Racing Rig Advice

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Hey folks,

I'm looking to upgrade my PC for a newer machine at the end of the month, and I've pretty much decided on the following spec (as advised by my local computer shop). Now let me be honest, I know pretty much zero about PC's and what not, so I'm basing the decision on other peoples advice :)

Now obviously I'd expect the computer guy to know his stuff, but I'd appreciate you racing sim guys casting your eye over it and seeing if you think it would be up to the job of running our many fine sims :) I'm trying to achieve some pretty high settings in all the games, but my main go to sim is rFactor 2 and occasionally AC too. I run triple monitors.

The specs are:

Intel Core i7-6700K,
Nvidia GTX 980ti
Asrock Mobo
32GB Kit (2x16GB) DDR4-2400 RAM,
500Gb SSD,
4Tb HDD,
DVD RW,
650w Modular PSU (SVGA), Cooler
Master CM Storm Trooper USB3.0 XL ATX Case,
Windows 10 x64

So, do you think it should be up to the job?

Cheers folks!
 
Last edited:

Wicked

Horsepower! My kingdom for some horsepower!
Looks pretty good.

Don't need a GPU that powerful for any of the sims out atm. But doesnt hurt either I guess. It's better to grab the GTX 1080. It's actually faster and the 980ti is a older card now. No real reason to get that new anymore.

So yea, I'd advice getting a second hand 980ti somewhere, or getting a GTX 1070 or 1080. Depending on what resolutions you play, a 1070 or 1080 should be sufficient.

EDIT:
Just see you are in the UK. In that case the 1070 or 1080 will definitely be much better deals for you .They are in no short supply anymore. For a second I thought you were from Australia, which could mean you would be serious screwed over on the 1000 series cards :)
 
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Paul,

I would do a bit of browsing that's a really heavy spec there you could fly a space shuttle on it ! , what's the guy gonna charge you for that :cautious:.
I'm sure there nice people at the shop but they want your money mate, check online compare the price.

CPU - okay
GPU - Nvidia 10xx, a better buy
Ram - 16gb would do the job
SSD - okay , need about 60gb for windows 10
HDD - 1 or 2 TB would do for the average gamer
DVD - I don't have one an don't miss it, drivers are online now
PSU - okay
CASE - £149 on Amazon , average is about a £100
What motherboard ?

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/
https://www.scan.co.uk/
 
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Wicked

Horsepower! My kingdom for some horsepower!
To add to the above, I think it's best if you first describe what you want to do with the pc and how much money you want to spend on it. Those 2 factors decide what the best build is for you.

Paul Bennett is right in saying that the shop likes to sell you expensive stuff and that this build might as well be very much overkill.
 
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burrito

It's an opinion, nothing more, nothing less.
Will you be investing in VR? If yes then a 1070 will be more suited and more powerful for the same price (here in the UK anyway). Also I think you could get away with a i5 6600k rather than an i7, a lot cheaper for a minimal performance loss in games. Also not sure you'll need 32GB of RAM. The only game that may use that is GTA-V which is hardly a racing game :p
 
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CPU - I don't think you need an i7 6700k I would rather go for the i5 6600k save yourself £80/£90 but make sure its a "k" version as these can be overclocked, the ones's without "k" can't

GPU - That 980ti is an awesome card these come with 6GB of memory a newer card the 1070 comes with 8GB memory, so good for triples. I would go with the newer tech the 1070 but if you have loads of money :p the 1080 is the dogs boll.... :D

RAM - 32GB is more than enough, memory is pretty cheap at the moment so stick with 32GB

SSD - Yes yes yes, makes hell of a difference on startup & running games, everything loads much much quicker

HDD - Yes cheap as chips these days massive storage and pretty fast too these days

DVDRW - Yes, always handy

PSU - would like to know the make, need a good quality one

CASE - Hmmm, I had a look of that case, its fine, but at £140ish, you can get just as good at half the price

Also any idea what motherboard is in that system?

