Bossco82

Try keeping an eye on your temps. I had an odd shutdown or two before Xmas. Turned out to be my AIO building up a blockage and failing. It would work and then not work, I was lucky enough to be monitoring it at the time. However this was alongside odd performance behaviour. Are you also able to monitor the 3090's memory temps they are known to get toastie. Never heard of it causing a random shut down though. Saying all that this does sound like something in the power tripping. I thought that would cause a restart, not shutdown though.

Yeah Bitmaster and Svsmokey are correct on both counts. My DCS install is 312gb and I dont own all the modules either. I would save and get a 1tb if you can. DCS is only going to grow over the next year if you buy more modules. I have used Sabrent, Corsair and Crucial. If the drive is just for DCS a Crucial P2 Nvme will do the job just fine. The power supply you put there would be ok. Like Bitmaster said platinum is the best, but if you want to save a few pennies for the GPU. I use a Corsair TX850m gold rated and that powers my system with a AMD 6800xt, the GPU is your toughest call there. For VR a 3060 will struggle unless you turn some graphics settings down. Maybe consider 12600k, MSI Z690 DDR4, 64gb DDR4 for multiplayer, try to stretch to a 3070 but a 3080 is the proper call for VR in DCS.

Ok sorry about that. Thanks Bitmaster,, apologies Svsmokey, I just mis-understood what you were trying to say there mate.

Ok just to be clear, that is correct that some Intel 10th series will out perform Intel 11th series. I am not recommending either of those, I suggested an Intel 12700k, over an Intel 11900k, so that is the 12th series and is called Alder Lake using the Z690 series of motherboards. I dont think you will need the power of a i9 Intel, an i7 should be enough and you can put money saved towards a GPU or SSD's. If you do choose to go with Intel Alder Lake, consider, instead of using the new DDR5 you can still use DDR4. I would do this or go with AMD X570. Whichever you prefer, both will do the job well.

Hi Ross, If you want Intel I would go for the latest generation of Alder Lake. I think an i7 would be enough, in times like these using it with DDR4 would be a better idea too. Again in these times it might be easier to find a 3080ti over a 3080, you might be lucky though. VR users do seem to get a better experience on Nvidia graphics cards, So, Intel 12700k, Z690 DDR4 motherboard, 64gb 3200Mhz C16, or C14 DDR4, Nvidia 3080ti. 2x separate 1tb Nvme Gen3/4 SSD drives. One for sims and one for Windows. This would be my system of choice if I could afford it and wanted to get into FCS VR in a serious way. You could also go with an AMD based system, 5800x/5900x CPU, X570 motherboard and then the same as above for the rest. As for a VR headset I dont know if Oculus have the best option for DCS but I am sure a few forum members will have suggestions.

Well I got the Vetroo V5 cpu cooler fitted and it was nearly 25-28 deg C cooler than the MSI 240r AIO I just removed on a cinebench R23 run. So I definitely think the AIO had a problem with the pump itself or a gunked up heat plate. Either way this cheap V5 air cooler is pretty good. My 5600x idles around 28-30 and tops out at 66 deg C on a full PBO cinebench R23 test. I am happily surprised. Its well made and more than enough for a 5600x or a 5800x. I do miss the look of an AIO in a windowed case but this simply works very very well.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I tried new thermal paste, some MX4. If anything it made it worse. Using the AIO my idles were getting up to 45, gaming got to 75 and a cinebench PBO run was going to 90 so I stopped it. I have the stock cooler fitted now. It's noisy but temps are down again. Even in DCS my CPU was hovering around 60. So I'm certain this AIO is dead. I would love to go back to custom water again. The last custom loop I had was using an Intel 2700k with a GTX 480, like Bitmaster says they are whisper quiet. I just can't afford it nowadays. I'll see how this cheap Amazon Vetroo V5 does. I'm a bit broke after Xmas so another AIO or a Noctua will have to wait for a bit. Thanks for the replies, hope you all have a happy new year.

Undoubtedly Hector mate. I think Coolermaster has the patent for the rad/pump design. Either way its not ideal. Its a bit too much aesthetics over practicality.

