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Need feedback/suggestions: New Simming system

MaskRider

MaskRider

Tiller of Soil
Hi Guys. I am in the market for a dedicated flight-simming computer. I had a system spec'd out for me today. This is it:


  • Antec Eleven Hundred Black Super Mid Tower Computer Case
  • LG 14X Blu-ray DVD Burner SATA w/soft OEM Bare Drive, 3D Play Back (WH14NS40) -
  • Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core 12MB LGA2011 Box w/o FAN
  • Vantec Stealth SF12025L Case Fan
  • Corsair Hydro Series H80i Water Cooler
  • WD 1TB 7200 64MB Black 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s WD1002FAEX
  • Samsung 250GB SATA III Internal 840 Series MZ-7TD250BW
  • ASUS P9X79 WS LGA2011 ATX Mainboard
  • Kingston HyperX 16GB (4X4GB) DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 Memory
  • Cooler Master 1000W Pro ATX 80Plus Bronze Power Supply RSA0....
  • EVGA 3GB GTX660 TI SC DDR5 SLi PCI-Express 03g-P4-3663-K....
  • Windows 7 Pro 64bit

Any thoughts, feedback, suggested changes?

Thanks
MR
 
Hi Chris,

Looks like a screamer of a system. You're not going to the "dark side" are you?

As a die-hard CFS 2 fan, I'd just send a note of caution re. the O/S. I seem to recall a lot of the older scenery tools won't operate on 64-bit systems, so you might want to consider setting up a dual boot with XP. Bearcat will be able to advise better than me.:ipepsi2:
 
Every thing looks good but I have no experience with that particular motherboard. I have had a lot of ASUS products and they have treated me good. The products not ASUS :icon_lol:. I hear there support is pretty bad if you have a problem. I have never needed them.

The issue might not be older scenery but an older installer programs.

W7 64 bit is the best way to go but W7 64 bit will not run any older 8bit or 16bit programs.

I have not seen any Flight sim related tools or programs that did not work on W7. I have heard of people who could not install programs that actually ran on W7 because they were wrapped up in 16bit installer programs.

There are ways to get around that problem.

Any program that absolutely will no run on W7 will run in Windows XP mode which you can get for free from MS.
 
Dangerousdave26 and UncleTgt thanks for the tips guys.

That is good to know about the 8 and 16 bit scenery utilities. Not being able to install or run those would be a bad thing.

DD, when you say that XP mode is available for free from Microsoft, what is it? Some sort of app? I have a laptop that runs Windows 8 and believe that I have seen XP Mode kicking around as part of that setup. Am I right about that? Pretty sure I haven't yet needed to make use of it- unless Windows 8 uses it automatically behind the scenes when needed?

UT, if by "the Dark Side" you mean FSX, then yes, I guess in a way that is part of it. I have long been both an FX9 and FSX user. The rig I have now has always run FS9 with no problems. But FSX has been a different story- not enough juice to run it full tilt. Even running it scaled back, the old rig still hiccups and sputters.

BTW, UT, my apologies for not getting back to you about NB. It fell totally off my radar screen.

Question: Although I guess 6-core is better than 4, how likely is it that all 6-core would ever kick in using FSX? MSFlight?

Thanks again guys,
MR
 
Question: Although I guess 6-core is better than 4, how likely is it that all 6-core would ever kick in using FSX? MSFlight?
Click to expand...

Directly never because FSX was written before multiple core technology. That said I know it will use two cores. I have a dual core laptop and FSX pegs out both cores when I run it. I believe I read somewhere that the second core will be used to load textures other than that I do know why it uses two cores.

Indirectly because other resources can be assigned to other cores yes it will benefit. You can also tell FSX/FS9/CFS2 to run in core X which is whatever core you want.

Windows XP mode is a virtual machine that runs Windows XP on your Windows 7 or Windows 8 computer.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-xp-mode
 
One last question guys. If you can say. Will the system I outlined above run FSX full tilt, all sliders maxed out, with a sky full of raging clouds, rain and wind with no hiccups or wheezing? Any frame rate estimates? I want it smooth and I want it to load fast.

