One last PC Question: Looking at a new PC.

[Sundog]

You guys really helped me out in the last thread regarding Vid-Cards, compatibility and CPU upgrades. As a result, I think I'm going to get a new system because I also want to start using P3D as well. As such, I was thinking of getting a Gravity GT2 system with a few upgrades from Jetline Systems.

So my questions are;

1) Have any of you bought one of their systems? How is it and how is their support?

2) Are there other systems out there you guys have purchased for FSX that you liked and had good support with? If so, who was it from?

I can usually only upgrade once every eight to ten years, so I want to make sure I choose well.

Thanks,

Ken

 

[wombat666]

I just had a look at their(VERY)variable specifications and to be frank, I think their pricing is way too high.
The basic US$2500.00 box is rather 'basic', and the usual advice several of us 'Outhousers' would give is to build your own.
Really, when it comes down to building a PC, it's just a case that you plug components into, and most manuals are fairly good at keeping things straight.

 

[Sundog]

I guess I'll look at how much it would cost me to build my own then, although I've never built a unit with liquid cooling before. I want that partly because the room my PC is in gets rather warm during summer. I'll start checking Tiger direct and new egg and coming up with a shopping list of components to price out.

 

[henrystreet]

I have 2 of the Corsair H series closed water cooling systems, H80 on one computer and H100 on the other computer. They are basically plug and play. Your case has to be able to mount the radiator and fans would be the only thing to check for.

 

[fsxar177]

You're paying for the name ....

If you want very comparable performance, check into a custom build from www.ecollegepc.com

I've built my last 3 FSX rigs with them Can't say enough good. And the price is unbeatable.

- Joseph

 

[Naismith]

I have 2 of the Corsair H series closed water cooling systems, H80 on one computer and H100 on the other computer. They are basically plug and play. Your case has to be able to mount the radiator and fans would be the only thing to check for.

I have exactly the same in both our PC's - The H100 has run flawlessly for near on 4 years (wifes' PC and it's on 24/7), mine is the H80 and does get rebooted every other day but also has run flawlessly for 18 months. I'm a great fan of all Corsair products, all seem to be of a high quality and durability - their keyboards are built like tanks.

 

[txnetcop]

Watercooling easy to set up if you take your time and make sure you understand the directions. I have built almost a 100 PCs over the years and never had one cooling accident. The real satisfaction comes when you build your own because you know every part of it. Setting it up and overclocking is the other half of the fun! Enjoy!
Ted

 

[Sundog]

OK, thanks for all of the help so far. Now here are my next questions;

CPU speed is paramount for FS, correct? So I'm looking at getting the intel i7 6700K 4.0GHz quad core cpu. Is that good, or should I go with a 6800K at 3.4 GHz?

The MB: I've used both Asus and Gigabyte and the current board is the GB brand. Any preferences?

VC; I'm looking at the nVidia GeForce 970; I think it should be sufficient for FSX and P3D.

For cooling I'm going with the Corsair H100. Should I also throw dual fans in the case as well?

I'm going with Win10 64bit Pro for the OS. I am looking at having the OS on an SSD, and then FSX and P3D on their own SSD's. (Would be better off going with large TB drives (I do have a lot of installs in FSX) for the sim drives?)I have plenty of external HD's for storage of all my downloads.

I might spring for a new monitor as well. I really like Samsung displays, they've been good to me. Any thoughts? (FYI, my monitor right now is a 17" display)

Ram: DDR4, how much? 32GB?

Power supplies: I'm not sure what I should be shopping for there. Any recommendations accepted.

Chassis/Case: I like simple black cases; I don't need fancy lights, etc. Is there a way to tell if everything will fit inside it before I buy one? Recommendations?

(edit) Sound Card: Creative Blaster Z

Thanks guys, I'm starting to get excited. I've never been able to take a fast mover on the deck in FS without having to pause every minute for the scenery to regen and that's without weather. I'm hoping to be able to run everything with the sliders to the right. I also have FPS locked at 30fps max, as more isn't needed.

 

[Obie311]

I finally was able to afford to have a system built that would run FSX properly. I used Cyberpower here in California.

I bought it through Costco and got a 5% discount. I don't know if that's still available. With our 9% sales tax it came to approx $1800 +/- USD. I priced individual components on pcpartpicker.com and the difference was small enough that I wasn't encouraged to build it myself. I am mechanically adept but have no previous experience "building" a system although I have R&R'd drives and power supplies and such.

Thanks to the recommendations of several members on this forum (Thanks again guys) here is roughly here's what my $1800 bought (I used my existing monitor).

• Corsair 300R
• i7-6700K Skylake cpu
• Corsair H60 cpu cooling
• Asus Z170-Pro gaming ATX
• Ripskill 8gb GDDR4/3000mhz
• EVGA 600B 80 PLUS BRONZE Power Supply
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB GDDR5
• 512GB Samsung 850 PRO Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD
• LG 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive
• generic ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
• INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer
• Windows 7 Pro OS

I've got a very mild O/C (4.2) and I run a lot of ORBX scenery and fairly complex a/c (no PMDG), no ASN, frames locked at 30 fps, realism at max, most sliders full right except autogen density at dense and I have a very smooth FSX-SE experience with this rig.

