While I haven't yet decided on which simulator(s) I'll be running, I have come to the conclusion that my current rig won't cut the mustard. Any observations about what I'm considering building are welcome.

Corsair 4000D Airflow case

Gigabyte AORUS mobo

Intel i7-9700K or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X / Ryzen 9 3900X

32GB DDR4 RAM

Samsung 970 Plus 2TB M.2 NVME SSD

Corsair or Seasonic 850W / 1000W PSU

RTX 3070 or 3080

That's...plenty of power. With that setup, you won't have any problems running any of the flight sims. In fact, that rig would be prime for using VR, especially with the reported performance improvements forthcoming with MSFS 2020 later this month.

Only question is what monitor are you planning to fly on? The rig is overkill for any 1080p monitor, but not if you're going 1440p, 4K, ultrawide or even super-ultrawide.

Only suggestion I'd make is to make sure you're buying at least 3200 mhz RAM, if not 3600 mhz. Maybe a new wallet too because the one you have is about to go up in smoke.

I'd definitely go for the 5800X over the 3900X or 9700K. I use the 5800X myself with a 2080ti which would be about the same as a 3070. I have everything on ultra, object detail bumped up to 200 and everything is smooth at 3840 x 1600 with frame rates only dipping slightly below 30 on very large airports. If I was on 4k I'd struggle on those settings though. If you're spending 5800X money you could also consider the 10850K or 10900K as both would also deliver good performance. 

Nice, but good luck finding a video card.  System builders, cryptocurrency miners, and scalpers seem to be the ones who can obtain video cards.

I appreciate the input! The monitor situation is still yet TBD. I do have a 3070 that I picked up a week ago. Dang thing cost me $750. I never ever (before COVID and the concomitant worldwide changes it's brought) thought I'd spend that kind of cash on a GPU.

But I did. It's a good one, apparently: an ASUS TUF OC model.

As several friends and buddies have noted, not many hearses are seen towing U-Haul trailers. 😉

Only thing I can comment on is the Samsung 970 Plus. I'm running a 1GB 970 Plus and it's been bullet-proof - you've made a good choice!

On 7/1/2021 at 4:32 AM, OlliePen said:

While I haven't yet decided on which simulator(s) I'll be running, I have come to the conclusion that my current rig won't cut the mustard. Any observations about what I'm considering building are welcome.

Corsair 4000D Airflow case

Gigabyte AORUS mobo

Intel i7-9700K or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X / Ryzen 9 3900X

32GB DDR4 RAM

Samsung 970 Plus 2TB M.2 NVME SSD

Corsair or Seasonic 850W / 1000W PSU

RTX 3070 or 3080

Doing very similar i7 and 3080 32GB with 49" monitor but likely pre-built

20 hours ago, somiller said:

Only thing I can comment on is the Samsung 970 Plus. I'm running a 1GB 970 Plus and it's been bullet-proof - you've made a good choice!

It's hard to beat a Samsung SSD.

On 7/3/2021 at 8:07 AM, OlliePen said:

I appreciate the input! The monitor situation is still yet TBD. I do have a 3070 that I picked up a week ago. Dang thing cost me $750. I never ever (before COVID and the concomitant worldwide changes it's brought) thought I'd spend that kind of cash on a GPU.

But I did. It's a good one, apparently: an ASUS TUF OC model.

As several friends and buddies have noted, not many hearses are seen towing U-Haul trailers. 😉

Wow!  Only $750?  You got lucky!

1 hour ago, stans said:

Wow!  Only $750?  You got lucky!

I did! I'd rather be lucky than good any day.

Quite a lot of UK suppliers seem to be getting them now.  Overclockers and CCL had 3070's and 3090's when I looked the other day, CCL even had some 3080's, albeit most of them still at silly prices (900 for 3070, 1500 for 3080, 2500 for a 3090).  Also stocks of 3070ti and 3080ti's

20 hours ago, OlliePen said:

I did! I'd rather be lucky than good any day.

That's my motto!  If you are lucky, people don't expect much from you, but if you are good, people expect a lot and expect consistency.

I was able to get my 3070 at the local Micro Center. They've gone from a "campout" system where all the scalpers, resellers, and miners were basically locking down the first 20 or more spots at about 4:00A with, ahem, specious practices to a raffle system where you roll up between 9:00A to 9:30A, scan a QR code that puts you in a text chain. They start the draw at about 9:45A, and send about 5 - 10 texts at a time. Draw ends about 10:15A but don't give up then! Anyone who tries to get in line without a valid text, or doesn't have a valid state-issued ID, or who has bought a card in the last 30 days gets shelled out. At about 10:45A they will start sending out more texts to fill out those spots.
That's how I got my card, in the secondary draw. I had been about to give up when a guy next to me urged me to hang tough. So glad I did. 😁