Building a kick arse VR Flight Sim setup... Help please..

[Jumpjim]

Hi guys.

I used to build PCs years ago but not for quite a while, and been on Macs for ages.

But having looked at DCS World and MS Flightsim 2020 recently it has spurred me to put together a high end PC to run these all at decent frame rates, and in VR.

I had put together the following spec but considering moving to AMD processors and motherboards to utilise PCIe-4 which doesn't seem to have happened so far on the Intel motherboards.

I'd like feedback on whether this will all go in the case, whether it's complete overkill and whether this will run HTC Vive Cosmo goggles at decent frame rates in DCS etc. This is going to be for my personal use, and also to record "How-to" videos on the 787 as I am a commercial airline instructor so it has to look good!

I'm also interested as to whether VR is the way to go, or whether TrackIR may be better?

Spec below:

Case
MESHIFY 2

Graphics
GEFORCE RTX 3080 ROG STRIX GAMING OC 10GB GDDR6X PCI-EXPRESS GRAPHICS CARD

PSU
RMX SERIES RMX850 850W '80 PLUS GOLD' MODULAR POWER SUPPLY (CP-9020180-UK)

Motherboard Bundle (Looking to port this to AMD - Any recommendations?)
ELITE TIER ASUS ROG STRIX Z490-G OVERCLOCKED I9 10900K @ 5.0GHZ GAMING BUNDLE
Includes: Intel I9-10900
8Pack 32Gb DDR4 PC4-3600 RAM
OcUK Tech Labs 240mm Liquid CPU Cooler

OS Drive
970 EVO PLUS 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-E 3.0 X4 NVME SOLID STATE DRIVE

Main Drive
4TB BLACK 7200RPM 256MB CACHE INTERNAL PERFORMANCE HARD DRIVE (4005FZBX)

VR Headset
VIVE COSMOS VR GAMING HEADSET (99HARL001-00)

Throttle Quadrant
VPC MONGOOST-50CM3 THROTTLE

Joystick
VPC Constellation ALPHA-R+WarBRD base

Monitor
ODYSSEY LC49G95TSSUXEN 49" 5120X1440 VA 240HZ 1MS FREESYNC/G-SYNC COMPATIBLE CURVED GAMING M

Keyboard
GAMING K65 RGB RAPIDFIRE MECHANICAL KEYBOARD, BACKLIT RGB LED, CHERRY MX SPEED RGB UK

Mouse
ROG CHAKRAM ERGONOMIC RGB OPTICAL QI WIRELESS GAMING MOUSE (90MP01K0-BMUA00)

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Very quick thoughts - Nothing is overkill for flight sims in VR. Even the best equipment money can buy can’t come close to maxing them out at 90hz.

I’d go with x570 and a 5000 series Zen3 rather than intel currently, availability is slowly starting to sort itself out and should continue to improve through the month.

Don’t get a cosmos. Universally regarded as utter pap. Quest 2, Reverb G2 or Valve Index depending on budget/preference.

 

[Jumpjim]

Ooookay so lets go with:

ELITE TIER- ASUS CROSSHAIR HERO VIII X570 - AMD RYZEN 9 5900X @ 4.65GHZ OVERCLOCKED BUNDLE

That covers the PCIe-4 which I would like. I imagine performance is going to be broadly similar to the Intel processors?

As for VR Headets the HP Reverb G2 would be around the budget. Is that a decent one to go for in terms of performance and visuals?

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Generally speaking Zen3 beats out the current intel processors... they are currently the fastest gaming CPUs you can buy. Next gen intel out in March I believe, might just edge them out again for gaming but obviously need to wait for benchmarks/reviews and it isn’t looking likely to be by much so just depends if you want to wait.

G2 is in theory the best mainstream Sim headset, but it definitely has a few teething issues with USB compatibility... hopefully they will be resolved, but be aware it may be fine or it may require some troubleshooting. There is a large owners thread in this forum. The resolution is also a double edged sword as to run it at the full resolution is extremely demanding... it is however just awesome for readability of instruments etc if you can run it as intended.

Since it isn’t exactly a budget build you may as well go for a pcie 4.0 nvme too if going AMD. Something like the sabrent rocket 4 plus or Samsung 980 pro. Won’t make much difference to gaming now but may come in handy down the line as direct storage etc starts to come online... not much more in the scheme of things, especially relative to your build.

Any particular reason for the spinning disc?

