Cockpit Config

NobbyH

Member
This will be probably be my last ever new-PC, I am approaching my 86th. It will be used as the main system powering my Boeing 737ng cockpit that I began building 5 years ago. Lots of parallel processing, but not too demanding for the graphics, just 3 out-of-cockpit 1080p TVs plus a desk monitor; a separate system controls the in-cockpit display screens ( 4 monitors).

NobbyH

Case
PCS P209 ARGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.9GHz/72MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING WIFI (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
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
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
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 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [MUP-00003]
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
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK270 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO
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 18 to 21 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Price: £2,583.00 including VAT and Delivery
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
It would definitely need a bit of tweaking to adjust to your needs.

What is the actual processing that it will be doing? What software is it used with? You say not a lot of GPU power required yet have opted for a fairly high end 3060 GPU.

What will you be installing/storing on the rig that requires that particular storage layout?

I can't see what you are doing needing a 5950X, but if it does..... you're going to need a bigger boat, I mean cooler.
 

NobbyH

Member
Hi Martin, thanks for your prompt response.

I have written up a description of my 737 cockpit rig several years ago in the Prosim737 forum, but that will take some deep searching, so I will give a summary here:

Current Main System:

Hardware: Intel I7-6700K 4Ghz, 16gb, GTX970 4gb, 3 X Samsung 32" curved TVs, 1 X 24" Monitor
Software: P3Dv4 Flight Sim, Prosim737 cockpit hardware support, plus miscellaneous hardware interface programs.

Support System:

Hardware: Intel I7-2700K 3.7Ghz, 16gb, GTX960, GTX460, 4 X 21" Monitors
Software: Prosim737 remote display support

This systems works fine up to a point, but can suddenly decide to be unresponsive at crucial times (eg Landing the aircraft! ). It is also, is very slow at startup when complex scenery has to be loaded.
Being a long-standing computer geek ( I started my involvement with computers in 1958 ), I am always thirsting for something better at my fingertips.

With regard to my current configuration choices:

I do like to idea of as many cores/threads as possible. On my current system, P3D flight sim seems to soak up all of my 4 cores for much of the time. I believe that multi-processing is more important than CPU clock speed, and therefore OverClocking is not too important but even so a very busy CPU always should be kept as cool as possible. - Comments?

My slow startups will gain massively from two parallel fast M2 SSD cards;, Op Sys on one, FlightSim on the other - Comments?

The Graphic card choice was convenient for its 4 Display attachment, 3X DP, 1X HDMI. Maybe the extra punch will help in Airport Scenery when landing, - Comments?

NobbyH
 
Last edited:

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
I'm Scott :ROFLMAO:

Thanks for the summary of your current setup. I think I'm following your logic. I would definitely look to tweak some of the setup though. Do you happen to have the configuration link from the bottom of the list you pasted? It will make going in and offering suggestions much easier :)
 

Vajra

Silver Level Poster
This will be probably be my last ever new-PC, I am approaching my 86th. It will be used as the main system powering my Boeing 737ng cockpit that I began building 5 years ago. Lots of parallel processing, but not too demanding for the graphics, just 3 out-of-cockpit 1080p TVs plus a desk monitor; a separate system controls the in-cockpit display screens ( 4 monitors).

NobbyH

I just wanted to say I congratulate you for pursuing your passion at your impressive age, sir. Would you be able to post a picture of your cockpit here?
 

NobbyH

Member
I'm Scott :ROFLMAO:

Thanks for the summary of your current setup. I think I'm following your logic. I would definitely look to tweak some of the setup though. Do you happen to have the configuration link from the bottom of the list you pasted? It will make going in and offering suggestions much easier :)
 

NobbyH

Member
Hi Vajra,

I did try to submit a pic, but it was rejected as “too large” . Sorry about that, but if you were dig into the Prosim737 forums of Jan 2018, you can find a longish write-up of my cockpit under the title “ My Rig”

Cheers NobbyH
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Thanks for that, no worries with the name :D

Ok, so I would go with a few changes.......

As much as the threads on your current system are being loaded, you will find that it's still a heavily single thread optimised game. With that in mind I've selected the 5900X. It's the fastest single thread optimised chip, in that it stays higher for longer. It has 12 cores which is way more than will ever be useful to a flight sim (even though they may be used)

I dropped the RAM to 32GB. Even with a higher LOD you aren't going to get past 16GB just with limitations of how the sim runs. With the addons etc you will want to have 32GB of the fastest RAM you can get.... which is what is selected.

