PC Hardware Idiot Wants To Play - Please Help!

Hello!

Decades ago I was an internet fighter pilot. That seems so strange to write, I have gotten old and the internet has grown up. I played Airwarrior on AOL and then the Warbirds beta back in 1995 and was very active in Warbirds through 2001 or so but after that life got busy and I did not play any flight sims or online games. But being a history freak and lifelong WWII aviation nut when I saw info about the oculus rift it peaked my interest in the state of WWII online slight sims. This of course lead to DCS.

So I want to fly again. I am starting from absolute scratch. I have no experience with PC hardware and all of the different names, numbers, model references and such are nothing but gobbledly goop to me. Do I need a quadruple lindy Nvidia Gflop Terra-X double stroke 90XM videa card with 16QGB of modulus K490 RAM? How would I know?

So rather than spend weeks reading and learning all about how a 2015 gaming PC works and all that I need... I figured it would be much faster and simpler to ask those who may already know and be willing to help.

I want to play DCS and other high end flight simulators. I also want to play high end online racing games. I want to be able to run the graphics at the highest possible settings (or as close as I can afford to get) and I want to play on a 65" 4K UHD 120hz flat panel TV. I want the PC I buy to be fully able to drive the oculus rift for best performance when it comes out.

I would like to spend $1500 or less. I might spend up to $2,000 if the extra money made a huge difference in game immersion...

I tried to spec out a machine on the ibuypower.com site but have no clue whether what I put together is viable or not.

With Cyber monday deals tomorrow and wanting to receive the machine before Christmas I am hoping to order tomorrow. Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated.

Well, what you ask for performance wise is quite a lot. 4K at 120Hz eats quite a lot of power. You would at least need a quad core (Intel's the deal) with approx. 4+ GHz/core, 16 Gigs of RAM plus a GTX 980Ti. I don't know if your budget's gonna hold. An SSD with at least 256GB for both your operating system an DCS also comes in handy.

Despite the upcoming deals I'd probably not rush things and rather pay a few bucks more a week from now than having to rebuild the whole thing in half a year because it doesn't hold up to your expectations.

Since you said you know very little of PCs, let's break down the basic components first.

CPU (Central Processing Unit): The heart of the PC. A week or slow CPU will take the fun out of everything. Nowadays, a single CPU has several cores (in earlier days, one would have had to put two or more CPUs into a single computer to achieve true parallel processing), and basically each core can perform calculations on its own. However, it's not always true that more cores equal better performance. Especially with DCS, it is more or less limited to two cores right now, so if your CPU has 4 cores, that's plenty.

Rule of thumb: the faster the CPU (measured in Megahertz or MHz), the better.

RAM (Random Access Memory, or just Memory): Used to temporarily store all kinds of data. Slow RAM can also be a terrible bottleneck and slow everything down. Unfortunately, RAM speed is not only governed by its clock rate (measured in MHz) but by other factors. Unless you intend to dive deep into the topic, you should follow recommendations on what brand and what specific RAM modules work best with your chosen CPU.

The absolute lowest amount of RAM one should get these days is 8 GB, but I would definitely aim at 16 GB right now. If money was totally not an issue, you could get 32 GB, but I don't see the need for that right now.

Mainboard (aka Motherboard): The backbone of the PC, the thing that everything else connects to. Shitty MBs bring all kinds of problems, while good MBs will last a long time and not cause issues. Rule of thumb: never try to save money on the MB, you'll regret it. Then again, no need to get overpriced platinum gold plated ultra-whatever stuff. Once again, there are lots of recommendations around.

Graphics card (Graphics Processing Unit, GPU): The true heart of a gaming PC. :)

Only two manufacturers worth considerung, ATI and nVidia. As far as I know, ATI doesn't work too well with DCS.

With nVidia, Geforce GTX 970 is the bread-and-butter card right now, and GTX 980 (or even more powerful: 980ti) is high-end. I think the higher performance of the GTX 980 doesn't justify the additional cost (at least for me), but for 4K resolution and games other than DCS, 980 might be the best way to go (although I definitely know people who play DCS in 4K with GTX 970, pretty much every setting maxed, and they're fine with the performance).

In any case, make sure that your monitor and graphics card have a common connector (DVI, HDMI, Display Port).

