Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | Tax Return

DVA1523
First Officer, B767-300

Joined on February 13 2004
Century Club

Westbury, NY

138 legs, 252.4 hours
35 legs, 71.9 hours online
80 legs, 143.8 hours ACARS
1 legs, 1.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on January 31 2013 09:04 ET by Joseph Gilbert

Hello all. I'd like to request some input on what type of computer I should by with my tax return. I've always had bottom of the line to mid-grade computer my whole sim career but this tax season I want to put my money down on a good computer $2000 and below preferably. I don't need to be able to run the sliders at 100% but I do want to feel A LOT of the extras that come with FSX/FS9 that I haven't even experienced before because of performance issues. Additionally, I want to keep it Intel Based and I want it to be all in one. I don't have time to be building computers! Oh, and it'd be great to run PMDG 737 for a full 2 1/2 hour flight without fearing my computer is about to explode prior to touchdown! Thanks for any input, criticiams, "you are crazy's" and whatever else you might post. Oh, and I was looking at sites like TigerDirect or something to that nature where I can just go in shop, buy, and wait for the shipment. THANK YOU!

DVA1523

DVA3196
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP, COMM

Joined on June 03 2006
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
Six Century Club

"pitchpowertrim.com"
Anderson, MO

619 legs, 1,093.4 hours
292 legs, 503.1 hours online
580 legs, 1,026.5 hours ACARS
89 legs, 191.0 hours event
236 legs dispatched, 110.1 hours

Posted onPost created on January 31 2013 09:08 ET by Michael Brown

Aside from the computer get Saitek rudder pedals and yoke ... you won't be dissappointed. biggrin

http://www.amazon.com/Saitek-Pro-Flight-Rudder-Pedals/dp/B000H67DDY/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359641232&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Saitek-Flight-Three-Lever-Throttle-PZ44/dp/B000TCD1UK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359641255&sr=1-1&keywords=Saitek+Yoke

Michael Brown (DVA3196)

Posted onPost created on January 31 2013 09:11 ET by Michael Brown

There are dozens of options for desktops out there .... here is one example that'll do you just fine: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220183

...plus you'll still have cash to buy a large monitor. New computer, pedals/yoke, big monitor = awesome FS experience

Michael Brown (DVA3196)

DVA1303
Assistant Chief Pilot, A320

Joined on August 24 2003
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Quincentenary Club
Toulouse 250 Club
Online Quintuple Century Club

Crystal Lake, IL

588 legs, 1,180.3 hours
533 legs, 1,062.8 hours online
558 legs, 1,128.0 hours ACARS
2 legs, 4.0 hours event

Posted onPost created on January 31 2013 10:18 ET by Jim McMannamy

I would suggest getting something with a motherboard that has 2 PCI express slots, even if you only use 1 video card now....next year you may want to add on to your home cockpit, and you'll be able to do that for the price of 1 more video card and a couple of cheap lcd monitors from Ebay.

Jim McMannamy

Assistant Chief Pilot, A320

DVA8083
Captain, A320

Joined on November 13 2009
Century Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"Resident Idiot :)"
England United Kingdom

112 legs, 405.3 hours
58 legs, 126.6 hours online
108 legs, 388.4 hours ACARS
4 legs, 8.4 hours event
0 legs dispatched, 0.3 hours

Posted onPost created on January 31 2013 10:19 ET by Rahul Parkar

If you want to keep cost down, and performance up... Build it yourself, it's the best option, I'm spending about $1.7-1.8k on my new rig... Which trumps the specs of $3-4k machines on sale here... You won't regret it..

Rahul Parkar

Captain, A320

DVA10698
Chief Pilot, B717-200
OLP, 737-ATP
DISPATCHER

Joined on April 25 2012
50 State Club
Globetrotter
US Mountaineer Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Everett Millennium Club
Events Century Club
Flying Colonel
Online Fifteen Century

"Life is simple, eat, sleep, fly, sim....."
Miami, FL

1,683 legs, 2,310.0 hours
1,622 legs, 2,205.0 hours online
1,683 legs, 2,310.0 hours ACARS
104 legs, 165.6 hours event
75 legs dispatched, 191.3 hours

Posted onPost created on January 31 2013 12:27 ET by Jay Marin

Same as Rahul, not sure why you say you don't have the time to build a system, to be honest with you, building it yourself you save money because you are able to get better stuff for what you would pay for a system alrady built, plus, it is not rocket sience, it can be intimidating but once you do it you are like, wow, what was the big deal? Do whatever you feel best but honestly I would go with a home build system myself, if you don't, make sure you read all the reviews on any pre-made system you are planning on buying. Good luck!

Jay Marin (DVA10698)

DVA2101
Captain, B767-300

Joined on December 09 2004
Online Double Century Club
Everett 250 Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
50 State Club
Quatercentenary Club

"I think I'll have another"
KY USA

417 legs, 923.2 hours
292 legs, 587.9 hours online
318 legs, 697.3 hours ACARS
3 legs, 7.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 01 2013 18:59 ET by Adam Disselkamp

Rahul and Jay are right if you build it yourself you get way more stuff for cheap and its so easy to build it. Watch a video on youtube about DIY computers and Jay is right its not like going to the moon. I built my first one for work last summer and took my time being careful, now I could put it togethter in an hour or less, thats not counting installing everything. Good luck whatever you decided to do.

