New PC for Smooth VR

Looking to purchase (not build) a high end gaming PC to allow for smooth VR. Sole use will be DCS. I've never owned a PC before (have had Macs forever), so I want to purchase a machine that will work and has a real person I can call to troubleshoot if there are issues. I'm willing to pay a bit more for such service. Also willing to pay for quality components, but want to put my money where the most benefit will be- don't want to spend $500 on a 1% speed boost. Purchase timeline is this spring or maybe summer. Want to keep the PC under $4,500. Here are the questions for you experts!

(1) What company would you recommend? Maingear? Xidax? IBuyPower? Other?

(2) Should I wait for the release of RTX 3080 cards, or stick with a 2080Ti?

(3) What specific components do you think are important for maximizing resolution and frame rate in VR?

(4) How much storage and what type do I need?

I know almost nothing about PCs, so I appreciate all of your suggestions. Thanks!

1) None, I'd still recommend self build. Doesn't matter anyway because I'm not living in the US. I'd point you to newegg and tell you to stay away from pre-build computers from the big brands like Dell and so on.

2) If you mean with "stick to 2080Ti" that you have one already or get it cheaper than usual [1000$ or so] than yes stick to it. If you don't then wait for the next gen cards to either get one of these or until the prices of previous generations will decline a bit. You said you will built in a few months anyway so ...

3) SSD is a must. There's not really a gain over NVMe over normal SATA SSD, but you not getting a SSD would be plain stupidity. CPU as of now: 9700/9900K or 3800X/3900X. I'd say 32GB DDR4 RAM is a must aswell. For the Ryzen CPUs you need high clock and low latency RAM (3200 - 3800 MHz), for the Intel CPUs speed isn't as important.

4) 250GB SSD. I have one, for a simulator for DCS and some music saved, only F16, no additional maps, Windows 10 = 145GB full.

I paid roughly 4300€ for the complete setup, having a temporary 5700XT Nitro+ card. I have full VR gear (HP Reverb), throttle and stick with deskmounts, pedals and the software of course. 3800X, 32GB DDR4, X570 platform. This is the strongest you're getting right now for DCS VR on AMDs side, besides the GPU.

Over the years, I have purchased custom systems from Falcon Northwest and MAINGEAR.

Both companies offer outstanding build quality but are very expensive.

I suggest you look at the configuration pages on their websites. You indicated that your price point is "under $4500".

Both companies can configure very powerful systems for much less than that. From my experience, the sales people at these companies will offer very helpful advice and will not try to upsell you. I configured systems for considerably more than the sales advisors recommended and ended up saving money after working with them on the configuration.

Last, the other important thing you are paying for in buying from a high end system builder is technical support. My experience with both could not have been better.

I have not dealt with the other companies you mentioned which may be just as good and there are other options you can research.

Good luck

Another factor to consider is technical support

Over the years, I have purchased custom systems from Falcon Northwest and MAINGEAR.

 

Both companies offer outstanding build quality but are very expensive.

 

I suggest you look at the configuration pages on their websites. You indicated that your price point is "under $4500".

 

Both companies can configure very powerful systems for much less than that. From my experience, the sales people at these companies will offer very helpful advice and will not try to upsell you. I configured systems for considerably more than the sales advisors recommended and ended up saving money after working with them on the configuration.

 

Last, the other important thing you are paying for in buying from a high end system builder is technical support. My experience with both could not have been better.

 

I have not dealt with the other companies you mentioned which may be just as good and there are other options you can research.

 

Good luck

 

Another factor to consider is technical support

Der Hirte's 4500€ includes the full setup, from A-Z, not just a Case with interior but nothing else.

I just built a system for 1800€ with a 3800X, 5700XT, 16GB 3200CL14, decent PSU, 1TB 970 Evo, Gigabyte Aorus Ultra X570 board and a 24" 144Hz FreeSync 1080p screen curved from MSI and a legal copy of 10 Pro.

That leaves a lot of cash, 2700€, on the table for VR, Hotas, accessories +etc.

Looking to purchase (not build) a high end gaming PC to allow for smooth VR. Sole use will be DCS. I've never owned a PC before (have had Macs forever), so I want to purchase a machine that will work and has a real person I can call to troubleshoot if there are issues. I'm willing to pay a bit more for such service. Also willing to pay for quality components, but want to put my money where the most benefit will be- don't want to spend $500 on a 1% speed boost. Purchase timeline is this spring or maybe summer. Want to keep the PC under $4,500. Here are the questions for you experts!