Hard disk (hard drive): Solid State Drives (SSD) are the way to go nowadays. They are much faster than older Hard Disk Drives (HDD). Unfortunately, they're also much more expansive per Gigabyte. A very common setup is to use an SSD for Windows and some select applications (like DCS) plus an additional HDD for all other stuff.

Currently, I wouldn't get an SSD with less than 256 GB, and aim for 512 GB (unless money was not an issue; in that case I might go for 1 TB and maybe even omit the HDD altogether).

Power Supply Unit (PSU): Never ever save money on the PSU, you'll regret it. Get a decent one with a good energy efficiency rating. These ratings are typically called "80+" and then Bronze or Gold or Platinum. I'd aim for Gold.

Depending on the maximum power consumption of all your devices, make sure that the PSU's power rating is well above the combined consumption of everything together. Typically, gamers use 650W or 750W PSUs. If your PC is very energy efficient, you might go a bit lower. If you want to add lots of power hungry devices (several more HDDs, or two graphics cards combined via SLI) you might have to go up to 1000W.

Case: A good case makes it relatively easy to assemble all of the above and change things later on without breaking or cutting your fingers. A good case should also keep the noise of all the fans inside and get a good air circulation at the same time. Once again, a big topic, so I'd go with recommendations.

Of course, there are a few more questions: Are you going to put all that stuff together yourself, do you have it custom built or do you want to buy a pre-configured PC?

IMHO pre-configured PCs are a bunch of crap. I've never seen one that I was okay with. Maybe in the gaming segment or the high-price segment there are actually a few good ones, but generally I'd avoid it like the plague.

On the other hand, I've seen a few very decent custom-built PCs that were very well assembled, with exemplary cable attachment inside the case, very clean configuration. But I have virtually no experience with vendors (except one) so I can't recommend anyone there (unless you buy in Germany; Alternate did a really good job IMO).

I've built my PCs myself ever since I learned how to do that and will continue doing so for quite a while, but it does require a bit of experience, reading manuals, and making mistakes, in order to get it right. :)

A few recommendations:

If I were to build a new DCS compatible PC today, here are a few components that I would get:

CPU: Core i5-6600K (K means it can be easily overclocked)

RAM: Sorry, not up to date

Mainboard: Sorry, not up to date, but always been very happy with Asus

Graphics card: GTX 970, unless I had a very, very compelling reason to invest in GTX 980

PSU: 750W 80+ Gold, maybe 650W (also 80+ Gold), probably from be quiet! or Corsair or Enermax.

Case: Sorry, not up to date

LOL....sorry for the mix up.....

Sorry, Zimmerdylan, but your post makes no sense to me and it won't really help the OP as you are running on medium to high settings at 30fps or even lower at probably 1080p. Oculus Consumer Version will run at 2160x1200 pixel @ 90 Hz thus requiring decent hardware to make sure one doesn't have to go all over his lunch again. And he even wants to play on UHD/4K which is 3.2x the amount of pixels than the Oculus and 4x the amount of FullHD. He won't have fun with a mainstream card on that resolution, even if he goes for low settings. Even a single GTX980 might be not enough to have high/ultra settings at the required framerate (90/120 fps). So a GTX 980 Ti is still the first choice for 4K. A 6000 series Intel CPU might be too much as one would need an expensive Z170 chipset Mainboard. You're better off with a 4770K/4790K on Z97 chipset MB which also uses the cheaper DDR3 RAM.

One last word regarding PSUs: Even for 2-way SLI you don't need a 1000+ Watts PSU. I'm running a Intel Haswell-E Hexacore with 2 GTX 980 on an Enermax Modu 800W 80+ Platinum PSU, together with a bunch of disks, just fine. Quality over quantity. Better to have a weaker PSU at the same price that's more stable and lives longer than a cheap high-power tiaster that dies after 6 months.

Woa....Sorry about that. My brain just completely skipped over that paragraph.

Oops...........I'll leave this to those who know such things.

also good psu's made by seasonic

THANK YOU for the replies.... I really still am not clear on what all the different things mean, but I did buy a PC based on the recommendations. I purchased a PC built to spec from ibuypower.com.

Here is what I got.... tell me if something is a real mistake!

