New DCS Rig Advice (non-VR) - casual gamer!

[ILoveRice]

I'm a very casual gamer and don't know much about hardware. I would very much appreciate if someone could kindly glance at the following please as provisional specs for a new built rig. Main use will be photo editing/post-processing but I would very much like to play DCS again (last time I played was v1.5!) 

• Intel® Core™ i5 14-Core Processor i5-14600KF (Up to 5.3GHz) 24MB Cache
• ASUS® TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI (LGA1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
• 64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 5200MHz (2 x 32GB)
• 16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070 Ti SUPER - HDMI, DP, LHR
• CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
• DeepCool AK620 ZERO DARK High-Performance Dual Tower CPU Cooler
• 1 x 120mm PCS Black Case Fan

 

Edited July 27, 2024 by ILoveRice

[TKhaos]

That should be fine for what you want to do, it's meets all the recommended requirements.

Quote

RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 10, 11
Processor: Intel or AMD 4.5Ghz+ with 8+ cores
Memory: 32 GB RAM
Graphics: Discrete AMD or NVIDIA 8GB+
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 500 GB available space

 

[Aapje]

The 13th and 14th Intel CPUs have degradation issues. I would instead get a 12700k or go for an AMD solution. AMD is now the most popular, although with your use case you have a bit of a hard choice. The 7800X3D is the top tier gaming CPU, but is a bit lacking in cores for photo editing/post-processing. The 7950X3D is top tier for both, although quite expensive. A good compromise can be the 7900X3D, which sacrifices a bit of gaming performance, but has 12 cores instead of 8 for the 7800X3D.

I would personally go for the 7900X3D. Note that you will need an AM5 motherboard for it.

Also, you shouldn't get the 5200 memory (note that this is not Mhz, but transfers per second. Since it is Double Data Rate memory, it sends data twice as fast as the speed in Mhz). Instead, get DDR5 6000 memory.

 

 

Edited July 27, 2024 by Aapje

[TKhaos]

I mis-read this, I thought you were asking if your system was okay to run it, now looks like it's actually a new build so will post something I did last week.

Quote

Power Supplies

Personally I would suggest a 1000w PSU, while some 4090’s are fine with 850w the one’s that are factory overclocked require a 1000w supply. Also you need to consider the 12v rail and it’s amperage, also it’s better to get single rail rather than dual or multiple rail.

I would personally recommend a Corsair RM1000x, it’s a fully modular 80+ Gold standard with 83.3 A on the 12v rail.

Alternatively, a little bit more expensive you got the Corsair Hxi 1000w 80+ Platinum ATX 3.0 fully modular PCIE5 power supply.

Both PSU’s come with a 10 year warranty.

Graphics Cards

That’s being said about the 4090’s personally I wouldn’t bother, I have found many of the AMD GPU’s to be better. I used Nvidia for over 25 years but switched to AMD and not looked back. I do extensive research into cards and benchmarking before buying anything. AMD gives more value for money.

Personally I’ve found the RX 7900 XTX to be a good card and it’s literally half the price of the RTX 4090. If you want to go for Nvidia and nothing else I would suggest the RTX 4080, again half the price of the RTX 4090 so around the same as the AMD card.

RTX 4090’s are known to encounter CPU bottlenecks running them at 1440p, even more so at 1080p so would really need to be running 4k.

Don’t believe all you read either, my spare system which I use for work stuff now has a Ryzen 7 5700x in it with a AMD RX 6650 XT and benchmarked faster than a lot of much higher end systems with everything set at factory.

CPU

Personally again, I started with Intel back in the 80’s, switched to AMD late 80’s and wasn’t that impressed so switched back to Intel. I switched back to AMD maybe 10 years ago because Intel change sockets more often than most people change their underwear and I was getting sick of every time I needed or wanted a new CPU I would have to replace the motherboard as well. I had an i5 years ago, only two years old and fried but then socket had already moved up a couple of stages by then so no updated i5 would work in it and it was near impossible to buy the earlier models.

Rarely get that problem with AMD, in fact my new motherboard from a system I build last year supports every Ryzen 5, 7 and 9 there is. You can get some really good deals on AM4 boards at the moment or as it’s a new build you could build an AM5 system, although AM5 CPU’s, AM5 boards and DDR5 memory are a lot more expensive.

The CPU I would highly recommend for a AM4 build would be a AMD 7 7800X3D or AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D, both of which beat the Intel i9-14900K, Intel i7-14700K and Intel i9-13900K in benchmarks.

If you go for a AM5 system one of the best CPU’s is the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X or the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, a lot of the 7 series are faster than the 9 series and cheaper.

If you wanted to go for a 9 series the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D are around the same price but personally I would stick to 7 series.

If you wanted to go the Intel route then Intel i9-14900K and Intel i7-14700K are decent choices but like GPU’s a lot more expensive than the AMD equivalent.

Motherboards

Personal choice really depending on what you want and need, for years Gigabyte was top quality but in recent years there has been quality control issues, the same with Asus boards.

Despite some people not liking them MSI make some decent boards, I’ve been using them for 40ish years and never had a problem with them, the X570 board in my spare system is around 7 years old and still working fine.

If you go for an AM4 build I can highly recommend the MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk board, a lot of the features on it are normally only found on the X570 chipset boards.

For AM5 builds the MSI B650 and MSI X670 boards are good. But like I say it’s personal choice, some people don’t like MSI and will recommend others.

CPU Coolers

Personally I’ve used Corsair, Coolermaster, Antec over the years and never had an issue but my go to cooler these days is Noctua. I actually use the Noctua NH-U12S REDUX cooler, it’s the cheaper version of the NH-U12S but moves twice as much air, plus you can fit a second fan to most of them.

