Gaming PC, budget £1000+

Associate
Joined
23 Feb 2011
Posts
50
Hi all,

I've previously bought a PC to run my simulator off (3 x HD projectors and image correction software) and wish to buy another as I've started a similar project. Seeing as I bought the PC components in 2011, I imagine technology has moved on and was hoping someone could recommend a similar or better spec/performance capacity as my last machine.

Thanks!

Julian

Old spec:

Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £213.59
(£177.99) £427.18
(£355.98)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £165.59
(£137.99) £165.59
(£137.99)
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £137.99
(£114.99) £137.99
(£114.99)
XFX Pro 650W Core Edition Power Supply £68.99
(£57.49) £68.99
(£57.49)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £61.26
(£51.05) £61.26
(£51.05)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £20.99
(£17.49) £20.99
(£17.49)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
 
Can't use any of the older parts.

As for the simulator software, will most likely be rfactor. A point worth mentioning is that with my two Radeon's in crossfire mode, I couldn't run maximum graphics settings, so I wouldn't really like o drop to a single GPU?

What are my options?
 
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £299.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - OEM £235.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW) £139.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £89.99
1 x XFX Pro Series 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £84.98
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 920 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA1155 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM2+ / AM3+) £77.88
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £71.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £44.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,233.78 (includes shipping : FREE).



a i7 on socket 2011 with a good liquid cooler, with a good motherboard that supports 16x16 crossfire if and when needed, with 16gb of fast ram.

1 256gb sdd for boot and programs with a 2tb hdd for storage

a i7 and extra ram will help with the flight sim, and a 3gb card will stop any slow downs, at a later date when budget allows you can always add another card if needed

option 2,

same as above but with no hdd, a pure sdd build using a samung 500gb sdd

1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £299.99
1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD500BW) £266.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - OEM £235.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £89.99
1 x XFX Pro Series 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £84.98
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 920 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA1155 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM2+ / AM3+) £77.88
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £44.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,288.79 (includes shipping : FREE).



i also play flight sims. with the addons as well, also use the amd cards, have no problems what so ever tbh,

http://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php...-fsx-pc-pleasepleaseplease-help-me-fs-pilots/

many say nvidia is better with photoshop, flightsims etc or dual card gaming etc etc, it all depends on what site you base your reviews on, all say totally different things depending on there views or cards they have themselves etc.

for photoshop, a pro card will always be better than a gaming card, end of....
for gaming, including flight sims, both makes are fully supported, so go either way wont matter, for your budget your only option is amd as nvidia costs more for the same level of power etc, so unless you can increase the budget, something else would have to give.
a i5 for the flightsim, well you might as well stick with what you have got and overclock it, as i wouldn't swap 1 i5 for another either, but that's your choice and budget, enjoy the spec and also good luck whatever you choose.... ps (i'm not knocking any ones spec above either, just giving another opinion and choice/direction etc)

if this is your game of choice,

Scenery Patch,
Photo-Based Scenery Add-On UpdateCertain highly-detailed scenery add-ons that make use of large satellite images may not display correctly in Flight Simulator X.

Specifically, you’ll notice large rectangular areas that are black or dark blue, where the proper ground texture does not draw at all.

Microsoft has confirmed this issue to be a bug in the Flight Simulator X terrain display engine.

so not any card related, even though some website still say this is a amd problem, not true :)

Service Pack 1,

Service Pack 2,

Microsoft releases their second service pack for FSX. I includes graphical and performance enhancements.

so upto yet, not one standalone bug found for just amd cards :) as all fixes are engine ones, small fixes for drivers etc, both that's for both sets....

quote"One of the drawbacks of using "Gaming" sites for FSX build info is, most "games" love:
top-o-the-heap graphics cards, RAID0, SLI, X-fire, and can utilize any fast multicore CPU with a decent OC.
Those folks builds and recommendations reflect that.
FSX is almost the opposite. It wants: The fastest CPUs available, OCd into the stratosphere, with single "good" video card.
Software RAID(0,1,5,10) uses clock cycles valuable to FSX. unless you have a dedicated $300+ Hardware RAID card, stay away.
SLI or X-Fire, can be a no-no, and is only recommended for ultra high resolutions on multi-monitors.

