System Hardware: PC | MOBO | RAM | CPU | HDD | SSD | PSU etc

I have finally gone and built up my new rig, fired it up...and can't wait to get all the goodies from Open Cockpits and Throttle Tek set up and running. But I am coming up on a slight problem. I have two Samsung 840 pro SSDs.... and I think I may have buggered up the install ... So ...before I go and install PMDG and all the ORBX and related stuff, I figured I'd stop here and find out why the second drive is not showing up in Windows? The system recognizes it in the hardware profile. and the Bios shows it. But I can't figure out how to access it to store files etc. Anyone have any idea where I am going wrong? Cheers JT

Hi all apologies if this has already been asked I've been reading up a bit on the mod for the Saitek yoke which initially used rubber bands but which I believe uses springs now As most of the stuff I've read seems to come from usa including where to buy these springs I was just wondering if anyone in the UK has done this mod and where they bought them. I have a couple of Maplin stores near me but not sure what size springs are required many thanks for any advice and part numbers cheers

HI all. I just completed a new build and starting to OC with little success or stability, so I need some help here. The rig is: 4670K w/ Coolermaster Evo/ IC Diamond 7 Asrock Extreme4 Z87 Corsair Ballistix Sport 8gb 1600 9/9/9/24 1.5v Corsair TX-850 38a on single 12v rail MSI GTX-760 2gb Windows 7 Pro Heat doesn't seem to be the issue. The best (somewhat stable) OC results to date are 4.2 on 1.2 vcore with temps right around 70C using either Prime95 or Intel Extrme Tester. I have tried fixed and adaptive voltages with/wo offsets. Lowering the CPU Cache to 35, Raising/lowering Vcore. Lowering ram speed etc. It just seems anything from 4.1 up is unst…

Hi everyone We're pretty much a Apple Mac household bar the FSX pc, but I want to get a small laptop (11-13inch) to run ppfx and rex etc to use primarily for flight planning and FSX support. Does anyone have any recommendations for the cheaper end of the market? Thanks in advance....

Currently PC is 3.5 years old. running a 940 overclocked @4.0 FSX is on a old SSD 120gb,200MB/sec read GTX 480 Win7 6gb of 1333 RAM What Im looking at is a Haswell @4.4 Gigabyte G1 Sniper Z87 RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 2133MHz GTX 780 Samsung SSD 520mb/sec 500GB for FSX Win7 on a 120gb Samsung SSD 520mb/sec Question is how big a jump is this in terms of lets say FPS within FSX. What gain do you think I will see. Or should I wait till the nex gen broadwell to come out? Thanks

In planning an upcoming build, I've begun to wonder whether I can get away with an i5-4670k instead of the standard recommendation for an i7-4770k. Here are the basic differences between the two processors that may impact FSX performance: 1) i7 has hyperthreading available; but FSX doesn't make use of it and in fact many people prefer to turn it off in the BIOS. 2) i7 has 8MB of L3 cache vs. 6MB on the i5. This will have some impact. 3) i7 is rated at 3.5 GHz (3.9 in Turbo boost mode) vs. 3.4 for the i5 (3.8 in Turbo boost). 4) There is a hypothesis, and probably an unprovable one, that the i7 cores are selected from higher quality wafers. This explains why the …

Hey guys, Gigabyte Z77X-UD4H LGA 1155 Intel Core i5 3570K 8GB Gskill Ram Nvidia GTX 660 Earlier this week I overclocked my CPU to 4.3GHz, it worked for a little bit but when I tried to play Aces High, my computer completely froze. I figured the clock was too high, simply bring it back to default settings and go from there. I did, and when I rebooted my computer shut off after about 45 seconds of being on, and restarted. I reset CMOS, and took out the Mobo battery for about an hour and put it back in. Settings were back to factory default, and still the same problem. Thinking it was perhaps to remove the thermal paste, I removed the HSF and cleaned it off. But I…

hi guys, I'm planning on getting the new retina MacBook pro, does anyone know how is the performance of the high end 15 MacBook pro (NVidia gt750m) when running pmdg 777 and ngx with third party airport scenery (aerosoft\imaginesim\fsdt)? can it have high fps? thx!