As much as it's not a graphically intensive game and relies more on the CPU, I would definitely recommend a bit more grunt to power the 3 monitors. The 3070Ti is a nice compromise and with the savings from above it still comes inside budget.

With the storage, I have suggested 500GB on the primary and 1TB as a secondary. The 500GB will house the OS, the 1TB will be the flight sim. It's the best way to arrange it. Having a larger primary drive would just make it more open to filling with junk. Better to just keep the OS and any regularly used programs on here. Having the game separate will increase performance, especially load times.

I've propped up some of the other areas to compliment the selections above. Important note on the cooler, you really need a high end cooler to keep everything running optimal.

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING WIFI (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU 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
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
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)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK270 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO
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 - Approximately 18 to 21 working days
Price: £2,563.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/cjGJgMXF2K/
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Oh.... and I would highly recommend FS2020 with such a setup. It's mind-blowing in the visuals and the above system would happily run it at a great level.
 

Enax

Member
Hi Vajra,

I did try to submit a pic, but it was rejected as “too large” . Sorry about that, but if you were dig into the Prosim737 forums of Jan 2018, you can find a longish write-up of my cockpit under the title “ My Rig”

Cheers NobbyH
Hats off to you that is a seriously impressive setup!
 

NobbyH

Member
Oh.... and I would highly recommend FS2020 with such a setup. It's mind-blowing in the visuals and the above system would happily run it at a great level.
Unfortunately Scott, FS2020 is not compatible with my 737 cockpit system, and unlikely to be for the foreseeable future. I have purchased nearly all of the flight sims over the years from their earliest versions. Strangely I have not yet purchased FS2020, It was waiting for my new build!

Thank you for your comments on my new system. I must admit I spent a long time trying to decide between the Ryzens. 3900x, 3950x, 5900x and 5950x. The extra cost for more cores seemed reasonable; the extra cost from 39xx to 59xx requires more justification and I guess I just decided to go full blast this last time round.

Since I normally have all the three major flight sims around ( P3D, FSxxxx, and XPlane ), I need plenty of SSD space, and decided to spread 2TB over two M2 drives.

I am still uncertain about the best cooling approach. Several years ago I built my support system as a water-cooled one, but the pump eventually stopped working, and I replaced it with the rather clunky Noctua dry cooler. What is best if one doesn’t necessarily want to Overclock much?

Cheers NobbyH
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Unfortunately Scott, FS2020 is not compatible with my 737 cockpit system, and unlikely to be for the foreseeable future. I have purchased nearly all of the flight sims over the years from their earliest versions. Strangely I have not yet purchased FS2020, It was waiting for my new build!

Thank you for your comments on my new system. I must admit I spent a long time trying to decide between the Ryzens. 3900x, 3950x, 5900x and 5950x. The extra cost for more cores seemed reasonable; the extra cost from 39xx to 59xx requires more justification and I guess I just decided to go full blast this last time round.

Since I normally have all the three major flight sims around ( P3D, FSxxxx, and XPlane ), I need plenty of SSD space, and decided to spread 2TB over two M2 drives.

I am still uncertain about the best cooling approach. Several years ago I built my support system as a water-cooled one, but the pump eventually stopped working, and I replaced it with the rather clunky Noctua dry cooler. What is best if one doesn’t necessarily want to Overclock much?

Cheers NobbyH

There is quite a significant difference between the 3000 series and the 5000 series. Every improvement and advancement between the 2 designs will give marked improvement for your uses. The single thread performance is significantly more powerful (around 30%). The difference between the series is definitely a no-brainer. With the core count, I wouldn't recommend the 5950X for your uses as it's massive overkill and all you will do is introduce potential heat to the system. The 5800X would be the perfect level of chip for uses in reality, but the 5900X is excellent value and just brings a bit more to the single thread party.

Even with all 3 installs in place I can't see you going over 1TB of space (My monster FSX install was around 250GB at one time, but that was bordering on ridiculous with all the packs I had). If you wanted some extra cushion then the 2TB Firecuda 530 would be my recommendation for the second M2 drive. I would never recommend installing on the primary drive as then you are using a single lane of traffic for dual purpose (OS and game loading). Each drive can only do one thing at any one time, having the game loading separately on a separate drive simply gives it it's own lane of traffic which increases performance. You also have the added benefit of being able to do a fresh install of windows on the primary drive.... leaving the second drive intact and saving HOURS of downloads.

