First post, a few questions to optimize new PC to run DCS

[Svsmokey]

One overlooked advantage of the m.2 is the cleaner installation sans cabling . Depending on the case , one might expect better case airflow . Most modern motherboards also heatsink the m.2 slot(s) , which may (or may not) prove advantageous , depending on the drive bay location and case airflow .

[reece146]

One overlooked advantage of the m.2 is the cleaner installation sans cabling . Depending on the case , one might expect better case airflow . Most modern motherboards also heatsink the m.2 slot(s) , which may (or may not) prove advantageous , depending on the drive bay location and case airflow .

 

 

This is a good point - if you were planning say .. a mini-ITX build in a tiny case this could make a lot of sense also.

[doraymon]

This is a good point - if you were planning say .. a mini-ITX build in a tiny case this could make a lot of sense also.

 

 

That’s exactly my case by the way

 

 

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[reece146]

That’s exactly my case by the way

 

Is this your first high heat load mini-ITX build?

 

Depending on the hardware chosen (case and other) this can be a vexxing configuration to get right and be able to shed the heat when under high-load.

 

If you haven't already I suggest doing some research on your particular case and combination of components to see if there are any "gotchas". Air flow will be king - even across the radiator(s) if you go water cooled.

 

Edit/P.S.: FWIW, for a gaming rig that tends to have a lot of changes made to it regularly I'd suggest a larger format case/motherboard. Maybe it's just me but I'm always adding/removing cards and components to mine (USB3 PCIe, additional GTX660 for second screen lately). Going in and out of a mini-ITX box can be another PITA and can be limiting (# of slots, SSD connectors, AIRFLOW!, etc.).

 

Now if you are looking for something that is small, coordinated, cute in a corner of your studio apartment that is a different matter. My gaming rig is half apart (more of a cage) and sitting beside my welder with the half disassembled project truck in my "dirty" lab/garage so my perspectives are different. Hehe

 

 

 

HTH

Edited May 6, 2020 by reece146

[doraymon]

Is this your first high heat load mini-ITX build?

 

Depending on the hardware chosen (case and other) this can be a vexxing configuration to get right and be able to shed the heat when under high-load.

 

If you haven't already I suggest doing some research on your particular case and combination of components to see if there are any "gotchas". Air flow will be king - even across the radiator(s) if you go water cooled.

 

Edit/P.S.: FWIW, for a gaming rig that tends to have a lot of changes made to it regularly I'd suggest a larger format case/motherboard. Maybe it's just me but I'm always adding/removing cards and components to mine (USB3 PCIe, additional GTX660 for second screen lately). Going in and out of a mini-ITX box can be another PITA and can be limiting (# of slots, SSD connectors, AIRFLOW!, etc.).

 

Now if you are looking for something that is small, coordinated, cute in a corner of your studio apartment that is a different matter. My gaming rig is half apart (more of a cage) and sitting beside my welder with the half disassembled project truck in my "dirty" lab/garage so my perspectives are different. Hehe

 

 

 

HTH

 

You have a good point here and I agree.

 

How I ended up with a mini-ITX is a long story.

 

The short version: the project started with a different purpose (much less ambitious) and I got carried away after watching a few reviews of DCS in VR.:cry:

Plus I have 2 small kids and the third on the way: they love touching tech stuff to see how it works and I am forced to concentrate the fragile stuff on my desk --> small form factor.

 

The long version: it all started when I was looking for an external GPU to hook up to my MacBook Pro to improve the quality of a virtual cycling software (it's essentially a cycling simulator that connects to the home trainer and simulates uphill/downhill/races/training plans with a nice virtual world animation).

Macbook was too old so no external GPU, I looked into building a small PC to drop on the desk only to run this training software during my 3-4 weekly sessions (I live in a place where you can't cycle outdoor for like 5 months during the year).

I quickly realized that even with minimum specs the PC would have costed too much to be justified by the cycling software only and here is where the old fire of flight sim took me again and brought me to spend almost double the initial budget.

 

Please refrain from insulting me for all this, I do it already on my own every day...

