New PC build for MSFS24

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Hello all,
A while ago, I already asked the question, but in someone else’s Topic (thank you, @Nikita for being a welcoming host :D): Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7GHz, 64GB, RTX 5070Ti: PC set-up tips? - #49 by AFJ777

Decided to move it into a separate area, considering there were a few minor changes to the config and one or two questions along the way. So, the updated config is here. I still have a week/two before making the final decision, would appreciate your comments guys:

So, as I didn’t mention the budget, £2,500.00. I don’t build it myself, nor do I have anyone near who has “straight enough” hands to do it properly. Built via PC Specialist UK.

  • AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
  • GIGABYTE B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI 7
  • 64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz CL30 (2 x 32GB)
  • GIGABYTE AORUS RADEON™ RX 9070 XT ELITE
  • 1st M.2 SSD Drive: 1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe (>>> Partition 1: 250 GB for Windows + Partition 2 (remaining GB) for whatever else comes (a few other games/other files perhaps…)
  • 2nd M.2 SSD Drive: 2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe (>>>no partitions - just one drive, hopefully just for MFS 2024, and maybe 2020)
  • Power Supply: CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™
  • Cooling: CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 240 RX RGB

Price (with VAT): £2,526.00 (so, maxed out by a bit)

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Mobo choice - changed from ASUS to Gigabyte recently. It’s either that or GIGABYTE X870 EAGLE WIFI7, so between them both, IMO B850 AORUS should be a better choice than the “entry level” X870 EAGLE? The price difference is £1, though. Unfortunately, no other sensible options there atm - either ASUS boards I don’t really want, or X870E that I don’t really need.
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The choice of Solidigm P44 Pro - from what I learned it is a clone of SK Hynix P41 Platinum based on the same controller and memory, but slightly tweaked for less SLC cache, which shouldn’t be a big deal, quite a solid performer based on (from 05:10 in timeline): https://youtu.be/7L8cHIJs3S4?si=0T1DOS3ZY5NNBlEZ, where SK Hynix P41 Platinum was at almost the top of the chart. Also 1TB Performance Results - Solidigm P44 Pro SSD Review: Platinum P41, Take Two (Updated) - Page 2 | Tom's Hardware

That said, the alternative on the PC Specialist website would be a SAMSUNG 990 PRO, but again, looking at the test benchmarks above, it did perform worse despite being more expensive, “premium” class…

And considering the partitions, would that breakdown as per my theory above be doable, a separate 250 GB partition for Windows (Win11 x64) specifically, or would you guys recommend changing it to smth else? No other issues expected with using two NVMe plates? Or I’d rather be better with one NVMe drive instead?

Anything else that you guys think may be an issue to worry about…before I sell my kidney to buy a PC?

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Hi @AFJ777,

Firstly to clarify, I don’t know an awful lot about AMD architecture, mobo’s or GPU’s, but from everything I’ve read on here and elsewhere, the 9800X3D is an excellent choice for MSFS.

I am not aware of the particular advantages or pitfalls of 850 / 650 / 870 / 670 etc., I think it mostly comes down to PCIE gen and the number & type of USB connections available.
When it comes to the manufacturer, have you considered MSI if the retailer has any available? I’ve used Asus and Gigabyte in the past but on my latest build I found the MSI Carbon wifi to be highly reliable, and focussed very much on build quality and performance over looks.

I don’t have personal experience of using Solidigm SSD’s, but the general setup proposed sounds fine - there are definite advantages and future-proofing to be had from having MSFS and the O/S on separate drives. I have a Samsung 990 Pro M2 for Win11 + drivers & tools, a Crucial T700 for MFS 2024, 2020 & their Community files, and a 4TB Samsung SATA SSD for music, work files, pictures, other games and basically anything else. All have been completely reliable and when it comes to performance although the Crucial is much faster than the others on paper, in practice I can’t say I have noticed much difference over it’s Gen4 predecessor.

Corsair Vengeance is a solid and reliable choice for RAM - I’ve used it in the past without issues, and 2 x 32 = 64GB is noticeably smoother in MSFS than 32GB in total. I currently have 64GB Kingston Fury 6,400, which is the sweet spot for my 13900 KSS, and it has been fast and dependable.

On the cooling choice, a 240mm AIO cooler should be more than enough for the 9800X3D as they are nowhere near as hot-running as my 13th gen intel. Personally I would avoid Corsair for this however. Their fans and pumps are OK though can be pretty noisy, but I really don’t like using iCUE. It’s bloated and clunky, and it doesn’t always play well with the RGB and cooling tools used by mobo and case manufacturers. I prefer Be Quiet fans and coolers, since they work as advertised and don’t need any software, instead linking & syncing with the case and mobo.

If you have the choice available, I’d opt for a 280mm cooler with 2 x 140mm fans and also use 140mm fans everywhere else in the case if possible - they shift more air but are slower running and therefore much quieter than the 120mm versions. It’s not a deal breaker or anything, but my PC is next to me on top of my desk, so lower noise is better for me when it comes to long-term satisfaction.