Those were my thoughts too... Its a magnetic one fitted inside the radiator itself. So my first thought was evaporation because my radiator is mounted at the top, so the pump is at the top. However I cant hear any air inside, well not enough for that anyway. No proper slush sound! At first I thought the pump was catching air or had air trapped. I ran it vertically mounted at the front behind my 140mm fans as a test. So the pump could not be at the highest point. That is when I loaded a 4.2Ghz 1.1v Cinebench run to see if a bit of heat would help it shift, nothing though. Its as if the heat cant get away from the heat plate inside. So I am thinking the heat plate has a blockage in it. I definitely cant be bothered to take it apart and check as its still under warranty. I was just on Amazon chat and they accepted a return for credit to my account, so thats some good customer service today. To be honest I liked the look of the MSI 240r as my system is mostly MSI. The pump in rad design is a bit flawed though. Dont think I will get another one. I was aware of the Gamers Nexus video and all the responses. I was also a central heating engineer for over a 10 years so luckily this was in my area. Sometimes you always doubt your own logic though! I bought a Veltoo V5 air cooler while I decide what to do in the meantime, it was only £26. Like "NoCool" said you can see if a fan stops spinning. Surprisingly though the stock cooler is doing ok, I thought it would be terrible but it is a bit noisy.

HI guys, Ok I have been happily running my 5600x under a MSI 240r AIO cooler since February. Then while checking my usages in DCS and U Boat I noticed my CPU temps were sitting in the 60's not the 50's. There had been a lot of updates but I kept it in mind. Then I noticed over Xmas while playing U Boat that my CPU temps had reached 76 deg C. I did some fault finding with Cinebench R23 and temps seemed higher. By about 10 degrees C on average. I checked the fans they are fine and the pump shows a 4000rpm output in HW monitor. I have took it out and shook it a little but cant hear too much air either. My 3x 140mm fans feeding the case from the front are ok too. GPU temps are fine too. Mobo/DDR4 temps are also normal Then while firing up this morning my mobo speaker actually gave an alarm and my CPU was approaching 70 degrees in the bios. So I reckon something has gone wrong inside this AIO? Right? When I was benchmarking with Cinebench I used Ryzen Master to lock my 5600x to 4200Mhz @ 1.1v, this has been a stable setting before and I didnt want to go too mad fault finding a temp problem. My AIO was hitting 78 degrees C, obviously not right. I luckily have the stock 5600x cooler so I tried with this. It hit 79 degrees C. This is leading me to further believe that something is wrong with this AIO and its degrading in some way. The performance of it should not be the same as the stock AMD cooler? There must be something like a pump fault, air, evaporation or even a blockage of some kind that has found its way to the heat plate. I base this from experience doing custom water in the past. Surely it shows something is wrong if it performs the same as the stock cooler? I even tried changing the orientation of the radiator. Its usually screwed to the top but this one has the pump in the radiator, not ideal for that scenario. This made no difference and I cant hear any gurgling. Just wanted to bounce my reasoning off some guys on here before I go down the RMA route with Amazon and MSI, should be fun. Sometimes I over think it then begin to doubt my reckoning.

I found 32" at 1080p ok as long as you have a system that can deliver that resolution using MSAAx4. Its a bit of a balance. The 3070 should do this no problem. 27" is better for 1080p though. This is down to personal taste! I personally use a 32" monitor at 1440p, I use a 6800xt for this but I wouldn't recommend it. It delivers and is fantastic for other games but Nvidia is better at this price point for DCS. I wish I had held out for a Nvidia 3080, or a 3080ti. Nvidia cards like the 2080ti, 3080 and above have a larger memory bus which can handle larger texture filled terrains in flight sims much better. All AMD cars are limited to 256bit bus. The 3070 also has a 256 bus but they are cheaper. You will be right on the edge running high settings at 4xMSAA on a 3070 for DCS @ 1440p resolution. You might not get a solid 60fps when down low or over somewhere like Dubai for example. It could take some setting tweaking. I cant say for 100% on that one. I fitted several 3070's this year for people I know not all were going to play DCS. For 1440p a 3080 would be more than enough. Like I said the right GPU and monitor combination is the most tricky choice if its just for DCS/X plane.

HI FL Zero, Your location and a budget guide help out a lot, I can get an idea, for example I know its no point advising a Nvidia 3090 for example. It also helps to put a parts list together focusing on your financial limits, for example I won advise two separate Nvme drives. I do have some questions, what will be the complete purpose of the PC, what other games do you want to play on it? Is it just DCS? Is it just simulators? etc etc... Some parts I can recommend regardless they are in my post above. To store DCS and you operating system, one 1TB Nvme drive would be good. Just get a Pciex4.0 Gen4. Then you can get a regular Sata SSD to store other games that might not be so dependant on loading times. DCS has a lot of textures to load for those detailed maps, the faster the drive its on the better. The parts for either Intel or AMD I listed above will be fine. Then it comes to picking your monitor and GPU. If you get a 1080p monitor a Nvidia 3070 will do the job just fine. However if you want 1440p then a 3080 would be better for that. The GPU will probably be the most expensive part. The monitor is a personal choice because of size and resolution, you dont need high refresh rates for DCS in my opinion. You might want them for other games though. So any money saved on the monitor can go on the GPU. One final thing, would you build this for yourself or are you looking for a parts list to take to a shop?

