DCS Specific Computer Build - Feedback Requested

I’m looking to build a new desktop with a budget of $1000 (excluding monitor). This will be my first ever computer build. DCS is pretty much all I play. The parts I’m looking at are :

CPU: i5 9600k, 3.7GHz, turbo to 4.6GHz. I chose this CPU because ED reccomends an i5 at 3.0GHz or higher for high settings (I don’t do VR). This CPU can overclock so I plan to overclock as close to 5 GHz as possible and leave it there. My understanding is DCS doesn’t really utilize multi core that much, so the i5’s 6 cores should be ok. True? $264.99

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 LED 66.3 CFM. Inexpensive and good reviews. $19.99

Thermal Paste: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut

Motherboard: MSI - Z370 GAMING PLUS ATX LGA1151. I chose this motherboard because I like the MSI BIOS. From the tutorials I’ve seen, CPU and RAM overclocking doesn’t look too difficult from their BIOS. $89.99

GPU: Gigabyte - GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING OC. ED reccomends GTX 1070 for high settings. Numerous reviews show the RTX 2060 outperforming the 1070 ti. I also plan to overclock via MSI Afterburner. $387.99

RAM: Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000. Inexpensive. Will overclock via XMP. Eventually will add another 16 GB. $84.99

Storage: Intel - 660p Series 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive. Chose this over a regular SSD since installation directly into the motherboard is simpler than running more wires through the case. This is the cheapest M.2 I could find with decent reviews. $119.00

Case: DIYPC - P48-W ATX Mid Tower Case. Cheapest case I could find with decent reviews and two built in fans that will fit the CPU cooler. Will add third fan I salvaged from an old desktop to the side panel. $30.00

Power Supply: Dell H750P-00, 750w. I salvaged this from my old 2006 desktop. Haven’t fired it up in years but it worked when I stored it away. Saves me $50-$80.

Tots cost of parts is just under $1k. Please let me know what you think or if you have suggestions. Thanks.

We can debate many things but please DO NOT use that old power supply.

usually, the Dell PSU's found in Desktop class PC's, even Workstations, are BRONZE quality, which is by far not what you want for many many reasons.

CPU, OK

RAM ok, but it may well be that 32 is the better bet, you may find this to be a stutter cause when in MP.

SSD, OK

GPU, the price is the limit, whatever you can afford, great for 1080p, ok for 1440p, not ok for 4k

Case, your pick

MSI board, I dunno, I dislike MSI but it should be ok

my tip for a PSU is a Seasonic Prime Platinum 750w. Not too expensive but among the best you can buy, if not the best. This will serve you many many years to come.

Thermal Paste: great pick ! use it myself.

..

Thanks for the reply. I also posted this on the PC Part Picker forum and have added a PSU to my build. You wrote not to get a Bronze certified PSU. I’m new to PC building, so what does Gold certified provide as opposed to Bronze? Is it all about power efficiently or is there an actual performance loss/risk associated with a new bronze certified PSU?

Based off other reccomendations I also updated the motherboard (still MSI), CPU cooler and case. As a cost saving measure, I was looking at only going with a 500GB M.2 SSD and eventually adding a second SSD down the road. Will a single M.2 500GB be sufficient for windows 10 and DCS to be on the same drive? I don’t plan on installing any other games in the near future and will eventually migrate DCS to a 1TB SSD.

That's a pretty good budget build. :thumbup:

IMHO, get a video card with at least 8GB if you can.

512GB is plenty for DCS and Win10 if nothing else comes on beyond the usual tools we all have.

The difference in PSUs is like this. The lower the standard ( bronze silver gold titanium platinum )

the lower the efficiency and thus the more heat they produce. Say you need 350-400w while in DCS, with broinze that means ~65-80w heat alone from the PSU and a spinning & noisy fan.

While this could be tolerated with better venting and a headset, the real downside is their quaility, in terms of how "clean" is the current that you feed. Is there a lotof Ripple on the wire, how long will it run at 75+% without failing, would it even hold a burst of 100% peak output for 5min without melting, etc..

Do yourself a favour and read some reviews about PSU's. You will be surprised.

I recommend hardocp.com for those reviews. Those are brutal & honest tests, not only a few failed the tests.

The 8GB arguement is also hot. A sI said, GPU...as far as your wallet allows.

A lower efficiency PSU will generate more heat, and degrade the components (capacitors) faster. Components are cheaper anyway. That's the reason of the 3-5 year warranty. A gaming PC (high current for 1-3 hours) need a solid PSU. Look at the warranty, that will tell you how good he is. A cheap PSU generates high ripple voltage can degrade the video card. and cause instability when overclocking.

