new player – first build

[jumento]

I'm leaning toward a custom build for my first VR rig:

 

i7-8700K
Corsair - H100i CPU Cooler
Gigabyte - Z370 AORUS Gaming 7
G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB DDR4-3200
Samsung - 970 Evo 1.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM
EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
Thermaltake - View 71 TG RGB ATX Full Tower Case
Corsair - 850W 80+ Platinum Power Supply
Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

 

how does this look to everyone? will all these parts play nicely together for a good Rift experience?

 

[dburne]

 

Looks pretty good to me!

 

I do hope you plan on putting your games on the SSD rather than the platter drive.

Much better loading times.

[jumento]

1 hour ago, dburne said:

I do hope you plan on putting your games on the SSD rather than the platter drive.

 

that's the plan! 

[jumento]

PC Part Picker estimates the wattage of this system at: 120W-474W 

 

will the Corsair 850 give me enough headroom for this system, OC'd, and maybe potential upgrades down the road?

 

[Warpig]

The 850 will serve you well.

 

EDIT: With a single GPU setup.

Edited November 1, 2018 by Warpig

[jumento]

8 minutes ago, Warpig said:

The 850 will serve you well.

 

EDIT: With a single GPU setup.

 

awesome, thanks for the insight!

[Guest deleted@134347]

13 hours ago, jumento said:

G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB DDR4-3200
 

 

get a 3200 CAS14 latency memory.. or go with 3600 CAS16...

 

the lower CAS the better VR you'll get.

[jumento]

1 minute ago, moosya said:

get a 3200 CAS14 latency memory.. or go with 3600 CAS16...

 

 

yes! I chose the Ripjaws V based on it's latency – CAS14

 

thanks for the confirmation!

[curiousGamblerr]

I've had this extra EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 power supply in my closet for like a year and a half, still sealed: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IKDETOC/

Honestly I was gonna say $50 and its yours but I'm never going to use it and its being wasted, so its yours for the cost of shipping if you want. My profile says Richmond, VA but I'm actually in Boston, MA now, so not too far from MI. PM me if you're interested.

 

On topic, I have a very similar build and it's served me well for almost two years now, though I haven't tried with VR yet.

[jumento]

wow, that's very generous of you... I just PM'd you

[Alonzo]

One thing to consider is a 9000-series CPU. IL2 will only use at most 4 cores, so a 6-core non-hyperthreaded chip will be better if you can overclock it higher than  the 8700k. Of course pricing will be different too, so that's a consideration. The 9000-series CPUs also have solder instead of paste within the chip, leading to higher overclocks. If I were building a rig today I would look at the 9600k or 9700k and put a 360mm AIO on it for best overclocking.

 

For the motherboard, also look for one that is good for overclocking. You want 10 or more power phases for best OC.

 

Someone already mentioned low-latency RAM, which is the other thing IL2 likes very much in VR.

[Seb71]

Leave some money for joystick, throttle, pedals (if you don't already have those).

[jumento]

16 minutes ago, Alonzo said:

One thing to consider is a 9000-series CPU. IL2 will only use at most 4 cores, so a 6-core non-hyperthreaded chip will be better if you can overclock it higher than  the 8700k. Of course pricing will be different too, so that's a consideration. The 9000-series CPUs also have solder instead of paste within the chip, leading to higher overclocks. If I were building a rig today I would look at the 9600k or 9700k and put a 360mm AIO on it for best overclocking.

 

For the motherboard, also look for one that is good for overclocking. You want 10 or more power phases for best OC.

 

Someone already mentioned low-latency RAM, which is the other thing IL2 likes very much in VR.

 

I was wondering if I should consider the 9000 series – will do!

 

360mm AIO – does brand matter? what's the consensus around here?

 

mobo – do they list the power phases? how do you know?

 

4 minutes ago, Seb71 said:

Leave some money for joystick, throttle, pedals (if you don't already have those).

 

right now, that's all I have! warthog stick/throttle and Saitek pedals

[Alonzo]

There was a Coffee Lake mobo roundup that listed power phases, so I used that to narrow down my options. With the 9000-series I'm not sure what the state is for the motherboards. Basically you want to pay at least about US$100-150 for a mobo, and look for stuff that has overclocking capability. Here's a Z390 roundup from Tom's (who I think are a bit of a crappy outlet these days, but they do at least list the power phases and stuff like that).

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-z390-motherboards,37896.html

 

You can also use a Z370 motherboard as long as it's had a BIOS update. Those are going to be cheaper but still good for OCing a chip.

[jumento]

1 hour ago, Alonzo said:

There was a Coffee Lake mobo roundup that listed power phases, so I used that to narrow down my options. With the 9000-series I'm not sure what the state is for the motherboards. Basically you want to pay at least about US$100-150 for a mobo, and look for stuff that has overclocking capability. Here's a Z390 roundup from Tom's (who I think are a bit of a crappy outlet these days, but they do at least list the power phases and stuff like that).

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-z390-motherboards,37896.html

 

You can also use a Z370 motherboard as long as it's had a BIOS update. Those are going to be cheaper but still good for OCing a chip.

 

Alonzo,

 

Thanks so much... that's a very useful link! I skimmed it for now, I'll study it when I have more time, but it seems to confirm that I'm on the right track with the Z390 Gigabyte Aorus ["authentic 12-phase power"]... my first choice at this point.

[Seb71]

12 hours ago, jumento said:

mobo – do they list the power phases? how do you know?

 

Link (in German, but the table is universal) for Socket 1151 motherboards.

[jumento]

4 hours ago, Seb71 said:

 

Link (in German, but the table is universal) for Socket 1151 motherboards.

