Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Getting A New Computer.......Suggestions????

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | Getting A New Computer.......Suggestions????

DVA11164
First Officer, B767-300

Joined on November 23 2012

Irvington, NY

6 legs, 6.8 hours
6 legs, 6.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on December 04 2012 16:12 ET by Samuel Run

Hey Everybody,

So I am getting a new computer in the coming months and was wondering if anybody here could point me in the right direction in terms of who to buy it from and what specs to use. I had planned on building it, but my Parents have decided they don't want to let me do that and risk me messing up, and not having warranty.

I am looking to spend 2K or less but still get the best I can out of that. I was looking at the following:

i7 Core 2600k @ 3.5Ghz
GTX 580,660 or 680 2GB
ASUS PZ877 Motherboard
Corsair 950w
Cooler Master HAF case
16GB Corsair RAM DDR3
(2) 1TB WD HDD's @7200rpm

The only problem is it gets way expensive very fast and once you add everything up it goes way above 2K. I have using a Dell laptop my whole life that is horrible and can barely manage 4fps in FS so I want something that will at least give me 35-40fps and good graphics and performance. I also need it to be able to work with AutoCAD 2010 which as I have found up is a very demanding software and the files are big.

So, I think I have described accurately what I want. If anybody has advice please spill it out. Also, where do you recommend me buying this rig from? I have heard great things about Digital Storm, but idk.

Thanks in Advance!

Samuel Run (DVA11164)

DVA10641
Assistant Chief Pilot, B757-200
OLP

Joined on March 29 2012
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Million Mile Club
US Mountaineer Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Flying Colonel
Online Fifteen Century
Everett 1500 Club
Events Quintuple Century Club

Rosemount, MN USA

1,987 legs, 4,456.2 hours
1,865 legs, 3,929.2 hours online
1,967 legs, 4,422.4 hours ACARS
638 legs, 1,290.5 hours event
18 legs dispatched, 157.2 hours

Posted onPost created on December 04 2012 16:57 ET by Jason Boche

While I used to shop for the best components and build computers in the past, I've given up on it due to lack of time. I've had extremely good luck and good service shopping online at newegg.com. You can shop for gaming rigs there with criteria based on price, speed, ratings, manufacturer, etc. I've purchased a lot through them ala cart and I purchased my last right through them. They will continue to be my go-to source going forward.

Jas

Jason Boche

Assistant Chief Pilot, B757-200

DVA11164
First Officer, B767-300

Joined on November 23 2012

Irvington, NY

6 legs, 6.8 hours
6 legs, 6.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on December 04 2012 17:02 ET by Samuel Run

cool. I will look at them. What about Tigerdirect or Dell? I dont like there desktops or laptops but have heard things about the alienware.

Samuel Run (DVA11164)

Posted onPost created on December 04 2012 18:04 ET by Jason Boche

Samuel Run wrote:

cool. I will look at them. What about Tigerdirect or Dell? I dont like there desktops or laptops but have heard things about the alienware.

I have no experience with Tigerdirect but check them out if you wish. If they are comparable with newegg.com, then by all means..

Alienware is flashy and it will impress your friends (and it performs quite well) but if you're on a budget then it's not for you. You'll pay a premium. I'd rather stretch my budget money on components that will get me the most bang for the buck in performance.

Jason Boche

Assistant Chief Pilot, B757-200

DVA11164
First Officer, B767-300

Joined on November 23 2012

Irvington, NY

6 legs, 6.8 hours
6 legs, 6.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on December 04 2012 18:07 ET by Samuel Run

ok. cool!

AFV651
Captain, B707-320
OLP

Joined on August 04 2011
Historic Two Fifty Club
Diplomatic Mission
50 State Club
Millenium Club
Globetrotter Extraordinaire
Online Triple Century Club

"Concorde: anything else is just SLOW"
Milan, Lombardy Italy

1,087 legs, 2,148.6 hours
304 legs, 494.6 hours online
1,087 legs, 2,148.6 hours ACARS
10 legs, 15.4 hours event
1,410 legs, 2,961.0 hours total

Posted onPost created on December 04 2012 19:21 ET by Luca Di Biase

Samuel Run wrote:

Hey Everybody,

So I am getting a new computer in the coming months and was wondering if anybody here could point me in the right direction in terms of who to buy it from and what specs to use. I had planned on building it, but my Parents have decided they don't want to let me do that and risk me messing up, and not having warranty.

