# New PC build for a faimly, need a bit of advice



## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Hello again! A family member heard of my success with building my computer, and would like me to build him one. He wan'ts it specifically for playing the X Plane simulator, running off of two 20+ inch screens. He said he wants the cockpit display in one screen, and a map-thing screen (separate app) on the second.

This isn't much of a hard task, my only issue is that when I asked for his budget, he said $500. I warned him how intensive flight simis are, and with two screens? $500 is near impossible. He said thats fine but try your best to keep it lowish.

So here I am, after a bit of research I decided to choose an AMD chipset (as I'm positive he will not try any over clocking with his new machine) along with an onboard audio card. Here are the specfifics in a nut shell what he wan'ts:
- 2 Screens 20inch+ each
- Wants it smooth, not nececcarryly looking good
- Doesn't care much about sound quality.
- Plays alot a night and in the rain/fog. 

So this is the list I've come up with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148212
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118019

The total price with rebates is $730, about. Then the $25 shipping charge, and my little $150 building charge.

For what this man wants and for the price he's paying, do you think this is a good build? Anything I should add? Anything I should switch or take away?

Thanks in advance guys!


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

The WD Black Seies has a 32MB Cache and 5 yr. warranty.
Personally I would use a different brand for the RAM. OZC-Corasir-G.Skill make good performance RAM.
What Mobo-RAM-Graphics card are you using?


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Whoops, forgot the Graphics card and mobo:

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128398

GC: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433

Not entirely sure if this is the best graphics card. 
My client also wan'ts lots of USB ports...

Also no specific reason for not choosing corasir. I'll switch it and get 8 Gigs from them instead.

EDIT: The Crucial ram was cheaper


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## Phædrus241 (Mar 28, 2009)

The GTX260 superclocked is a bad deal, the Radeon 4890 or GeForce GTX275 would be a better choice for the same price.


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Phædrus2401 said:


> The GTX260 superclocked is a bad deal, the Radeon 4890 or GeForce GTX275 would be a better choice for the same price.


This one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130516&Tpk=GeForce%20GTX275

I also wan't to keep it nVidia, as thats what the website says X plane works best with.


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## Phædrus241 (Mar 28, 2009)

Well, I wouldn't pick that particular one; recertified means that it was returned as nonfunctional and they either found nothing wrong with it or did a minor repair. So there's a chance it could come DOA, or fail earlier than it should.

This is a good one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121313

EVGA is a trustworthy manufacturer, but they have a habit of taking high end graphics cards, overclocking them slightly (which the user can do themselves) and selling them for a huge premium over the standard version.



EDIT: Also, *everything* says it works better with Nvidia. That little "The Way It's Meant to Be Played" logo? In exchange for putting that on their games, Nvidia lets game companies test their games for bugs and minimum requirements on some ten thousand test machines that Nvidia has. Some games do work better with one brand of card than another; but the difference is usually minor. The Radeon 4890 is the GTX275's competitor, and costs $30 less on average. I don't have any brand preference, but right now ATI is the best bang for the buck.


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Alright, so between this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121313
and this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161276
Best choice would the ATI? I did hear nVidia is keeping some new Graphics engine only working on nVidia cards, but then again this man is only playing xPlane. 

With this set up a duel 20inch screen and flight sim game running should work very smoothly correct? Also is 8GB ram too much?


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## Phædrus241 (Mar 28, 2009)

I'd take the Sapphire 4890 rather than HIS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102848


I'm not sure how much graphics power X-Plane needs to run smoothly with that much real estate...


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

I saw a few bad reviews on the Sapphire but the HIS seems to have less problems. 

Also he doesn't care so much of graphical quality as he does the smoothness. I just hope the processor will be enough.


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## thermo567 (Oct 8, 2009)

to keep it at top condition turn it off every so often and make sure u choose a hardwired keybord because my wireless interfears with my server and mouse
and always up date virus protection good luck with that


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

thermo567 said:


> to keep it at top condition turn it off every so often and make sure u choose a hardwired keybord because my wireless interfears with my server and mouse
> and always up date virus protection good luck with that


lolwut?


