Pyroflash

Please, whatever you do, do not buy from any mainstream manufacturers. They price gouge you when it comes to enthusiast level computers. If you feel comfortable with it (it isn't all that hard if you can read an instruction manual), build your own computer. If you are really dead set that you will break something that way, or do not have the time for it, your best bet is to go to some build your own PC type sites and see if they have what you want. As for recommendations, I can't really give you any until you give me some sort of budget first.

SSD's are plenty faster, trust me. Like HiJack said though, now that you have told Windows that it is okay to interface with AHCI, you will need to tell your BIOS that it is okay. The relevant option should be located in your BIOS under the "Storage" tab or somesuch.

Your system is so old that a new graphics card or PSU probably wouldn't help much. Your CPU will bottleneck it to hell and back, and the rest of your computer probably isn't going to help you much either. Save up, and when you can, replace the whole lot of it.

850W version should be the minimum (for the Corsair AX series at least), IMO 650 is way too low for the kinds of stuff that he wants.

In January the new Ivy-E's might be coming out, so you might want to take a look real quick again before you buy anything.

Okay, I will modify your selection a bit based on personal experience. Mother: Intel DX79SR mobo (it has integrated SATA 6GB/s controllers, the ASUS one uses bad 3rd party ones) CPU: i7-3820 (you don't want to go past four cores if you intend to use it mainly for gaming. Plus the 3930k is slower unclocked. Only go with the 3930k if you intend on heavily overclocking it. Also, the 3820 is about half the cost of the 3930.) GPU: EVGA 680 (more powerful card, same price, but this is mostly personal preference as I prefer EVGA as a company when compared to virtually any other computer parts manufacturer in existence.) HD1: 2x Intel 520 Series SSDs (They are extremely stable, reliable, and you will get more performance out of two 120's in RAID 0.) HD2: HGST Ultrastar A7K2000 1TB HDD (Western Digital's standards have gone down a lot after the tsunami. Hitachi drives remain solid and reliable.) RAM: Corsair Dominator kit 16GB (4x4GB) Timings set at 9-9-9-24 or less (It is extremely easy to use more than 8GB of RAM while running typical tasks. For example, my computer with 12 GB of RAM runs idle at around 5 GB usage just from having so many open applications.) CPU fan: Intel RTS2011LC liquid cooling system (reliable, and very good, especially if you plan on OCing) Powersupply: Corsair AX850 or OCZ ZT750 though the Corsair AX850 will provide you with overhead to upgrade if you want to (The other Corsair PSU you listed was not fully modular. You will want a fully modular PSU as it helps a LOT with managing airflow within your case.) 1. Yes, although it is not what I would personally recommend given the choice. (see above) 2. No, again, see above. 3. Yes, future IVY-E procs will be using LGA 2011 4. If you don't plan on OCing, the I7-3820 will give you a performance edge in gaming over the I7-3930k. 5. DCS alone can use quite a bit of memory, and when you start piling other things on like a web browser, multiple flash applications, and VM's, the memory situation can quickly turn dire. I would suggest 16 GB (4x4GB, see above) because it makes it easy with your quad channel setup. (Remember, when installing your RAM, skip every other slot to increase performance) 6. My suggestion would run it better, though your selection should be relatively good. 7. It is really nice to finally see someone on these forums who wants THE BEST COMPUTER MONEY CAN BUY. Too many people on here with "my budget" this, and "my wife" that. :P

It appears that DCSW has given me a significant boost over previous iterations. I now get 60-90 FPS in any given mission. You should be fine with the stock proc, ignore everything I said (This is what I get for not trying out new builds before giving recommendations).

You don't want an eight core proc, and giving it 16 threads is only going to make the problem worse. There is almost nothing you can run in a home user environment that will make use of a full eight cores, and it will only hinder your performance under normal applications such as DCS. The current Sandy-E I7-3820 is more than enough processor.

Probably not, I would send it in for repairs. Mine has never done such a thing. Alternatively I have had problems where other controllers would conflict with the axis inputs, you could check to make sure that isn't happening.

Like I said, all of that stuff is comparable in cost to the stuff you had on your list originally. You shouldn't have too much of an issue as far as that goes, though availability, that is another question entirely ;).

Yes, you can run PSUs well beyond their rated "limits", however this is extremely inadvisable as you will be putting undue stress on your PSU which will at best, shorten its lifespan by an appreciable amount. At worst it could render your PSU unable to cope with abnormal fluctuations in power which could cause damage to the rest of your computer. Do your research before you buy anything, and just FYI the typical recommended max load of a PSU for a "standard" enthusiast rig (two HDDs, two SSDs, a single GPU, I7-2xxxk-3xxxk, 16 GB of memory) is somewhere around 800 Watts. Also remember that the PSU's are certified under 85% (IIRC) max load. So the 80 Plus Gold certification won't mean squat to your power efficiency if you are running too far below max load (Don't buy a 1000W PSU if you are only going to be doing a typical non OCed single GPU setup for a desktop computer).

