I'm finally in a position to start over on a new rig after several years of struggling with my "modest" system (see below). This is the new system I'm looking at and would like your critical opinion. And yes, it's a pre-built...SkyTech Gaming Legacy 4. Out the door approx $3500 USD (incl monitor). Thoughts?

CPU: Intel i7 14700K

Case: Legacy 4 (Antec P1 Performance)

CPU Cooler: 420mm AIO

Fans: 4

Motherboard: Z790 DDR5

RAM: 64G DDR5 5600MHZ RGB

Graphics: Nvidia RTX 4080 Super

Primary Hard Drive: 2 TB NVMe Gen4

Power Supply: 1000W GOLD ATX 3.0

Networking: 802.11 ac

Operating System: Windows 11 Home

Monitor: Sceptre 34-Inch Curved Ultrawide WQHD Monitor 3440 x 1440 R1500 up to 165Hz

Edited April 11, 20242 yr by Starlifter60

Hi, there is nothing to rate here, but for my taste 2TB drive is not much these days.

This is a fully capable rig. Agree with Artur that you might want to add another 2TB drive or upgrade to 4TB.

1 hour ago, Starlifter60 said:

Thoughts?

With enough money, anything is possible.
I would agree that 2 TB is unlikely to be enough space for flight simulation and would add that
it is probably far too large for a primary drive.
As the rest of the device is pretty much state of the art, maybe push the boat out a little further and 
finish the job properly with a 4090.

Edited April 11, 20242 yr by Reader

I'd also recommend using two SSDs:

- For the OS and core apps, 500 GB should be more than enough, and I'd go for one with a high TBW because your OS will be writing a lot to this drive. Something like WD Black SN850X would be perfect (although this one may only be available in 1 TB or higher).

- For the sim, get as big a drive as your budget allows, I wouldn't say 2 TB is not enough unless you buy a lot of airport add-ons, but if you can, definitely go for 4 TB.

No need to split OS and MSFS any more.  Back 100y ago when it was all ultra slow wooden HDD's that made some sense, but w/ a fast NVMe no need and hasn't been for a while now.  I also have a 2TB NVMe and all that MSFS has to offer including now maybe 30 addons plus 4 fairly hefty Steam titles.  To put this opinion on perspective that single 2TB drive has 672Gb of storage remain.  Of note this 2Tb drive has been in the box since Aug 2020.  What's perhaps more is Asobo has announced what seems like lower storage needs w/ 2024 release secondary to more reliance on the cloud.  Besides keeping everything squeaky simple this way it facilitates simple disk cloning for backup.  I have a portable 2Tb NVMe drive I do clones on which comes in handy if n when.  I just spent a good 1.5 days putting together my new build with all the software and it is time consuming.  There is a hell of a lot of stuff to setup.  It had been 4y since the last build and I forgot just how much is involved!  If you clone then in the event of a full-on failure or virus corruption it's a matter of a few minutes to restore function.

noel how did you get a 4090 fe to connect to the msi z390m motherboard . thought the 4090 needed at least a  690 or 790 .thanks for info on what you had to do to run the 4090 fe on that motherboard, Denny

www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/this-rtx-4090-powered-dell-xps-desktop-is-on-sale-for-just-dollar545-more-than-the-cost-of-the-card

Seems a nice system! What are the specs of the MSI motherboard? Does it have PCIe5 support to help with future proofing? 
The only thing I would change (purely a personal opinion) is the monitor. I don’t think a single wide view monitor works particularly well in the sim. A conventional 6:9 ratio 32 inch 4K gives you a far better field of view at a natural eye-view angle to zoom ratio. A wide view gives great left right perspective, if a little distorted on the periphery, but rather poor up-down view unless you zoom out but then the angles are unnatural and distorted. There are some YouTube videos that highlight/demonstrate what I am saying here. A monitor should simulate your real world vision. Humans are not bug-eyed.😁

Edited April 25, 20242 yr by RaptyrOne