Intel's instruction set, and architecture, is superior to AMD for FSX, which is not always true in the rest of the gaming world.
Almost the same situation with nVidia vs AMD for FSX video card solutions.
The race is much tighter with AMD working quite well, but, not quite to the level of nVidia's equivalent solutions.
It gets closer yet when considering multi-monitor solutions, where, up until the GTX 6XX series, with nVidia you had to use two cards.
AMD still has a slight edge with Eyefinity for more than 4 monitor use, but, that scenario is a little much for even the staunchest FSXer.

As you can see FSX's wants and needs, are a little different than those of a general "Gamer".
While Flightsim.com is, by far, the best, there are other FS sites that offer good advice also.
Peruse those too, and you'll find almost identical advice to what you get here. "end quote

so the nvidia is better debate, for this game only is well muted or a draw at least, yes in some small ways it can be a % faster, but for the price paid for the extra % is it worth it? for me no, i'd spend the extra like i have above on better cpu and more ram etc (where there can be no debate, the i7 wins hands down), both which would help the game run better than a % increase that a nvidia card would do for the same money spent

stock i7 will be fine, but if you want to OC? cooler with spec will do a good OC as well, good guide below

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18476907
 
Last edited:
if you want a i5 just grab hono's spec, just add another card, and yes 2 amd's

2 x 7950 = good value v power etc

or a lot more money 2 x 670, faster by % but not such good value v power v costs etc

but for me you might as well have just overclocked your old pc and kept the money in the bank until you really needed a upgrade,

quote "overcomplicated a simple spec with unnecessary hardware"

i7 is used for flight sims and is well supported after the first service patch, and so is 16gb of ram, so don't understand what was meant tbh about other bits not being needed, unless liquid cooling etc, for a none overclocked pc, liquid cooling can make less noise, something which i like.
but hay ho, enjoy which ever you choice and happy flying

1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD500BW) £266.99
2 x Sapphire HD 7950 Boost 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-19-20G) with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - OEM £235.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £89.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 920 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA1155 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM2+ / AM3+) £77.88
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £44.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,498.78 (includes shipping : £12.50).



pure sdd build option in budget for what i said above under £1500 just

option 2

a traditional build using a sdd for boot and a standard hdd for storage with a crossfire setup

2 x Sapphire HD 7950 Boost 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-19-20G) with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - OEM £235.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £185.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £89.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 920 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA1155 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM2+ / AM3+) £77.88
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £71.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £44.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,491.26 (includes shipping : £13.75).



if i had to chose between the 2 above, i'd go pure sdd option

if you like the cheaper i5 option then go for it, it overclocks well, would be faster than you old system, but by how much is a matter of debate 30% cpu or less? unless a high overclock etc, but on stock on both i mean new v old, read my links above and all point to more cpu is better than faster video for flight sims, saying that it's nice to have high end in both tbh if budget allows :)
 
Last edited:
Thanks, so would you just keep that and just put two Radeon GPUs?

Yes! It's just what I did.

When you find that the games are struggling, simply upgrade to 7950, 670 of what ever is out when the time comes.

Hono knows his hardware, he's been here longer than me, I'd take his advise for sure. Not saying I wouldn't take others, but look at the spec....Simple, informative, well balanced & priced.
 
Last edited:
The 7950 is quite a setup up from the 6950. If the sim isn't Nvidia biased then AMD is great bang for buck. The spec I did was Xfire/SLi capable anyway, just needed another GPU added if required.

YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £259.99 (£519.98)
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £187.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £71.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.98
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £37.99
1 x Thermalright Macho 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,249.38 (includes shipping : £13.75).



SSD is a bit of a luxury, maybe he'd prefer a 256GB one instead of having the storage drive or ommit it completely to save cash for now. Think I'd start with a single GPU to start. In the game settings I would certainly disable AA and all the jazz to improve the FPS.
 
One more quick thing about the AMD GPU set up. I wanted to toggle between different desktop configurations (presets), and it was something that wasn't possible as you couldn't have one setup with crossfire enabled and another with it disabled to allow use of the lower GPU deck ports. The reason I require this feature is because I'd like to toggle between a desktop display, to the simulator screen, composed of three projectors. Would an nvidia setup make this possible?

Thanks
 
Back
Top Bottom