My Dream Build for a no compromise experience

[Hastingsk12]

Good evening. My eyes are bleeding from reading posts here, on Tomshardware, etc trying to coddle together a machine designed to run all DCS titles as silky smooth as a system could. That said, I don't want to just throw money away. Most of my decisions are predicated on future upgrades (Dual GTX980's for instance :-O ). To that end I came up with this config. If you're so inclined would you comment? I'm aiming for a system that will have a TrackIR5 and 3x24" TN 144MHZ displays and TM HOTAS Warthog.

 

Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.

 

1 ASUS X99-DELUXE ATX 2011E 359.99

2 COOLMAST HYPER D92 49.99

3 COOLMAST STORM STRYKER CA 169.99

4 CORSAIR RM850 FM 80+G ATX 169.99

5 CORSAIR HYDRO H100I LIQUI 114.99

6 CRUCIAL 16GB 8X2 DDR4 240 259.99

7 EVGA GTX980 SC 4GB ACX2 D 569.99

8 INTEL BOX INTEL CORE I7 5 299.99

9 MS OEM WIN7 PRO 64BIT SP1 139.99

10 SAMSUNG E 250GB 840EVO SA 139.99

11SEAGATE 1TB 3.5" SATA 720 59.99

12 IPSG LG 24X DVD BURNER 15.99

[Demon_]

The D92? With only 4x6mm pipes and 92mm fans at 2800rpm (noisy). At 448 grams is far from the best.

The Cooler Master Storm Stryker CA? No 200mm side fan? Not my cup of tea.

3x24"? Maybe 3x27"? Look at the price.

 

Have a good dream!

[Hastingsk12]

Demon - Thank you! Mind if I throw out a couple of questions .... if not the D92, what would you recommend. I looked around and the D92 was herald by most. And my obligatory noob question .... aren't the D92 and the CORSAIR HYDRO H100I LIQUI both CPU coolers? I'm thinking that the D92 was an articat and should have been removed when the Hydro H100I was added to support water cooling. Surely they aren't used in tandem :-o

 

Thanks! Oh .... real estate is framing my monitor size choice. I'm also only going to be about 25 inches from eye to monitor surface. Flight controls will live on my desk. My options are:

 

Acer GN246HL Bbid 24-inch 3D Full HD (1920 x 1080) Widescreen Display

 

AOC G2460PQU 144hz, 1ms Ultimate Performance 24-Inch Professional Gaming Monitor

 

ASUS VG248QE 24-inch LED-lit Monitor 144Hz refresh rate 1ms pixel response time & 3D capable

 

Your thoughts?

 

TIA!!!

[outlawal2]

My suggestion would be NOT to go with an I7 unless you have a specific need for one such as video editing... Buy the baddest I5 they make and it will save you some cash and will work as well as any I7 will as far as DCS goes.. (EDGE will not change the fundamental underpinnings of DCS so it is very doubtful that multi threading will be supported by ED anytime in the near future so an I7 would be wasted..) My opinion is that this machine will be ready to be upgraded again before DCS will sufficiently support multi threading so I would nix the I7 and save some cash...

 

As always, simply my opinion so it is worth what it is worth!

[Gladman]

Check out XSPC for cooling. I just built my system and its very close to what you list. The dual pump reservoir is the way to go, still very very quiet.

In my research 1ms monitors are a complete waste of money for DCS. If your playing a FPS with lots of explosions and flashes it may make a slight difference but even then, most people won't see it. Opinions may vary.

 

My system is as such:

Asus Maximus VII Hero

i7 4790K

2x8gig Corsair 1600mhz (faster clock speeds are irrelevant)

Samsung SSD 256Gig

GTX780 Poseidon (I'll be adding a second one if it goes well with EDGE)

XSPC Raystorm Twin D5 AX240 Water Cooling Kit

 

Dale

Edited December 4, 2014 by Gladman

[Demon_]

Liquid CPU coolers are very good (but not all of them) and noisy. A 120mm fan at 2700-2800rpm is very noisy.

Over 1800rpm (less for a 140mm fan), the 120mm fan begin to get noisy. Always look at the speed of the fans.

