FINALLY uograding 7+yo pc and seeking advice

[rpjkw11]

I'm on a limited budget, so I want to spend no more than $600, including Win 7 home. I currebtly have XP home.

My case is a full tower from IBuyPower back in 2004. My PS is a Thermaltake TR
2 RX-550PP and is less than two years old, as are my WS 250GB HDDs.

Everything else will go.

The ONLY purpose is to run MS Flight Simulator 9 and , possibly 10. Except surfing, Flight Sim is the ONLY reason I have a pc. I may or may not conservatively overclock, but I want the option as it might be necessary for FS 10.

What I propose:

AMD Phenom X4 970 BE
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD 3 AMD 3+
Corsair Vengence 8GB, DDR3 1600
Cool Master Hyper 212 EVO heat sink
MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5

I have a Creative Labs sound card I bought about four years ago. I'd like to use the MB onboard sound, but I'll install what I have now or buy a new one if I'm not happy with the MB results.

Those are my goals and how I propose to meet or exceed them. I'm a former pilot and lost my medical due to a heart attack, and FS is the ONLY way I can 'fly'.

Thank you for your time,

Bob

 

[Knufire]

After the MIR, this comes it right around $600. Free shipping on the whole cart.

 

[ssjwizard]

You have 2 cpu coolers in there knufire and no RAM.

I would surely take the 960T over a 970.
Really I think that vengance memory is overpriced. Just grab some gskil/mushkin ect with decent 1600mhz timings.

 

[Knufire]

Sorry, fixed that.

 

[rpjkw11]

Two suggestions for the 960T vs the 970. As I had to make a choice by reading, I'm curious as to why the 960T is 'better'. I'm treating this as a learning experience since the last system I built used the Pentium 90 chip with eight meg of RAM (the RAM cost $400).

Thanks for the help,

Bob

 

[Knufire]

The 960T is actaully a hexacore with two locked cores. So you have the chance of unlocking those extra cores. Also, since it's based on the hexacores and not the quads, it has the better integrated memory controller that the hexas have to offer.

 

[ssjwizard]

The memory controller and wattage of the 960T make it better. If you unlock the extra cores great but dont expect them to unlock.

 

[rpjkw11]

Thanks for the help. I'm intrigued with the 960T so I that's the way I'll go.

Will the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD 3 AMD 3+ MB unlock the cores? If not, suggestions are welcome.

Bob

 

[ssjwizard]

It has a possibility of unlocking them. My 990Xa was very good at core unlocking.

 

[rpjkw11]

Thanks, fellow Rio Ranchoan, I'll opt for a Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3. I want to be able to unlock and/or overclock, so I'm trying to cover all my bases.

Bob

 

[ssjwizard]

If your not planning on a Crossfire / SLI setup then the 990X is a bit of a waste. Both board are in the upper end of gigabytes offerings and im sure have have a similar bios. I have no doubt that the 970 can unlock probably just as well as the 990x.