I dont know if it helps out. I dont use fullscreen in DCS. The only reason is because I use DCE campaigns and I am too lazy to "Tab" out to see the post mission pop ups. I have tested with fullscreen enabled and disabled in DCS and I did not see any difference in smoothness regarding Track IR. I also checked with Radeon overlay and MSI Afterburner. I could not see any measurable difference on my system. This is using Windows 10.

If it helps anyone, I am running butter smooth with Track IR and FRTC at a 60fps limit in Radeon. This is as long as my FPS in DCS can maintain a solid 60fps. I fly pretty low a lot of the time so any panning related stutters would show up. This is using a LG 48-75 Freesync monitor. Not just for DCS but all my games.

That is a pretty good idea from Hector45, you might be fine with 32gb but if you start enjoying multiplayer you might need to upgrade to 64gb. I have this problem now because I have 4x 8gb sticks, so if I wanted to get into multiplayer I would have to change the whole kit. Now regarding storage this might help. I got a second Nvme drive with read speeds of upto 3000mb over Xmas. I now have only DCS installed on that. From checking with HW monitor DCS can read at upto 1500mb when loading. A Nvme drive can be 2000-5000mb per second, roughly. A regular sata SSD is about 4-600mb per second and a mechanical HDD isn't worth thinking about. If nothing else having DCS installed on a seperate drive from Windows means it safe from being lost to a corrupted Windows update or something like that. If you have a super fast Gen4 Nvme it wont make it load any faster, well not that you would notice. It just the "good practise option". If something went wrong with Windows and DCS was installed on the same drive you would need to re-install it all over again. Thats a long long download! The only reason for a mech HDD nowadays is for storing media and documents. @Gedd33, thats a class avatar there mate, love it.

To FL_Zero, It would be a lot easier if I had an idea of a budget and knew which country you were in. Have you played DCS before or are you a new user? Svsmokey is right that you need 32gb of Dram minimum Tintifax is also correct a mechanical HDD will do nothing for you at all. I think an Intel 11700kf and a Z590 built new would be the wrong move. AMD would be better than this option. Or Intels latest CPU's, Alder Lake. For DCS alone played at highish settings you want something like the following, AMD 5600x, B550/X570, 1tb Nvme, 32gb Dram, Nvidia 3070, A suitable gold rated PSU. Intel 12600k, Z690, 1tb Nvme, 32gb DDR4 or DDR5, Nvidia 3070, same for PSU. 650w plus A 240mm AIO for either would be fine. Its up to you if you choose AMD or Intel. You can also get better components than these. This is a starting point. To be honest the list you have put up has been picked by someone putting a very general purpose gaming rig together. If its just for DCS, a few bits should be changed in my opinion. Depending on your GPU you want a 1080p or 1440p monitor. Curved or not is up to you. Its refresh rate for DCS does not need to be 144hz.

