Considering going to PC for next gen gaming....

[satans worm]

Having always had PS, Nintendo and Xboxes, the next gen, like many it seems is leaving me a bit, meh, added to the fact it seems highly unlikely my Fanatec turbo s wheel set will not work on the next gen consuls, but will still work on a pc

Plugging into a Tv not a monitor (no substitute for size ) I was wondering what kind of spec PC i should be looking at, bearing in mind i know nothing of PC's !

Also, how often are things like graphics cards being replaced, every 2 years reasonable to be able to play all games?

And how many load errors do you get ? and compatibility issues? Im concerned leaving the cocoon of plug and play I might get frustrated and wish i had not bothered!

Being rather ripe of age (over 40) i have now more less detailed down the games i like, being Car racing sims and first person shoot em ups that are realistic (no silly bosses/ magic weapons or aliens!) so what would you recommend, especially car sims that allow you to drive cars like classic 911's, or other medium to fast road cars, nothing open wheeled or extreme like 917's or other extreme cars (boring i know, but i just like road cars!)

Thanks

[Aiten]

Not that I can help with specs, but I am also thinking along those lines. So far I have convinced myself to wait until 2015 so whichever PC I get may have a better chance at running the Oculus Rift(without spending thousands).

Try watching Austin Evans on YouTube. He comes up with some gaming PCs regularly for different budgets and then use PC Part Picker to see prices over here.

[GrumpyTwig]

satans worm said:

Having always had PS, Nintendo and Xboxes, the next gen, like many it seems is leaving me a bit, meh, added to the fact it seems highly unlikely my Fanatec turbo s wheel set will not work on the next gen consuls, but will still work on a pc

Plugging into a Tv not a monitor (no substitute for size ) I was wondering what kind of spec PC i should be looking at, bearing in mind i know nothing of PC's !

Also, how often are things like graphics cards being replaced, every 2 years reasonable to be able to play all games?

And how many load errors do you get ? and compatibility issues? Im concerned leaving the cocoon of plug and play I might get frustrated and wish i had not bothered!

Being rather ripe of age (over 40) i have now more less detailed down the games i like, being Car racing sims and first person shoot em ups that are realistic (no silly bosses/ magic weapons or aliens!) so what would you recommend, especially car sims that allow you to drive cars like classic 911's, or other medium to fast road cars, nothing open wheeled or extreme like 917's or other extreme cars (boring i know, but i just like road cars!)

Thanks

IMO things have slowed down a fair bit, not necessarily in terms of how often companies bring out new gfx cards but the actual requirement for power to run modern games doesn't jump up anything like I seem to remember it did a decade ago.

There's been a lot more of a concerted effort in PC games towards gameplay/content than all out graphics.

For instance my last gfx card lasted me almost 4 years, the one previous to that less than 3.

TV wise, exactly what I do and using HDMI it means audio/video all in one cable so nice and tidy.

As for errors and compatibility issues.... I can't remember having either my current (new as of couple months ago) or old PC which survived in various configs for about 6 years having a BSOD or failing itself.
Most issues these days are not from the OS or hardware but software from other companies.


As for games, Assetto Corsa is one that once released looks like it'd be up your street. Rfactor 2 would probably wet the whistle too, the old F1 cars in that are quite frankly hilarious fun even if you prefer saloon cars it has some saloon cars (i'm a bit out of date on that so take a look at the website).

http://rfactor.net/web/rf2/rf2dl/ (lists cars on a pop out menu)

http://www.assettocorsa.net/en/

[Slagathore]

Not sure on the specific cars, but Assetto Corsa, Iracing and Rfactor seem to be the popular sim racing games. Then there are plenty of other rally and arcade style ones.

I've been looking at doing the same, and it was a bit confusing to start with, but I've kind of settled on a setup/spec that is as futureproof as I can make it, for now! It's also coming in at around £1500, but it is fairly overkill for just sim racing, but might make FPS games a bit smoother.

I think you can build a decent system for not a huge amount, but you won't be able to have all the settings maxed out at the best quality, or run at the higher resolutions.

I mainly built around the latest motherboard which, I think, is the X79 for Intel, in a hope to future proof a little, but I'm sure in a year's time it'll be outdated already.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2DcHV

Could save a lot of money on some of the items, like the graphics card, RAM and SSD. I'm certain that the graphics card would need upgrading in a year or 2 anyway.

This is also quite a handy link as well:

http://www.mainperformancepc.com/news/how-to-build...

[BevR]

Slagathore said:

Not sure on the specific cars, but Assetto Corsa, Iracing and Rfactor seem to be the popular sim racing games. Then there are plenty of other rally and arcade style ones.

