What to think about when building a new Computer

Hi

I have now read trough the threads in this group, in search of an answer to my question.
What resources will be in most demand? The question is of course not easy to answer. It all depends on what you are to run on it.

As I have understood there there is 3 main flightsim programs; FSX, P3D, Xplane. In my case I would like to run FSX with the possibility to go into P3D in the future. The FSX has some shortcomings due to not being able utilize the 64bit windows (or something like that). There is no problem finding the requirements for the different programs, but it gets tricky when you install PMDG and several scenery add ons.

I have heard many people struggling with heavy loads on the system. But what do you actually need to fulfill these requirements? more RAM? more CPU? Cores? more GPU RAM? I need to address this problem before speculating on building a new rig.

Hi,

I won't really explain you how FSX works because I think that someone else might be able to explain it better than me. But by experience and research the past years, I can defenitively help you out a bit.

FSX it's an old program.. by being so eats a LOT of CPU, it doesn't really care about how many cores you have or how much cpu does it use but how fast it goes (old tech.). Contrary from modern games, they tend to be more GPU based and benefit much better from multicore CPU's. I would personally recommend you to focus on processors where you can overclock and are already at least 3,5Ghz.

If you plan to use many add-ons you will want a decent ammount of RAM, nowaday's standards are at least 16GB for gaming. If you don't have much RAM, your application will crash, out of memory errors, etc. You might want to take a look how RAM works to understand why. :) oh and by the way, make sure your sistem is 64bits!! else it won't read more than 4GB RAM. Oh and, be sure is also fast enough.

If you are a graphic freak like me, you will enjoy having a fast GPU, it will take care of working fast and efficient for the parts of FSX that will need so, like textures and such things. Same if you want many add-ons, the more you want, the more you need.

I would recommend you also a fast hard drive, I mean, SSD. HDD are slower, not a no go but defenitively a big improvement. Why? you want that your computer is able to read and write fast while gaming, as it is real time. If you look at how RAM works, you will also understand why a fast hard drive is important.

I'm sorry that I give a very "bare" answer, but I try to stay simple, once you understand this you will understand better the big story. ;)

lastly, be prepared for the costs.. that hurts the most.