Hope this helps as a frame of reference for you.

Obie

 

[txnetcop]

Three areas you want to get right are Motherboard, Power Supply and Ram with that 6700K CPU:

Motherboard: My favorite because it is so easy to OC and it holds up under severe testing:[h=1]GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 Intel Z170[/h]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W03VR9011

Ram:

Corsair Vengence LPX (price varies)

Power Supply:
I prefer single rail Thermatake or Corsair
[h=1]CORSAIR HXi Series HX1200i 1200W 80 PLUS PLATINUM Haswell Ready Full Modular ATX12V & EPS12V SLI and Crossfire Ready Power Supply with C-Link Monitoring and Control[/h]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139129

 

[Sundog]

Well, those three are definitely on the list. You, txnetcop, basically spec'd the system I'm running now eight years ago and it's been reliable as hell. The main HD failed about a year ago, but I replaced it with an SDD. Things do wear out and I'm amazingly surprised it's lasted this long.

Thanks for the reference to your system as Obie. Everyones knowledge is always a great help here at SOH forums.

 

[vortex]

Sundog,

My opinion on a few of your questions:

CPU: I would go for the 6700k. The base and turbo frequencies are higher and you probably wouldn't notice the extra cores of the 6800k in FSX or P3D. Plus, the chipset/motherboard for the 6800 is a lot more expensive. However, the extra cores would be useful if you do a lot of rendering work.

Graphics card: take a look at the new GTX 1070. In tests it looks to be almost as fast as a 980ti or a TitanX at a much lower price.

RAM: unless you're going to do video processing or rendering, 16Gb should be more than enough.

PSU: EVGA SuperNova G2 750W or 850W. Well-reviewed with a 10-year warranty and will give you capacity for future upgrades. Also consider the Corsair RM750i or RM850i. Titanium or Platinum rated PSUs are generally quite a bit more expensive but only offer small improvements in efficiency.

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBhmn21ylkc). I went for the non-window version as my case sits under a desk. It's a big case so you'll need to check your space but will take radiators up to 420mm and is very easy to work in. Lots of space to hide cables and it's completely tool-less. Also, you can easily remove any parts you don't need to improve airflow as it's screwed together rather than being riveted.

 

[Jafo]

Sundog,

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBhmn21ylkc). I went for the non-window version as my case sits under a desk. It's a big case so you'll need to check your space but will take radiators up to 420mm and is very easy to work in. Lots of space to hide cables and it's completely tool-less. Also, you can easily remove any parts you don't need to improve airflow as it's screwed together rather than being riveted.

Or you get one of these.....if it's all about class/looks..... but it'll take about half your budget...and still not have a PSU. I'm still enjoying mine...

 

[jtrandttr]

Jafo -

OK, I don't mind being the dumbest in the room. So what in the blazes am I looking at? Is that your desktop or one of those unlicensed proton packs?

Tom

 

[Sundog]

OK, this is where the system stands now that I have read Vortex and Jafo's responses. Jafo, I don't know what that is in your picture, but it looks like a PC turned inside out and I do like the look of it. What is it?

So, here is what I have at the moment, let me know what you guys think;

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

MB: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory

Drive1 (OS): Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Drive 2 (Basic Programs-Software My Sims are on external HDs): Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

VC: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Founders Edition Video Card

Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case

PSU: Corsair 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer

OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit

Software: Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016 Software (Because I finally need an updated Excel and Outlook)

Total Cost: $1936 (which saves me between $600 to $1100 if I had purchased it. )

 

[Jafo]

Jafo -

OK, I don't mind being the dumbest in the room. So what in the blazes am I looking at? Is that your desktop or one of those unlicensed proton packs?

Tom

It's a Thermaltake Level 10 Limited Edition Titanium case [No.221] designed by BMW DesignWorks. If you could get one it's about AUD 1300.

Number one trick to it is the compartmentalized components...no cross-talk heat-wise....and 2mm thick Al plate for the entire case means it's its own heat-sink..[and quiet too]...

 

[Lonewolfee1]

Parts

Sundog check out this site. It lets you configure a system before you build and gives prices from several competitors on each part. I used it when I built mine.

http://pcpartpicker.com/

 

[Sundog]

Sundog check out this site. It lets you configure a system before you build and gives prices from several competitors on each part. I used it when I built mine.

http://pcpartpicker.com/

That's where the build in the above post is from. A coworker had just shown that site to me yesterday. Thanks, it is a great site and iI like how it also lets you know if something is incompatible.

 

[fsxar177]

Good rig, good price.. Go for it!

 

[txnetcop]

Let us know how you like the system...I think you're in for a real treat!
Ted