CHOLTON

I'm looking into having a race sim setup and pc . I love racing games like Forza , GT5 but there seems to be a better choice of simulators for pc .

I know very little about pc's but I've been looking on overclockers site at some of there built gaming pc's for around 700 quid and hooking it up to 3 screens , getting myself a nice bucket seat and making a base for it and then a nice wheel and pedals to finish it off .Looked on Fanatecs site and they have some nice stuff .

Anyone on here have anything like this and any decent advice before I start ?
Not looking to spend a fortune either so maybe I could get away with a cheaper pc as I'm not sure what spec I'd need so any advice on this would be great !

Thanks

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

3 screens = GOOD graphics card with 3+gb of memory on board and the ability to run multi screens.
You may have to do your homework on the graphics cards here as that may end up being your greatest cost

Tony

CHOLTON

I think I'll give overclockers a call and see what spec they suggest I'll need . I think 3 screens just makes the experience that much better .

Leggie

you can get a ati card with eyefinity support, then you can link 3 screens.

The easyer way to do it is to get a good gaming pc with a 2gig video card, use 1 screen, get a logitech g25 as there now going for under £100, and get a subcription to i racing.

http://www.iracing.com/

TheGermanMan

Fanatec I can highly recommend. I have the "Fanatec GT3RS V2". It you like play also on the console the better choice would be GT2RS.

Imo you dont need 3+ screens. Get just one big ex. 24" for beginning and good hardware to play on high FPS. Thats very important to have high FPS. I could write you the reason in german, but in english I have problems with technical vocabulary.

Look that your PC have an actual CPU like Intel i5 oder i7 oder AMD that I dont know. Your Mainboard maybe not just one PCI slot that you can upgrade to a second GPU in future. The GPU should be also actual. ATI 6xxx, 7xxx oder Nvidia GTX 5xx, 6xx. The memory should be 4gb or more. Nice to have is SSD instead of a HDD or both and SSD just for programs and user data and HDD for other data.

Sims to recommend are iRacing, rFactor (now 2 is comming, much modding), LFS (bit outdated but good for beginners imo). These are the most common sims. There are many more but just a few are really great.

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

Eyefinity really is incredible if you can stretch to it, but your going to need to budget about £450 for the graphics card to run it all smoothly if your looking at large resolutions like 5760x1200

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Proper Sim Racing,you will looking at LFS or rFactor which are best out there racing games and they're probably most realistic,they don't have extreme great graphics(yes have with some HDR textures)

About the recommended setup:Eyefinity cards should be best and 3xLCD plus Logitech G25(is daddy of all steering wheels and they're still great and you can run this with GT5 too) or ThrustMaster T500 RS(tried one and love it),plus you can buy some Usb instrument cluster(speedo,rev counter,gear indicator) for racing simulators

Something like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZozGny2BRc



Jura

CHOLTON

- Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 Gaming Case - Black (default choice, options available)
- Power Supply: OCZ ZS 750w PSU
- CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz Sandybridge overclocked to 4.40GHz
- Motherboard: Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION **
- Cooler: Corsair A50 CPU Cooler
- RAM: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Hard Drive: 500GB HDD
- Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5450 SILENT 512MB (default choice, options available)
- Sound: Realtek 7.1 Channel Sound (On-Board)
- Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW.


Been looking on Overclockers and would this spec do , Forget the 3 screen setup for now . This spec is priced at 668 I believe

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Spec is good,but i would add more RAM(8GB or 16GB) and better GPU/Graphic card HD6870/6970 if its possible or still good HD5870


Jura

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

GTR is best sim imo. Gfx are still decent today to.

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Agreed GTR is good game,still love this game

Are you tried rFactor?

Love the rFactor just due is easy to mod


Jura

CHOLTON

I've played gtr before and loved it , rfactor and Iracing look awesome too .
Thanks for all the replies so far .

NickAdams

iTrader: (5)

I'm also going down the same route after many years of PS3 and Xbox 360 racing games...

I already have a VR3, Fanatec wheel/pedals and Pioneer 5.1 so the next step is to build myself a PC as I recently tried IRacing at Oulton Park on a simulator with actuators. It was VERY good and although I can live without the actuators on my setup (They're mega bucks!!!) I want proper sim racing now. 1080P is as high as I want to go resolution wise (Sharp 22in LED)

Keep us updated with what you decide to go for!

Nick

eagle

persnally i would go i5 2500k
minimum 8gb ram, win 7 64 bit .
asus or gigabyte mobo,now the new batch of z77 boards have appeared.
with a 79** ati card so that if you wanted to go eyefinity you could at a later date (2 other moniters)
you could crossfire a couple of 6870'2 that would give some nice results graphics wise.
case is really something you like, coolermaster trooper looks good on paper...
i went for a xfx850 watt as im looking at expanding my system and wanted the overhead to be able to do it "when i have the money"