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Hi @MagicQuasar1176,

Thanks for your comprehensive reply, much appreciated!

Yes, the MOBO choice for me is only based on the retailer stock at present, and likewise, I am also a big advocate of MSI boards, would happily go ahead with one, but unfortunately, the retailer has none in stock to choose from, so my choice is either ASUS or Gygabyte. Gygabyte seems to be a good balance on specs/reviews/price, unlike ASUS and their price + “lovely” tech support…or absence of it :smiley:

With the NVMe’s, what’s your experience with T700, does that increase in bandwidth etc play a significant role in MSFS24? There are tons of mixed opinions here and there, but mostly I see that for gaming, it does nothing super extra compared to Gen4. But MSFS being so “special”, any difference there you think it makes? Unlikely I’d allow myself such an upgrade to Gen 5 due to a significant leap over the budget on a 2 TB drive, unless I go down with just a 1 TB for MSFS drive, which, in turn, might not be enough capacity in the end as I don’t plan using any SATA SSD’s for now either…

Vengeance RAM’s, I think I am not spoiled with the choice either with this shop, but yes, at least here they offer CL30 two by 32Gb sticks now, unlike some time ago, only offering CL40 in 64Gb configs. Definitely happy with that, and they are a low-profile, should be about perfect for top top-mounted AIO radiator.

Coming to the cooling, yes likewise, I figured out that 360 mm would be unnecessary for this CPU, and the case only has a 240mm max AIO length at the top…the 360mm on the side mount, but I’ll certainly ask them to mount it “on top” as exhaust fans. I’ll go with a retro wood style using FRACTAL NORTH TG case btw (not MAX version) - Top: Up to 240mm, Rear: 120mm. But they do supply 2 x 140mm Aspect PWM Fans for the front, which is OK. At the rear, though, as I am limited to a 120mm fan only, will stick a 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN there.

With the ICUE LINK TITAN 240, yes, I’d be happier with smth else too, but there I only have a limited choice (again!)…it really is a “competition” between CORSAIR NAUTILUS 240 RS and this Titan 240. The others are PC Specialist’s “own brand” - thanks, but no thanks, and an out-of-budget NZXT Kraken Elite that looks lovely and quiet. Back to Corsairs then, the Nautilus is, from what I hear, the noisiest one, making a somewhat high-pitched, weird noise. Not that I wouldn’t tolerate it with the case sitting under the desk, but Titan is less noisy…again from the reviews I gathered. The only thing is, and is one of the reasons why I go with a 1000w PSU - need four 8-pin connectors as that Icue link thingy (whatever it is called lol) on the AIO is using one, plus I need another for the Graphics card, and the 850w PSU (Corsair RMEx) would only have three connectors. Better explained here :smiley: https://youtu.be/XFo63mzgXRc?si=G8ZLvfxKCIQqstHh

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In that case I concur with your choice of mobo manufacturer, and would prefer the Gigabyte Aorus over Eagle or the Asus.

With the T700, MSFS 2020 loads up noticeably quicker but in actual flight I am not sure if there is a significant difference. With 2024 it’s less relevant since almost everything is streamed, although downloading add-ons and making file transfers in general is very quick, as is anything else that can utilise the speed.

Nothing wrong with Vengeance RAM - in my experience it works well and the low profile is helpful for coolers and wiring. As for the cooler, if those are the choices available then you have made the right decision I think, and overall this will be a superb PC for flight sim and anything else you can throw at it.

I hope you enjoy it when it arrives!

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Cheers, appreciate your advice, and great to hear I am on the right path!

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No worries, happy to hep on the bits that I’ve had some experience with.

I know very little about the differences between the AMD motherboards and GPU’s though, so hopefully someone that does can help out too.

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Time for the stupid noob’s question guys…
So, two NVM’e drives as above, one partitioned for Windows and “stuff” and another drive unpartitioned for MSFS. Ok, maybe not pure MSFS, perhaps I’ll dilute it with another game or two.
This MOBO, and from 07:50 on the timeline (backwards compatible, no lane sharing):

Question for you, dear people: What drive do I stick in which slot for the best overall system performance? Thanks a million for clarifying!

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I would put the system (i.e Windows) drive in the M2A_CPU slot, and the other drive in the M2C_SB slot.

The reason I wouldn’t use the M2B_CPU slot is to keep as many PCIe ↔ CPU lanes reserved for the GPU as possible. The system will boot faster and be more responsive with the system drive in a direct-to-CPU M.2 slot. It simply won’t matter much for the other drive if it’s connected to the Southbridge.

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Hello @BegottenPoet228 and thank you so much for your advice on that! I’d never figure it out myself, thinking A and B CPU slots are the ones to go!

