Yet another Xbox-to-PC candidate: Is this pre-built OK?

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
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I’m recently retired, with a lot of time on my hands.

I currently have both MSFS 2020&2024. I haven’t been spending too much time on 2024 TBH, with all of the issues, but it has got me to thinking that it might be a good time to move over to PC (although I know I might be jumping down the rabbit hole with all of the cool stuff that would now be available that isn’t on Xbox).

Anyway, I started lurking in on some of the other threads from those considering moving over\building their own and thought that might be a good route to pursue, but soon found that I’m really out of my element when it comes to this kind of thing; most of the conversation and terminology is way over my head, but I’m willing to learn. While doing some research, I came across this pre-built at MicroCenter that seems to have some of the better items in it, according to some folks in the other threads:

PowerSpec G721: US$2499

  • AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (4.7GHz) Processor
  • MSI Pro X870-P WiFi Motherboard
  • 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Graphics Card
  • 2TB NVMe SSD
  • 5GbE LAN, WiFi 7 (802.11be), Bluetooth 5.4
  • Windows 11 Pro

So what do you think? Is this a good setup, and reasonable for the price?

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  • 850 PSU seems to be minimum that you need. 1000W might be better for future proofing
  • PSU should be gold or platinum certified. Web link doesn’t specify brand or ceritication. This is concerning
  • May want to switch to a better NVME drive and add a second one. This is based on one of the reviews from your web link.

Thanks. --Redeye

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That is a good PC at a good price! I shop at Micro Center all the time and they are excellent. Their PowerSpec PC’s use name brand off the shelf components which is the best way to go. Dell and others use custom proprietary parts that are dumbed down and not upgradeable in many cases.

I do agree that a 1000 watt PSU would be better for future proofing than an 850 watt unit. In addition, if you have the budget, I would also recommend either 48 or 64GB of memory. While a 4070Ti Super would be great for 1440p and sufficient for 4k, I would recommend at least a 4080 for 4k for a better experience.

By the way, since your going to get a killer PC sim rig, don’t forget to get a decent monitor! :rofl:

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Thank you @Redeyesjm & @WingWarper1; this is exactly the info that I am looking for! Very helpful, indeed!

Perhaps I might go with building my own after all. I found a couple of videos that showed the process as not the somewhat daunting task that I thought it was, so maybe if I were to make the changes that you suggest, I might come away with a nice setup.

As far as a monitor is concerned, I actually was planning on using the tv that I currently run the Xbox on. It’s an older 55" Samsung 1080p (yes, I know…lol!), but that can easily be changed to a 4k, which are all going to go on sale as they always do this time of year.

Once again, thanks so much for your guidance!

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The Hisense TV’s have some great gaming features at a very reasonable price like this one.

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Thanks for that link; I’ll certainly give it considerable thought.

…And I may be out of the “build-it-myself” camp now…

This morning (East coast US), I looked on Amazon for the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and they had it listed on sale for US$449. This afternoon, however, it went back to its regular price of US$479. Now, in the late evening, they have no more stock, and what I find is that those that still have any are selling them for around US$680! If I had known that these things move like the stock market, I’d have taken several grand, bought them all out, and then turned around and resold them, which could have funded the whole PC for me (I should have bought one this morning, at least…)!

Well, time to look at alternatives, perhaps, or just go back to that pre-built and alter it accordingly.

1 Like
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The only thing I’d change from that list is an upgrade to a Ryzen 9. The rest should handle MSFS pretty well.