Build Advice Help with building a new system ?

[ronsrubin]

I need help with a new "budget" system. I'm really only interested in Microsoft Flight programs. I currently have a Prime Asus Z270-A motherboard, an Intel i5 7600K processor, with 32g of DDR4 3000mgz memory, a 750w power supply and an Nvidia 750Ti graphics card. It's done me well over the years but can't handle the newer programs. With all the newer stuff, I don't know where to start. ANY help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Ron

 

[Eximo]

How much do you have to spend?

Complete parts list? Need to know if there is anything worth keeping.

Knowing nothing else, I would probably suggest a 5060 Ti 16GB, 12700K, DDR4 motherboard, and you keep your memory, storage, chassis, and maybe power supply.

 

[Why_Me]

I need help with a new "budget" system. I'm really only interested in Microsoft Flight programs. I currently have a Prime Asus Z270-A motherboard, an Intel i5 7600K processor, with 32g of DDR4 3000mgz memory, a 750w power supply and an Nvidia 750Ti graphics card. It's done me well over the years but can't handle the newer programs. With all the newer stuff, I don't know where to start. ANY help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Ron

Country you are located, budget, monitor resolution and your current PC specs including make/model/age of your psu, storage, etc ....

 

[USAFRet]

With all the newer stuff, I don't know where to start.

Start here:

*How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice*

How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice First off, respect where respect is due - this is an adaptation of the Animal's *How To Ask For New Build Advice* Sticky. I created this because there's a lot of posts nowadays asking for upgrade advice both on here and on the CPU forums, and I feel...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[JayGau]

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024 are among the hardest games to run, possibly the hardest. They are especially demanding for the CPU and require very fast storage and a lot of fast memory due to their "streaming" design.

To play those games, especially the 2024 edition, I would get either a Ryzen 7800xd3 or a 9800x3d, a good quality gen 4 NVMe drive (WD black or Samsung pro) of at least 1 TB, and 64 GB of 6000 MT/s CL30 RAM kit. The graphics card highly depends on the screen resolution you want to play.

 

[Why_Me]

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024 are among the hardest games to run, possibly the hardest. They are especially demanding for the CPU and require very fast storage and a lot of fast memory due to their "streaming" design.

To play those games, especially the 2024 edition, I would get either a Ryzen 7800xd3 or a 9800x3d, a good quality gen 4 NVMe drive (WD black or Samsung pro) of at least 1 TB, and 64 GB of 6000 MT/s CL30 RAM kit. The graphics card highly depends on the screen resolution you want to play.

If the OP is on a tight budget something like this should suffice.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i7-12700KF 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: *ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE 58 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *Gigabyte Z790 S WIFI DDR4 (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: *Klevv BOLT X 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Silicon Power UD90 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($94.97 @ Newegg Sellers)
Total: $474.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-23 21:50 EDT-0400

 

[dark_globe]

OP also needs to upgrade the graphics card :
luckily enough this thing runs great even with older radeons like 6800xt or 7700xt
so if tight budget is a concern i would look at a second hand market for a video card with at least
12gb of VRAM (this simulator loves to "eat" resources which applies to both VRAM and system memory)

2x16gb will not suffice for this game -
it can easily eat up to 30gb and you need stuff to run in the background as well -
having to turn everything else off just to play one game gets pretty annoying pretty fast ...
2x24gb should be a bare minimum - ideally 2x32gb .

when it comes to processor X3Ds are the best ,
but as pointed above even 12600K/12700K or 7600x/7700x will do on a tighter budget .

system with 7600x and 7700xt and 48-64gb of memory should net you 50-55FPS ultra at 1080p
of course with numerous settings you can lower the demands of the game and
also the VRAM usage and game will run even smoother and still look very good .

just to give OP an idea this is the cheapest brand new setup i would personally recommend for this game:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600KF 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor ($137.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE 58 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI PRO Z790-S WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 48 GB (2 x 24 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory ($134.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital WD_BLACK SN7100 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($139.99 @ SanDisk)
Video Card: Asus PRIME GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Video Card ($479.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case ($65.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: ADATA XPG Core Reactor II 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1206.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-24 04:06 EDT-0400


you can save additional $50 by going with the motherboard that supports DDR4 instead of DDR5
memory and get 2x32gb DDR4 modules for cheap :
(memory scaling in games is pretty good with both options , although in majority of games
even DDR5 6000 cl36 will give you slightly better performance compared to DDR4 memory
when paired with alder lake architecture)
in addition MSI motherboard above has better VRMs and also supports pcie 5.0 x16
which is better than the gigabyte motherboards pcie 4.0 x16 especially with video card like 5060Ti
which has its pcie lanes cut in half to 5.0 x8 (this would be more of a concern with an 8gb model but still)

PCPartPicker Part List

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 S WIFI DDR4 (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($85.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $205.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-24 04:15 EDT-0400

if you can buy a graphics card on a second hand market place
that would help you a great deal with the budget
i7 would be better but that is already approaching close to $200 mark for the processor in which case i would opt for ryzen 7600x/9600x which has better single core performance
and also much better upgrade path in the future ...