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Interesting thread.
I'd like to see how the prices we pay in the U.K compare to the rest of the world.
I've heard a few times of systems with these specs in the U.S and Europe costing around the $800 mark where as in the U.K you looking at

Get a 2600K not a 2600.  Overclock your 2600K to 4.8GHz - 5.0GHz.  To overclock you will need an aftermarket HSF.  Instead of the Coolite ECO also look at the Thermalright Silver Arrow or the Noctua NH-D14.  Look at reviews on the net and you will find the Silver Arrow and D14 do a better job than the Coolite ECO.

If your only GPU concern if FSX then FSX will not make use of dual GPU's.  Get rid of the two GTX 560Ti's and get one GTX 580.  Get the GTX 580 with the highest clocks available when you purchase.

To overclock you need a case with great airflow, two really good ones are the Coolermaster HAFX and the 932.

For best performance FSX should be on its own HD.  Look at getting a second mechanical HD just for FSX.  You could use the 1TB you have listed, just make two partitions.  The first for FSX and the second for data storage and programs that you are not going to load on the SSD.  You could put your OS and FSX on the SSD, but if you start getting a lot of addons for FSX you will quickly fill the 120GB SSD up.

Unless you are running programs that will use 16GB of ram then 16GB is overkill, you only need 8GB and see if you can get ram rated at 1600MHz instead of 1333MHz.  Also get 1600MHz ram with the lowest CAS rating you can find.

Thanks for your comments.
Idahosurge you

Get Crucial M4 128GB SSD.

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB drives. The prices are about 180% higher than usual due to flooding in SE Asia. Unless you really need multiple drives or have money to burn then get one for the moment.

Make sure the 750 watt power supply is quality, I recommend Silverstone Strider Plus and Corsair HX series.


2500K is very close to the 2600K in most applications which do not use hyperthreading. FSX doesn't.

GTX 570 or GTX 580. I like MSI ones with twin frozr cooling III cooling.

Corsair 500R is an excellent case. The white one looks really nice as well. Fractal Design Define R3 is also good and is the Antec P280. The HAFX is also a good case but in my opinion it is fugly.


Noctua CPU cooling is nice.

DDR3-1600.... timings don't matter as much as most other parts, but try to get RAM that is 8-8-8 or 8-9-8 or lower. Try to get low profile RAM because heatsinks like the Noctua have a tendency to block RAM slots if they use high heatspreaders.