Building a PC for DCS, anything in particular I need/should avoid?

[BlueCanary]

I want to build a PC so I can finally actually play DCS instead of just staring at screenshots, and I have an absolute maximum budget of around 600 pounds/890 dollars (including operating system, but I already have a monitor, keyboard etc.)

 

Seeing as the main reason I need a new PC is to be able to play DCS I was wondering if there are any DCS specific things I should try to do hardware-wise.

 

Should I go for more cores or clock speed? Also, how much does RAM matter compared to CPU/GPU?

 

When choosing a graphics card. what are the important things I need to look for?

 

Is getting an SSD worth it? By the looks of it DCS takes up massive amounts of space, so would I need a big one?

 

Does it matter what operating system I get? I was planning either windows 7 or 10, whichever is cheaper.

 

I have little PC building experience, do you have any general tips?

[mig29movt]

Just stay away from Gigabyte boards! :mad::ranting:

 

4 cores seems to me the only way to go, so this would be something like Intel I7-xxxx

 

RAM also matters a lot, but 8GB should do the job

 

It's definitely worth getting an SSD, they are still relatively pricey if you look at their size, but I'm only using it for Windows and DCS and have a separate 1TB HDD.

 

My general tip: have a look at reviews of the hardware you're planning to buy, also check other peoples singatures to see which stuff is the most common (=reliable)

[PureEvil]

 

4 cores seems to me the only way to go, so this would be something like Intel I7-xxxx

 

 

or i5

[rrohde]

Go to https://pcpartpicker.com/ and see what people are building across the different budgets. When I built my PC (see signature), I started there as well, simply because I have been out of the hardware loop for so long.

 

Once I knew what I wanted based on that site's info, I started piecing together my rig. :)

 

Oh, and yes - you should get an SSD drive!

And, if I knew then how shite the current DCS 1.5.x and 2.0.x implementation of SLI would be, I would have gone with a single NVIDIA GTX 980TI (6GB VRAM) instead.

Edited December 22, 2015 by rrohde

[rrohde]

RAM also matters a lot, but 8GB should do the job

 

Why anyone would recommend only 8GB of RAM when we have 64GB Windows, and DCS based on EDGE is using a 64GB executable, is beyond me... :doh: Just make sure that your Windows OS is a "Pro" version, so it will utilize all the RAM you give it!

[dburne]

My rig ( see specs) runs both 1.5 and 2.0 very well. Running a 1920x1080x144hz monitor , have yet to see a single stutter in either.

Frame-rates often over 100 fps, flying over downtown Vega around 80 fps.

 

I would suggest going with more than 8gb of system ram just to give a little headroom. 16gb should be plenty for a while. Or if needed start with 8gb and you can add 8gb when you really need it. Currently DCS 2.0 and 1.5 use between 5-6gb of system ram on my system. The Beta and Alpha though have had a memory leak which I believe they continue to tweak.

 

Video card - At about maxed out I regularly use around 3.3-3.5gb of vram in 2.0. A GTX 970 performs well. Alternatively if that puts you over budget, you can probably find a 4gb 770 card a little cheaper. 970 would be sweet if you can swing it.

 

SSD - very beneficial, I would definitely go with a 256gb SSD if you can, larger is better with the upcoming maps. Samsung Evo is very good. I actually have two of them, one I have for my OS and programs, the other dedicated to my games.

 

CPU - As previously mentioned, an I5 would do nicely. Main difference in the I5 and I7 is hyper-threading, no real benefit for gaming.Heavy video processing yes, gaming not really.

Get the K model though, it is unlocked and very easily overclocked. Along with a Corsair H100i closed loop cooler, and you have some nice headroom for overclocking that K processor.

4 cores is plenty, most games today don't really make much use of even all of them, let alone any more.

[agrasyuk]

With the current prices of ram I don't see why why not go for 16gb. It is the amount ED recommends for 2.0 in its current somewhat memory leaking state (not that it is unexpected for Alfa).

Anything i5 would be CPU of choice if budget allows, i7 will not hurt if budget is not an issue. A thing to note, newest i5 6600K I purchased last week came without stock cooler, which I guess makes sense as those getting the K will overclock and will be getting better cooler anyways.

 

With the current prices SSDs are no brainer (for system drives)

 

Everyone welse ll have preferred brand and brand one had less then perfect experience with . personally i have nothing against gigabyte, one of their "ultradurable" board still runs in my i7 950 old sytem as well as gtx470.

[mig29movt]

Why anyone would recommend only 8GB of RAM when we have 64GB Windows, and DCS based on EDGE is using a 64GB executable, is beyond me... :doh: Just make sure that your Windows OS is a "Pro" version, so it will utilize all the RAM you give it!

 

mostly his budget... :book:

[dburne]

Just make sure that your Windows OS is a "Pro" version, so it will utilize all the RAM you give it!

 

Fwiw, Windows 10 Home 64 bit supports 128gb of Ram.

 

As for me, by the time I would need more for what I use the PC for there will undoubtedly be a newer version of Windows out.

 

Also I think you might be mixing up 64bit and 64GB...

:smilewink:

[BlueCanary]

Thanks for the advice everybody, so what I'm looking at at the moment is:

 

Intel 4th Gen Quad Core i5 4460 3.2Ghz

Motherboard I have no idea, the one I was looking at was a GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-SLI Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) Motherboard but the very first comment in this thread says "stay away from gigabyte boards so...

