Prepared for Prepar3D ??

[OldAirmail]

Your current system needs to be upgraded to use P3d to it's fullest.

I'm using;
4.00 gigahertz Intel Core i7-6700K (running at 4.4)
32GB fast RAM
Radeon RX 480 graphics card with 8GB DDR5
Three SSD drives. One for the OS, one for P3d, and one SSD for scenery & support files. I also have a 2TB hard drives for "other" programs.


This is an old picture of my setup. There have been a few additions, but it's essentially the same. In life, the color of the screens looks much better.



On the TrackIR - When you first start using it change the speed from 1 down to between .5 - .7. You can move it back to 1 as you get used to the screen movement.

BTW - it works perfectly with 3 main monitors.

[New Light]

Wow!!! Excellent set up!!!! I like your gauges. I was thinking about using tablets for Garmin G1000, but I wasn't sure about what to do when I wanted steam gauges - especially if I used the Saitek gauges. Did you us FS Panel Studio for that gauge set up?

Yeah, my system barely runs P3D with the sliders turned off. I couldn't even make a circuit in a Cub. The system my wife ordered ran it much better. I was able to do 10 tng's with the Beehcraft A36 on medium settings without any problems, but I figured I could upgrade my current pc for the price of the better, but still budget pc.

I priced out an Alienware pc for $5,600. It's an i9, 18 core, ?.?? GHz processor, 128G mem, 3 11G NVidia 1080s, 2 1T Samsung 950 SSD's. I'm not sure if P3D will employ that much computer power or not though. I think there was a problem with FSX not utilizing all available cores and memory in the earlier years with Windows XP and Vista. I think Windows 10 wants to know too much personal info, but if runs the simulator… If the os will uilize this power, the good news is that I have chance to get this type of computer since my wife and I have quite a "price discrepancy" in our vehicles

Thanks for the advice! Very nice set up!

Dave

[OldAirmail]

From a "practical" point.

Having the biggest & fastest sounds great, but....


FSX CAN be made to use more cores, but the best that I could get on FSX with a i5 was about 1.5 cores.

An i9 would be way overkill on P3d V4. The most that I've seen my i7 (8 cores) using with P3d is about 4, maybe 5 cores.

That's not really a problem, because I run a lot of other programs like Active Sky for P3d V4 and Active Sky Cloud Art. I run many other "support" programs at the same time such as SPAD.neXt & Plan-G.

The CPU speed is VERY important, but I'm just using a 4.0 GHz i7 CPU lightly bumped up to 4.4. And that's good enough to get me just about everything that I want.


Video cards are another place where you don't need the very best for FSX. An EVGA GeForce GT 730 4GB GDDR5 for only $84.22. AMD has some very good deals too, for less.

That GT 730 should work in your present system and make a big difference is FSX. So you might want to get one while you save for a new gamming computer.

But for Prepar3d V4? Not so good.


P3d V4 can farm off some flight sim work to the newer video cards, which is why I bought one with 8 GB.

The problem is that if you don't have a fast (gaming) motherboard & CPU, the video card will be CPU bound and never give you what you paid for.


That's the best advice that I can give. If computer components aren't familiar to you, check out Tom's Hardware. It may take a while to learn what you need/want, but it's a very good place to start.


DEFINITION
"The bleeding edge" - The BEST hardware made. Why the "bleeding" part? Because you're going to bleed a lot of money to buy it.

And you know what? Two months after you buy it, somethin even better will come along.

Stick to buying something a little below "The bleeding edge" and you'll still be better off than most simmers.



PS - the instruments on the 2 USB monitors? That's an older program that I just removed. Now I'm using Air Manager 3.0.

Choose your panel from one of the included 14+ premade panels, or create your own from a library of more than 400 free instruments.

If you're so inclined, you can make up your own panels and instruments and have them automatically change over when you switch planes.

Making panels is pretty simple. Download a few of the 400 free instruments and put them on a background.

Making your own instruments is harder, but do able. Or, if you're lazy like me - just alter one of the free ones.

Air Manager 3.0 will work on just about any slow PC computer with very low FPS loss. If you buy the "Air Player" extension you can put a self built panel on any old, slow, computer or laptop. You can even download panels to a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino UNO/MEGA.

[New Light]

Ok, so faster CPU and mb and few more Gs of graphics mem verses more cores, system mem, etc... is better. Ok. I can do that. I used to frequent Tom's a looong time ago. I'll put him back on favorites.

