Gaming PC advice

I've just about had enough of F1 2011 and don't hold out much hope for 2012 to be a massive improvement so have decided to take the plunge and switch over to the PC platform from my PS3. I have no knowledge of computers and I'm asking for advice on what I should be looking for?
I want a PC to play Race07 and rfactor etc and the PC will not be used for anything other than racing sims.
I have a budget of around £500, suggestions, advice and tips appreciated?
 
You can have upto three computers running on one license on the same IP and all be activated.
Just like windows office, I know this as I had three running on one license last year.

Then I upgraded and the missus bought a new laptop so we have three different OS running now but all still run one license on Windows office.
You can upgrade to a whole new machine and carry the old OS across by phoning microsoft up on a free phone number and they will give you a code to activate it, but you cant do it with a corporate OEM.
 
Upvote 0
:O_o:
Any how!

Steve it all depends on what you are wanting to do later on with your pc?
I mean you can buy the parts as a starting point and then add later on to upgrade and improve the machines performance.

I saved and spent £1500 and got a nice rig, but there is only a few things I can do now to upgrade.

So for £500 you are better off saving a bit more and pushing the money up to get a better starting point.
For about £800 + would be a good point or goal to set for, as it is the GPU that will kick a hole in your budget at the moment.
My suggestion would be to get the best motherboard you can, then upgrade the other parts as and when possible.

You will waste your money if you buy a full rig for £500 and when you want to upgrade you'll probably find you will have to upgrade the whole rig.
 
Upvote 0
I'm definitely not trying to argue or anything but I recently upgraded to a new laptop from a 8 year old on. I was running 40fps on low settings and still happy with my racing. I got a new laptop (nothing special, Asus, AMD A6, Radeon card, 8 GB ram, blah blah blah) and I'm running solid 150fps with everything on high. Obviously the difference a gaming pc would be compared to a laptop would be huge anyways. I don't know if the European market is any different than the North American right now, but prices seriously dropped since I last looked a few years ago, drastically! My old lappy was over $1300, and the new one came under $700.
My point is that buying the brand new latest and greatest may not be the most economical way to have fun while keeping some pocket change. By no means is my technical knowledge up to date anymore, but I'm satisfied with the laptops ability for the next 5+ years. Considering upgrading to rFactor 2 in the near future honestly.

Just thought I'd throw that in there. :)
 
Upvote 0
I completely agree with Gary, the question is whether you want to be content now or future proof. With a lineup of rF2, GTR3, Asetto Corsa and pCars coming in the "near" future it would feel a bit bitter buying a rig now that has to be replaced within a year because it won't run these new titles smooth enough.
 
Upvote 0
As the op mentioned, he has no experience with pc's and has a budget of around £500. Spending £800 to me isn't necessary to get started.

The budget rigs I linked, are running i5 cpu's which is fine for any sim now and up coming titles! The 560ti or hd 6950 are perfectly fine for any of the titles Kjell mentioned too. Maybe not running the highest possible settings, but still decent looking graphics.

I spent £600 running a i5 cpu, also had a 6950 graphics card, was running rfactor2 and pcars without a problem. When I was in rf2 multiplayer I would lower the graphic to 'high' settings to make sure I had the best fps. Graphics are secondary to me anyway, and the lower settings doesn't make a huge difference to the actual racing.

I recently upgraded to a gtx670 because my 6950 went pop (still under warranty and waiting a replacement), but I didn't need to spend on a whole new rig, since purchasing a year ago! didn't even need a new power supply as the new gen graphics cards are more efficient, have more grunt but use less power.

You could spend thousands but I don't much point, a budget rig can be upgraded with just a new graphics card in 1-2 years time, and simply add a branded psu, so you have a nice clean and efficient power to the components and job done.

Both rigs I linked although are running budget H61M motherboards received good reviews, and with a i5 performed very well in tests.

Extra funds would be better spent on a monitor with a low response time, or even triple monitors :cool:
 
Upvote 0
I really can´t comment on budget as I have no idea about prices in UK, but Neils assumptions sounds about right if you ask me. :)
£5-600 on a new rig and you should be set for playing todays titles without a doubt, and tomorrows titles might not run at max but should run fine on lower settings, as long as you choose the right hardware for the money. :)
 
Upvote 0
Just reading about the new nvidia 660ti, which replaces the 560ti I mentioned. I think it's due for release in 2-3 weeks, and priced possibly around £250. Come Sept, some reference cards might be available for £200.

