Malefic Rage

Darn. I thought it had just been released. :doh:

That was the Optimus. https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/ It was a successfully crowdfunded project that was mismanaged to oblivion then sold off to a company that got it to manufacturing but then sold only a handful for $2000 for some bewildering reason. They created smaller products and then did the exact same thing: created just a handful of units and sold them for something ridiculous.

A keypad doesn't have keys with inbuilt, programmable OLED displays.

Something else for my ever-expanding wish list. Elgato Stream Deck :thumbup:

Hmm.... that does sound a bit extreme. Then again, this is the place where people will spend $400 for a nice HOTAS :)

Right now I would go for an i5 7600K, a decent custom fan and a mild overclock to about 4.2 GHz. As someone mentioned before, DCS only uses two cores. While the new Ryzens are powerhouses, they are not quite as good at single-threaded performance which is what DCS benefits from most.

Each button/screen is programmable with multiple functions. $150 USD PC Gamer: Elgato Stream Deck

AFIK the unlocked K CPU variants since Skylake don't come with a stock cooler but the standard ones still do. I think the same applies with the latest top-end AMD CPUs as well.

Just FYI I've been considering the same thing. Most benchmarks show the 1060 6GB performing better than the 580 8GB and also cost slightly less. I don't think that 2GB will make much difference however if you use high resolution or multiple monitors, the 3GB/4GB options may may not provide you with much future-proofing. Especially if you like to use high texture detail.

I'd say that unless heavily overclocking a custom fan would be best. A stock fan is adequate as it is designed to work with the included CPU however a custom fan will cool your CPU more effectively and much more quietly. Here is what I use be-quiet-pure-rock-cpu-cooler It keeps my Core i5 6600K cool at 4.5GHz overclocked however due to the 40 degree summers and the lack of ventilation in my room I had to reduce it to 4.2GHz to prevent thermal throttling.

Just a FYI, the Radeon RX580 has just been released.

The more VRAM the better (to an extent). I am certain 3GB would be a limiting factor. Too lttle VRAM and the GPU either spends a lot of time exchanging data with RAM which kills performance or you have to sacrifice texture quality and other effects.

Personally, I'd just get a cheap 250 from any reputable brand and leave it at that. In the future you can easily move to a 500 just be imaging one disk to the other. I'm not sure how the DCS engine works internally but with most game engines the majority of loading time is taken by the pre-processing of game assets which is a CPU-intensive task so IMO a high-end SSD won't give you that much improvement. Once in-game any remotely decent SSD will provide sufficient bandwidth to stream data for the game engine to handle. Edit: Another reason not to bother buying expensive high-end models is that the primary benefit of the more expensive models (depending on manufacturer) is write longevity. For games, access is 99% read.

Hello. I use a 290 with DCS 1.5 and with relatively high detail I get a minimum of 60fps and often over 100. Speed-wise the R9 290 is much closer to a GTX 970 than anything else. For its age it is a great choice. I can play every modern game on high detail at 1920x1200. For DCS, spend your money on a CPU with good single-thread performance such an overclockable i5. I noticed you have listed an i5 6400. If that is correct, I don't think they are overclockable. Only Intel CPUs with the K suffix are unlocked. You also need to pair it with a motherboard that has a chipset that supports overclocking. Intel are real S.O.B.s when it comes to locking things down to make you pay more. Any AMD CPU and be overclocked but unfortunately until the new architecture comes out, their CPUs are not suitable for DCS.

I ended up biting the budget bullet and got myself some Saitek Pro Flight Pedals. I have to admit I'm pretty disappointed. They're loud and clanky, with a long foot like mine the hinge is too far back and there is so little resistance on the toe brakes that sneezing will cause them to depress. I took a look at some of the higher quality products and unfortunately between currency conversion, GST and international postage they would cost a fortune. Unfortunately it's all I had the cash for so it will do. On the bright side I now get to fly the KA-50 so ultimately it is still a win.