New PC - Flight Sim

G

Graemepaterson

Member
Hi Guys

Thinking about biting the bullet and replacing my 5 yr old PC with the following:-

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
450GB VELOCIRAPTOR WD4500HLHX, SATA 6-Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (10,000rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE Batman Arkham City with any Nvidia® GeForce GTX560 or above!
Quantity
1

Price: £1,380.00 including VAT and delivery.

Im a Flight Sim addict so want to make sure it will be able to handle FSX and last me a few good yrs.

Any comments / suggestions most appreciated.

Cheers
Graeme
 
Fear

Fear

Prolific Poster
Spec looks good to me and you should find your CPU using all 8 threads on that i7 2600 while playing FSX which helps, the only thing i would change is i would put your smaller HDD as the primary 1 and tbh i don't think the velociraptor is worth the extra cost i would either change that for a 500GB or 750GB caviar black.
 
G

Graemepaterson

Member
Teaz - this is about my limit as far as a budget goes. Its actually a bit more than i was planning on spending but ive decided i need a new monitor as my current one is starting to show its age.

Fear - just so i understand, Is your advice that i go for 2 smaller WD Caviar Blacks rather than a WDCB + Velociraptor? If i go down that route is there a benefit 2having the 2 Hard Drive setup rather than just a single bigger WDCB?

One other question - i currently have an Altec Lansing speaker system that uses a jack and socket to link to the PC rather than USB. Will my set-up have the jacksockets or do i need a USB speaker system? Hope not as my current one is working fine.

Thanks for your help on this - im a bit of a novice on these things.
 
Fear

Fear

Prolific Poster
Are you storing any music, photos or videos ? if the answer is yes then i would advise you to get a second HDD to store these on and leave your primary drive free for your OS, games and any programs if not then you can just use 1 drive but from most test results i have seen you normally get a slightly better performance from smaller drives so if you just go for 1 drive then a 1TB at the max but if you are going for 2 drives then i would get either a 500GB or 750GB primary drive just depending how many games your putting on and don't forget to include any mods you put on as someone i know has some ridiculous amount of about 60-80GB just for the mods and then work out what you need for storage for other things, even though the velociraptors spin at 10.000 rpm i don't really think they are much faster than the caviar black drives and the extra price they have aswell i don't think they are worth it as i very much doubt you will notice the difference between the 2.

As long as your jack from the speakers is the 3.5mm type you should be ok.
 
G

Graemepaterson

Member
Yep - i have photos and music files so have amended the spec to that below. Now included 2 * 500Gb WDCB drivers rather than the 1TB WDCB + raptor.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£139)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE Batman Arkham City with any Nvidia® GeForce GTX560 or above!
Quantity
1

Price: £1,288.00 including VAT and delivery.

How does this look? I could if really pushed spend another £100 on the set-up. Is there anything on the spec you think would be worth spending this on upgrading to provide some more future proofing?

Thanks
Graeme
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
Specs are as good as it gets. Wouldnt really need anything changed. Although for a couple quid more, you can upgrade the caviar black to a 750gb which has double the cach with more space :)
 
Fear

Fear

Prolific Poster
The only real upgrade worth making would be upping the GPU to a 1.5GB GTX580 but that would be somewhere around the £150 extra mark but it will still be a very nice setup as it is with the GTX570.
 
G

Graemepaterson

Member
Thanks for all the help on this - i'm just about there. Just one final bit of help:-

My current monitor is a Viewsonic VX912 19' LCD and whilst it is 6 years old it still works v well. I was working on the assumption that if i was buying a new rig it would be silly not to upgrade the monitor but having looked at my budget again i would prefer if possible to delay upgrading the monitor for a year or so. A couple of questions therefore:-

1) Will my new rig actually work with my existing monitor and be able to run FSX?

2) What benefits of my new PC would i not be able to take advantage of if i don't upgrade the monitor now?

Thanks again for the assistance.

Graeme
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
1. monitor should work fine. If the monitor has a vga port only, you should get a vga adaptor that comes coupled with the graphics card and you can hook up the monitor to the pc. dont see why it shouldnt? ive hooked up an 8 year old bulk monitor and it works as good. just not the best resolution.

2. it shouldnt have any disadvantages when hooked up to the monitor. the only minor thing is the resolition of the monitor but since you are still using it, there shouldnt be any disadvantage or problems :)
 
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