Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - What do you think about this build?

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | What do you think about this build?

DVA5885
Captain, B747-400

Joined on May 03 2008
Online Double Century Club
Triple Century Club

Grand Forks, ND USA

310 legs, 1,177.5 hours
292 legs, 1,142.6 hours online
304 legs, 1,150.4 hours ACARS
7 legs, 25.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 12 2013 00:23 ET by Steve Jensen

Putting together a computer to run FSX. Researched for quite some time now and have came to the conclusion that these parts are going to be sufficient enough to run with many add-on products, weather, etc. This is just a list of the parts in my shopping cart at microcenter right now, but I may buy parts from newegg, tiger direct or other places if the price is cheaper for certain parts. Let me know what you think!

- Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7,200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" http://www.microcenter.com/product/383892/Barracuda_2TB_7,200_RPM_SATA_60Gb-s_35_Internal_Hard_Drive_STBD2000101

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card http://www.microcenter.com/product/400675/02G-P4-2662-KR_NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX_660_Superclocked_2048MB_GDDR5_PCIe_30_x16_Video_Card

- Corsair Carbide Series 300R Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Computer Case http://www.microcenter.com/product/379532/Carbide_Series_300R_Mid-Tower_ATX_Gaming_Computer_Case

- ASUS DRW-24B1ST Internal DVDR/RW Burner http://www.microcenter.com/product/406773/DRW-24B1ST_Internal_DVD%C2%B1R-%C2%B1RW_Burner

- Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound http://www.microcenter.com/product/391496/5_High-Density_Polysynthetic_Silver_Thermal_Compound

- Kingston HyperX blu 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 4GB Memory Modules) http://www.microcenter.com/product/360527/HyperX_blu_8GB_DDR3-1600_(PC3-12800)_CL9_Dual_Channel_Desktop_Memory_Kit_(Two_4GB_Memory_Modules)

- Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz LGA 1155 Processor http://www.microcenter.com/product/388575/Core_i7_3770K_35GHz_LGA_1155_Processor

- Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H LGA 1155 Z77 ATX http://www.microcenter.com/product/386363/GA-Z77X-D3H_LGA_1155_Z77_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

- Crucial m4 CT256M4SSD2 256GB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Int http://www.microcenter.com/product/364547/m4_CT256M4SSD2_256GB_SATA_60Gb-s_25_Internal_Solid_State_Drive_(SSD)_with_Marvell_Controller

- Corsair HX Series HX850 850 Watt ATX 12V Modular P http://www.microcenter.com/product/399156/HX_Series_HX850_850_Watt_ATX_12V_Modular_Power_Supply

- Acer G226HQL Bbd 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor http://www.microcenter.com/product/399204/G226HQL_Bbd_215_Widescreen_LED_Monitor

Steve Jensen (DVA5885)

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 12 2013 07:07 ET by Bill Gardiner

I would get faster RAM as the 3770k can take advantage of it. And it's not much more expensive if you shop around. The video card will be the weak link but that is expensive to upgrade. But it looks like a rocking system!

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 12 2013 08:20 ET by Robbie Johnson

If you are in to GPU intensive gaming I would recommend bumping up to the 660Ti or the 670, but for FSX the 660 should be fine. You don't seem to have picked an aftermarket heatsink; I typically recommend the Hyper 212 EVO (~$35). For the memory a lower CAS is typically more important than speed, but if you want to spend a little more on it there would be performance benefits. Unless you are using programs that can take advantage of 8 threads, there is VERY little to no advantage going with the i7 3770k over the i5 3570k. The PSU seems a bit excessive, unless you intend on running an SLI setup in the future. According to my PSU calculator, with that setup you need about 400w, but I always leave a good bit of wiggle room so I would go with a 550 or greater.

Robbie Johnson (DVA10131)

DVA10720
First Officer, B777-200
OLP

Joined on May 09 2012
50 State Club
Everett Century Club
DVA Two-Year Anniversary
Double Century Club

"The wing is NOT on fire."
Boulder, CO

288 legs, 677.6 hours
74 legs, 127.4 hours online
237 legs, 505.2 hours ACARS
6 legs, 12.1 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 12 2013 13:32 ET by Jaden Rosard

this looks great! almost like my build(I think mine is a bit better, as I have a TI), and I get 40+ frames in the ifly VC! have fun!

Jaden Rosard

First Officer, B777-200

Posted onPost created on February 13 2013 01:47 ET by Steve Jensen

Bill Gardiner wrote:

I would get faster RAM as the 3770k can take advantage of it. And it's not much more expensive if you shop around. The video card will be the weak link but that is expensive to upgrade. But it looks like a rocking system!

Bill, what type of RAM would you recommend?

Robbie Johnson wrote:

If you are in to GPU intensive gaming I would recommend bumping up to the 660Ti or the 670, but for FSX the 660 should be fine. You don't seem to have picked an aftermarket heatsink; I typically recommend the Hyper 212 EVO (~$35). For the memory a lower CAS is typically more important than speed, but if you want to spend a little more on it there would be performance benefits. Unless you are using programs that can take advantage of 8 threads, there is VERY little to no advantage going with the i7 3770k over the i5 3570k. The PSU seems a bit excessive, unless you intend on running an SLI setup in the future. According to my PSU calculator, with that setup you need about 400w, but I always leave a good bit of wiggle room so I would go with a 550 or greater.

Robbie, I will only really be using FSX on the computer, so I think the 660 will do, but as far as RAM goes would would you recommend as well? I think I'm going to stick with the i7 3770 just to make it a bit more future proof in case I do play other games as well. And yeah...I completely forgot to add in the heatsink..I was thinking the scythe ninja 3 or going up to the h100, but i really dont know too much about heatsinks so any other info will help out alot. I plan on getting the i7 to overclock at 4.5..maybe more, we'll see, and as far as the PSU goes, I'll probably stick with the 850 as I may do some sort of SLI setup in the future.

Thanks for your responses guys, any more help will be greatly appreciated!

Steve Jensen (DVA5885)

Posted onPost created on February 13 2013 23:23 ET by Robbie Johnson

For the RAM, I would recommend sticking with what you picked out; The performance enhancements of higher priced RAM don't tend to match up with the extra cost. The 660 should be just fine for FSX. If there is a Microcenter in your area it may be worth it to go with the 3770k ($230 is in store only), but for gaming/FS purposes you will most likely not see any improvement over the 3570k unless you use a lot of heavily threaded applications. I typically recommend the Hyper 212 EVO for the heatsink unless its a small form factor build or you are going for high overclocks. You should be able to hit 4.5 with it with no problem, but if you're worried about it you would be ok with H80 or higher for watercooling. The current gen of GPUs draw a surprisingly low amount of power, and even with SLI 660's and 850w PSU is overkill, and you will only be at about 500w. That said it won't hurt your system to stick with the 850, but if you want to save a little money you can drop down a little (650w or more considering SLI).

Robbie Johnson (DVA10131)

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