Hi Folks,

I have past experience with FSX etc, but would like to "start afresh" sometime soon with P3D. I've erased my old FSX installation and haven't flown for a year or two now. I'm trying to get a "shopping list" together so I can price it up and save the money up to buy everything in one fell swoop, including joy sticks.

My PC spec is:

2TB HDD

Intel [email protected]

16GB RAM

GTX 980 Graphics Card

I would be looking at operations out of a sole UK base for example Manchester, to "holiday" destinations in Europe, and perhaps one or two destinations in America, trying to match real life operations, so i'll need a plane such as a 787/A319/A320 to go with it. I won't be doing any VFR stuff.

 

Ideally if I am spending so much money i'd like the best of the best payware if possible. If you kind folks could help me get a shopping list together that would be really appreciated.

Thanks

 

 

Hardware is more my forte. Here are a few things to think about.

In my experience you'll want a CPU that you can overclock safely and easily. There are any number of opinions regarding hyperthreading, but again, in my experience, there's nothing much to be gained. So something like an i7 9700k will do the trick. Just make sure whatever you get is unlocked so you can overclock it. P3D wants lots of fast CPU, especially from Core #1 (cpu0). Keep it cool, so water cooling is a must. Radiators and pumps for the all-in-ones are all pretty much made by the same manufacturers, just re-badged. In my experience bigger isn't always better. For me it really comes down to fan design and performance.

As for motherboards, my #1 priority is having the best available voltage regulation to ensure system stability when overclocking. Beyond that you'll want to research features like WiFi, Bluetooth, RGB and other features that you'll want to use. A board that makes it easy to setup for overclocking without an engineering degree is a bonus.

For P3D it seems that 16GB of RAM is plenty. Obviously the faster the better, say around 3200. Personally I wouldn't try to overclock RAM.

You'll probably want to stick with Nvidia for Graphics. It seems most do for P3D. Buy the best GTX you can afford. I've never bothered overclocking them for P3D.

For a power supply I personally wouldn't go less than 750 watts and good quality. Too much is better than not enough.

You'll want at least one SSD, either an M.2, SSD or a combination of both. I have a 500GB M.2 and a 1TB SSD and I'm not hurting for space.

Finally the system case. My priority is function/performance more than looks. I don't want to have to stand on my head to build and maintain the thing, so routing of cables and accessibility to fans/mesh/filters/radiator for cleaning is a priority, second only to airflow. Only makes sense the better the airflow the cooler the overall system runs.

As for planes, my personal choices are PMDG 747/777 for long haul, Aerosoft Airbus 318/319/320/321 for trans continental and TFDi 717 for regional.

As for scenery, airports, etc. Not my forte. There are others throughout the forum who have a better handle on this. It's whatever airports you'll visit and how you want your ground textures, weather, etc. to look.

Hope some of this helps.