Help please! Newbie help choosing new pc for FSX.

[Christopher Low 63]

The rule of thumb with Nvidia cards is "6 or greater". For example, I have a 560Ti in my current PC. Bearing that in mind, I would not consider the 750Ti.

[mutley 4,487]

Andy, great to put a photo to the name, thanks!

 

Chris, I must admit to being confused by your post? Why would you not consider the 5Ti? I take it the card should be a x6x type? You have a much better grasp on these things then I do 

[Andy Martin 0]

Still awaiting the final quote from my pc shop but they are reckoning around £760 with an intel i5 4690k, GTX760 2gb card, 8gb RAM, no operating system.  The card is £250 in pc world, but i reckon they are charging me around £300. Ive just seen a couple go on ebay for £120 ish.  

Would therefore sourcing my own card and operating system(windows 7 on ebay £40, shop want £90!) be a good way to save some pennies, and would a computer novice like myself be able to install windows 7 and a graphics card?!

or,....as Chris mentions the x6x series cards, could i save quite a bit by going for a 660GTx 2gb instead or is this card nowhere near as good as a 760GTx 2gb.   Im a great believer in getting what you pay for!

 

Regards

Andy

[mutley 4,487]

Andy,

 

It's all down to research and comparing the specs of the two cards. What you have to decide is if you want to pay more for the better card. In all honesty you will probably notice no difference if they are close models so long as you have the 2GB graphics card memory. FSX cares more about processor power than graphics power. FSX will run brilliantly on all the more recent systems we have discussed so far, it's the scenery and complex aircraft that will eat up the frames per second. So long as you can maintain 30FPS (It will more likely be 100FPS!)   in the default set up then you are doing well, that's double what I could get when FSX was first released.

 

Have you spoken to Novatech.co.uk in Porchester yet? I have spent a lot of money there over the years and always found them helpful and competitive on price and they're local too. Don't go to PC World they will just rip you off without any care or attention.

 

Now, to install Win 7, stick the CD/DVD in the drive and boot up, the program does the rest then install the graphics card, they are pretty much plug and play. After installation download the latest drivers from nVidia.

 

Standing by if you need more of my numpty advice!

 

 

 

 

 

[vortex 0]

Andy,

 

Have a look at http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html to get some good advice (and some surprising facts) about building the ideal system for FSX. It's a long read but worth it.

[Andy Martin 0]

Joe,  yes ive costed a system out on PC Specialist, and novatech and they are a similar price to my local shop although im still awaiting their final quote and specs, especially what motherboard they are quoting for.   Im hoping they let me have their quote tomorow.

Regards

Andy

[Christopher Low 63]

Andy,

 

The 2GB GTX 760 that PC Specialist quoted in my specification was £151 + VAT. I have since upgraded that to a GTX 770, which cost me an additional £53 + VAT.

 

Joe,

 

The 750Ti is a "5" card (so to speak). I would personally not consider anything less than a 760.

[flybytes 34]

Andy,

 

Good that you do have a competitive dealer on your doorstep. Having lived for many years down on the south coast, I do find that here in East Yorkshire there is a dearth of technology based shops (during this recession 2 out of the 3 photography stores in town closed down, i.e Jessops & Jacobs).

 

In fact I've worked in so-called 3rd world countries with more hands on retail technology than here in the north of England.

 

If I need to purchase anything electronic/photographic I really have no option but to go on-line.

 

Ray.

 

[Andy Martin 0]

Ok so ive been quoted £760 from my pc shop for a i5 4790k. 8gb Ram. GTX760 2gb card 1tb hard drive BUT I was hoping for an Asus z97a motherboard as from other posts on here that seems a good choice. They have quoted for the following board instead;
GIGABYTE GA-H81M-DS2V MATX 1150 SOCKET.
If that makes any sense then my question of course is, is this board any good and how does it compare to a z97a?
If I want a z97a I am looking at another £105! This is getting very pricy, I may have to review my idea of using my local dealer at this rate!

 

By the way, has anyone heard of Millenium Computers from Stoke on Trent.  They have the system above on ebay with the z97a board, no o/s for £623 which is a good price.

Regards
Andy

 

[flybytes 34]

Andy,

 

Bite the bullet & go for it! Whatever you buy will seem wonderful compared to your current or past PC.

 

A word of advice (wisdom?) is to use components from the same manufacturer where possible - they should be compatible with each other & if not that manufacturer cannot pass the buck.

 

Having worked in electronic manufacturing for most of my life, even the big global names get international standards of tolerance wrong occasionally.

 

I paid slightly extra for my Asus graphics card, knowing it should work well with my Asus motherboard.

 

That's not saying that Asus is any better or worse than any other company manufacturing graphic cards or motherboards.

 

Ray.

