New PC for MSFS

Speedman

Member
Hi,

I currently have a 6 year old PC Specialist build i7, 7700k & 1080Ti. Looking for a new system for Microsoft Flight Simulator. I have a 4K 32 inch Samsung curved screen. Grateful for thoughts. Also, ventilation is not great where it is located so thoughts on cooling options as well as the remainder of the system would be great. I have added 2 large storage drives for photo/video storage - a main and a backup. Thanks.

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 16-Core Processor i9-12900K (3.2GHz) 30MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z690-F GAMING WIFI (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
PCS ARGB GRAPHICS CARD SUPPORT BRACKET
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CORSAIR FORCE MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 4950 MB/R, 4000 MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 240 Series RGB 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
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 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
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 7 working days
Price: £3,019.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-ddr5-pc/a4xuNhxtRU/
 

Aza

Rising Star
At 6 years old, would you not be able to just upgrade the GPU (and possibly RAM)?
Are you able to link your old specs? They would be in your PCS account in the order history, if you just annotate it with any changes youve made to it.

If you were to go for a new build, theres quite a few things about the above that would be raised as red flags, dont order it, also should point out the new releases due september time that would 100% be worth holding on for (especially if you have a £3K budget to spend), you'll end up with a far more powerful/higher performance build with whats due out.

Also, whats the refresh on the 4K screen?
 

Speedman

Member
At 6 years old, would you not be able to just upgrade the GPU (and possibly RAM)?
Are you able to link your old specs? They would be in your PCS account in the order history, if you just annotate it with any changes youve made to it.

If you were to go for a new build, theres quite a few things about the above that would be raised as red flags, dont order it, also should point out the new releases due september time that would 100% be worth holding on for (especially if you have a £3K budget to spend), you'll end up with a far more powerful/higher performance build with whats due out.

Also, whats the refresh on the 4K screen?
Hi,

Thanks for the prompt comments. The current PC is being passed to my son.

What are the red flags?
What is coming out in September that is worth holding on for?

Screen is 60hz

Grateful for your comments.

Thanks.
 

Aza

Rising Star
Well the big ones are the new AMD 7000 series CPU's and the 4000 series Nvidia GPU's, both set to be noteable improvements over current gen and AMD to firmly take the crown back in terms of the CPU market.

Red flags in brief, DDR5 is a bit of a false economy right now, its still so new so motherboards arent really set to support future speeds and current DDR5 RAM offerings are only marginal increases over DDR4.

The 12900 Intel chips have some thermal problems, between the chip and the socket bracket the CPU ends up warping/bending reducing contact with the cooling plates making thermals difficult to deal with even with the high spec coolers.
The 12600/12700 are Intels gaming CPU's anyway, a 12900 isnt going to be of any real benefit.

The PCS liquid coolers are not very reliable, and arent going to cope with high spec CPU's well anyway, you want to be looking at the corsair ones (H100i/H115i/H150i depending on CPU choice)

Not entirely sure whats going on with your storage configuration, but generally speaking, a 500GB OS drive and a separate 1TB (or larger) games drive would be recommended for a couple of reasons, if you need bulk storage then you can throw a HDD in on top still

Best recommendation really is to wait, from what i've read you would be looking Sept time to take advantage of the new stuff, you'll get far more performance for the same budget.
 

Aza

Rising Star
I forgot to say, 4K 60Hz would also be quite happy on a 3070 Ti as well, but can understand maybe wanting a little more juice.
Its not a huge overspec like it would be if it were a 1440p screen.
 

Speedman

Member
Thanks very much for the advice. I had heard about the 4000 graphics cards coming but assumed they would be far more expensive than a 3080 currently is?

Interesting point on the 12900. I will look at the 12700.
 
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Aza

Rising Star
AZA a 3070ti would definitely not be happy playing MFS at 4k.
A 3070 Ti should be fine running a 4K 60Hz monitor, ive seen about MSFS2020 benefiting from 32GB RAM but from the test stuff I saw on Toms Hardware there was only a handful of frames in it when it compared xx70 super/xx80 etc, admittedly this was with the 2000 series GPU's and frame rate was pretty poor on ultra anyway, something like 25/30 FPS on higher resolutions.

Its not a game I play though, or pay much attention to on review sites etc anymore so if youve seen stuff that would say a 3080 is a big leap over a 3070Ti at 4K 60Hz then thats fair enough.
 