[reece146]

Hehe...

 

 

And down the rabbit hole we go!

 

 

The only thing I would suggest is buy the right stuff the first time even if it costs more. Nothing more annoying than having to buy stuff twice because the first purchase was trying to save a few bucks.

[doraymon]

Hehe...

 

 

And down the rabbit hole we go!

 

 

The only thing I would suggest is buy the right stuff the first time even if it costs more. Nothing more annoying than having to buy stuff twice because the first purchase was trying to save a few bucks.

 

Are you referring to the RAM?

[doraymon]

By the way, regarding the doubts of having a gaming computer in mini-ITX form factor, I did my research and chose the Fractal Design 302 case.

From what I read it has an excellent air flow inside and is often used for gaming PCs.

An interesting example here:

[Chamidorix]

You are going to have a fantastic time in flatscreen DCS, but please do not underestimate how brutal on the GPU DCS VR is. A 2080ti honestly doesn't cut it, even more so for 2.5.6 vs 2.5.5. I am a mega tweaker and I'm using every software trick imaginable on a heavily Overclocked water cooled 2080ti and still just can't even stay at 45 fps to hit reprojection on my Reverb consistently.....

 

So you can definitely try it out, and VR in general (outside of DCs) is awesome to get into right now, but be realistic that playing in VR primarily is going to be sub optimal, unless you spend extravagantly, until Ampere/Hopper/7nm Geforce cards in Fall, and even then it still will be probably take a high end card to get a good experience.

[doraymon]

You are going to have a fantastic time in flatscreen DCS, but please do not underestimate how brutal on the GPU DCS VR is. A 2080ti honestly doesn't cut it, even more so for 2.5.6 vs 2.5.5. I am a mega tweaker and I'm using every software trick imaginable on a heavily Overclocked water cooled 2080ti and still just can't even stay at 45 fps to hit reprojection on my Reverb consistently.....

 

So you can definitely try it out, and VR in general (outside of DCs) is awesome to get into right now, but be realistic that playing in VR primarily is going to be sub optimal, unless you spend extravagantly, until Ampere/Hopper/7nm Geforce cards in Fall, and even then it still will be probably take a high end card to get a good experience.

 

 

Oh! So are you saying that after all this efforts and $$ the end result will be not fluid?

45 FPS is really not ideal, and that’s with a 2080Ti, I have a 2070Super...

 

Well if that’s the case than I have to reconsider the whole VR thing.

 

 

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[doraymon]

What do you think of the BenQ EX3501R (35 inch UWQHD) as a monitor for this system?

100MHz refresh rate should be in line with the FPS the PC can generate @3440x1440.

[Lace]

You are going to have a fantastic time in flatscreen DCS, but please do not underestimate how brutal on the GPU DCS VR is. A 2080ti honestly doesn't cut it, even more so for 2.5.6 vs 2.5.5. I am a mega tweaker and I'm using every software trick imaginable on a heavily Overclocked water cooled 2080ti and still just can't even stay at 45 fps to hit reprojection on my Reverb consistently.....

 

So you can definitely try it out, and VR in general (outside of DCs) is awesome to get into right now, but be realistic that playing in VR primarily is going to be sub optimal, unless you spend extravagantly, until Ampere/Hopper/7nm Geforce cards in Fall, and even then it still will be probably take a high end card to get a good experience.

 

 

Just for balance, I run DCS in VR from a 1070 equipped laptop and love it. Sure the settings are turned down (a lot) but it is more than playable with my Rift S. I would love better performance but considering my first flight sim was MSFS 4 in 1991 I can live with the apparent reduction in fidelity for the increased immersion.

 

It’s all about managing expectations IMHO.

[doraymon]

I think the best strategy for me will be to start learning to use DCS on a monitor then move to VR as a second step.

 

Not that the monitor route is any cheaper but at least I will have one less new thing to learn.

I ended up ordering a 34'' UWQHD monitor to get some level of immersion.

 

I should have the new PC and monitor by next week, I just can't wait!

 

EDIT: oh and maybe in the meantime ED will sort out some of the sh@* I read about 2.5 and VR...

