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Posted

Hi all, I am trying to get together all the components to build a PC for best VR perforamance in DCS. The PC will not be used for any other purpose and the cost is not an issue.

So far I have HP G2 a 12900k and an ASUS 3090 gpu and thats it.

I have been trawling the net for weeks looking at reviews of ram motherboards ssd excetra and its driving me mad. every time I think I have found what I need I find another review thats says the opposite🤪 There are so many conflicting opinions on whats best I thought if anyone can help it would be on here.

If anyone could point me in the right direction Like ram DDR4 or DDR5 is it worth waiing for DDR5? which make and speed? which SSD? which motherboard? which PSU?

This will be my first attempt at a pc build and I have little experience so any help would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance

Posted

You got the most expensive components already, what's left to buy should match your overall goal. 

Let's start with easy decisions, drives: It should be NVMe, PCIe v4 and at least 1TB for the "Games" drive and if money is not an issue I would get 2 NVMe drives, 1x OS & 1x DCS.

My pick was always Samsung and with my new rig I again went with Samsung. The 980Pro 1TB is for sure no bad choice, overall a very competitive drive with no surprises. I would buy 2 of them again. 

Next was PSU: Keep it simple, buy a Sesonic Prime PX or TX 1kW. With new GPUs likely to surpass 4-500w peak power draw ( which isn't actually a new thing ) you should have enough juice for years to come with 1kW. A 850w should be fine too for now but will have limited reserves down the road. Estimnate 300w minimum for the 3090 while gaming +50-80w for the CPU plus all the rest of the rig... you land somewhere around 450ish watts...about half of a 850-1kW PSU. PSUs run most efficient around 50% load, so aim for that as your max load over time. Seasonix Prime PX1000 ( Platinum ) or if you really want the best, get the TX1000 with Titanium Efficiency.  12 year warranty, ultra quiet in normal use, 0dB - no fan till ~40°C. 

The Board...ohh...with the board you also decide between DDR4 and DDR5. Tbh honest, now that you went that way, do it all the way and try to get a decent kit of 32GB DDR5-6xxx, the fastest with the lowest latency you can get and pay for, that's the expensive truth with 12th's gen. For the board, I would either get Asus Hero or Gigabyte Master. The Asus may have the better Software and Sound but they are at the very top end of the ladder. Either one is fine I guess. DDR4 is afaik only available from low-mid range boards and all mid-highend boards come with DDR5. I assume you do not want to pair the 3090 & 12900k with a mid-low tier motherboard and.

If you can afford AND find it, a 64GB kit is more future proof. DCS can tab into the 30GB range already and it has been said that Vulkan will benefit from 64GB capacity. Since it is hard to add more RAM later on, buying it right away is usually better but in the current situation it may not be possible to find 64GB, fast & low latency for an acceptable price. I went 64GB and don't regret it but mine was only 400€, yours may well be double that. So 32GB is still a fair decision, for SP I guess anyway.

Cooling....Socket 1700 has it's issues with large air coolers I would not air cool that thing but get a large AIO or even build a Loop myself and also include the GPU if you can get a block for it. Watercooling the GPU makes a lot of sense. It's the hottest, loudest and most critical part in your rig when it comes to temp limits and throttling. My card hardly ever runs over 50°C under foll load and 0dB. It's a long road to a proper Loop but does pay back. If not a loop, at least get a 240 or larger AIO for the CPU and a case that accepts the radiator.

Take your time

 

 

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Posted

HI Ged,

I cant add much to what Bitmaster has said there, solid advice. All I can really add to that is some brand I know for sure are solid and reliable. Just in case you have trouble finding components in stock and delays get too long.

The power supply, do what Bitmaster says. you could also consider The Super Flower Leadex Titanium range is very reliable. The PSU is not something you want to spend less on put it that way. 

The SSD, yeah just make sure its Pciex4.0 Gen 4, I have a Sabrent Rocket and its brilliant. Samsungs are one of the best and WD are good too. My install of DCS is 285gb but they get bigger the more modules you have. I have all the terrains except the Channel. I have most of the jets but very little WW2 stuff.