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Blue445 said:


> I saw a few bad reviews on the Sapphire but the HIS seems to have less problems.
> 
> Also he doesn't care so much of graphical quality as he does the smoothness. I just hope the processor will be enough.


Sapphire, as well as PowerColor, are very high quality ATI chipped GPU's. 
HIS, not so much.
Graphics smoothness comes with graphics quality.


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Alright, so I'll settle on the sapphire then.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102848

Anything else I'm missing?


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Also, I'm thinking I should install a bit more cooling to this system. Seeing as hes flying on it, it will be on hours at a time running xplane, things are bound to get hot.

What do you guys recommend?


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

The CoolerMaster case you have chosen has good airflow and the Zalman CPU HSF will keep the CPU cool. If you want quiet, leave as is and see how it goes.


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Quietness isn't much of a problem, as the sound of the fans will probably accent the sound of the airplane. I just wan't to make sure that this computer can stay cool under heavy loads for a long long time. I know sometimes he can play this flying game literally hours (4- maybe 8) and I wan't to make sure it stays nice and cool the entire time.


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Alright guys, sorry for taking so long to respond.
Anyway I just wanna make sure I have everything I need here:

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100269VXLE Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

Sony Optiarc Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1678A - OEM

Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT25664AA80A - Retail

ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail

As for the processor I'm stuck between: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674 
and 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

If you have the extra cash to spend go for the X4 if not the X2 will game just fine.


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Alright, thanks guys! I'ma put the order in perhaps this weekend. Thanks for all you're help, you're all awesome.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Personally, I would go with OCZ-Corsair-G.Skill for performance RAM.


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

The final price was a bit too much for him, so I switched to a smaller hard drive, and stuck with 4GB of ram. I was thinking of switching to a cheaper graphics card, instead of downgrading the PSU. xPlane is more intesive on the processor more so then the graphics card I'm sure.

Is this a good card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121271

Edit: I also took out the heat sink. Will this be a problem?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The 9500GT DDR3 card should run it ok.


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## Horusrogue (Aug 31, 2009)

Blue445 said:


> The final price was a bit too much for him, so I switched to a smaller hard drive, and stuck with 4GB of ram. I was thinking of switching to a cheaper graphics card, instead of downgrading the PSU. xPlane is more intesive on the processor more so then the graphics card I'm sure.
> 
> Is this a good card?
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121271
> ...


AMD's run hotter. I would get a 15$ vendetta OCZ or vanquisher cooler. Anything but stock.

EDIT: For the price this: http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=574&card2=580

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102829

is better than the 9500gt. Imho.

OR THIS 9500GT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133280

For less and double the memory.

Or less for a 9600GT: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4852487&CatId=3670


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

wrench97 said:


> The 9500GT DDR3 card should run it ok.


Ditto.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

A 512 GDDR3 card is better then a 1 Gig GDDR2 card.


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Awesome, so i'm stickin' with the 9500GT.
Also switched out to this hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075
And switched to some G.SKILL ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231219

Thanks!

EDIT:
Heatsink, found this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134

Should I get some ArticSilver5? Will that help at all?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The Freezer pro 7 is an Intel cooler, the stock cooler will do fine.

Using the 9500GT you can drop the PSU to this> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004&Tpk=550vx


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

What about what Horusrogue said about AMDs running hotter? This guys prolly gonna be playing flight sim for a good 3 or 4 hours at a time. I want to make sure things stay nice and cool in that little box of his.

And thanks for the PSU change, lowered the price a bit more for me.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Front fan to pull cool air in rear fan to exhaust it, at stock speeds or even a mild overclock it will be fine, AMD is well aware of what size the fan needs to be to cool their CPU selling them with a undersized heat sink would be of no benefit to AMD.


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## Blue445 (Dec 21, 2008)

Alright guys, sorry for posting so much, i get stressed when ordering in blulk like this.

My client is about to place the order...this list i have will be great right? I'm not missing anything important?

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor Model HDZ550WFGIBOX - Retail

G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK - Retail

ASUS EN9500GT OC/DI/512M GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA Model AD-7240S-0B - OEM

CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power ... - Retail


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Hold on the T board is a DDR3 board not DDR2, use the GA MA 790GP UD4H or switch the ram to DDR3 1600.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128384

Or 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277


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