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

I bought my current system 2 years ago from Velocity Micro. At that point my previous system was 5 years old and the deal was good. Given the changes in technology in the last 2 years, any benefit to upgrading again? Anything you folks would recommend? This is the time of year to find deals. Here is what I have. I'm running two SATA HDDs, both 7,200 RPM. One is 1TB (with the OS and swap file) and the other is 2TB (with FSX and add ons). http://imageshack.us/a/img41/5631/2pzx.jpg http://imageshack.us/a/img28/6287/rr16.jpg http://imageshack.us/a/img5/6199/fh07.jpg

Hello, Quick Background: I am currently an FS9 user but looking to upgrade to FSX. I exclusively use complex aircraft add-ons, such as PMDG and Level-D, and with ActiveSky and varied scenery airports / landclass in FS9. I'm not too worried about being able to run scenery enhancements from the get-go in FSX since I'm also going to have to spend a chunk of money on basic FSX add-ons (PMDG, ActiveSky, etc.). I currently run FS9 on max settings and sit around 60-70FPS. I don't really expect max settings in FSX but I want them to be high or have room to add scenery enhancements (such as GEX or UTX) when the time comes. I don't really intend on OC'ing anything. I'…

Hi, I have just received my new rig and venturing into the overclocking arena before starting all the various software installations. The system is intel i5 4670 3.4Ghz, AsRock Z87 Extreme 3. The Bios is only letting me moving the slider to 3.8Ghz...that is the maximum that the slider indicates. I intended to overclock the system to 4.2GHz. Any ideas please because I am completely stuck and also the first time I am trying to do this....do I need other software maybe or is there some other options in the BIOS that I am missing maybe. tks emann

During my long haul flight with the 777LRX yesterday.. all of my USB ports on the back panel seemed to stop functioning. I came back to the PC after leaving it in cruise for some time and noticed the light on my mouse was dead. After further investigation I realized none of the ports on the back of the PC were working.. keyboard, mouse, rudder pedals. However, I have my CH Yoke and X52 throttle plugged into the front panel ports and both seemed to work fine. Ultimately I had to scrap a 13 hour flight 20 minutes from the TOD because of this, which was pretty frustrating. Heres the strange part that I cant seem to figure out.. the device manager shows no flags or probl…

Hi, Anyone who has upgraded from the old I7-920/960 with Haswell ? There should be some improvement about 10-20% with same CPU speed because of a more effective work performance but i have not heard about it in practice. Anyone who has done a bench? Thanks Michael Moe

Soo finally after spending 3 weeks refreshing the page every hour on Newegg the ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition came available for about 3 hours and sold out. I was lucky enough to be so OCD that I got my order in along with a 4930 six core beauty. Hip Hipp Hurray!! This is the best Motherboard to ever be released - IMO. Total Overkill for FSX (and too spendy) but for what I do for a living it is great! Ok for you total Geeks look at this baby.

I have FSX, P3D and some games on a mechanical hard drive and am considering cloning it over to an SSD. Will my add-ons work correctly after the move? I have payware aircraft from most of the major publishers. Are there some, such as PMDG, that will require uninstalling and reinstalling after the change? I understand FSX should work correctly but that P3D requires an uninstall and reinstall. Any tips? Thanks.

Hi all pros I've been reading about maximizing my performance the i encounted sentences like "fsx is more familiar with no hyperthreading","affinitymask=xx tweak doesnt work" and other stuff you may know or not.i run my fsx on my 13' macbookpro early 2011 with i7 2620m(dual core) cpu and 6gb ram.wanted to know : do i have to disable hyperthreading on my cpu? Which affinitymask do i have to use? Any othe tweaks to make my fsx run faster? Is task manager solution (change fsx.exe affinity to only core0 and core1) sufficient? Thanks

Currently i have an intel i52500k overclocked to 4.5 ghz. It is paired with and nvidia 660ti. I have a little cash to burn, would it be worthwhile to upgrade to an i7 3770k or upgrade the gpu to a 770. This is for fsx.