The motherboard, you can consider MSI. I have fitted about six in a row over the last two years for friends. Both Intel and AMD not had a problem so far. The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon Wifi would be my choice. Looks good, plenty of options for expanse and plenty of USB's 

The DDR memory, at this point I would wait a reasonable amount of time and go DDR5. I cant see what speed and latencies will be available but from what I can see it would be a kit 5000mhz or above with a latency of probably C38 or below. I would buy 64gb of it too. This will be the most difficult to find right now.

As for cooling, if I had the money I would go custom water all around. However the Asus 3090 is fine as it is. I would want a 240 but better a 360 AIO cpu cooler. I would get a case that can hold a 360 AIO that has proper airflow. Its a personal choice, I would look at Corsair, Lian Li or Silverstone for the case. Something that could hole a 360 AIO at the top so the heat escapes up.

Best of luck, like the man before me said take your time. Hope it all fits into place on what sounds like an epic build there. 

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Posted

Quick Q: 240 or 360 AIO, what are these numbers referring to?

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Posted

AIO is short for All In One liquid cooler, the 240 and 360 refer to the size in millimeters of the radiator used to dump the heat from the loop. A 240 radiator will use two 120mm fans, a 360 one will use three 120mm fans, a 280 will use two 140mm ones etc. A larger radiator will be able to remove more heat from the water.

Posted

and I want to add, there are also external radiators, which means less tubing and no pump or reservoir inside the case unless you want to.

Considering the cost per 120mm² rad space the external radiator wins as well. Imho the best one right now, tho not cheap if done right, is the MoRa3-420 (9x140mm or 4x 200mm )with 4x200mm Noctua fans for cooling. That is even larger than my MoRa3-360 ( 9x120mm or 4x180mm ) and with Noctua you get super silent fans that push a lot of air combined. Coupled with a Heatkiller CPU & GPU block and a D5/Heatkiller Pump/Res combo you can game full tilt at 18-20dB and the fans at 275-350 rpm... that is real nice, believe me.

AIO is great to get the CPU cooler than with air usually but don't think those are quiet. Once you push the CPU the fans spin up... The smaller the radiator the louder it all gets, it's a rat's tail from there on, if the rad is too small for the heat load the fans need spin up higher and at 2000rpm any fan is loud, even Noctua.

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Posted

Thank you very much my shopping list is coming along nicely now I think I will go with Samsung 980Pro 1TB drives, PX1000 PSU ,Hero Motherboard, still not sure on the cooler yet.

The only thing that could throw a spanner in the works is getting hold of the DDR5 ram.

Just out of curiosity what is your opinions on the Vario aero? I hear it does not support motion reprojection and my experience so far is that DCS and the G2 do not work well without it.

Posted

I cant answer VR questions but I want to emphasize again the incompatibility of the Asus Hero Z690 with many big air coolers. YOu should only think AIO or DIY-Loop and cancel any AIR idea for this specific setup.

Asus has nice some AIO as well, so it would match with Asus Aura RGB etc..,

Anyway, most AIO are made by 1 company and rebranded to Asus, Corsair, beQuiet, NZXT, etc etc etc.   The real name is "Asetek", they make those AIO's.

Get a nice tower that can fit a "280" AIO ( 2x140mm ) or bigger ( 3x 120mm "360" or even 3x 140mm "420" ), the bigger the cooler and quieter it gets.

Most towers accept at least 280, some do 360 and the 420 is usually only found with full size towers ( 6x CD slot size ).

I like Phanteks cases, Evolv-X is what I currently use, very sturdy, solid Aluminium mostly but others have nice towers too, just check the AIO sizes and maybe read a review or two about it.

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Posted

Yeah, again i'm with Bitmaster on this. Large air coolers do work and they have the advantage of being very simple. You will hear the argument that the only thing that can break is the fan.

However, the big ones are mostly a pain to fit and can put strain on the motherboard. To any critics I am aware that they come with support brackets for the back of the motherboard. They still put strain on the motherboard and this build is going to have a very expensive mobo. Ged, please mate from experience just buy an AIO. Like Bitmaster said it really doesn't matter which as they are all based on a design by Asetek! Buy one that matches your motherboard or the one with fancy lights, it doesn't matter. Just buy a 240mm one minimum.

