How to build a gaming cmputer/purchase one

I don't know much about building a computer or just buying a gaming computer, But I would like some suggestions for decent equipment. My DCS experience isn't that great, plus I would like to get into VR eventually. Also if you can suggest any software or whatever. I have a Saitek X52, already, but I will probably upgrade to something better with two throttle or whatever.

So any suggestions would be great. Thanks, also any suggestions on things I shouldn't do.

We should probably start with your pocket book. How much do you want to spend?

If you want to build/design yourself you need to do plenty of research and it's not likely you get compensated for the time. (However the learning may have much value.)

When you do it again you need to do it again because technology changes constantly. It's easier the second time around. Also you need to build sources for high quality information, eg. places like DCS forums (for DCS specific questions), tomshardware, anandtech, cpupassmark etc.

How long will be your system's planned lifespan? Can you tolerate near-obsolescence? Prepared to put in the effort to revise your system every year or two?

It's easy to find suggested builds. Pick one that's suited to your parameters and use it as an initial reference point. (Many components you pick might end up being the same or very similar - eg. a different brand of GPU because the same model was $30 cheaper on discount or something.)

There is no perfect build. The required technical parameters/performance depend on task to task. Eg. loading a DCS mission is very different from running it or recording it and editing the video. Also component prices can change every week.

I'll take the opposite view. If you pick the more popular brands, you'll be within the margin of error for performance. Asus, EVGA for example come to mind.

It's is *NOT* that difficult to install motherboards. If nothing else, you'll find YT videos on how to do it. You'll find that most instructions that come with the MB's are not that great.

The devil is in the detail and you not only need the right parts that make sense together, you also need to put the software on it too.

It pays back if you invest the time needed to learn all this. It can be a hard road if you dont have access to knowledge via a friend that knows about it

or research on the net..it all needs time and there is LOTS and LOTS of trial and error involved when you start this. The picture you have right now about PC's consists of maybe 5 pieces of Mosaic but the whole picture needs 5k mosaics to be complete and you need at least 30% of it to get a glimpse of what it looks like, to make valid assumptions and apply logic. Without enough stones known, you cannot bridge unknown territory ( in your mind ) without some serious trial and error. This again consumes a lot of time.

You must ask yourself if the time you have at hand and the speed you can fetch such things like "Bios" "Drivers" "RTFM" fit together.

I know that I would not want to learn all this again, NO WAY !!! I am 49 now and I learned all that when I was much younger and burned midnight hours like mad, slept till noon and studied PC's till 5am till I fell of my chair HAHA.

No, seriously, from point blank zero it is is hard to get it to work the way you want and need it.

Even experienced Pilots or Admin and SysBuilders like me fight this or that bug or shortcoming. It is even harder if you dont know where to look and what not else, as you have no clue why things happen the way they do happen. Troubleshooting is something different again. It needs way more than just knwing HOW things work, it pays if you know what configs spit this or that error, "been there done that mistake" is a very good knowledge, but you need the time to make the mistake 1st place and the brains to grasp what you did when you did and fetch it, understand it, build your mosaic of how things work, tear oit down half if you went wrong, rebuild and refine your picture, always expanding, never ever stopping.

I tell you why I got eventually into IT and System Building/Admin etc..

I were at the exact same spot where you are, just some 30 years back in time. I had nobody to ask but 1 guy who wanted money if I ask too much, well I paid him back then but I sucked up every little thing he showed me while he put my rig together.....some 10 years later I serviced his customers

with Linux servers and Windows Servers, a thing he never wanted to learn that deep to deploy it with confidence. But you gotta be willing to invest time, do things OVER & OVER until they work, never give up.

Nowadays it peanuts to get help, ask google, ask youtube. Still, you have to take that info, make a mosaic-stone out of it and put it in your Picture, logic tells you where it MUST fit, if it doesn t, either the info is BAD or your logic is off, adjust, but dont do nothing !

ahh..and btw. I spend most of my free time trying to stay on top of the wave. reading is essential, english is essential if it is not your 1st language.

Many I know here i germany have limited possibilities to get the info they need cause they dont understand the language its written in, thats a huge obstacle.

I wrote it that "black" so to say cuz hansangb painted the "white" picture, let me paint the black one, I guess hansangb and me have seen both sides many times and its only fair to show the two extremes.

All of the above is true. I am nowhere near the expert that Bit is but I know enough to keep from setting my rig on fire. ;)

Seriously, there is a lot to know. This is especially true if you are trying to work on the bleeding edge. I was in the industry when the first Pentiums came out. We had no idea what we could and could not do with them and learned it the hard way.

Research, read, and research some more. Luckily, these days the hardware is not changing near as fast as it did in the '90s.

Now to what you need, either way, DIY or asembled by a shop.

Get a fast CPU, Intel 8700k, 9600k, 9700k, 9900k - or - AMD 2700x

If you have deeper pockets and a ~1k€ CPU is OK, I would without a single doubt buy an AMD Threadripper 2950x TR4 CPU. The reasons are beyond the scope of this thread.

Get 32GB RAM, DDR4-3200

Get either a 1TB SSD for a ALL-in-1 solution, preferable NVME M2 format then. But if money is an issue, a 500GB SSD Sata based will do it too for it all. If you can afford it, split OS and DCS on two SSDs, they should have at least 250GB for OS and 250GBG for DCS. If you want more than OS and DCS you need more or bigger drives. I would buy 512GB OS and 512GB DCS, that leaves options when you want two DCS installs and maybe some other games too.