3 years= cheap

5 years= average

7-10 years= good or very good

Thanks for the feedback on PSU’s. Going to do some research on those today. Last question... if you had to pick one CPU for DCS, would you rather have the i5-9600k (3.7 GHz/Turbo 4.6 GHz) at ~$260 or the Ryzen 2700X (3.7 GHz/Turbo 4.3 GHz) at ~$289 and why? Pretty sure I’m going with the i5 but want to make sure I’m “future-proofed” for about 3yrs with DCS. Thanks.

To be honest,

I would hold back a little bit and wait for the Ryzen 3000 chips..but..with a 9600k you cant really go wrong either. The AMD might be a little cheaper with hopefully same or even better performance.

Unfortunately, no one knows exactly WHEN they will be released. Some say SOON, some say July.

Here's my general recommendation. I haven't changed my recommendation in 5+ years, except additional memory, however, it's probably still the same today as always.

• Current generation i5
  
• Air cooling (Cooler Master or Noctua are common)
  
• 16GB RAM (Corsair, G.skill and Kingston are common)
  
• Basic motherboard (MSI Z390A Pro, for instance)
  
• 512GB SSD... you can add another one later!
  
• Case priorities: first quiet, second performance, third appearance.
  
• Spend ALL money you saved following my advice on the graphics card (NVIDIA X50, X60, X70)
  

As for power supply unit... get ANY Bronze rated 450W+ modular for $100 OR if you intend to couple it with a quiet case and fans, get a semi-fan/passive or fanless/passive one for slightly more dollars, but don't fall for the ratings marketing or get more than 650W, if it costs you more that way obviously. Sound level is more important than anything, IMHO. Always follow this advice for cost-efficiency in gaming. Forget overclocking... don't spend a single dollar on it, unless you've verified the investment is cost-efficient. Also, I wouldn't get 32GB RAM or 1TB SSD unless you already know you need it. If you follow this advice you will save $200+ and can upgrade the RTX 2060 into a RTX 2070 instead (according to Swedish pricing).

Also, don't forget your monitor, speakers, headphones, mouse, keyboard, controllers, TrackIR, HOTAS, and pedals make a bigger difference than a few percent of performance!

Oh and forget about "future proofing", it's the greatest cash wasting myth in all of gaming. You're already "future proof", just be ready to upgrade the graphics card after 3-5 years, ideally. I only upgraded my graphics card(s) since 2013.

450w ???? Bronze ??

What a nonsense

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Just to give the OP a bit of an idea.

I recently did a 9600K build for DCS, given I already had some hardware lying around, it was a minimal spend as I wanted to include Rift.

9600K

Asus Z390 Prime

*32GB 2666 XMP to 2800

*1080Ti

*intel 545 series 500GB SATA SSD

*Noctua NH-D15 nice air cooler especially if you intend to O/C. :thumbup:

750W EVGA

*Phanteks Enthoo Evolv case

*stuff I had already,..

Performance on 2560*1600 was 80 to 100FPS+ with out of the box DCS settings, sorry I could only handle a minute or so of 2D :helpsmilie: but if your resolution is that or lower it should work well for you. :)

Having said that it also works great in Rift VR 45 to 90FPS but suffers a bit on PG and Normandy mostly 45FPS fairly solid, except PG with weird FPS drops.

IMHO

You got RAM covered 16GB see how that goes going 32 will help for MP however I regularly see VRAM go to 10+GB on MP food for thought?

Listen to demon re PSU's

Really 2006??

For my budget it was a great build, chalangiing a bit due to glass on both sides of the case but a fun build. :D

If I were to re-think, I'd look at better GPU with maybe more VRAM look at Radeon VII some feedback on this forum. link here.

Although surprisingly my 1080Ti is fine at this level. :thumbup:

I honestly can't recommend the 2080Ti as value for money, yes it's better but not value for money IMO.

Next maybe 9700K, I don't think the 9900k is value for money same deal it's better but it's your money, right?

Maybe save bit and go SATA SSD there really isn't much HDD access once DCS is loaded and the difference in load times doesn't appear to be great. Both are great choices.

450w ???? Bronze ??

 

What a nonsense

 

 

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Okay, 500W! According to online calculators, a 9600K, 2X8GB RAM, 2060, 1 SSD, and a 24" monitor, using the computer 8 hours per day with 4 hours of gaming per day, uses 370W and 420W is recommended, a 2X16GB RAM, 2070, 2 SSDs, and a 27" monitor with a Blu-ray drive, using the computer 16 hours per day with 8 hours of gaming per day, uses 432W and 482W is recommended instead. Based on this, a 520W unit is enough.

