My New PC

Gavin · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:52 pm Post subject: My New PC

One of the most common questions I'm asked when people see FSX running on my PC is what have you got under the bonnet.

Well let me show you. I design all my PC's around running the latest FS from Microsoft because in my opinion that's the most work my PC is going to have to do when it comes to gaming.

With FSX released I wanted to check out DX10 Graphics at it's full potential. With the size of FSX not including all the add-ones I plan to install such as VOZ Pro. I was going to need a broad base in witch to build my PC. With all this in mind I also wanted to keep things in check so I limited my self to a $4000 budget. Keep in mind the dollar was not as strong as it is now only 4 months later. Now is the best time to buy and I highly suggest you go out and spend up big if you want to make huge savings on the aussie dollar.

Ok Now to the fun part spending the money.

First you need a good platform to start from and while most people start from a GFX card or CPU I prefure to start from the motherboard. The motherboard can be a huge bottle neck for your system if not up to the task. While CPU's and GFX cards do the work they all have to go through the motherboard.

1. (MB) I chose the ASUS P5WDH - Deluxe Intel 975 chipset Duel PCIExpress Core 2 with 1066FSB and crossfire support for future duel GFX card goodness. At the time this was the best Main board money could buy. If you choose to buy something else choose to buy the best money can buy. You will get what you pay for.

2. (CPU) For the brains of this operation I chose Intel Core Duo E6700 2.66GHZ with 4MB of L2 Cache. This is a very solid CPU and if you were going to upgrade over the top of this you would be paying through the nose for small performance increases. The Quad core that's been released is still a little young for my taste. I would wait another month or so to see how well that CPU performs.

3. (GFX) The GFX card was always going to be important and I really wanted my PC to be DX10 capable with enough memory to handle the workload of generating 1m textures in FSX so this is what I chose to get the job done. Sparkle 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 384bit Duel DVI-I-HDTV with 575/1800 Core/Memory Clock.

4. (HD) With FSX taking up 8GB and FS9 being 11GB after all the add-ones I needed to have a Hard Drive capable of performing allot of simultaneous tasks with room to spare. I had two options, I could go the raw speed of duel 10,000 RPM raptors like in my old PC or try something with a bit more room to move. Since I had the Raptors already sitting there in my second PC I decided to try out the latest SATA 2 HD so I chose 2 x 320GB Seagate HD's with 16MB cache at the modest but standard 7200RPM. I'm happy to report both HD's are up to the task and the Raptors are still in my old PC.

5. (Memory) I wanted to run my system with Windows Vista Ultimate installed so memory was going to be one of the biggest factors in performance. Vista can use up to 1GB of memory if you have all the bells and whistles turned on. I like my bells and whistles so I chose 4GB of Geil DDR2 - 800 RAM. Not the most expensive and not the best brand money could buy but I was on a budget and I have already spent up big on other things. Also RAM is one of the cheapest upgrades you can make to a PC so I have 4GB of Corsair Twin XMS in mind for my next upgrade in about 6 months time. The Geil RAM is holding up very nicely though and I have no RAM issues at this stage and don't expect to find any either.

6. (Monitor(s) I like big and if bigger is better then I already have it. I have three monitors all of witch can be hooked up to this pc at any one time. but I only purchased two with this PC in mind and the other is an older CRT 21" and I bought that back when 21" was huge LOL.

I have 1 x Panasonic 28" LCD HDTV Widescreen and 1 x 22" Viewsonic LCD Widescreen (1680*1050 DVI 5ms RFR)

The 28" Panasonic LCD HDTV spends allot of time in the TV room because its picture quality is so much better than out old TV but we hope to upgrade to a 42" HDTV soon and I can have my monitor back from the better half.

7. (Case) I went through a phase of flashing lights and fancy colours with windowed cases in the last PC I built. This time I wanted my pc to have a more subtle appearance. Quiet so it would be unseen and unheard.
sleek lines with nothing fancy.

I found all this in the Antec P180B - Black - All Aluminum case with its built in toolbox and three layer side panels for noise dampening. This is a super quite case that sometimes gets turned off because I couldn't hear that it was running.

