Midrange System for Flight Simulator X & FPS gaming

capnbanks · 2 Apr 2013 at 19:58

Hi guys,
I've done a bit of research myself but I know some of you know which components like each other etc. I'm looking to build a machine for primarily Flight Simulator X running third party addons. I also play Arma 2 and will play Arma 3. Budget is a flexible £600-900 but I'm not showing off on youtube so main considerations are that the programs run smooth and don't crash.
Here's what I've come up with. I would appreciate your advice.

(overclock cpu to 4.3ghz)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £173.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020063-UK) £59.99
1 x Zalman Z11 Plus Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) HDD £56.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £49.99
1 x Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x Xigmatek Loki SD963 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) £14.99
Total : £811.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

capnbanks · 2 Apr 2013 at 19:59

don't know how to make the pics and prices come up

honosuseri · 2 Apr 2013 at 20:11

capnbanks said:
don't know how to make the pics and prices come up

It's Black Magic

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660TI 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £229.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £187.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW) £133.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (S (HD-257-SE) £45.00
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.95
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
1 x Akasa USB 3.0 internal adapter cable (AK-CBUB09-15BK) £5.99
Total : £906.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).

No OS but you can download the Windows 8 Enterprise (evaluation) Edition for free. You can try before you buy for 3 months then make an informed decision about which OS to buy

capnbanks · 2 Apr 2013 at 20:33

thanks honosuseri
Here is what I chose. What do you all think about my selection?

(same as first post)
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £173.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020063-UK) £59.99
1 x Zalman Z11 Plus Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) HDD £56.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £49.99
1 x Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £14.99
1 x Xigmatek Loki SD963 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) £14.99
Total : £811.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

honosuseri · 2 Apr 2013 at 20:38

FSX doesn't make use of Xfire or SLI (twin GPUs) unless something changed and I didn't get the memo. The mobo you picked isn't meant for twin GPUs as the Express lanes aren't in sync and the PSU is too weak for my liking. Although yes FSX is Nvidia biased which is why I went with the 660Ti which is a cutdown 670

In short it's not well balanced at all but atleast you asked before you handed over the cash

capnbanks · 2 Apr 2013 at 20:51

ah that's actually a mistake lol, will ammend! well spotted

capnbanks · 2 Apr 2013 at 20:54

I was wondering why your better system was coming out cheaper than mine. Thanks, I will use some of your suggestions to upgrade my cheap parts, but what is an OEM intel chip compared to retail?

honosuseri · 2 Apr 2013 at 21:01

capnbanks said:
I was wondering why your better system was coming out cheaper than mine. Thanks, I will use some of your suggestions to upgrade my cheap parts, but what is an OEM intel chip compared to retail?

No worries.

OEM comes without the heatsink and only has a one year warranty. To be fair CPU failure is very very rare unless you do something stupid a fry the CPU by over volting doing overclocks.

If the OEM is cheap enough then it helps you pay for a decent aftermarket heatsink to do some serious overclocking. The one you picked is a little weak to be fair.

Ethermaster · 2 Apr 2013 at 21:02

This game is one of the rare time I ever spec an i7 but this should fit the bill quite nicely, as Hono said this game doesn't really use SLI its more CPU based.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £226.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £173.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £53.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.95
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £763.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).

honosuseri · 2 Apr 2013 at 21:14

Not gonna lie.....I hate FSX. It is such a faff to setup, Hyperthreading to my knowledge actually hurts performance.

I gave up and switched to DCS A-10. As a boy nobody wanted to fly a cesna it was all about jets and blowing stuff up

capnbanks · 2 Apr 2013 at 21:17

honosuseri, for £10 I'll go with retail, but will upgrade the heat sink anyway.

Hi Ethermaster, are you talking about Arma3? I heard FSX doesn't use the different features in the i7.
Does it really matter which make motherboard I get?

honosuseri · 2 Apr 2013 at 21:21

That's down to you bud how you balance it out but please remove that link to a competitor. If the mods ban you we can't help you

capnbanks · 2 Apr 2013 at 21:27

Oh didn't realise!

Ethermaster · 2 Apr 2013 at 21:32

The i7 did actually improve things for my mate, but yup I understand what ya saying... I guess it depends really on how many addon's you have installed and more.