 

The cheapest 16gb ram set I can get

 

GeFore GTX 750Ti 2GB GDDR5 - a lot of the replies here recommend 4gb cards but any more than 2 will completely go over my budget, is 2gb enough if I drop settings a bit?

 

Would a 120gb SSD be enough for an OS, probably 2-3 DCS modules and a few other (much smaller) games and programs?

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 64MB Cache Hard Drive SATA 6GB/s 8.5ms 7200rpm for everything else.

 

Are there any obvious problems with that list?

[agrasyuk]

I would get a K CPU - unlocked for overcloaking + budget 30 bucks or so for better cooler, cooler master 212 is great for the money

 

As for brands lemons happen to everyone. Gigabyte's offering for current gen cpus looked very attractive

[Exorcet]

Thanks for the advice everybody, so what I'm looking at at the moment is:

 

Intel 4th Gen Quad Core i5 4460 3.2Ghz

Motherboard I have no idea, the one I was looking at was a GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-SLI Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) Motherboard but the very first comment in this thread says "stay away from gigabyte boards so...

 

The cheapest 16gb ram set I can get

 

GeFore GTX 750Ti 2GB GDDR5 - a lot of the replies here recommend 4gb cards but any more than 2 will completely go over my budget, is 2gb enough if I drop settings a bit?

 

Would a 120gb SSD be enough for an OS, probably 2-3 DCS modules and a few other (much smaller) games and programs?

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 64MB Cache Hard Drive SATA 6GB/s 8.5ms 7200rpm for everything else.

 

Are there any obvious problems with that list?

 

Look to see if you can find posts made with those using the 750Ti. It's below the recommended specs for DCS 2. I have a GTX970 which works very well, but it can't reach max FPS in the heart of Nevada (max graphics, 1440p).

 

On the HDD, I was looking at Seagate originally, but I was told Western Digital is more reliable. I found some statistic online supporting that (didn't save the links) so I went with WD Black 1 TB.

 

I also reserved SSD space for select applications, though Win 7 took up more space than I thought it would, I don't remember how much exactly. It wasn't a big deal for me though as I got a ~500 GB SSD.

[Sierra99]

Just stay away from Gigabyte boards! :mad::ranting:

 

I'm curious why you say this. I've never had an issue with Gigabyte MBs.

 

What did I miss?

[Gladman]

Why anyone would recommend only 8GB of RAM when we have 64GB Windows, and DCS based on EDGE is using a 64GB executable, is beyond me... :doh: Just make sure that your Windows OS is a "Pro" version, so it will utilize all the RAM you give it!

 

Are you suggesting that because the windows executable is 64 Bit that you should have 64 Gig of ram to run the system?

If so, you are horribly uneducated. A 32 bit OS will only use a maximum of 4GB of ram. A 64 bit OS will use the extra ram due to the architecture it supports.

 

8 GB of Ram is quite sufficient to run DCS. I understand that 16 is better but by no means do you need 64 Gig of Ram.

 

Give this link a quick read: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001498.htm

[mig29movt]

To clear things up: Boards using the X99 chipset have various USB issues, which might not even happen on Gigabytes board solely

But AFAIK the X99 is currently the only one to support DDR4 RAM ?

Contacting Gigabyte support concerning these issues is mostly useless, you could as well talk to your cat...

 

I bought a 300 bucks board which then refused to start 5 out of ten times, got a new one a few days later, since the 1st one broke down already and still had the same issues (boot loop, USB) on a brand new system....

Honestly I cannot tell abour the other chipsets but mine is a piece of junk.

I remember dealing with a old one ( P67?) where I also had some bizarre issues.

Anyway that's just my opinion. Best thing is to have an eye on reviews, to see if there are issues.

 

Btw buying a water cooling isn't that expensive and will give you quite a bit if you're into overclocking :thumbup:

[Elnocho3]

I'd strongly suggest that the graphics card you suggested isn't up to scratch. Recently went from a 770 GTX, the performance wasn't satisfactory with it

 

GeFore GTX 750Ti 2GB GDDR5 - a lot of the replies here recommend 4gb cards but any more than 2 will completely go over my budget, is 2gb enough if I drop settings a bit?

[Bewsher]

To clear things up: Boards using the X99 chipset have various USB issues, which might not even happen on Gigabytes board solely

But AFAIK the X99 is currently the only one to support DDR4 RAM ?

Contacting Gigabyte support concerning these issues is mostly useless, you could as well talk to your cat...

 

I bought a 300 bucks board which then refused to start 5 out of ten times, got a new one a few days later, since the 1st one broke down already and still had the same issues (boot loop, USB) on a brand new system....

Honestly I cannot tell abour the other chipsets but mine is a piece of junk.

I remember dealing with a old one ( P67?) where I also had some bizarre issues.

Anyway that's just my opinion. Best thing is to have an eye on reviews, to see if there are issues.

 

Btw buying a water cooling isn't that expensive and will give you quite a bit if you're into overclocking :thumbup:

 

I had 3 gigabyte boards blow from that USB problem. Soon as the Asrock Extreme 4 board went in no issues. It only uses 4 USB 3.0 at the back and 2 at the front plus which stopped that boot issue and it has a usb 3.1 pci express card. It uses DDR4 ram. Also the new Z170 Skylake does too if you want to save a bit of cash. As for graphics cards a R9 290x or GTX 970 will do you.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Bewsher