 

(1) What company would you recommend? Maingear? Xidax? IBuyPower? Other?

(2) Should I wait for the release of RTX 3080 cards, or stick with a 2080Ti?

(3) What specific components do you think are important for maximizing resolution and frame rate in VR?

(4) How much storage and what type do I need?

 

I know almost nothing about PCs, so I appreciate all of your suggestions. Thanks!

If you look at my spec, you'll see that I still have a generation or two behind CPU. But's it's overclocked to 5.1GHz. And that matters for DCS. And i have terrific experience in HP Reverb's glorious high resolution! :)

For $4,500 you can get a great rig from many of the boutique gaming PC sites like Falcon Northwest and others.

• I would shoot for the highest clock speed (5GHz)
  
• 3200MHz 32GB memory. Speed matters in VR. Not so much if you're just doing monitor gaming.
  
• 2080Ti
  
• 1TB SSD. You can splurge on NVMe, but it won't make any difference in DCS.
  
• A very beefy power supply. Most gaming rigs come with decent power supplies (800W or better)
  
• Most highend gaming rigs will come with All-in-one (AIO) water coolers for the CPU. So keep an eye on that. Some will have it for the GPU as well. But I have the 3 fan 2080Ti and it's not really getting too hot. But it's a must for my OC'ed CPU.
  

For VR I'd say the most important components to maximize res and frames - still well below expectations on account that the tech just isnt there yet for vr - is a high end CPU- i9 9900k/KS or Ryzen 3900x/3950x and a powerful vid card with the most vram you can afford : 2080ti (11gb).

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For VR I'd say the most important components to maximize res and frames - still well below expectations on account that the tech just isnt there yet for vr - is a high end CPU- i9 9900k/KS or Ryzen 3900x/3950x and a powerful vid card with the most vram you can afford : 2080ti (11gb).

 

 

 

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With Reverb's 2160x2160 resolution per eye, I'd say we're there. It's pretty nice.

Since you are located in the US, Cyberpower and IBuyPower have the best prices in my experience for build to order rigs for a very reasonable premium over building yourself. You can configure just about anything you want on their sites. If they don't have the case or specific component you want, they'll build anything you want just by sending them a parts list from PCPartpicker.

Don't tell them your max budget though, bad negotiation tactic that will cost you money. I built the rig in my sig for less money than your budget as a point of reference. Although I have a lot of experience building custom PCs and know how to do custom liquid cooling. There's always an opportunity cost of your time to learn and build though. I do it because I enjoy it as much or more than gaming.

Stay away from Alienware, Falcon NW, and Digital Storm unless you want to pay more money for the same performance.

I'm not sure how Falcon NW is still in business to be honest, you are mostly paying for the name and a fancy custom case. I'm sure they have great customer service/warranty if that's what you want to pay for. All good PC components have their own warranty, some of which like power supplies go up to 10 years. EVGA has a 3 year warranty on their video cards.

If you can wait till the summer, Nvidia's new cards should be out by then but they will be scarce and overpriced as is usual with new launches.

Right now, 9900KS for CPU and EVGA 2080 Ti Kingpin are the best you can get. 3900X does very well in games too and costs less than 9900K.

3950X is an editing/workstation CPU not meant for gaming and costs more than the 9900KS.

And the Reverb is amazing. I though it would be a couple more years at least before we had such a headset, especially for only $650.

With Reverb's 2160x2160 resolution per eye, I'd say we're there. It's pretty nice.

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I was close to getting the reverb over the rifts but since i went with a 2080super over the ti ( really couldn't justify the performance/cost gain of this card over the super), I decided against it. But, for 11gb of vram users the reverb makes sense.

 

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People are running it with 1080Ti, albeit with 9900K processor. The native resolution being high and not requiring SS/PD increase does make a difference, I think.

Appreciate all the suggestions. I guess we'll hang tight a couple of months in expectation of the new video card release. Hope to see some real specs on it soon- thanks!

I was close to getting the reverb over the rifts but since i went with a 2080super over the ti ( really couldn't justify the performance/cost gain of this card over the super), I decided against it. But, for 11gb of vram users the reverb makes sense.

 

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I'm using the Reverb with 5700XT which is basically a 1080Ti/normal 2080 Founders Edition with 8 instead of 11GB VRAM. Runs very good, not as it could be with 2080Ti, but very good. Your 2080 Super is quite a bit stronger than this.