Indeed, you are looking for trouble if you go out and buy RAM without checking its compatibility first. Also, while your PSU is okay power wise, it is not modular at all. When you start trying to put things together, this will really mess up attempts at cable management as you will have quite a few extra cables sitting in your case taking up space (this severely affects airflow, which you still need even with water cooling). To fix this issue, I would recommend either the Corsair AX850 or OCZ ZT750. Both of these supplies also come in 650 Watt models, however I would not recommend them as they are a bit weak. 750 Watt is really an optimal configuration, especially with the added load that an OCed proc is going to present.

I wouldn't upgrade from a 670 to a 680, too small of a performance increase to be worth the money. Also, reading your last post, I must say that I misunderstood you a little. I will try to provide a list of recommendations to you about which pieces of hardware should or could be substituted for some of your already stated parts for nearly the same price. I started off with this one because better hardware for the price. Differences will be in bold, with explanations as to why I disagreed with the original selection in the parentheses Lian Li PC-A70F (No tool diss assembly and easy access case) Intel core I7 3770k (overclocked to 4.6GHz) Intel RTS2011LC Liquid CPU cooler (trusted brand, quality is above expectations) Intel OXDZ77BH55K motherboard (Has built in SATA 6GB/s controllers. The ASUS one does not.) 8GB corsair PC3-12800 1600MHz DDR3 memory (sounds good, however make sure the timings on this are tight (9-9-9-24 or less). I would call beforehand to make sure.) EVGA GTX 680 (excellent warranty and RMA support from THE best GPU manufacturer) 120GB Intel 520 (superior firmware and stability) 1TB 7200RPM second hard disk (make sure that this is an HGST drive (Ultrastar Enterprise Drive is recommended), all other consumer drives have taken a rather flaky stance on reliability) Samsung Blu ray rom OCZ ZT750W (You want a fully modular supply. It will save lots of headaches when it comes to cable management) AUZENTECH X-Fi Bravura 7.1 Audio Card (Hands down the best audio card on the market. Takes the original Creative X-Fi implementation and improves it with better circuitry, OP-Amps, solid caps, and many other features) RHEL 6 (Who am I kidding :P(Yes, you still want Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit(though you should also ask for a DVD of the installer and key in case something goes the wrong way up in Windows))) P.S. You should call them and ask if they can sub any of these parts in your build in case they do not have them listed on their site.

Probably not, you would need much more power in order to get what you are looking for, something like a GTX 680, and your proc would have to be OCed well above 4.0 GHz. At least if you are looking for max graphics. Also, while OCing a processor will technically void its warranty, there is no way for Intel to figure out if you had OCed your proc or not, so as long as you don't say that it was operating out of limits, they won't have any evidence otherwise. In addition, you shouldn't have to worry too much about any overclocks. They can be done very safely in most cases, and there is little risk of something going wrong if you follow expert advice and avoid large jumps in clock or voltage (especially voltage. Large jumps in clock could make your system unable to boot, but large voltage increases are liable to fry one or more components in your box. Take the BIOS warnings seriously, and make small incremental changes to your settings.).

Liquid cooling systems are only really needed if you are going to OC anything. If you are going to leave it at stock, then you won't really run into any heating issues.

The current setup that I would give you as a "Max Rig" is as follows: Intel I7-3820 (or I7-3950K if you need the unlocked multiplier for easier OCing however this is a six core proc, so if you don't intend to OC it, I would go with the I7-3820) Intel X79SR LGA 2011 Motherboard Lian Li PC-A77F Case Nvidia EVGA GTX-680 OCZ-ZT750W or Thermaltake SP-1000M PSU (the Thermaltake is a lot higher wattage, so it won't really be efficient when compared to the OCZ one unless you plan on sticking in a couple of extra graphics cards, which I don't recommend(efficiency is a function of percent load capacity, so the higher percentage of useful load when compared to the max load gives you better efficiency)). GSKILL F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXM or Corsair CMP16GX3M4X1600C7 RAM (both are basically the same with the exception that the Corsair RAM has slightly tighter timings which will result in better gaming performance, however this does come at a nearly $100 price increase. You said you wanted the best though, and that is it). 2x 120GB Intel 520 Series SSD's in RAID 0. 2x Hitachi GST 7K3000 2TB in RAID 1 or 4x Hitachi GST A7K200 in RAID 10 (both provide data security, but only the RAID 10 solution provides a speed increase). ASUS Xonar D1 Sound Card. The total for such a rig is $2,608.87 in USD. However these are only guidelines, and I am sure that there are companies that will build you something mightily close to this.

Sorry, I have no idea what I was replying to earlier. I didn't mean to pin any false accusations on anyone, that was just me being dumb and misreading things after being awake for 36 hours.. In my RMA experience with them (ASUS), they got the board, sent me a reciept, and sent it back to me within three days, so I really cannot fault them for anything, however everyone is bound to have a differing experience.

Aircraft needs to be set to "Player" for SP and "Client" for multi.

