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Time for a new rig, probably.


BluBear

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Howdy gents,

I know I've mentioned this to a few of you on TS over the last couple of months, but it's becoming more apparent now that my rig is in need of either a drastic overhaul, or more likely almost total replacement.
I'm totally out of touch with this now so just asking for some advice before I start looking seriously into purchasing components etc. 
My current set-up, originally built in 2013 has only seen an increase in RAM and GFX upgrade in the intervening years (along with various drives added due to DCS being such a monster).

Current spec is as follows: 
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H Socket 1155 Mobo
16 GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM
GeForce GTX 970 4GB

 

Whilst initially, I was thinking of just squeezing the most out of this as possible, I think on balance it might be better to just start from scratch, especially as I promised myself the next rig would include VR.
With that in mind, I'm looking at either building or spec-ing an off the shelf rig, with a budget of probably around £1.5 - 2K with £300ish of that ideally reserved for the Oculus Rift S or alternative?
I've always built my own gaming rig from scratch, but I'm now more inclined to entertain the idea of an off the shelf solution. My limited knowledge of the current landscape, tells me the following build services look relatively half-decent:

https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Desktop-PC/subcat/Gaming-PC

https://www.novatech.co.uk/newmod.html?s=PC-2714

Thoughts?

So, I suppose the question is, unless I can really do anything of note to my current set-up, will that kind of budget get me a half decent VR gaming rig that'll see me another 5+ years? 
 

S!

 

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I should say that's plenty Chris. Might be advisable to wait until the new 30 series nVidia cards are available though. Origin and Scan are also good and PCSpecialist are rated by some people (I have a record of spectacularly poor customer service from them but other Dogz seem happy so...)

Available to chat if needed.

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16 gig is not enough, get 32 (I'm actually thinking about upgrading to 64).

Check the mobo to see if it has at least 2 m2 SSD slots.

Only use m2 SSD drives (other than having maybe a back up drive). You'll get the best VR performance by having windows on one m2, and your VR games on another.

 

FYI, intels 11th gen chips are just around the corner, and look very promising.

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Understood Kev, thanks. I'll def go 32gb ram minimum. 

I'm currently running Windows and DCS on separate sata SSDs, will m2s be much more preferable or could I get away with reusing these?

Just been reading up about 11th gen intel chips, they reckon release date around March time, not sure I can wait that long. Hah. Also, won't that ramp up the price somewhat? 

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m2 NVMe drives are between 5 to 7 times faster than a sata III ssd and even more quicker than that over sata II SSD's.

Could you get away with, sure, will VR performance be better with m2 NVMe drives, yes.

You could still use the old drives as well.

 

Undoubtedly the new chips would push the price up! Regarding chips, I wouldn't be paying to much attention to stock core speeds, more to overclocked speeds easily attainable (easy to google), not all chip types overclock  as well as others, and you will be wanting to overclock for VR. A good mobo here is really important, its something that a lot of people scrimp a bit on a new build, but there's no point trying to drop a v12 into a morris minor..... Liquid cooling is defiantly something i would recommend these days to.

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2 hours ago, Crash said:

Crikey Crash, that's a lot of data. My brain hurts!

Thank you though, that'll take some digesting.

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VR costs a lot. If you dont want to put up with lower resolution, then you will have to spend. I am looking at graphics cards right now and it is scary. Still if it is used a lot then the value per hour is better. At least thats what I tell myself ;)

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Post from the Il-2 forum

On 1/26/2021 at 8:37 AM, JG51-Hetzer said:

I guess the acid test is can the 5600X (or better) run high and high in PWCG without "Server Overload"? That's a test I'd like to see. :)

Yes it does. Really better than a I9 10900K.

Don't know the specifics, but the 5000 series are the only ones that can run the Rheinland_Benchmark without the slowdown thing.

 

Ryzen 5000 series right now are the best CPU for Il-2 performance wise.

 

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6 minutes ago, Crash said:

Ryzen 5000 series right now are the best CPU for Il-2 performance wise.

