Zach Decou

I has another question- I plan to fly using online ATC and traffic. Would I benefit from a CPU that has 6 or 8 cores? I know not all chips are created equal, and some of the 6+ core Intel chips are way out of my price range. This is more of a general question. I know XP10 uses multiple cores to compute flight dynamics of AI traffic, but I'm not sure what it's doing with all those extra cores when it's not dealing with native traffic. Thanks!

Thanks Nano! I need the "this is what worked for me" kind of advice instead of "I got mine, figure out your own". This is extremely helpful. I wonder if your bottleneck is gpu or cpu related (shadows and reflections). I'll flip around and research where those impact. Your build looks beautiful! Sadly, I'll probably go with metal side panels and no fancy lights. I have two small children and don't need any razzle dazzle to lure their sticky fingers. That case is exactly what I'm looking for. Simple. I'm not much on cases that look like plastic Walmart shelf top stereos. One question. It doesn't look like there's anywhere for optical drives. Am I wrong? Are you using the X-Plane USB key? One more question. Have you tried any texture-heavy aircraft near heavily modeled custom airports? I'm curious how a box like yours will handle it. Thanks again!

Thank you for the link! I've been shopping on newegg. This looks like a great way to come to a starting point. Also, last time I was in the loop, X-Plane 10 didn't use additional graphics cards on SLI. Has that changed?

Thanks! I should've outlined my goals in a more concise way. I want a machine that will run X-Plane 10 at the highest settings possible, and I want to be ready for future developments (new rendering features, hungry add-ons, etc.)

Hey guys and gals. I have a large income tax refund coming. I intend on spending it wisely, but there's a good chance I'll have a fat chunk left over after bills and other boring stuff. Around March of 2013 I accidentally gave my then only X-Plane 10 machine a coffee enema. True story. A perfectly timed divorce and the birth of my baby business caused me to blow through my savings before I could replace the thoroughly rinsed laptop. I've been out of the simming world since then. Boy oh boy am I getting the itch to blow some of that tax refund money on a new computer. Since my last one was a lil ol' MacBook Pro, and the one before that was a 2007 iMac, I don't have any real world experience on high end Windows machines. My instinct is to look at the most expensive stuff (by Intel and Nvidia) because "expensive means good". That rule holds true for the most part in the entertainment production business that occupies my day job time slot. So here's the nuts and bolts of my delema. Say I go all out on a TitanX. Will I see a noticeable difference over the next card down in the product line? I'm not sure what all the bells on these new fangled cards do with relation to what XP10 needs. Same goes for processors. If I shoot for the top of the heap, will that get me improved performance over the next chip down? or the next chip down from that? Are there currently unused features in these high end devices that X-Plane may some day utilize? These seem like silly questions to me, I know. I've been simming since 2004 on sub-standard machines, and now I might have the chance to go balls out on a new one. I'd like to know if any of you have had positive (or negative) experience by going straight to the top of the pile when purchasing components. Thanks!

Brief sob story- My wife left me last February* resulting in my losing interest in simming and several other hobbies. Then I did a stupid and spilled coffee all over my sim machine, effectively killing it. After a while I began to visit the forums to see where my old passion had been during my hiatus. I have to say these screen shots are a huge motivation to build a new machine and start over. Not sure when that will be, and maybe SMP will be at version 5 by the time I get there, but these threads have rekindled the spark that once burned away many hours of my day. Thank you for your contributions to create a beautiful world that someday I may get to revisit. *I have a wonderful new girlfriend. No need for any sorry bro's

I like your use of ambient occlusion seen in these images. I prefer AO a little on the heavy side. You could almost feel the grime on your fingertips if you run your hand across the skin. Nice screenshots!

When I first got into simming, I had FS9 on a Walmart special PC that was made for bean counting. American Samoa was one of the few places I could fly with settings wide open and get decent frames. Good memories. Looking forward to getting back into it and checking this out when it's done!

Effing Beautiful!

Hey guys. Sorry to dig up an old thread ( it IS my thread) Looks like I'll be going the intel route. What are your experiences?

HOLY CRAP that's cool!

I've gotten similar feedback from others on what the vishera should do based on benchmarks. I'd like to know how it does in the real world with x-plane from someone who uses it.

[hijack] I'm considering building a pc around this chip and an NVIDIA GTX 680. How's the vishera doing for you? [/hijack]

Once 10.20 goes final, XA will release the MU2 update to ensure many more hours before the glowing LEDs. Why do they hate our families?

[hijack] Hi Tom! Wile your at it on the QC front, the EGT indicators on the baron don't seem to work. Thays is jammed! Out. [/hijack]