Perhaps I'll give that a shot, but it doesn't quite make sense. As you say, DCS is its own kind of stress test, but so is XP11. I run that maxed out with loads of addons, weather, traffic and ortho4xp. Plus, I didn't have these crashes in DCS until very recently. I was able to fly the Hornet without issues from release--before that, the A-10C.
Curious if the OP is overclocking.