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Turning a refurbed workstation into DCS rig


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OK got my 'new' rig up and working with DCS. Below is performance and cost report.

CPU : Refurbished HP Z440 wkstation. XEON E5-1630V4 3.7Ghz-4Ghz. 64GB 16GB X 4 2666Mhz. GPU: Nvidia RTX 2060 Super FE 8GB reference board with reference Nvidia drivers.

Storage: HP TurboZ NVME 256GB boot. Storage, WD Blue SSD 1TB SataIII

Panel: 2560 X 1440 144Hz .

 

DCS settings: Med-High

Textures: High

Terrain Tex: High

Civ. Traffic: Med

Water: High

Viz Range: Med

Heat Blur: low

Shadows: Low

Rez: 2560 X1440

Aspect: 16:9

Monitors: 1

Res. Of Cockpit Displays: 512

MSAA : Off

DOF: Off

Lens FX: Dirt + Flare

MotionBlur: Off

SSAA: Off

Clutter: 200

Trees: 40%

Preload Rad: 150000

Chimney Smoke: 1

Gamma :

Aniso Filter: Off

Terrain shadows: Flat or Low

Cockpit GI: OFF

Rain Droplets: ON

Vsync: Off

Full Screen: ON

 

Average FPS in AV-8B/NA : 120. Range 90 - 168 depending on scene and view.

Average FPS in A-10C: 150 FPS. Range 120-190

 

 

Cost: Z440 refurbed $630, GPU RTX 2060 Super $400, 64GB ram $360, WD Blue SSD 1TB $100. Total $1500.


Edited by DmitriKozlowsky
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I disagree

Gigabyte Aorus X570S Master - Ryzen 5900X - Gskill 64GB 3200/CL14@3600/CL14 - Asus 1080ti EK-waterblock - 4x Samsung 980Pro 1TB - 1x Samsung 870 Evo 1TB - 1x SanDisc 120GB SSD - Heatkiller IV - MoRa3-360LT@9x120mm Noctua F12 - Corsair AXi-1200 - TiR5-Pro - Warthog Hotas - Saitek Combat Pedals - Asus PG278Q 27" QHD Gsync 144Hz - Corsair K70 RGB Pro - Win11 Pro/Linux - Phanteks Evolv-X 

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We can agree that we disagree in this matter.

 

The thing that made me vote it down were the following:

 

- price for the refurb. PC

- Audio solution

- 64GB vs. the rest of the PC, which is mediocre and somehow doesnt fit apart from the need for 4

modules...4x8GB would have done it too

 

- IG Settings; OK, that is a personal thing. Just some settings are just strange, no AF but lens and flare... eye candy YES or NO, pick either one but stay there throughout the list. Civ. traffic with a 4GHz CPU isnt really beneficial.

 

Imho, a R3600 + B450 board + 32GB + Case + PSU fits the same 630$ but with full warranty and more power.

 

I am not saying it's BAAAD, I just think you better think twice before one does it again.


Edited by BitMaster

Gigabyte Aorus X570S Master - Ryzen 5900X - Gskill 64GB 3200/CL14@3600/CL14 - Asus 1080ti EK-waterblock - 4x Samsung 980Pro 1TB - 1x Samsung 870 Evo 1TB - 1x SanDisc 120GB SSD - Heatkiller IV - MoRa3-360LT@9x120mm Noctua F12 - Corsair AXi-1200 - TiR5-Pro - Warthog Hotas - Saitek Combat Pedals - Asus PG278Q 27" QHD Gsync 144Hz - Corsair K70 RGB Pro - Win11 Pro/Linux - Phanteks Evolv-X 

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The audio is onboard Realtek 7.1 or 5.1. It is good enough. Though I kind of wish that it had digital audio out to my HT receiver. But normal green jack to BOSE Satellite 2.1 speakers produces low bass of rotors and explosions, with high freq sounds of various engines in DCS.

Kind of wanted 64GB or more of memory. For uses other then DCS. DCS is quite happy with a powerfull GPU and 16GB of RAM.

 

My other box is HP Z220 with I7-3770 with 32GB of DDR3 @1333Mhz of ram max, and Nvidia Pascal GPU that replaced original Fermi based GPU. THe machine works as good as the day it was unpacked, but it has been maxed out as to ram and GPU. Neither the mobo nor its internal 425W PS could accommodate today's GPU. Pascal GPU was giving me solid 60-90 FPS DCS play with same settings. Overall I figure I doubled my FPS.

 

HP makes excellent machines. THey are solid and last a long time. Inexpensive when purchased pre-owned and refurbed. The only thing about I dislike is the requirement for expensive ECC, Registered 2666Mhz DDR4 ram.

This is my 1st personal machine with non-mechanical HD. Boot is from NVME PCIe SSD. It is shocking how fast it goes from power to log on screen. DCS and other apps are on storage SSD SATA3 6GB 1TB. Likewise DCS loads very fast. Roughly I figure DCS loads 3X - 5X faster then mechanical.

 

By no means is it a cutting edge rig with insane OC to 5Ghz on CPU, OC on 2080Ti with liquid cooling all around. All those crazy things we see on YT people do to get most. Reminds me of hot-rod sub-culture of 1950-60's, and street racing sub-culture of today.

I don't see how an OC CPU, OC GPU, OC memory, coolant pumps, fans.and stressed PS could function for more then 1 or 2 years before something burns out. Plus those rigs are really expensive.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I see very little, if any, anisotropic filtering boost in texture quality. Even at 8x or 16x. I have a longstanding issue with Stennis in DCS. The trap area lines are not visible from POV of cockpit, only resolving themselves at close to the ramp. They are blurred out of existence, when looking at Stennis at high oblique angle. Tarmac concrete textures also look blurry in depth ,when inside cockpit, with aircraft on tarmac.

So I don't use AF. Neither do I use any anti-aliasing. AA costs frames, adds very little to the quality of the scene, and makes small ground targets difficult to resolve with AA present.

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