I like MSI, so would get a MSI motherboard and matching cooler probably. The advantage being I know I can run the fan profiles through the bios and not have to have another piece of software running in Windows. It a personal choice, having too much third party software personally annoys me. Bitmaster seems to prefer Asus, so would buy an Asus cooler. Some people like Corsair and like having the fancy software to control the cooler. It doesn't matter. What does matter is when it comes to the point you might have to change some dram or take your gpu out to dust the fans. That day I promise you will wish you bought a 240/360 AIO. With that cpu I would get any 360 AIO with a case that can have it fitted at the top.

Its a tiny thing but I would work out something to hold up the heavy un-supported end of that 3090 GPU, prevent any sag. YOu can fabricate something yourself or buy a stand, again doesn't matter.

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Posted

Thanks again. 

Now you have got me going again ASUS or MSI🤪  The 360 AIO sounds good to me nice and simple. like you have said the 3090 can take care of its self and I do not think I would be confident putting together the DIY loop setup just yet. the idea to support the GPU is good I will do that... so is it ok to fit the AIO in the case it just looks like there will be a lot of fans all fighting each other for air? 

 

Posted

Hi Ged,

Ideally it would help more if you told me which case. However In my case I have 3x fans pushing from the front to the back. Then I have one single exhaust on the rear. Then I have my AIO up top with the air pushing up. So Cold air comes in the front, then splits in two. It either gets taken through the rad and out the top. Or gets pulled across the motherboard and components and out the back. The front fans on mine are 140mm so they push a little more air in than the exhaust and AIO take out. 

You basically want the fans to work together as one unit moving the air in the same direction through the case and across your components. A general rule, In through the front/bottom. Out of the back/top. This helps prevent dust too. Do a web search on case air flow or check out Youtube, plenty of guides.

As for Asus or MSI. I had Asus for about 7 years in a row, every upgrade. Then the shop I use had none in stock when I wanted a Z390 in 2019 so I tried MSI. I have used MSI since. The brand does not matter that much, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte or EVGA. Look for the number of USB ports that suit you and the expansion slots too. 

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Posted
6 hours ago, Bossco82 said:

Buy one that matches your motherboard or the one with fancy lights, it doesn't matter. Just buy a 240mm one minimum.

There are quite a few out there made from aluminium and i would at least recommend one with a radiator (and cooler block) made from copper, as copper transfers heat much better than aluminium. Also aluminium is very "critical" when using liquid metal (gallium) instead of conventional thermal paste. Well, critical may not be the correct term as gallium completely destroys coolers made from aluminium. Propably unimportant for the TO as i wouldn't recommend gallium for unexperienced users, but you know... just sayin'...

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Posted (edited)

I also agree with BitMaster above, in the recommendation for a 280mm or 360mm AIO (depending on case/tower) that is LGA1700 compatible.
 

On 11/15/2021 at 12:16 AM, Ged33 said:

Thank you very much my shopping list is coming along nicely now I think I will go with Samsung 980Pro 1TB drives, PX1000 PSU ,Hero Motherboard, still not sure on the cooler yet.

The only thing that could throw a spanner in the works is getting hold of the DDR5 ram.
 

I'm going to disagree with others here...

Consensus is that, for gaming (and you mention it's for DCS only), DDR5 and respective motherboards are not worth the very hefty price (nearly double the cost) when the average performance difference in gaming is about 3% (yes, three percent) only, versus DDR4 and respective motherboards.
That ludicrous difference in gaming (that you can not notice) also becomes diluted the higher the resolution you go, be it 2D screen or VR (becomes GPU resources dependant then), so it makes even less sense to go for it. 
Plus, and the straw that breaks the camel's back, you will be waiting for that DDR5 RAM, on and on, and on... who knows for how long.
 
I know you got the ASUS Z690 HERO already but, IMO, I'd consider the idea of returning it and instead get a Z690 DDR4 motherboard and DDR4 RAM.

For example, the ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 or the MSI Z690 EDGE WIFI DDR4 are great Z690 DDR4 motherboards to pair with an i9 12900K, and are available.
As for the RAM, a good kit of 64GB low latency DDR4, such as 3200 CL14 or 3600 CL16 (Gskill Trident Z, for example) is also readily available.

Don't let the "current tech vs brand new tech" POV sway you from it, it'll still be the latest word in modern systems (also taking advantage of Win11), which will last, and to be supported, years from now. FWIW, Intel will keep supporting DDR4 even on next years Z790 generation of motherboards, so it's not like DDR4 became old news or outdated.
 

