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.

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.