72Stu

The Shadowlands server and Tim's channel should be in the tutorial!!

Crashing at desktop or playing a game? Have you updated the drivers or windows? Have you changed the airflow in your case (fans all working) etc? We really need all the info you can give us Victor.

Welcome @Alphadriver I see you are a DCS player, excellent info. Are you wanting to stay with Track IR, or go Reverb G2/ Pimax VR soon? 64GB DDR4 is the RAM spec for future multiplayer gaming in all cases.

OK, this has transcended into the usual confusing mess. IDK about Scan or Overclockers, it doesn't matter. Buy this stuff from a good retailer and build yourself, it's soo easy to do. So: 64GB or DDR4 memory - latency depends on your CPU choice. 3200..? Intel 12600 (non K, no need to OC a 12th gen CPU)! Non Z690 mobo (see above). 3080 12GB ram (non Ti). 850 Gold PSU will suffice. 240mm CPU water cooling solution will be plenty. 500 gb SSD for Windoze. 2TB Nvme for games Case of your choice. This will run DCS in VR beautifully, and will do you for 5 years, until you're ready to upgrade to a 7090 ti in 2027.

Are you sure DDR5 pricing is competitive? DDR4 will be ok for the foreseeable, could save you $$$. The rest looks great.

I5 12600 will suffice, 64GB of DDR4 (or go 32GB if not multiplayer). Get a 500 GB SSD for Windoze alone, plus the 2TB for games (keep them separate). DO NOT buy a 3090. A 3080 is more than enough! As for the mobo, what size are you looking for? I got shoehorned into DDR5 RAM, building a SFF PC on 12th gen intel, with a micro case. As for the bracket, I play VR Skyrim, HL Alyx, DCS with zero heat issues as my system stands.

As usual, a question is met with 2 opposing answers. This seems to be a thing in VR posts. Can ED do a comprehensive guide to playing DCS in VR (2022). Should we go OpenXR? How does a mouse work in VR? Can I run VR DCS in Steam? How do I talk in VR, SRS or the new inbuilt comms? This sim should be a shining light in PC VR gaming because it can be.

The Thermalright one does exactly the same thing for 1/5 the price.

You can get a small tube of lithium grease from a cycle shop, that will do nicely.

Im all for buying a cheap bucket seat and nailing it to some 2x4 for the Crosswinds to sit on, but I just looked at the yawvr kickstarter, which looks really good. Costs the same as a next gen gfx card. The tech is looking so good for the future in this field.

First off, there are quite a few ladies on here too, as it should be... All OK but get 32GB of RAM and the 3060 should run DCS just fine. There are a hundred threads asking the same thing.

It would be wise to get a 30 series GPU, or wait and see how the next gen will be priced. I expect the new stuff to be extortionate, and for people who've been holding off to rush on the glut of 30 series cards. There are some good deals out there at the moment WildBill.

It doesn't matter at all. Right now, 30 series cards are a buyers market, be it retailer or ebay. You are going to get a good deal. The next gen stuff is going to be very pricey, AMD and Nvidia know how much PC gamers will spend for the "next best", even with the huge stock of 30 series cards.

TBH, I think there will be a rush on 30 series cards when the peeps who waited to upgrade see the MSRP of the next gen stuff, AMD and NVidia know it. Anyone thinking they'll be an equivalent price to current top tier MSRPs is dreaming...any game out today, 4K or VR, will run on a 30 series (or equivalent card) right now. Ebay is your friend, the GPU makers aren't!

Hello @rkric258! Welcome to the awesome DCS family. I'm going to be "that guy" and ask....Are you limited to a laptop? If you are stuck for space, SFF PC's will be your best bet. Small form factor gaming PC's will better allow you to run the VR games you listed, as water cooled components can be incorporated into the rig. I run a water cooled i5 12600 and a B660I mobo with a gtx3080, all in a NR200P MAX case. That is 18.3 litres volume, and you can go down to 11 or so with different case options. I can run HL Alyx (the best gaming experience I have ever had) at 90 fps and use OpenXR toolkit in MSFS and DCS, for 65 plus, map dependent ofc. If you absolutely need a laptop, then you won't be getting a good VR experience, cooling that hardware will be an issue!

The i7 12700 has the best performance per $$ of any of the Alder Lake CPUs, so you won't have any issues with that whatsoever. I run an i5 12600, which is also a fantastic CPU. DCS isn't very well optimized and can't utilize more than a couple of cores (many games seem to suffer from this). ED are working on the engines "back end" and this will improve in the near future. What resolution are you looking to play at WildBill?

One immediate thought is that you're wasting cash on a Z690 mobo, as the F skew intel CPUs won't make use of the Z690 features (overclocking). If you want to overclock the CPU (which isn't really necessary), you'll need a K skew CPU. The B660 will do just fine, I'd put the extra $$ into a beefier gfx card. Everything else will run DCS just fine. Just my tuppence worth

Why would they? Just ask yourselves..

Awesome ground textures. heh?

@JetJake76What altitude were you at with that? Looks like Google Earth! The formation is an ancient meteor crater, there are quite a few still here on our active Earth.

Mate, we are all passionate about DCS and the devs producing goodness. But this SA map looks BAD in lower levels, horrible in fact, due to their satellite imaging wrapping. No where near the asking price. But it is a BETA, so work in progress...

DCS on native Linux would be a blessing, as would most gaming. Windows 11 is nothing but an information heist, and I hope it bites them back.

Right now, DCS is CPU all the way, and poorly optimized. Go LGA1700 Intel for sure right now. If you buy AM4 stuff, it will be obsolete by July. TBH, an i5 12600 would be a good CPU. I went SFF so was "shoe horned" into DDR5, that's the future anyways! $$ DCS loves memory, to run heavy MP servers, you'll need 64GB. I wish GN and Jayz2cents played DCS sometimes! GPU.. Same as Star Citizen if you can, VRAM is everything, until the engine gets optimized..

The devs of many franchises are working their way to Vulkan via new solution out of DX11 or DX12. I think that transparency is a luxury as far as your game dev is concerned, and so it should be. To be privileged enough to play the beta of a game is nice. Anyone following Star Citizen in Alpha knows the battle they have had in creating their own engine and developing tools to make the core game. There is a good, recent game dev video explaining why it's taking sooo long to get to Vulkan implementation, Gen12 rendering etc. CIG seem to be at the forefront of explaining the tech, and why it is such a long process.