Thanks
MR
 
Hi MR.

You might want to investigate Prepar3D. There's an academic license for about $50 ( you are a student of flying, right?)

Prepare3D is FSX with cleaned-up code. It runs smoother and faster than FSX. FSX scenery and other addons work with it.

Even on a new rig, FSX will have hiccups and wheezing.

Somewhere in the future, Prepare3D will move to version 2.0, which will apparently use DirectX11, and shift some of the code to the Graphics card, resulting in even better performance. But that version may require a new license purchase. Something to keep in mind.

Dick
 
rhumbaflappy said:
Hi MR.

You might want to investigate Prepar3D. There's an academic license for about $50 ( you are a student of flying, right?)

Dick
Click to expand...

A student you say? Aye, sir. That's what I am, a student sir!

Thanks for the info Dick. I will indeed keep it in mind.

Chris
 
FSX will never run smoothly for any system without going crazy with over clocking even then it might bitch about something.

I have a dual core ASUS G-72Gx Laptop and it runs FSX nice with all of the sliders for scenery maxed out but I can not run any AI. AI is a killer for me.

I saw Joe Watson's rig run FSX once and it had ground AI (cars) all over the place and ran real smooth but he was not maxed out on everything either.

The problem with FSX is it was written when CPU processing speed doubled every few years. MS planned again for the CPU Speed to double and wrote the code for FSX to be optimal somewhere around 4GHZ or maybe higher exactly I do not know.

The issue became CPU speeds maxed out and the new path for CPU's became multiple cores. Honestly the CPU speeds decreased for a few years really putting FSX at a disadvantage.

So I believe you will run FSX very well but you will find you will need to trade off something for something.

Prepar3D will be the path we all will be taking someday. Personally I am holding out for version 2. That and a new PC. :icon_lol:
 
Dangerous and Rhumba,

Thank you for cluing me in about Prepare 3D. Also for explaining the reasons why FSX can not ever be expected to run totally glitch free- due mainly to the way the code is written and the fact that processor technology never caught up with the code and probably won't- anytime soon anyhow. That is good to know. Sounds like this rig will do whatever I want it to do for the foreseeable future. My main thing with FSX is that I want the scenery- particularly the terrain and mesh to look as real as possible and I want the visuals on the weather to be totally there. I can live without the AIs although it is nice to have air traffic. I am at a happy moment where I can without much guilt or pain invest in such a system- just a matter of giving myself permission. It does seem a bit self-indulgent! Hehe!

Until later,
Chris
 
Before everyone jumps on the P3D bandwagon, let me just say that not all FSX add-on scenery and planes work in P3D. There are a minority of developers that will not support P3D and there is always the possibility that Lockheed Martin will decide that they do not want to sell simulation programs to hobbyists and will market P3D to professionals and governments at full price. I hope P3D does work out, maybe they can turn FSX into a 64 bit program so that OOM's will become a thing of the past, but I would not gear my entire flight sim experience and computer totally around P3D at this time.

So, what does that mean? Make sure you have a fast processor and memory. Don't buy a CPU that clocks at 2.5 GHz and expect it to run FSX smoothly, regardless of the number of cores. Service Pack 2 gave FSX multi-core capabilities, so you want nothing less than 4 cores and you want to be as close to 4 GHz as you can possibly afford and plan on overclocking. And by 4.0 GHz I mean that for all of the cores, not just some "turbo mode" that runs one core at 4 GHz and shuts down the remaining cores. My old Core2Quad at 3.8 GHz does a pretty good job, even with Ultimate Terrain X, Ultimate Traffic 2, and Active Sky 2012 running, but at the stock 3.0 GHz of this CPU, it is slow and stuttering.
 
stansdds said:
Before everyone jumps on the P3D bandwagon, let me just say that not all FSX add-on scenery and planes work in P3D. There are a minority of developers that will not support P3D and there is always the possibility that Lockheed Martin will decide that they do not want to sell simulation programs to hobbyists and will market P3D to professionals and governments at full price. I hope P3D does work out, maybe they can turn FSX into a 64 bit program so that OOM's will become a thing of the past, but I would not gear my entire flight sim experience and computer totally around P3D at this time.