Adam Disselkamp

Captain, B767-300

DVA11250
Captain, B757-200
OLP

Joined on January 14 2013
50 State Club
B757 100 Club
Everett 250 Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Quatercentenary Club
Online Triple Century Club

Blaine, MN

440 legs, 881.1 hours
320 legs, 640.2 hours online
439 legs, 879.2 hours ACARS
20 legs, 49.2 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 04 2013 23:30 ET by Joel Salminen

Yes, Saitek yoke, peddals, throttle, radio stack. Also keep spares of this equipment onhand, lives are at stake my man!

** disclaimer ** I own stock in the company. wink

Joel Salminen

Captain, B757-200

DVA10626
Captain, B757-200
OLP

Joined on March 23 2012
50 State Club
B757 100 Club
Globetrotter
Everett 500 Club
Six Century Club
Online Six Century Club
White Knuckles Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary

"No matter what else happens, fly the airplane."
Cumming, GA

670 legs, 1,736.8 hours
630 legs, 1,643.3 hours online
668 legs, 1,733.5 hours ACARS
5 legs, 13.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 05 2013 16:42 ET by Steven Weikle

I purchased the Saitek yoke double throttle quad and pedals a couple of years ago. I run dual monitors on a machine I built. I have < than $2000.00 in it. Its just absolute fun.

Steven Weikle (DVA10626)

Posted onPost created on February 16 2013 10:34 ET by Joseph Gilbert

Thanks everyone for your input. After much research, and learning a little more about computers in general I've decided to go ahead and build/upgrage my system that I have. Start from the box on up. Old specs to new specs below. Let me know your thoughts. I am having the built at a local computer shop for a labor cost of $90. Which I think is worth it, being that I have never built before and I do not even want to try to screw something up. Again, let me know what you think along with any additional pointers or concerns. Also, my next feat will be setting up 3 monitors; any suggestions or help on this would be greatly appreciated as well. So long for now!

Old Specs:

Standard HP Media center MID Tower
Intel ® Viiv™ Processor Technology with an Intel ® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6600
• 2.40GHz, 2x4MB L2 Cache
640GB HDD
3072MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM memory
ASUS Intel P965 socket: 775 4 x DDR2
bus speeds: 800/1066 MHz (processor dependent) Motherboard
nVidia GTX 680
Windows Vista 32bit

New Specs

Cooler Master MID Gaming Tower
intel i7-3770K LGA1155 Processor 3.5Ghz (3.9ghz turbo)
ASUS ATX DDR3 DIMM 2400MHZ LGA1155 Motherboard
32GB DDR3 RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit
nVidia GTX 680

Keeping HDD, Optical Drive, adding a new media card reader ($25), additional fans (with lights :-) ) ($20), keeping my power supply (650w), sound card (soundblaster X), and leaving my worries of hopefully a lagging system in the dust!

Total Upgrade price with labor included (again I am scared to do it myself; I'd mess something up lol) $1000 + MD tax whatever that is (well within budget). All thanks to the local computer shop for MATCHING the prices I found on TigerDirect.com

Thanks for reading.

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 February 16 2013 14:42 ET by Bill Gardiner

That should be a huge jump in power! I hate to throw a curve at this late stage but are you going to overclock? FSX is cpu dependent so there is a close ratio to cpu performance and FSX performance, i.e. a 10% increase in CPU speed could almost equate pretty close to a 10% increase in FPS, but also an improvement in smoothness. You should be able to get a good cooler and ask the guys building the system if they'll oc it for you. The one other thing might be HD performance. You don't mention your specs but a good caviar black for fsx might make a big difference. And (I'm sorry!!), if you oc your cpu get some faster ram as the 3770k can take advantage of it and it is not that much more expensive. But niggly things, the system should rock!!

Bill Gardiner

First Officer, B747-400

DVA10131
Captain, MD-11
E-MAIL

Joined on August 29 2011
50 State Club
Century Club
Online Century Club

"If it's not Boeing, I'm not going"
Charleston, SC USA

136 legs, 473.3 hours
123 legs, 428.0 hours online
130 legs, 451.7 hours ACARS
11 legs, 38.5 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 16 2013 15:37 ET by Robbie Johnson

If you want to save some money, you could go with a 3570k instead of the 3770k; for FS and gaming you will get pretty much the same performance for $100 less. You will also never use 32GB of RAM, 8gB will be more than enough; find something that is 1600mHz with a CAS of 8-9 and you will be fine. Make sure to get a good aftermarket heatsink, I typically recommend the Hyper 212. You should definitely ask them about overclocking as well, it makes a big difference with FSX.

Robbie Johnson (DVA10131)

Posted onPost created on February 18 2013 09:58 ET by Joseph Gilbert

I asked them about overclocking, and being a business they "highly" recommended I didn't because I'd lose out on the warranty of the CPU. However, I've heard things about getting an overclocking warranty through Intel directly? Any suggestions/ideas on this and if I should invest in that or not. Looking into doing the fan upgrade myslef; can't be all that hard can it?

Posted onPost created on February 18 2013 11:54 ET by Robbie Johnson

Intel's tuning plan covers overclocking and its only $20. http://click.intel.com/tuningplan/ If you're worried about breaking the CPU its definitely worth the money. If you are refering to the heatsink, I would definitely have them do it for you, it is a somewhat difficult process.

Robbie Johnson (DVA10131)

Posted onPost created on February 19 2013 23:08 ET by Joseph Gilbert

Thanks! Will be investing in this.

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