ronbo613

I have a Steam version and a standalone version on my computer. I really don't trust Steam. I think the user files from Steam and the standalone install are saved to the same folders. You can go to your Steam\steamapps\common\DCSWorld folder and click "Run.exe". If that works, copy the DCSWorld folder to a different location and see it it works.

I'd love that Bf 109. I'm a new DCS user and have spent all money I can spare on planes. If you are in the area, I'll trade you some salmon for it.

If you get a 256G SSD to put your OS, programs and games on, you should have plenty of disc space. Buy a new 1TB hard drive, less than $100, and you'll have plenty of storage space and a place for backing up your SSD. SSD + 1TB storage, less than $200.

Ho Ho Holy Flight Sim!

I got both of them. Thanks to the Steam sale I went from having nothing but the Su-25t and TF-P51D to all the modules except for the Dora, Huey, Bf-109 and Mi-8. That should hold me for awhile. I've got a lot to learn but it's a great sim.

Ha ha. I voted for it yesterday as the "Community Choice" to get the discount. I don't need it, my system always tests near the bottom...

People use an SSD for the operating system and programs along with larger capacity hard drives out of necessity in order to store files. Using SSD's for file storage would be great, but the cost is prohibitive. If you can fit everything you need on one SSD, leaving a percentage of the drive empty to facilitate disc maintenance, that would be the best way to go. You could use two SSD's, or one SSD and a mechanical HD, if everything didn't fit on one disk. Generally speaking, larger capacity SSD's have better performance than discs in the 120G range, so 250-500G is the "sweet spot" right now. That should be enough disc space for most users. Always back up your data. Imaging your boot drive is something everyone should do.

Yes, this computer was built mainly for photo editing and video production. I recently installed the GTX 750Ti when I decided to move my video gaming away from the Xbox 360. I run at 1920 x 1080 on dual monitors and can run most games on High with a few advanced graphics features turned down or off. So far, I've been running DCS on the pre-configured High setting and haven't noticed any lag or studdering, but I'm sure the more I play, the more discerning I will become. The i7 860 is a very sturdy CPU and could be easily overclocked to 3.5 Ghz or better, I just haven't needed to do that yet.

No doubt that it is worth the money, it's still pretty expensive. Same deal if you have a car racing sim; a good wheel/pedal setup is over $300. If I win the Lotto, I'd buy both. I'm stuck with what I have for a while. It's like flying a plane for a country whose defense spending budget has been cut.

There are still people playing and developing CFS 2. It's been around for a long time, I started playing it on Windows 98! Of course DCS is much more sophisticated and should offer plenty of entertaining and challenging sim flying.

Keep an eye on newegg.com and amazon.com for a sale on the Crucial MX100 256G SSD. Usually, it's about $119, but it's been on sale for about $100. If you see it for $100 or less, buy it. Sometimes they only stay on sale for a few hours. It's a good SSD, probably the best performance value for the price from a reputable company. Move your operating system and DCS to the SSD, you should have plenty of room. Disconnect your current 7200rpm hard drive and hang on to it until the SSD is up and running then use the hard drive for storage.

I've been looking for a good combat flight sim since Combat Flight Simulator 2 faded into obsolescence. Not just flying airplanes around, but a community and active third party developers that make the game into something more than just software and GPUs. I've really enjoyed DCS so far and hope to learn the ropes quickly so I can shoot some of you guys down for talking me into spending my hard earned money.

I won't have any gas money but I will have two new jets, guess that kind of evens out...

OK, I'll get both. I don't really need food, I need to lose a few pounds...

No, installing the operating system on an SSD and storage/scratch discs/save & temp files/games on a 7200 rpm hard drive has been a standard setup ever since solid state drives came out. Keep in mind that your operating system is the heart of your system so you always want to install your OS on your fastest drive. Having sufficient RAM and an SSD is about as fast as you can go as far as computer storage is concerned. If your SSD is large enough, it can run the OS and DCS, no problem. Many users, including myself, run the OS on an SSD and games on a larger capacity hard drive, which is more economical. If you can afford it, having a 250G SSD to run your programs and a 1TB SSD for everything else would be pretty sweet. You may not get the advertised speeds because all systems are different, but once you use an SSD, you'll never go back to a spinner. For most enthusiasts, a hundred dollar investment in an SSD is a no brainer. Like most computer technology, the longer you can wait to buy something, the cheaper it will be.

I can afford one more airplane from the Steam sale. It's a toss up between the Mig-21 and the F-86. Which one should I get?

You have to be pretty serious to buy a $400 game controller.

Well, that takes care of that.

There is no SSD made that I know of that is going to even come close to 5 Gb/s read speed. I believe the fastest SSD consumer drives have about 530-550 Mb/s read speed. My systems have always had the programs on the SSD and games and other stuff on 7200rpm hard drives. Minimum RAM for a working computer is 4G. If you do anything serious, a 64 bit OS and 8G RAM is mandatory. Shouldn't even need a pagefile.

Samsung makes good SSD's. I had a Samsung 830 until I replaced it recently with the MX100 because I needed more space.

I've just started checking into this, I thought asking here might save some time. If two computer monitors are being used, is it possible to have the cockpit view on one monitor and the camera views("F" keys") on the other?

There should be no issues running DCS on an SSD. The poster above mentioned the Crucial MX100 256G SSD; it is a great drive, especially for the price. You should be able to pick it up for about $100USD, maybe a bit less if you really pay attention to sales at places like newegg.com. If you have a problem with an SSD, check the SATA cable. Also, some SSD's do not run well on certain controllers(like the Marvell SATA controller), better to use one of the motherboard's native SATA ports.

You are more likely to die of old age than you are getting any timely support from Steam.

Like you, I am new to DCS, here's what I've done so far. The Holiday Sale at Steam on DCS DLC could not come at a better time. I bought Flaming Cliffs 3 because you can fly a number of planes and get a feel for the sim. I also got the A-10C and Black Shark 2(Ka-50) because they seem to be very popular and representative aircraft for DCS. I also got the P-51D because I love WW II aircraft and is a really good deal. I'd love to get the Bf 109, but I might have to wait until later, hoping the price may drop a bit. I am really enjoying DCS. I have a relatively modest computer and use an older Saitek Cyborg Evo joystick, but it works fine with DCS. Might have to get a "newbie" multiplayer lobby going and ban everyone that looks like they know what they are doing.

7-Zip should be able to unpack RAR files. Perhaps you need to update your version of 7-Zip. WinRAR is good software, but only the trial version is free and may have some limitations.