CL30

Thank you, everyone, for the help and your patience as I researched and built my new PC! It's finally running. Spent a lot of the last day or two installing updates and such. I still have more to do, probably. Anyway, here it is!! :thumbup: (Don't worry, still getting a new monitor. ...and desk, this thing is yuuuuge, lol.)

The replacement case and GPU came today, and the case is undamaged from what I can tell!! Woohoo! Time to build. Too bad I fly Weds-Thursday or I'd hope to be firing up DCS by then, provided the build goes well and this thing will actually run, lol.

Maybe so, but I have no other option, really. Everything I buy will have to be shipped in from someone; I don't have a PC store nearby. I would think it's not the sender's fault, but the 1000 miles and multiple truck changes during its journey with UPS. However, if the replacement case also happens to be damaged, I'll see if I can drive up to the Micro Center 3.5 hrs away if they can get one. Sad story regarding UPS... Many, many moons ago, I used to fly a Cessna Caravan on a UPS route. I remember sitting at the plane one morning while watching the ground crew do their morning sort after the 757 arrived. I remember watching a Supervisor, who was standing on an elevated platform, pick up and drop several feet down to the ground, box-after-box of large "DELL" computer boxes!! They were large enough that I'm pretty sure they would have had a full-size computer in them. The horror!

Aaaaand I opened the Thermaltake box to find shattered class all inside. Case is now on its way back to Amazon. Good grief. :(

Update in OP! Everything is ordered! Thanks, everyone! Can't wait to meet you in the skies.

Can't wait to get rid of that thing, lol. :lol:

No kidding. Half the build is coming this week. Gotta order the important stuff still. CPU, mobo, AIO, GPU. Been watching price drops like a hawk on PCPartpicker hoping I can shave a few bucks here and there. Downside of ordering the HOTAS now is, like you said, I need my rudder pedals now, too. :doh:

Good to hear you snagged that deal, again! :thumbup: I literally just hung up the phone with Abt when I read your post. When I placed my order it immediately got flagged by my credit card company, which I promptly approved. My wife said she saw a pending transaction from them, but then it disappeared (no charge, either), so I got worried. The CSR said everything looks okay and it'll be shipping directly from Thrustmaster, with an estimated delivery of Thursday-Saturday. :)

Awesome, congrats!

Yeah, weird how that happened. HOWEVER, I just checked back right now, and it's back at $345! Go for it.

Absolutely! You can spool me up in the Hawg. What time zone are you in? I'm Central. ETA: Duh. I see your profile now, and see that my location is listed, too, lol. SoCal, and I think you told me that in a PM a while back!

Whoa... and JUST like that the sale is gone. Back up to $469 now. So glad I snagged that.

Ahhh, ok. Perfect sense now. That's a really nice benefit, especially when ordering PC parts, as wacky as the price swings are! I hope they honor that extra little drop for you! We have Capital One Venture. Don't know if we have a perk like that, but at least we're building up more points/miles for our trip to New Zealand this next year. :pilotfly:

Well, I'm really grateful that you posted it! Thanks.

Snagged it!! Also, if you sign up for their newsletter, you get a code for an additional $25 off your first order. Got the Warthog shipped for $320!! Thanks again, GTFreeFlyer. :D

And I guess you lost me earlier... Did you actually order thru Amazon (Prime, I'm guessing) and somehow get that price? And having the CC company refund the difference how? I'm just a bit confused, sorry.

Hahaha, I get that! Our kids are a bit older (12, 10) so they know better. :lol:

Good to hear! I think I may snag it. Great deal. Thanks for posting!

Thanks for the heads up! Anyone order from them before? Any issues?

Nah, you really haven't nudged me in any direction at all! You've given me info and options based on the questions I asked, and now I'm making the decisions, albeit horrible and painstakingly slow, ha! I really didn't have much to go on when I began on this whole "build a PC for the first time" venture. My work buddy got me into it as it's something he has done for years. I had basic knowledge of computers, though dated. I just needed to get up to speed on what was out there, but I really needed help on the best options for DCS since that's my #1 goal. I have gone back-and-forth a lot on the GPU mainly because I was originally expecting to do the entire build, with HOTAS, TrackIR, monitor, everything all at once. In doing so, I was trying to cram the best performance in while keeping the expenses in check. The GPU was the hardest to decide on. Now that Mrs. CL30 and I decided to do everything in a couple phases (PC this month, peripherals next month, monitor after that), it opened up the 2080 Ti for me. That's why I was so wishy-washy. ;) I looked into Best Buy and, honestly, I may still use them. The primary reason I haven't (yet) is because I will get knocked on sales tax. However, some online vendors have been charging tax, so if that ends up being the case, then yeah, I'll do Best Buy for sure!

I guess the good thing in my situation is that I'm building the PC first, and then will figure out a capable monitor second, haha! I plan to play with the monitor and TrackIR for a while. It would be wonderful if VR would improve/next gen or something like that in the meantime, but I'm sure that probably won't happen. I'll probably ask Mrs. CL30 for a VR headset for my birthday in August. :D I mainly settled on the 2080 Ti because I want to have the best experience with VR when I'm ready for it. I almost wonder if I should just do a good 2080, be happy with the monitor and TrackIR, wait for VR to catch up, and THEN buy the latest GPU. Who knows how long that would take. I mean shoot, that $500 gap on a 2080 to 2080 Ti would buy my Warthog, lol. :joystick: I was PM'ing with one member here who said his 2080 maxes all the graphics out, but that he hadn't played multiplayer with it yet. I just don't want any hiccups with this thing, and since I primarily want to play multiplayer, I'm not sold on whether a 2080 would be good enough on heavily traffic'd multiplayer servers. I want a decent display (2560 or 3440, and thinking at least 32" monitor) with high textures and I want it running smooooooth. That's why I figured getting a 2080 Ti would help ensure that. I don't "need" 4k, but I want it to look really nice. I'm just SOOO sick and tired of playing "that other sim" (the Viper one) on my POS machine now that freezes constantly on the lowest graphics settings. I can't believe I haven't thrown my computer through the window yet! :lol:

Yeah, sounds like the XC Ultra is probably gonna be the one then. You brought up the 3440x1440, which looks like what you're running. I think that would probably be the highest I'd go - that and VR, eventually. My buddy has an ultra wide monitor that I still need to check out, but I could see myself doing that. That and VR, eventually, would be it. ETA: Haha, actually, looking at your specs, I probably should have just built what you've got! Very similar to what I'm doing after all of this, lol. And heck no, no custom loops for this noob! :lol:

Well, that would explain why I can't find it, but it's certainly an option on the EVGA website. :huh: https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=11G-P4-2483-KR https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=11G-P4-2487-KR

Great post, Headwarp! Thank you for all of that. I didn't realize there was an EVGA forum (there's a forum for everything so I should've figured, lol), so I'll check it out. I really appreciate your insight. :)

Well, I've bought several parts! (Case, RAM, PSU, SSDs) Looking at the GPU right now. I can't find the EVGA 2080 Ti FTW3 Gaming anywhere. I can find the XC Ultra Gaming ($1250) and the FTW3 Ultra Gaming ($1400). I don't think I'm gonna spend the extra $150. I was going to stick with EVGA based on their reputation and that their cards get great reviews. Before I order, is there another manufacturer/card at this price point that would also be worth a look? Something better for less money would be awesome, buuuuut I'm not expecting that, lol. :lol: You may begin the debate... *Pokes the sleeping bear* :P:D