 

The best air coolers? http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_Heatsinks

Prolimatech: http://www.prolimatech.com/en/products/index.asp?itemid=42

Thermalright: http://www.thermalright.com/products.html

Noctua: http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=produkte&lng=en

Those coolers are big, so you need low profil RAM. Forget the Corsair Vengence (by exemple).

 

Note: My i7 3770K hyper threading mode is disable. Yep! outlawal2

 

If you want to run 3 monitors in portrait mode (the best), you need thin bezel monitors like the Asus VN279QL.

Landscape surround mode is not good for a flight simulator.

 

144Hz? Your video card can run the game at 144FPS? Maybe not...

The refresh time of a 144Hz monitor is 7ms (1/144). Don't get upset about the 1ms pixel response time.

 

That's a lot of money, take your time and do your homework.

I had 3 monitors (Samsung S27B350) with fat bezels in landscape mode. It was my biggest mistake...

Now, i have 3 Asus VN279QL in portrait mode and that rock!

I have 24" between the monitors and my nose.

 

Or maybe one big screen to get rid of the bezel. It's up to you...

 

Pics:

1-1920x1080

2-3240x1920

3-5760x1080

Edited December 4, 2014 by Demon_

[PureEvil]

dual pump

 

overkill, no? even one D5 pump has enough power to run any "normal" water loop. it will be the same amount of work to change the pump in case of fail, no matter, single or dual. today everything has overheating protection, so if the one and only pump fails, pc will just shutdown itself, no harm done.

[Gladman]

Its just a redundancy thing and the dollar amount difference is next to nothing. And hey, it looks cool!!!!!

 

Dale

[PureEvil]

Liquid CPU coolers are very good (but not all of them) and noisy. A 120mm fan at 2700-2800rpm is very noisy.

Over 1800rpm (less for a 140mm fan), the 120mm fan begin to get noisy. Always look at the speed of the fans.

 

this is the good thing about liquid cooling, even with some overclocking there is no need to run fans at full speed. i run two 140mm fans at around 800rpm for cooling, my hdd makes more noise than pump+fans all together lol

[Demon_]

this is the good thing about liquid cooling, even with some overclocking there is no need to run fans at full speed. i run two 140mm fans at around 800rpm for cooling, my hdd makes more noise than pump+fans all together lol

 

:thumbup:

[skinnadoor]

Good evening. My eyes are bleeding from reading posts here, on Tomshardware, etc trying to coddle together a machine designed to run all DCS titles as silky smooth as a system could. That said, I don't want to just throw money away. Most of my decisions are predicated on future upgrades (Dual GTX980's for instance :-O ). To that end I came up with this config. If you're so inclined would you comment? I'm aiming for a system that will have a TrackIR5 and 3x24" TN 144MHZ displays and TM HOTAS Warthog.

 

Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.

 

1 ASUS X99-DELUXE ATX 2011E 359.99

2 COOLMAST HYPER D92 49.99

3 COOLMAST STORM STRYKER CA 169.99

4 CORSAIR RM850 FM 80+G ATX 169.99

5 CORSAIR HYDRO H100I LIQUI 114.99

6 CRUCIAL 16GB 8X2 DDR4 240 259.99

7 EVGA GTX980 SC 4GB ACX2 D 569.99

8 INTEL BOX INTEL CORE I7 5 299.99

9 MS OEM WIN7 PRO 64BIT SP1 139.99

10 SAMSUNG E 250GB 840EVO SA 139.99

11SEAGATE 1TB 3.5" SATA 720 59.99

12 IPSG LG 24X DVD BURNER 15.99

 

 

 

I just put together this rig that's listed in my Signature, and it's been unstoppable.

 

Cheers.

[Gladman]

Whatcha getting for fps? Triple monitor?

 

Dale

[skinnadoor]

Whatcha getting for fps? Triple monitor?

 

Dale

 

 

 

70-80 FPS, through all the mayhem. No triple monitor set up. Single 27 Inch monitor.