FS2020 is absolutely stunning. It still has the odd teething issue but show many any flight sim that doesn't. It's just absolutely breathtaking to play.

With regards to the cooling, you want an AIO on there. The key is to spend wisely here and there is no better option than the suggested Corsair unit. The air coolers on offer from PCS are not, IMO, up to scratch for the level of heat that the chips we are looking at here put out. The cooler the chip, the better it performs thanks to the on-board AI boosting technology. An AIO also acts as an exhaust for the system overall, keeping in-case temps lower as well. Failures are incredibly rare, I don't think I've read of a single Corsair failure on here (I could be wrong though). I've had Corsair AIOs in my systems for the past 15 years now. One was in for over 10 years and is still going in my Fathers system, as I gave him it when I upgraded.

BTW.... I give all this advice from experience with all the flight simulation software you mention. I have them all also and semi-regularly take to the skies in my motion sim-rig. I'll be honest though, I've only used FS2020 for the past 6 months.... everything else is gathering dust, it's that pretty!
 

NobbyH

Member
There is quite a significant difference between the 3000 series and the 5000 series. Every improvement and advancement between the 2 designs will give marked improvement for your uses. The single thread performance is significantly more powerful (around 30%). The difference between the series is definitely a no-brainer. With the core count, I wouldn't recommend the 5950X for your uses as it's massive overkill and all you will do is introduce potential heat to the system. The 5800X would be the perfect level of chip for uses in reality, but the 5900X is excellent value and just brings a bit more to the single thread party.

Even with all 3 installs in place I can't see you going over 1TB of space (My monster FSX install was around 250GB at one time, but that was bordering on ridiculous with all the packs I had). If you wanted some extra cushion then the 2TB Firecuda 530 would be my recommendation for the second M2 drive. I would never recommend installing on the primary drive as then you are using a single lane of traffic for dual purpose (OS and game loading). Each drive can only do one thing at any one time, having the game loading separately on a separate drive simply gives it it's own lane of traffic which increases performance. You also have the added benefit of being able to do a fresh install of windows on the primary drive.... leaving the second drive intact and saving HOURS of downloads.

FS2020 is absolutely stunning. It still has the odd teething issue but show many any flight sim that doesn't. It's just absolutely breathtaking to play.

With regards to the cooling, you want an AIO on there. The key is to spend wisely here and there is no better option than the suggested Corsair unit. The air coolers on offer from PCS are not, IMO, up to scratch for the level of heat that the chips we are looking at here put out. The cooler the chip, the better it performs thanks to the on-board AI boosting technology. An AIO also acts as an exhaust for the system overall, keeping in-case temps lower as well. Failures are incredibly rare, I don't think I've read of a single Corsair failure on here (I could be wrong though). I've had Corsair AIOs in my systems for the past 15 years now. One was in for over 10 years and is still going in my Fathers system, as I gave him it when I upgraded.

BTW.... I give all this advice from experience with all the flight simulation software you mention. I have them all also and semi-regularly take to the skies in my motion sim-rig. I'll be honest though, I've only used FS2020 for the past 6 months.... everything else is gathering dust, it's that pretty!
Hi Scott, Thank you for your very thorough and clear advice on my new system build.

You have kept strictly to my price point, but have changed the emphasis slightly.

The graphics card - 8gb RTX 3070Ti - has more punch, but is somewhat more expensive, and has less GPU memory. It is also ambiguous about the number of attachable displays? There is also a question about its availability; I would rather not have any great delays in shipping obviously. My current system doesn't seem to suffer too much from graphics sluggishness, its the yoke and rudder pedals and throttle, that must always be most responsive once one switches out of autopilot mode, particularly at landing and take-off. Responsiveness rather than Screen Cosmetics is the keyword that is triggering my wish to upgrade; does that make sense?

The Capellix CPU cooler is a lot more expensive; is it really necessary?

You have upped the Power Supply to 850W, presumably for the Graphics Card. PCSpecialist told me my 750W was too much and suggested 650W. I chose 750W to allow for a possible additional graphics card.

