New PC advice for a novice please

[DazB 8]

Hi everyone. In short, I’ve decided to give P3D a go and want a new PC to run it on. I can fly planes but know very little about computers and I have a good friend who knows computers but not flight sims. So, what I’m after is the piece in the middle of someone who can tell me what I need to ask my friend to build for me please plus any advice or info he may need to know.

I’d like a system that’s good so I’m happy to spend some money on it and whilst I know there’s always the next big thing that’s coming soon in the computer world I’d like to do it now so really I’m asking for advice on what’s currently available rather than waiting.

If anyone can offer any words of wisdom that would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

 

In case it may be of use, my current FS9 is some Saitek controls, TrackIR with one screen to fly with and second to place pop up panels etc on. My intention is to use P3D in a similar way so if there’s something specific for home cockpits, 40 screens and an integrated coffee maker / sandwich toaster they’re probably things I’m not looking to use. 

[corkyo4 2]

There are many combinations of hardware and all of them will give you different performance. Here is my spec. I can run p3d with smooth performance. I look for smoothness of FPS although there is some correlation.

 

Asrock fatal1ty performance mobo

Intel i5 2500k CPU overclocked to 4.5ghz

16 gb corsair vengeance ddr3 ram

2 ssd drives one has p3d on it

2x amd radeon r9 270x gpu

Corsair cpu water cooler

 

Many people here opt for an i7 CPU and an nvidia gpu. The i7 will be faster than the i5 but obviously costs more. I think the i5 2500k is a secret surprise in that it can be overclocked to give good performance yet is relatively cheap. If you do overclock makesure you have a good CPU cooler! Also Make sure you get a k series intel processor as these can easily be overclocked.

 

I believe nvidia gpus will give you best performance but as for which model I have no idea. And of course this also depends on your budget.

 

Some people use an sli work around but in general p3d operates on one gpu I believe.

 

Hope this helps

 

Tom