[hannibal]

my dream build is half realized (chair/butt kicker/ etc)

 

but the other half oculus and PC will be realized sometime 2016..

with intel skylake-E CPU, nvidia pascal GPU, DD4 memory and oculus consumer version

[Gladman]

70-80 FPS, through all the mayhem. No triple monitor set up. Single 27 Inch monitor.

 

 

Good info. I was wondering about buying a second GTX780 to SLI vs a newer card but it would seem I will get the same FPS either way.

 

Dale

[El Hadji]

Those coolers are big, so you need low profil RAM. Forget the Corsair Vengence (by exemple).

 

Why? I use Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 LP where "LP" means low profile. I use a Corsair H100 cooler but my buddy is using Noctua and it fits well even if the cooler is rather large.

[cichlidfan]

I have two machines running Noctua coolers, one with 8GB and the other with 16GB of Corsair Vengeance memory (not LP).

[Demon_]

Yes! It fit! 2mm between the top of the fan and the side panel (side fan + deflector) of a BIG case. :Flush:

Edited March 3, 2019 by Demon_

[Harpoon]

Good luck with getting all of that money. :cry:

[cichlidfan]

I don't have a better pic without opening a case but...

Edited December 6, 2014 by cichlidfan

[Hastingsk12]

I just put together this rig that's listed in my Signature, and it's been unstoppable.

 

Cheers.

 

So I took everything in and followed the lead of the i5-4960K and saved some dollars. Thanks to everyone who chimed in. Can't leave without a question though. Anyone sporting the Maximus board have issues getting both the Warthog Throttle and Flightstick to load their drivers and firmware properly under Windows 8.1? TIA

 

edit: wanted to include a more concise description of the build you all (especially Demon, Skinnadoor and Outlawal2) contributed to:

 

Software:

Digital Combat Simulations’ A-10C Warthog

Windows 8.1 64bit

 

Hardware:

Intel i5-4690K

ASUS Maximus VII Hero (1150) mobo

CoolMast Hyper 212 CPU Cooler

Corsair 16GB Ram DDR3 2133(2x8gb)

(2) Intel 740GB SSD Drives

(1) Seagate 1TB 7200RPM Drive

MSI GTX 970 Video Card w/ 4GB

Corsair 750Watt PSU

Fractal Define ATX Tower

 

(3) ASUS 24” LED VN247H-P Monitor (run in surround @ 3520 x 1280 bezel corrected)

 

Razor Mouse and Keyboard

Logitech G-13 Gamepad

Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog Trottle

Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog Joystick

Thrustmaster MFD (to be ordered)

Saitek Combat pedals

Natural Points’ TRACKIR5 w/ ProClip

 

Ipad App: bit-shits’ iControl DCS and DCS VC Server

 

 

 

 

 

2

Edited December 26, 2014 by Hastingsk12

[Hastingsk12]

Ok, found my answer to my TM Hotas Throttle and FlightStick problems.

 

Fix:

"I am a new warthog owner and I've done a lot of research on TM problems. I recently had to replace my desktop due to a lightning strike in the home. My new machine has an ASUS X99. At the same time I went from CH to Warthog Hotas. I could not get the new computer to boot with TM plugged in, or for that matter anything more that a mouse. After a couple of calls to IBuyPower (where purchased) tech support I updated the Bios on the MB and most of my problems went away. I also had to run a program to find unrecognized devices to update their drivers to fix some problems in Device Manager.

 

The long and short is now everything is working mostly fine...a few little boot glitches every once in a while.

 

I found this post from a few years ago and have saved it for future use just in case.

 

Warthog on Asus x99

 

Hello. I have been having real problems with my Warthog, and indeed my MFDs after a major computer update. I now seem to have solved them, with the help of Thrustmaster Technical Department. I want to outline what worked for me so any other poor bugger having the same problems has a head start in solving them.

 

The Problem. I upgraded to an Asus x99 Deluxe motherboard and SLI 980s ect. I also went from Win 7 to Win 8.1 64 bit. As you may know, the new motherboard had predominantly USB 3 slots, and as you probably won't know, Win 8.1 introduced a new way of managing power to these USB ports. Both facts are relevant, as it turned out.