 

[Jumpjim]

The costs are heading upwards and I have to draw the line somewhere.

A 1Tb PCIe-4 SSD and a 4Tb spinner should do for the moment. I can always upgrade the WD drive at some point in future or add in another PCIe-4 drive when I can stretch to it.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

If it's just a gaming rig though I just wouldn't bother with the HDD. For the price of the 4tb wd black you could get a 2tb nvme instead of the 1tb, a second 1tb nvme, or add an additional 2tb Sata ssd... all of which would be far better use of the same money for a gaming rig imo.

If you have some other need for 4tb of storage then fair enough, but I'd much rather have 2-3tb of ssd based storage for a gaming rig these days rather than 4tb of hdd.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Thoughts:
- PC spec looks ok
- You have no rudder. Apparently the current best is the Slav kit. Next up are the MFG Crosswinds
- I'm going to recommend not going with the Warbird base, but going with a T50 base, which works better with the 20cm extension that I'm also going to suggest

 

[drakulton]

Aaaaaand down the rabbit hole we go.

TrackIR coupled with NVidia3D glasses and monitor is an okay setup that works. VR just blows it out of the water. You could dip your toe into VR with a second hand oculus CV1 just to see if you like it or not. Some folks don't. If you do get on with it you'll probably end up getting a Q2, G2 or index, and then you need the cpu/gpu grunt to drive it.

 

[Jumpjim]

So the final spec (And amazingly I've got it all bought and shipped..just need to build it now) is:

ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wifi Motherboard
Ryzen 9 5900X
MSI GeForce Gaming X Trio RTX 3080 GPU
Corsair HXi Platinum 850W PSU
32Gb HyperX Fury 3200 RAM
Cooler Master Masterliquid ML360R CPU Cooler
OS: Sabrent Rocket 500GB PCIe 4 NVME
Main: Sabrent Rocket 2TB PCIE4 NVME
Samsung Odyssey G9 Monitor
Corsair K95 Keyboard
Corsair M65 Mouse

Thanks for all the input and suggestions...

 

[melmac]

Nice setup.

And no, I am not jealous at all in any way, no sir, not at all!!

 

[drakulton]

Don't you need a couple of 3090s in SLI to drive the latest headsets at max settings?

 

[jamief]

Don't you need a couple of 3090s in SLI to drive the latest headsets at max settings?

Isn't SLI pretty much dead? Don't think any modern games support it?

 

[Jumpjim]

So a few weeks on and I am delighted with the system...

Running DCS with everything set at high, at 5120x1440 resolution it is throwing out a solid 60 frames a second.

MS Flight Sim 2020, on ULTRA settings at 5120 x 1440 it shows around 40 fps at the moment.

The Samsung Odyssey G9 monitor is absolutely superb....

HP Reverb G2 is turning up this week so furthe reports once that is plugged in and running.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

HP Reverb G2 is turning up this week so furthe reports once that is plugged in, unplugged, try 10 different usb sockets, turn on, turn off, restart, update, uninstall, reinstall, do a rain dance and running.

Fixed that for you

 

[Jumpjim]

Lol... That bad...?

 

[lokiss]

Heh, i must get real lucky.

One and done with the G2, the Index was more problematic. Do yourself a favour Jumpjim, fire up LI2 before you jump on MS flight.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Lol... That bad...?

Almost... Most problems I had are now sorted through various means but it was far from a straightforward experience. Still have an audio bug which requires a very specific ritual to get audio correctly initialised and working. Thankfully I found out that sacrificing a goat was unnecessary which is good because I was running out of goats.

As @lokiss says (or would have said if he could put the letters in the right order ), IL2 well worth a try - a very good jump in/jump out ww2 flight sim experience and massively better performance than MSFS.

Now by the way, just when you thought you were getting fully set up you need to look into adding shakers and physics event based haptics.

 

[DD_Crash]

No pedals? MFG Crosswinds are a MUST!

 

[Jumpjim]

I'm looking to run this with DCS initially. How does that compare to IL2?

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Just different, I would say IL2 is a significantly easier drop in and play experience... DCS offers a more in depth sim but demands much more time investment. There are no clickable cockpits in IL2 and you can easily jump between different fighters without having to know too much. Aircraft are comparatively cheap and numerous compared to DCS ww2 offerings.

Performance wise, IL2 also significantly easier to run well in my experience.

Do you have rudders yet?