I will be home building this setup soon if it passes the critical test - picky AVSIM users! CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter Case: Cooler Master Storm Stryker (White) ATX Full Tower Case Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply Optical Drive: Sam…

Hello, I have my main computer which is fine for everyday tasks, but would like to build a faster one for FSX. I would like to just build a fast system and just network it so I can keep my monitor, hardware etc. on the main machine and just run FSX from the faster one. Is this possible? Thanks, David

Hi all So recently I went on the Windows Experience Index, and I clicked on the "View and print detailed performance and system information" thing to check out my specs. At the bottom of the list, there was a footnote that made me a little bit worried. I checked on 2 other computers at my house and neither of them have this message. Should I be worried? Is my HD about to die? :unsure:

Folks, I'm looking to add an additional drive to my system for scenery, aircraft add-ons, etc... My system currently has an SSD for the OS, and SSD for FSX and I have the option of either using an older Corsair P256 SSD (256GB) or an older 300GB VelociRaptor. I believe I can use SATA II for either drive. Which will give me the best performance? I'll be most likely using it to load photo-real scenery etc. Also, is there a tutorial on how to point FSX to load the scenery if its stored on a second drive? Thanks in advance for any advice!

About to get a new case. Thinking about either the antec 1100 or the corsair obsidian 750d. Or... are there better ones? It needs to be spacious but not too large. It needs to disassemble pretty good so I can color spray the inside. Needs to have excellent cable management. Room for atleast a 240x120 radiator Budgetwise the ceiling is about 250. P.s. I can also get a little devil ld pc-v8, but I think it is huge. Anyone has experience with that one? Thanks

Hello I am going to buy a new computer, so, I would like to know. What hardware do I actually need to use and what do I need to do with it to get nice and smooth 30 FPS or around that with this bird, some complex heavy scenery, that I would usually use, some heavy weather conditions, and perhaps, some other add-ons? Thank You Best Regards

Hi everyone. I started a topic elsewhere in this forum but it seems to have gotten lost in the hustle and bustle. Anyways, I Just checked on my savings for a new sim rig for P3D v2 and i have around 1200 dollars to spend. My main question is, do i go AMD or Intel? Now that v2 is out, it appears that it uses more of the GPU than the CPU. If that's the case, does it really matter with what processors i go with or does it still. If so, Id really really appreciate some feedback before I throw a chunk of money out at newegg. Thanks

I was using the DX10 fixer but I've switched back to DX9 because the fixer didn't like PMDG very much. Very stuttery in DX10 but smooth in DX9. I really like FSX built-in bloom but it kills my fps in DX9. I'm wondering if the bloom is handled by the CPU or GPU? If it's GPU, can anyone recommend an Nvidia card that will let me keep my current fps with bloom enabled? I'd prefer an efficient card because I think my power supply is only 550w. It's a Modu 82+. Any help greatly appreciated.

For those wondering what GPU to get and whether the upgrade is worth it, I would suggest perusing these hierarchy charts. Depending on your current GPU, the upgrade you want may not be the best performance/value or that big of difference given the money when another card that is $40 more gets you a much bigger boost. Same principle applies to CPUs. Also beware of knowing what your power supply is. Most of these high end cards demand alot more power. You should have at least a very good quality 600W power supply or else your asking for problems. Quality equals clean power vs power that fluctuates and can cause computer resets. Hope it helps out. http://www…

hi all, I`ve just installed orbx and rex on fsx acceleration and i`m struggling to get above 20 fps with my current system: [email protected] hd7950 16gb corsair ram orbx and rex installed framerate externally locked to 30fps bojotes tweaks It doesnt seem to make a difference where i`m in the level d 767 or the standard aircraft? could anyone give me any advice? cfg file is attached below // This file was tweaked on Nov 25, 2013 at 22:08 GMT using Bojote's automated FSX Tweaking & Tuning Service // Your 'original' fsx.CFG file was backed up at http://www.venetubo.com/fsx/59199ca0e8461f0af2a60142f49ffd15/backup/fsx_backup.cfg // This file is optimi…

