Sim Racing PC information needed

[Decenten]

I am looking at upgrading my $150 PC to a new custom built one. Would like to know some must have components that i should include in this PC. Any advice is good advice.

 

[Georg Siebert]

Welcome to the PC Masterrace!

Hi Josh,

I appreciate you inquiry. To make better judgements and to give you pointed advice, we first need to know

1. Your budget
2. What country you live in, to guide you to trusted selling platforms
   
3. Your general level of knowledge and experience regarding PC hardware and building one
4. Do you want to built it yourself, or do you have knowledgable friends who can help you / do you want a store to build it for you
   
5. Your target performance
6. What (sim-, racing-) games you want to play with it
7. You preferences regarding quality, energy efficiency, price/performance ratio, manufacturers, overclocking or not
   
8. What cooling you want to have [air, water, (liquid nitrogen?)]
9. Do you need a monitor, peripherals, cables, small stuff, etc
10. What other tasks should this pc be able to accomplish quickly/reliably
11. How much futureproof should it be (2,3,5 years)
12. Do you need a new case, dvdrom, cardreader, additional cooling fans
13. Stuff I didn't think of

The more specific you are, the more precise we can help you. In the meantime you may inform yourself about that topic and PC hardware in general here:

guru3d.com
tomshardware.com/
geizhals.eu (although mostly in German, as tool for price and spec comparison useful)

cheers

 

[Decenten]

My budget would be between $700-$1400
I am in Australia
I have a little bit of knowledge and have lots of friends who have built there own PCs that can help me with building.
I would like to be able to run AC and F1 2013 on mid performance with ease currently running low settings so i can race against more AI
I play most of them, AC, F1 2013, rFactor, Race 07 but would like run iracing and rFactor 2
I have all of a keyboard and mouse and wheel but would like to get a new monitor
I would like the cooling to be affordable but dont want to risk overheating components
I am open to all manufacturers and would like good performance to price ratio. If overclockiing is better that is something i havent looked into
I would need to have a new case and dvdrom, cardreader, additional cooling fans etc
I would like to be able to run project cars when it is released.
My PC is probably 5 years out so it would be good to have a PC that can run games that are released in 4 years or so.
Thanks for the quick reply and sorry about not including a lot of info in the first post

 

[Georg Siebert]

Thanks for the info, Josh. This is something we can work with. I'll come back to you in 15 hours - it's currently half past 3 CET at night here.

Edit: in the meantime, our other resident hardware nerds like Mike @Blkout and @Michael Hornbuckle can push you along.

 

[Decenten]

Okay thanks for that

 

[Georg Siebert]

Will provide a preliminary list of components tomorrow.

In the meantime, to what (online-) shops do you have access to?

 

[James Maskell]

What state do you live in will narrow the store question down haha. MSY will probably be the cheapest and have stores around the country.

 

[Decenten]

South Australia if that helps. I live outside of the city so not many computer stores

 

[Decenten]

Will provide a preliminary list of components tomorrow.

In the meantime, to what (online-) shops do you have access to?

I can go on most sites. I mostly use pccasegear for other parts that I have bought

 

[Georg Siebert]

Component list: 03.08.14

I've posted links to german pc hardware sites as well, I know Computerbase very well and it's highly regarded.
We can transfer the Euro prices later in $ Aus.

Philosophy:
Good price / perfomance, good compontents where it matters (CPU, GPU, mainboard, PSU), heat will be no issue
Aim: mid settings for todays games, playable settings for games in a couple of years (4)

CPU & Mainboard: what I wrote here

CPU
Socket 1150 - Intel Xeon E3-1231 v3
Haswell, Quadcore, 22nm, Hyperthreading, 3,4Ghz normal, 3,8 with Turbo
on market since May of this year, replacement for 1230 v3
+ very good price/performance ratio
+ Xeon CPUs are perfectly fine for private consumer grade desktops and pc gamers
- no free multiplikator (K models)
- Overclocking only up to ~4Ghz feasable
- no integrated graphics unit

Benchmarks /Performance comparison:
http://www.computerbase.de/2014-05/intel-xeon-e3-1231-v3-nachfolger-1230-test/2/ (hover over cpu names to see % comparisons)
Wattage and Temperature:
http://www.computerbase.de/2014-05/intel-xeon-e3-1231-v3-nachfolger-1230-test/5/
Hierarchy chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html (further information, Xeons are not listed)