For instance, the $50 Corsair VS550 (Standard) or the $75 Corsair 650M (Bronze, modular) are appropriate. However, I would look for a fanless/passive one (incidentally, they're higher rated), but that's just me.

As for rating, it doesn't really make a difference. The only important factors are acceptable wattage, fan sound, and price.

In theory, more efficiency saves you money... theory. But, if you actually do the math, a Corsair 550W Gold modular unit only pays for itself after more than eight years compared to a 550W Standard unit and after more than six years compared to a 650W Bronze unit. However, I could recommend the Corsair 650W Bronze unit because it's modular, easier to work with.

Hello, the Corsair VS (gray unit) is a tier 5 and the Corsair VS (orange unit) is a tier 6. Not enough solid for a gaming pc. Probably good for a desktop pc. You need a tier 3 or better.

Okay, 500W! According to online calculators, a 9600K, 2X8GB RAM, 2060, 1 SSD, and a 24" monitor, using the computer 8 hours per day with 4 hours of gaming per day, uses 370W and 420W is recommended, a 2X16GB RAM, 2070, 2 SSDs, and a 27" monitor with a Blu-ray drive, using the computer 16 hours per day with 8 hours of gaming per day, uses 432W and 482W is recommended instead. Based on this, a 520W unit is enough.

 

For instance, the $50 Corsair VS550 (Standard) or the $75 Corsair 650M (Bronze, modular) are appropriate. However, I would look for a fanless/passive one (incidentally, they're higher rated), but that's just me.

 

As for rating, it doesn't really make a difference. The only important factors are acceptable wattage, fan sound, and price.

 

In theory, more efficiency saves you money... theory. But, if you actually do the math, a Corsair 550W Gold modular unit only pays for itself after more than eight years compared to a 550W Standard unit and after more than six years compared to a 650W Bronze unit. However, I could recommend the Corsair 650W Bronze unit because it's modular, easier to work with.

I give it up to discuss this with you.

Hello, the Corsair VS (gray unit) is a tier 5 and the Corsair VS (orange unit) is a tier 6. Not enough solid for a gaming pc. Probably good for a desktop pc. You need a tier 3 or better.

Tier???

I give it up to discuss this with you.

OK, if you don't know anything I don't.

It's ok Bit (my friend). I can do the math without problem :smilewink: even if i'm done too.

EVGA suggests a 500w with an i7 at only 3.2Mhz. Our CPU run faster (many guys overclock their CPU) and need more watts. We want to give (to the op) the opportunity/room to upgrade his video card later. With a 550w his hands will be tied. The gaming pc need a solid PSU, instead of a desktop pc who can use any crap PSU. Notably when you spend $$$$ for the components/video card.

Tier (you can get a tier 3 if you are short of money):

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3713321&postcount=51

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3714338&postcount=52

And that is the point if you O/C the CPU and GPU as the OP stated they intend to do you need to allow 180W for CPU and 300W+ for GPU, that's ball park . Then you'll want some headroom on top of that.

Lets add a minimum 100W for SSD's mother board and a couple of fans, so that's around the 580W mark, if your into efficiency most PSU's will be at the highest efficiency when loaded to somewhere around the 50 to 70%

I wouldn't be putting a 600Watter in the build personal choice of course. ;)

And that is the point if you O/C the CPU and GPU as the OP stated they intend to do you need to allow 180W for CPU and 300W+ for GPU, that's ball park . Then you'll want some headroom on top of that.

 

Lets add a minimum 100W for SSD's mother board and a couple of fans, so that's around the 580W mark, if your into efficiency most PSU's will be at the highest efficiency when loaded to somewhere around the 50 to 70%

 

I wouldn't be putting a 600Watter in the build personal choice of course. ;)

:smilewink:

It's ok Bit (my friend). I can do the math without problem :smilewink: even if i'm done too.

 

EVGA suggests a 500w with an i7 at only 3.2Mhz. Our CPU run faster (many guys overclock their CPU) and need more watts. We want to give (to the op) the opportunity/room to upgrade his video card later. With a 550w his hands will be tied. The gaming pc need a solid PSU, instead of a desktop pc who can use any crap PSU. Notably when you spend $$$$ for the components/video card.

 

Tier (you can get a tier 3 if you are short of money):

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3713321&postcount=51

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3714338&postcount=52

Classical master racism... measuring "quality and electrical performance". Don't ask why... just measure it and waste money on theoretical specs.

Blablabla... measuring "bla and blabla". Don't blabla... just bla it and waste blablablabla.

Thank you :D

I just built mine last week in the signature. Seems to do very well. Even in 4K.