Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - New PC Build

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | New PC Build - Any Tips & Tricks?

DVA10286
Captain, B777-200

Joined on November 05 2011
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Toulouse 250 Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Millennium Club
Two Million Mile Club

"ASEL - Instrument Rated"
San Diego, CA

1,045 legs, 4,493.7 hours
1,042 legs, 4,490.7 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on January 29 2020 16:30 ET by Thomas Weber

Flight sim friends!

I am considering taking the plunge and building a PC, mainly for use with Flight Simulator. It will be my first home-built PC, so I have a lot to learn!

I’m hoping this great community can share some tips and tricks (and lessons learned) from personal experience. Less “you should use this CPU” and more “it’s important to prioritize RAM over HD read speed.” Things you would do again, things you wish you had done (or things you wish you hadn’t done). Looking at past posts/threads here, I’m finding mostly “what do you think of this setup/hardware,” and I guess I’m looking more for a strategy guide...

For reference, I’ve been flying FSX on 2 consecutive laptops over the last decade. I don’t use a ton of payware add-ons, fly online, or AI traffic. These types of things are (maybe) nice-to-have in the future, but not the priority (I’ve been happy flying freeware AC with mostly stock scenery for the last decade).

Thomas Weber (DVA10286)

DVA9545
Senior Captain, B777-200
OLP, 737-ATP

Joined on March 03 2011
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Quad-Jet Quartermaster
US Coastal Club
US Mountaineer Club
Million Mile Club
Events Double Century Club
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Bi-Millennium Club
Online Twenty Century

"YUPIIIII"
Goiás Brazil

2,492 legs, 5,039.3 hours
2,321 legs, 4,760.9 hours online
2,484 legs, 5,009.7 hours ACARS
271 legs, 683.8 hours event

Posted onPost created on January 29 2020 17:19 ET by Thiago Braga

Hi Thomas;
I think the best way to go at first, is going into this website: https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/
There are some builds done for you to see the pricing range and their specification, than you should try it out and see if the parts you are choosing works for your new build.
Building is awesome and time consuming. I remember my first build I started looking into youtube videos on how to install each components.

This is My latest build: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/bthiago/saved/

Thiago Braga (DVA9545)

DVA3680
First Officer, B767-300
OLP

Joined on November 01 2006
Stock Car Racing Club
Century Club

Berthoud, CO

114 legs, 232.4 hours
97 legs, 212.8 hours online
106 legs, 215.1 hours ACARS
2 legs, 3.7 hours event

Posted onPost created on January 30 2020 12:06 ET by Kevin Williams

I would build something for the upcoming Microsoft flight simulator 2020. The early chosen alpha testers seem to have machines with 32 gigs of ram, a pretty beefy video card (like a GTX 1080ti / 2080), and intel i7 or i9 CPUs. It's not very helpful I know as this is the top of the line at everything.

But since we don't really know what it'll need I'm going to guess that mid grade computers should be able to run it. I'd look at various guides like what Thomas suggested. I like going to tomshardware.com to see what best picks they recommend for various performance/price categories. I'd pick a good balanced system as typically that's what simulators liked. The only exception I'd make though is that if you're determined to run 4k I'd get the most expensive graphics card you can as that'll probably be your bottleneck.

Kevin Williams

First Officer, B767-300

DVA9505
Captain, B757-200
OLP

Joined on February 19 2011
50 State Club
Globetrotter
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Online Century Club
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Cascadia Club

Virginia Beach, VA USA

1,806 legs, 3,270.8 hours
102 legs, 201.1 hours online
1,804 legs, 3,265.5 hours ACARS
2 legs, 3.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on January 31 2020 10:39 ET by Sean Costello

Thomas, I built mine about 2 or 3 years ago now. It was a lot easier than I thought. I researched a lot, watched youtube videos. Thiago is right, pc partpicker is awesome, you can make sure all components work together and get your wattage for your power supply. Just take into consideration ESD. Make sure you have an Anti static wrist strap or something like that. I had everything set up and ran into problems because one of my RAM sticks wasnt seated all the way. Also watch videos on the CPU installation, its easy, but you have to make sure its seated, oriented right. Thats all I can remember for now. I would just take your time, assemble in a good work area, preferably a kitchen table with room for everything, not on carpet because of ESD and watch youtube and ask questions. Good luck and have fun!

Sean Costello

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on February 01 2020 16:02 ET by Thomas Weber

Thanks for the advice! I’ll take a look at the links you suggested, and I’m sure I’ll have more questions.

Anything else you wish you had known embarking on your first (or most recent) build?

Thomas Weber (DVA10286)

DVA12719
Senior Captain, DC-8-61
OLP

Joined on July 26 2015
Piranha Club
50 State Club
Century Club
US Capital Club
Piston Prop Professional
DVA Five-Year Anniversary

"Let the FO land"
Boca Raton, FL

153 legs, 258.9 hours
32 legs, 43.1 hours online
145 legs, 252.0 hours ACARS
16 legs, 23.9 hours event
12 legs dispatched, 16.4 hours

Posted onPost created on February 03 2020 15:10 ET by Yisrael Wealcatch

One piece of advice I would offer is to anticipate what simulators you might want to use in the future. FSX utilizes resources differently than X-Plane 11, for example. My first build was pretty good for FSX, but struggled with XP11 because I didn't take it into account when planning out what parts I was going to use.