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
With an RTX3080Ti and a 5800X (plus 32GB ram), I see about 50fps at ultra at 1440p.

If I drop down a level or two in quality (with usually no discernible visual difference) then I can get it into the 70fps range.

Not sure what you'd have to do to get a solid 60fps at 4k...but it's a flight sim, so 60fps isn't really necessary :unsure:

However, I know there's been some optimisations since launch, but I've since deleted it and don't fancy that god-awful download again to see how it's improved.
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
I would hold off for AM5 but if you're looking to spend right now, below is what I would go with:

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Eight Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.5GHz/100MB 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 RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7300MB/R, 6900MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i RGB PRO XT 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
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 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
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 7 working days
Price: £2,804.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/V9pRhDZjxP/
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
With an RTX3080Ti and a 5800X (plus 32GB ram), I see about 50fps at ultra at 1440p.

If I drop down a level or two in quality (with usually no discernible visual difference) then I can get it into the 70fps range.

Not sure what you'd have to do to get a solid 60fps at 4k...but it's a flight sim, so 60fps isn't really necessary :unsure:

However, I know there's been some optimisations since launch, but I've since deleted it and don't fancy that god-awful download again to see how it's improved.

I found it a very strangely scaling game. It's typically the CPU that holds things back, rather than the GPU. I tested various settings and the scaling numbers were very off. 1080p 50fps.... 4k, 40fps.... huh?? :ROFLMAO:

That being said, it will still gobble up a 3090Ti if you let it so the more GPU power the better. It needs to be on par with the CPU though to get proper gains (or CPU settings dialled down).

Can't beat the 5800X3D though, it's just a monster for FS2020, which is great to see. I'm hoping for big things with AM5.

If the budget is there for the 3080Ti then it's the card I would love to have. Otherwise, the 3080 should fare quite well with the 5800X3D :)
 

Speedman

Member
I found it a very strangely scaling game. It's typically the CPU that holds things back, rather than the GPU. I tested various settings and the scaling numbers were very off. 1080p 50fps.... 4k, 40fps.... huh?? :ROFLMAO:

That being said, it will still gobble up a 3090Ti if you let it so the more GPU power the better. It needs to be on par with the CPU though to get proper gains (or CPU settings dialled down).

Can't beat the 5800X3D though, it's just a monster for FS2020, which is great to see. I'm hoping for big things with AM5.

If the budget is there for the 3080Ti then it's the card I would love to have. Otherwise, the 3080 should fare quite well with the 5800X3D :)
Thanks, so you favour the 5800X3D over a 12900?

Do you think the 3080Ti would be a big step from a 3080?

Thanks.
 

Jasontvnd

Bronze Level Poster
Having looked at some reviews online MFS seems to be loving the extra cache that comes with the 5800X3D beating out my 5950X and even the 12900k.

So if your goal is a great PC for that particular game I would back what the others have said and either go with the 5800X3D or wait got next gen Ryzen.

The further up the GPU stack you move past the sweet spot (3060ti) the more diminishing returns you get bit it's a case of buy what you can afford.
 
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Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Thanks, so you favour the 5800X3D over a 12900?

Do you think the 3080Ti would be a big step from a 3080?

Thanks.

5800X3D is the FS2020 king, by quite some margin. It knocks spots off even the 12900KS. It's a no brainer really. It's far more efficient and significantly better value.

The 3080Ti will make a difference against the 3080. However, it's a flight sim. Anything over 30FPS is absolutely fine and you're very unlikely to notice any visual difference.

I would be just as happy gaming at 4k 30fps as I would 4k 60fps so I wouldn't pay the gargantuan difference in pricing right now. If it was an extra £100 or so then sure, otherwise... no chance.
 

Speedman

Member
Thanks all for the advice - I am now looking at the AMD 5800X3D and the benchmark results I am looking at seem very good - I hadn;t considered an AMD option before. Thanks again.

On the FPS for MSFS, I agree - I am not trying to get a mega HIGH FPS, a buttery smooth at 30-35 FPS with 4K, ultra settings with addons would be great. Any headroom above this would allow for future more complex addons.
 

Jasontvnd

Bronze Level Poster
The only other thing I would be tempted to say is unless you need mass data storage a 3k budget should really just go all SSD.
 
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