All in all Paul, its a nice piece of kit, although you probably paying premium prices :cry:
 
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Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Hey everyone,

First and foremost, thank you all so very much for taking some time out to help, really appreciate it :)

Bit of a clarification I should have mentioned in the OP. I already have the 980ti in my current rig, so upgrading to the 1080 isn't an option for me atm. However I do have an eye on one in the future, once Mrs. Jeffrey calms down from the price of getting the rig..... :)

Can you afford a 10 series card?
Hey Jim, as above, I've got the 980ti already so for the time being I'm going to stick with it until I upgrade to the 1080.

Well for the GPU..
This one is even cheaper then the GTX 980 ti.
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2862/geforce-gtx-1060-6-gb
Cheers Andrew, but as said above, the 980's already in place :)

It's better to grab the GTX 1080. It's actually faster and the 980ti is a older card now. No real reason to get that new anymore.

So yea, I'd advice getting a second hand 980ti somewhere, or getting a GTX 1070 or 1080. Depending on what resolutions you play, a 1070 or 1080 should be sufficient.
Cheers man! Again as above the old 980's stopping in place for the time being.. :)

CPU - okay
GPU - Nvidia 10xx, a better buy
Ram - 16gb would do the job
SSD - okay , need about 60gb for windows 10
HDD - 1 or 2 TB would do for the average gamer
DVD - I don't have one an don't miss it, drivers are online now
PSU - okay
CASE - £149 on Amazon , average is about a £100
What motherboard ?
Hey Paul, thanks for the breakdown. The HDD I actually specified 4TB because I've got a fair bit of content. The current one is, I think, 2TB and its getting pretty full. That doesn’t even include old rF1 stuff I've removed and Race07 things!

DVD I agree, don't really need it. But, it was basically dirt cheap so put it in, just in case :)
Case - To be honest I have no idea about these things, my only spec I gave him was to keep away from stupid lights and horrible flashy stuff :D Plenty of room to breathe and update internals in future. I'll have another look round see what I can find that's suitable. Thanks man.
Motherboard - Don't know. I'll ask and come back to you...

And yes, its proving to be expensive! No change from £1500 and that doesn't include the graphics card I already have!! Keep an eye out on the marketplace forum for my current pc going on sale at a bargain price soon :D

To add to the above, I think it's best if you first describe what you want to do with the pc and how much money you want to spend on it. Those 2 factors decide what the best build is for you.
Hey man, basically my sole purpose for this machine is sim racing. I want it to run the sims on triple screens, at high res, with good FPS in the most challenging conditions. I regularly race in an endurance league with 40 cars across 3 classes for between 6-12 & 24 hour events in rF2. This is the key one to get running at min 90fps in all conditions, with as higher settings as I can get away with.

Obviously I have an eye on VR going forward, once I've upgraded to the 1080 or upcoming 1080ti in future.

Budget isnt set as such. It basically depends on what the wife will let me spend! Its my hobby, I adore it, so every single penny I spend is, for me, well worth it.

Will you be investing in VR? If yes then a 1070 will be more suited and more powerful for the same price (here in the UK anyway). Also I think you could get away with a i5 6600k rather than an i7, a lot cheaper for a minimal performance loss in games. Also not sure you'll need 32GB of RAM. The only game that may use that is GTA-V which is hardly a racing game :p
Hello! Thanks for the comments man. Yes VR (as above) is something I want to engage with in the future for sure, but currently having a 980ti already I'm keeping my powder dry with that one atm.

So you think i5 should be ok? What sort of performance difference are we talking about? Basically I tried to future proof the system for a few years, would i5 be sufficient for a good while yet, or would I have to consider upgrading again in 12/18 months?