Maybe I haven't quite explained fully my rationale for the new build. I believe the none-flight-sim programs that operate in parallel are also very demanding of CPU cycles, and I had thought of the possibility of bringing all the cockpits functions to a single system. ie two graphics cards each supporting 4 displays! This would require plenty of parallel MIPs. Also, I do run many other programs apart from the 737 cockpit that will appreciate more space and MIPs.

One of my short term objectives is also to get the 737 cockpit hardware to run against XPlane11 ( ZiboMod 737 if that means anything to you}. FS2020 also would be wonderful but there are too many problems to resolve without lots of extra cost. I will only ever be running FS2020 on my desktop monitor, which is ok, but nothing like sitting in the cockpit shell with 3 32" TVs out front.

I guess the bottom line is: if I stuck to my current choices what will be my biggest regret later?, CPU?; Motherboard?; Graphics Card?; M2 SSD Storage?; CPU Cooler?; Power Supply? Only the CPU/Motherboard choice would be painful to replace.

I need to make a decision soon; time seems to be moving so much faster these days, despite lockdown..

Cheers NobbyH
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Purely ranking your original choices:

Case is not suitable for a high end system, poor airflow and high end components will run hot. This will lead to high internal temperatures, high fan speeds creating noise and just not be good in general for running.

5950X is massive overkill. I understand your uses and your wants for a high end system but 32 threads is overkill regardless. The processes that you mention, other than the flight sim itself, will be absolutely nothing to anything over the 5800X. The polling rate of the interfaces will have a far higher impact than any modern CPU will. The 6700k is a 4 core 8 thread processor. The 5900X is a 12 core 24 thread processor, 3 times the core count..... and with a SIGNIFICANTLY faster IPC ratio. It's just complete chalk and cheese. Even the 5600X would make the 6700k look very silly nowadays and it's an entry level gaming CPU.

64GB of 3000mhz RAM is not a good choice. The faster the RAM, the faster the system can process overall. When it comes to gaming and the polling rate this will have an impact. There's no need for 64GB of RAM in any gaming system, even with multiple programs and utilities open it's just completely wasted. It would be detrimental with the drop in speed (600mhz per stick).

The 3060 is aimed at professional applications. For gaming the vRAM will have no impact as it's not able to process fast enough to make use of it. The reason for the increased vRam in this particular card is for rendering, photoshop, etc. I wouldn't recommend purchasing a system such as this based on availability. If doing it.... I would always do it right, rather than doing it how it is convenient. The 3060Ti would be my minimum selection for your uses.

Storage I already explained. They use I/O channels that can only transfer singularly. If you have more I/O channels you can have more data moving between the processes faster. Having the OS on one drive and everything else on the other just works better overall. Not a huge difference in cost but there is a difference in usefulness.

With the PSU, you should always overshoot the current requirements. The calculator that is being used is flawed with the current gen GPUs in place. If you ever wanted to upgrade in the future, or as you say, add another GPU you need to consider this. As you are hinting at a second GPU I would actually opt for the 1000w RMx PSU, just to ensure you are covered. The difference in costs is minimal, the efficiency is gained so it's cheaper to run and it'll run almost silent when not under more than 30% load (zero fan).

CPU cooler is critical. You would never skimp on the cooling system for a car or anything like that. It's one of the most important areas of a build and almost always overlooked. Taking a CPU such as the 5900/5950X and putting a small fan cooler on it is like throwing a deckchair off the titanic. It'll lose performance massively on long flights and run nowhere near its best. Paired with a poor case such as the initial choice it's just asking for a hotbox. It's ironic that some of the most important key areas of a build are often the ones that people overlook and save on. These are the areas that should be over-spent on as they pay dividends with the rest of the build. Don't need expensive pastes with the good coolers, they all have really good paste as stock.
 

NobbyH

Member
Hi Scott,

Thanks for that quick response.

I have followed your advice and changed my build as follows:

Case - Coolermaster Masterbox ( I wondered whether the Silencio might be better. I have no interest in this RGB nonsense! )

CPU - 5900X

Cooler - Coolermaster Liquid Lite 120

Memory - 2 X 16gb 3600Mhz

Graphics - 3060Ti ( It doesn't tell me how many Displays can be attached? I do need 4 )

Power - 1000W

M2 SSD - 2X 980 Samsung 980 ( as before )

This is priced at much the same as before. Does this make better sense?

Cheers NobbyH
 
Last edited:
Top