built this computer for fsx bf4 fritz intel i7 4930k at stock corsair ax860i corsair water cooler h110 asrock x79 extreme 6 gigabyte r9 290x corsair carbide 540 case 4X corsair vengence pro 1866 cl9 4GB 2X samsung 840 pro 512GB …

This may be a dumb question but I was wondering if there is still a motherboard available that uses an Intel i5 CPU (or any 3+ ghz cpu), NVidia GTX650 (or better) video card, 1T SATA HDs, and 8mb or better ram that still supports Windows XP (I don't care that Microsoft no longer supports XP)? I'm still not entirely liking (much less loving) Windows 7 or the way FS2002/FS2004 runs on it (or maybe its just my ASRock motherboard that's to blame?).... Like I said, probably a dumb question, but I figure I've got nothing to lose by asking!

Hi everyone. Novice here when it comes to flight sim. I plan to build a PC dedicated for FSX (Been left just a little unsatisfied with my Dell Inspiron which I bought 4 years ago. Not much fun with FSX or 2009. Hope you understand =\ hehe Having trouble finding a motherboard best suiting the parts I already bought. So far I ordered: i7-4770k processor evga nvidia gtx 780 cooler master haf-932 samsung evo 840 solid state as far as motherboards go, I'm looking to the z87 mobo but have no idea really what the differences among them mean for FSX.. for example: Asus Sabertooth Asus Maximus Hero Asus Maximus Formula Asus Extreme I've looked it up on newegg and asus a…

I found this on avsim. I know the specs are pretty bad, but I only want to use it to run Aivlasoft's EFB, PFPX, & TOPCAT. Would this computer run those? I would network it to my current PC that has FSX on it. The only thing that concerns me is the CPU. http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaCentre-19-5-Inch-Desktop-57323425/dp/B00HLVTBVA/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1392074539&sr=8-10&keywords=all+in+one+computer#productDetails Thanks, Rob

Hi I have an intel I5-3220 on my laptop. And ive notice when i have the FSX on i have only 1 core working almost at full (the core 3) and the other almost at 0 of usage and the FSX is programmed to use all the cores. Is this normal or do you suggest to do something else? Thanks in advance

I have total 8 gig ram, each says 11-11-11-28 (on stick) @ 1600mhz 1.5v. I know I can reduce the timings to 9-9-9-24. If I choose to do this, would I need to increase the voltage? If so, by how much? Thanks.

So i just reinstalled my whole system.. and defragged my hdd... it took 5 days and nights!!!.. with O and O "complete defrag by file name"... I had ALOT of stuff to install on the drive..It was at 80 % fragged before it started. If you have a look at the screenshot, Im very happy that its only 0.61 % fragged, but my newbie question is how come there's so much "red" on the drive if its only 0.61% ?? cheers

Hey guys, So this morning, I powered up my rig for a flight, but I got an alert that Ive never seen before: SMART status bad, repair and replace. A little internet research found that this was a hard drive fail, or close to fail. I dont know what my options are, or how itll affect my sim, what should I do? Thanks for any help, Jackson Dalton.

