New to flight simming. Please rate and advise upgrades.

I built this system about 5 years ago with plans to get into flight simming but just never got around to it. I'm pretty much in the dark when it comes to building/computer specs although I know these components are a bit dated. Could you guys please point me in the right direction to where I could run the modern day sims smoothly? Or should I just start with a new build? I'm fairly sure I need some sort of stand alone GPU although I'm very lost when it comes to them as I don't have any experience with them. I've read that flight sims are CPU heavy. Specs are as follows. Thank you for recommendations.

- BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Case

- ASUS P8Z77-I DELUXE/WD LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard with USB BIOS

- Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge Quad-Core 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W BX80637I53570K Desktop Processor Intel HD

Graphics 4000 (not over clocked, not sure of how to even do that)

- CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2666

- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan

- CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC

Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply & New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

- Corsair Neutron Series GTX 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (OS Drive running Windows 7 Pro)

- Seagate BarraCuda STBD2000101 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (Storage drive)

- ASUS Black 12X Blu-ray Burner SATA BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS

- BitFenix Spectre Pro LED White 230mm Case Fan (Front)

BitFenix Spectre Pro LED White 140mm Case Fan (Top)

BitFenix Spectre Pro LED White 120mm Case Fan (Rear)

Don't overclock if you don't know how. You can easily damage processor and other parts doing that.

Your pc will do fine.

You will need a video card.

Specs are fine for FS20004 and FSX or even P3D. You are right that FS is CPU heavy. It's mostly a CPU driven game and to make matters worse is only single threaded. So the multiple cores won't be used all that much. But this doesn't mean you can crank all the game's settings up to max. Just use moderate settings, and set the FPS to 25/30.

You could get by with a GTX 1050 TI. It's not the most powerful and if you plan on playing other games you might want to get at least a GTX 1060. I use the 1050 myself in FSX.

Remember to only install FS to the root of C drive outside of the programs folder.

Specs are fine for FS20004 and FSX or even P3D. You are right that FS is CPU heavy. It's mostly a CPU driven game and to make matters worse is only single threaded. So the multiple cores won't be used all that much. But this doesn't mean you can crank all the game's settings up to max. Just use moderate settings, and set the FPS to 25/30.

 

You could get by with a GTX 1050 TI. It's not the most powerful and if you plan on playing other games you might want to get at least a GTX 1060. I use the 1050 myself in FSX.

 

Remember to only install FS to the root of C drive outside of the programs folder.

What do you mean by installing to the root of C?