I've put RAM at 32 because its cheap :)
CPU - I don't think you need an i7 6700k I would rather go for the i5 6600k save yourself £80/£90 but make sure its a "k" version as these can be overclocked, the ones's without "k" can't

GPU - That 980ti is an awesome card these come with 6GB of memory a newer card the 1070 comes with 8GB memory, so good for triples. I would go with the newer tech the 1070 but if you have loads of money :p the 1080 is the dogs boll.... :D

RAM - 32GB is more than enough, memory is pretty cheap at the moment so stick with 32GB

SSD - Yes yes yes, makes hell of a difference on startup & running games, everything loads much much quicker

HDD - Yes cheap as chips these days massive storage and pretty fast too these days

DVDRW - Yes, always handy

PSU - would like to know the make, need a good quality one

CASE - Hmmm, I had a look of that case, its fine, but at £140ish, you can get just as good at half the price

Also any idea what motherboard is in that system?
Hey Paul, thanks for the notes mate :)
As mentioned above, I'll reconsider the CPU question, although what sort of performance difference are we talking about? If its less than £100 difference from 5 - 7 then it could be worth swallowing the cost and buying myself more "headroom" with the CPU?

GPU - Again as above, 980ti's already in, but would love to look some more at the 1070/80 in future (when the price comes down!)

PSU - I've asked for the make. Awaiting a reply. Same for mobo. Re the PSU, he came back with this the other day "I recall you wanted to use your existing card and have sufficiently specified a PSU (650w Gold Rated) that will power that and should also run the top of the line 1080 version in the future assuming its power consumption is similar to the current version."


Cheers guys, sorry for the late reply and long winded post :D
 
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burrito

It's an opinion, nothing more, nothing less.
You don't gain much (you do gain something but it's very game dependant) with an i7 in games. If you are going to be rendering/uploading videos and other heavy computational tasks then get the i7 but if it's just a gaming rig with occasional uploads/heavy tasks I'd personally go 6600k. The difference on scan.co.uk (one of the best UK providers in terms of fair prices) is £95 (£220 to £315) which may be worth it to you if you are going to be doing more than gaming.

Performance in games at multiple resolutions; http://www.ocaholic.co.uk/modules/smartsection/item.php?page=3&itemid=3948

And yeah at those prices I'd go 32GB (I must admit I didn't look at prices before I posted my first comment).
 
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Paul Jeffrey

Premium
I'm no expert here Paul :rolleyes: £1500 sounds about right. As said do a bit of online shopping there's sites that will config an build for you.
Cheers Paul, yeah will do.. Its one of those situations where if the price is close, I'd rather get it from a proper shop I can walk to from home and ask questions / get support. I know he's going to stick around, as they do quite a bit of IT support for the local schools and one or two firms round our way. However on the other hand, if its way less online for similar stuff, then hey, money with me is better than with the shop aint it ? :)

I'll spend some more of my employers time browsing the internet at stuff :) Love Friday's, no one's in :D
 
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You will never notice the difference if gaming between the i5 & the i7 they are so close in terms of FPS the extra £90/£100 is not worth it(in my humble opinion). Like others have said if you rendering massive files, CAD and all that gubbings then the i7 is a no brainer.
I'm still running a i5 2500k @ 4.0ghz from a system I built in 2011 :geek: and will be a couple more years yet before I think of upgrading. I add a new GPU every couple of years(GTX 970 atm)

Take a look at these benchmarks, they use a 980ti too :thumbsup:
http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/luke-hill/intel-core-i7-6700k-i5-6600k-skylake-cpu-review/8/
 
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Andy_J

I hate Race cheats ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Cheers Paul, yeah will do.. Its one of those situations where if the price is close, I'd rather get it from a proper shop I can walk to from home and ask questions / get support. I know he's going to stick around, as they do quite a bit of IT support for the local schools and one or two firms round our way. However on the other hand, if its way less online for similar stuff, then hey, money with me is better than with the shop aint it ? :)

I'll spend some more of my employers time browsing the internet at stuff :) Love Friday's, no one's in :D

Paul, I use SCAN for all my PC parts when I build a performance PC. But lately I actually use their ready built 3XS systems. They use only top components and big name motherboards etc. I would suggest following the advice given here and choose a SYSTEM that they will build and test for you. And they are very very good at customer service.
https://www.scan.co.uk/

Cheers
Andy
 
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