# For Flight Simulator players (building a PC to handle it)



## GMTK (Jul 27, 2009)

*Building PC for FSX*

Hi all,

I have FSX and I want to play it with maximum graphics.
If you guys can give me hardware specification for a computer that can give me this I would be grateful.:1angel:
Idc about the price right now, I would just like to know the hardware it needs to run it on maximum graphics and with decent framerates.
and I already have a 1GB nvidia 250 GTS graphic card. 
thanks:smile:


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## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

*Re: For Flight Simulator players*

Hello GMTK,
I have moved your thread to the Buiding Forum,
here the guys will help you 
Good Luck


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## taydan04 (Oct 17, 2008)

You graphics card is absolutely fine, being a simulator FSX is very CPU intensive. What Motherboard, CPU and power supply are you using at the moment? There may be no need for a complete rebuild as a top of the range AM2(+) will handle it fine and a Decent dual core LGA775 CPU will also run FSX with no issues whilst maxed out.

If you are on an AMD AM2(+) Socket, I'd recommend anything higher than an Athlon 6000+

If you are running an Intel LGA775 Socket then it gets more difficult as the CPUs for that socket are slowly becoming harder to find, especially the low range ones. but for a sturdy upgrade from Intel if you have the money would be a Core2Duo E8400.

If you don't know what to look for when it comes to CPU support post your Motherboards Product number and I can have a look for you.

Without any more info there's not much more we can say. If you are looking to build a new machine whilst keeping your GTS250 what kind of budget are you looking at? And even if you just want to upgrade it would still be helpful to know a budget, also if you could post your current specs in full it would make it allot easier on us.

Regards

Daniel Taylor


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## Phædrus241 (Mar 28, 2009)

For a flight simulator a quad core would actually be better. LGA775 CPUs are still quite abundant. I'd say any quad core more powerful than the Q8200 (such as the Q8400, Q9400, and Q9550) would be a good choice.


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## taydan04 (Oct 17, 2008)

What I meant by harder to find is the "budget" CPUs for LGA775 Which are practically gone. And in my opinion it should be very hard to tell the difference between a Q8200 and a faster DualCore like an E8400. I wasn't sure when I posted whether FSX even supported 4 threads. But your opinion probably outweighs mine to be honest, you are part of the tech team, whilst I'm just laying down my opinion. But yes when it comes to CPUs it depends 100% on your budget. As although I'm still not convinced Quads are worth the extra $$s. BUT if you CAN afford them, go for it. As time goes on more and more pieces of software and games will be optimised for more than 2 cores, although it may take quite a bit of time for them to start "pouring" in.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

"Budget" CPUs for LGA775 are still in abundance and should continue to be for some time.


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## Phædrus241 (Mar 28, 2009)

Of course, and you hold an opinion I share. However, the main advantage of dual cores is that they can run single and dual threaded applications much more effectively than a quad core. However, though first person shooter and third person action games tend to be mainly dual threaded, RTS and flight simulator games benefit very much from the extra cores, due to the type of programming involved. So a Q8400 would perform at the same level as the E8400 in this instance, for the same (or similar) price, and with other functionality as well. For most gaming rigs we still recommend high-end dual cores, but in cases like this a quad core is most likely the way to go.


I somewhat agree with your assessment of the loss of budget LGA775 CPUs, but not entirely. Though the range of Pentium Dual Core and low-end Core 2 Duo CPUs is not as great as it used to be, you can still find several great options in that range. Here's the Newegg results for "Pentium Dual Core CPU":
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=Pentium Dual Core&name=Processors - Desktops
The E6300 and E6500 are perennial favorites on this board for sub-$650 budget builds for their adequate performance and exceptional price. While it is true that the PDC E2000 and C2D E4000 CPUs are almost impossible to find now, there are still many adequate budget options for LGA775 systems. Intel also plans to release more budget LGA775 options in the future, such as the 3.4GHz Celeron E3900.


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## GMTK (Jul 27, 2009)

lol forgot to mention my PC:

AMD athlon 64 +3500 MMX 2.2Ghz
1GB RAM
ASUS M2N SLI deluxe
thermaltake TR2-500 <--- appears not to be working good anymore
GTS250 nvidia graphic card.

thanks for the responses
So If I get a Core 2 Duo Q8400 or a Quad Q9550 Ill need to change my motherboard also. what one would you suggest?
And will a corsair TX650W PSU fit with that gear?

Also, what do you think about intel Core i7/i5? are they better than core 2 dous?


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## taydan04 (Oct 17, 2008)

Ok if your PSU isn't working too good any more. Its Probably a good idea to replace it since you will be installing new hardware. Maybe A Themaltake Toughpower 750w http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153101 ? Its a good PSU and would offer some upgrade headroom. A good motherboard for those quads would be any of the motherboards in Asus's P5Q Range http://asus.com/Search.aspx?SearchKey=P5Q theres a good range of prices in the P5Q range. Plus the P45 chipset is very stable and quite good in an over clocking environment.

I see you are using an SLI motherboard currently (the same one as me) If you still want to use an SLI motherboard (as the GTS250 is very good in an SLI environment) maybe the P5N-D? http://asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=yQYfAtkxxZMjR79G


Another upgrade id recommend for your PC would be a RAM upgrade as 1GB isn't really enough for any of today's games and sims. Id advise having a look at 4GB Black Dragon from Geil http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144073
Very Overclockable RAM with some nice tight timings.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The socket 775 SLI boards are troublesome, I would use the P5Q turbo or move to the AM2+ socket and a Phenom II if you really want SLI, it's not worth the hassle for the performance gain in my opinion however.


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## taydan04 (Oct 17, 2008)

Yes I have herd before, probably from wrench or linderman, that the Nvidia chipsets tend to get a bit hot. And also that SLI is never really as good as the next best card (and buying a new card can be ~ the same price as you could trade in or sell your old one) i gave the SLI board as an example in case you did want to keep SLI in the picture. But yes, the P5Q range will be far more suitable for anything but SLI.


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