 

GREAT table, thanks Seb71!

[Seb71]

Make sure you also check the links below the table.

 

And you can also search for "motherboard VRM" for explanations.

[jumento]

3 minutes ago, Seb71 said:

Make sure you also check the links below the table.

 

And you can also search for "motherboard VRM" for explanations.

 

will do, thanks again!!!

[jumento]

why doesn't userbenchmark.com include motherboards?

 

is there a site that benchmarks cpu/mobo combos?

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

1 hour ago, jumento said:

why doesn't userbenchmark.com include motherboards?

Motherboards don’t affect performance like other components, so it’s not easy to compare them. A particular CPU/RAM combination at certain settings will generally achieve the same performance with any motherboard. Motherboards usually only significantly affect edge cases like overclocking stability. 

 

1 hour ago, jumento said:

 

is there a site that benchmarks cpu/mobo combos?

Silicon Lottery’s QVL for motherboards is probably the closest thing, but again, it’s only relevant for overclocking.

[jumento]

1 hour ago, Mitthrawnuruodo said:

Motherboards don’t affect performance like other components, so it’s not easy to compare them. A particular CPU/RAM combination at certain settings will generally achieve the same performance with any motherboard. Motherboards usually only significantly affect edge cases like overclocking stability. 

  

Silicon Lottery’s QVL for motherboards is probably the closest thing, but again, it’s only relevant for overclocking.

 

ok... it's all starting to make more sense... thanks!

[jumento]

would a RTX 2080 work as well or hopefully a little better than a 1080 Ti for IL2/VR?

 

[dburne]

4 hours ago, jumento said:

would a RTX 2080 work as well or hopefully a little better than a 1080 Ti for IL2/VR?

 

 

No, I would go 1080 Ti versus the 2080. 

Or if money is no big concern the 2080 Ti. The gains are somewhat minimal though between 2080 Ti and 1080 Ti.

[jumento]

at $900+ the 1080 Ti isn't looking like a great deal these days!

 

found this one on eBay for under $600: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-Duke-11GB-GDDR5X-PCI-Express-3-0-x16-Video-Card/264038073582?epid=245282127&hash=item3d79e544ee:g:MZ4AAOSweltbDr1N:rk:43:pf:0

 

are all 1080 Ti's created equal... or equal enough? 

[dburne]

1 hour ago, jumento said:

at $900+ the 1080 Ti isn't looking like a great deal these days!

 

found this one on eBay for under $600: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-Duke-11GB-GDDR5X-PCI-Express-3-0-x16-Video-Card/264038073582?epid=245282127&hash=item3d79e544ee:g:MZ4AAOSweltbDr1N:rk:43:pf:0

 

are all 1080 Ti's created equal... or equal enough? 

 

Just checked EVGA, they don't even have their 1080 Ti listed any longer.

They do show in stock a 1080 Gaming at 550 USD.

https://forums.evga.com/EVGA-GeForce-10-Series-f103.aspx

 

Or a 1070 Ti FTW2 at 590 USD.

https://www.evga.com/products/productlist.aspx?type=0&family=GeForce+10+Series+Family&chipset=GTX+1070+Ti

 

Shortage of new 1080 Ti's must account for the higher used market prices.

[jumento]

1 minute ago, dburne said:

Just checked EVGA, they don't even have their 1080 Ti listed any longer.

 

 

with that in mind, does that make the 2080 look better in your eyes? isn't it roughly the same as the 1080 Ti?

[icecream]

Get a cheap 1080ti off ebay, the RayTracing simply isn't worth it, that plus only 8gb on the 2080 compared to the 1080ti with 11GB vram.

[jumento]

15 minutes ago, icecream said:

Get a cheap 1080ti off ebay, the RayTracing simply isn't worth it, that plus only 8gb on the 2080 compared to the 1080ti with 11GB vram.

 

are all 1080 Ti's created equal? I'll be fine with anything that says 1080 Ti with 11GB?

[jumento]

update: my rig is up and running! I'm installing software now [tons of fun, especially for a mac guy!]

 

here's what I ended up putting in my Corsair Crystal 570X case:

i7-9700

Corsair H150i Pro

Z390 Aorus Pro

16GB Ripjaws 3200 [14 CAS]

970 Evo 1TB SSD

Barracuda 2TB HD

EVGA 1080 Ti

EVGA 850 G2 [thanks 19//curiousGamblerr!!!]

 

thanks to all for all the help/advice!

Edited November 30, 2018 by jumento

[chiliwili69]

On 11/1/2018 at 6:37 PM, Alonzo said:

If I were building a rig today I would look at the 9600k

 

Yes, I also would go to the i5-9600K if I were building a rig today. Assuming unlimited budget and only for IL-2 VR.

You should look at how easy is to reach high frequencies in the CPU and obtain a good CPU Single-Core performance at that maximum frequency.

Many benchmarks in the web (like Passmark) mix all the single-core results regardless of the frequency of the CPU. So it doesnot deliver any info at all. (I wrote several times to Passmark so they can publish the test results at every frequency, but apparently they are not understanding the value of what I am requesting)

But you can look at Userbecnhmark, not at the general  list, but comparing individual CPUs. So you get the max freq reached and the SC mark for that max freq reached, which is exactly want we want to know.

For exmaple, here I am comparing the 9600K with the 8700K, they both reach max freq. 5.2 GHz and they deliver almost identical Peak Overclocked Bench performance at that freq. (154 vs 155). 

It would be most likely easier to reach 5.2 in a 9600K than in a non-delided 8700K.

Edited November 30, 2018 by chiliwili69