500GT?) ran the game perfectly fine too he just wanted a new machine to run it a little faster.
 
ringo747 said:
The 3 monitors would only look good to represent cockpit windows. For showing cockpit panels (VC) I can't see how it would work.
Click to expand...

It works ok with the VC but it's not as effective as in the set up shown above. I use TrackiR which I think my get a little disorientating on three screens. I'm sure the increase from a 19" to a 27" will blow me away as it is :-D
 
If you can separate the instruments onto a separate screen then fine but I don't think it is too easy to undock windows when using full screen mode.
 
The zalman Z9 is a brilliant budget case. 4 120mm fans, fan controller, digital temp display, cable management and a 4/8 pin aux power extension lead included for free. You could write it off and still salvage £25 worth of bits ;)

I think you would be better off using a mobo that doesn't do SLI/Xfire (saves cash), if your not going to SLI/Xfire you can relax on the PSU slightly too (saving more cash).

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2670-KR) £305.99
1 x Asus VE278Q 27" Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £144.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £72.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £69.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £30.98
Total : £1,267.96 (includes shipping : £20.10).



The EVGA 670 has a 3 year warranty and is cheaper too, clocked a lil slower than your choice but some overclocking should sort that. I left the OS off as you could use the developers copy of windows 8 and look to buy the OS later in the year (then choose between Win7 or 8).

Have you considered TrackIR instead of the multiple screens? Remember if you have a screen already you can dual screen, having one monitor for your instrument panel.

Hope this helps, look forward to seeing what you go for. A build log would be awesome. If we can get you to 100 posts you lose that nasty P&P ;)
 
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I use TrackiR at the moment which is why I'm happy with a single screen. I've noticed you've also gone for a different RAM is there any reason or just your preference? I think you're right about the MOBO not much point paying for a feature I'll never use.
 
chaders said:
I use TrackiR at the moment which is why I'm happy with a single screen. I've noticed you've also gone for a different RAM is there any reason or just your preference? I think you're right about the MOBO not much point paying for a feature I'll never use.
Click to expand...

Just pricing. The patriot RAM is cheaper still but not low profile so fitting aftermarket heatsinks over it would be a faff. I know the ballistix doesnt look "pretty" but with that mahoosive heatsink on you won't see much of it anyway ;)
 
Yes do not get ATI been having problems lately with there drivers that why i gone with nvidia this time.

@chaders Well not got 3 monitors my self just a 32" TV and FSX is one game i can not wait to play 1st. Never been able to have graphics that high on Q6600 and this game is more CPU powered then graphics and carnt wait. That gigabyte udh3 mobo seems very popular and its the one im getting also.

EDIT Did not realize there where different version of the ud3h board just seen now what are the difference?.

Imgetting Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H and one shown here is a Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 which is a lot cheaper?..
 
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