Ready to take the plunge into FSX

[Duckie]

Hi Good Folks,

I'm getting ready to take the plunge and would ask for some hardware advice. I have read through many of the threads in this forum section and elsewhere to try and prepare ahead the best I can.

I have a fairly good system but may need some upgrading to get a good result in sim.

What are the weaknesses that may be upgraded and or tweaked to improve performance?

Here are my current specs:

Windows 7 64bit Home Premium

Antec Nine Hundred II Mid Tower w/4 - 120mm Fans and 1 - 200mm Chimney Fan
Intel i7 920 2.67GHZ
ASUS P6T SE
6GB Corsair XMS 3 DDR3 1600 (PC-3-12800)
Noctua 1200 CPU Cooling Tower w/2 - 140mm fans
Sapphire Radeon Dual-X R9 270 2GB GDDR5
Corsair TX 750W PSU
WD 320GB 32bit SATA HDD
WD 500GB Black Caviar SATA x 2
Samsung SH-S223B Super-Multi DVD Burner
LITE-ON DVD ROM
ViewSonic 24" LCD VX2433

Any tips and suggestions would ne greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Steve

 

[txnetcop]

Steve the only change I would make is upgrade the CPU to an i7 960 3.2Ghz CPU.
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-960-...=1403364392&sr=1-3&keywords=Intel+Core+i7+970 $257.00 is nice cheap upgrade.

Your memory is sufficient for an overclock, but real performance would come from using this memory instead: http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Venge...UTF8&qid=1403364786&sr=1-2&keywords=DDR3+1800 You just can't beat the price at $88.00.

So for less than $400 you have a decent upgrade.

FSX is CPU intensive and you can easily overclock this to 3.8 or 4.0GHZ using the Overclocker's Guide.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx..._id=1&model=P6T+Deluxe&SLanguage=en-us&page=1

An example of the power of the i7 960 and FSX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LntAO3_FL3g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AkyJ8yKaj8

Ted

 

[Duckie]

Hey Ted, thanks very much for the reply and recommendations. Just the kid of suggestions I was looking for.

Steve

 

[txnetcop]

The 1366 series CPUs and motherboards are still very powerful even my today's standards. Glad I could help
Ted

 

[Duckie]

Hey Ted, the link you posted re Corsair Vengeance memory led to Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1866 MHZ (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory.

According to the Corsair configurator and my MoBo specs I can use 1333, 1600 or 2000 MHZ in the Vengeance series. Since I already have 6MB of 1600 MHZ (2GB x 3), although not the Vengeance series, is there any real advantage to going to the Vengeance series aside from the increase of 2GB additional RAM (6GB vs 8GB) over what I already have? Would there be any real useable advantage in going to 12GB of 1600 Vengeance?

BTW, the i7 960 will be here Thursday!

Thanks,
Steve

 

[txnetcop]

Hey Ted, the link you posted re Corsair Vengeance memory led to Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1866 MHZ (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory.

According to the Corsair configurator and my MoBo specs I can use 1333, 1600 or 2000 MHZ in the Vengeance series. Since I already have 6MB of 1600 MHZ (2GB x 3), although not the Vengeance series, is there any real advantage to going to the Vengeance series aside from the increase of 2GB additional RAM (6GB vs 8GB) over what I already have? Would there be any real useable advantage in going to 12GB of 1600 Vengeance?

BTW, the i7 960 will be here Thursday!

Thanks,
Steve

Only a slight advantage...12GB over what you have buys you nothing in FSX. You can overclock up to 4+ Ghz with what you have. Although you may find that you don't need it to enjoy FSX. BTW I am not a big AMD fan but that particular card you have tested extremely well for the price when it came to benchmarks. The biggest problem I have with AMD cards is that their software does not give you enough options when tweaking for ultra fine graphics in FSX, P3D, and X-Plane 10. However I don't believe you should spend any more money for an upgrade. That card runs FSX very well.

 

[Duckie]

Ted,

I truly appreciate your advice and candor. I'm looking forward to trying the new processor and the "new" sim!

Thanks again for taking the time to help,
Steve

 

[huub vink]

Welcome to the virtual world called FSX. I hope you will enjoy it *big grin*!

Huub

 

[txnetcop]

Ted,

I truly appreciate your advice and candor. I'm looking forward to trying the new processor and the "new" sim!

Thanks again for taking the time to help,
Steve

Steve this is Valkyrie from A2A Simulations...he uses an i7 920 just about reasonably maxed at 3.8 with DDR3 2000 memory and uses DX10 on his 64 bit Windows Vista, and uses the old Nvidia 8800GTX. As you can see with the right equipment you can do a lot with FSX. It really stretches out it's capability considerably. The 960 is a hopped up 920 by Intel with the BCLK jumped up...however because of better design it allows a lot more latitude for overclocking than the i7 920. 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz seems to be the magic number with Intel 920-960 and FSX. The i7 920 oc'd tends to run hot when playing FSX after a while.
If I were starting new from scratch, I would choose the new i7 4770k (unlocked) or the i7 4790 which are priced very well and perform extremely well. However you then have to buy a new motherboard, memory and and cooling for your CPU and honestly a better video card to take advantage of the graphics capability of the new processors. FSX has a 4GB memory limit...period! However, if your CPU is fast enough you can really rock FSX and when tested I see very little difference in the LGA1366 platform i7 and new LGA1150 platform with FSX. However that does not hold true for other more sophisticated games just FSX.

