PC PC building & spec check

I agree with Doogle, there are ways to get AC running, I think your PC CPU is up to it, might need a minor O/C, the video card is the one that will let you down, so the GTX750ti is the go if it's affordable, also another 1gig of ram would help to bring it up to 4gig just to help it run a little quicker.

Good luck with the job mate - hope you get it!

Happy to help where I can. If you have any questions feel free to ask

Guys maybe a new PC is not necessarily the answer, you can get good 775 (dual and early Quad core) or later architecture 2nd hand on Gumtree for next to nothing, and if you know what your looking for, you should be able to snap up a good PC that will run most titles including Assetto Corsa and Pcars for under $250, and that would be a real good one.

I had a quick look on Gumtree here in Perth and in Melbourne, there are some desktops on there from $150 that will do the job, so a huge financial outlay on a PC is not a necessity to play AC or Pcars. If any one has any questions post away, be glad to help where I can.

Cheers

this is correct,This is the beauty of pc gaming you dont have to go out and blow you're dosh on a high end pc just start off with a great cheap base that later on down the road you can add more ram a 2nd gpu so on.

Hell i studied hard and picked up my parts from pc case gear and built it all myself.The route i went i can add 4 AMD R9 290's if i ever need too,super over kill if i did it now but 5 years who knows also i went for 8 core even though people said it was overkill and a waste but new gen consoles are starting to use 8 core amd architecture so now it is starting to be utilised and i am starting to get the benfits on newer titles.

All up i spent about $1,300 some may say thats alot and a console is cheaper,yes it is but a console wont last over a few gens and later on will be a paper weight in your cupboard so to wrap it up I have a rock solid hopefully future proof setup that shall last me a fair while and 4k ready

but could i build a pc that could ultra project cars and AC for say $250 bucks you bet cha

Technology is immune from future-proofing IMHO.

In 5 years time you won't want to SLI 4 old GPU's as a new single or dual GPU will likely be more powerful and use less power/produce less heat.

And who knows, by that stage we may not even be using the PCIe slot - remember AGP?? so your motherboard etc may also need a refresh.

The manufacturers have learnt from the likes of Sony and Apple. Dictate limited hardware that can be used and then refresh it every couple of years. No-one wants an old GTX680 when they can get a new GTX780, which some see as future-proofing.

I say build for what you need now (plus a little bit more) because in 5 years time (which is a long time in the world of technology), the whole thing is pretty much a large paperweight anyway. You can revive it to give it a little extra life but it won't be the same as a mediocre new build.

I know the GTX750 I bought is only buying me time and eventually I will have to upgrade the whole shebang, which i'll happily build myself - but at this point in time a $200 spend is giving me what I want.

You don't have to spend big, you just have to spend smart!

never said you have to spend big was just saying how i did but that you don't have too lol i had an agp pc i got 10 years out of it before it couldn't run a game on atleast low settings Amd build as well ATi back then oc'ed to the pooper had the guts out of the case with a fan directly on it haha till it eventually gave up and burnt out. lol so im not sure if my new system will last 5 years but i feel i should have a pretty good shot with 16gb of video memory heavy oc'ed cpu 16gb ram oc;ed and be able to pick the cards up for $50 down the road.

Agreed Doogle, the whole "Future Proofing" spiel is just a con job to get PC consumers to upgrade to the latest hardware to line the pockets of the manufacturer, under the guise of providing a more superior product.
When you consider that Intel have produced 4 different CPU architectures in the past 3 yrs, and Intel are the company that lead the Mobo manufacturers into new builds, as they refuse to stick to 1 type of CPU pin-out arrangement, which is what AMD have done for many years. Hence every Intel CPU is a new configuration which needs a complete new mobo, and now there is DDR4 ram, so its not a matter of just doing a cpu and Mobo change to upgrade to latest hardware, you now need DDR4 ram too, we were only introduced to DDR3 ram some 8 yrs ago with Dual and Quad core CPU's.
Yet DDR5 ram is used in Vid cards and has been for a few years now, so why have we only just gotten DDR4 PC memory, makes you wonder doesn't it.
Personally I'm about 2 years behind in PC tech, I have been building PC's for some 14 yrs and over that time have realised that the latest is not always the best, and besides there's the old saying "Dont Fix What Isn't F@#ked" so if your PC is a few years old like mine (i7-3770k 1155pin, z77x-ud3h Mobo, 8G DDR3 ram, GTX770 V-Card, 750W PSU) don't stress. This old rig will be good for another 2 yrs as long as it doesn't itself in the mean time, as the mobo and CPU are no longer manufactured, so I would be forced into buying new hardware, or settle for 1150 architecture which is 2yrs old, spending roughly the same money as I would for new 2014 hardware, which will be superseded in 12 mths with Intel probably releasing a new CPU by then, and so the PC merry go round continues, problem is, once your on it, it's bloody hard to get off without it killing your wallet.

