£1300 / £1500 budget for Microsoft Flight Simulator

[ricmye]

I've used fight sims for several decades and the latest edition from MS is a bit of something special.

Previous PC's have been a Intel / Nvidia combo but I can't ignore good reviews of AMD and what appears to be more bang for your money.

My budget is ideally £1300 but I can stretch a little further to get the best all round spec .

All thoughts on the suggested spec below are welcome !

Case
THERMALTAKE CORE V1 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Six Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO Wi-Fi AC (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CV SERIES™ CV-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 120 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN PORT + Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi excluded on A320I-K)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 31 to 33 working days
Price: £1,351.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-sff-gaming/Eb0TCn!rC9/

 

[Resistance100]

You'll need much faster ram at least 3200mhz to start with. AMD CPU's don't like slow ram

 

[MrWilson]

Any reason you've gone for a mini-pc? You end up having to spend extra on cooling, and with a limited budget

The 5700xt is notorious for driver issues, it's a big gamble to pick one, even today.

If you can afford to wait, the 3050 might be a better fit when it comes out.

 

[ricmye]

Mini Case - I'm just not a fan of large cases but take your point and something to consider.

"3050" - for sure. I've had Nvidia cards in my last six or seven PC's but I suspect they will appear and sell out faster than a flock of seagulls can empty a bag of chips!

Faster RAM - can't do any harm but I believe 32GB is the optimum for MSFS.

I don't plan to purchase until the end of next month so have time to get the right overall balance and appreciate the input.

 

[Resistance100]

Mini Case - I'm just not a fan of large cases but take your point and something to consider.

"3050" - for sure. I've had Nvidia cards in my last six or seven PC's but I suspect they will appear and sell out faster than a flock of seagulls can empty a bag of chips!

Faster RAM - can't do any harm but I believe 32GB is the optimum for MSFS.

I don't plan to purchase until the end of next month so have time to get the right overall balance and appreciate the input.

32GB is fine for MSFS but the speed of the ram is important as well, especially with a AMD CPU. 3200mhz really is the minimum you should look out for. 2400mhz is very slow

 

[Gavras]

Even if going small case, the brand you selected tend to have hot cases compared to other brands.

Faster Ram needs to be thought of as a better use of the architecture 32GB fast ram is better than same size of slow ram.

Also the m.2 ideally should be 500gb and if you need a seconds M.2 just go with a 1gb PCS brand.

PSU. 750w.

 

[ricmye]

Always great to have input on this forum. Thanks to all.

Bigger case - ✔
Faster RAM - ✔
Hard Drive - excellent idea - ✔

It is very easy to overspec, in my view, with my aim to end up with a machine that maximises my budget and lets me enjoy MSFS without too many compromises. Rightly or wrongly I've settled for an FPS around 25/30 over the years which for those who have enjoyed Flight Sims will know so many variables comes into play when trying to achieve a smooth consistent experience.

Any thoughts on processors?

🤔

 

[ricmye]

To be honest, given your budget, you really don't have a lot of choice on processor. In an ideal world, you'd want something like a 5800x but that would be pushing £1800+. The compromise is the 5600x....luckily MSFS20, whilst still needing CPU power, plays more like a traditional game whereby GPU power is more important....previous iterations were all CPU processing power

You know your flight sim!

 

[Scott]

I wouldn't opt for anything less than the 5800x personally. The XBox is 8 cores and DX12 is coming soon which will help distribute the thread load. It's still heavily CPU bound so the faster the better. Overall the 5900x is far better value but the budget isn't there. I would also opt for the 3060ti for the GPU. Not sure where this leaves your budget, but I would recommend spending wisely and doing so once.... rather than a rebuild in a couple of years.

 

[ricmye]

Morning all

I bought the new Microsoft Flight Simulator around six months ago. It has been running on a laptop but I want to buy a PC that run the game at "medium" settings with a decent frame rate.

My budget is £1200 to £1500 which ideally would include a monitor but I can always lend one from work while I save up for a decent one if I'm best dedicating my budget to the PC.

Any build suggestions or component advice?

Thank you.

 

[Resistance100]

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,482.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/B7MBtrxBxs/

This build will play MSFS at 1080p with no issue and give you an upgrade path for the future.

Given high prices at present it's tough to include a monitor for your budget, if there was a larger budget you could up the ram to 32GB as Flight Sim can make use of it, however at 1080p its a luxury rather than a necessary

I'd recommend a 1080p 144htz monitor for this build which will you can often find for around £200 for a half decent one