I have a couple of extra tablets laying around here somewhere, so I'll look at maybe setting up something similar to your set up. I have been eyeballing some VRi products or getting 6 or 8 piece Saitek panel cluster put together - that's ~$1,300. Your way seems much less expensive, much more customizable, and easy as swapping aircraft. I appreciate your help!

Thanks,

Dave

[OldAirmail]

You're welcome, Dave.


Unless you come into a lot of money, adding a bit more to your old system, while saving for a much better system, may be the best way.

Just don't get caught in that Cutting Edge trap. Make getting a better computer, into a game of how to cheat the system.

Besides, you already have FSX. And with all of the FSX add-ons, it's not too bad. Prepar3d can wait.

[New Light]

Enough, but not a lot of money, just a lot of focus on a target and discipline in savings where I can. I did get caught in the spending spree in the early FSX days (pre SP1 & 2) though. I didn't eat very often back then... I think I spent $15k on 6-7 computers in 3 years. THAT was an education In fact, I realized this afternoon that I listed the specs of my previous pc. I'm actually running an OEM ASUS pc, i7 2600 3.4GHz, 1G NVidia GT530, 8Gs (1333 ?) Corsair memory, 1T HHD stuffed into an Antec 12 box & 900w power supply with a Corsair (700 ?) intercooler - so many computers, so many disappointments...

I started looking through Tom's articles to see if I can build/get something built that would be suitable. Last time I studied this was when hyper-threading was being talked about. Seems like technology caught up with the demands of FSX at least. Thanks again for the help!

Dave

[cevans]

I run P3D v4 fine with my now ageing system.
I have just one monitor. a joystick. No plug in extras but that's what I want. I run mainly default with some extra photoreal sceneries and lots of freeware addon aircraft. It's good for me and I don't want more.

It runs smooth. No stutters and gives me what I want - a good simulated flight.

[New Light]

Thanks Cevans! I'll try to run P3D again. I seemed to have picked up some system glitches after I swapped back to my old computer because FSX hasn't been running right . I'll try those settings on my system. I appreciate the help!

Dave

[New Light]

I picked out a few parts to replace on my current pc. Most of this stuff is supposedly fast...

Overclockable to a stable 5 GHz - not sure about stability @ 5+
Intel Core i7-7740X Kaby Lake-X Quad-Core 4.3 GHz LGA 2066 112W BX80677I77740X Desktop Processor

Overclockable also, not sure if 32Gs+ will do much for P3D or not
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (4 x 4GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) C16 Memory Kit - Red Model CMK16GX4M4A2666C16R

Consensus suggests this is a good match for the rest of these components
ASRock X299 Taichi LGA 2066 Intel X299 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard

1708 MHz & boostable to 1847 MHz
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 DirectX 12 08G-P4-5186-KR 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Someone told me these are the best...
SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 500GB NVMe PCI-Express 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V6E500BW

Newegg has this stuff for $1,600 w/o warranties $150 w 3 yr warrantees except for the memory sticks...

I'm hoping I can keep my current Antec 12 w 900W power supply and Corsair intercooler, DVD/CD, and 1T HHD - I'll probably add 2 more 120mm fans to each side of my box also [8 total fans (3 120mm intake front, 2 120mm exhaust rear + 1 240mm exhaust on top)].

Am I on the right path to getting P3D running? Thanks for any input!

Dave

[OldAirmail]

That sounds good enough.


A few points though.

Get a 1TB SSD for the OS. There are many programs that will automatically load onto the C: drive, giving you no choice about it.

Any fast spinner can be used for storing non-flight sim programs. You can even reinstall FSX onto the regular hard drive. It'll be faster than ever anyway.

LM recommends an SSD for Prepar3d V4. My 450GB "Prepar3d V4 drive has 236GB available, and I have lots of Orbx scenery stacked on it.

I also have an old 240GB SSD with photoreal scenery from BlueSkyScenery. It's mostly their western scenery, which looks MUCH better than the Orbx desert scenery.




If you have to reduce your system RAM memory temporarily to get the SSD P3d drive, it'll be worth it. But don't skimp on the 8GB video card RAM.


Once you have "it all", don't look back at the "bigger and better" computers to come.

And remember - Even the fastest computer will seem to slow down as you start to fill it up.


PS - You'll want a well rated SSD C: drive, but ANY newer brand SSD will be much faster than the majority of fast spinner drives, so don't worry about having the fastest SSD for Prepar3d.

[New Light]

Alright!

I figured a 1T+ SSD might be better.

