Best PC companies, please

[Paul K]

Thanks for the continuing responses, chaps.

Now, what are people's thoughts on AMD Ryzen CPUs compared to Intel CPUs, for things like MSFS2020 ? ( AMD are gaining some ground over Intel, it seems. )

Also, AMD Radeon compared to Nvidea Geforce GPUs , again, for MSFS2020 ?

I'm not looking for detailed comparisons - just general thoughts, possible advantages of one the other, scare-stories you might have heard on the web, that sort of thing.

And - what would you consider the minimum HD/SSD size for MSFS overall ?

[TSR2]

I discovered last year to my astonishment that AMD are still producing CPU’s with pins! Do you remember back in the 386 days trying not to bend the pins when placing the cpu into a socket 5 (I think it was?) so that tech dates from… early 90’s?
Anyway, I hear they’re faster. I do remember years ago swearing I’d never buy an AMD again. (This is very un scientific so apologies) but last year when lockdown 1 happened I was scrabbling around for whatever laptops I could get for the business. That led me to my local PC world store where I went to try and get 7 i5 laptops… sorry sir, we only have these AMD Rizen 7 ones. So left with little choice I took them. Upgraded them all to Windows 10 pro and we were in business. Within 3 months 4 of the 7 developed what the bios was reporting as overheating issues and they all went back to HP. Under warranty every one of them had the cpu and motherboard replaced.
Now I know this says as much about the HP build quality as anything else. And I know these were consumer laptops bought from the last place on earth you should buy a computer.. and the battery life is absolutely shocking… and none of this information is relevant to a gaming desktop… but I’ve re sworn never to buy another AMD based computer ever. All of the intel based dells (which were more plasticky) are still going strong.

[Steve M]

I've used Intel i7 and Nvidia Graphics for the last 3 builds and have been very pleased with performance and stability.
Currently using an i7 11700k overclocked to 4.9 GHZ and my trusty Nvidia 1080 GPU which is still going strong.
All drives are now SSD with the system and MSFS on an M2 1TB drive and X-Plane 11 and DCS on a second 2 TB M2 drive.
I have migrated MSFS addons folder to a 2TB SATA SSD and all seems fine.
I stiull have P3D on the SATA drive but can't remember whan I last used it. Hope this helps in the decision making process.

Steve M

[Paul K]

I discovered last year to my astonishment that AMD are still producing CPU’s with pins! Do you remember back in the 386 days trying not to bend the pins when placing the cpu into a socket 5 (I think it was?) so that tech dates from… early 90’s?

I do remember the pins - but I wasn't aware this is now old hat! I've since looked it up. Your tale of AMD woes kind of underlines my doubts - which is a good thing, because it helps me decide. I've always had Intel, going right back to my 486 DX, so maybe it's a case of 'better the devil you know'. Thanks Ben.

I've used Intel i7 and Nvidia Graphics for the last 3 builds and have been very pleased with performance and stability.
Currently using an i7 11700k overclocked to 4.9 GHZ and my trusty Nvidia 1080 GPU which is still going strong.
All drives are now SSD with the system and MSFS on an M2 1TB drive and X-Plane 11 and DCS on a second 2 TB M2 drive.
I have migrated MSFS addons folder to a 2TB SATA SSD and all seems fine.
I stiull have P3D on the SATA drive but can't remember whan I last used it. Hope this helps in the decision making process.

Absolutely it helps, Steve - thanks for taking the time to post that. Very useful info!

[chrispbits]

My current build is AMD and it works very well (aside from CTDs in MSFS but that effects both AMD and Intel). Generally AMD processors are favoured by various PC gurus for price/performance. I've never had a problem with AMD and my wife's laptop (Asus), which is also an AMD 7 is superb. I want to swap hers for mine (Dell - for work) but for some reason she's not so keen.

Always NVidia for graphics though. Like you Paul I had no idea pins were old hat!

[TSR2]

Something else to note, I’ve always used Nvidia, and still do, but I don’t install GeForce Experience. I’ve not had a single crash to desktop with MSFS. I don’t know whether or not it’s related, but I’ve seen across several forums, as I’d not just Flight Sim, that problems seem to disappear when it’s uninstalled. Again, don’t know if it’s truth or circumstance, but certainly something to consider.

[chrispbits]

Thanks Ben. Definitely something to bear in mind. So far so good since my recent changes but then again I've only had the one session.

[Paul K]

Thanks, Ben, noted.

[Paul K]

Here's another thing to consider; a lot of PC cases no longer have 5.25" bays for installing internal CD/DVD players, and I'm wondering whether I really need one any more. Do external players, connected by a USB lead, do as good a job as an internal one ? I'm thinking mainly of transferring music CDs to the computer's HD so that I can use Iplayer and/or Music Bee.

I assume an external CD drive will be fine for transferring things like photos, files etc, but the music aspect is the most important consideration at the moment.

Any thoughts folks ?

[TSR2]

A lot now come with slimline DVD or BluRay drives. I use mine for music, but only to rip the CD’s I buy to flac and then I archive them. Computer drives have never been optimised for audio playback (they tend to be quite noisy) but they do the job, both external USB and internal ones.