New PC Spec Check.

[LooseSeal]

Hey guys,

Just need the confirmation of people who know more than me on these things (not difficult!). I'm about ready for my 4-yearly new PC, and as usual I'll be ordering from PCSpecialist in the UK. Those are what I've currently got chosen below, but wondering how that'll do for DCS (only other concerns are MSFS and Star Citizen) and whether it'll do me comfortably for the next 4 years. I'm not a VR user and won't be for a long time, I imagine, so that's not an issue.

This is pretty much the limit of my budget, which is why I've gone with an AMD card for the first time ever. Nvidia cards just seem so expensive for what you're getting, and 3080s have entirely disappeared from PCSpecialist.

Will also be transferring my current SSD on top of the options there.

So.. any valuable opinions or suggestions for me? 

 

[Beirut]

That's a honking good machine.

 

I wonder, though, if it's worth overpaying for an Nvidia card - like I did   - because DCS seems to prefer Nvidia? 

 

DCS was my only concern for a new card so I went with Nvidia. Otherwise I would have bought an AMD card.

[LooseSeal]

That's what I've been reading - that Nvidia is better with DCS. The 4070 Ti is about £200 more, while the 4080 is waaay too much.

Is the 4070 Ti worth that extra bit?

Glad to hear it's a decent machine though! The CPU/GPU were my main concerns.

[CptBligh]

My 6900xt runs flatscreen brilliantly the few times I've bothered.

[BitMaster]

Why those drives ? 250GB ???

Upgrade that 250GB drive and skip the 2TB hdd.

1x1TB and 1x2TB

or

512GB and 1TB

all nvme

[LooseSeal]

Oh, the HDD is for photos/movies/documents, etc.

So in addition to adding my current 1TB SSD, plus the new 1TB one and the 256GB one. It's more than enough for my gaming needs, really.

[BitMaster]

OK with the HDD if you store cold files.

To the 250GB SSD, a 500er SSD is likely only  5€ more these days, you may want to upgrade that for little money.

You could skip it if you have an "old" 1TB SSD that you carry along. Better save that slot then and may fill it with a drive of decent size once you need it.

[LooseSeal]

Yep! You absolutely have a point there... costs almost nothing to go to 512. Amended that, along with the 4070 Ti.

Just to check finally, is that CPU good enough to last me the next 4 years comfortably enough?

[kksnowbear]

FWIW The Gigabyte board will have it's own ARGB control software, and so will the Corsair RGB RAM.  They will almost certainly not work together - meaning if you want to control both, you will almost certainly wind up running two different software apps, one for each.  Corsair RGB RAM sucks in this respect (and I definitely like Corsair products, with this one exception).

I've done perhaps a dozen RGB machines over the past year or so, and in every case I've used other brands of RGB RAM - which has functioned perfectly *and* allowed me to set up RGB 'sync' using only the motherboard software, be it Asus, MSI or Gigabyte.

The few times I tried using Corsiar (strictly because that's what the client asked for), it has **never** wanted to cooperate with anyone else's software.  Look around online, you'll see.

Now, if you intend to just let all the RGB run at default (meaning it cycles rainbow-style and doesn't sync between the various components), then it won't matter...but when I do them, I intend to have it controlled/sync'd with one utility...and the motherboard is common to all RGB lighting if done properly.

You can control it by pushbutton, but if you do this, the RAM will not be controlled by the button (unless you use add-on heatspreaders with built-in RGB connections that are then wired to your controller...but in that case you wouldn't buy RGB RAM)

Just some input, FWIW.  Some examples of units I've done:

null

Edited May 9, 2023 by kksnowbear

[LooseSeal]

Thank you for the info @kksnowbear much appreciate you taking the time for that. But honestly, the RGB stuff doesn't really interest me all that much (never really 'got it'!) - it's just that PC Specialist only really offer decent RAM that comes with that function.

So if the lights don't work, but the hardware itself does... that's all that matters to me 

[kksnowbear]

Ahh, OK I wasn't sure if it mattered or not...I am also not necessarily into all the lights...but I do it for clients who are

 

PS: Most of it can also be turned off, if you prefer

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by kksnowbear

[BitMaster]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb LooseSeal:

Yep! You absolutely have a point there... costs almost nothing to go to 512. Amended that, along with the 4070 Ti.

Just to check finally, is that CPU good enough to last me the next 4 years comfortably enough?

I would personally take the 7800X3D if that machine is DCS orientated. On the other hand, with MT I don't see a problem with a 7700X either if you stick with that GPU.

Depending on the budget...

[Beirut]

On 5/8/2023 at 5:44 PM, LooseSeal said:

That's what I've been reading - that Nvidia is better with DCS. The 4070 Ti is about £200 more, while the 4080 is waaay too much.

Is the 4070 Ti worth that extra bit?

Glad to hear it's a decent machine though! The CPU/GPU were my main concerns.

 

It's all about the Benjamins.   If you have the cash for the better GPU and CPU, there it is. 

 

I tend to fly small missions and do a lot of sightseeing, so the 4070 is just fine for me. But if you're MP or running big missions, and you have the cash, I think you'll get a good 20% more with the 4070ti and maybe that 20% makes the difference. I went with the 4070 because it fit the budget and runs pretty cool with one 8-pin connection. I have a 65W AMD CPU and the GPU runs around 200W, so I have a nice low power draw and no worries about cooling. And I'm happy to have a medium level rig.

 

[kerlcat]

@LooseSeal Also suggest 7800X3D which is much more favorable to DCS or any simulation type of games v.s. non-3D V cache models. I sold my 7600X after only 6 monthes and upgraded this. It's no breaner to me. 

GPU... nothing is overkilled for DCS which is hungry for every bit of power. So... it's just depending on your budget. Anything better than 3080 should be decent. If not 4080/4090 today, you may wait till next year end for 5080/5090, like me.

SSD: it's so damn cheap today. Envy you building rig today but 6-12 mo ago. Price of SSD droped almost 50%. Believe 2T comes with the best $/M byte today. You may consider 1T (system) + 2T(gaming) + your HDD for cold storage. You don't need 256+1T which way too small. Just look at how big of DCS w/ mods/maps, MSFS2020 with maps/mods. I am now looking at affordable 4T SSD to replace my 2T. 

PSU: 850W is decent today. If you plan to use it for another 4 yrs and ready for 5090 (guess 600W or +), make it 1kW ATX3.0. 

... wow, sorry, you may need to reconsider your budget. hahaha, that's exactly how I ended up with "actual doubled budget". It's your call about how long your new rig planned to be used. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by kerlcat

[LooseSeal]

Thanks guys!

I think I will go for the 7800X3D, but the GPU is a whole other story... I'm completely torn between the 6950XT and the 4070 Ti. Being told on the PCSpecialist forum to choose the former, as I won't be using ray-tracing the 4070 won't give me much extra  but then isn't DCS going to utilise DLSS at some point relatively soon? This is a hard choice! Haha.

[kerlcat]

Yes, DLSS will come next. If so, FSR should not be far away though ED team didn't mention it yet. But why not adding support to AMD. 

And it depends on VR or regular display you often use. Not sure how DLSS or FSR support VR in decent way. 

Maybe the best way is to ask around those 6950XT owners in this forum about their true feedback with DCS experince other than we guessing blindly.