Cyber Monday Intel X99

Case

1 x Thermaltake Versa H35 w/ Window Gaming Case

Processor

1 x Intel® Core™ i7 5820K Processor (6x 3.30GHz/15MB L3 Cache) - Intel Core™ i7 5820K [$40 INSTANT OFF]

iBUYPOWER PowerDrive

1 x PowerDrive Level 1 - Up to 10% Overclocking

Processor Cooling

1 x Asetek 510LC Liquid CPU Cooling System [sOCKET-2011] - Free Upgrade to Corsair Hydro Series H55 120mm Liquid CPU Cooler

Memory

1 x 8 GB [4 GB x2] DDR4-2400 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand - **Free Upgrade to 16GB DDR4-2800 ADATA XPG**

Video Card

1 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980Ti - 6GB [Free Upgrade to EVGA Superclocked] - Single Card

Free Stuff

1 x [FREE] - 802.11AC Dual Band Wireless USB Adapter - FREE with iBUYPOWER Desktops

Free Stuff

1 x [FREE Game Download] - Intel Gaming Bundle: Just Cause 3, CSGO, and World of Warships - free w/ Intel Processors

Motherboard

1 x ASUS X99-A -- - *Free upgrade to ASUS X99-A/USB 3.1 and Free ASUS ROG Mouse

Power Supply

1 x 750 Watt - Thermaltake SMART SP-750M - *Free Upgrade to 850W Thermaltake TPG - 80 PLUS Gold, Fully Modular

Primary Hard Drive

1 x 128 GB SanDisk Z400S SSD -- Read: 546MB/s, Write: 342MB/s - Single Drive *Free Upgrade to 256GB SanDisk Z400S SSD* (Single Drive Only)

Data Hard Drive

1 x 1 TB Hard �Drive -- 32MB Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive

Optical Drive

1 x 24x Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW - Black -- Free Upgrade to 14X LG Blu-ray Re-writer

Sound Card

1 x ASUS Xonar DGX -- 5.1 Channels, 96KHz/24-bit

Network Card

1 x Intel Pro 10/100/1000 Network Card

USB Expansion Card

1 x PCI-Express USB 3.0 Expansion Card (2x External Port + 1x Header)

Operating System

1 x Windows 10 Home + Office 365 Trial [Free 30-Day !!!] - (64-bit) *Newest Microsoft Windows*

Mouse

1 x iBUYPOWER Standard Gaming Mouse

Warranty

1 x 3 Year Standard Warranty Service

Rush Service

1 x No Rush Service (Usually Ships in 10-15 Business Days)

With the Cyber Monday discount code it came to $1,831, Ouch. I sure hope this thing does the job and lasts a long time!

I sure hope this thing does the job and lasts a long time!

Never assume that will be the case. My wife keeps asking me why I need a new video card every two years. That being said its good to have a good PSU/Motherboard and case. They will last awhile and you can just upgrade video cards when the games need more card.

Your build would be a very nice PC

Great post Yurgon!

A 6000 series Intel CPU might be too much as one would need an expensive Z170 chipset Mainboard. You're better off with a 4770K/4790K on Z97 chipset MB which also uses the cheaper DDR3 RAM.

Good point. I probably should have added another "I'm not entirely up to date" after the CPU recommendation. :)

One last word regarding PSUs: Even for 2-way SLI you don't need a 1000+ Watts PSU. I'm running a Intel Haswell-E Hexacore with 2 GTX 980 on an Enermax Modu 800W 80+ Platinum PSU, together with a bunch of disks, just fine. Quality over quantity. Better to have a weaker PSU at the same price that's more stable and lives longer than a cheap high-power tiaster that dies after 6 months.

Amen to that!

THANK YOU for the replies.... I really still am not clear on what all the different things mean, but I did buy a PC based on the recommendations. I purchased a PC built to spec from ibuypower.com.

 

Here is what I got.... tell me if something is a real mistake!

I'm not entirely up to date with the components (I know, you guessed :)). All in all it sounds like a pretty good gaming rig, I'd say now it depends on the assembly. I didn't spot any showstopper there, and you should get very decent frame rates in DCS 1.5.

The verdict about DCS 2.0 performance is just beginning to come in, so far it sounds as if Nevada takes a toll on frame rates, but today is the first day of Alpha release, so I'm sure things will change (for the better, I hope :D). Besides, that's just what I gathered from a few posts, I'm still downloading. Anyway, that computer should be able to handle 2.0 quite well. :thumbup:

Great post Yurgon!

Thanks. ;)