Thanks ;)

This is fine, I sort of pictured a small case with two fans in the front and back. Ideally you would want either an ATX full or mid tower case with proper airflow (see Lian Li, or Antec). However if your current case is adequate, I see no reason that you should change it. The PSU however, ideally should be changed to a better one. Too many people skimp on good power supplies because they see them as a function of wattage versus price, when in fact, the more expensive ones are more expensive because of the increased stability and especially protection that they include. The power supply is second probably only to your motherboard, and since your CPU and mobo are that old, you should probably replace the PSU as well. Examples of good PSUs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153161 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341044 Though I can't really say for sure that your power supply is terrible, and wattage wise will accept everything that you can throw at it aside from a multiple spinning rust/graphics card setup, however I have read some reviews about flaky amperage (not the same as voltage or wattage) coming from the PSU. It is also important to note that fully modular PSUs are extremely nice to have, which yours is not, because it isn't even semi-modular, which is an issue. Also the added stability and protection that top tier PSU manufacturers provide cannot be understated in any way, shape or form. Heavens no, there is no reason that you would need to upgrade your sound card for any reason other than it broke or burst into flames. Sound cards are the one component that will literally last you a decade. If you are going to be simming, I would recommend a single or pair of SSD's with the support of your 1TB spinning rust. It will help immensely with access times and seek times(what seek times?), which are what will hinder you the greatest when loading up maps, or fetching textures and data. However I do realize that SSDs are the most expensive and least justifiable part of a setup for most people, so if you are on a tight budget then it is fully up to you. Your GPU is three generations behind current standards, and not an enthusiast model. If you do not upgrade this, it will bottleneck your setup, and your system will NOT perform to your expectations in the slightest(i.e. FPS will be terrible regardless of the CPU or RAM). I know fully well how tempting it is just to upgrade a portion of your computer in an attempt to gain some speed out of it, however your current system is so far behind the curve that NOTHING LESS than a complete replacement of almost all current hardware (the disks and sound card can remain as is) will produce any results even close to what you are expecting. All this will accomplish is you waiting, yelling and screaming in agony :P while you wait for a new graphics card and PSU (Your current one very good. Wattage and perceived stability don't mean anything). If you are insisting on sticking with AMD for whatever reason, when the second generation of bulldozers come out, you will see the performance gap between AMD and Intel drop even further. I will post a couple of informative threads to help you understand (comparing both the current Intel and AMD tippy top processors, the AMD FX-8150 and Intel I7-3820). The first two are simply price pictures to show how much each costs. The I7-3820 is worth almost exactly 50% more than the FX-8150. Also, you can read up on the specific details of each on these pages. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115229 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103960 This next one is a performance review using each of the processors (when comparing the Intel one, ignore the one that says I7-3820 @ 4300. This is an overclocked processor and should not be used for comparison) in a series of tests covering things like power consumption, memory access rates, stability, and performance in certain benchmarks and games. http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i7-3820-processor-review/7 (comparison starts on P.7, just in case the link doesn't take you straight there) Keep in mind that the Intel I7-3820 used in this test is hyperthreaded, which doubles the effective number of cores. This is because most of the applications that were tested were properly optimized for multithreading. DCS at the moment cannot fully utilize four cores let alone eight, and that will leave the FX-8150 (eight core) fully unable to handle loads like the I7-3820 (four core(eight with hyperthreading enabled))will. I expect the frame rates in DCS to drastically favor the Intel processor over the AMD one, especially since the Intel one, once you disable hyperthreading, will be able to fully utilize all of its power (when hyperthreading is enabled, you can expect a loss of 5%-15% FPS when playing games simply because most games cannot utilize all eight cores), while the FX-8150 will only be using a portion of its available power simply because DCS is not optimized for that many cores. This will result in drastically reduced FPS compared to the I7-3820 (Especially since even with hyperthreading enabled, the I7-3820 still smokes the FX-8150). You can see that the Intel outperforms AMD in actual performance, with the price per performance numbers matching up almost exactly (there is a couple of cents difference between the two chips, with AMD winning by an average of 0.3-30 cents per frame. AMD has recently publicly stated that they will no longer attempt to compete with Intel over the high end consumer and enthusiast processor market. As such, when consulting actual performance figures and specifications for individual chips, I tend to agree with what they are saying. Not terrible chips by any means, but I would not recommend them to anyone whose intended use for them includes any intensive work.

You and I must have vastly different expectations for customer service. ASUS RMA support is IMO second only to that of EVGA (which is BTW, completely exceptional), and they were very kind and courteous in trying to understand and help with any issues I have had :wassat:. P.S. If you want terrible customer service that really "blows", then you should try Dell or Toshiba :P.

At least until the JTAC finds you :P

Yipeee! (need more seeds for the DCSW torrent..)

And here I was, all sad that I can't fly for the next two months because of dental surgery when *BAM* I wake up and see an announcement from Wags. Thank you for making the next few weeks that much brighter for me while my clipped wings heal.

I really like what you have done with the ground vehicle sounds. Hopefully you and zzzspace can work together to make some seriously awesome sound environments.