What type of computer should I buy?

Question

I never was able to use the program because it wouldn't run on my laptop.

I'm going to purchase a desktop and would appreciate advice as to optimal equipment that would run X-Plane without slowing down for the best experience.

Would you be able to assist me in that regard?

Comments

I do not have the answer since this is a very complicated and situationally dependent question...but

Here is what I have
i7-5820K
Asrock x99 Extreme4 mobo
16GB DDR4 2400 Ram
SSD hard drive (xplane installed there too)
EVGA GTX 960 SC ACX+ 2.0 4GB video card

I have SkyMaxx Pro v3, UrbanMaxx v2 3D and Maxx FX plugins loaded and fairly high settings

I have X-Plane 10 latest stable release

I have my graphics set pretty close to Medium

I get about 24 fps...which is not really acceptable.

I plan on upgrading my video card to an EVGA GTX 980 ti SC ACX+ 2.0 6GB this is both to allow more fps in X-Plane as well as get me ready for the Occulus Rift VR head gear in 2016.

My suggestion, get as much graphic card power as possible within your budget, then CPU and memory.

Answer 1

X-Plane 10’s minimum & recommended system requirements are listed here on our website. In general, one thing to avoid is an “integrated” graphics card. Generally these are Intel graphics cards. Most laptops use these, but so do many low-end PCs. They are not usually powerful enough to run X-Plane 10 smoothly.

Here is a topic on the forum of X-Plane.org (a site that is not affiliated with Laminar Research or X-Plane itself) that goes into a lot of detail that might help you decide. Keep in mind it is a little old now for the outlined specs, but anything newer than the items on the list would probably be even better!