Great video with his older system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4JbzA-NpKM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsgEiJoBxX0

 

[Duckie]

Huub, Ted,

 

[delta_lima]

Wait ... what?

No.... don't do it ...

DX10, moving carriers, compatibility with most FS9 addons ...

Worst thing you could possibly do.



Was said - never ...

Good luck - and enjoy it. The Steve Scenery Fixer is a phenomenal help in enabling your FS9 addons ... you'll have a riot. The only thing I really miss is my Golden Wings/Silver Wings multiple installs thing. But the moving carriers and the absence of an FL100 ceiling was the final push for me - and also what was (at the time I switched) some great classic 50s era addons that came out exclusive for FSX (chiefly the Grumman Panther, the Hawker Sea Fury, etc.). Don't get me wrong - some of the happiest days in this hobby for me were in the heady mid-late 2000s FS9 days, addons were coming fast and furious, one couldn't keep up between Alphasim, Piglet, Kazunori Ito, Pierre Llereux, Dave Q, yourself ... fun times. But the visual possibilities in this version of the franchise are outstanding.

The mere possibility that we could see your repaint magic in this sim is just too good to be true. Not to say, however, that your FS9 paints - esp your AS/V Phantoms, won't still get a regular loving beating ... those were classics!

Welcome - and I see our talented FS9 buddy Nigel is starting to hang out here on a rather telling basis ... just saying his visits aren't going unnoticed ...

dl

 

[wombat666]

Just as an observation on the i7 960 chip and how well it works, I still have a Gigabyte GA-X58A-OC and an Intel i7-960 that I use as an easily transported Race Sim box, and aside from 'one click instant 4G OC' on-board, the chip ramps up to a comfortable 4.5G without any drama.
Looking back, the chip cost me A$729.00 and the board A$360.00 just on 4 years ago, and it has been one of the longer lived units in my stash.

I did sort of 'rebuild' a year or so ago, keeping the original 12G of Corsair DDR3 Dominator DHX, and a 500G WD Raptor, later adding a 500G Samsung EV850 SSD (at A$300.00 a bargain!) and a Corsair H55 unit (another good deal A$89.00) in one of Fractal Design's great little 'Define R4' cases.
And I had a pair of XFX DD Raedon 7950 3G cards lurking around so they went in as well, recycling is a good thing I explained to my darling wife ........
JFTR, do not buy ANYTHING branded 'XFX', absolutely no support whatsoever!!!

I 'could' run FSX on it but that wasn't the object of the exercise, I wanted to see what I could do with supposedly 'obsolete' hardware that was lurking on the shelf, adding a few new generation parts into a case that I can move around with relative ease.
Believe me, once a fully loaded COSMOS 2 is set up it is almost immovable!!!

 

[txnetcop]

Duckie...I highly recommend you add this and put FSX on it...not your operating system!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7247&cm_re=samsung_ssd-_-20-147-247-_-Product $80.00 If you can afford it there is a 256GB Samsung for $142.99 Samsung is the BEST SSD in my book. I've tested them all. FSX is very very disk intensive so I recommend putting FSX on the SSD! Mine flies!!! I only have a 128GB SSD and Orbx scenery plus aftermarket clouds and wx. If you thinking about FTX full terrain and airport addons I would use the 256GB.
Ted

 

[Duckie]

Duckie...I highly recommend you add this and put FSX on it...not your operating system!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7247&cm_re=samsung_ssd-_-20-147-247-_-Product $80.00 If you can afford it there is a 256GB Samsung for $142.99 Samsung is the BEST SSD in my book. I've tested them all. FSX is very very disk intensive so I recommend putting FSX on the SSD! Mine flies!!! I only have a 128GB SSD and Orbx scenery plus aftermarket clouds and wx. If you thinking about FTX full terrain and airport addons I would use the 256GB.
Ted

Ted, I'm sitting here right now working on reorganizing my HDDs and my target is 250GB for FSX! I don't have a single chunk of space big enough. I'm not sure if I can get to my goal by simply reorganizing, and I'm out of physical internal space. I need to move some files to external storage. Not sure yet how I'm going to handle it, but I'll keep the SSD in mind.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[txnetcop]

You might consider CLOUD storage...there are several free online companies that offer up to 10GB of secure storage space online.

 

[wombat666]

Ted,
Love those Samsung Evo drives (obviously) and was surprised to actually see a performance boost when I loaded FSX on the first one I purchased.
I couldn't get my head around the 1TB drives so I opted for a 500G 'tester' first up and decided to go for the 750G drives once I was convinced.
Remarkable performance/price compared with the OCZ drives of a couple of years ago.
http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Hard_Drives_&_SSDs/SSD_-_2.5"_&_PCI_Express/Samsung
At the moment the A$ is almost on parity with the US$, so the prices from my regular source (linked) seem pretty close compared to your 'vendor'.
TBH, the 500G drive is probably the better deal than the bigger ones, but I do tend to go for 'Wretched Excess' more often than 'Sensible'.

