help with build specs

snadge

snadge

snadge

Associate
Joined
11 Oct 2010
Posts
551
Hi

i was on here last year asking same questions for my dad but the new build got side-tracked in favour of a new laptop for the missus as FSX meant she could hardly get on the PC hehe...

anyway Iam going up to visit him in scotland in 4 weeks and we are looking to spec up the build..

this PC is only for 1-2 hours of FSX per day and web browsing...thats it, but he loves FSx and its the only game that will get used..

he wants a desktop/media center type case, its going up on unit just above head height on his right so would need a long VGA cable - can you get USB extender cables? or would he have to get wireless mouse n keyboard? - this 'desktop/media-center' case would have to take the GFX card and CPU cooler etc

I was going to go with AMD 980 3.7Ghz for £138 and an ATi HD6870 for £123 which are both very good prices for decent power components.. the budget is £500 - we do not wish to overclock if possible, we would like decent performance at stock, OC is a bonus if we want to but not a necessity through buying cheaper slower CPU's specifically to OC - I have since been told that the Core-i5 2500k (3.3Ghz) will do much better than the AMD 980 (3.7Ghz) but they said overclocked which is not what we want to do if we can help it... so its the best CPU at stock speeds really... I was also told that nVidia cards perform better than ATi cards for FSX...is this true? or is it Intel/nVidia fan trying to sell them onto me... I know intel and nVidia are better in general but that comes at a cost...when its "bang for buck" you get nmore for your money with AMD ..or has all that changed?

so initially the setup was gunna be
Phenom 980 x4 (3.7Ghz)
1Gb HD 6870 (900mhz / 4200mhz / 256-bit / dx11)
4Gb (2x2Gb) DDR3 1600mhz Memory
Corsair PSU
1Tb Hard drive
unsure of mobo yet but probs a suitable Gigabyte or ASrock

any feedback would be great

thanks
 
Start with these bits,

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Antec High Current Gamer 620W Power Supply £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Sub Total : £275.79
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £57.16
Total : £342.95

Add a case, optical drive and a graphics card.
 
I think stulid has spec'd you well for the budget. I used to play FSx quite a bit, i'm pretty certain it's crunching numbers with the CPU that counts rather than GFX power.

Although a similar priced radeon card would allow eyefinity. Have played the sim I can well imagine having the cockpit stretched over 3 screens very helpful. Would be nice to have that upgrade option there but it's his call.

Any more Qs or probs when you come to build, you know where we are.

P.S Suggest the games DCS A-10 thunderbolt and DCS Black shark. If he is a sim fan he will love these.....I do!
 
if memory serves, USB2 can carry up to 400Mb per second of data over 5m, so you should be ok for getting an extension cable up to the top of the PC.

mATX seems like the way to go because, if your dad wants a media/games PC he may want a TV card later on, or some other expansion card. however, if he is really unlikely to want one of these, then maybe a smaller form factor could be useful since he is putting it on top of a shelf high up

*edit*
yep, you can extend USB and USB2 cables up to 5m, or up to 30m with cascading hubs. knew my lecture notes would come in handy some day

*edit 2*
i figured you'd want to know about those new fangled permenant USB cables, not those old fashioned throwaway ones that wear out after 400Mb of data passes through them. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
Reaper 392 said:
i fixed that in the edit. i remembered that my lecturer got that wrong in the notes he gave us a little while after i posted it. thats why your post looks really stupid now :p
Click to expand...

You didn't fix it. It's still wrong:

Reaper 392 said:
if memory serves, USB2 can carry up to 400MB of data over 5m, so you should be ok for getting an extension cable up to the top of the PC.

mATX seems like the way to go because, if your dad wants a media/games PC he may want a TV card later on, or some other expansion card. however, if he is really unlikely to want one of these, then maybe a smaller form factor could be useful since he is putting it on top of a shelf high up

*edit*
yep, you can extend USB and USB2 cables up to 5m, or up to 30m with cascading hubs. knew my lecture notes would come in handy some day
Click to expand...

Whose post looks really, really stupid now? :D
 
Last edited:
thanks for all the replies...
we really do appreciate it

why the 2400k over the 2500k? is it much cheaper? - remember we only want to run stock speeds... and quite fancy the 2500k from what ive seen so far

which nVidia card? we were going to go with ATI HD 6870 for about £120... its a super spec but been told nVdia is best for FSX...? just how true is that and why? especially if FSX is more a CPU intensive app.

are those ANTEC PSU's any good? was going to go with corsair...

also i see on Intel website the core-i5 only works with upto 1333mhz DDR3 - does this mean I will have to overclock the memory speed in a sandybridge motherboard to suite 1600Mhz ram? - I did this on a friends core-i7 860 build not realising that 1600Mhz speed isnt supported without OCing on most boards - it overclocked just fine though..2 years on no phone calls yet - but if not then 1333mhz will do just fine

EDIT: weve been told elsehwere we would be stupid not to overclock the 2500k as it can go up to 4.4Ghz just on the multiplier alone... and disabling turbo... but, what if we were to overclock it only to 4Ghz with turbo on? so it qould idle at 4Ghz but 'ramp up' to 4.4Ghz when FSX kicks in? (or at least thats the theory, as it turbo's up .4Ghz)

thanks again
 
Last edited:
i believe antec PSU's are rebranded seasonics, which is exactly what corsairs are. however, i am very happy to be proved wrong here

for the ram the only reason we are all suggesting 1600Mhz is because its just as cheap (sometimes cheaper) than 1333Mhz. it will happily run at 1333Mhz if you dont want to change anything in the bios (i think mine is at 1333Mhz)

just curious, why dont you want to overclock the processor? its ever so easy (but requires a P67 or Z68 motherboard, along with a sandybridge K processor ie the 2500k, the 2500 wont overclock)
 
Surveyor said:
I won't even point out that your original post still says Megabytes per second and not Megabits per second ;)
Click to expand...

i didnt even realise there was a difference between the small b and the big B when talking computer sizes/speeds. you probably noticed that when, in my 2nd edit i used the small b

*edit*
and my *i noticed the mistake now* post has the small b

fixed now.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom