New Flight Simulator X Rig

It doesnt eat up a lot of resources ? Want it to be Vista and DX10 ready too.


At first I thought of a GTS and 2GB of RAM, maybe with an ASUS P5W DH and cheaper PSU.
 
Yes, it eats up a lot of resources, but 4GB of RAM for FSX with Vista is ridiculous.
 
AFAIK, flight sims tend to be CPU-bound, so you can drop the GTX to a GTS if you want DX10 compatibility. Will you overclock your CPU?
 
454Casull said:
AFAIK, flight sims tend to be CPU-bound, so you can drop the GTX to a GTS if you want DX10 compatibility. Will you overclock your CPU?
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Yeah, hoping for a good, stable OC, is something like 2.8 good and attainable from these components ?
 
With stock cooling you should be able hit 3 ghz easily. With an aftermarket cooling solution you can go way farther. Your rig looks fine but I would cut your gfx down to perhaps a 8800 gts as casull said.
 
Juic3 said:
Yeah, hoping for a good, stable OC, is something like 2.8 good and attainable from these components ?
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A lot of E6300 CPUs can make 2.8GHz, let alone the E6600.
 
I would highly recommend changing the PSU out. I was in the same boat as you and originally chose that PSU. The final choice for me before ordering is that it wasn't modular. There are a LOT of wires with non-modular PSUs. I would recommend either getting XClio GreatPower X14S4P4 650W - $134.99 or Thermaltake ToughPower W0128RU - $129.99. Those are about the same price as the OCZ GameXStream 700W.
 
hdawg06 said:
I would highly recommend changing the PSU out. I was in the same boat as you and originally chose that PSU. The final choice for me before ordering is that it wasn't modular. There are a LOT of wires with non-modular PSUs. I would recommend either getting XClio GreatPower X14S4P4 650W - $134.99 or Thermaltake ToughPower W0128RU - $129.99. Those are about the same price as the OCZ GameXStream 700W.
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Modular or not, its easy to tuck cables away.

Again, the E6600 could reach way past 3Ghz.
 
Keep the GTX - Flight Sim X is both CPU and GPU bound and the GTX will help out considerably with some of the eye candy.
 
Anyone who calls that system overkill for FSX hasn't played FSX. Even with that very high end setup, I bet you'll still be in the 15ish fps range in cities.

My suggestion, wait for DX10, see what the MS FSX DX10 patch does for performance. I'd hate to see you spend 2k+ and be unhappy with the results.
 
gmohr said:
Anyone who calls that system overkill for FSX hasn't played FSX. Even with that very high end setup, I bet you'll still be in the 15ish fps range in cities.

My suggestion, wait for DX10, see what the MS FSX DX10 patch does for performance. I'd hate to see you spend 2k+ and be unhappy with the results.
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I cant wait more than 1 day lol, need it now, 15 fps in a game like FSX isnt that bad is it ? Are the 4GB of RAM overkill ?

I was also measuring my case, seems like I would have to drop the hard drive cage and go to just 1 HDD(seagate 320GB) to fit that monster card lol, I wont miss the raptor much will I :rolleyes:
 
Juic3 said:
I cant wait more than 1 day lol, need it now, 15 fps in a game like FSX isnt that bad is it ?
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I would consider 15fps in any game bad. It's not 15fps all the time though, if you can live with that.
 
Building a rig solely for one game, let alone a Flight sim, is kind of lame. The specs you chose could demolish anything out now, and probably anything out within the next two - three years. Yes 15 fps is horrible for any game, and in a flight sim you need the response. Spending $3-4k on a rig getting 15fps...lol - I likely would commit suicide. Keep the 4gig of ram for more future proofing - if money isn't an issue. With ddr2 800 I would be running my FSB at 400 - 450. If you don't plan on doing that, then you don't need ddr2 800.
 
It better be maxed settings at 1920x1200 with that kind of rig. If you are going to have an SLI setup using two 8800gtx, then I would probably go with a 1000watt psu. I think full load on one 8800 is 330w? I could be wrong.

Edit: 8800gtx ranges from 280-305 load. So, with SLI that is 610 watts alone. Processor, ram, cd/dvd-rom, USB..ect all take power.
 
Maxed? No way. They put FSX together with so much room for growth its just sorta dumb. No PC on earth can run that thing maxed, and unless DX10 changes the rules quite a bit, no PC will be able to do so for a year or two, IMO.
 
gmohr said:
Maxed? No way. They put FSX together with so much room for growth its just sorta dumb. No PC on earth can run that thing maxed, and unless DX10 changes the rules quite a bit, no PC will be able to do so for a year or two, IMO.
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kinda like what they did with Oblivion.
 
I'd start with an E6600, 2gb of RAM, and a single GTX with a SLI capable motherboard and a higher end PSU that can handle all this plus possible upgrades. I'd reserve the future option of adding in a second GTX, more RAM, and eventually a quad-core (as prices drop and you see how much power FSX requires). The new 680i chipset boards should handle this.
 
By the way at this point FSX doesn't benefit from SLI, so at this juncture (which could change) SLI would be a waste of money. `
 
Again, 750w psu isn't going to be enough - if you plan on eventually upgrading to SLI with two 8800gtx. Quad core at that....
 
The BoosterX (300W GPU PSU) is also an option if and when you move to SLI... so keep that in mind.
 
The Donut said:
Keep the GTX - Flight Sim X is both CPU and GPU bound
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How is something limited by more than one factor?
Chaoticon said:
Again, 750w psu isn't going to be enough - if you plan on eventually upgrading to SLI with two 8800gtx. Quad core at that....
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BS. If we assume that most 750W supplies have a combined +12V output of 60A, that leaves at least 32A for the CPU, mobo, PCI cards, hard drives, and optical drives. Let's say you have a quad-core C2E with TDP of 130W, that's about 11A. No, make that two of them, so now you have 10A left over. Now, you have a discrete sound card, so let's allocate 0.5A for that. 2 optical drives (not like you'd be reading 2 discs while playing a game, but I digress) is 2A, so 7.5A left over now. 4 hard drives? 2A. Motherboard? Let's say 4A because it's probably a server board (just guessing here).

We're still under 60A... move to a regular board and just one quad-core CPU and you'll have tons of headroom.
 
454Casull said:
How is something limited by more than one factor?
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easy..... if upgrading the cpu OR the gpu gives a little boost in performance.. it is bound by both. so if you upgrade both, you should see a bigger boost

I've never played FSX tho
 
osalcido said:
easy..... if upgrading the cpu OR the gpu gives a little boost in performance.. it is bound by both. so if you upgrade both, you should see a bigger boost

I've never played FSX tho
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I had in mind a linear scaling of performance (i.e. before the point of diminishing returns). Any game will speed up if you OC the CPU, even at 3200x1600 resolution.
 
Ok final list, about to hit that checkout button:

eVGA 680i Motherboard
E6600 CPU
Scythe Infinity
4 GB of Gskill DDR2 800 F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK
eVGA 8800GTX
Enermax Galaxy 1KW
Seagate 320GB 7200.10
+Next Day Saver Shipping


$2,246.29
 
Juic3 said:
Hiii,

Im about to build a sweet FSX PC, wondering what you guys thought about this:

E6600 CPU
eVGA 680i Board
4GB of Gskill DDR2 800 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820231098
eVGA 8800GTX
OCZ GamesXtream 700w
WD Raptor 74GB
Seagate 320GB 7200.10

Comments plz

;)
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i just built a new pc for FSX using a pentium d clocked at 3.8ghz and 2GB ddr720 ram along with a 7900gto (OC'ed to GTX spec of course) so perhaps i can be of some assistance..

the main problem with FSX revolves around the autogen and the air/airport traffic. there are a lot of tweaks that can be done to the autogen so you might want to look at "matt's autogen tweaks". i was able to get the game to run at 1280x1024 with 2xQ AA with ultra high quality settings (with the exception of turning off air/airport traffic) and i was able to get a minimum of 20FPS and 60FPS consistently in most areas.

the 74GB raptor is definately a good idea because FSX has some long load times but you should know that FSX itself will take up 15+ GB of hdd space and if you plan on installing other games that 74GB raptor will run out of space rather quickly...

FSX runs best with 2GB of ram but youll want 4GB if you plan on running vista along with the DX10 patch. I tried out Vista RC1 and have found that it is quite a memory hog. you could always get 2GB now and add another 2GB later.
 
Juic3 said:
Ok final list, about to hit that checkout button:

eVGA 680i Motherboard
E6600 CPU
Scythe Infinity
4 GB of Gskill DDR2 800 F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK
eVGA 8800GTX
Enermax Galaxy 1KW
Seagate 320GB 7200.10
+Next Day Saver Shipping


$2,246.29
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i just noticed your sig, did you try out the demo of FSX on your current machine? IMO the performance difference between your current machine and the new machine you spec'ed is not worth $2200... especially not for FSX alone since i have doubts that even THAT will even be able to run FSX at MAX settings (beyond ultrahigh)
 
heero884 said:
i just noticed your sig, did you try out the demo of FSX on your current machine? IMO the performance difference between your current machine and the new machine you spec'ed is not worth $2200... especially not for FSX alone since i have doubts that even THAT will even be able to run FSX at MAX settings (beyond ultrahigh)
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:( Cant, accidentally fried my motherboard.
 
Juic3 said:
:( Cant, accidentally fried my motherboard.
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oo ouch

it might be worth it for you to replace the motherboard on that before jumping the gun on the C2D setup.. though its your money so if you want to go all out then the C2D will definately be your best bet right now.
 
Switch out the Galaxy for a Seasonic M12-700 and throw in a 36GB Raptor drive to put your OS/apps/games on.
 
454Casull said:
Switch out the Galaxy for a Seasonic M12-700 and throw in a 36GB Raptor drive to put your OS/apps/games on.
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Wouldnt the 700w destroy my SLI future ?
 
454Casull said:
Switch out the Galaxy for a Seasonic M12-700 and throw in a 36GB Raptor drive to put your OS/apps/games on.
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36GB for apps and games?! That would restrict me to installing 1 or 2 games at a time :) FSX alone will take up 15GB+.

Re: Vista, apparently you can get away with 2GB on the gold shipping version, it's much faster than the RC1 and RC2 versions. 1GB, forget it. 4GB you're fine.

Re: power supplies: if you haven't already used one of the various power supply calculators floating around on the web, a 8800GTX is typically counted as 180W worst case, which is 15A. So if your 700W PS has at least 50A or more on the 12V rail you should be fine.
 
It's not a Flight Simulator Rig without a Matrox Triple Head 2Go!!!!!!!

http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/review/th2go.htm

Also, you WILL need the extra horsepower of the GTX. 4 gigs is overkill for an XP box, but not necessarily for a Vista box. (Damn OS loads like a gig of RAM with all its services!!)
 
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