With these components, would I consider the an 11G video card over an 8G card? Or would the speed still outweigh the #Gs?

Many thanks for the advice!

Dave

[New Light]

I have an odd occurrence. I tried using Cevans settings (above) on P3D and I still couldn't even taxi, but then I was able to do 6 tng's in XP11 with no problems. Would the os make a difference using P3D? I'm using Windows 7 with all the current updates...

Thanks,

Dave

[OldAirmail]

"I figured a 1T+ SSD might be better."

A 1TB C: drive is what I'm using for the OS, and that'll last me a good while because I don't load up my system with everything that I can get my hands on.

The regular hard drive is fine for everything else.


One of the problems with getting a 1TB drive for Prepar3d is that you might be so tempted to load everything possible into Prepar3d V4.

Back when I first had FSX I loaded so much junk, that slowdowns and unknown problems made life miserable.

On the other hand, I got really good uninstalling and re-installing FSX. Not so good.

As you can see, my Prepar3d V4 drive still has 236GB free, and I have most of the Orbx scenery that I'll ever want. A larger SSD will not make P3d go any faster.


On the other hand - SPLITTING some of the scenery (and/or aircraft) files onto multiple SSDs CAN get you a little extra speed.

Being careful to attach your 6GB SSDs onto the correct 6gb/s SATA port connectors is the way to go.

BTW - have you checked that the motherboard will have enough 6gb/s SATA ports? Not even all gaming boards will have more that 3 or 4 6GB/s ports . It's usually a mix of 3GB/s & 6GB/s.


Your OS on one SSD can be direct the loading of data off other SSDs at the same time. Will it ALWAYS happen like that? Not necessarily. That depends on many things. But The OS can do it. This was a BIG advantage with multiple hard drives. Now? Less so.


More Performance with a 11GB Video card?

I wouldn't necessarily bet in it. You'd have to use whatever utility comes with your video card to find out. And at that point you may have just wasted your money.

On my video card, 8GB full memory usage never happens with Prepar3d V4, and I'm using 3 main 23" monitors. And a few small ones.



Windows 7 VS Windows 10

I preferred Win 7, but chose Windows 10 for my "new" flight sim computer because Windows 10 would utilize the FULL capabilities of the new CPU & motherboard hardware.

With all of the money that you want to invest in cutting edge hardware, keeping Win7 doesn't make good sense. Backwards compatible Win 7 drivers aren't as good as full drivers.

[New Light]

On the other hand, I got really good uninstalling and re-installing FSX. Not so good.

Ditto! 80+ the first 3 years. I very rarely get past 20 flight hours before the pc crashes. I have ALL on my work backed up on hard drives and disks. I have things set up where I can un/reinstall in about a day now, But...

I did notice your multi-drive set up. I wasn't sure if that could be done or not. When I first saw your post, I thought I might set up 3 SSDs also. Something like a 512G SSD C/: for Windows 10, FSX/Steam, XP11, P3D. 512G SSD D/: for ASX/ASCA, REX, AI Traffic, my AFX/IS3 work, UTX & GEX, etc. 1T E/: for Earth Mega Scenery (TX, LA, MS, San Antonio, Austin, Houston & New Orleans took 650+Gs). Then I'd like to add AL & FL, and some Caribbean scenery also (ABC Islands, St. Kitts US/BVIs, PR, Bermuda, etc.) I checked out Orbx products recently also... Sooo... yeah, I have a bunch of stuff here, there and everywhere already

This motherboard supposedly has 8 6Gb/s SATA.... If you read computer specs, these are the specs for the ASRock X299 Taichi motherboard:


Dave

[OldAirmail]

With that board, definitely go with Windows 10.

As I said - It's better to go with built-in native driver support for the hardware, than it is to go with backward Windows 7 compatible drivers.


Speaking of backwards compatible - make sure that you have at least four or five USB 1.1/2.0 ports. A lot of Flightsim hardware will require them, even though USB 3.0 "should" work.

At one time I had 17 USB cables running to the back of my case!


Overclocking

For the most part, I chose CPU/RAM that could be overclocked, but I only O/C a little.

One - I suspect that they should be of better quality than non-O/Cd parts.
Two - I don't want to have my system fail on me. What fun is it having to wait for a new CPU?
Three - Your system will be more than fast enough for any flight sim. Cutting Edge, high demand, games? That could be another matter. But then you can have those automatically shift into O/C mode when they start, it's easy to do.

Good luck, building your own system is a lot of fun.