Ready to buy my PC for iracing/rift setup

[mr308gtb]

I got my seat, got my wheel/pedals.

Any suggestions on an off the shelf PC (Dell or HP) that would be a good fit for the iracing and rift usage.
I do think a laptop would appeal to me, but am not sure - do these have enough inputs, etc?
Also - if I go for a desktop, do I need to buy a monitor or TV if I am using the rift? Would I need the monitor to launch and configure everything, etc? Would the monitor or TV simply be cool so other could watch what I am doing?

I am considering to put a desk not too far from the playseat, maybe I could leave the computer and monitor over by the desk and have the playseat about 6' away or to the side?
Also - do i need to get up the Rift sensors on the left/right of my playseat?

Thanks - still a lot of questions but making progress after 5 years!

 

[mr308gtb]

I did find a really good spec machine here locally, for a fair price. Not a red flags, alarm bells price, but good and a bit negotiable. What are the pitfalls with this route? If the machine boots up and I confirm the GPU inside the the evga 1080ti, should I be cautious? I also then have the box and stuff to upgrade more if needed. It has an i5-8600k, which I read should be fine for the VR.

 

[RasmusP]

Forgot about the triple dp ports, sorry. I simply grabbed the Asus as it is one of the "good and rather expensive but not super expensive" gpu series.
But you see: my basket is 500 dollar cheaper than what you mentioned with the same parts or probably better parts regarding motherboard and cpu cooler

PC building is rather easy as you probably found out by now. The only tricky parts are:
Putting the cpu in its slot, very very precisely and carefully but it will fit perfectly without pressure and attaching the cooler. They are always a pain... Good thing about it: you basically can't hurt modern cpus or motherboards and try as long as you need for it.

 

[RasmusP]

I did find a really good spec machine here locally, for a fair price. Not a red flags, alarm bells price, but good and a bit negotiable. What are the pitfalls with this route? If the machine boots up and I confirm the GPU inside the the evga 1080ti, should I be cautious? I also then have the box and stuff to upgrade more if needed. It has an i5-8600k, which I read should be fine for the VR.

It's fine but not really future proof. But if the price is decent, go fit it
Pitfalls are the motherboard and cpu cooler. Maybe ram frequency and the actual gpu design (cooler, backplate etc).
Nothing really crucial but you should check how many USB, display ports etc it got

 

[mr308gtb]

no, I understand won't be future proof, but it is quite a lot less... maybe $1150, just wondering if these things have potential for abuse. guy says it was used for gaming and not VR, says he needs money (but then said he was looking to get a new build with less power - so that seemed odd).

Is there anything I need to specifically test... or is it just boot up and make sure it starts. I assume the guy will wipe the drive clean...

what I am saying is in some time, i could eventually upgrade the package in this case... add RAM, add nw GPU, CPU, etc... this should last me a little while for iracing. No intention for other video games at all.

these are the specs:
Intel Core i5 8600K
2 x 8GB DDR4-2400 G.Skill RAM
Samsung 960 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD
Western Digital 3TB HDD
ASRock Z370 Pro4 Motherboard
EVGA GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GDDR5X
NZXT Kraken X42 Liquid Cooler
NZXT S340 ATX Case
Corsair CX600 PSU
Windows 10 Professional

 

[RasmusP]

no, I understand won't be future proof, but it is quite a lot less... maybe $1150, just wondering if these things have potential for abuse. guy says it was used for gaming and not VR, says he needs money (but then said he was looking to get a new build with less power - so that seemed odd).

Is there anything I need to specifically test... or is it just boot up and make sure it starts. I assume the guy will wipe the drive clean...

what I am saying is in some time, i could eventually upgrade the package in this case... add RAM, add nw GPU, CPU, etc... this should last me a little while for iracing. No intention for other video games at all.

these are the specs:
Intel Core i5 8600K
2 x 8GB DDR4-2400 G.Skill RAM
Samsung 960 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD
Western Digital 3TB HDD
ASRock Z370 Pro4 Motherboard
EVGA GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GDDR5X
NZXT Kraken X42 Liquid Cooler
NZXT S340 ATX Case
Corsair CX600 PSU
Windows 10 Professional

In theory that's a really really solid VR pc!
I'm wondering about the reasoning though...

The thing is: even if it boots normally you don't know whether or not it will be stable over hours. And you can't test it.
The reasoning seems shady from my perspective which is why I would advice against it. Sadly...
What you could do if you wanna save money is to just build a cheaper pc. Grab the parts used. Often you can find a gpu when people bought a better one and a mobo+ram+cpu+cooler package, again, when people upgraded.
There you'll have a lot lower risk of being scammed as it's a solid reasoning when you simply upgraded and now sell your parts.
Buy a new case and psu and you're good to go

 

[GEO147]

no, I understand won't be future proof, but it is quite a lot less... maybe $1150, just wondering if these things have potential for abuse. guy says it was used for gaming and not VR, says he needs money (but then said he was looking to get a new build with less power - so that seemed odd).

Is there anything I need to specifically test... or is it just boot up and make sure it starts. I assume the guy will wipe the drive clean...

what I am saying is in some time, i could eventually upgrade the package in this case... add RAM, add nw GPU, CPU, etc... this should last me a little while for iracing. No intention for other video games at all.

these are the specs:
Intel Core i5 8600K
2 x 8GB DDR4-2400 G.Skill RAM
Samsung 960 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD
Western Digital 3TB HDD
ASRock Z370 Pro4 Motherboard
EVGA GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GDDR5X
NZXT Kraken X42 Liquid Cooler
NZXT S340 ATX Case
Corsair CX600 PSU
Windows 10 Professional

I'd say if your not sure about building one and the guy selling it can prove it isn't stolen and it runs properly (ask him to show you a game running on it and the temps are ok) then go for it. A used 1080ti is €600 or so alone. The CPU is recent enough and worth a couple hundred also .
If he bought the parts himself he should be able to prove it as he would have receipts or email confirmation of buying the parts.