So, what does that mean? Make sure you have a fast processor and memory. Don't buy a CPU that clocks at 2.5 GHz and expect it to run FSX smoothly, regardless of the number of cores. Service Pack 2 gave FSX multi-core capabilities, so you want nothing less than 4 cores and you want to be as close to 4 GHz as you can possibly afford and plan on overclocking. And by 4.0 GHz I mean that for all of the cores, not just some "turbo mode" that runs one core at 4 GHz and shuts down the remaining cores. My old Core2Quad at 3.8 GHz does a pretty good job, even with Ultimate Terrain X, Ultimate Traffic 2, and Active Sky 2012 running, but at the stock 3.0 GHz of this CPU, it is slow and stuttering.
Click to expand...

Good to know info. Thank you, stansdds. So, in the system I outline above, with 3.2GHZ 6-core, how do you think it will run FSX Gold Edition (no extras)?
 
At 3.2 GHz it will run, but probably not all that great with the graphics sliders moved over to the right. If you overclock and get to 4 GHz, I think it would be fine. FSX SP2 likes multi-core cpu's, but it needs for them to be fast and 4 GHz seems to be the sweet spot.
 
stansdds said:
At 3.2 GHz it will run, but probably not all that great with the graphics sliders moved over to the right. If you overclock and get to 4 GHz, I think it would be fine. FSX SP2 likes multi-core cpu's, but it needs for them to be fast and 4 GHz seems to be the sweet spot.
Click to expand...

Is over-clocking a relatively straight-forward procedure? I have never done it before nor am I even clear about what it means.

Edited to add: Just read a Wikipedia article about over-clocking. Hehe, doesn't sound very straight-forward. ;^)
 
Overclocking seems like a daunting task at first, but once you learn how to do it, it's not that difficult. A stable and capable power supply and motherboard as well as aftermarket CPU cooling and possibly RAM that is capable of being overclocked is what you will need. I learned to overclock by reading entries in overclocking websites and articles posted at various computer review sites.
 
MaskRider said:
One last question guys. If you can say. Will the system I outlined above run FSX full tilt, all sliders maxed out, with a sky full of raging clouds, rain and wind with no hiccups or wheezing? Any frame rate estimates? I want it smooth and I want it to load fast.

Thanks
MR
Click to expand...
No! Sorry. I'm at 5GHz(i7-3820 wet, see sig), with an overclocked HD 7970, and still have to limit my combinations of Clouds, Traffic, and Autogen. I love a busy airport so Clouds and Autogen are reduced.
A default FSXA install at KJFK, Default 747, sliders maxed, resulted in low teen FPS, and lots of micro stutters.
With all of my goodies installed, freebie JFK, 100% traffic,(all available WoAI and MAIW installed plus some AIG and custom) FPS drops into mid single digits with maxed sliders...Don
 
Hiya Guys,

Thanks again for all of the great information and advice. Really appreciated.

Don "fxsttcb",

Curious,
Does "wet" mean your processor is water-cooled? and is yours a multi-core system?

Chris
 
A small tip from me: Use the Nvidia inspector tool to make a profile for FsX, then set the frame rate limiter to 30 (Leave it set to 'unlimited' inside the FsX settings) and set AA to 'AA_Mode_method_superVCAA_64x_4v12'; works like a charm for me, I get 30 fps almost everywhere except over very big cities, very bad weather or framerate heavy aircraft like the CS Boeing 777 for example. Barely any stutters! Not quite everything is maxxed out on my system, but I'm not too far off.
 
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