To Silent Sierra, I dont want you to be mislead by anything in this thread so I will make very clear why I gave the advise I have. Under no circumstances do I think you are at risk of having a power supply go bang, smoke or catching fire, no explosions mate I promise. This is what your at risk of and its a very slight one. So all this is said with a very big "IF"! Say you get a really nice 5600x a cherry pick, and you put it in something like a higher end X570 motherboard and your cooling it with a better quality 240 AIO. Then you go and enable PBO with motherboard limits, 200mhz overclock over-ride and leave all the voltages on auto. Then when your in a game or a benchmark it loads up and gives the CPU +30mv without any limits on the TDC or EDC and a temperature limit of 95 degrees C. That is going to just pull current and wattage until it potentially reaches its temp limit. What could happen is you would get crashes and problems that are because its a 550 watt PSU and not a 650 watt. Not because you have a bad CPU. Then for the 3070, if you have a founders edition, then no worries really. If you buy a MSI 3070 Gaming X Trio for example. I fitted one in September. That thing literally tried to reach for the moon in clock speed. The one I tested pulled about 280 watts and was hitting 2070Mhz with 1900Mhz on the memory. It was peaking over 1.1vcore and never reached its temp limits it just pulled and pulled wattage. Now like Bitmaster and Thinder advised a higher wattage power supply would simply manage the load. The system I worked with did have a 650-750w and everything worked just fine. Even when it was pushed to its limits. Put these two rare scenarios together with a 550w power supply and it could/might be the perfect storm for crashes and restarts. Simply because if both reach for their highest clock speeds together during gameplay or a benchmark and there is not the juice there for both of them in that scenario. This could then lead you to believe you have a CPU, GPU, Dram or Mobo problem when its actually your power supply. Please refer to this PSU Calculator simulating that happening, https://outervision.com/b/XZIGKs I think this is why Nvidia advises a 650w to cover a worst case scenario like I have described. Now like Some1 said and is correct in saying so. This is unlikely. I agree that if you take precautions and your aware of what the worst case could be, you will be fine. I offered advise in this thread regarding voltages etc, as a way to avoid this potential perfect storm. However that does not mean that the opposing advise given is incorrect, to cover yourself for any potential scenario you need a minimum 600w capacity. Just be fully informed its to cover you in case the above was to happen. 550 watts is on the edge of what these components could potentially require. All this is said with a very heavy dose of the word "IF" Always try to pick your power supply for the very worst case scenario for the exact components you have and with any potential upgrades in mind. I have not personally come across a PSU going bang, not in 20+ years. I have come across a few systems where an upgrade, usually a GPU has caused a system to begin crashing and restarting because spikes in power draw have overwhelmed a PSU not quite up to the job. I hope I have shared enough information from both sides of the fence so you can make an informed decision. Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you get your system set up very soon. Take it easy.

HI Silent Sierra, That is not a problem mate. If I am giving a quick reply to advise I always go on the side of caution. That being said I appreciate that parts supply might be more limited for you in Brazil over me in the UK. I dont know what financial and political restriction are effecting all that. If you find yourself having to work around having a TX550m its not the end of the world, far from it. This is a general guide from my experience fitting these components over the last 18 months. Lockdown here in the UK was pretty strict and a few people turned to PC gaming that didnt have much experience, so I have built a few systems as favours since the start of 2020. For the 5600x whether your motherboard is X570 or B550. You can go in the bios and enter some manual adjustments to PBO that should work for almost all 5600x CPU's Manual limits, PPT=95w TDC=75a EDC=105, these are slightly over stock so use aftermarket cooling, or check your temps. You can also set the temp limit manually to 85 degrees C, then the CPU will auto downclock to stay super safe. Run Scaler x1, run 50Mhz overide and an all core -15mv. This should give you around 4400Mhz on all cores at 1.25v and a stable single core boost of 4.7Ghz. Plenty for DCS in single player. For whatever 3070 you get, use the curve in MSI Afterburner and aim for 1900-1950Mhz sing 0.975-1.0Mv. Should be plenty for 1080p and also work for 1440p These settings are just a starting point but it should keep your power usage and temps down a bit without sacrificing any performance in gaming. Ive fitted a 3070 from Asus, MSi and Gigabyte and I must have fitted about 6 or 7 5600x's. These settings worked in all systems Its an educated guess but this should keep you around 450w even at full load.

Hi SilentSierra, Straight off let me apologise for not reading your first post properly. I didnt think you already had a power supply, I thought you were shopping around for one to power your new parts. I dont think you need to sell your power supply and buy a new one with 100w more capacity. I think you should be aware you could be on the limit. I own a 5600x and know what it does playing DCS at 1440p. I have also fitted three different 3070's for friends and friends of friends since they were released. The power draw of the 3070 depends on which model you have bought. The power supply calculators you posted were a bit off when calculating "Full Load" meaning both your CPU and GPU are running 100%, which is unlikely but still possible. If you run your 5600x with PBO enabled using motherboard limits and you have something like the MSI 3070, this could be possible...I adjusted the one you posted... https://outervision.com/b/bX0RXZ So if you game without V-sync or any kind of frame limiter this is what could potentially happen. If you do run with V-sync or a framerate cap of 60fps for example. I know for a fact that you will be drawing about 280-350watts from the wall during gameplay in DCS. In this case your absolutely fine. If you dont and you also like running benchmarks for the best score possible your on the edge of what you power supply can handle. Please check this review of your power supply...it sums up its a robust unit... Corsair TX550M Gold Power Supply Review | KitGuru- Part 6 If you have any concerns and if you can but a watt meter and check your own usage. I play DCS with a 60fps cap using a 5600x and a 6800xt, my usage varies between 300-440 watts, only because I use a framerate cap though. Best of luck and take it easy mate...