I've been looking at doing the same, and it was a bit confusing to start with, but I've kind of settled on a setup/spec that is as futureproof as I can make it, for now! It's also coming in at around £1500, but it is fairly overkill for just sim racing, but might make FPS games a bit smoother.

I think you can build a decent system for not a huge amount, but you won't be able to have all the settings maxed out at the best quality, or run at the higher resolutions.

I mainly built around the latest motherboard which, I think, is the X79 for Intel, in a hope to future proof a little, but I'm sure in a year's time it'll be outdated already.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2DcHV

Could save a lot of money on some of the items, like the graphics card, RAM and SSD. I'm certain that the graphics card would need upgrading in a year or 2 anyway.

This is also quite a handy link as well:

http://www.mainperformancepc.com/news/how-to-build...

So for someone in pretty much the same boat, looking to play Asseto Corsa and Project cars but still wanting to play the odd FPS and using a 1080p tv how does this stack up?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2DdeZ

Windows will only cost me £9 through a work at home scheme at work so I am not bothered about that. I was looking to spend around 800 so this is already a little more than I planned, mainly as the choosemypc link would always give me a £30 motherboard (I have heard it can be risky in terms of longevity using really cheap motherboards).

Note: I have never built a pc before.

[FourWheelDrift]

BevR said:

So for someone in pretty much the same boat, looking to play Asseto Corsa and Project cars but still wanting to play the odd FPS and using a 1080p tv how does this stack up?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2DdeZ

Windows will only cost me £9 through a work at home scheme at work so I am not bothered about that. I was looking to spend around 800 so this is already a little more than I planned, mainly as the choosemypc link would always give me a £30 motherboard (I have heard it can be risky in terms of longevity using really cheap motherboards).

Note: I have never built a pc before.

More powerful power supply needed I'd say, I just started putting your bits in here - http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx and it was already up to 700w needed without adding any USB, network cards or fans. I added some extras and it went to 750w

I have a similar setup (no SSD and slighty less watt hungry gfx card) and have one of these 750w OCZs - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005DJJPV8/ref=...

OCZs are good. You might need 800w to be safe.

[Slagathore]

BevR said:

So for someone in pretty much the same boat, looking to play Asseto Corsa and Project cars but still wanting to play the odd FPS and using a 1080p tv how does this stack up?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2DdeZ

Windows will only cost me £9 through a work at home scheme at work so I am not bothered about that. I was looking to spend around 800 so this is already a little more than I planned, mainly as the choosemypc link would always give me a £30 motherboard (I have heard it can be risky in terms of longevity using really cheap motherboards).

Note: I have never built a pc before.

I think that'd be fine.

Going on that link I posted on 'how to build a computer for Iracing', it meets all the requirements for Iracing.

I'm not sure on Assetto Corsa, I think that has higher demands than Iracing. Might be worth a post in the Assetto Corsa thread to see how it compares to specs they are using and how they run the game.

I think the difference in spec really comes down to being able to play the game comfortably, or being able to play the game with as higher frame rate as possible and all details. Reading online, it's surprising how many FPS gamers want to eek out the last few frames, but it makes more of a difference for FPS games.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/builds/leaderboard/#

You can check out other people's scores based on the benchmark results, quite handy if you want to see what works well for others, and to see what sort of spec you'd need to get something performing well.

I'm sure from the 11 pages of results, all of them are perfectly capable of running most games.

It's quite strange to see how some of the really high scoring ones have almost double the scores of the others, but the specs are similar. I don't really know how the tests work, so I'm sure there's something I'm overlooking, like certain parts only working best if coupled with other certain parts.

It seems if you're comfortable overclocking the CPU, you can increase performance pretty well.

I haven't built a computer for about 10 years, so I'm still a bit rusty with it all, but I'd say that computer would be fine. I'm sure others will comment as well. There seem to be quite a few sim racers on here who could give there specs for comparison.

[130R]

Slagathore said:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/builds/leaderboard/#

... It's quite strange to see how some of the really high scoring ones have almost double the scores of the others

Because those scores are a complete load of rubbish.

[luke111s]

I would probably buy something like this if I was starting from scratch:



But realistically, this isn't going to be very much different in games and would allow you to purchase a much more powerful graphics card if you specced it to the same price as above:
(ETA: Change is to use a mid-range AMD processor rather than high-end Intel)

Edited by luke111s on Saturday 18th January 15:18

[Mannginger]

If you're going to be playing on your TV might it be best to wait for a while (later this year) and pick up a Steam box? I reckon that'll be pretty good at plug and play and will be designed for living room gaming.

Given the range of manufacturers you could also pick your price bracket and play with the funky looking Steam controller

Just a thought anyway

[BevR]

Mannginger said:

If you're going to be playing on your TV might it be best to wait for a while (later this year) and pick up a Steam box? I reckon that'll be pretty good at plug and play and will be designed for living room gaming.

