System Hardware: PC | MOBO | RAM | CPU | HDD | SSD | PSU etc

I am looking into the black friday Alienware R16 deals and I am extremely tempted to buy their RTX 4080 package with the i9 14900F CPU (they don't offer the Ryzen CPUs). All the reviews I have seen when it comes to these new Alienware desktops have been primarily positive. People speak of good cooling, however, I don't know how many of them use it for flight sim. I was wondering if anybody had an R16 and what your cooling is like? When you look under the hood with these desktops, everything seems so crammed in that it seems impossible there would be any efficient cooling and that makes me nervous when using it for the purpose of FS which takes a lot of CPU/GPU power…

The 990 pro (4TB) is at $299 at Amazon right now Should I wait longer for the Black Friday sale?

I've always built my own PC's and for my son and friends. But my son is now in the market for a new PC and I can't build it for him as I now live in a different country and shipping costs would be extreme. So who is regarded as the best UK based company these days. Would appreciate your recommendations. 🙂

Currently running P3D v6 on a Ryzen 5800X3D. Soliciting opinions and thoughts on performance improvements moving to a 9800XD. I am currently using a 4090 video card ( it's really not breaking a sweat) and my cpu is maxed out.

My Q is refering to an ASUS X670E-F MoBo but generaly applies to all MoBo's. The full Q is: how to find out which M.2 PCIe slot is occupied by which M.2 drive whithout tearing the system appart? Scenario 1: You buy a new assembled PC and want to find out which SSD populates what M.2 slot. Scenario 2: You assemble a MoBo with 2 identical M.2 SSDs using M.2_1 and M.2_2 slots (on that specified MoBo) but want to install the OS on the drive located in the M.2_1 slot. On the specified MoBo, both PCIE slots are 4.0x4 and don't share any lanes whit other PCIE......

I found these tests rather disappointing, but we'll have to wait and see if MSFS 2024 can make any considerable use of that extra cache and those 8 more cores. https://www.dsogaming.com/news/early-gaming-benchmarks-for-the-amd-ryzen-9-9950x3d-leaked/

hi Folks, Looking for some new suggestions here. Situation: I have a WD 3TB HDD MYBook Essentials (WD30EZRX) USB3 external drive and had been using it to backup my flight sim files of which there were Gb saved on it. The other day I switched it on and a message appeared indicating the Disk was not initialized and to initialize it, but I cancelled out of that window because I knew there was data on there and had been accessible. The disk was powered up I could only see 746GB instead of the 3Tb. I could not see any files. Weird! As far as I remember it only had a single partition on it. Things I have tried: On running Windows …

All, After reaching what appears to be the end of the road with my own little pre-built system nightmare, wanted to share with you all so that you can hopefully avoid the same. I bought a computer from CyberPowerPC in April 2023. (I’d always built my own before this, but, being in a busy stage of life, was hoping to make it easy. Ha!) It showed problems from the beginning — Sethos helped me with some of these — and failed completely in November 2023. Windows wouldn’t load. CPP told me repeatedly in writing they'd cover shipping for repairs after the first repair attempt. Relying on that, I sent it for repair in Nov 2023. It came back broken (not a LITTLE br…

G'day, I was going to buy an Elgato stream deck some time ago but decided to wait until 2024 came out. One of the things that is has always been a niggle to me is having to pause the sim when I wanted to change QNH or something like that. So my question to the Elgato gurus is can the stream deck neo - the one with the rotary dials be programmed to say change my QNH - move my heading bug - change the radial or even dim the panel lights? Would be great if it could - anyhow can anybody advise me if that would be able to be done? Rattso

I skipped the 14th gen chips waiting on the new release.... the initial reviews and benchmarks look horrid. Currently running a 12th gen i9-12900k setup with 3080ti and I am ready to build a new setup. What now? I've been a loyal intel user for the last 20 years with the exception of one build back in the mid 2000's. Is it even worth upgrading at this point? P3D and now MSFS is the main focus for my builds.... I do some other light gaming here and there but not much.

Hello, I have been digging on this subject for about a month. First time asking before I settle the purchase. My current computer is 13700k, 32GB DDR4 with AMD 7900XT. Using 1440p ultrawide. I balance my settings with TAA and high/ultra/medium, LOD 100...etc... For most of the time, it handles MSFS2020 beautifully and smoothly way above 40FPS on ground and in the air . Sitting at major hub like KSFO, KLAX, KJFK, KEWR, EGLL, EDDF, VHHH, WSSS,...(payware addons, no AI traffic) it struggles ~30FPS and below with PMDG/Fenix. For me it's unplayable, tried to lower to Medium settings with LOD 50 but only increase couple fps. Using dev mode + show FPS of cou…

I'm using ultra settings on 4K using a RTX 3080 Ti. What cooler do you use and what are max and average temps you are getting? Appreicate any info! Shom

Mail order is OK if the return policy is good. Amazon's is great. Of the popular brands Skytech is way above say Cyberpower (based on reviews at BestBuy for the last few years). Skytech packages their desktops very well for shipping. Skytech O11 Ryzen 7 7800X3D NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super 16GB, 2TB Gen4 SSD, 32GB DDR5 RAM 5600, 1000W Gold Psu https://www.amazon.com/Skytech-Vision-Gaming-Desktop-7800X3D/dp/B0DDDX41TM/

Posting this in the event others experience what I experienced this past weekend. After pulling 2 X 16 GB Corsair Vengence RAM modules, 32GB total, and inserting Corsair Vengence 2 X 32 GB for 64 GB total. Clearly did so into the prescribed RAM slots. My system would only recognize the presence of (1) 32 GB module. Pulled and reseated both modules several times with no change. Believing I had one bad module I swapped the positions. Same result. Put both 16 GB modules back in and no problem. To make matters worse, my system was taking upwards of 4 minutes plus to clear the BIOS boot diagnostics, causing me on several occasions to believe I had a system failure. …

Is this review of backup drives giving the best advice? For instance, for the Community folder or Addon Link folders. https://www.pcworld.com/article/406861/best-external-drives.html They say the difference between the Crucial X9Pro and X9 is TLC vs. QLC. TLC is faster for long sustained writing or reading.