Price: 206€

Alternative:
Intel i5-4570, 4x 3,2Ghz
lower performance, 20% cheaper
is supported by the mainboard below
same price / perfomance as the Xeon
Price: 164€

Mainboard
Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H
specs: http://geizhals.at/eu/gigabyte-ga-h97-d3h-a1107992.html
on market since May this year as well
notable features
+ dual bios
+ solid capacitors
new ones:
+ (native) USB 3.0
+ (native) 6x SATA 6Gb/s
+ HDMI 1.4
+ 1x M.2 10Gb/s (new interface for SSD drives)

full specs:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4962#sp

M.2 SSD support list:
http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Document/mb_m.2_support.pdf

CPU Support List (does support Xeon 1231 v3)
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Gigabyte/GA-H97-D3H(rev._1.0).html
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=4962 (forth from bottom for the Xeon)

Price: 86€

GPU
Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 OC, 3 GB GDDR5
mid performance
reasonable power consumption
good price /performance
Benchmarks: http://www.computerbase.de/2014-08/grafikkarten-2014-im-vergleich-sommerausgabe/3/
3GB makes it somewhat futureproof
Price: 175€

PSU
bequiet! Straight Power E9 450W ATX 2.4, without Cablemanagement
80Plus Gold certified, mean efficiency: 90%
450W is more than enough, with the components above, peak power need should be 00W
In general, people usually buy overpowered PSUs. Their optimal efficiency is at 80-90% power need for most of them.
Price: 68€

RAM
Any reasonable 8gb kit will do with 1,5V, DDR3-1333 or 1600. DDR4 is just out and too expensive atm. Consult the RAM support list of the MB.
Price: ~60€

Cooling (Air)
for CPU: Scythe Mugen 4, very good price/performance, silent and if need be powerful
Price: 34€
2 x Casefans 120mm: either bequiet! or from Noiseblocker
(number of case fans depends on the case itself)
Price per: ~10€
don't go cheap on the fans, these 10€ ones are worth it.

HDD
2TB or 3TB
something from Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital
Prices: ~60€ - 90€
to get an SSD might be too expensive

DVD ROM
something from LG, LiteON, or similar
Price: ~10-15€
if you want a BlueRay player, that will cost you ~50€

Card Reader
RaidSonic Icy Box IB-865-B or similar
Price 17€

Case
very subjective choice, make sure its an ATX 2.2 or newer, the one with the PSU at the bottom and space for lenghty graphics cards.
When you don't plan to move it frequently, then steel will do, otherwise go for aluminium. The fewer plastic parts it has, the better.
Price: ranging from 50 to 120€

Monitor
(will add later)

Small stuff
Thermal compound: Arctic Silver 5 - 2,5g syringe
Price: 5€ (don't go cheap on that as well)
Cables: most what you will need will come in the boxes with the mainboard or PSU
maybe you need a CAT5 network cable, from your pc to your router -> plan where your pc will stand and messure the distance to your router
Insulator material/blankets from bitumen (optional), to reduce noise and vibration

----------------------
Total: from 743€ to ~830€
update: +17€

missing: Monitor, Cardreader, something I forgot

Going with current exchange rate of 1.44 $ Aus for 1 €, that'll be 1070$ Aus already, excluding a potential >300$ Aus Monitor.
You might go with a cheaper CPU or case, but to go cheap on the mainboad or PSU is really not advised. The ATI 280 has a really good price performance ratio, however the price for components in Australia can vary with european prices, of course. Then, other components might be better to get. Project cars seems to be hardware intensive as well, as far as I'm informed, it especially profits from higher resolutions -> 4K please. Maybe you get 30-35 fps in 1080p and 16 AF with this rig.
Of course more fps will lower settings, but probably not 50 or 60.
Source:

The main difficulty is to build a pc that should last for 3 or 4 years with that budget.
I'm fighting with my 2 year old 7850 OC to get above 60 fps with mid-settings in AC already, for instance.

 

[Decenten]

I should be able to get parts cheap here i have friends in the pc buisness that could give me parts at a discount price. Thanks for that. I will send this list of components off to a friend to see what prices he can give me

 

[JeanYves Samson]

Thanks Georg! for all the info..