 

[txnetcop]

Ted,
Love those Samsung Evo drives (obviously) and was surprised to actually see a performance boost when I loaded FSX on the first one I purchased.
I couldn't get my head around the 1TB drives so I opted for a 500G 'tester' first up and decided to go for the 750G drives once I was convinced.
Remarkable performance/price compared with the OCZ drives of a couple of years ago.
http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Hard_Drives_&_SSDs/SSD_-_2.5"_&_PCI_Express/Samsung
At the moment the A$ is almost on parity with the US$, so the prices from my regular source (linked) seem pretty close compared to your 'vendor'.
TBH, the 500G drive is probably the better deal than the bigger ones, but I do tend to go for 'Wretched Excess' more often than 'Sensible'.

I still get requests from some of the major brands to tests their parts because I did testing at TechCorp. I tested SSDs a few months back. All of the Samsung SSDs are consistently fast and dependable...wish I could keep them! The Crucial M500 is also a HOT item. FSX does so very well on the fast SSDs. It really is the kick in the pants that FSX needed especially on older, slower systems, but a real performance boost on the new systems. If I could afford it, I would would buy a 1TB SSD. I just built a system out of parts donated for some kids at the local YMCA that started a flight simulator club. I put in a two year old Samsung 128 GB SSD paired with an old E8600 system. One of staff was kind enough to donate a Nvidia GTX 260 video card. I oc'd it up to 3.8Ghz and that old beast really handled FSX beautifully.

 

[nigel richards]

No.... don't do it ...

DX10, moving carriers, compatibility with most FS9 addons ...

Worst thing you could possibly do.



Was said - never ...

Good luck - and enjoy it. The Steve Scenery Fixer is a phenomenal help in enabling your FS9 addons ... you'll have a riot. The only thing I really miss is my Golden Wings/Silver Wings multiple installs thing. But the moving carriers and the absence of an FL100 ceiling was the final push for me - and also what was (at the time I switched) some great classic 50s era addons that came out exclusive for FSX (chiefly the Grumman Panther, the Hawker Sea Fury, etc.). Don't get me wrong - some of the happiest days in this hobby for me were in the heady mid-late 2000s FS9 days, addons were coming fast and furious, one couldn't keep up between Alphasim, Piglet, Kazunori Ito, Pierre Llereux, Dave Q, yourself ... fun times. But the visual possibilities in this version of the franchise are outstanding.

The mere possibility that we could see your repaint magic in this sim is just too good to be true. Not to say, however, that your FS9 paints - esp your AS/V Phantoms, won't still get a regular loving beating ... those were classics!

Welcome - and I see our talented FS9 buddy Nigel is starting to hang out here on a rather telling basis ... just saying his visits aren't going unnoticed ...

dl

LOL.

And there's me thinkin' none of you Gents would hear me tip-toeing.

Honestly, I could be quite at home in both sims - lot of stuff to stretch my little old brain around first.

 

[Duckie]

...- lot of stuff to stretch my little old brain around first.

Amen to that! My brain doesn't seem to be as elastic as it once was and it is stretched pretty far just trying to get my PC in shape B4 I install X!

Thank the FS gods for the good folks here willing to help this PC challenged simmer!

 

[wombat666]

I still get requests from some of the major brands to tests their parts because I did testing at TechCorp. I tested SSDs a few months back. All of the Samsung SSDs are consistently fast and dependable...wish I could keep them! The Crucial M500 is also a HOT item. FSX does so very well on the fast SSDs. It really is the kick in the pants that FSX needed especially on older, slower systems, but a real performance boost on the new systems. If I could afford it, I would would buy a 1TB SSD. I just built a system out of parts donated for some kids at the local YMCA that started a flight simulator club. I put in a two year old Samsung 128 GB SSD paired with an old E8600 system. One of staff was kind enough to donate a Nvidia GTX 260 video card. I oc'd it up to 3.8Ghz and that old beast really handled FSX beautifully.

I'm planning a new internal build for myself (Sofie aka 'Madame Lash' will be away next month for a few weeks!) as I bit the bullet and sold one of my bikes, pretty much SOP.
Somehow I've become the local 'go to guy' when people have a PC problem which leads to a new build, and I choose carefully based on what they need, rather than the usual off the shelf bottom of the line 'Specials'.
Great opportunity for me to look at a fair range of components, and I must say, I'm staggered by the poor quality of the units that so many retail outlets sell.
Equally appalling, the number of lost or forgotten passwords, little or no backups and complete lack of 'Computer Hygiene'!!!!
As always, if I explain what I'll build and why I choose certain components it is a way of educating the end users, a few days of supervising once they are up and running leaves me with happy 'clients' and a feeling of satisfaction.
Of course, at times it is like herding cats, but we get there in the end, and my nominal costings go into my 'PC Slush Fund'.
Plus I make myself available when the inevitable 'User Induced' problems arise ..........................
Aside from keeping my hand in, making a little extra for my own projects, I learn something new most times.