New Machine FSXor FSXSE Or Prepar3d?

[fls]

Which to use? Win 8x64 or Win 7x64? Any ideas and help would be very thankful.

Planning
5820 Intel 2011 [water cooled BY COSAIR] processor
ASUS MOBO un- decided
Want at least 16 mb DDR4 MEM [COSAIR]
GTX980 VIDEO CARD 4GB RAM
TWO INTEL 240 GB SSDS

Thanks
Frank

[bradl]

Which to use? Win 8x64 or Win 7x64? Any ideas and help would be very thankful.

Planning
5820 Intel 2011 [water cooled BY COSAIR] processor
ASUS MOBO un- decided
Want at least 16 mb DDR4 MEM [COSAIR]
GTX980 VIDEO CARD 4GB RAM
TWO INTEL 240 GB SSDS

Thanks
Frank

In the middle of redoing everything I have at home, I recently went through this same dilemma. I eventually resolved it with a combo of new hardware plus some I already had.

Eventually, I stayed with Windows 7 x64, with the following setup:

Gigabyte GA-Z77N-WIFI
Intel Core I5-3570K Processor (unlocked)
16GB DDR3 1600 RAM (Corsair; already had)
Samsung EVO 240GB SSD
Antec TruePower New TP-750 Blue 750W PSU (already had)
WD 500GB 7200rpm SATA III HD
WD 1.5TB 5400rpm SATA III HD (already had)
Sapphire AMD RadeonHD 6950 2GB (unlocked 2nd core to 6970 specs)
Antec Kuhler 620 Liquid Cooling System

In short, I basically followed a build from TonyMacX86, and turned it into more of a gaming build, even though this could easily run as a Hackintosh:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/golden-builds/74854-bittermelons-chip-build-ga-z77n-wifi-i5-3570k-hd-6870-a.html

I already owned Win7, the memory, the video card, and 2 of the HDs. I got burned by NVidia with the buggy cards they had with the GTX460, and could never get the card to work. The 6950 has been the best card I've had.

I also took the time to skip past FSX and went from FS9 straight to P3Dv2. It has run great, and don't foresee any problem in the future. If anything, the only thing I'd add to it would be replacing the 500GB HD with another SSD, but not anytime soon, as this is actually going to be my final PC build I'll ever do.

BL.

[streichholz]

Go with Prepar3d. Your hardware will be strong enough to handle P3D very smooth with high settings.

[bradl]

One more thing.. We don't know how big your case is going to be, and that will be dictated by the motherboard you purchase. For as big as my case is (I went with the BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX case) I opted for a Mini-ITX build over something ATX or mATX (big humongous gaming PCs don't impress me anymore; I opted for style and space in a smaller configuration). This case gives me ample space to add drives should I need it. That is why I have the 2.5" for my applications, the SSD for the OS, and the HDD to store my addons..

Which leads me to my point. You have the 2 SSDs mentioned, but will that be enough for FSX/P3D and any addons you may want to install? 240GB nowadays isn't a lot of space, though it will be FAST. You may want to consider a 3rd drive, if even just to store the zipped files/installer files for any addons you may have or want.

BL.