Hi there,
due to receiving an unexpected little bonus in my job 
I’m all of a sudden in a position to get myself a better hardware for running MSFS 2020 and put my dated HP z620 (where I was hardly getting over 20fps with 1440p) to rest…
I know that the best option would be to build a rig on my own and get the components I want, but I really don’t want to go down that route and rather pick up something ready to go. Now with President’s Day coming up I found that Dell has some good deals right now (at least on paper), but I have really no good idea on which CPU / graphic combos to choose, so any suggestions would be awesome.
Here are a few that I found that are within my budget:
Aurora R10
Ryzen 7 3700X / RTX 3070
https://deals.dell.com/en-us/mpp/productdetail/7fpz?AID=227502
$1199
Aurora R10
Ryzen 7 3700X / RTX 2080 Super
https://deals.dell.com/en-us/productdetail/7aw3?AID=227502
$1699
Aurora R11
Intel i7 10700F / RTX 3070
https://deals.dell.com/en-us/mpp/productdetail/7fzp?AID=227502
$1799
Aurora R11
Intel i7 10700KF / RTX 2080 Super
https://deals.dell.com/en-us/mpp/productdetail/7aud
$1959
Should I go with the RTX 3070, or 2080 Super? Ryzen or Intel? I’ll surely get at least 32GB RAM, but how much does 2933, 3200, or 3400 Mhz matter? And would any of the above configs allow me to enjoy 4k?
Also, I’m not fixated on Dell or those specific configurations above, but those are the ones I saw advertised. I’m open for any other suggestions.
Thanks!!
Dirk
The RTX 3070 is better than the RTX 2080 Super, at 1440p it trades blows with the RTX 2080 Ti.
If the difference between 3200MHz and 3400MHz RAM is $50 then go with the former. The very small performance benefit is not worth the extra cost.
Overall the first build seems to be of much better value than the rest. If it is possible to tweak the specifications though, I would try and increase the PSU’s wattage, NVIDIA recommend at least 650W for the RTX 3070.
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it all really depends on what you’re targeting; do you want to stay on 1440P or go to 4K, going to want to run in VR later on? All this should have a huge impact on what you decide to go with.
If it can fit your budget, I would strongly suggest going with a Ryzen 5 5600X (the 5000 series CPU’s beat intel on all fronts, especially on the single core performance which really helps in this sim). 16GB RAM 3200MHz minimum, 32GB 3600MHz recommended (Ryzen likes fast clocked RAM).
Graphics card is very resolution dependent. If you want to run solidly at 4K ultra details, then a Radeon RX6800XT or GTX 3070/3080. For 1440P you’ll be able to get away with a 2000 series NVidia or Radeon RX5700XT.
If you’re at all interested or confident in building your system yourself, then go for that. In general you’ll be able to get more value for money, and more flexibility in your config (quick edit; good comments below, with the current PC hardware market situation a pre-built might be the better/faster way to get current hardware, just beware of pre-builders trying to get rid of old stock. If you’re buying a new system, I would not like to get previous gen hardware, like the Ryzen 3000 CPU’s, unless the price is right).
If you’re not, and prefer the added support / warranty, then go with a pre-built.
For some experience with different pre-built suppliers, maybe have a look here. Dell might not be your best bet:
How Could They Mess Up This Bad… Again - $1500 PC Secret Shopper 2 Part 1 - YouTube
edit: also, check the following subforum. it’s probably the better place to ask this question (you can move your topic there), and/or you’ll be able to find more questions like yours there:
Latest Self-Service/PC & Hardware topics - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums
I’m not sure if going the DIY route is viable right now, in my region at least the RTX 3070 starts at double the MSRP and I guess the situation is not too different everywhere else. It can be hard to find any high-end GPUs in stock as well.
I agree that Dell/Alienware is not a great choice nowadays, and it is quite shameful that they do not disclose the storage and PSU models they put into their systems, but that first system from the list seems like too good of a deal to pass on, as long as some extra RAM and increased PSU wattage do not push the price too much.
