New system specs

[Mass]

Hey all. Hope everyone is doing well.

I am just about to get a new system as mine has probably breathed its last breath. I used to run fs9 but would really like to upgrade to FSX.

Now i am aware of the sticky post at the top of the hardware forum and of some of the other posts around the place which i have seen but as of yet haven't found the question i would like to ask, but please tell me if i'm wrong and point me to where i should be.

If i was to build my own new system in order to run fsx on not necessarily maxed out but pretty high and get acceptable frames, what kind of specs would i need to be looking for? I personally am not a computer whiz in any way, shape or form, but one of my best mates knows a thing or two and built his own but does not know the kind of specs that FSX would require.

So if anyone could help me out by listing the kind of level equipment i should be looking at and a price range i would be very grateful!

[Ulf B]

What is acceptable frames for you? I'm happy with 24 fps if FSX runs smooth with crisp textures. Would that be ok for you?

Do you intentend to fly Add ons like LevelD 767 in and out of New York with 100% AI air traffic? Or do you prefer to fly VFR (low and slow) with the default Cessna 172?

[Mass]

Im much more of a commercial flier in and out of the big cities with various different aircraft. As far as frames go, ive been used to more like 10 when in bus areas with lots of traffic, before getting obviously higher frames as i move into the main of the flight.

So the ability to get 10 frames with large amounts of ai, with good sceneries and aircraft with FS set at high is the kind of think im looking for...

Obviously thats going to require higher quality kit, but what kind of spec kit am i looking at?

[Ulf B]

Mass,

An overclocked Core i7 computer with a GTX 280 or 285 and 6GB low latency DDR3 memory and FSX running on a VelociRaptor disk, might not be enough. I made a test flight over New York with maxed out settings and 100% AI (default FSX AI) with the default C172. At some stages of the flight, the fps was single digit. Flying with autogen at dense and AI to 30% was smooth with avg fps about 25 most of the time. With a heavy I guess I would be down to maybe 15 - I don't know.

Hopefully somebody with a fast none Core i7 computer could chime in report on frames with the big irons over dense areas with a lot of AI.

[Mass]

wow that was a lot of tech stuff.

Basically what im asking for is a basic idea of what kind of specs im going to need, how much ram, what type of video card, processor etc if i want to run fsx at a high or med-high level. And as a bi-product of that how much it might cost me.

how much did yours cost for example?

Danny

[Ulf B]

Hi,

I'm living in Sweden and bought the components from different sources. I haven't kept track on the costs. But you could easily find the price for each component on the net.

Mobo: Asus P6T Deluxe, there is a version 2 out. There are several very good X58 mobos on the market.

CPU: Intel Core i7 940 (easier to OC to 4GHz than some of the 920 batches).

Memory: OCZ Platinum XTC DDR3 1600MHz 3x2GB (CL7-7-7-24)

Graphics card: XFX GTX285 690M 1GB (big, big improvement in FSX when I replaced my 8800GTX)

OS-disk: WD Raptor 150GB (doesn't need to be a Raptor, but I had this disk so why not use it?)

FSX-disk: WD VelociRaptor 150GB (loads all the FSX files a bit faster than an ordinary disk).

CPU Cooler: Go for the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme.

Regarding the case and psu, I wouldn't recommend the case and psu that I use. The case isn't wide enough for the top notch cpu coolers.
I guess you could follow Nicks advice in the pinned thread in this forum.