Upgrade advice.

[Muppett]

Hi guys,

I am a helo pilot playing DCS (Black shark and Huey) and am about to make a purchase of a new motherboard, chip and RAM however wherever you look there are different bits of advice and soo many Intel chips to look at.

 

So firstly has anyone looked at or used the new Ryzen chips from AMD - and if so are they performing well with DCS? If not what intel to go for?

 

From what I read I will need to go to 16gig of RAM as well.

 

My current rig is a good 7yrs old -

 

Intel i5 2500K (Sandybridge) Socket 1155 on a Gigabyte Z68P motherboard with 8gig of DD3 memory.

My graphics are running a GTX 780. I know this will need upgrading eventually but one step at a time.

 

The system is pushing a monitor at 1920 x 1200.

 

The system does run DCS and does it OK but I hate turning settings down.

 

I have close to £500 to play with.

 

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Johnny_Rico]

What speed is your 2500k running at ?

 

Those things overclock very well 4.4Ghz should be easy to get (thou better cooler required eg arctic freezer 2)

 

 

£500 is I think not enough to upgrade with (unless you want to just get a new GFX card)

Edited September 14, 2017 by Johnny_Rico

[Konovalov]

I am in that old 7 plus year club. :smilewink: The advantage you have is that the you have a Sandy which still isn't so bad when heavily overclocked.

 

My first piece of advise is get a new graphics card now. Based off your monitor spec a GTX1070 or 1060Ti from Nvidia would be adequate or perhaps Vega 56 from the AMD side. I would put this in your old system and heavily overclock your current Sandy processor and see what results that yields. The other weak link of the system is the memory. 16GB for DCS is a good fit as you have already identified.

 

If you really want to build a new rig then my advice is to hold off another few weeks by which time Intel's new mainstream Coffee Lake should be out. First or second week of October is the rumoured release date. Do not buy the current Intel Kaby Lake like the i5-7600K or the i7-7700k. Wait for the Coffee Lake release.

 

While I am saying wait to early mid October for the new Intel Coffee Lake CPU's your modest budget of GBP 500 favours towards an AMD Ryzen based rig. CPU choice AMD Ryzen 3 1200 GBP 95. Pair this with a AMD B350 (a must if overclocking) board GBP 75. Memory 2 x 8GB kit DDR4 dual channel 2400Mhz GBP 135. For GPU I would recommend a Nvidia GTX1060 3GB card approx. GBP 200. Grand Total GBP 505. (This was based off some searches on UK's Scan website.

 

I found it really hard to get near GBP 500. This also assumes that you will continue to use same case, PSU, and hard drive storage. While the Ryzen 3 1200 CPU isn't a powerhouse you can always upgrade this down the track when you have the budget. It has it's own coller and still can be overclocked decently with the stock cooler. I would however highly recommend stretching your budget for a graphics card with 6GB of memory. With all the new DCS maps having a decent GPU will be critical. I am sorry to say but the GTX1060 3GB version or any card for that matter with only 3GB of video RAM just won't cut it for many current and future titles.

 

Hope my feedback helps to get you started and I am sure many others can add their 2 cents. Good luck. :thumbup:

Edited September 14, 2017 by Konovalov

[BitMaster]

Ryzen6-1600(X) + Board +16GB (+SSD) all fits in those 500 if you dont overdo the board and RAM specs.

 

Leave the SSD out if money gets tight, you can add that anytime later.

 

Then save money for a GPU that fits your monitor.

[Muppett]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I will try overclocking and add RAM first. Then see what Intel release.

[Simicro]

1060Ti from Nvidia

 

Hello,

 

I googled but was not been able to find a 1060Ti, at least on french stores.

 

Maybe it is out of stock.

[Johnny_Rico]

If you dont have an SSD get one will improve load times (250G = £98, 500G = £188 )

 

If your CPU as at stock then get a cheap air cooler eg Arctic Freezer 2 (£25)

and overclock your CPU, should get it up to 4.2 - 4.4Ghz without too much trouble

 

See how you go with those 2 improvements, the SSD can be moved to another system if you upgraded at a later date

 

If you want to upgrade RAM, you will be getting a 2 x 8G kit and selling your old kit (trying to get 2 different kits to play together is a ballache.... even if they are exactly the same make and model)

[Hadwell]

no such thing as a 1060ti, there's only 3gb and 6gb 1060s

 

anyone who says otherwise has never actually looked...

[Simicro]

no such thing as a 1060ti, there's only 3gb and 6gb 1060s

 

I only saw speculation articles about a 1060Ti but to my knowledge it has never been released?

Edited September 17, 2017 by Simicro

[BitMaster]

not yet, neither has it been officially announced till today