That was going to be a question, I'm obviously coming from an intel spell but had previous good experiences with AMD and wondered if they'd returned to form and also value for money.

Would I be better off going for an AMD build this time around? Something like this for example?

https://www.ebuyer.com/1128542-alphasync-rtx-3070-ryzen-5-5600x-32gb-ram-2tb-hdd-500gb-ssd-as-d5403

 

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For good VR you will need a 3080/3090. I was looking at an AMD tx6900rx for £1200. However according to the forums for Il-2 a 3080 would be better as would the 3090. not cheap. I would certainly be inclined to go Ryzen over i7 / i9. The AMD video card out performs the 3090 or is very close for most games so it is probably a driver issue but I might have to go with Nvidia. To save a bit of money the Oculus Quest 2 is nearly as good as a Reverb G2 and a bit cheaper although an official cable is required due to bandwidth issues with wireless and cheap cables.

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Holy Moly. Well, 3080/3090s are pretty scarce right now, due to bitcoin miners gabbing them all right?

I think realistically, I'm looking at an entry/mid level VR machine with scalability. I suspect I'll start with an Oculus like Fenrir and Fruitbat have. The only time I've tried VR was at Duxford on I think a Rift DK1, which I thought was pretty damn good then. Just been reading up on Rift S v Quest 2 and it certainly seems the latter would be the way to go for now, even with the extra cable required it's cheaper, higher-res and more future proof.

With that in mind, would a 3070 be a decent bet to keep costs down further?

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The 3070 is less capable than the 3080 for sure, but given what you're intending to use it for (i.e. VR rather than RTX), I think it would be OK. There are issues with supply of the new 30 series cards as well as the new 6800 series AMD GPUs, partly because the high value of bitcoin is driving a surge in mining, but also due to scalpers having bought up all the existing stock to resell on ebay at a huge markup. That said, there's nothing to stop you using your 960 in a new system until these supply issues are sorted and you can buy the one you want. The new Ryzen CPUs seem very, very good and generally outperform the equivalent intel processors in multithreaded applications which may not be so much of an issue for simmers. The improvement in the AMD stock has caused an increase in their prices so while they might still be a bit cheaper, it's not by as much as it used to be.

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Chris, given that my 2080ti outperforms a 3070 (not by huge amounts,  but it does across every feature), and I'm looking to upgrade my 2080ti because of VR, read into that what you will.

 

However, that said, it means that a 3070 will give you only marginally less quality in VR, than i have currently, which is still better than a lot of people on entry level, but not enough for me to use it consistently (I've ruined myself by having a 4k monitor for 3 years plus).

 

As an aside, the new Ryzen is likely to get dethroned pretty quickly by the upcoming 11th gen intel chips arriving quarter 1 this year. Also, if you look at that spreadsheet crash linked, you'll see everyone is running there cpu's overclocked @ the 5ghz mark.....

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1. DDz Quorum

Hey Christoff, as you know I have been going through the mill so to speak lately concerning components vs new comps complete and found these available “next day” so they say......

https://www.novatech.co.uk/pc/range/reignsentryelite.html

https://www.novatech.co.uk/pc/range/reignsentrysabre.html
 

I emailed them and enquired about the 3070 cards included in the builds and they said they do have “manufacturers” cards but none for sale separately.

As I have done with my ordered motherboard bundle, you can add another 16Gb of ram no problem.

Not sure if this option is of any interest to you mate ?

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So now I have that lot plus, new 750W PSU, new 500Gb SSD with new install of Win10 and a partridge in a fecking pear tree 🤓

Hoping my GTX1080 will go back in and work 🤞🏻

Nick has been very patient with helping me out, but somehow he looks a little older now ?😳

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The more I read about it, the more I'm inclined to save some cash and go for this R7 5800X bundle and up the RAM to 32GB, instead of the R9 bundle I had my eye on. The latter seems to be snapped up or scalped so quickly whenever back in stock. The pennies saved I can put towards a 3080 when they're finally available...

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