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

Getting ready to build a new box. Just wondering how people have their drives configured? Should it be something like SSD's for OS and P3D and HDD for add on scenery? Any recommendations in terms of SSDs?

Hi all Its been a couple of years since i did a major system build/upgrade. Im just beginning to consider a new one! Currently i have: - i7 4930k (not OC'd - my case runs too hot! I have even had to turn off the Intel turbo facility on an aftermarket air cooler) - 8GB RAM (do not remember exactly what sort...) - 780 GTX OC GPU I run P3D v3.x, and exclusively use PMDG, MJC and A2A aircraft. I want it to be FSL A320 ready though!!!! My current system does OK in all but heavy weather. My other addons are GEX, UTX, AS16/ASCA, REX4 (for airport textures only now), UK2000/FSDT/FB airports. I do not have traffic enabled and I don't fly online. I have a CH Flightstick …

What would be a typical recommended specification for a home office PC these days? This would not be for games, so it only needs to be powerful enough to run office type software, but also able to play back videos/BBC iPlayer etc without stutters. My dad's PC must be nine or ten years old now, and it is getting slower and slower (and probably about to expire), so he needs a cost effective replacement. Does it even need a separate graphics card, or would a HD graphics chip on the motherboard be good enough? 8GB RAM? What about the CPU? I guess virtually any processor would run office software without problems these days? Any suggestions?

Simple question, preferably answered by someone with actual experience of the two CPU's. Which would be best for FSX (only FSX), i5 4460 at stock speed 3,2GHZ(3.4GHZ boost) or an overclocked Pentium G3258 at somewhere between 4.4-4.7GHz? Paired with a GTX 960.

Hi guys, recently upgraded my PC, my old ASUS mobo kept the external USB ports alive on the front of my ATX tower, this was especially useful as I use a mobile broadband dongle (remote Australia no bb available), and my PC has no wifi capability. So my pc could go online via USB, but also the dongle would stay alive for all my other needs when the PC was off. My upgrade was to an MSI Gaming 5 mobo. Now the usb ports are no longer powered when PC is shut down, I cant find a setting to change this so far. One strange thing I did notice though, is that when I was setting up my overclock and got a bsod, if I forced the PC off by holding in the power button then the …

I'd be grateful for advice on this proposed rig. I have overclocked before but am inexperienced at it, and extremely nervous. So, I'm aiming for a straight 'fast machine'. I run P3D v3 mostly, but I want the rig to be X-Plane 11 'ready'. CPU: Skylake or Broadwell? Or even Haswell? 6700K or 6700? or what? Motherboard: Asus Z170-A, assuming a Skylake CPU. Memory: DDR4 GSkill Ripjaw V 3200 MHz low latency. Graphics: GTX 1070 EVGA 8GB - there are several EVGA cards that fit this description, with only marginal differences in speed - is it worth spending more for that? Air Cooling: Noctua NH-D15S. Power Supply: Existing PS is Corsair GS 800W but is 6 years…

I'm just about to rebuild my rig and have thought very hard about the i7 4790K, as opposed to the Skylake 6700, mainly because every comparison and benchmark charts I've seen, the 4790k out performs the Skylake quite a lot. But loads of the guys on here all rave about the Skylake. I'm wondering if it is a question of the emperor's clothes or if in fact the 6700 is a better performing chip?

I am looking at eventually building a new PC, and I have noticed there are quite a few CPU to choose from these days. Ive been out the loop a few years now. What is the best CPU to use, for X-plane 10 and soon to be 11...... I see the most expensive one I can purchase seems to be this 10 core 6950x ? Is this what I should get? Thanks Ian

I mentioned not so long back, that as soon as I'd built my new rig I'd give Asus 5WO a bash, as opposed to my usual approach, namely manual overclocking in the BIOS. Well finally that time has come. I 'd noticed how many that criticise the software had either confused 5WO with the "one size fits all" TPU 1 and TPU 2 fixed overclocks, or simply weren't aware of the capabilities of the software and had made bad choices with the settings. It's true however that some do have genuine issues, as with all software. My first bash was less than impressive, I elected to enable AVX for the 5WO stress test and achieved a meagre 4.4 GHz. No point really as I never run Prime95, Ado…

Hi all Exciting news - i bit the bullet and new PC ordered. I have gone for a 6700K, Asrock OC Z170 board, 16GB 2666MHz memory, and 1070 GTX card My aim is to overclock to 4.6Ghz and use XMP. I have a H115i AIO water cooler coming too. The question to you good folks is: What OC/test tools do you recommend to get me up and running? I will need temp measurement, stress testing and perhaps memory testing software. Its been a while since I last did an OC so am out of the loop. My research on whats best has been inconclusive. I'm not looking to prove to the world that I'm stable with some insane test, I'm just after something that will test my OC robustly enoug…

Hi folks, With the Flightsimlabs A320 out and only around 10 FPS around large airports, I am considering to exchange my i5-4670K (OCed at 4.2 GHz) for a i7-4790K. Looking at the rest of my setup (in the signature) - do you think this change would give me considerably more FPS? Would I have to expand the DDRAM as well? Or am I bottlenecked by my GPU, anyhow? Looking forward to some input, Holger

