Best Computer & Sim for newbee

kevinhalvey

Hello,

Im looking for advicd on what would be
1. the best sim for me for commercial flying &

2. a desktop suitable for the job that will run it grand and wont be jumping and crashing constantly

The down side is i dont have a huge budget for a computer i dont need a monitor as my intention is to hook it up to my tele so if anyone could give me a rough estimate on how much it would cost me to get a decent enough one. i wouldnt mind a second hand one either just trying to figure required specs

any help much appreciated thanks

2011abc

Im mostly into combat flight sims myself but FSX ie Flight Simulator X seems to be the one youre looking for .It really is the mainstream product .It has just been replaced by some new Microsoft monstrosity but unlike the change from Flight Simulator 98 to 2000 to 2004 to 2010 (ie X) this new one looks like it will NOT make the previous version redundant overnight .Basically the new version is too 'arcade' / dumbed down to cater for people more used to Playstation/X Box .
As for the PC well in general youd be recommended to spend more rather than less .But where you spend your money is critical .Best case would be to build your own pc from parts .It really is easy unless you dont know one end of a screwdriver from another and rewarding .I read once or twice that FSX has unusual hardware requirements and the graphics card mightnt be as important as with other games .For God's sake dont go NEAR any of the well known chains .They will charge you twice as much and sell you something feeble.Theres enough help to be got here to tackle a self build .Buying used could be a good option if your seller is half decent but as always beware.

'Shop Build ' budget 1000-1500?
Self Build New Parts 450-900
Self build Use Parts 300-600?
Second Hand PC 200-750?

Just ballpark figures Id recommend spending .

kevinhalvey

Thank you for your reply ive found a computer which i think is to a reasonable spec would you be able to give me a second opinion or what i would need to add i.e graphic cards , RAM ETC thanks

http://www.adverts.ie/desktops/quad-core-custom-pc/1725781

storker

kevinhalvey wrote: »

Thank you for your reply ive found a computer which i think is to a reasonable spec would you be able to give me a second opinion or what i would need to add i.e graphic cards , RAM ETC thanks

http://www.adverts.ie/desktops/quad-core-custom-pc/1725781

My own setup is very similar to that one, but I wouldn't recommend it for FSX. It runs OK, but just OK. Expect to have to tweak it a fair bit to get it to perfom acceptably if you're going to run UTX or Orbx scenery. If you're sticking with out-of-the-box FSX scenery it will run better. Also, with that spec, any aircraft with a glass cockpit will get low frame rates.

I'm hoping to upgrade sometime in the next 12 months, so I couldn't recommend anyone to go with the spec I'm trying to get away from.

Otherwise, graphics card permitting, it's not a bad spec for general use. It's just that I'd recommend something meatier for FSX, especially in the processor department.

Hope this helps,

Stork

2011abc

Even with a graphics card Id be offering him 100 less,in fact I just wouldnt buy that pc ...Its got a cheap ASRock motherboard which definitely wont be a good overclocker .Integrated graphics is a bad sign on most motherboards...dumbed down to cater for the masses!

2011abc

Here is a VERY interesting article on running FSX .I knew I had it saved on my hard drive somewhere .This is only an excerpt.Send me an email address by PM for the full thing.

NB This article is 2-3 years old .The new favoured cpu of choice is the Intel 2500k .Id think long and hard before buying an i7 system .


The key point I take from this is that the ATI 4650 an otherwise very mediocre graphics card runs FSX great!

fps=Frames per second ie how 'fast' and smooth the game runs


"FSX .Why do some get 50 fps and you get single digit fps?
In the last few weeks there has been one question that I heard most of all as I was attending the Aerosoft stand at three flightsim events. “What is the hardware this is running on?” I understand the question as I always leave the framerate indication on screen and almost never show anything below 40 fps in FSX. I was asked a few times if I could discuss this a bit more. Now I have done so and even told the few persons who did not believe me to come and see. If I could not replicate the screen-shots on this forum I would pay for lunch, if I could the person who challenged me would pay. Last weekend at the show in Paris I had duck on Saturday and a fancy omelet on Sunday. And I did not pay. So what’s the deal? Do I have any tricks, some super-duper hardware?
No. But I do know FSX rather well as it is my work. And I do know a bit about hardware and operating systems as they are my work tools. So as FSX runs for an average of 50 hours a week you learn a lot.
Let’s first talk hardware. Here is what I am running:
• Asus Motherboard, no idea what one, as cheap as I could find (€180)
• Core i7, cheapest there is (€230)
• 3 GB of memory, again as cheap as I could find it (€80)
• ATI Radeon 4650 1GB (€50)
• WD VelociRaptor disk (€140)
• Sound/network onboard (€0)
Add a case with 650 watt power supply and you get it for under €800 (in the US this would be around $750). This is written on December 10, 2009 and it will drop about 2% in price every month after that.
A comment on the graphics card. I prefer the 4650 for FSX as it is the fastest card I can find for it. But as it works bad on the other products we handle (Rise of Flight, City Bus Simulator etc) I also got a more expensive card (Radeon 4870) that I can insert. ****ty but that’s life.
Want a reason why FSX gets slower with more expensive cards? I can just guess but it cannot be a coincidence that the 4650 was about the fastest card around when FSX was created. Some 3d guy explained to me that when the GPU gets more complex there is more (not less) information to be send. If there is a timing problem in FSX the time window to send data might just not be large enough.
A comment on the hard disk. Yes it is expensive and very fast. I like my storage fast. It’s also pretty small with only 150 GB. But that’s enough for me as all documents and files are on a server I got running here. Makes sense to keep your collection of vintage nudies from the machine I type the manuals on right?
So it’s a solid machine but far from anything special. It’s not over-clocked in any way. But I do am careful with what I install. No crapware or silly Adobe updaters running in the background. I run it with Vista 32 bit now, updating to Windows 7 (also 32 bits) this week. FSX is installed with Acceleration. All our own addons are installed, not a lot more. The whole installation is not tweaked in any way. All 100% standard. I know a lot of people feel that tweaks to the CFG help, but to be honest I have never seen anything impressive. I prefer to run DX10 mode but on some products it simply does not work as it has some limitations, for example the fact it will not handle high detail textures.
So we have to conclude that I don’t get my good FPS from the superior hardware. It has to be from the way I use the sim and how got my settings. So let’s talk settings. I suggest we run over them quickly so we know what’s what."