Requesting advice on computer replacemet

[Falcon]

Hey guys, I am going to have to finally give up my ancient HP with Vista OS, 4gig ram, 2.6 processor etc. I will be running both FSX and FS 2004 maybe.
I need suggestions of the Processor, HD and GPU! Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Denny H aka Falcon

[Tony Madge - HJG]

Hi Denny, the big question is how big is your budget, will you be buying a complete system or building your own?

[Peter Liddell - HJG Admin]

Recommendations abound... if FSX/P3D is your only goal then for something reasonable:

Intel i5 6600k
16GB RAM
GeForce GTX1070
1TB+ storage
256GB SSD drive


To goose it a little
i7 6700k
16GB RAM
GTX1080 or wait on the GTX11xx in a couple months


Not to say AMD isn't worth looking at... or non-K Intels... it all comes down to your price range.

But if you are building your own... my best site recommendation for you: PC Part Picker

Just change the country as appropriate and it'll find you "best" prices of it's listed online vendors... which is usually the major ones where you are.

[canuck]

I used this site as a rough guide when I built my last system. The only problem is the US pricing but it does suggest what goes with what and what doesn't.

pcpartpicker.com/search/?cc=us&q=MSI760G-E51

[Peter Liddell - HJG Admin]

you can change the country (for local pricing/sources) in the top right corner...

[canuck]

Jul 24, 2017 19:41:59 GMT Peter Liddell - HJG Admin said:

you can change the country (for local pricing/sources) in the top right corner...

Blimey I never even noticed that. I used the site for suggestions and then went off to NCIX, Egg or Tiger to compare prices that way.

[Nathan Ford - HJG]

I would go with Peters first choice but get a bigger SSD.
The GTX1070 graphics card is more than good enough and you don't need the hyper threading of the i7 unless you are editing videos. Something definitely worth getting is water cooling.

Cheers,

Nathan

[Falcon]

Hey thanks guys. great ideas and I will sure follow up on them. Cost is somewhat of an issue, however that all depends on how many more quilts my wife is going to have done! I really like all your suggestions, and thank you all again!
Denny

[Nathan Ford - HJG]

Dump the SSD drive, although you can get a HDD with a built in SSD buffer and get the GTX 1070 or even a GTX 970 on special. If you can't afford a liquid cooler, look at one of these....

Antec C40


They are a great little cooler and so much better than the one that comes with the i5. I ran one in my daughters computer for all of her gaming.

Cheers,

Nathan.

[Falcon]

Thanks Nathan, looking into it. This computer I'm on is about ready to sht the bed. Thanks again to my "Down Under" friend.
Denny

[Peter Liddell - HJG Admin]

Denny bang for buck here's 2 options with decent performance and recent though not most current generation parts:

AMD FX-8350: pcpartpicker.com/list/cy4b9W

Intel i5: pcpartpicker.com/list/hY96tJ

Using the GTX 1050ti budget performance video card, AMD is about 100 less than Intel but also a bit slower and slightly older gen processor.

For a more recent AMD option there is:

pcpartpicker.com/list/YZJrjc

But be aware, Ryzen core have seen some performance issues with FS9 (random crashes), if you are only interested in FSX/P3D/XPlane11 then it's fine.

Also case is a personal thing, you can go cheaper easily enough, and i added a DVD drive that if you don't want you can save a whopping $18 or less on!

Intel will be better performance on FS9/FSX, but on xplane the advantage shrinks. On P3D I still haven't seen any authoritative comparison but i would guess Intel will still edge above AMD.

[Falcon]

Thanks Peter, I'll keep that in mind. I have to decide soon what I'm going to do. I want to build it, or rather have someone build it with my choice of hardware. You guys are great!
Denny

[Falcon]

I have a question. Why is it that you can get an I7 processor and only have 2.7 GHz when I need +3.7? What's with that? It would appear that an Intel Processor can have many different Speeds?
Denny

[Peter Liddell - HJG Admin]

I wouldn't pay attention to clock speeds on anything in the Intel i range or AMd FX range, the clock speed is assuming single or old style dual core CPUs, the new multi-thread multi-core CPUs do much more with slower clocks.

Also the i7 is pretty much useless for FS purposes over the i5, the performance difference is microscopic.

[Mike Monce - HJG]

This thread is very interesting in terms of hardware. However, what I'd like to know is what is going to be the operating system? Given the past history of Windows and FS9 where an update caused my FS install to be deleted because of the need for the 4th CD to be in place, I wonder how we are going to deal with the future? Can one install older version so of Windows on a system? Can one even obtain such versions?

I have W7 and have disabled all updates given my past troubles. How does W10 handle FS9? We all know that MS will eventually try to force everyone into the latest greatest version of Windows, where does that leave FS? It's great to think about new hardware, but to me, the software is really what is critical. Should we all be moving to P3D??

I live is a sort of state of fear that my computer will crash. Of course it will eventually do exactly that. As I am totally invested in FS9, that crash will mean the end of simming for me.

Mike