There is a pointless argument here over something that should come down to common sense. I agree with the advise from Hector, Bitmaster and Lurker. Some1, I genuinely agree with your calculations about the capacity of a power supply at full load and what it should be capable of. The facts you present are correct and accurate. The advise from the rest of us is that running something on full load while possible is not recommended. My own rule of thumb is to look at what the maximum power draw of a system and then buy a power supply that is a good 20% above that, simply for safety. If a power supply is running at over 80% it will get hotter, that can "potentially" lead to problems. Now the OP is in a different position he already has what he as and it would be uneconomical to make a change for him now. All we have done is confirmed what he already suspected, it could be on the edge if those components ran at 100%. For absolute safety the power supply should have more capacity. However if he is aware of this and keeps an eye on it. He should be ok. I have done this myself in the past. Doesn't make it a good idea though. Silent Sierra you will be ok if you know what your doing but it is on the edge mate. Your PSU calculators are slightly out. Check with the 5600x at 4.2-4.4ghz and a more realistic voltage of 1.2-1.25vcore, The 3070, some have boost clocks going over 1850mhz possibly account for an overvolt of 10% too. Those calculations come out at around 550w. Under regular condition and under gaming with a capped framerate you wont get close to that though. All I am saying is be aware of it. If you look closely at your own evidence, yes it states full load is 2367w input and 2240w output. Then look what it states for "typical" usage. Frankly I dont care if anyone wants to run their computer using a gerbil on a wheel. It is simply not "good practise" to use something like a power supply under condition where it can regular pass 80% of its capacity. Again I am not arguing that it is possible, it obviously is. It is simply not recommended. That rule goes for anything that produces heat while it is producing power from computer power supplies to car engines and everything in between. Threads like these become misleading, everybody's comments and replies are correct from their own perspective. However what would be good practise.

Edmuss, I dont know which 3070 it is mate, the aftermarket ones can draw over 250w at full load. I'm giving advise so I always go on the side of caution when its about another persons system. I appreciate that with undervolts and tuning it could be fine. I'm just not taking that for granted. If it was me and considering the power supply is so recent. I would probably risk it too. However I would have a eye on a watt meter to check how often it was drawing close to 450 watts.

Ok I can admit that I am wrong about the fact I did not read the OP's first entry on this thread. I missed the fact that he already has a recent Corsair TX550m gold rated PSU. However while the components in the Corsair TX750m and TX850m are of a higher quality. The lower rated versions are not quite as robust. I am not using a PSU calculator, I am sitting here with a watt meter plugged in between the wall and my PC. If I run Cinebench R23 with PBO enabled using motherboard limits on my 5600x it pulls 205 watts out of the wall. If I do the same stock without PBO about 180 watts. SilentSierra I appreciate that your TX550m is a recent purchase and under regular gaming conditions you "should" be ok. However I would not let something like DCS run without a framerate cap or without using V-sync at something like 60hz. For example if I run DCS with a 60fps cap it draws between 290-380 watts. If I dont and I run it as fast as my PC can go its knocking on the door of 500 watts. That is using a 6800xt though. Please bear in mind that a 3070 running at full load can draw 250 watts plus. If you run that hardware on a regular 100% load it could potentially lead to problems in the near future. Look mate its your system, just be aware that if those components start to draw close to full load you could be asking for problems so run your games with a framerate cap.

Um yep, you were running an accident waiting to happen. Power supplies degrade over time. The closer you run them to the edge of their limits the quicker it will happen. Your system mate your free to run the risks. I would never advise someone to skimp on an extra 100 watts of capacity which is going to cost what an extra $20.

I have a Corsair TX850M and I needed that to run a AMD 5600x and a 6800xt. At very least I would get a 650w. Think about it a 5600x in a x570 can pull over 200 watts under load with peripherals and PBO enabled, I know mine can. I am talking about it in a whole system measured with a watt meter. My whole system can touch 450-470watts under loads if I really push it. Take 10% off 550w for errors and efficiency, that leaves you with 495 watts, its running very close. Be safe and get 650w.

If you do get a monitor arm, get one rated for 10-12kg, I got one rated for about 8kg at first but soon replaced it. Really sorts out any desk space problems.