Edited by LucShep
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Posted

Hi Ged,

Lucshep has a very good point here. DDR4 is available now, with the right motherboard it will work just fine with a 12900k.

I maybe should have included it as an option for you to consider. I just didn't want to offer advice that "might" limit you down the line. Everything is pointing towards DDR5 being the next upgrade step.

If you went DDR4, then wanted DDR5 later on. It would be an involved job. Involving a complete dismantle,  motherboard swap then a possible re-install of Windows due to it requiring re-activation. 

It's up to you Ged, DDR5 and Win 11 are new, so there are unknowns. DDR4 and Win 10 is tried and tested. Plus will work on Win 11.

I also have no experience of how VR impacts CPU/DDR performance.

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Posted

Tbh, if you can give that DDR5-Board back, DO IT !

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Posted

Ged, can you let us know what you have actually bought and have now at home?

There is so much hardware being released at the moment, then when you consider the impact of the chip shortages. I missed the MSI mobo LucShep suggested completely. So much so if it was me I would be tempted by that and a 12600k.

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Posted

mmm more thinking to do. All I have actually brought so far is the 3090 and 12900K so Im still free to choose a motherboard. after what has been said maybe DDR4 would be a better way to go and every thing is available now.  so the revised shopping list would be MSI Z690 EDGE WIFI DDR4,  Samsung 980Pro 1TB drives, PX1000 PSU , 360 AIO cooler all in copper if possible and 64GB DDR4 ram,  I have seen ram at 4000mhz and above should I get that or is 3200 just as good in DCS?

Posted

HI Ged,

I'm sorry I jumped to advising DDR5. Not knowing your PC building experience etc. I just went to suggesting what will be the next step. I already own some G.Skill DDR4, 32gb 3200Mhz C14, I have 4x8gb sticks. So if I wanted an Alder Lake CPU, I would buy a DDR4 mobo and use this G.Skill kit in it, because its a really good kit. Also, I dont thing DDR4 will cause a performance loss in DCS vs DDR5. Why do I think this, even if I hook up a 1440p monitor to my AMD 6800xt. My GPU will reach its limit before my 5600x with my DDR4 does. 

This is the thing, if I had an older but working PC to play DCS on. Plus, I intended to start a new system from scratch. I would wait for DDR5.

When I look at my own system and owning one of the best DDR4 kits. I would put this memory in an new Intel Alder Lake system.

If I had no system and I was starting from scratch..... That would be how much do I want to play DCS before Xmas on whether I went DDR4 or DDR5

See what Bitmaster or LucShep think. G.Skill make some of the best DDR4 kits with the lowest latency but I have no idea how important this is when considering its for Alder Lake. I'm presuming similar rules still apply. So I would "personally" go for a DDR4 kit that is 3200 C14 or 3600 C16 the advantage being its available now.

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Posted
30 minutes ago, Ged33 said:

mmm more thinking to do. All I have actually brought so far is the 3090 and 12900K so Im still free to choose a motherboard. after what has been said maybe DDR4 would be a better way to go and every thing is available now.  so the revised shopping list would be MSI Z690 EDGE WIFI DDR4,  Samsung 980Pro 1TB drives, PX1000 PSU , 360 AIO cooler all in copper if possible and 64GB DDR4 ram,  I have seen ram at 4000mhz and above should I get that or is 3200 just as good in DCS?

Two things matters more than RAM frequencies: The latency and the number of ranks per sticks, this is because of the CPU controllers limitations, reason for both Intel and AMD giving the recommanded frequency at 3200MHz, they assume that players don't spend the extra premium on B.Die kits and so their RAM can't provide the CPU with the right timings.

When it comes to latency, at the moment the Cl14 kits are B.Die, this allows for much tighter timings, they also are mostly 1 rank per stick which mean that one can fit 4 X sticks and still stay within the controller's limit of 4 maximum, passed that it will throttle down under load so the gain made by higher frequencies is wasted.

In short if you spend the money on 64GB of Cl16 non-B.die RAM you will keep the RAM bottleneck and your CPU will throttle down under load, while it won't happen to Bossco82 or myself because we use B.Die kits, the lower frequency matters a lot less than the latency, and ability of the CPU to work to its full potential under load, which is what matters the most in a game such as DCS which is load heavy.