Given the range of manufacturers you could also pick your price bracket and play with the funky looking Steam controller

Just a thought anyway

That was one of the things I was waiting for but the prices are quite high for what is on offer and that's before the UK price calculator kicks out a number to account for tax and import.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/gallery-the-...

[BevR]

FourWheelDrift said:

More powerful power supply needed I'd say, I just started putting your bits in here - http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx and it was already up to 700w needed without adding any USB, network cards or fans. I added some extras and it went to 750w

I have a similar setup (no SSD and slighty less watt hungry gfx card) and have one of these 750w OCZs - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005DJJPV8/ref=...

OCZs are good. You might need 800w to be safe.

Don't fancy waiting a few months for a PSU! How about this?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2Dibw

[satans worm]

Thanks for the replies, my budget is looking around 750, as mentioned not including any monitor.
I can go more if needed, i assume getting performance is like on a car, to a point it doesn't cost much to increase spec, then it gets to a point where to go a little faster takes a lot of cash, would like to be on a sweet spot of bang for buck if possible
However I am also interest in buying the Opulus Rift screen when it eventually comes out, will a special connection or set up be needed to use this ? I had assumed it would be just streamed to it? If thats not the case then i would wait as I'm in no hurry, I have GT6 and will be caught up playing Elite on the mac for the next few months at least.

[Mannginger]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

For me the point was one of plug and play which I'm speculating about but assuming the Steam boxes will try to emulate a little.

OP - In terms of building a new PC from scratch, I found PC Specialist to be a superb resource when asking for recommendations and support (along with here of course!). I found their customer service to be exceptional as well and my PC has been flawless.

[GrumpyTwig]

satans worm said:

Thanks for the replies, my budget is looking around 750, as mentioned not including any monitor.
I can go more if needed, i assume getting performance is like on a car, to a point it doesn't cost much to increase spec, then it gets to a point where to go a little faster takes a lot of cash, would like to be on a sweet spot of bang for buck if possible
However I am also interest in buying the Opulus Rift screen when it eventually comes out, will a special connection or set up be needed to use this ? I had assumed it would be just streamed to it? If thats not the case then i would wait as I'm in no hurry, I have GT6 and will be caught up playing Elite on the mac for the next few months at least.

Rift looks like it can (at least at the moment) be connected via hdmi/dvi (so very standard by modern gfx cards standards). Needs a USB connection too but only to the control box along side the video connection.

The commercial units look like they'll be worth waiting for as they're still going through a few R&D changes with some of the motion tracking and earlier units have some lag etc. that makes people vom.

[FourWheelDrift]

BevR said:

FourWheelDrift said:

More powerful power supply needed I'd say, I just started putting your bits in here - http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx and it was already up to 700w needed without adding any USB, network cards or fans. I added some extras and it went to 750w

I have a similar setup (no SSD and slighty less watt hungry gfx card) and have one of these 750w OCZs - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005DJJPV8/ref=...

OCZs are good. You might need 800w to be safe.

Don't fancy waiting a few months for a PSU! How about this?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2Dibw

I guess that supplier is out of stock (but others sell them).

Or there's this Corsair 750w - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Builder-Series-Mod...

Never used a modular PSU before, but it means you can have a cleaner case with unused cables not needed to be plugged into the PSU.

[BevR]

FourWheelDrift said:

I guess that supplier is out of stock (but others sell them).

Or there's this Corsair 750w - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Builder-Series-Mod...

Never used a modular PSU before, but it means you can have a cleaner case with unused cables not needed to be plugged into the PSU.

That looks like a good spot. Add to this lot and I think I am done, although some people have suggested a 290 video card over the 770. They seem fairly close though (only £20 apart).

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2DM7f

[MissChief]

You will need a CPU cooler. The stock Intel one does the job I guess but is noisy and doesn't give great performance.

[GrumpyTwig]

I'd suggest a standard/classic air cooled metal heatsink cooler as well. The all in one water/heatpipe ones from all the reviews I've seen only really seem to pay off if you buy the more expensive ones.
The [Silverstone Argon SST-AR01] I got for my i7 was only about £25 yet works just as well and is near enough silent.

[Mighty Flex]

If you want to read up on the different options as far as games go, with some idea of how the games compare, I'd recommend looking through the VVV website. hopefully it will give you an idea what racing games to go for. My knowledge is very limited when it comes to anything beyond the racing, though Alan, who runs the site and does many of the reviews, knows more about racing games than anyone I know. Additionally, there are some "VVV" systems available at the link below that are meant to be sim racing oriented. They may or may not be a good starting point for you: hopefully they will give people some ideas.

www.vvvgamer.com

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/desktop-pcs/racing-s...