I am looking to spend 2K or less but still get the best I can out of that. I was looking at the following:

i7 Core 2600k @ 3.5Ghz
GTX 580,660 or 680 2GB
ASUS PZ877 Motherboard
Corsair 950w
Cooler Master HAF case
16GB Corsair RAM DDR3
(2) 1TB WD HDD's @7200rpm

The only problem is it gets way expensive very fast and once you add everything up it goes way above 2K. I have using a Dell laptop my whole life that is horrible and can barely manage 4fps in FS so I want something that will at least give me 35-40fps and good graphics and performance. I also need it to be able to work with AutoCAD 2010 which as I have found up is a very demanding software and the files are big.

So, I think I have described accurately what I want. If anybody has advice please spill it out. Also, where do you recommend me buying this rig from? I have heard great things about Digital Storm, but idk.

Thanks in Advance!

looks GOOOOD!!! similar to mine!

Luca Di Biase (AFV651)

DVA10705
First Officer, B747-400
OLP

Joined on April 27 2012
Two Million Mile Club
Everett 500 Club
Millennium Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary

Kamloops, BC Canada

1,060 legs, 5,399.0 hours
87 legs, 356.0 hours online
1,059 legs, 5,397.6 hours ACARS
15 legs, 48.6 hours event
3,528 legs, 15,773.5 hours total
15 legs dispatched, 24.4 hours

Posted onPost created on December 04 2012 19:29 ET by Bill Gardiner

I buy at Newegg too, can't go wrong. I would buy the components and build it yourself. Newegg has a "how to" video and there are videos for installing pretty much all of the components on youtube. You'll get exactly the computer you want and less cost and you'll have tremendous satisfaction when it is done. Get a good cooler so you can overclock it a bit. The 2600k (and get the k, that's overclockable, the plain 2600 is not) will OC to 4.4 or 4.5 pretty easy, and that's a big increase over 3.5. FSX is CPU bound so that increase in processor speed translates directly into more FPS. Good luck!!

Edit: Make sure you buy a case that has good directions. I have a great case but the manuals were non-existent. I know what I'm doing so was ok but if you're new to it make sure it good installation manuals or you can something online.

Bill Gardiner

First Officer, B747-400

DVA1690
Senior Captain, MD-88
OLP

Joined on May 05 2004
50 State Club
Quatercentenary Club
Online Quadruple Century Club
Stage 1 Jet Double Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary

"Life begins at Vr"
Longmont, CO USA

477 legs, 700.4 hours
468 legs, 686.6 hours online
254 legs, 389.4 hours ACARS
3 legs, 3.9 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 04 2012 19:42 ET by Trevor Bair

Those specs should do you just fine... Quite a lot of RAM, you could easily get by with half of that... But it should perform very well. Too bad your parents see you building it as a risk instead of a learning opportunity though. wink

Here is a link to the thread I started when I built my machine last year with hardware similar to what you're looking at. The pics have since disappeared but you can read the specs and my experience. http://www.deltava.org/thread.do?id=0x1801b

Trevor Bair

Senior Captain, MD-88

DVA11164
First Officer, B767-300

Joined on November 23 2012

Irvington, NY

6 legs, 6.8 hours
6 legs, 6.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on December 04 2012 21:04 ET by Samuel Run

Thanks for all the Info! Yeah, it kinda sucks that I cant build it myself cause I could save a ton of money and get a great system. They are just worried if something goes wrong or if I need it fixed one day and I cannot fix it I wont have proffesional help for free. I gotta tell them I got all of you!! smile

Anyway, I will look at your [@ trevor] thread, and I will look at more computers on Newegg. its a shame I cannot build it. My friends who built there own computers this summer with no hiccups offered to help me.

Thanks!

