New Config Help for inexperienced gamer

I would suggest checking out the avsim forums: http://forum.avsim.net/index.php?

They have an active community dedicated to flight sims. They would probably be the best resource for your display technology options.

Some thoughts, last I knew X-Plane doesn't currently support SLI (Nvidia multi graphics cards) of Crossfire (AMD equivalent), I am pretty sure the same is true of FSX. I am not familiar with Prepar3d, so I can't help you there. Even if a game doesn't actively support SLI/Crossfire, it can still speed up frame rates because they will still be used in post processing (i.e. anti-aliasing).

To suggest a system to you, we really need to know what display technology you intend to use. If it is 3 1080p displays vs a single projector. So really we need to understand the number of displays and resolutions you intend to run.

It has been decades since I played with FSX on an IBM PC running MS-DOS so I did a bit of research on the software that you mentioned. I was particularly interested in any recommended systems specifications.

FSX - Microsoft Flight Simulator X
http://www.microsoft.com/Products/Games/FSInsider/default.aspx

Hardware and Controllers:
http://www.microsoft.com/Products/Games/FSInsider/product/hardware/Pages/default.aspx

Minimum System Requirements

    Microsoft Windows XP SP2 / Vista
    PC with 1 GHz equivalent or higher processor
    256 MB of system RAM for Windows XP SP2 / 512 MB Vista
    14 GB available hard disk space
    DVD-ROM drive - the faster, the better
    32 MB DirectX 9 compatible video card required
    Sound card, speakers, or headphones required for audio
    Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
    56.6 Kbps or better modem for online play

Microsoft Flight
http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/

Minimum Hardware

    CPU: Dual Core 2.0 GHz
    GPU: 256 MB card capable of shader 3.0 (DX 9.0c compliant)
    HD: 10 GB Hard Drive space
    OS: Windows XP SP3 or newer (Windows XP 64bit is not supported)
    RAM: 2.0 GB

Recommended Hardware

    CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 960 @ 3.20GHz, AMD® Phenom™ II X6 1100T 3.3 GHz
    GPU: 1024 MB ATI Radeon HD 5670 or 1024 MB NVidia GeForce 9800 GT or equivalent
    HD: 30 GB Hard Drive space
    OS: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit operating system
    RAM: 6.0 GB

https://microsoftflight.com/en-US/home/


Prepar3d
http://www.prepar3d.com/

Minimum

OS                 Windows 7 (32-bit)
CPU               2.0 GHz
Memory          2GB
HDD               30 GB (3 GB for the SDK)
GPU Memory  1 GB
GPU Other      Full DirectX 11 Support

Recommended

OS                Windows 7 (64-bit)
CPU              Quad Core 3.0 GHz (Per Core)+
Memory          4 GB+
HDD               30 GB (3 GB for the SDK)
GPU Memory  2 GB + (GDDR5 or better)
GPU Other      Full DirectX 11 Support


X-Plane
http://www.x-plane.com/desktop/home/

Minimum System Specifications

    Dual Core, 2.5 GHz or faster
    2 GB of RAM
    A video card with at least 500 MB of VRAM.
    DVD-ROM

Recommended System Specifications

    a 3 GHz, multi-core CPU (or, even better, multiple processors),
    4 GB of RAM,
    a DVD-ROM, and
    a DirectX 10-capable (DX11 preferred) video card with 2 GB of on-board, dedicated VRAM.

Other Notes

X-Plane will take advantage of as many cores or distinct processors as you can afford. Having 16 cores split among 4 CPUs is not required by any means, but Version 10 would be able to use every one. No more than 4 GB of RAM is necessary, but the more VRAM you have, the better–X-Plane 10 can easily use 1.5 GB of VRAM at the maximum settings.

In order to use the full version of X-Plane, Disc 1 of the installation DVDs must be in your disc drive when launching the simulator. (This is not the case when using X-Plane for Professional Use; in that case, the USB key replaces the Disc 1 DVD.)

When running X-Plane on Linux, please note that you must install the proprietary Nvidia or AMD drivers. X-Plane will not run using Gallium or Mesa open-source drivers.

========== End of Research ====================

While it is rare to find games that take full advantage of all the cores in a Quad Core CPU, two of your simulators, Prepar3d and X-Plane are documented as using more cores on a multi-core systems if they are available.

I'm guessing that 16 GB of memory would not be overkill for the more advanced simulations. To address that much memory a 64-bit version of Windows will be needed.

*Caution* If you have older cockpit equipment, then ensure that drivers are available for 64-bit versions of the OS.

Unless you are going to use the computer for general entertainment such as movies, TV programs, and music, then the audio support built into the motherboard should support the sound for your simulators just fine. A small SSD (~128 GB) will probably work well for your OS and swap file, but I'm not certain that your flight simulator programs will benefit from being placed on an SSD. Adding several HDDs to you system for your simulators and other files is probably a good choice.

If all you are doing is simulating flying in real time then I am not certain that you would benefit from an overclocked CPU, but if part of your past time is engaging other players in online dogfights, then you may wish to consider more speed for just about everything.

As for your GPU, most boards today will work nicely with DirectX 9 and 11. Look for boards with sufficient memory (2 GB +) and enough speed to meet your simulation needs. Again, if you are dogfighting you want to wait on your internet connection not your PC.

If all you plan to control your simulations with is a keyboard and mouse then any of the current versions of Windows should work for you just fine. If your are building a realistic cockpit with yoke and peddles or perhaps a joystick then look very carefully at the drivers for your equipment. Some of the smaller equipment firms lag behind in updating their drivers so a little extra research in this area will save you much frustration and expense later. 
 


Edited by Theokritos - 09 Apr 2014 at 5:36pm

This has been helpful.  I'm going to either meet or exceed the Prepar3d recommendations with the system i choose.