Edited May 10, 2020 by doraymon
forgot to mention

[darkman222]

They should implement Vulkan as quick as possible. X-Plane already runs on it, and its amazing how smooth. Even in vR i feel its a third faster...

 

 

I have a vR setup here, but just 16 GB of RAM. So I think of upgrading. Just out of interest. Would it help even more to order instead of 32 GB the crazy amount of 64 GB? Would DCS make use of it? Or would it just be a waste of money, and better just order 32 GB?

Edited May 10, 2020 by darkman222

[BitMaster]

You cant go overkill on RAM if you can afford it :D

 

The downside is, that the more you plug in the harder it will be to run them at XMP speeds or even overclock them. It does heavily depend on the board. The better the board the more chances

it can work. If you have a budget board or even mid-tier it might not be a good idea, if you run a 300+€ board "chances" ( not a solid IT WILL WORK ) are better.

 

There are only a few other apps that can make use of that much RAM, virtualization, video editing and stuff like that. If you fall into that category as well it's justifiable, if not, better settle with 32GB and call it a day. For the saved money you can get another NVMe or other goodies you might be able to actually use constantly. Things like watercooling, better PSU, better Inputs, etc etc

[Wali763]

I dont think, the B360-board supports the 3200MHz-Ram. Only up to 2667. You need Z370 or Z390 for Ram-OC, which 3200 is. For overclocking the CPU you also need those chipsets. B360 dont do OC.

 

I have a 'cheap' Gigabyte Z370P D3, that runs nicely. Have my 9600K at 4,8Ghz at only 1,24V Vcore. Only the Rift S dont like its USB-controller.

 

Im pretty sure, a Z370/Z390 will give you at least 10% better performance with the Ram at 3200Mhz and the CPU at 4 8+ Ghz

Edited May 12, 2020 by Wali763

[doraymon]

I dont think, the B360-board supports the 3200MHz-Ram. Only up to 2667. You need Z370 or Z390 for Ram-OC, which 3200 is. For overclocking the CPU you also need those chipsets. B360 dont do OC.

 

I have a 'cheap' Gigabyte Z370P D3, that runs nicely. Have my 9600K at 4,8Ghz at only 1,24V Vcore. Only the Rift S dont like its USB-controller.

 

Im pretty sure, a Z370/Z390 will give you at least 10% better performance with the Ram at 3200Mhz and the CPU at 4 8+ Ghz

 

B360 supports 3200MHz but i believe it will run at 2666.

I just bought an Asus B360 with a 9600KF and will not be able to OC.

[darkman222]

Update. Yesterday my additional 16 GB RAM arrived. I plugged them in, now I am running on 32 GB Ram. I instantly tested them on my favourite server. The "just dogfight server" with 21 players max. And DCS now uses 19 GB. When I was running my system on 16 GB RAM DCS only used around 12 GB.

 

But now the stutters are gone. I was blaming my CPU bottlenecking DCS for the stutters before I upgraded my RAM.

 

Turns out, the stutters must have been Windows permanently writing a swap file of 7 GB for the lack of RAM on my SSD. Which should be pretty fast, but not as fast as RAM. SO my advice, go get the total amount of 32 GB Ram. Its worth it.

Edited May 14, 2020 by darkman222

[doraymon]

Guys, PC arrived finally, just now!

Which DCS version should I install?

[darkman222]

If you want to fly all modules, also the ones which are in Beta, install the open beta. One thing I am not sure about, if there is a server online, which runs the "stable" version, can you still connect to those with an open beta version? Some "stable" servers seem not to show up for me and my open beta version.

[Svsmokey]

Prolly both . Open beta needed for multiplayer , and new modules/features are released there first . Stable is a good back-up when OB is severely bugged . No additional cost , so if you have room , why not ?

[doraymon]

I will try with the stable first.

Thanks guys

 

 

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[doraymon]

One thing I did not understand is which one is 2.5.5??

 

 

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[Svsmokey]

Stable

[doraymon]

Stable

 

 

Thanks

 

 

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