Drives are no headache as long as you install BOTH, DCS and OS on any kind of SSD. NVME is nicver, faser, no cables...but not needed. It's advised to use those IF the extra 50€ are OK. I would only buy 2 x NVMe if I had to buy new. No cables is nice

GPU:

Easy is which brand: Nvidia

Hard is which model !

For VR you only need to look at 1080ti or better, I would honestly say, get a 2080ti if you can afford it. It's an INSANE price but delivers the best performance. Just that all those, 1080ti, 2080, 2080ti, they all are trapped in the 45fps trap, just at which LOD is the question. A 1080ti for a good price is a valid option. Not everyone wants to spend 1300€ for a GPU.

I would not get the 1070 or 2070 for VR in DCS, a 1080ti was the least I`d consider a good choice. Deep pockets = 2080ti.

POwersupply:

Simple:

Get a Seasonic Prime Ultra 850w Platinum, or 1kW+ if you think heavy overclocking for CPU and GPU with Stresstests and lots of drives and maybe a 2nd GPU is your thing. Seasonic makes the top dog reference PSU's. Thats what all others try to match and hardly ever reach. This choice is truely simple.

Motherboard:

Depends on your CPU. Get a brand name one, Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock, MSI etc.. Dont buy the cheapest one, 150€-300€ is reasonable. More only if you choose Threadripper or other heavy CPU's from the HEDT segment, or things like watercooling blocks included or such.

My personal choice was AMD Ryzen 2700x, Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi, 32GB RAM 3200, 2 x NVMe Samsung, 1kW Seasonic, 2080ti.

Do not underestimate the importance of adequate size and quality of a PSU.

This deserves an extra post

Do not underestimate the importance of adequate size and quality of a PSU.

I cannot stress this enough. A weak PSU can cost you more than you can imagine if it fails. Many will tell you that a 'just enough' PSU will get you by. That advice is coming from people that have never experienced a catastrophic failure.

Good PSU, case, silent fans are important.

About SSD there are lots of interesting considerations. I think most motherboards have only 2 (or 3?) NVMe slots. If you buy 2x at the start, what is your upgrade path?

IMO your system drive should be NVMe, since it's not likely you want to reinstall everything for an upgrade etc. 2 x 250GB would be tight by today's standards. SSDs are easy to add later if they are for data/games. Performance-capacity-price envelopes are improving every year.

Everything depends a lot on your budget.

OK thanks for all the help, I guess I'll get someone who knows how to build PC's to build it. thanks for the suggestions, I may go with a ready to buy PC

We should probably start with your pocket book. How much do you want to spend?

I was hoping to put together a system to run 2.5 smoothly (non VR, at least for now) for under $1500.

Is this realistic?

Thanks

It's is *NOT* that difficult to install motherboards.

Not dificult, but you still need to be careful ... I sold my old motherboard to my son in law, and to prevent mistakes I installed it myself, tested it and off he went to play :)

... a week later he purchased a "gaming" case with a plastic window to show-off his new parts, installed it himself and promptly burn-out not only the motherboard, but also the processor, memory and video card ... he had screwed the motherboard directly to the case, without using the bronze spacers.

:cry:

I was hoping to put together a system to run 2.5 smoothly (non VR, at least for now) for under $1500.

 

 

Is this realistic?

 

 

Thanks

I don't know if 2.5 and smooth are possible right now with any system but you can get close and it of course all depends on your monitor resolution and how high you want the in-game settings. I paid roughly $1,400 last year for my CPU, GPU, MOBO, RAM, and PSU as seen in my signature below.

What resolution do you want to run DCS at?

Apparently Nvidia has stopped manufacturing the 1080Ti chips, I'd grab a Grab a GTX 1080Ti before the stock runs out.

Check out letsbld.com

The biggest advantage with building your own computer is you pick your own parts. In the old days you could save money, but it almost seems like it's more expensive going on your own.

I was hoping to put together a system to run 2.5 smoothly (non VR, at least for now) for under $1500.

 

 

Is this realistic?

 

 

Thanks

If you dont take the most expensive of each and can live with a few compromises it can fit.

YOu will either have to pick a non-Hyperthreading 9th series Intel or an AMD CPU, the 9900k is too expensive and wouldnt fit the bill. 9600k Intel or 2700x AMD I think fit price wise. Take a Board no more than 150€/$ BUT get 32GB of RAM, do not cut the corner here, that is hard to fix and correct afterwards, rather get no tower and no additional HDD and no DVD and no new Mouse and KB, that can ALL be added any time without taking anything out, like a CPU or 2 modules of RAM that dont like each other. Also PSU, investin a good model.

Case, KB + Mouse, HDD, all that you can use form old PC for now, rather get 32GB and a fat CPU, THEN put ALL the rest into a GPU, every Penny !

What resolution do you want to run DCS at?

 

Apparently Nvidia has stopped manufacturing the 1080Ti chips, I'd grab a Grab a GTX 1080Ti before the stock runs out.

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I am personally quite happy with my 1080p bigscreen and track ir...always seemed kind of perfect for flight simulation to me.

Maybe I should pick one of those up...not that I can afford any of this, but I did spend like 4 years waiting for 2.5, so...