Normally I’m a fan of building yourself but buying a prebuilt system lets you avoid the rather ridiculous market for graphics cards that exists at the moment due to supply problems and demand for crypto mining. Building from components right now requires that you either make a hobby out of stalking Newegg and Amazon for stock drops that sell out in seconds, or pay inflated prices on the secondary market.
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Yeah I really should have mentioned this to begin with - I’d like to go to 4K if at all possible. VR isn’t an immediate need.
Thanks for the suggestion, I moved it!
Yeh, for 4K you’re really looking for an RTX3070 or 3080, or a RX6800XT (RTX3090 and RX6900XT are just overpriced for what they bring). Would also reiterate trying to find a Ryzen 5 5600X system. It’s simply the performance sweet spot for this sim, but they can be in short supply. a 5800X might be a bit easier to get hold of (budget permitting), or if that fails, the 10700 will do.
Don’t be tempted to go for a 5900X/5950X or a 10900. The extra cores/threads they bring are simply wasted for any gaming or simming workload.
My suggested minimum spec build for your budget would be:
Ryzen 7 5800x
RTX 3070
32gb 3200mhz
500gb NVME M.2
750w PSU
X570 Motherboard
Or as close to that as possible in a pre-build.
Drop to a ryzen 5600x if the pc is for flight sim and nothing else, otherwise 5800x is a good all-rounder.
750w PSU gives you reliability and headroom to upgrade GPU in years to come.
32Gb memory really helps with FS2020.
First addition to this list given extra budget would be a second M.2 drive dedicated for the sim.
5800X is only really beneficial if you’re going to do productivity workloads. In any game and/or sim there’s no difference between the 5600X and even the 5950X.
Ryzen 5 5600X vs. Ryzen 7 5800X vs. Ryzen 9 5900X & 5950X: GPU Scaling Benchmark - YouTube
I disagree with the X570 motherboard. Any B550 board will bring almost exactly the same options for a regular user (and is fully unlocked for overclocking), and will safe you a couple of bucks. I would invest the money saved into 3600MHz RAM (Ryzen loves fast RAM), or upgrade the M.2 drive to 1TB.
Yep 5600x is ace if just for the sim/gaming.
The extra PCIE 4 support with X570 swayed it for me, I’d suggest spending the money on that and saving for additional M.2 as second drive down the line.
All depends on personal use case, of course.
Yeah this machine would really be dedicated to MSFS, for everything else I use Macs…
Good to know, thanks!
Dirk
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Happily we’re all able to make our own choices based on our own use cases 
The added PCI-E 4 support for me isn’t an issue, since you’ll not notice a difference in this sim or any other game. If you’re often moving around large project files for video editing or something like that, it can make a good difference.
Hmm so I briefly checked (will do in more detail later), but with a 5600x I’m getting well beyond the >$2000 budget (at least Dell doesn’t seem to have major deals on those configurations, only the 3700x, which I assume based on the previous recommendations isn’t fast enough)…
What other places for pre-built are worth looking at?
Dirk
For me it was a future use thing, PCIE 4 across all slots, likely to be taken advantage of in future gen GPU / CPU.
So many choices in this PC business eh? It’s fun, though.
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In one of my previous posts here I linked to a ‘secret shopper’ video series by Linus tech tips.
Have a quick look at that for some more options available in NA. There are more, but will give you a few more options.
Ah I didn’t had a chance to look at this yet, will do, thanks!
To simply choose the best out of your selection, it’s the third one. But it aint as simple. If you don’t get good Ram with e.g… you have the next bottleneck! 
The GPU will be the biggest influnecer in MSFS for the foreseeable future, just like the 1080ti was a few years ago. A good processor and memory also help, but skimping on the card will be an annoying bottleneck for the life of your system. Hold off until you can get the 3090ti imo.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
So let me ask you, if I up my budget some more and don’t limit myself to the current ‘deals’ but choose a config myself, would the following be decent enough to play in 4k (not expecting 60fps+, just smoothness most of the time), and maybe VR down the road ?
AMD Ryzen 5600X
RTX 3080
32GB Dual Channel HyperX FURY DDR4 XMP at 3400MHz
1000W PSU
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
This would come out at around $2500 (this is on Dell, but I’ll look at other options as well)
Thanks!
Dirk
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That config should be fine for what you’re looking for.