8. (PSU) The PSU is not to be under estimated. It's very easy to draw more power from your PC than the PSU can provide resulting in hardware failure and excess heat problems. To combat this I chose the Cool Master IGreen 600W Power Supply with 12cm Fan for extra cooling performance and 6 SATA cables incase I wanted to run a bank of HD's or something. I cant think why anyone other than a server admin would want 6 but its a great PSU so I wont complain. Oh I almost forgot the most important bit. At the time it was one of the only PSU's to support duel PCIE power supplies so I could run duel 8800 GTX's if I wanted Wink

9, 10 & 11. (Keyboard Mouse / DVD burner / OS) Black Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse. Pioneer DVD re-writer Black. Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Full Version.

Round up and Price.

This system has performed flawlessly with FSX and everything else I have thrown at it. I have FSX running on duel monitors with full detail at the highest resolution 1680*1050 with 8xAA and 4xAF. I also build these PC's my self and always have which saves me a little money.

This system cost me $4411.00 a little over budget but I got everything I wanted. Also I'm not going to put down the prices of each item because they are all so much cheaper now. You will also notice everything I bought was black, this is so the colours on the screen stand out that little bit more.

Regards.

Gavin Gillett

Gavin Gillett
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adrian · Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:33 am Post subject:

Drool..... I know mine is coming. And the good news after this post is that it probably wont cost me the 5k I had anticipated. Thanks for the post Gav, very eye opening. Now..... time to start really shopping around.
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viper1 · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 5:50 am Post subject:

Hi Gavin & Adrian i have also been thinking about new pc for FSX i would just like to know what you think about this one for FSX PACKARD BELL IPOWER 8850 this is what in side .

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600

2.4GHz, 1GHz FSB, 4MB Cache

Genuine Windows Vista(TM) Premium

640MB NVidia GeForce 8800GTS Graphics

Water Cooling System

2048MB RAM Memory

320GB Hard Drive

Dual Layer DVD ReWriter Drive

160GB Net Store 3500
With a 22" Widescreen AOC TFT Monitor.
This is a top of the range Gaming PC powered by Nvidia 8800 GTS graphics technology with DirectX 10 and Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor. It has an innovative cool blue water-cooling system, visible through the clear side panel, adding extra style to your PC.

Cost in the UK £1,499.99

adrian · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 6:34 am Post subject:

Hi viper,

I reckon that system will do the trick for you. What Gavin has is a monster, probably overkill for a base FSX install but when you put all those add-ons in over the years he'll reap the benefits of going all out.

The 6600 CPU, 2 Gb of RAM and the 8800GTS GFX card should all work well together. Later down the track you might want to throw another 2 Gb at it and if you can swing it you might want to step up to a 8800GTX card. This will give you a bit more horse power in the graphics department where it's needed. But that's not to say FSX thrashes your CPU cause it does, and again if you can swing it step up to the E6700 like Gav.

At current currency conversion rates (as provided by Google) your system costs approx. AUD $3560. Considering you're probably getting this built for you the price sounds just about right (maybe a little pricey) for what you're getting but it should work fairly well with FSX so long as you have room to upgrade a little down the track.

Having said all this I've heard some reports of people running FSX like a dream on much lesser systems.
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Location: SW Sydney, NSW Australia

Marty · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 7:36 am Post subject:

I got to agree Adrian definitely a high drool factor in Gavin's new unit. The sad thing, is that is pretty much what my very first desk top cost.
P75, 2meg video, 16 meg ram, 16bit sound, 15 inch crt and a 180 meg HD with win 95. Better not here any one say those where the good old days.
12 years ago, amazing really.

Gavin · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:03 am Post subject:

Hello Viper. Yes your system will get the job done for at least the next year maybe 2. One thing to remember when your buying a package PC is that your buying from the lowest bidder (cheap low quality components). If you don't have the Tech know how to put a PC together you can find a huge range of articles on the net and you will be surprised how easy it is. Oh and it will save you allot of money. Instead of buying a whole new PC to upgrade you might get away with buying more RAM like Adrian suggested.

Regards.

Gavin Gillett
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viper1 · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:03 pm Post subject:

thanks this is what i have now it a packard bell i have put in to 2GB of ram

Processor Intel Pentium 4 2801MHz
Display Card ATI RADEON 9200
Memory 2048MB
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Free Disk Space 76.58GB
Display Card Memory 128MB
Display Driver Version 6.14.10.6571
DirectX Version 9.0c
Optical Drive CD/DVD
Sound Card SoundMAX Digital Audio

runs fsx at full settings on pc is only 25% off the down from higher rank systems the only thing leting me down is the Display Card Memory at 128MB at big airports need to lower settings but small airports at high settings has you can see by all the pics i have put in fsx gallery.

fsx shuts down when fly low near albania or a airport in albania rest of world is ok .

Marty · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:13 am Post subject:

Well all this talk of new machines has given me the bug.
This is what I'm looking at

INTEL CONROE E68500 ( 1333 mhz FSB )
Gigabyte P35 S3 Motherboard ( 1333 mhz FSB )
2 gigs DDR2 Memory ( 2048 megabytes ) 667 mhz
ATX Case 550 Watt Silent Power
640 megabytes NVidia 8800GTS Video PCI-express
400 gigabytes SATA2 Hard Disk Drive
Internal Card reader - Multiformat
Pioneer 112D Dual Layer DVD Burner

$1679.00 plus $155 for Vist home premium.
Later I can add more Ram but this is about where my budget is at.
Its from Ebay and the guy has %100 feed back
For the price I think its Ok
and should be an improvement on my AMD3200+ and 7600gt
should I go for it?

Marty · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:17 am Post subject:

Sorry forgot to mention I could get a similar system with an AMD 6000 duo and 4 gig ram for similar money. And both a free delivery.

viper1 · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 5:36 pm Post subject:

hi marty

sounds ok thats the thing now we can add more ram later to pc the thing to run fsx is the Display Card and the Display Card Memory
new pc for me will have to wait till i have my holiday in three weeks away then for two weeks in spain

Topmixed · Trainee Joined: Aug 28, 2007 Posts: 1

Hi Gavin,

Would you mind show us how many frame rates of FSX you got it!

I use my wife'e new computer to test FSX but I am not satisfly! Sad

CPU: Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz 4MB 1066MHz FSB CPU
Motherboard: Asus P5NSKEX nF680iSLi 1333/800
RAM: 2 x 1GB Samsung DDR2 667MHz PC5300
Harddisk: Seagate SATAII 400GB
OS: Window XP Pro.
Power Supply: 450W-540Wmax.
DVD: Sony 18x
Price: US$14,000

FS2004 display set all "high" - frame rate about 25/s
FSX display set "high" - frame rate about 6/s

I found that FSX eat a lot of RAM!
I think that RAM: (2 x 1GB DDR2 667MHz) is not enough!

I am going to buy a new computer for myself, I think the ram should be (2 x 2GB DDR2 800MHz)

What do you think? Is it will improve a lot?

Gordon Lee

Gavin · Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:32 am Post subject:

Hi guys, I am trying to create a monster which is why my PC will be a work in progress until the Expo. I will be spending the next few days tuning my PC for max performance. I will also be looking into a product I new nothing about until recently. It's called ReadyBoost and it works like this. ReadyBoost have made software that can take the virtual memory load off the Hard Drive and put it onto a USB memory stick. The benefit of doing this is that with no moving parts in a USB stick it's not limited in speed and size. USB speeds are allot faster than a monster 10,000 RPM raptor Hard Drive and you have the added bonus of freeing the HD's up for more direct use's. Plus you can easily have an 8gig virtual memory drive at low cost. I will be testing this new system over the next week and I will let you know what I find. I'm also looking to upgrade to a quad core CPU just for laughs.

Anyway it's late and 'I'm not sure if any of this will make since and be readable so I'm off to bed.

Good Night
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