Extreme Budget Flight Sim Rig

[Reggod]

I'm putting out feelers on this one; not sure if I'll actually go through with it.
Anyways, here goes.

My brother is crazy about aviation and is really into flight Sims. He's building his own flight simulator "pod" , complete with all manner of flight controls in the garage, but has turned to me to advise him on the hardware to power his setup.

I'm looking for advice on what the best options here are. I have limited knowledge of PC tech talk, so please bear with me.

PC will be used exclusively for running 3 Sims: Lockheed Martin P3D, Microsoft FSX, and X-Plane 11. Right now, the budget is very tight, (sub $300), and I may advise him to wait for it to loosen a bit before buying depending on answers here. I'm pretty sure that building a PC is the cheapest and best way to get the most for the money. But I've looked at a few used PCs on Goodwill to see if they would cut it, at least temporarily. I thought this one looked promising with a few upgrades:https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/46532425.

Assuming my first instinct is correct, please tell me which parts you'd use for a rig on a $300 budget, assuming it's possible. I'm guessing that with a simulator, CPU, GPU, and an SSD are going to be the most important parts, and consequently the most expensive. I'm looking for a list of everything from the fans to the case.

One last thought; the flight sim "pod"/ cockpit thingy, will of necessity, stay in the garage; do you think hot or cold weather will have any adverse effects on the PC? Temperatures never get that cold here in NC, but can drop to the 30s.

Thanks for any help.

 

[smorizio]

as it close to xmass see if he can get cash or pre paid credit cards or newegg/amazon gift cards. with the flight sim set up a ruff outline of what he wants to do with the pod. ie one monitor or more then one. the controls and placement and if there usb/bluetooth/wifi devices. if there usb find out how many ports he going to need. some mb have 4 some have 6 some have more then six. look at the software and the min cpu and gpu needed. if there not needing a strong i5 or i7 to run. use one of the newer 4 core i3 or g cpu (coffee lake) or ryzen cpu.
case like cosair r line are not bad cases. add two top fans to keep the pc cool in the summer heat. swap out the stock cpu cooler for better cooler thta has a back plate. (evo 212 are not first time friendly coolers). if he wants more then one monitor look at gpu with few hdim or digitail ports. should be fine with 1050/1050ti or amd gpu. ssd not need use a standard hard drive. all ssd going to give him few extra sec at boot and game loading. with a tight money start with a g cpu and onboard video and one good 24 inch monitor.