Building Ultimate Flight Sim computer, please review hardware before i buy.

Hello everyone, i am going to be building the "ultimate" flight sim computer, the reasoning behind it is obviously for fun but also the fact that i am in the process of getting my pilots license and extra practice is always a good thing . Anyways the budget for everything is $4k shipped. Here is what i have come up with:

case: Antec Performance I P180 Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

graphics cards (2): XFX PVT70FUND7 Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Power Supply: OCZ OCZ520ADJ ATX 520W Power Supply - Retail

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail

Memory: (2x for 2gb total):
CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWINX1024-3200XLPT - Retail

Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

Monitors (3 of them for front, front left, front right cockpit views..also the reason behind 2x graphics cards): HYUNDAI L90D+ Silver 19" 8ms LCD Monitor - Retail

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS

DVD Burner: NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM

Also if anyone is curious i am using this flight yoke: http://www.avshop.com/prodinfo.asp?number=1579

and these pedals: http://www.goflightinc.com/order/product_info.php?products_id=32

Also the reasoning behind the 3800+ is because i have read it is the best overclocker of the X2's and i plan to watercool and overclock the hell out of it.
Thank you in advance for any input!

omg 4000 dollars for a bloody computer, bro get another hobby

4k for a computer....I plan on spending almost twice that on my car pretty soon.

As for your rig...I'd suggest either 3 2001FP's or 2 1704fp's and 1 2005fpw (for the middle), or 2 2001FP's and a 2405FPW. I haven't done a flight sim in probably a decade so I'm not sure how the resolutions work and if you can have a 4:3 ratios on the sides and a 16:10 in front though....if your not sure either then I say go 2001FP's...1600x1200 is a true 4:3 ratio where that 19" is a 1280x1024 which is 5:4.

Also, would a flight sim really help you fly? I mean beyond your basic standard turns, climbs/decents, and accel.deccel everything else is more about radio procedures and being able to react to unforseen problems...planning a flight and flying is simple, it's when things get changed in mid flight does it make it hard....do the modern flight sims do this?

Jesus, you must like Flight Sim's. I'm pretty sure you won't have much trouble with any of them this decade...

Thank you for the replies. To all those bagging on the flight sim computer idea remember this computer wont be for flight sims exclusevly.. it will be my main computer as well for regular gaming, video editing, cad/cam design, 3d rendering (lightwave, maya) etc.. so it needs to be powerful for multiple reasons, not just for flight sims before you all think i've gone mad

in that case then definetly got for the 2x1704's and 2005 or 2 2001's and 2405!

Search the image/display area there is someone who's running 2x1704 and a 2005 and it's awesome. I run 1 2001 and a 2405...I don't do enough rendering and stuff like that for a 3rd on the flank.

With spending that kind of money, I'd say jump up to the X2 4400+. Your not too worried about price/performance, and the 4400+ will give a decent increase in performance, probably around 5fps and a few other things for other applications.

I'd also say get a good sound card, like the X-Fi, and some nice speakers. Since you already have some great graphics, why not get some of the best sounds you can get.

Also to power all that, you might need a PCP&C 510 over the Powerstream 520W.

Do you think it would be better if he got 2x1gb modules instead of 4x 512mb?

Hmmm purchase a 4k comp for flight simulator a game sole dor like 50 dollars?

ckj said:

Do you think it would be better if he got 2x1gb modules instead of 4x 512mb?

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Yes, certainly. Having 4x 512mb sticks will often limit your overclock, and will always force you to run 2T.

Holy crap!

Dude, you have it all backwards. First of all, flight sims are mostly CPU demanding (physical and AI calcualations), so you should go for the best dual core (F4:AF is already optimized for 30% better preformance on dual cores) out there.

I'll point out again that flight sims dont tend to be be graphically intensive, and they will probably stay that way for at least 5 more years (by than we'll probably have quad cores as a standard in home PCs :\).

Ram is very important (lots of info has to be stored while you're covering huge spaces very fast), I'd recommend getting 2 sticks of 1gb insted of 4 sticks for obvious reasons (latency problems).

and hey, you forgot the most important thing.

FLIGHT CONTROLLERS!

In a 4k$ system that is devoted to flight sims you can only expect to find the best flight controller on the market... The coguar HOTAS is without a doubt the best of the best. check it out: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000062SSB/103-7310611-2366247?v=glance - BUT, you'll have to mess with it a lot.

Or for something cheaper (less realistic yet you dont have to mess with it like you would with a car you'd like to tune) try the x-52 controller. (look it up in google)

So to sum it up,

Get the best flight controller (more important than everything else, because these things last for ages). Get a better CPU (even if it will force you to buy a bit slower graphics cards, or it could be even better if you could wait a while for prices to drop a bit), get 2 gig'o ram in 2 sticks of 1gb each. Anyways this system is more than enough (actually it's [more than enough]^100X2) to fuel current flight sims (you should expect nothing less than 500fps unless your screen doesnt allow it), and flight sims that'll come in the next decade...

That's one smoker you're building there... Good luck

Rashal pretty much hit the nail on the head. A large part of flight sims are CPU-intensive because they need to process AI aircraft, scenery and other physics models and collision detection. I would downgrade those video cards to 6800GTs and spend some of the money you saved on getting a better CPU.

I would sugest ch products for the yoke. They make the industry standard stuff for stuff like this. I was also thinking that with all of that power, you will need a beefier cpu. I don't know if the 3800 would be enough to keep 2 7800 gtx's going at full potential- esp. in single threaded games. Also, how are you connecting three monitors? Do cards in sli support all four connectors on the cards? I didn't know that they would.

Thank you all for the replies i really appreciate it! As i mentioned at the bottom of my first post i already purchased my flight controls.

flight yoke: http://www.avshop.com/prodinfo.asp?number=1579
pedals: http://www.goflightinc.com/order/product_info.php?products_id=32

I will switch the ram to 2x 1gb sticks as suggested, just too bad there arent any 1gb tccd sticks .

And to answer aeiou's question, i wont be running the cards in sli mode but rather independantly from one another unless i am playing some type of FPS that demands sli. Also, how well does the 4400+ X2 overclock compared to the 3800+, because hell will freeze over before i'll pay nearly $900 for a cpu alone! Did i mention i was going to be watercooling this entire machine with custom machined waterblocks anyways to overclock the crap out of it which is why i was shying away from the more expensive X2 processors..? Once again thank you all for the help.

*edit* Also changed the ram to this:
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model BL2KIT12864Z503 - OEM

The X2 4400+ isn't $900....it's only about $190 or so more then the X2 3800+....I'd say it might be helpful to what your doing, and downgrading to just a single 7800GTX maybe be fine as well.

Sorry, i was referring to the 4800+ when i made the $900 remark, and i have decided to go with the 4400+ based on everyones suggestions. Thank you.

darksparkz said:

The X2 4400+ isn't $900....it's only about $190 or so more then the X2 3800+....I'd say it might be helpful to what your doing, and downgrading to just a single 7800GTX maybe be fine as well.

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He needs 3 VGA outputs.

I'd suggest 7800GT's, and getting a 4400+ or 4800+. That system is WAY overkill for flightsims right now. 2004 runs pretty well on an MX-440se and a fast cpu.