In the review it had better results than a gtx580! so basically far better than the 560ti as well. So scratch the 560ti suggestion, providing it's around the price range I mentioned. The 660ti is the card to get (if budget can stretch), will last a long time and perform well with any sim now and in the future.
 
Upvote 0
This is my setup, don't waste money when its not needed, i5 processor, 500 watt psu, gtx460, h80 water cooling, 8gig mem, 1000gig hard drive, Asus P8Z68-V LX Motherboard. and a 50 euro case... With this system i can upgrade the video card if needed,
duel cards will require a bigger PSU...

This is not the latest stuff but will keep me gaming for the next 3 years ...then you need a cheap keyboard and mouse, don't forget cables, same again no need for the most expensive... no point having a top end PC and watch it on a poor picture...so a good tv or monitor
i use a LG 40 inch lcd tv 100htz its good enough with very little lag. Turn off vsync.
then you need a operating system... win 7 x64....
I would look for second hand complete PC with operating system from ebay. This can be the best option when on a budget... but you always take your chances,
 
Upvote 0
ha ha ha
What a bombardment of old stock.

Phone scan Steve, talk to them.

They will help you with any questions you have, they will even build it for you.
Dont go for anything thats not PCIe 3 or old stock, its a waste and you will regret it.

Stay well away from the likes of 6950 I mean a 2Gb asus GT 640 will out perform a 6950 and its only £84.

But seriously the worst thing you can do is ask online, as people will always run you around in circles and make your head spin.
Call Scan they are great and very helpfull.
;)
 
Upvote 0
@Jari Vinnari

My point is that a 6950 is twice as much and is old stock, why buy old and obsolete cards with old chipsets.
Budget for a high end board with a new chipset and get a moderate new GPU, then as time goes on, you can upgrade the GPU as and when possible.
This is the problem with asking for advice about IT online, eveyones got an opinion.

The worst thing anyone can do is read web sites that do bench marks on high end rigs.
They mean nothing, bar what CAN be done if you max everything out, then by doing that you shorten the life span of the hardware.

I run a AMD Phenom II X6 3.4Ghz with a corsair H100 cooler, Asus Crosshair V 990FX, 16Gb Corsair 1600Hz 4x 4Gb Ram, Asus EAH6990, two raided Western digital drives, Corsair 1050 in a Corsair Obsidian Series 650D Case.
I have never overclocked it or even come close to maxing it out. An six months on it runs the same as the day I got it.
But if I want to upgrade, I will have to buy a whole new board, CPU and GPU.

Be wise and spend wise.
Dont read benchmarks or get pulled into the overclocking world and dont buy for the now, buy for the future so you can plan ahead.
 
Upvote 0
Heheh, leave it to MS to word their agreement like that. :)
The one caveat is that the license is tied to the motherboard only in as much as the system builder may replace the motherboard with a different one due to failure of the one installed and the license is still valid. As a system builder, I have asked MS on their system builder forums about that very thing and was told that as long as I was the system builder there was no issue with installing a new motherboard due to me being the one that had to support the installation in the first place.

As a system builder there were times when getting the same motherboard during our warranty period was either impossible, or not cost effective. We would ultimately put in what ever the customer wanted even if they wanted to pay for an upgrade and had the old system for almost a year, so we were still within the technical description of the OEM license when doing our upgrades.

That being said, yes I have been out of system building for a living for a couple of years and had forgotten that little caveat. :)

@adrian, Yes the HD 6950 is slightly older but does that mean the performance is any lower? No. The fact of the matter is that the performance without overclocking on the GT 640 is quite a bit lower than the 6950 in all but power consumption and noise areas. For a gaming rig, yes, plan for the future, but if you have a budget and are looking for the best bang for the buck, older tech as long as it is still valid performance wise is the way to go to save some cash.
I personally steer customers towards the newer graphics cards due to what you are talking about when there is no budget limit because the price difference isn't usually that huge. The price difference between an HD 6950 and the newer HD 7950 is $100.00 US, and is most likely due to the 7950 having 3Gb of DDR5 ram instead of 2Gb like the 6950.

Bottom line we all have our criteria that we need to follow when we are looking to build new or upgrade. Yes everyone has an opinion, but a good hardware tech will tell you straight up which is better without having to send you to an overclocking site to see what the max is. I seldom recommend any kind of overclocking due to the potential of damaging hardware in the process.
 