Hi folks, Recently I sold my good old GTX 660. Now I'm thinking about a GTX 770, 780 or 780Ti for X-Plane, FSX and P3Dv2. The GTX 660 doesn't really do a good job with X-Plane, especially with HDR and AA turned on. FSX can occasionally go beyond what GTX 660 can take too. My CPU is a i7-3770K overclocked to 4.5GHz. So which graphics card should I choose? Is the 780Ti too powerful for X-Plane and FSX? Does the GTX 770 have a huge advantage over the 660? The GTX 780 seems like a good balance between budget and performance, but I would like to hear your opinions. Your ideas are always welcome. Thanks, Zicheng Cai

I have Windows 8 installed, my BIOS boots to my DVD drive (first preference) and the HDD that my Windows 8 is next. (I have other HDD's that are not on my boot order list in BIOS). I am going to install a clean instance of Windows 8 on a new SSD. Do I need to set my boot list in BIOS to boot to the new drive before installing the OS, or if I keep my BIOS boot list unchanged does installing reset it to point to the new drive- or will the PC want to set up a multi-boot? What is the best way to address this? Thanks, Bruce.

Hi,This is my first post at this forum. I have done extensive testing into how different hardware affects FSX. There are loads of recommendations in the forum saying to use this or that hardware without anything really backing up the recommendations so I thought to find it out my self. I now want to share my findings. I have looked in to how CPU overclocking, number of CPU physical cores, Hyper Threading on/off, different affinitymasks, GPU overclocking, different GPUs, memory timings, memory speeds and single vs. dual channel setup actually affects FSX performance. I have also looked in to what happens when you lock the FPS and the use of FiberFrameTimeFraction. This has…

Hi there! Since today, I got a new problem: All Bios settigs (date, time, o/c settings, etc.) get lost when I turn off the socket board in which the pc, the speakers, the monitor and the printer are plugged into. I normally do this every night, but today, I recognised that the date and time weren´t correct after Windows had been booted up. The PC is 13 months old now, and AIDA64 shows a voltage of 3.24V for the CMOS battery. Could it be somehting different than this battery? Once booted withe the correct settings, all works flawlessly and normally. Thansk in advance for your help!

Hello: I am looking into building a new system for FSX spending about $1500(US). I am leaning towards the i4770k with a GTX 770 as I just do not have the funds for a 780. How does FSX perform with a 2g or 4g GTX 770? Can some of you post your system builds for me? Specifically the motherboard type, memory, CPU cooler type (air) and if there were any issues with the memory sticks and the height of the CPU cooler. On my current system this was a problem. I have heard that the $200 range for ASUS motherboards is good as they are overall better quality and they have better customer service. My goal is to receive enough information to duplicate somewhat a system th…

Having a real problem with this PCI-E to SATA board. Can anyone work out the jumper settings to enable the two ONBOARD ports of CON3 and CON4 ??? I realise its only a TWO chanel device. Dont need the ext ports

Hey guys, I have a question (Apologies for the repetition if this has been brought up before) I have a 250GB Samsung SSD sitting right here that I would like to install... Currently, I am running two 500GB Seagate Barracudas; one has Windows on it and the other is running FSX solely. So my question: Would I see the most performance gains for FSX if I installed FSX on the SSD, or if I install Windows on the SSD. (I know that FSX reads and writes to the system drive as well for certain functions.) Thanks!

I have been running FSX with accelerator for a couple of years. I had been experiencing some frame rate issues especially on the virtual cockpits of some planes. 3 days ago I downloaded the PMDG Boeing 777-200LR which I appreciate is quite demanding on processing power. However I am finding that switching to the virtual cockpit from an external view can take 10 seconds to refresh. I have tried pulling levels down on sliders, switching to 2D cockpit, zeroing traffic, reducing autogen density etc etc which does help a little, but the lag on refresh is spoiling the enjoyment of the plane I have a Dell Studio XPS with AMD Phenom II x6 1055T processor - speed 2.8 Ghz, 8 Gig …

I'm usually very careful about browsing the net but somehow I picked up some malware along the way. Thankfully I killed the initial crap by disabling it in MSCONFIG from starting up. Then thanks to Malwarebytes I killed the rest of it from wreaking havoc on my PC. So anyway be careful out there and Malwarebytes is a pretty nice freeware program that works. But careful if you use Reality XP - it deleted my .dll file on accident. (Technically I deleted it when I selected "yes" to delete).