Aquila Computer Systems Gamezilla
Reviewed by Rob Scott
September 2011
Upgrading your system is one of the most expensive and
frustrating areas of our hobby. Each time we upgrade we do so
knowing that in a couple of months the system we have just
bought will already be out of date. Yet we continue to chase the
ever elusive Flight Simulation Nirvana where frame rates are no
longer an issue. But as soon as we have better hardware the
developers release yet another add-on that pushes the boundaries
of our systems even further and the circle starts again.
I had planned to upgrade my system next year but a few months
ago my ageing Nvdia 8800GTX graphics card decided that enough
was enough and broke. I was unable to find a replacement card at
a reasonable price so had to take the leap and set about
upgrading my new system.
The two areas
that were not open to negotiation as far as I was
concerned was that the processor had to be an Intel Core i7 and
the price to be as close to £1,500 as possible. Studies have
shown that FSX is more dependant on processor power than any
other component of the system. But with an i7 comes a large
price tag and parts were juggled around and after a few days the
prices didn't come down and I began to think that I wouldn't be
able to get what I wanted for the price I wanted.
Tracking Down Auilla
There is a referral system running on twitter, hashtag #msrfr,
where people can request help or a recommendation for something
and more often than not you will have a reply before the day is
out. So that is what I did 'Looking for someone to build a high
end FSX specific PC #msrfr'.
Within a couple of hours I had 4
replies. I contacted each company individually and explained
what it was that I wanted. 1 company gave me a price that was so
low I immediately ruled them out as there was no way it could be
done, another company totally ignored what I had asked for an
designed me a mega system that cost almost £3,000 and the 3rd
company never came back to me. The 4th company were Aquila, who
made contact but said that it would take a few days to come back
to me because their lead technical expert was away when I made
the request.
This immediately got my attention as they had
listened to what I wanted and seemed to have someone that would
be able to help me. They called me on the day that they said
they would and I spoke with their technical guy for 20-30 mins
explaining what I wanted from the new system. He explained the
services that they offered and that they would not rush a new
system out of the door. Each system is built and tested several
times to make sure that it is in full working order. They even
offered to install FSX and both service packs for me if I wanted
(from my own copies). An offer which I took up later on.
After our initial chat I waited for a day or so until they have
drawn up the quote for me, which had everything I wanted
included and was only just over my budget. I accepted the quote,
dispatched my FSX DVD's and waited for a couple of weeks for the
system to arrive.
Incidentally, a local company did offer me the same price as
Aquila for the same system, but my gut feeling was that Aquila
were more knowledgeable about what they do.
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System Specifications
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Delivery & Installation
The delivery was the part that I was most worried about. Aquila
are located in Weymouth and I am 300 miles away in West
Yorkshire – picking up the system myself was not an option.
Thankfully the system arrived via courier and was VERY well
packaged. It took me close to 30mins just to get it unpacked.
The system came in a cardboard box and was wrapped in bubble
wrap and then protected by a polystyrene case. Setting
up/Installing the new system was a breeze as it is something
I've done many times before. The one thing that I was surprised
about was the sheer size of it – almost double the height of my
last system. I had to disassemble my desk in order to get the
system underneath it, then rebuild the desk around it.
Loading Up
The first thing that struck me when I booted up the new system
for the first time (apart from it being very green) was the
speed of it – thanks to the SSD boot drive. With the previous
system I used to go make a drink whilst it was booting up. The
next thing that I noticed (or didn't) was the noise – it is
practically silent.
When Aquila had installed Windows and FSX for me I had asked
that they do so under different user accounts – one account for
FSX and one for everything else. My previous system had
everything under the same user profile and things became a
nightmare to find.
Maiden Flight
Before I installed any of my add-ons I went for a test flight in
the default C208 over Northern England (with VFR scenery
installed) just to see what sort of performance I was getting,
and was the i7 as good as it claims to be. The frame rates were
astounding: I was getting over 300fps!
This was not a momentary spike either as was confirmed by
several checks during the flight. This was achieved by just
using the settings that FSX calculated to be the best for my new
system, but even when I started installing add-ons and adjusting
the settings I was still getting 40+ fps sat on the ground in
the iFly 737 at EGLL with 65% AI running.
Even though I have a large 1.5 TB hard drive to install add-ons
onto, I have only installed the ones which I am going to
regularly use. After each time I have installed something new I
perform a full system de fragmentation using Ultimate Defrag to
keep the hard drive running optimally. I usually set this going
when I have finished with the PC for that day and let it auto
shut down when complete.
Conclusion
After using the system now for the past 2 months it hasn't
caused me a single problem. Admittedly with it being so powerful
it has been a lot easier to find the sweet spot to get FSX
running as I want, but I still have a few different scenery
settings saved for different scenarios so that I can get the
best out of it.
Whilst the system did not come cheap I am very happy with the
price I paid for the service I received from Aquila. They
listened to what I wanted and tailor made the system to suit me
and my budget. If they hadn't contacted me I would never have
used them because I'd not heard of them before and they didn't
show up in any of my google searches, but now that I have used
them I will gladly do so again in the future.
I'm not going to award a Mutley's Hangar score for this system
primarily because if you throw enough money at a system you can
build a fantastic machine. But for the service given and
knowledge from Aquila they easily score 10/10.
If you are in the market for a new FSX System or system upgrade,
please consider Aquila before going anywhere else.
http://www.e-aquila.com/