Upvote 0
Yeah and previous versions of Windows would install on several systems without a hitch, but starting with Windows 7 it will check your motherboard and refuse to activate the license online if it's not the same as it was activated on originally. Can still be done as mentioned but you need to call MS license support and have it manually activated and transferred to the new mobo. :)
 
Upvote 0
Adrian the 6950 might now be old stock, but still performs very well and is good value. Comparing to a 640 in anyway is :roflmao:

You spent £1500 and seem to chase the latest and greatest, when it's not required. Everything is old stock within 8 months, with new and shiny components released all the time. I could buy your components for far less than £1500 today, but does that mean it would not be a good rig to build just because it's not the latest gen!?

Steve said his budget was around £500, and unless he buys the components separately and builds the rig himself. Doing what you suggest is going to cost a lot more buying pre-built or scan building it just to get the newest chipset today which will be replaced in 8 months with new gen!

I spent less than half of what you spent on the rig itself. And then I also have a race rig, wheel, csr elite pedals, still spent less and will be good for years to come with any of the new sims!

Steve keep on budget and with any other funds look to buy hardware to increase the immersion and fun factor, which is what it's about in sim racing.

Of course that's just my opinion ;)
 
Upvote 0
I've just about had enough of F1 2011 and don't hold out much hope for 2012 to be a massive improvement so have decided to take the plunge and switch over to the PC platform from my PS3. I have no knowledge of computers and I'm asking for advice on what I should be looking for?
I want a PC to play Race07 and rfactor etc and the PC will not be used for anything other than racing sims.
I have a budget of around £500, suggestions, advice and tips appreciated?
i wasi n your boat last year, however i had the graphics card, the hard drive and monitor + Keyboard & mouse, all of which is worth £400

a budget of £500 is not enough im afraid, you will need atleast another £200-£300 to make the investment worth it.

please whatever you do, don't buy from overclockers, they are a rip off and you would lose atleast £50 if you buy your components from there, i know your new to this so i'll try and help you out.

i reccomend www.ebuyer.co.uk and www.scan.co.uk , it's best to pay for everything from one website, granted you may get better deals for certain components on other sites, but if anything goes wrong you have it all from one site (make's it so much easier also)

im going to help you out and give you my system specs, i built this PC early last year, and it will last another 1-2 years running todays and new games coming out without a problem at all (please bare in mind i have overclocked my Proccesor to 4.0 Ghz from the standard 3.0 Ghz


here's the list, click on the name for the purchase links.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-...c3-12800-(1600)-non-ecc-cas-8-8-8-24-xmp-150v
OCz Corsair Black Vengance 8GB DDR3 Ram
ATI Radeon HD 6870 Series 1GB
Intel Core I5 2500K Unlocked 3.3Ghz
500GB Western Digital Scorio Black or the superfast one but with less space OCZ Agility 3 240GB SSD
Monitor - Iiyama Prolite 23.6" E2473HDS-B1 LED Monitor Full HD with HDMI Fast 2ms
 
Upvote 0
@Neil Harvey
I didnt chase anything dude, I very carefully picked mine, for airflow around the case and to be able to have a dual GPU in crossfire mode.
I was going to go for (and can still) the AMD FX Series 8150 Black Edition 8 Core Processor Bulldozer, but the one I have does what I want.

But I dont just Sim on my machine, I enjoy artwork and rendering models, so for me the setup I got was the best I could get.

My cpu has never gone above 38°C, the same as my board and my 6990 GPU has never gone above 58°C even under heavy load with a render.
So what I compromised or balanced out in cost per value I got back in reduced render time and load time, at low temps.

;) we all have different needs for our pc's, not all of us bought our pc's to race 24/7.
:thumbsup:
Either way, you will have far more fun with a pc then with a console ;)
pic_one_by_adepenguin-d53bwuh.jpg
 
Upvote 0

Latest News

Online or Offline racing?

  • 100% online racing

    Votes: 90 7.6%
  • 75% online 25% offline

    Votes: 125 10.5%
  • 50% online 50% offline

    Votes: 171 14.4%
  • 25% online 75% offline

    Votes: 335 28.2%
  • 100% offline racing

    Votes: 465 39.1%
  • Something else, explain in comment

    Votes: 4 0.3%
Back
Top