 

 

[Christopher Low 63]

My PC has been operational for one week. It's working fine. However, I have just noticed that the clock is running very slow tonight. It has fallen 30 minutes behind in less than two hours. Amazingly, that sounds like a drained CMOS battery to me. After one week!!???

[Andy Martin 0]

Morning all.  So ive got my shiny new pc and im trying to install FSX to my external hard drive as recomended on here.   Do i have to make a folder within the drive to install fsx into as it says cannot install into root of the drive?    For now ive just made a folder called program files>FSX      Is that the correct thing to do?   

 

   Ive downloaded service pack 1 and 2 but do they install straight into the FSX folder in my external hard drive or do i have to manually get them in there somehow?    They seemed to have both installed but i cant see where they are!?

 

As always, any help is much appreciated 

Regards

Andy

[mutley 4,487]

Hi Andy, your installation folder sounds just fine, my folder is called simply FSX!

You will only see the effect of the service pack numbering on the help/about menu after you have started flight sim.

Sounds like you are good to go, congratulations!

[brett 2,283]

Hi Andy, I would recommend installing the Acceleration Expansion Pack instead of the Sp's as it adds so much more to FSX stability from what I have read. JMO  

 

Good luck with the new rig.

[Andy Martin 0]

This seems odd but i cant find the fsx.cfg file anywhere in my external drive ?!    There are loads of other fsx related files and folders there but no fsx.cfg.    There is a display cfg, airlines cfg, scenery cfg etc but no fsx.cfg.

Im trying to find it to do some tweeks as suggested on the computer system the bible by nick n.   

can anyone help me find it please?

Regards

Andy

[mutley 4,487]

Hi Andy,

 

Although FSX is on the external drive, the fsx.cfg will still be in the same place ie C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\fsx.CFG

 

Cheers,

Joe

[Andy Martin 0]

Thanks for that joe, and yes ive found it where you suggested. Why do some fsx files install into my c drive even though I installed fsx onto my external drive?!

And can I move the fsx.cfg file and the others into my external drive or must they remain in the c drive?

Thanks

Andy

[mutley 4,487]

Hi Andy, you can't change the location of those config and scenery files, suffice to say, their location is set in stone.

 

You should be good to go, any add-ons you install should find your new FSX location automatically and if they are scenery files they will find your scenery.cfg file from the registry entries which will point the program to the C: drive config files and install the on your FSX drive.

 

Cheers,

Joe

 

 

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I decided to rebuild my machine based on spec in here...wish I had found this before purchasing my FSX machine in the first place.

 

Im having the AMD CPU changed out, motherboard, AMD graphic card, and Operating System all replaced...and adding a CPU cooler.

 

Nearly a complete rebuild I'm keeping my RAM, and hard drives.

 

 

From Christopher Low's suggested build I am switching to:

 

Asus Z97-A motherboard
Intel Core i5 4690k CPU
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
and
2GB GeForce GTX 760 GPU

 

And I am switching to Windows7 from Windows8.0

 

It will be rather expensive, but a non-working machine, or even a dodgy working machine is worthless to me if I can't use the Simulator or the Addons ...which frankly cost more than the computer system...even after the upgrade.

 

[brett 2,283]

Good luck with it, sounds like a winner.

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Thanks Brett...but ouch...Im going to wait on the graphic card for a little bit. That is more expensive than I thought it would be. After the next Paycheck or two perhaps.

Forgot to add, I am also increasing the power supply as well...to a 750 from a stock 400 watt.

[Destin65 1]

 I never heard anyone say, "I wish I'd gotten a more expensive case." Cooling is more important that LEDs that do nothing.

 

You give great advice, however, I have said that very statement due in large part to cooling and non-esthetic issues.   ;-)

For example, in building my computer I was looking to get the best bang for the buck, a nice looking case that had high airflow with lots of room. I settled on the HAF 922 by Cooler Master. Great case, however, big drawbacks. Only the front air intake areas have screen filtering. No filtering on the two large intakes on the bottom, nor the huge ones on the side and top of the case. Granted the top is meant for exhaust flow but the area is purposely enlarged beyond the size of the actual fan so as to allow pressure relief airflow, I forget the exact term but basically no fan should be a flush fit, which allows for some recirculation that can pull dust in from the flowing going back in at the edges of the fan. Also, when not in use the top of the case has no protection against dust settling on top and entering the large hole to settle inside the computer. I have to clean my computer out reguarly, which is a big PIA because of all the work involved dismantling everything, not to mention the constant money spent on cans of air. Inside often looks as filthy as the outside.

Now I am regretting not getting a more expensive choice in the Silverstone Raven case which has body molding protections against dust combined with easy-to-remove filters for all possible intake areas that come included with the case. Whereas my teardown and cleaning takes upwards of 30 minutes a Raven owner can pop-off or slide out a few filters and be cleaned up in just a few minutes.