Memory

Again this depends, I’ve never had any issues with G.Skill, Kingston, Crucial or Corsair memory and price will depend on the build, so either be DDR4 or DDR5.

I would recommend at least 32GB of ram, currently DCS on mine uses about 30GB but it’s nice to have that little bit extra if you can stretch to 64GB.

Storage

SSD is a definite requirement. If you are going to SSD I highly recommend the Samsung 870 EVO SSD to use as a base drive for OS and normal use, it’s fast enough to run DCS off as well and you can get sizes up to 8TB.

My recommendation would be something like a Samsung 870 EVO as the main drive then install a Samsung 990 PRO 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe to run DCS off of like I have.

Depending on what board you buy, if it supports PCIe 5.0 Samsung do a 990 EVO although it’s read/write aren’t as fast as the PCIe 4.0 990 PRO.

You could go for something faster if you got Gen 5.0 motherboard such as the Crucial T705 1TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe or even the T700.

Cases

I highly recommend Antec cases, I’ve still got a gaming one from 2007 going strong, that's used for my backup system I currently use a Antec DF700.

 

[Aapje]

Keep in mind that productivity is a major focus of his system, so it should work well for that too.

[ILoveRice]

Thanks all, that is good to know - I will do some more investigating regarding AMD as that seems the best way to go at the moment. 

[AngleOff66]

*IF* you are looking at B650 boards, Hardware unboxed did a lot of testing of boards.  Looks like a number of the ASROCK boards did ok.  There is a lot of testeing, I think most people skip to the conclusion sections.

Look in this link for the different test videos. https://www.youtube.com/@Hardwareunboxed/search?query=b650

I am not sure which boards will work with ddr5 if you are going that route.  Also which boards will support AM5. Amd announced AM5 socket support to 2027 which could save some $ allowing you to get a better faster CPU and use it with the AM5.

 

 

[Aapje]

All AM5 board support DDR5 only. And 6000 speed DDR5 should work with all of them.

[ILoveRice]

How does this sound?

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 500 ARGB
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16 Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.7GHz/144MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B650 AORUS ELITE AX V2 (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
24GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7900 XTX - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100x RGB ELITE HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans
1 x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fan
Sound Card
ASUS STRIX Soar 7.1 PCIe sound card
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

[Aapje]

You can save a lot of money by getting the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE cooler instead.

I personally prefer the non-RGB memory that is very low for use with air cooler, since you have less risk of it not fitting. The non-RGB vengeance is OK, but you can also look at the G.Skill Flare X5 64 GB and G.Skill Ripjaws S5 64 GB kits (look for 30 ns cas latency or better).

And I haven't bought a sound card for a long time, but a dedicated card will have less interference. But is it worth the extra cost and reduced airflow? Your choice

[LucShep]

18 hours ago, ILoveRice said:

How does this sound?

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 500 ARGB
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16 Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.7GHz/144MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B650 AORUS ELITE AX V2 (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
24GB AMD RADEON™ RX 7900 XTX - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100x RGB ELITE HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans
1 x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fan
Sound Card
ASUS STRIX Soar 7.1 PCIe sound card
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

15 hours ago, Aapje said:

You can save a lot of money by getting the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE cooler instead.

I personally prefer the non-RGB memory that is very low for use with air cooler, since you have less risk of it not fitting. The non-RGB vengeance is OK, but you can also look at the G.Skill Flare X5 64 GB and G.Skill Ripjaws S5 64 GB kits (look for 30 ns cas latency or better).

And I haven't bought a sound card for a long time, but a dedicated card will have less interference. But is it worth the extra cost and reduced airflow? Your choice

Yep, agree there ^^ pretty much this.

I'd also re-evalute the real need for an AMD 7950X3D.

The AMD 7800X3D is just as fast for gaming, less problematic, runs cooler, and far more affordable (etc).
While obviously not as capable for photo editing/post-processing, it's not exactly slow.

Edited August 13, 2024 by LucShep

[kksnowbear]

This doesn't exactly strike me as a build that's being put together with budget as a priority.  What I mean is that there's a lot of cost here for fairly high-end stuff, so I am assuming this isn't about doing things economically.

(Yes, I agree) a 7950X is probably money wasted on the "top end" when there's nothing at all "lacking" about a 7800X3D.

Also, while I understand sales and promos can often mean it makes more sense to buy high-end components, I really hate wasting money on cases.  It's basically a steel box.  If it's well ventilated, roomy enough, and (if desired) has a transparent side panel, then it's adequate.  I flatly refuse to pay $100+ to get those few features, and it's absolutely not necessary to do so.  That's more about someone's 'part picker' list trying to upsell than anything else.

Sounds cards are completely unnecessary these days in all but the most exceptionally rare situations (audio engineers, but they don't really use PCs anyway...).

Not a fan of Corsair RGB RAM (or anything else) because they want to force you into using their RGB bloatware, which (of course) doesn't play nicely with others' (including motherboards and GPUs).  If you really desire RGB (a matter of preference) then there are much better ways to go.

I also agree that air cooling is adequate and can be less expensive.  That said, I use liquid cooling myself and there's nothing wrong with it, necessarily - it works better for cooling of course, though it is true to say it's not as reliable over time as air.  I'm not a huge fan (no pun intended) of 'tower' air coolers for one simple reason: The airflow is parallel to the motherboard, meaning there's no cooling effect on critical motherboard components by residual airflow off the CPU cooler.  Perhaps the only thing both Intel and AMD got right in stock cooler designs is that the fan being "flat" on the heatsink, blowing air perpendicular to the board, also directs airflow at VRMs and RAM.  Tower coolers, by design, cannot do this.  So if you use a tower cooler, then it's all the more crucial to make sure you have adequate airflow directed at those components *and* not obstructed by other parts.

Edited August 13, 2024 by kksnowbear