As a thumb rule you shouldn't fit more than 4 ranks (2 X 2 per sticks or 4 X 1 ranks) on your motherboard and the rest is your own choice, you might want to chose the option of a larger capacity with 64Gb but I don't think it is necessary if your O.S and paging files are sorted and your game installed in a different disk than Windows, then higher frequencies without B.Die will retain the RAM bottleneck that a B.Die kit removes, it is unlikely that you will find any gain in performance with 3600MHz Cl 16 compared to 3200MHz Cl4.

 

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Posted

Its not that I thought DDR4 would cause a performance loss I just thought DDR5 would be better if you know what I mean🙃

I sort of understand what you are saying about the ram I had a quick look on line and found G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB (4x 8GB) 3600MHz CL14 DDR4 It does not say what rank it is though?  is this what I should get?

Posted (edited)
37 minutes ago, Ged33 said:

Its not that I thought DDR4 would cause a performance loss I just thought DDR5 would be better if you know what I mean🙃

I sort of understand what you are saying about the ram I had a quick look on line and found G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB (4x 8GB) 3600MHz CL14 DDR4 It does not say what rank it is though?  is this what I should get?

It's 1 rank, if it wasn't I wouldn't have seen an increase of 6.04% in CPU speed compared to my Cl16 kit, 4 X 2 ranks is too much for the CPU controller to deal with.

Sure DDR 5 will be faster but then again, you'll have to build your whole system around it, motherboard and CPU included and make sure the RAM is a proper bound for it.

Here is what MSI support told me about it.

ranks.jpg

Note that the last gen of Ryzen make better use of low latency, for Intel, this sort of B.die kits are mostly used to O.C them, so you might have different options in the market than those Cl14/3200MHz, the Intels are more high frequency biased so there are popular RAM kits out there that respond to those who want this, like the G.Skill Trident Z Royal Elite or Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro.

But as I said, look at the number of ranks per sticks, if you get a 2 X 16GB kit, 2 ranks per stick is still OK, see below the article published by Intel on the subject and you can use the B.Die finder to figure which kit is best suited for your CPU.

Intel: How to Overclock RAM

B-Die Finder

Edited by Thinder

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Posted

Hi Ged, thats single rank DDR4 similar kit to mine except its 3600Mhz mine is 3200Mhz. Thats a Samsung B Die kit and I dont know how important that is for your build. It was important for mine because I am on AMD.

Hi Thinder, I get what your saying mate. Isn't all that only applicable to AMD 5000 series on the X570 chipset regarding the memory controller? Genuine question mate as I dont know the answer.

How does all that apply to Alder Lake, this is for Z690 after all?

Ged I honestly dont know which specific DDR4 kit would be best for your 12900k. I know G.Skill is some of the best DDR4 you can buy. I've got an educated guess that 3600Mhz is more than enough for DCS. For your 12900k I dont see it being dual or single rank causing a problem. I dont see having C14 being needed either, its nice to have but... is it worth the extra cost?

Ged you plan on using VR and I DONT know how that effects how much Dram you need. Also I only play single player, if you want to play multiplayer you might need 64gb. I DONT know the answers to these questions. Get an answer from someone who does before you click the buy button. 

Posted (edited)
44 minutes ago, Bossco82 said:

Hi Ged, thats single rank DDR4 similar kit to mine except its 3600Mhz mine is 3200Mhz. Thats a Samsung B Die kit and I dont know how important that is for your build. It was important for mine because I am on AMD.

Hi Thinder, I get what your saying mate. Isn't all that only applicable to AMD 5000 series on the X570 chipset regarding the memory controller? Genuine question mate as I dont know the answer.

How does all that apply to Alder Lake, this is for Z690 after all?

Ged I honestly dont know which specific DDR4 kit would be best for your 12900k. I know G.Skill is some of the best DDR4 you can buy. I've got an educated guess that 3600Mhz is more than enough for DCS. For your 12900k I dont see it being dual or single rank causing a problem. I dont see having C14 being needed either, its nice to have but... is it worth the extra cost?

