Best of the box computer for 2.7

[Mjm8710]

Sorry in advance if this has already been beaten down. When it comes to computers I don’t know much, so I’m NOT looking to build. 
 

My laptop (HP Envy Pro I bought in 2018) will only run 2.5.6 on medium and low settings..I have a ton of mods installed which work but am unable to run most of the maps due to my hardware and have to play missions that are very low scale)...If I go to say, Best Buy or somewhere similar, what is the best PC I can buy out of the box that will run 2.7 on high settings. Money isn’t really an issue...been saving up for years to make a jump to a better rig. Anyone have any insight when it comes to a decent computer I can buy out of the box? Looking to max out settings or at least pretty close. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance. 
 

Side note, it’s not just the graphics-I’m getting bored playing small scale missions and want to really challenge myself at this point. Possibly get into VR down the road doing larger scale missions. 
 

cheers

[SharpeXB]

What you really should get, instead of a “retail” PC is a “gaming rig”. You can get these pre-built so you don’t have to build it by yourself. Especially if “Money isn’t really an issue”

A few that come to mind are:

Velocity Micro

Maingear

Digital Storm

For DCS you want to be sure to get a CPU with good single core performance, from the top of this list

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

 

[Svsmokey]

My 11 year-old grandson , with no prior pc experience ,  just built his first computer . That's how hard it is .

Prebuilts always chintz out on components because power supplies and motherboards are not as "sellable" as video cards and cpu 's , so they save a few bucks there and compromise the build in the process .

System integrators , such as Sharpe listed above , allow you to select your own components , which they then assemble . The thing is , it is speccing the components that is the most difficult part of building your own pc , not the assembly .

Meaning no disrespect , i'm not sure you are a candidate for DCS VR , as that is not the "plug and play" experience you seem to be seeking . Dcs VR requires something of a commitment to learning pc tweaking , overclocking , etc . And DCS VR is particularly problematic with the "large-scale missions" you mention . 

So your best bet might be to first decide what monitor resolution and size you wish to run , so we can offer good advice regarding your gpu requirement for a system integrator . 1440p widescreens are popular in DCS , as they are a good compromise between spotting and eye-candy .

Sharpe's link will cover the cpu .

[draconus]

10 hours ago, Mjm8710 said:

Side note, it’s not just the graphics-I’m getting bored playing small scale missions and want to really challenge myself at this point. Possibly get into VR down the road doing larger scale missions.

You might want to manage your expectations. You can easily build a mission that no current PC CPU will handle. You can easily go with max gfx settings and no current GPU will handle that in VR. There is always a compromise but if money is not a problem, just go with best: Intel 12 series + nVidia 3090/Ti + 64GB + M2 NVMe drive.

[tempusmurphy]

1 hour ago, draconus said:

You might want to manage your expectations. You can easily build a mission that no current PC CPU will handle. You can easily go with max gfx settings and no current GPU will handle that in VR. There is always a compromise but if money is not a problem, just go with best: Intel 12 series + nVidia 3090/Ti + 64GB + M2 NVMe drive.

and a small nuclear reactor to power it 

[Dragon1-1]

3 hours ago, draconus said:

You can easily build a mission that no current PC CPU will handle.

I'll add that it's actually very easy. DCS only uses a single core for everything except sound, so even a workstation-quality threadripper won't do much for you. Single thread performance is what matters at the moment, but getting more than 6GHz from a single chip is hard even with water cooling, and even that more or less depends on you lucking out on an individual chip that could handle the frequencies. LN2 installations had reached something like 8.4GHz, which would be great, but it's not a practical cooling solution. On top of that, those speeds were achieved on older generation AMD CPUs, which were otherwise rather crappy (there's a good reason for that, newer generations have more tightly packed chips, making them less suitable for setting overclocking records).

My rig is a pretty average (for a simmer) setup with a 1080Ti and a i7 4770K CPU. I fly with a Reverb G2, using the OpenComposite mod, and it's fine in singleplayer with limited numbers of AIs. What's holding back DCS is its own crappy code, not our hardware, and VR particularly is held back by bugs in SteamVR on top of that. If ED add native WMR support at some point, and if they do multicore and Vulkan right, it'll be a whole other world.

[BitMaster]

It depends where you live ?

USA, Europe, Asia, Australia...

[DeltaMike]

Even among those of us who prefer to build our own, pre-builds have been attractive lately as it may be the only way to get your hands on a decent GPU.  I was *this close* to buying a Thermaltake Reactor 3080 rig, it could use more RAM but otherwise is a fine rig for DCS.  Look at the 3080 if you're interested in VR, the 3070 should be more than enough for flat screen 

Price is about right, I couldn't build it for what they are asking

Cool thing about sporting an AMD CPU and NVIDIA GPU is, you don't technically have to tune it.  Should work fine for DCS right out of the box. 

That case doesn't work for the space I've allocated but it's a cool case anyway.  Seems like it should be able to make you a nice pot of coffee, no?

[Burt]

You said you want maxed out settings or close too and future VR also big missions/ multiplayer. Moneys not an issue so I’m guessing you want to invest and not just buy. I would go with a 3090 / 24gb of vram on that card and it proven to deliver the maxed out setting your interested in. My Vr setting are just about equal to my 2d setting when I use to play on a 34” ultrawide 120hz. Also highly recommend 64gb of gaming Ram. I bought a prebuilt for VR/G2 last because it was impossible to get a 3090 and was not interested in any other gpu period. It’s still hard to get that card today no matter prebuilt or not. You have to commit more to VR with your investment not as much as you would with playing 1440p monitor and Headtracking. 
I’m sorry but a 3070 - 3080 and VR with your wish to max out setting will be slim.

But there is OpenXR and so many other mods that helps systems that are struggling. I’m mod free and my VR image and performance is close to a 2d image/perf… good enough for me.

Edited April 14, 2022 by Burt