New PC; advice needed

[JimmyGerrard]

Hi guys,

Looking at investing in a new PC; the plan is to run 4 monitors off of it, and it'll be used only for FSX. I have lots of add-ons and also loads of Goflight USB devices, so it needs to be a pretty good machine all round.

These are the 3 quotations I have been offered:

Option 1:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9450 (4 X 2.66GHz) 1333MHz FSB/12MB L2 Cache

Special Offer
FREE Assassin's Creed DVD Game with any Intel® Core™ 2 Quad CPU!

Memory (RAM)
8GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (4x2GB)

Motherboard
ASUS® P5N-D: DDR2, SATAII, 2 x PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 2 x PCI-e x1

Operating System
64 BIT WINDOWS® VISTA HOME PREM SP1 (inc CD & Licence) (£56)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
NONE

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)
NONE

1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd CD/DVD Drive
NONE

Graphics Card
1024MB GEFORCE 9800GX2 PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

3rd Graphics Card
NONE

Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio 7.1: £28

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case
Stylish Black Aluminium Trigon Case + 2 Front/Side USB

Power Supply & Case Cooling
800W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£99)

Processor Cooling
ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II PURE COPPER ULTRA COOLER (£36)

Firewire & Video Editing
2 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORTS (1 onboard, 1 at back panel)

£1303 inc VAT and Delivery


Option 2:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo E8500 (2 X 3.16GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x2GB)

Motherboard
ASUS® P5N-T DELUXE: DDR2, SATA II, 3 x PCI-e x16, 1 PCI/2 x PCI-E

Operating System
WINDOWS® VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1 (inc CD & Licence) (£56)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
NONE

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)
NONE

1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd CD/DVD Drive
NONE

Graphics Card
512MB GEFORCE 9800GTX PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

2nd Graphics Card
512MB GEFORCE 9800GTX PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

3rd Graphics Card
NONE

Sound Card
6 Channel RealTek ALC883 Audio (Standard on P5N-E SLI)

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case
Coolermaster Cosmos S Black Aluminium Case

Power Supply & Case Cooling
900W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£119)

Processor Cooling
ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II PURE COPPER ULTRA COOLER (£36)

Firewire & Video Editing
2 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORTS (1 onboard, 1 at back panel)

TV Card
NONE

Monitor
NONE

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI Cable
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
NONE

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE

Printer
NONE

Surge Protection
NONE

Webcam & VoIP
NONE

Media Center Kit
NONE

Anti-Virus
NONE

Office Software
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

Delivery
Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)

Quantity
1

Price £1341 inc. VAT and shipping


Option 3

Case: Antec P180
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Modular
Processor: Core 2 Duo E8500 6MB cache
CPU Cooler: Standard CPU Cooler
Optimisation and Tuning: None
Graphics Card 1: BFG GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB PCI Express
Graphics Card 2: BFG GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB PCI Express
Memory: 4GB Corsair DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 Twin2X
Motherboard: Asus P5N-T Deluxe (required for QX9650)
Hard Disk Drive One: 500GB Caviar SE16 SATA 300
Hard Disk Drive Two: None
Optical Drive One: None
Optical Drive Two: NEC 4570A DVD-RW
Removable Storage: None
Sound Card: Onboard sound
Speakers and Headsets: None
Monitor: None
Keyboard: None
Mouse: None
Miscellaneous Adapters (may require free PCI slots): None
Software: None
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Build Options: Standard Build (5-15 working days)
Warranty: Collect and Return Warranty (1 year + 1 year labour only)

Total: £1429.00 (inc VAT)


Which is the best one to go for? I know almost nothing about computers!!!

Thanks :D

[andarlite]

Jimmy

I would definitely go with Option 1.

Regards,
Henry

[Kennair]

Hi Jimmy,

Any of those systems will run FSX adequately. Remember though, if you're running 4 monitors don't expect lightning performance. FSX is CPU hungry so go for the fastest one on offer in the above list.

Other things to note are:

1. All the listed systems offer 4Gb RAM but unless you get a 64bit version of Vista you will only access 3Gb of RAM (Windows 32 bit limitation).

2. If you go for Vista64 (I have it and it works fine), your GoFlight software will not operate (known Goflight limitation).

3. Even with the latest and greatest you are still advised to tweak your system based on the very many tweak advice sites on the net. Also get a good payware defrag program (I use and recommend UltimateDefrag).

If you intend to run FS only on this system it will be much easier to keep it clean. If you use it for other things, then you will need to be more diligent.

And once you've got it up and running, load up FS9 and watch it screem!! You may just put FSX in the closet til the next upgrade :) (I run both on my system)

Ken.

[kiek]

I'd definitely go for the 8500 cpu, so Option 2 or 3.

A fast dual core (3.15 Ghz) is to be prefered over a "low" speed quad core. Note that FSX is still 'cpu bound ' (meaning that the cpu is the limiting piece hardware in your computer with respect to frames per second), most of the time it only uses 1 cpu, so that's why.

I have a 8500 CPU myself.

Regards,
Nico Kaan

[andarlite]

FSX with SP1 will make use of multi-core for terrain and texture loading. There are many people on FSX forums who have reported elimination or at least a drastic decrease in the dreaded blurries and stutters with a quad processor.

Also see this entry in Phil Taylor blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/archive/2007/12/04/fsx-perf-benchmark.aspx

He provides a link to a fellow over at AVSIM who has done extensive benchmarking of FSX. The general conclusion is that dual-core is ok if you don't use add-ons, but you would definitely want a quad-core if you use add-ons. Although lengthy it is worth checking out that AVSIM thread. Some very interesting results.

Jimmy, if you can afford it, I would stick to a quad-core (get the fastest you can afford). The newer Q9XXX family are also very easy to over-clock. You are also future-proofing yourself more with the quads.

The only one drawback to option one is (as Ken pointed out) is that VISTA 64 is not yet compatible with Goflight. Perhaps you could see if you could get VISTA 32 instead (which if you do then decrease your RAM down to 4GB from the 8GB).

Regards,
Henry

[kiek]

The general conclusion is that dual-core is ok if you don't use add-ons, but you would definitely want a quad-core if you use add-ons.


That holds for dual core and quad core at the same speed. A 4 x 2.66 GHz quad (option 1) will be "slower" then a dual core 3.16 GHZ (options 2 and 3) in a FSX game.

Regards,
Nico