New Build for Flight Simulation - Feedback Wanted

Baylorguy · Oct 7, 2013

Hello everyone -

I just joined despite lurking for quite awhile. I am building a PC that will be my primary means of gaming entertainment. I am heavy into Flight Simulator X and will likely pick up Rome Total War II. I plan on overclocking my processor to hopefully anywhere from 4.4 - 4.8 GHz.

Thoughts?

Case: Coolermaster StormTrooper

Motherboard: ASUS Z87-PRO LGA 1150 Intel Z87

Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz

Video Card: EVGA Superclocked GeForce GTX 780 Graphics Card

Cooler: Corsair Liquid CPU Cooler H100i

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2133 (CAS of 9)

SSD: 120 Gig Kingston SSD

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB

Drive: DVD-ASUS-24X ASUS DVD RW 24X SATA

Power Supply: EVGA-NEX750B EVGA NEX750B MOD POWER SUPPLY

ninjacore · Oct 8, 2013

What resolution do you game at? Single monitor. The 780 is overkill if you're on a single 1080P monitor. You'll be able to max those games out easily with a 770 or 7970/280X.

Likewise, the i7 will give you no benefit over the i5 for gaming, so I would bump that down as well.

And 8GB of RAM will be fine, unless you're getting a really good deal on 16.

There are better SSDs. I'm assuming that's the V300? I would look at the 840 EVO in a similar price range.

Mostly good choices, though, just overkill unless you're multi-monitor or really high resolution.

Baylorguy · Oct 9, 2013

Hi ninja thanks for the reply. I want to this be a solid gaming system for awhile. I figured the i7s additional cache would be beneficial. As you probably know flight simulators are cpu intensive due to in many cases poorly optomized code. As they start to leverage the gpu to take some of the burden off of the cpu I figured I would get a strong gpu.

Good call on the ssd. I will look into that.

EarthDog · Oct 9, 2013

I like all the choices for FSX @ 1080p personally...

+1 to an SSD as well.

The PSU is a bit of overkill unless you are going to get two 780's in the future. A quality 550W PSU is plenty, including overclocking both CPU and GPU if you want to save some bucks to put towards teh SSD.

ninjacore · Oct 9, 2013

I've not played it or seen too many benchmarks, but I am now curious how much the hyperthreading i7 will help out in CPU-intensive games over the i5.

Baylorguy · Oct 9, 2013

ninjacore said:
I've not played it or seen too many benchmarks, but I am now curious how much the hyperthreading i7 will help out in CPU-intensive games over the i5.

You were spot on with that. FSX does not use hyperthreading which is why most people get an i5 instead.

Baylorguy · Oct 9, 2013

EarthDog said:
I like all the choices for FSX @ 1080p personally...

+1 to an SSD as well.

The PSU is a bit of overkill unless you are going to get two 780's in the future. A quality 550W PSU is plenty, including overclocking both CPU and GPU if you want to save some bucks to put towards teh SSD.

I keep forgetting how efficient everything is now. I figured my paltry 750 w PSU was on the low end compared to some of the guys running around with 1000+ with one GPU

ninjacore · Oct 9, 2013

Yep, 1000w PSUs are for 3+ GPUs or epeen

Benchmarks for FSX are difficult to divine, it seems. They're fairly scattered with very few side-by-side comparisons. From what I read over the past 10 minutes, though (

), I wouldn't expect it to be very optimized for hyperthreading.

That said, will you be moving on to other games in the future? I could see Star Citizen possibly making proper use of an i7, so if you have the cash, it's only $75-100 more. If it means shrinking your GPU for an i7, then I would say no, but if you're going with a 780 or 290/290X, then why not have the best of both worlds for a little more

Baylorguy · Oct 9, 2013

ninjacore said:
Yep, 1000w PSUs are for 3+ GPUs or epeen

Benchmarks for FSX are difficult to divine, it seems. They're fairly scattered with very few side-by-side comparisons. From what I read over the past 10 minutes, though (), I wouldn't expect it to be very optimized for hyperthreading.

That said, will you be moving on to other games in the future? I could see Star Citizen possibly making proper use of an i7, so if you have the cash, it's only $75-100 more. If it means shrinking your GPU for an i7, then I would say no, but if you're going with a 780 or 290/290X, then why not have the best of both worlds for a little more

Yes, for sure. I will almost certainly pick up Rome Total War II and I have read it has been putting the hurt on gaming rigs. I think part of the issue is just like with FSX... poor coding... but it should get better.

Other than that I am heavy into strategy and simulation games. Also like a good RPG like Skyrim.

ninjacore · Oct 9, 2013

Baylorguy said:
Other than that I am heavy into strategy and simulation games. Also like a good RPG like Skyrim.

Check out Star Citizen. Seems right up your alley and has had me excited for the past week

Theocnoob · Oct 9, 2013

Baylorguy said:
Also like a good RPG like Skyrim.

Well on the upshot, skyrim will run on a pistachio if you don't mod it, and on high too.

manu2b · Oct 10, 2013

With this config you can play everything maxed out@1080p.
Even Crysis 3!

Baylorguy · Oct 10, 2013

manu2b said:
With this config you can play everything maxed out@1080p.
Even Crysis 3!

I see you have a very similar setup. How do you like your Noctua? I went back and fourth between that and the H100i. Both seem to be excellent coolers.

-Phil

Theocnoob · Oct 10, 2013

I've had an NHD14 since 2010. Best cpu cooler I've used.

manu2b · Oct 10, 2013

I like it a lot.

It keeps my 3770k (de-lidded) below 80°C on Prime95 [email protected].

And as I don't have that much time (and money...) to spend on watercooling, it's just fine.

Baylorguy · Oct 10, 2013

manu2b said:
I like it a lot.

It keeps my 3770k (de-lidded) below 80°C on Prime95 [email protected].

And as I don't have that much time (and money...) to spend on watercooling, it's just fine.

I was wondering how you got to that clock on air, but it makes sense now that you are delidded. 3770K on 4.8 must roll just fine

cyberfish · Oct 15, 2013

WD Blacks are good, but also extremely overpriced at this point compared to for example Toshiba drives, that also have very high performance. Or even Seagate, now that I believe they bumped warranty back to 2 years.

GTXJackBauer · Oct 15, 2013

I think the components you picked OP are good for 3-5 years of gaming. Eventually you won't be playing everything on max but for the time being you will. You don't want to spend the money and sell yourself short.

If you're really patient and want to get great deals, Black Friday week/Cyber Monday is only 5 weeks away.

Baylorguy · Oct 16, 2013

Thanks everyone - The system was assembled this past weekend an so far everything is great! Overclocked to 4.4 GHz and things are stable at this point while also being able to run my ram at 2133 MHz with a CAS of 9. Really enjoying the SSD too... windows boots up so fast!

I got Splinter Cell Blacklist for free and with everything on Ultra settings it easily handles it. The GTX 780 is one sweet card. I was coming from a GTX 465

Again, thanks for all of the advice!

Firas · Dec 28, 2013

OP how do you Like that motherboard ?? and why only 16GB ram you have 2 more slots and i am 90% sure your MOBO can handle more although dont know what windows you are running 32 or 46

Any way i think you got a Killer PC have fun

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