Hey all, No questions here just a happy simmer After a few years of saving for a house and getting married last April, i was finally able to save and buy parts for my new build and stop using P3D with and AMD 7770 series GPU and an i7 2600 (non k) Dell PC What a difference its completely reignited my passion for flight sim.And thanks to Robs P3D guide which came out right on time i am experiencing flight sim like never before & i haven't even switched to 4k monitor yet. My New Build: Asus z-170 deluxe 32 GB Crosair dominator platinum 3000mhz i7 6700 k Corsair H100i v2 water cooler 3 x 1 TB Samsung evo SSD 1 x 500GB scandisdisk SSD for OS Win 10 64 b…

I was wondering if there is any advantage of an external SSD drive vs. internal if I were to reinstall FSX on it's own drive. Would the external have any performance disadvantage being plugged into an outside port? Seems an external would be less heat inside the case. Thanks, Vic Green

Just installed a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD to replace a 300GB WD Velociraptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache). I migrated (cloned) my WD drive to the SSD using Samsung's Migration software. Using Samsung's Magician software I performed all the optimizations including settings for OS maximum performance, performance optimization (TRIM) and enabling RAPID mode. I also conducted Samsung's SSD performance benchmark testing. The reason I installed the SSD was to SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the time FSX takes to load a flight. Observing the time it took to load several of my default Cessna flights, the time required was usually between 2-3 minutes. I did not perform exact loading time…

Hi all! I am considering to buy a new ultraportable laptop. It would be great if it could run fs x. The one I am looking at is the surface pro 4. Specs: Processor: Intel Core i7-6650U 2.2Ghz, boost to 3.4Ghz Graphics: Intel Iris 540 Ram: 8Gb I know these specs are quite low, I would just like to know if it would run fs x and pmdg 737 at around 30 fps, on airports that are not busy, no other traffic etc, medium graphics settings.. Thank you for your response!

Hello guys, I am running FSX and currently have i7-4790 CPU. Thinking to upgrade to i7-6700k. What i hope to improve is the flicker/jumping when turning any plane sharply at an airport. I would like to get a smoother turn. Would a new CPU help? I don't get too bothered airborne, but on the ground its not very smooth. Not considering moving to P3D yet, i have too many airports, aircraft and ORBX stuff that i don't want to have to re-purchase. Realize i have to get another mobo too. What do you think? What should I do? Appreciate suggestions!! cheers

Reference the lawsuit pertaining to the GTX 970's? I have one, I'm not sure if I want to participate or not.

I usually operate my PC using Team viewer since I travel a lot and I could not connect to my new build (I could connect to my old PC) so the issue was not the internet to my home but something else.. I came home just now and I find my prime PC Simulator is dead ..completely dead. Not a light on my MB. I changed the source of the power plug and no go I am hoping its just my PSU and not my MB. IF that is the case, I can use this opportunity to get a bigger case, new PSU and a water cooler and I should be back in business. But if its my MB that is dead then I am worried I would have to get a new OS and reinstall everything since it would look like a new PC to …

:wink: Hi folks! Nice to post again, the reason is that i want to buy a new computer, it's time to an upgrade! My recent PC is a laptop, i was able to run FSX with 30 in default aircraft and some Carenado Fps, orbx, rex 4 , UTX North America, it's a potato, AMD E-300 1.3 gHz 2 gb RAM (1.6 usable) AMD 6310 (APU) I am too happy with the experience, despite it has only 1.3 ghz and a little amount of RAM I want to make a change, I AM not sure if i will buy a new computer, i need your help, I want to know if the following pc can run P3D. INTEL CORE I3-3220 RAM 8GB DDR3 running at 1600MHZ SEAGATE 1TB (1000GB) SATA 3 6GB/S, 7200RPM Power Supply 600 WATTS GRAPHIC…

Hi, all, I'm a newbie to this forum. I've been building a cockpit over the past several months and am now building a new PC to run it. These are my specs: Intel Core i5-6600k 3.5GHz Cryorig H7 49 CFM cooler MSI Z170A Krait Gaming 3X motherboard MSI GeForce GT 710 MSI GeForce GTX950 2GB G.Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4 16GB Crucial MX300 535GB SSD DIYPC S280-W case EVGA 100-B1-0500-KR 500W power supply I have been running MS-FSX Gold Edition w/Acceleration on Windows 7 with these add-ons: Orbx-FTX: Global BASE Orbx-FTX:VECTOR REX4 Texture Direct w/ REX Soft Clouds My Questions are: Do I stick with Windows 7 or move to Windows 10? Do I stick with FSX or is there an advantag…

Good afternoon, I am a Flight Sim enthusiast for almost 17 years, but my last PC was bought around 8 years ago :-) Although, I have bought a pretty strong laptop (Sony VAIO) 3 years ago, it's not good enough to run FSX or P3D. For the last year and half, I used FS2004 on my laptop (14.6' laptop) flying LEVEL-D 767 everywhere I could. Due to recent developments, I have decided to build a new PC in order to continue where I stopped and to finally evolve. My plans are pretty much to run P3D V3 on the highest possible definitions while using PMDG 73/77 and other add-on's such as AS2016, AS scenery etc. I intend to overclock for what it matters. I would be d…

My 250GB SSD is nearly full. Should I buy one bigger one (500GB) or is it possible to buy another 250GB and group them in RAID 0? Are there any advantages or disadvantages of either approach?

If I buy a new bigger SDD and copy all the P3D v3 files from the old one to the new one and designate the same disk letter to it will everything work as nothing happened or will everything go bye-bye and I'll have to reinstall everything?

I know that if mechanic hard disk is nearly full the performance drops. How this works with SDD? My flight sim SDD is getting pretty full and I'd like to know if this affects the performance?