Best Gaming PC Builds for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

Case

The H510 from NZXT is a solid mid-tower chassis for putting together one awesome-looking PC build. It has plenty of fan mounting options, clearance for even the most massive GPUs, and superb cable management.

CPU

AMD's Ryzen 3 3000 series of processors are ridiculously good for the price, and the Ryzen 3 3200G is more than capable of handling Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and other games and software.

GPU

The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a fascinating, affordable GPU. It's based on newer tech from NVIDIA but doesn't support ray tracing or DLSS. It's a great budget-friendly GPU that can play Flight Simulator and other games at 1080p with great visuals.

PSU

EVGA' 500W PSU is all you need for such a PC build. It supplies plenty of clean, stable, and reliable power for all your components and comes with an 80 Plus Bronze efficiency rating.

Motherboard

This motherboard isn't the most powerful available for AMD's AM4 socket, but the B550 chipset offers what you need for the CPU and GPU we chose in this build to perform at their limits. It's also a little light on your wallet.

RAM

Corsair makes some of the best memory modules for desktop PCs, and the Vengeance series is super-good. We chose 16GB as the sweet spot for most systems running Flight Simulator and other demanding tasks.

SSD

Samsung SSDs are among the best in the business, and the 970 EVO PLUS is an excellent value. We chose the 250GB variant, which is more than enough to boot Windows in mere seconds, as well as storing your favorite apps.

HDD

HDDs with spinning mechanical parts aren't as fast as SSDs, but the Seagate BarraCuda is perfect for storing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, as well as other games in your PC collection, rocking a capacity of 2TB.

Case

There's really no need to move onto another case unless you have a personal favorite you'd prefer to use. With this mid-range build, the H510 still offers plenty of space to install everything and helps keep your system cooled.

CPU

Intel's new Core i7-10700K CPU is brilliant for gaming. It's not the most expensive processor from team blue, but it certainly is among the most powerful for running Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

CPU Cooler

Intel doesn't bundle a CPU cooler with its Core i7-10700K, unfortunately. This means we need to add a cooler separately, and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition is good enough to tame the beast, even under load.

GPU

The NVIDIA RTX 20 series will be replaced shortly, but these GPUs are still incredible for PC gaming. The 2060 SUPER is perfect for 1440p monitors, and ZOTAC has a perfect card in the form of the RTX 2060 SUPER MINI.

PSU

We've got the same PSU here since the GPU and CPU bump don't require additional headroom from the power supply. EVGA did a stellar job with this PSU, and we're using it once again for maximum system stability.

Motherboard

Since this is an Intel build, we'll need a Z490 motherboard to really push the Core i7-10700K further. You've got plenty of ports, bandwidth for gaming, and even space for some overclocking if you have the know-how.

RAM

There's no reason to swap out the Corsair Vengeance LPX RAM, and we're sticking to 16GB here, though you could push to 32GB if you find yourself running out of physical memory.

SSD

Samsung's EVO PLUS 250GB is perfect for running Windows and all your favorite software. Discord and even some screen recording software will run well on this SSD.

SSD

We're ditching the mechanical HDD in favor of the Sabrent Rocket Q 1TB M.2 SSD, which offers some exceptionally high transfer speeds. Want to cut down loading times in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020? Here's how to do it.

Case

Even with such capable hardware installed, the NZXT H510 will be more than up to the task of handling the heat. You can even throw an AIO cooler here to comfortably keep the Ryzen 9 3900X within a safer operating temperature range.

CPU

The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X is an impressive CPU. It houses 12 physical cores with 24 threads. You read that correctly. This is a 12-core processor you can buy at such an affordable price. It'll make easy work of Flight Simulator.

GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is the new king of GPUs and is about as good as you can get in terms of graphics processing. If you want 4K and don't mind turning just a few settings down, this is the GPU for you.

PSU

To better handle the 12-core processor and impressive NVIDIA GPU, we've upgraded our PSU choice to the new Dark Power 12 1200W unit from be quiet! It's incredible, fully modular, and is 80 Plus Titanium certified.

Motherboard

To hold everything together is the ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming motherboard. It's powered by AMD's best chipset, the X570, and is more than ready for you to hook up all your favorite accessories and more.

RAM

The same RAM is used here as our other builds, except we've gone all out with 32GB of it from Corsair. These modules work very well with AMD's more powerful CPUs too.

SSD

Samsung hit the ball out the park with its EVO PLUS SSD range, and the 250GB is an excellent match for Windows 10, booting up the OS in a matter of seconds. No longer do you have to go and make tea while you wait for your PC to get ready.

SSD

Storing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and all your other PC games on an SSD is a great way to reduce loading times, minimize noise from your desktop case, and lower temperatures. This 1TB SSD from Sabrent is a good choice.