Not everyone wants to build a PC. My brother had me build his even though he would have been well able to do it himself .

The very best thing about building one yourself is that you will learn so much and would also be best placed to repair it or upgrade it in future having built it yourself to begin with .

 

[mr308gtb]

exactly... I totally agree with you. turns out there is another nice machine for sale on the other side of town... I decided to look these up. ibuypower... see they are from Best Buy (big retailer here in the US). Check out this machine they have on offfer. i7-8700, rtx 2700, a pretty detailed review by a builder said the machine was really great... this seems like a good option for me. I do realize, its not as cool as building one.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypo...Vj7SzCh1ayA_AEAQYASABEgILufD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[mr308gtb]

i think that is a good price for what it is now that you all have educated me. I watched some youtube videos of older cpu running gtx1070 cards and graphics looked good enough for me to enjoy. I think would do fin for a long time. too bad it is now the i7-8700k cpu.

 

[GEO147]

What I would do is find out the exact parts in that build. Allow $80 for the case and see what it would cost you to buy those exact parts .
Then you will know exactly what you would save by building it yourself. So essentially the difference in price is what you are paying someone else to build it .
I'd say the cast to have someone build a PC for you is around 100 bucks .
Then you will know if it's a good deal or not but I'd imagine it ain't too bad a deal .
I think Linus Tech Tips did a video on ibuypower PC's .

 

[mr308gtb]

I did a quick sampling of the parts. doesnt seem like I could build this for much less or even that price at all... 4.8 star reviews and many people saying this great value. I am going to pull the trigger at the sale price of $1350... much more digestable than my first look yesterday at nearly double. thanks everyone, I learned a ton and can upgrade this over time as I get more into the sim racing...

Cant wait for F1 and indy to start in a month... hoping Ferrari can do something this year!

 

[RasmusP]

exactly... I totally agree with you. turns out there is another nice machine for sale on the other side of town... I decided to look these up. ibuypower... see they are from Best Buy (big retailer here in the US). Check out this machine they have on offfer. i7-8700, rtx 2700, a pretty detailed review by a builder said the machine was really great... this seems like a good option for me. I do realize, its not as cool as building one.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypo...Vj7SzCh1ayA_AEAQYASABEgILufD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Good and solid build. Only negative points:
The motherboard doesn't allow for overclocking and the i7 8700 in it can't be overclocked either. Not that much of a performance loss though and should be plenty enough for VR
Price is a good one from my perspective!

The overclocking performance gain at some point in the future would be around 10-15%. I don't think it would make a big difference to your VR experience though. But thought I'd mention it to you as modern cpus are extremely easy to overclock. 2-3 settings while following a guide and you are done.
But for that price... Can't really argue against it

 

[mr308gtb]

ok - last decision point - for an extra $250 - should I go for this... gets me the rtx2080, i7-8700k, a better MB, smaller SSD, but a 3TB HD.

https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gaming-RDY-TRIIBG212

 

[mr308gtb]

my math was wrong, haha... diff is $350, but I found at $50 coupon code and seems these guys dont charge taxes b/c not in my state... so best buy price would be 1441 vs this other at 1650... so $209 difference, seems like an easy choice to get the better one.

 

[RasmusP]

ok - last decision point - for an extra $250 - should I go for this... gets me the rtx2080, i7-8700k, a better MB, smaller SSD, but a 3TB HD.

https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gaming-RDY-TRIIBG212

Yes, yes and yes. I know many would say it's not needed but it's "a little more" now and in a few years you can drive it to its limit with some solid guides and just gain enough performance to keep you happy.
I did this with my I7 2600k in 2011 and everybody I know upgraded up to today with their non-k i7 or i5's... but I can still enjoy pretty much every game. It's borderline weak but it's okay. Thanks to overclocking it to its limit.
I just regret not having bought a more expensive motherboard that would allow me a little more.

 

[mr308gtb]

guys, really cant say enough how appreciative I am. so awesome that complete strangers just jump in and help out thousands of miles away. I will pay it forward - many times. thank you again.

 

[RasmusP]

guys, really cant say enough how appreciative I am. so awesome that complete strangers just jump in and help out thousands of miles away. I will pay it forward - many times. thank you again.

Don't forget to report back when you have set it all up

 

[mr308gtb]

Done = ordered!!! Will get it early next week. Just got an update that my F1 Red Playseat will arrive tomorrow. So I can set it up this weekend... Ferrari 488 Challenge Wheel TX-PC coming next week.

 

[GEO147]

Done = ordered!!! Will get it early next week. Just got an update that my F1 Red Playseat will arrive tomorrow. So I can set it up this weekend... Ferrari 488 Challenge Wheel TX-PC coming next week.

Super stuff you got a great PC comming .I just ordered Fanatec V3 pedals so I'm excited myself .

See you on the track!

 

[callumjtc]

Done = ordered!!! Will get it early next week. Just got an update that my F1 Red Playseat will arrive tomorrow. So I can set it up this weekend... Ferrari 488 Challenge Wheel TX-PC coming next week.

Nice one! Can't wait to see you underway with some serious sim kit!