There are many threads on this forum about “what should I buy?”. Getting the best hardware for a specific budget needs some time spent on it.
You can’t get away from the technical jargon, so learn a little about how they all work together
Here’s a suggested purchase decision flow for a Windows or Linux PC :
- Decide on your budget and how flexible it is- for example $XXXX +/- $XXX
- Choose the CPU you want. You may have heard of a particular “good” CPU, or you came across a special offer or you went to Passmark Single-thread CPU Benchmark. This site will list CPUs in order of single-thread performance against price. This is constantly updated will get you close to the CPU you are looking for and can afford.
- The next decision is the motherboard – Nearly all motherboards work well but stick to brand names like ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI or ASRock. Within each brand they will have a 4 price levels – Budget (uses a budget chipset), Mid-range (uses a budget or mid-range chipset), High-end (uses an top-level chipset with overclocking abilities and higher speed RAM Modules) and Luxury (uses a High-end chipset with extensive overclocking abilities). Unless you are into overclocking, choose a mid-range motherboard with mid-range chipset. If the higher-end motherboard emphasizes good motherboard cooling in their advertising opt for that even if you don’t intend to overclock.
Once you have chosen your motherboard, google motherboard reviews of that particular motherboard and make sure that your motherboard choice is the best. If you can’t decide which motherboard, ask your AI of choice to compare the motherboards in question specifically asking it to consider X-Plane as the application that will be running on it. - Next is the RAM – This is where most people go wrong. Once you have chosen your motherboard, go to the support section and you will find a compatible memory module list. Only choose a RAM module listed there. If you want to use a different RAM module and it’s not listed, then Stop and re-choose the motherboard. NEVER USE A RAM MODULE THAT IS NOT LISTED!
Faster RAM is more expensive and there will be diminishing returns the faster it is rated. - Next choose your SSD. Some people prefer the operating system on one SSD and X-Plane on a second SSD, but this is a legacy from the mechanical hard drive days. Now it can happily be just one SSD – Just get the fastest one you can afford – 1TB at minimum – preferably larger. Again, check out reviews of that particular SSD.
- Now study up as much as possible and choose the most powerful graphics card you can afford. X-Plane is evolving to utilize more and more graphics power. For a tight budget, try to choose a Graphics card which is a good balance between The Single-core CPU performance on the one side vs the graphics card and the monitor(s) pixel size. Use ChatGPT to help you find the right Graphics card for a balanced system. The best X-Plane system will usually have the best graphics card but you will be bankrupted in the process. However a graphics card with less than 8GB of RAM will give you endless problems with X-Plane. So once again it is a compromise.
- Next choose your PSU [power supply unit]. Again, many people go wrong here. Use an online PSU calculator – Here’s a good calculator from MSI – which will help you calculate the power you need. Now, here’s where people go wrong: if you are on a tight budget add at least 33% to that calculated wattage value, Otherwise add 50%. In other words, if the calculator says you need 650W, purchase a 1000W unit.
An alternative approach is to use a 2000VA UPS between the Electricity mains and the PC. Then you can stay closer to the calculated wattage. - Finally choose your Chassis and Cooling system. Get a really good CPU water cooler (expensive) because if the CPU runs a bit hot, you will get stutters during flight. Alternatively, modern air coolers are also OK as long as they are really large. Get a large chassis and fit as many additional fans in it as the case will take and make sure the case is broad enough to accommodate a large graphics card and the CPU fan.
- Build the system yourself or give your component list to a computer supplier to assemble and test for you. If the computer supplier makes suggestions to your list go back and check first. A computer for X-Plane is not the same as a high-power gaming machine.