New machine idea

[Ivan]

Well the old one is 4 years old this year, might be time for something new

What i have in mind:
Intel Core i7 970
Asus Rampage 3 Extreme (SATA 6GB, USB 3.0)
24GB Ram
Zalman cnps9900a Cooler
Nvidia GTX 570 1x

SSD drive: OCZ Vertex 120gb 3,5 inch

Other harddisk will be either a 750GB wd that i already have in a different machine, or the current 500GB WD if im too lazy to copy all the data

Case: old Coolermaster Stacker that i bought about 6 years ago
PSU: something rated at 1000W

[idahosurge]

Unless you are actually using a program that will use 24GB of ram then 24GB of ram is overkill.  The most you need for FSX is 6GB.

A 850W PSU is the most you will need.

I would get a better HSF than the Zalman you show, but you will need to make sure the one you get will fit into the case you have and the ram you get will fit under the HSF.  Right now the Thermalright Silver Arrow and the Noctua NH-D14 are the best air coolers on the market.

For FSX I would recommend a dedicated hard drive with nothing on it, but FSX.  A 600GB WD Velociraptor would give you plenty of room for FSX and addons.  An SSD would load faster, but once in the sim performance is not usually noticably better, besides a 256GB SSD is over $400 and a 600GB Vrap is $249.

If FSX is the only reason you are building this look at a 2600K instead of the 970, it will overclock higher and will save you at least $200.  Get a decent MB to go with the 2600K.  Get ram that will run at least 1600MHz at CAS6 if you can find CAS6, if not get CAS7.

I have the Rampage 3 Extreme and I think it is a great board, but unless you are getting a heck of a deal on the 970 and R3E then I would look at a 2600K and a decent P8P67 MB.

[Ivan]

Well the ridiculous amount of memory is more for the 'second life stage' (my second-best machine gets a second life as software development machine with all kinds of database stuff on it)... but i might throw a 1TB disk in it with SQL Server from the start.

Is a Sandy bridge lower in operating temps compared to a Nehalem?
I dont see the need for a cooler that hangs over the memory banks, as i can put 3 more fans in the case to get more airflow.

Overclocking is something i stay away from... i'd rather have a machine that runs 3+ years instead of having to replace vital parts halfway


And more on that memory thing... I could beat my brother his framerates and smoothness with FarCry while having lower video specs... just because i had more RAM

[idahosurge]

Is a Sandy bridge lower in operating temps compared to a Nehalem?

Clock for clock, no!

[Slotback]

Depends on what you mean by "operating temps". On stock cooling the temperatures are probably similar although the actual amount of heat being dissipated will be far different.

With identical cooling, a Sandy Bridge based processor will be massively cooler than a 45nm Nehalem (i.e. Core i7 920, 930, 940, 950, 960, 965, 975) with the same number of cores. Westmere (Core i7 970, 980X, 990X) also puts out MUCH more heat than Sandy Bridge, but this is also because it has more processor cores.

Wouldn't bother with a Zalman. If you're not overclocking then stock cooling is probably good enough. If overclocking a Sandy Bridge then a Coolermaster 212+ should be good enough, if overclocking Nehalem or Westmere then you want a Prolimatech megahalems or Noctua D14.

1000 watt is overkill for a single GTX 570. A quality 750 watt power supply like the Corsair AX-750 is enough for single graphics card and overclocked Nehalem / Westmere. 650watt Corsair HX-650 should be enough for overclocked Sandy Bridge.

24gb is overkill. Get 6gb or 12gb if you go Nehalem / Westmere, or 8gb if you go Sandy Bridge. Try to get DDR3-1600 or better though with a CL of 6, 7 or 8. lower is better.

Also my system has a rather significant overclock (3.2ghz, stock is 2.4ghz) and is >3 years old although some parts have been upgraded. The processor and motherboard have not.

If you go SSD then get the Vertex 2 or 3 or Corsair Force, or one of the newer intels (not the original Vertex 1)

[Ivan]

Changed the specs a bit

Board the same
RAM down to 12GB (in 3x4)
Same i970 and cooler
Same PSU (that 1000W monster is already in my current machine)
SSD changed to a 160GB Intel 320 series one.
Same video card

Will exchange the disks so i have the 750GB WD one in the game machine and both the 500GBs in the other machine

Reason for getting the Coolermaster flower cooler is trying to make the machine as silent as possible. I have one of these on an old dualcore AMD and most of the time the fan isnt turning at all

[Ivan]

Another specs change...

CPU -> i7 980 Extreme, and boxed cooler that comes with it
SSD -> Intel 510 series, 120GB

Anyone knows how many cores FSX can use at the same time?

And for anyone asking why the list contains a lineup of terribly expensive stuff... i want this machine to be able to run heavy games for the coming 3 years, and then sit out the remainder of its life running SQL server DBs

[Slotback]

FSX scenery engine scales as far as I know, to pretty much as many cores as you have. However as far as I know the rest of the sim runs on core 1. So both number of cores as well as per core throughput is important. I have my doubts a 980X is going to exceed an i7 2600 in FSX though.

[Ivan]

Minor rethink... Sandy has native SATA 6GB ports while the x58 doesnt (and forces using the crappy marvell), speed diff between the CPUs is minimal. Only minor problem is losing PCI slot for the audio

Changed to the following

Asus Maximus IV Extreme (P67B3 chipset)
Intel i7 2600k
16GB Mushkin redline (4x4 config)
WD caviar black 1TB
Intel 510 series @ 120gb
EVGA GTX570 superclocked
SB Xfi Titanium (pci-e)
Win 7 Ultimate (nl version... blegh)