 

The Symptoms. The computer suddenly became unstable when it booted up with the USB peripherals attached. In particular, Win would not recognise my Warthog joystick: it was listed as a 'Bootloader', and to make matters worse, when I tried to update the firmware, it would not load, and consistently failed at step 2 with the error message of 0x0000000c. I ended up with both my joystick and throttle without any firmware at all, and always being listed as Bootloader when I attached the cables into the USB slots. So..unstable computer that hung randomly on loading, and Warthog throttle and joystick not working.

 

What I Tried. I first unloaded everything to do with the Warthog, re downloaded all the latest drivers and tried to reload drivers. No good; did not work. Then I followed the Thrustmaster advice on their website to 'wake up' Bootloader joysticks. I followed the instructions to the letter; this did NOT work, no matter how many times I followed it. Next, I tried setting up the Warthog on a seperate, older machine, with only USB 2 ports. No good. Did not work either; the firmware update kept failing at step 2 with error 0x0000000c. I was in despair.

 

What Finally Worked For Me. I sent an email, in my despair, to TM support. In the meantime, I trawled the web. There was ONE post on the SimHQ website, just one, about a guy complaining about Win nit booting properly with a Warthog attached. The solution was to go into the BIOS to disable something called xHCI mode in the USB configuration settings. The guy disabled the xHCI mode and it sorted the problem. Upon doing research, I discovered that Intel xHCI controlled the USB ports: xHCI equalled having the USB ports active. Turn it off, and the ports reverted to USB 2. So the problem had something to do with peripherals, especially the Warthog HOTAS, being plugged into this Intel controlled xHCI USB 3 ports. Something was not gelling. So what I tried was to turn off in my BIOS the xHCI mode, then reloaded the Warthog drivers, following the prompts, and IT ALL WORKED! Especially, the firmware updated with no problems. My HOTAS was with firmware again, and recognised by the computer again, and working. I then turned the xHCI back to enabled again, and the settings stayed, and the HOTAS was still ok. I might point out here that I had it plugged into USB 3 ports; putting it into the USB 2 ports did not help when it was playing up.

 

The second thing I did related to the way Win 8.1 managed the power settings of the USB ports. There was a work around in the TM message to me that dealt with apparent problems that this new power management arrangemnet of the USB ports that Win 8.1 used. Microsoft has acknowledged that the way Win 8.1 manages the ports has caused lots of compatibility y problems with USB devices. Apparently, the new power arrangement turns power off to the device when Windows thinks it is sleeping or not active. This causes problems, loading, disconnecting and reloading devices to the computer seemingly randomly. It was particularly evident when I attached the TM MFDs. They flicked on and off constantly, flashing lights and causing the computer to bleep constantly, and generally have a heart attack. What I did was to go into device manager, and located the HID device of game controller, click on it, go to device details and find the device path in the registry. I copied the HID/PID unique numerical line, opened Regedit, found the appropriate line under Current, System, Enum, USB, and then TURNED OFF a thing called EnhancedPowerManagement by setting the string entry to 0. This stopped Windows from managing the power of devices attached through the problematic USB ports. Microsoft has a detailed set of instructions on their site to specifically allow people to use this workaround to deal with problematic USB devices. It absolutely worked; the computer became more stable and the MFDs stopped disconnecting, and now behave themselves. I have yet to get to the bottom of the Intel xHCI thingy, but there is a problem I think with the way it relates on newer motherboards and legacy USB devices, which is what all of us have.

 

Conclusion. What did I learn? The way Win 8.1 mangers power to the USB ports, especially USB 3 ports, is problematic and causes problems with devices, such as Warthog joysticks and throttles and MFDs. (Btw, it also caused issues with my Saitek combat flight pedals.) the way to fix it was to turn off in Registry by Regedit this enhanced power management. I also switched the BIOS setting of USB configuration of Intel xHCI to Enabled from AutoSmart...after I had disabled it to fix the Warthog (which did the trick). Any instability, and I will play around with the xHCI setting in the BIOS.

 

Hope this is/will be helpful to users in the future. Happy to expand on anything I wrote here."

 

-CaptJackG