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The only reason not to use the M2C slot is if you are using the other PCI slots for something like a WiFi card (that motherboard has WiFi built in) or a separate audio card (I doubt you need that) or some other device that requires a PCI slot.

It’s a bit slower than the other two M.2, but you can get a bigger M.2 drive and not worry about having the fastest available. It really doesn’t matter much for the sim file I/O, and you probably wouldn’t notice the difference unless you ran a disk benchmark.

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Thanks for explaining it further; it makes perfect sense. And yes, you are right—there is no Wi-Fi card, no audio card or any other PCI slot device that I’d be using.
Following your advice on not worrying too much about the speed of the drive that goes into M2C slot, there are unfortunately no larger capacity drives available that’d keep me within the budget, however my thought also was what if I could potentially bring the cost down a little, selecting a cheaper alternative (albeit same capacity) going with Crucial P310 GEN 4 drive instead, a DRAM-less, QLC. Although it does show fairly decent for a budget QLC drive benchmarking results (Crucial P310 2TB Performance Results - Crucial P310 (2280) SSD Review: Same great taste, but with a new look - Page 2 | Tom's Hardware) I think by saving just £40 it isn’t worth it (?), and I would probably be better placed with both the same Solidigm P44 Pro drives in there. If my savings would be above £100 then I would think three times, but for the sake of just £40…

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You’re doing your research, and balancing cost vs. performance. That’s smart.

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So happy that a SimHanger Flight Simulation made a review of RX 9070 XT, and it does not disappoint at all. Fair enough, the VRAM is 16Gb and it hits the bar on Ultra, but with a few tweaks here and there, I am sure it will be a very enjoyable experience!

As for me, my build is in process and I can’t wait to receive it! A few small changes en route to a final decision:

  • FRACTAL NORTH case changed from standard to “XL” size for better clearance for the top-mounted AIO.
  • GIGABYTE AORUS RX 9070 XT ELITE changed to GIGABYTE RX 9070 XT GAMING OC
  • 1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2 replaced 1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO in NVMe1.
  • 140mm exhaust fan added to the rear, better option than a 120mm fan on a standard-sized case.
  • CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 240 changed to its bigger sibling TITAN 280, which can now be afforded in the XL case for a small price difference overall.

Now, just patience :slight_smile:

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I think I’ve used something from everyone and never really had problems over 30 years build for build. I overthink everything else researching a new build. I have though, habitually tried to pair the brand of motherboard MFG with the brand of GPU mfg. Just so every tiniest change to either driver or BIOS over time you know the MFG always used those two together.

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Thank you, and I guess I followed the same principle here, choosing the Gygabyte combo for the build that seemed to tick the boxes for my needs. The “Aorus” GPU disappeared from stock a day before I was about to order the build for a “perfect” match, but waiting any longer could potentially mean losing the GAMING OC card next. That said, getting either was fine to me, so it wasn’t a big loss :slight_smile:

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Great choice. I think you’ve nailed the balance of budget and performance for smooth 4K. I built something similar a few months ago and have found it very capable for FS24.

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I’m being overly picky here (well, not really, but it may seem that way…)

To be sure, a bigger exhaust fan turning more slowly can move the same amount of air more quietly than a smaller fan turning faster. But fan noise is really more dependent on the blade design than the 20mm diameter difference.

Having a bigger rear case fan is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as you manage the fan curve so as not to upset the delicate intake/exhaust balance that gives you the positive case pressure you desire. If you lose that positive pressure because the radiator fans together with the rear fan are pulling too much air out of the case, then you have to increase the speed of the intake fans to compensate, which adds more noise.

What you don’t want is negative case pressure.

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Certainly, tuning fan curves in “Fan Control” will be great fun for a few nights. Planning to raid wife’s dressing table for the facial tissues and an incense stick. All for the science! :slight_smile:

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Hi, thank you! Saw your post in the original thread, nice to have other members of the “team Red” with great performance demonstrated by this card :slight_smile: :waving_hand:
Not planning to undervolt your GPU?..just curious as I am kinda thinking about it.

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To be honest I have had mixed results doing any manual optimization.

You can certainly undervolt and boost max power (PBO) but I would say the difference in FS is negligible and you will get crashes before a 3D Mark Stress Test fails; I can achieve a very respectable overclock/undervolt in 3D Mark and pass stress tests but cannot guarantee FS 24 stability. It’s the worst ‘time to results ratio’ of any component when tweaking IMO.

The difference could be that my CPU and RAM config is weaker than yours so I can’t drive the 9070XT hard enough to use the extra performance the OC unlocks, whereas you will. I also have a variant with overclock applied OOTB.

As a starting point, I would recommend using the auto overclock feature and working on RAM timings, CPU curve optimizer, and tweaking in-game settings before fiddling with the card too much. Important to only change one thing at a time and FSIPanel made testing each change a breeze.

I also scored a bargain on 64Gb of CL30 DDR5 today :+1: