Im brand new the the flight simulator world. Ive decided on Xplane 11 could someone tell me what all need to get started? I primarily want to use it for my instrument rating. I don't want buy something I don't need but I don't want to be wanting either. any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

First and for all, you want a proper computer. There are plenty of options that are all good and it's a lot to get into in detail, but for the current releases, I'd say you want a CPU that is 4.0GHz or faster.

For a GPU (video card) (I'm not familiar with AMD and NVidia is more or less the way to go) in my opinion you should get one with a type number ending with 60, 70, or 80. The 700 and 900 series mostly got 3 or 4 GB of memory, which should do and the prices now are lower because it are older models, but if you want to be prepared for working with the latest sims and collecting lots of addons and who knows what the publishers might throw at us for next couple of years now 64-bit is the standard, 3/4GB is minimum. If you can, I would go for the current 1000 series, so the 1060, 1070, 1080, or 1080ti would be the best choice and the higher the better, of course.

Depending on the amount of hard discs and hardware you want to add,a proper power supply in your pc is necessary. I was always told to have a PSU of 700watt minimum.

It's always best to run you sim from it's own hard disc and best would be an SSD drive. And keeping in mind that with addons the size of your installation will increase very rapidly, I would recommend 500GB or more. Better safe than sorry, right? ;)

I'd say, at least, 16GB of RAM and the faster the better.

For a little realism, a yoke and rudder pedals are, in my opinion, a must. For relatively low prices you can look at Saitek Pro Flight and CH, both brands have very nice yokes and rudders. Both are more or less at the same quality level. Also a throttle quadrant can be a very nice addition to your setup, but for that I would like to recommend the CH (I had no less than 6 Saitek throttles and every single one of them got out of the box defective...), even though it's a little more expensive, but you have 6 levers at once, instead of 3.

I hope this helps.

Hi Brian, welcome to AVSim. I agree with Maarten, if you can afford, grab a CH yoke+rudder pedals+throttle and you wont regret! Solid and precise material. Have fun.

Cheers

CH pedals and yoke is probably your best value. You can pick up a used set on ebay for $120.

I recommend not spending too much on your first simulator. You can make sure you like aviation enough before you upgrade to a more expensive sim.

The Elite Pro Panel with USB connection is a pretty good simulator.