Samuel Run (DVA11164)

DVA10665
Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on April 07 2012
50 State Club
Double Century Club
Online Century Club

"captaen ..... táimid ag dul síos"
Western Europe

282 legs, 630.7 hours
162 legs, 433.9 hours online
279 legs, 619.7 hours ACARS
1 legs, 1.3 hours event
4,070 legs, 7,227.4 hours total

Posted onPost created on December 05 2012 03:10 ET by Daniel Healy

Samuel since your not building it yourself have a look at the dell xps range http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/inspiron-xps-alienware-desktops?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~ck=mn#!facets=80770~0~1791344,55103~0~13732493,51795~0~11384531,55474~0~11384534&p=1
the one problem i have with getting desktops is that they dont seem very balanced like for example that has good amount of memory and hard drive space but the graphics card is not the best but that setup should be good i think

Daniel Healy (DVA10665)

DVA5974
Captain, B777-200

Joined on May 27 2008
50 State Club
Triple Century Club

Basking Ridge, NJ USA

324 legs, 1,326.6 hours
319 legs, 1,305.4 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on December 05 2012 06:47 ET by Nikolay Klimchuk

Alienware should be fine but overall I'm against Dell. Using it for a while and quality is arguable. They often use cheap custom components that will be hard to replace.
Newegg and Amazon all the way!

Nikolay Klimchuk (DVA5974)

DVA11164
First Officer, B767-300

Joined on November 23 2012

Irvington, NY

6 legs, 6.8 hours
6 legs, 6.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on December 05 2012 06:58 ET by Samuel Run

That's what I have felt about dell in my experience. I agree with the balance issue, they give you a lot of memory, not much RAM and not such a good GPU and then they don't let you change the GPU. I will keep looking at newegg amazon and tigerdirect. I will look at the XPS line too. Thanks!

Samuel Run (DVA11164)

Posted onPost created on December 05 2012 11:11 ET by Jason Boche

Nikolay Klimchuk wrote:

Alienware should be fine but overall I'm against Dell. Using it for a while and quality is arguable.

Hey now..

Jason Boche

Assistant Chief Pilot, B757-200

DVA8060
First Officer, B737-800

Joined on December 06 2009
B757 100 Club
Online Double Century Club
Everett 250 Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary

Swindon, UK

347 legs, 998.9 hours
280 legs, 861.5 hours online
343 legs, 986.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on December 14 2012 18:19 ET by Jamie Moss

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-1155-overclocked/

seeing as we are on the subject I am finally in a position to get a new rig and convert at long last to FSX, this sort of build seems fairly good to me, bare in mind that over time I will be adding PMDG 747 and many of the airfield sceneries that KLM/AF/Delta flies there 74s/777s into, I'd like it to achieve great FPS regardless and from what I understand having a high CPU is crucial to FSX operation

Jamie Moss

First Officer, B737-800

DVA11180
Captain, A320

Joined on December 12 2012
Century Club

Minneapolis, MN

143 legs, 266.3 hours
133 legs, 249.7 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on December 21 2012 01:27 ET by Caleb Williams

A note about memory, if you're using AUTOCAD or other CAD software that RAM will come in handy.

Caleb Williams

Captain, A320

DVA3355
Senior Captain, B777-200

Joined on July 19 2006
Online Century Club
Flying Colonel
Everett 1500 Club
Four Million Mile Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"guiding you home..."
Denver, CO USA

1,959 legs, 8,711.6 hours
181 legs, 715.0 hours online
1,891 legs, 8,382.8 hours ACARS
18 legs, 67.1 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 21 2012 11:12 ET by Daniel Hodnik

if you buy through newegg or tigerdirect you will not be able to customize a computer to your liking. dell is an option, but there are other dealers out there. of course i would recommend building your own, but since that is out of the question, i would go with a company like ibuypower.com i quickly put this computer together at their site with all of your requirements, plus some i would recommend.

Apex EL 660 Gaming Case Black
Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Processor (4x 3.40GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155] - ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow)
16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand - FREE Upgrade to G.Skill Ripjaws
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti - 2GB - FREE Upgrade to 660 Ti 2GB EVGA Superclocked - Single Card
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 -- 2x PCI-E 3.0 x16, 4x USB 3.0
850 Watt - XFX Core Edition PRO
180 GB Intel 330 SSD - Single Drive *FREE Upgrade from 60GB Intel 330 after MIR*
2 TB WD Black HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200rpm, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black
24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) 64-Bit
3 Year Standard Warranty Service

it asked me to add to cart to see warranty information, so i am not sure what the 3 year standard is.

anyway that computer ends up to be roughly $1600. i would really recommend an SSD as your main drive and the price reflects that.

Daniel Hodnik (DVA3355)

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