Final parts showing out for delivery! Motherboard, SSD, and a Logitech radio panel I forgot that I ordered After Honeycomb brought support to Xbox, this radio panel was about the only piece of gear I coveted from the PC world. I know it’s been on the market forever but it looks like it does a lot of handy tricks with a DME display amongst other things - I’m excited to install this in these handy brackets I ordered from my dude Down Under.
Assembly should begin tonight - allocating maybe like 2-4 hours to put all this together, for a first-timer, with hopefully no ugly surprises or late-stage findings of incompatibility.
Having built many computers over the last 20 years, may I offer some more advice?
Things I’ve learned when working with CPU’s, coolers, and paste.
You should have lint-free paper towels, isopropyl alcohol, and an air duster on hand.
Start with the cooler. Clean the cold plate with alcohol on a fresh towel, then dry it with short blasts from the duster. Repeat. Then repeat. The repeat again until it’s really clean.
Once you’ve cleaned the cold plate on the cooler, DON’T TOUCH IT. A stray fingerprint can cause more problems than you think it could.
Same procedure for the CPU lid. Get it really, really clean, and don’t touch it.
As for the paste. I use Noctua NT-H2. There are other good ones, including some expensive pastes designed for extreme overclocking. You don’t need those. Arctic Silver MX-4 is another good brand. You want non-electrically conductive paste, with high thermal conductivity, so if you pick something else, pay attention to those attributes.
Watch or read the paste manufacturer’s recommendations for use. For my CPU, Noctua recommended a single 3-4mm dollop on the center of the CPU die. It doesn’t look like much, but their paste has excellent spreading characteristics. Other paste manufacturers might have different recommendations, and those instructions might be different for AMD than they are for Intel. My 5800X3D idles @ 36°C and running the sim it stays right around 56°C (on a Thermalright Peerless Assassin). So it’s definitely working just fine.
When you attach the cooler to the CPU bracket, tighten the screws a little at a time, in a pattern, so you get even pressure on the CPU lid. DON’T MANHANDLE the screw torque. You want the screws tight, but you don’t want to warp the die.
I made the switch (from series X) 2 years ago. For much the same reasons. Haven’t looked back. The memory issues, hangs, screen blackouts and restrictions are what cripples an otherwise great value gaming platform. I remember the losing mouse control bug was what finally drove me over the edge towards a PC though.
The good news is all your settings and purchases should carry over to PC.
I’m going to make the jump to PC next year. It’s not that the sim is unstable on my Series X ( but it sure was on the Series S), for me it’s the long process of waiting for updates to be released, or new aircraft. At least in the future I’ll have the option to go outside of the marketplace and get those things as soon as they are available (although I’ll probably wait after initial aircraft releases for the first round of updates before I buy them).
Congrats and thanks for the detailed post as well. I built my first PC almost 4 years ago at age 49 just for MSFS and have learned a ton, re-built and bought/sold parts, etc a few times now all with the help of this forum, YouTube, FB and Reddit. I love the ability to tinker and add parts and peripherals as it’s part of the hobby. My wife thankfully puts up with it and I’ve tried to give back to the community when people ask for help so please reach out do as you have problems that might happen with the build or tuning or peripherals or add-on software. I’m up to 7 screens now and loving it with navigraph, air manager, a knobster and the usual hotas/pedals….and I’m happy ms 2024 will bring even better results for all of us regardless of platform and hardware choice. As you go down the path of mods or additional screens or hardware you’ll find this community very helpful to sort out how to set it all up. Good luck and hope it goes well with the build.
I’ve built, re-built, bought and sold stuff a lot the last few years…maybe recouped some of my earlier mistakes and certainly had fun with the hobby. I think it’s about done but I have always said that until the next great plane or peripheral or software add on comes out
I’ll be taking a bit of an opposite approach, with the goal being modularity and quick-setup/teardown with my sim desk also functioning as my work from home desk. This is going to weigh heavily into my redoing of my desk to accommodate the PC, and my cable management to keep everything clean. All that said, there’s going to need to be space in our next home for me to have a standalone, permanent sim pit like what you’ve added to this thread - it’s incredibly decked out but still looks so clean.
Congrats on the build. Just got two words for ya: Go VR!
With your new PC you can have an amazing time in VR.
There is whole section dedicated to it. Personally I can never fly in 2D after the first time in VR.
Reverb G2 is a good one to start with. a couple years old but still rock solid performer.
Quest headsets are also worth checking out.
So I already do have access to a Meta Quest 2 that my brother borrowed me forever ago and has yet to ask for it back I was planning on at least trying out VR, but I’ve read that the Quest isn’t the best choice for this. If the bug bites me, and I go down the road of other headset options (or if he asks for his back), I appreciate the recommendation.
Yes a sim racing wheel as it’s a dual purpose rig…sim racing pedals down there too and I slide out my rudder pedals from under the seat when flying. Red stop button is for the motion platform if for some reason it goes berserk but I’ve never needed that.
If you have kids, nieces, nephews, or grandkids (don’t know how old you are), you may want to consider keeping your xbox. I have two boys, 12 & 13, and I use MSFS on PC but also have an Xbox Series S with the Game Pass version of MSFS installed. I have kept it so that I can do multiplayer with my boys.
On that topic, with the specs I’ve mentioned - am I even a candidate for VR? In my head, VR kind of became a “probably won’t be that sweet” type of thing once I opted for the 4080 instead of the 4090.
There are many running VR on lesser hardware than a 4080 but from reading lots of VR posts and still yet to get a VR rig, it seems clear that the 4090 is a big step up for VR. You pays your money and takes your choice…
I bought a cheap second hand 30 series card for 2D until I’m in a position to go VR then I’ll buy a 4090 for it, or even a 50 series if it takes me long enough.
With that setup you should have few issues. Very close to my setup and I have nice smooth flights on my curved 4K.
Based on my own experience a few points:
dont get hungup with FPS numbers. You are very likely to achieve around 55-60 which is nice and smooth. Focus on smooth flights.
dont be surprised if MSFS initially says you should configure to HIGH not Ultra. You can tweak individual settings later but there is little difference.
Go for DX12. With that processor and video card it will help a great deal.
Keep the setup as vanilla as possible initially and install in the default directories.
Use DLSS.
I dont think you will regret the switch.
Good Luck.
Think in january I will have finished the purchases of the hardware. My XBox is already sold, I will not use it anymore.
After a few bad experiences it went better again flying a lot with my 310R in Norway. But then I bought the Flysimware 414… I absolutely never managed to land the plane on planned destination because of black avionics. So disappoinging!
I look forward for my PC, hopefully my MSFS time will get me a lot of satisfaction again…
Just picked up a brand spankin new Asus G14 gaming laptop today. its my first computer ever coming from xbox. It has a 4060 in it, (its all i can afford). I wish you luck on your pc journey. (and wish me luck on mine lol)
After Honeycomb brought support to Xbox, this radio panel was about the only piece of gear I coveted from the PC world. I know it’s been on the market forever but it looks like it does a lot of handy tricks with a DME display amongst other things - I’m excited to install this in these handy brackets I ordered from my dude Down Under.
I was planning on at least trying out VR, but I’ve read that the Quest isn’t the best choice for this. If the bug bites me, and I go down the road of other headset options (or if he asks for his back), I appreciate the recommendation.