Overclocked as my CPU is, is it worthwhile to upgrade to the IB or Haswell? Mainly use my rig for flight simming (FSX and DCSW) and gaming like Skyrim. Moving to a new CPU means a new MOBO, which means moving from triple channel RAM to dual channel RAM and a newer SSD as my OS drive (v2 sandforce doesnt work on z87 and maybe a77 either). So, quite a costly upgrade for me and my budget is tight. Would I be better off upgrading just the GPU and increasing RAM? If so, could I expect any FPS improvements with FSX? Cheers.

http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1123&page=14 Quote : "Having a closer look at the results we gathered while testing eight different games and two different benchmarks with two different presets, we see that the Core i7-4770K, with our "low-preset" is on average 6.4 percent faster than the Core i7-2600K. Switching to our "high-preset" makes the Core i7-4770K's become 1.1 percent quicker than the Core i7-2600K. Overclocking the Core i7-4770K to 4.5 GHz makes the performance with our "low-preset" go up by 11 percent but when it comes to the high-preset the increase in performance is only 1 percent. Regarding the Core i7-2600…

Hey guys, I used to be a rather hardcore simmer for many years. Some years ago I had to give up simming beuase my old rig couldn't deliver what I wanted for a sim experience anymore. I decided to start from scratch and I'll be giving myself a completely new rig for Xmas this year. I might know something about flying, but I know absolutely nothing about building a PC and overclocking and all these fancy things that we need to know nowadays to be able to sim with sliders maxed out. Thus I came here for your help. Below is a list of the things I'm thinking about buying for this new setup. Most of the stuff you'll see below are suggestions from Ryan who works at PMDG and …

Hi all, I am currently running the following system specifications: Intel i3-2120 Sandybridge Core i3 Dual-Core Processor Asus P8H61-M LE/USB3 Motherboard CiT Orion Midi Tower Gaming Case 2x Red LED Fan with Side Window Corsair memory 8GB SODIMM (2x4GB) Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F2 EcoGreen SATA II 300 32MB Ace PSU 600W 12cm red fan Samsung DVD RW Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler Palit Graphics Card 512MB GeForce 8400GS super DDR3 Microsoft Wired Desktop 600 Windows 7 Professional I currently use Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 with the following add-ons: UK2000, Aerosoft, SimWings sceneries. Ground Environment Professional ActiveSky 6.5 iFly 737, PMDG 7…

Hi, I currently have this setup: Asus iv z68 extreme gene-z board i2500k overclocked to 4,9 ghz stable 8gb gskill 1600mhz msi gtx 570 overclocked Samsung S27A950 27" 120hz 2 ssds, crucial m4 128gb and ocz vertex 3 60gb. Im happy with my pc that i now have for 1 year. But in fsx with the ngx @eham and clouds the perforamnce is ok but not smooth enough. I have some money to spent but not enough for a entirly new pc. My question is: is it wise to upgrade to an 770 / 780 with 2133 faster memory? And is the fps and smooth difference between 2500k / 4740k big? Thanks!

I was wondering if someone would be able to help me understand XMP. As I understand it, it allowes you to auto OC your memory in the BIOS under XMP. Does it allow you to manually adjust it as well? I'm looking to build my own computer and thinking of getting the ASUS Sabertooth with GSKILL 2400 9-11-11-31. Newegg offers two of these. One that is outrageous in cost and is on the QVL list under ASUS Sabertooth, and the other is lower in price but not on the list. Would I still be able to set up the lower cost one under XMP, or am I taking a chance that it may or may not work? The two I'm looking at are the Trident X Series 16GB (4x4GB F3-2400C9Q-16GTXD not on the QVL list) …