Looking for advise on a new pc,
I have been flying flightsim on pc’s since zx81,
Also have my own light aircraft.
Last year I started flying msfs on Xbox until now, I want more flexibility on add-ons and functionality.
I am wanting to go back to pc and looking for advise on what to get.
At the moment I am using xbox x through a 65" oled tv and very happy with visuals and performance.
I would like a new pc to still work on TV and possibly try vr headset,
What do I get, and any recommendations of where to buy, based in Scotland
Thank you
As a starting point I suspect we would need to know how much you want to spend, what your siming expectations are and what screen res. you will be siming in (don’t know what res. your TV is). Maybe other stuff too which hasn’t crossed my mind.
You might also want to factor into your budget new controls too (e.g. yoke or joystick, rudder pedals, throttle quadrant etc). What you have now may or may not be compatible with a PC. In any case, you may just want to upgrade.
Also, how quickly do you want to move to a PC system. New CPUs and GPUs will likely come out later this year so it may even be beneficial to wait until then to see what will come onto the market in the near future. Even if you are not too bothered about new products from AMD, Intel or Nvidia it might be worth waiting to see if there are any discounts on current products.
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Looking about £3500-4000 budget
4k resolution
VR
I have hotas joystick I can use
Also have a skydeamon subscription for GPS maps
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If I were building a new AMD rig today, I’d be going with the 5800x3d CPU (I currently have a 5950X). But for a sim dedicated PC, you can’t beat that CPU right now.
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It looks like you have a decent budget set aside which is good.
Honestly, though, if you are going to spend this much I personally would wait a few more months if you can (Sep, Oct, Nov ???) to see what the new GPUs and CPUs are going to offer. On the downside, of course, you might have to wait a bit longer than this for stocks to get up to speed so I suppose it really depends on how long you really want to wait.
As to where to buy it from you have loads of options nowadays. I bought my PC years ago from CCL computers (not sure what they are like now). Other names to throw into the pot might be maybe Cyberpower PC in the UK or Overclockers. But please don’t take these necessarily as recommendations just ideas for you to follow up. It’s always best to do your own due diligence and look at current reviews, after sales service, warranties, ease and cost of returns etc.
Just my thoughts for what they are worth 
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for that budget you may actually be in danger of overspending if it is just for MSFS.
My preference, and I have very good experience with that, is to find a specialist PC builder and give them your requirements.
Ensure that they put in as much RAM as it will take, a top graphics card and a processor known to work
well with the chosen graphics card and Ram modules.
They will probably want to fit a solid C:\ drive so always add an extra hard drive of a couple of TBytes.
The main thing is that it is build for you and all components are known to work well together.
Buy retail and that is not always the case.
Lots of great small companies that produce great gaming machines.
Lots of examples here of folks with top spec. PCs but having issues.
IMHO often because components arent chosen well.
But what do I know, I am just an old IT sppecialist with 30 years experience. 
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Good advice from CynicalLake3917 too.
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Thanks for all the great advice so far.
I’m in no rush as I still use xbox, but it’s very limited for scenery, aircraft add-ons, charts etc.
I am taking all advice on board,
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Hi Blondi,
I’m in the UK too, and have found CCL to be competitively priced and have good customer service. Generally very quick deliveries too, although if you’re in the highlands or islands it may not be so good.
Obviously and as noted above, try the other big shops like Scan and OC too. With a few calls and a bit of online research you’ll be able to work out a good spec.
With the resolution you want to use (plus for VR) you’re going to need a high end graphics card like a 3080ti, and a similarly high end cpu & motherboard and a decent power supply to tie it all together. If you can it’s a good idea to wait until later this year, either for the newest generations of CPU and GPU, or to take advantage of a bit of a discount on the current high end stuff.
32 GB of fast RAM and the quickest M2 NVmE drive you can find for the sim should complete the tower, then you just need to think about the VR headset and your yoke & pedals or joystick, have fun!
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Is it worth the extra £500 for graphics card?
Looking buy pc to work with LG 4k 65" oled tv and vr goggles
Have a look here:
UserBenchmark: Nvidia RTX 3080-Ti vs 3090
I am awaiting delivery of a 3080ti, having made the same choice and saved £500.
I run a 5950X and a 3090 in my rig, is it overkill? 100% can the sim utilize it? not even 80%, but I am more of a “looking to where we’re going” versus looking where we came from / are now.
As the sim evolves I won’t be scrambling for a GPU / CPU to keep up, and once the 40 series are released, won’t need one of those either.
Just my 2 cents.
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I always try to go best that I can afford, overkill is best since theres a good chance that you might be stuck with the card for a long while (which should be expected when your paying 1000’s of dollars for them).
Should I buy this pc or do we think prices will drop further when new processors and Graphics cards come out.
This has been discounted from £4499.99
One thing will be mildly infuriating is the Asus motherboard and Videocard Will not talk to the ICue IO as far as pretty blinky lights.
They will always kinda do there own thing.
What speaks against self assembling? You could save a few bucks here or there.
I would say wait, we are close to a CPU drop, the AMD 7000 series should be coming in the next couple of months that should bring the components down in price a little.
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Not everyone knows how to self-assemble.
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This is always a tough question to answer. Sure prices will come down in the future. So you should wait. But then you will never buy. A conundrum. To me it looks like a good deal. It will probably be good for five years. So less than 1000 quid per year. Get a warranty. My 2 cents.
John
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