Yisrael Wealcatch (DVA12719)

Posted onPost created on February 03 2020 18:50 ET by Kevin Williams

From my last build, I wish I would have gotten a bigger m.2 drive smile

For my earlier builds it took me a while to figure out the importance of a good quality power supply and that I prefer filters vs cleaning out the inside of my case every 2-3 weeks smile

Here's some helpful videos:

Linus POV PC build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7MYOpFONCU&t=751s

Lyle reacts to the Virge's pc build (comedy - what not to do): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vmQOO4WLI4

Edit, here's another one, that basically shows you how hard it is to actually mess up a build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDUZRNp4pxg

Kevin Williams

First Officer, B767-300

DVA13608
Captain, A320

Joined on January 26 2019
Moose Club
Century Club
Eurocap Club
Toulouse Century Club
Online Century Club

Edmonton, AB Canada

143 legs, 242.3 hours
140 legs, 235.1 hours online
140 legs, 238.3 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on February 03 2020 20:58 ET by Gerard Beekmans

Sims such as FSX and P3D are much more CPU oriented than they are GPU oriented. If you splurge a few grand on the biggest and best graphics card out there, you will be very disappointed with FSX & P3D performance. I can't comment on what the new Microsoft sim will require when it comes out.

FSX and P3D will be most happy with a strong CPU and more specifically, one with a strong single threaded performance. A lot of CPUs have what is called a Hyperthreading feature (which doubles your logical cores. If your CPU is an 8-core, you have 16 logical cores available). A lot of software can use this to its advanced and full potential. FSX and P3D not so much.

Turning off hyperthreading on otherwise hyperthread-capable CPUs often results in a more stable FSX/P3D system. As such I settled a year ago on the Intel i7-9700K CPU which gives you 8 non-hyperthreaded cores. Overall, the performance has been very good but it still struggles with some of the more demanding payware airports and scenery add-ons.

You also have to answer for yourself: what else am I doing with this computer. For me, it's my everything computer. Not only flight sim but also regular day job work and once in a while, other games. A decent GPU was added so I have a decent system that will perform pretty much any task. Not having Hyperthreading sometimes "hurts" in that I would get better performance with non-flight sim workloads. You can't have it both ways (not easily, anyway).

Gerard Beekmans

Captain, A320

DVA13500
Captain, DC-6
OLP

Joined on June 20 2018
50 State Club
Globetrotter
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Millennium Club
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B757 100 Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary

Anderson, IN

1,451 legs, 2,008.2 hours
40 legs, 77.2 hours online
1,446 legs, 2,000.2 hours ACARS
7 legs, 12.1 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 05 2020 20:39 ET by Brandon Patton

Lots of good advise here that I can't argue with. As others said, research what your specific sim needs (CPU vs RAM vs GPU) and plan accordingly. A lot of the build I'm sure will be dictated by your budget but take your time and make sure all components compliment each other. I've been building computers since the early 90s and still have to keep up on changing technology. My first mistake on my new sim machine was not getting enough ram up front. I made sure I had room to add and I did very quickly. You can always adjust sim settings too if needed to fit your budget. Sure we all would love to run with everything maxed at ultra/100% but I'm plenty happy with my mix of high and medium settings in x-plane. Take your time and make your build clean, check out others to see how they route cables, what cases are good for that, etc. Good air flow and cleanliness with greatly extend the life of your new pc. Good luck!

Brandon Patton

Captain, DC-6

Posted onPost created on February 05 2020 21:54 ET by Thiago Braga

Thomas;
Do you have a budget in mind for your PC, or it really doesn`t matter for you? You want the best?!

Thiago Braga (DVA9545)

Posted onPost created on February 07 2020 12:08 ET by Thomas Weber

I mean, I'd obviously love to have top-of-the-line everything, but I can't say I have several thousands of dollars to spend on a new PC (nor could I justify it to my wife). I've started my initial investigation around the $1,000-$1,500 range to get a sense of what that would get me (it seems there are a lot of suggested builds in the $1,200 range?). The laptop I'm currently using with FSX was <$1,000 when we bought it 7 years ago, so I think I'm guaranteed a performance boost!.

Obviously it's a matter of trade-offs when it comes to cost and performance. I'm willing to see what more (or less) would get me and evaluate if it's something I think is worth it to improve my experience (vs. using that money to buy a new monitor, flight sim accessory, add-on, etc.). I've been gaming on laptops for the last 15 years, and anything built after 2013 will be better than what I have now!

Thomas Weber (DVA10286)

Posted onPost created on February 09 2020 15:41 ET by Brandon Patton

I checked out some ball park figures from NewEgg on most common bought components and if you go with an i7-9700k, 32GB Ram, 1TB M.2 drive, and a Z390 series motherboard with budget friendly case you're looking at around $1000. From there you can decide where your budget is on graphic card. If you want to be around $1500 then a 1070 fits that. 1080ti or 2080 ti will put you closer to $2000-$2200. Of course this is just a small sample of endless builds you can do. I personally built an AMD Ryzen series with 1060 and run XPlane mostly on medium to high settings to keep 30-40 fps and it looks great to me. Clouds and weather will drop my rates though depending on the plane but I couldn't afford 1080 at the time.

Brandon Patton

Captain, DC-6

Posted onPost created on February 10 2020 16:00 ET by Thiago Braga

For cheaper build, you can go with AMD`s. But sincerely for me, didn`t had good experience with it.
This one is an awesome build: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/6PtgXL

Thiago Braga (DVA9545)

DVA10851
Captain, A320

Joined on June 15 2010
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Toulouse 250 Club
Quincentenary Club

New Haven, CT

510 legs, 2,120.8 hours
2 legs, 3.2 hours online
508 legs, 2,113.7 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on February 24 2020 10:26 ET by Jose Bazil

I recently purchased a western digital black edition nvme.m.2 and the read seeps and write speeds are fast. I have little to no pausing. I hope this helps a bit

Jose Bazil

Captain, A320

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