Hi all, I just got a new build with an i9 14900K. I do NOT overclock any part of my system. I have a Noctua DH-15 air cooler and getting an average temp of 74C. However the CPU gets also up to 100C in 3-4 cores (in peaks). What should be the benchmark to understanding if I need to replace my colling system? Avg. temp monitored via CPU-Z or max temps reached at peaks which can be observed on the core temp app? Thanks!

As my 7800x3D is a weakling in the memory controller department , ive ordered a 9900x to replace it. and just found out even the x R9's utilize core parking 🥴, is anyone using this chip in msfs without using core parking and does it make any difference . i could have waited for the 9xxx3d but as i sim at 4k its not essential for me , i just cant have this semi dysfunctional 7800x3d in my case anymore ! lol. any info is greatly appreciated

Hello folks, I have a question about a CPU upgrade. I currently have an I9-12900F and am no longer satisfied with the performance. I am getting only stable at around 30 fps in msfs with airport addon and a bit of traffic. My thought is to upgrade to a 14700k, which has a faster base clock and would be overclockable. How do you see it, would it be worth it? As a GPU I have a 3080Ti and 32gb ram. Thanks

Hi I am planning to upgrade my AMD Ryzen7 5800x3d to AM5 M/Board and CPU. Having looked at other posts, both on here, and varioues reviews. i am thinking of the Ryzen 7 7800x3d over the Ryzen 9 7950x3d, as from what i can see, and despite what MS recommends the majority of folk are saying stick with the 7800x3d. I see there's new cpu's coming out (Ryzen 9 9950x) but are a bit out of reach price wise for me. Current GPU will move over which is a RX6800xt and i run at 1440p For the motherboard i was looking at the MSI Mag X670E Tomahawk Wifi, Being pretty mid range on price, and it has the 4x m2 slots i am after. (if there's anything better around the price rate …

Getting ready to build a new machine for MSFS2024. List below is what I have ready to order. Suggestions welcome: Fractal Design Define R5 Black Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case MSI Z790 GAMING PRO WIFI LGA 1700 SATA 6Gb/s DDR5 ATX (280) Motherboards - Intel ASUS TUF Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER OC Edition Gaming Graphics Card (PCIe 4.0, 16GB GDDR6X, HDMI 2.1a, DisplayPort 1.4a) TUF-RTX4070TIS-O16G-GAMING Intel Core i9-14900F - Core i9 14th Gen Raptor Lake 24-Core (8P+16E) LGA 1700 65W None Integrated Graphics Processor - BX8071514900F CORSAIR RM1000e Fully Modular Low-Noise ATX Power Supply - ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 Compliant - 105°C…

I ran into a video talking about core parking, which really didn’t mean much to me at first. After watching it i realized that my 7950X3D might have this problem. Basically the 7950X3D has one half of the CPU with the extra cache and one half without it. Core parking showed the half with the extra cache really wasn’t being used in gaming, and the CPU was prioritizing the slightly faster non cache cores. In essence my MSFS rig wasn’t using the key benefits of the CPU. This also explains why the 7950X3D was not as fast in some benchmarks relative to the 7800X3D. That only makes sense if you conclude the cached cores really weren’t doing much. I was able to confirm that my c…

Hello, I was a long time member here, but it seems my account is gone now, so I have re-registered. Thanks for having me. Now to my problem . . . . A QUESTION OF RAM . . . So I am buying a new desktop PC, ready for November's release of FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024. I have pre-ordered the COLLECTORS EDITION. Here are the new PC specs agreed with a company called WIRED2FIRE here in the UK:- _____________________________________________________ CASE - NZXT H9 Flow - Black CPU - Intel Core i9-14900k CPU 24 cores Graphics - NVidia GeForce RTX 4090 24GB RAM Video Card _____________________________________________________ Syst…

i just upgrade my cpu finally from 7700k to a 5700x3d my ram setup is 2x8gb 1x16gb all at 2400mhz I guess is too low speed for a new procesor where can handle 3200 and 3600, is really worth the upgrade in performance? also probably in case of an upgrade is better to get 2 x16gb and have a better use of the dual channel better than use 3 spots like now

Hi all, hope I'm writing in the right section of the forum. Right now my system is: CPU 13600K DDR5 32GB 6800 AMD 7900XT 2TB NVME for FS2020 Runnning triples at 2K GPU is always around 60%, no more. And main thread is quite hammered. Could it make any sense to upgrade to a 14700K? Selling my actual CPU, I could do it without spending too much money. Using the PC also for other stuff, I'd prefer to avoid a 14900K, for the cost and also not having to deal with cooling, power consumption and so on. Thanks.

Hi all I would like to know if the AMD 7 7700X is a good cpu for FS2004, FSX, and P3d 4.5. I currently have an I5 10600K. I have compared both cpu's, and the AMD comes out on top. But I remember reading about AMD cpu's not working great with the aforementioned simulators. Would appreciate some information. Thanks!