Ged you plan on using VR and I DONT know how that effects how much Dram you need. Also I only play single player, if you want to play multiplayer you might need 64gb. I DONT know the answers to these questions. Get an answer from someone who does before you click the buy button. 

When I contacted MSI support I gave them my full built specs including the Ryzen 5 5600X, so their reply involve this generation of CPU, from my own researches on the subject, the controller are similar between the 3600X and 5600X, but I only got one source to validate this so it could be inacurate.

Zen2

Zen2.jpg

Zen3

Zen3.jpg

Looking at the recommanded RAM frequency for the 12900k, it is possible that the controller can deal with more than 4 ranks but I wouldn't bet on it, because once you commit to a kit, if this problem occurs, it's too late and you'll have to changeit. Best to contact Intel support to make sure.

As for low latency, I'm a strong advocate of lower latency, it's simply faster for the same frequency and allows your CPU to cope with higher load, because most of the time those kits come with B.Die chips.

I didn't know which CPU he uses and since it is a recent model, I haven't really researched the subject I must admit but I'm sure there are RAM kits designed for those CPU with the two solutions in mind: Fast/Gaming or cheap/all-purpose solutions.You and I chose Fast/Gaming I believe for the same reason with playing DCS in view, I run all my tests at 4K 2 X MSAA.

At the end of the day, there are so many combination possible it is really up to him not only to do his home work (asking in an Intel forum would be a good idea too), but also to chose according to his budget, his CPU is really fast, he might not need a B.Die/Cl14 kit to squeeze the most of it like we did, or he might chose to do it, in which case he can chose from the number of RAM kits suited to his CPU.

About VR, at higher resolutions the GPU will do more work than the CPU, reason why I run my tests at 4K 2 X MSAA, and there the RAM work just as well since the channels aren't limited by the CPU controllers, with my 1080Ti I gained 1.33% in CPU performances during the same test, so it works when it comes to bottlenecks...

The most important from my PoV is good bounding between all 3, making sure there is no bottlenecks especially RAM because it does affect both CPU and GPU through the CPU controller.

I just realized that what they were calling OverClocking this G.skill kit with the old generation of CPU was taking them to 3200GHz, when you think that I (and probably you as well) didn't need to do anything apart for enabling XMP in BIOS to get them to this speed, it says a lot on the role taken by the controllers.

 

Edited by Thinder

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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Ged33 said:

 im more confused now than when I started 🙁

OK, so you've chosen a DDR4 Motherboard. 🙂 Hope this can make some sense to help you choose the RAM kit for it...

For gaming (DCS or anything else), the speed of RAM is important up to a point.
Latency is just as important, if not more. And, of course, capacity. 

Starting with the capacity (think of it as the total ammount of memory).
You'll definitely want 64GB for the purpose and kind of system you're building.
Noone building a high-end system today for DCS should fool him/her self thinking that 32GB is enough because it really isn't anymore. This freakish sim/game gets hungrier each new release, it devours every available resources and, given the chance, it'll now chew over 40GB of RAM when in Multiplayer at populated servers. 

Next, the latency (think of it as the response time of memory). 
This can be even more important than speed for a very intensive sim/game like DCS, so ideally you'll want RAM at the lowest latency possible (but at 3200Mhz speed or higher).
The best you may find is 4000mhz CL14 (Gskill Trident-Z Royal Elite) but finding a 64GB kit of this is pretty much impossible and it's stupid expensive, not worth the cost for the little performance gains over other premium kits. 

So, look for the next best thing, the DDR4 premium kits (Samsung B-die) with speed and latency of 3200Mhz CL14 (14-14-14-36) or 3600Mhz CL16 (16-16-16-36). 
These are specific to Samsung B-Die modules (the best in stock form that you can purchase), and there isn't any really noticeable difference between these, so what is readily available and least expensive (and aesthetics?) should dictate your choice.
FWIW, the Gskill Trident-Z kits with these timings are among (if not the) best of Samsung B-die DDR4 RAM.


So, and to resume this to a minimum..... a few examples (😛 pick your poison): 

DDR4 64GB 3200Mhz CL14:

DDR4 64GB 3600Mhz CL16:

 

Edited by LucShep

CGTC - Caucasus retexture  |  A-10A cockpit retexture  |  Shadows Reduced Impact  |  DCS 2.5.6 - a lighter alternative 

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Spoiler

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