Cheers

hello got tax back...really would like a pc for project cars and ac..but i dont wanna blow much $$ money..could i get a hand in either building a really cheap one or finding one?thanks boys

Pykey, it depends on what you class as "not much money"

If you went for a new PC there are many ways to go (and compromise here or there), but this should be a reasonable build for around $1080 (built yourself) - which for a modern gaming PC I would consider "not much money" :


You could go the single hard drive option and get a 2TB HDD, but me personally I would never build a PC now that doesn't have a SSD in it - it really makes a huge difference and for an OS drive they are so inexpensive.

Interested to hear others opinions and or thoughts but this should at least give you an idea

That thing would take off if it's not tied down

I think the power cord keeps it tethered to the table

Just throwing some info out there in case is impacts future purchase decisions.

It seems apparent from WMD Portal (pCARS) posts that while nVidia have been awesome at providing resources and assistance in making the game run great on their cards/SDK/whatever... AMD/ATi have been a lot more quiet. This means at present that nVidia cards are way-outperforming similar ATi cards. Of course the game devs are working to address this, but they obviously aren't receiving the same support. So just keep in mind numbers/tech specs aren't everything.

Wherever possible, find a benchmark chart that uses a game you're interested in (or at least a game from the same racing genre). Don't rely on benchmark programs/demo's as it's often possible for nVidia/ATi to 'cheat' some of the tests improving the over score, and some tests may not be relevant to racing games.


btw I spent some time researching the latest parts and providing some options to someone for a gaming/home theatre PC build at various price points to handle the latest titles. Would be a shame not to share it with the rest of you, even if it needs tweaking for your needs:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=381AD72C0F55CA2A!10544&authkey=!ALEPirTysag4BUk&ithint=file,xlsx

Note this person already had a case for the parts, you may need to add this as a cost. Don't forget things like keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, network, Windows, MS Office, etc, etc. If you want to go even cheaper then your best bet is either a pre-built system with one or two less-than-optimal components or second hand. You may find last-gen high-end graphics cards cheap on GumBay as well.

WOW, a HTPC/Gaming PC - that's like building a drag car to take shopping

Not a bad build and I agree about remembering all the peripherals you may need to include - though in this day and age you can easily get away without purchasing office products - Google Docs/Drive is your friend and does everything that the average user needs their office suite to do (and can be accessed from any location with internet access). Also most people already have keyboards/mice which can often be re-used to save money until they have the opportunity to upgrade them 9though it is nice buying new stuff when you're building a new machine

As for benchmarks, they are only good for giving you some idea on a products performance related to other products (and as you mentioned the results can be skewed either way to give a positive or negative result).
If you're the type to nitpick about every little percentage gain you can squeeze out of every component then this stuff might be important to you but for the average person who isn't overly computer-literate its just numbers (or graphs) on a page.

Yep, just a lot of people need a differentiator to choose between two very similar products.
Long gone are the days where you just pick a CPU based on clock speed or RAM/GPU based on amount memory

Just reminded me I haven't done my taxes yet :|
If I have to pay taxes on income from working on Project CARS, then I should be able to claim part of my gaming hardware as a work expense... (that's next year's problem though)

I'm not a big fan of laptop gaming, even if they have the grunt not all game devs out there properly support their slightly unique hardware, given that they form a small minority of a small minority.*

ASUS make decent gaming laptops as far as price/performance balance goes. I'd suggest researching there first. The MSI you linked to looks good as well. May be able to play the latest stuff at Medium to High graphics. Older DX9 sims should play High-Ultra no problems.

* (Test Drive Unlimited players had issues with lack of laptop GPU support. 96% of NFS Shift 2 sales were on console.)

I'm with Ryzza.
That MSI looks OK but I also have never been a fan of gaming laptops (not to say they don't do the job).

Not too easy to upgrade, replace components compared to a desktop.

That MSI, the graphics card looks to be similar in power to the GTX750 which should run most racing sims fairly well, and the i7 should have any issues. The downside is over the next couple of years when you need a better GPU it won't be easy/possible to replace in a laptop - compared to doing so in a desktop PC.

Your call however. Me, I'd buy a much cheaper laptop for work purposes and look at building a separate gaming PC....but that's just me.