New Build

[BillUp]

Hi all, I am in the process of building a new PC mainly for Flight Simulator X, but I can see myself playing Crisis, Metro etc... purely for the eye candy

I am on a budget, and I need to buy components as and when I can afford them. I am a single parent, working part time as a complimentary therapist and fitness instructor. Work is very slow at the moment, so running a 3 bed house and paying for my 8 year old sons lifestyle leaves me pretty skint.

I cant give you a price for the whole rig as I have no idea what my limit is? I have made a decision what parts I want to buy though, mainly from the excellent reviews from TTL. Here are my parts list as follows....

Asus P8Z68-V PRO Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard

Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator and Fan

WD 1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Caviar Black Hard Drive - 7200rpm 64MB Cache

8GB Mushkin Redline Ridgeback (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 7-8-7-24

MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Windows 7 64bit Home Premium

Cooler Master HAF 912 (already purchased)

Corsair TX 750W V2 PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified (already purchased)

Now I have a few questions.

What is the better board between the Asus P8Z68-V PRO Z68 and the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4-B3? They are almost the same price, and I dont really think I am going to need the onboard graphics of the Asus. The Gigabyte certainly looks better in all black and grey.

TTL mentioned in one of his videos, about people on other forums telling you that you must have the very latest GPU, i.e the GTX 580 over the GTX 570. Now I am on a budget and the £70 extra I would have to pay for the 580, I really don't know if I can justify it? There would have to be a massive difference in perf for me to have to save up the extra money. You have to draw the line somewhere right?

FSX is known to be more CPU intensive so would the jump from a 570 to a 580 really be that important?

I also want to get into the world of overclocking, and want to OC the CPU and GPU, I am in your hands for this.

Any advice would be regarded as invaluable in my quest to build a new PC and not waist money.

Thanks,

Chris.

PS. I will be buying 2 SSD's, one for the OS and one for FSX, and I will use the WD Black for storage. These will come as and when I can afford them after the main rig has been put together.

 

[sheroo]

The general build advice for a gaming pc is normally a 2500k & 4gb ram. I don't know if you need more for a flight sim though?

 

[BillUp]

The general build advice for a gaming pc is normally a 2500k & 4gb ram. I don't know if you need more for a flight sim though?

The general advice for FSX is if you want to run elaborate scenery add ons, then you want to be cranking up the CPU as mush as possible, or drop the scenery sliders back. The former is my preferred option, as its the reason i am building a new PC. I want the scenery sliders as near to max as possible while keeping a smooth FPS.

The problem with FSX is when Aces studio developed FSX, they used old code which was more dependent of the CPU over the GPU. FSX also doesn't use HT. I am hoping that Microsoft Flight (the new flight simulator in development) will utilize HT, and all 4 cores on the i7.

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

The difference between the 2600K and 2500K is that the 2600K has twice as many threads which is good for rendering and the like but does jack **** for games. When it comes to processing speed then there the same.

When it comes to gaming the difference between the two seems to be more of a chip lottery then anything to me as I've seen game benches where the 2500K has beaten the 2600K and the results between the two are always within margin of error.

EDIT: Sorry, missed the bit about you hoping there going to use HT soon. I'd personally be more inclined to save the money from the CPU and invest it into the GPU but it's your money to gamble

 

[BillUp]

Intel smart cache technology is used by the processor for read-ahead operations which optimizes memory address calls as the system is used, and since FSX is a memory subsystem nightmare in programming design, the larger/more advanced the proc cache and its ability to recall data from memory the better the result.

This is the reason why I am spending the extra on the 2600K

Still not sure about the mobo though? The Asus P8Z68-V PRO or the Gigaybyte GA-Z68X-UD4-B3? They are both the same price. Hmmmm?

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

I yield to your superior knowledge of FSX

As for the motherboards I'd personally go with the P8Z68-V PRO as it seems to have many more awards to it's name and the better PCI layout of the two.

That said, if I wasn't going to install anything other then a graphics card or two and had a side panel on my case I would be tempted to go with the UD4

 

[BillUp]

Yes FSX is different to most games (I hate calling it a game, it's a simulation lol) in so much as it was designed with old code, which didn't take into consideration, new technology.

I just bought the V-PRO wOoOoOop

. I agree though, the UD4 looks nicer. I want bells and whistles, and as long as cable management is in place for good airflow, I'm now worried what the PC looks like inside.