PC PC building & spec check

If your work has an IT dep't involved - they're going to know the difference between a good laptop and a gaming one.

Lappies are great for work as they are portable which is why they were invented, there ok for most games like FPS, mmo's or hidden object stuff, but for Sim-Racing nothing comes close to a high end Desktop. My young bloke is into 3d design and wanted a good laptop with 3D capability (this was 2 yrs ago). So after looking around at what was available that had the goods he wanted, he settled for a Toshiba Quosmio 3D Gaming lappie, this thing is just freaking awesome for gaming and runs everything you can throw at it, but I don't think your work will by one of these for you lol. Even the current Asus Gamer lappies are around $1800, and for that money you could build a awesome gaming PC and have change for a good feed and a carton of Bundy n coke .
Except the lappy from work with a big grin mate, but save ya pennies for a good desktop, it's a must have for PC Simracing IMHO

Cheers

Before you do Clevo I'd take a look at the PSU and case.
You will likely find that the PSU is a low end model (300W or less) and the case may (or may not) be designed to fit the OEM build. The case you can likely get away with using but I suspect you'd be far better off buying a decent PSU (something like the Corsair CX 500W or CX 600W are only around the $100 mark and you really don't want to skimp on your PSU.

Otherwise if you stay with the Dell PSU you will be limiting your GPU choices and you'll be in the situation I am in where I needed to find a GPU that runs purely off the PCIe slot (which the GTX750Ti is the best choice). But if you want to get a GTX760 or better, or one of the R27/280/290's then you'll need a beefier PSU.

Then we start talking about CPU's. AMD are great bang for buck but at this point Intel is more expensive but also better for gaming (when run in stock form), so you either go AMD and look to overclock or run Intel stock. Me, I'd run the Intel.

If you're building a new PC you HAVE TO go SSD....this is a given. For $95 you can get a Samsung EVO 120GB SSD which is a good size for OS and game installs - and you WILL be sorry if you don't buy this.

The rest comes down to your requirements.
If/when you look to start putting a serious shopping list together there are plenty of us here who are willing to offer advice for you to consider before purchasing

Anyone else tempted to get the nVidia GTX 980?

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/maxwell-architecture-gtx-980-970

Not bad for a first attempt. Too late in the evening for me to look into compatibility (but first glance seems ok). But here are a few other general notes that come with experience.

1. Buy all (crucial) parts on the same day. That way you can build the PC immediately and work out if any parts are DOA, and have them replaced immediately. If you buy parts and then wait a few weeks to buy remaining parts, and then find a part is DOA, you'll have to send it back to the supplier/etc which can take another 2-3 weeks. Prices can also change.

2. If the PC is in a bedroom (where someone sleeps), go for a case without a window and with sound-reducing qualities (such as foam). Easily removable (cleanable) dust filters are also a +ve. Nothing worse than having a noisy PC light up the whole room if you're trying to download something overnight. If sitting close to the PC the noise can also be irritating after a long browsing session at night (i.e. not gaming, listening to audio). Bigger fans that spin slower are quieter than smaller fans.

3. You want Windows and your most intensive games/apps installed on the SSD for performance, and other data such as your Windows Libraries on the normal HDD. 120GB can be very quickly filled. With SSD's, you want to always keep ~ 10-20% free for performance reasons. I make the partition a little smaller than the disk to make sure. Consider a larger SSD.

4. Make sure the PSU has the right power connections for your chosen graphics cards. It may use adapters. Modular PSU's are better as unused power cables aren't sitting in the case blocking airflow. Look for the 80+% Efficient notation on a PSU to reduce your power bill. Make sure your case is large enough to house your chosen graphics card. You may have to remove a HDD cage to fit long cards in.

5. Not sure if a $39 CPU cooler is going to be much better than the stock one. Corsair make a great integrated water cooling solution for the CPU. I've got the H80. Some large CPU coolers take up room needed by tall RAM modules.

6. FSB (Front Side Bus) is the speed between the CPU, Motherboard, and RAM. Check the FSB speed for each of these 3 components. The weakest link will set the FSB speed for all 3, so aim to buy them all with the same value. Overclocking may be required if seeking a high value. Look for motherboards/RAM that support XMP for easy overclocking if that's what you want to do. Motherboard and CPU should also specify the chipset (i.e Z97) which you want to match on both products for compatibility.

I was looking at upgrading my 680GTX to a 980GTX, but I think I'll wait for the Ti versions. Besides being faster they also have desirable features for Oculus Rift gaming. If/when I do upgrade I may have a 680 4GB card for sale cheap.

Good advice above from Ryzza.

In terms of "future-proofing" this is almost impossible with PC builds and especially if looking at an Intel build.
I am almost convinced that Intel have a share in all the Mobo manufacturers. They release a new CPU with a new socket meaning anyone who wants to run that CPU needs a new mobo.

The next two lines of CPU's from Intel (Broadwell and then Skylake) will almost certainly mean new sockets - meaning you will need an updated motherboard to go with any upgraded CPU. For this reason it is hard to future-proof a PC build when the new CPU's that are released need a different socket to what you have. AMD are better for this and continue to use their AM3+ socket (for now), but my preference has always been to stick with Intel - not that AMD are bad it's just that I prefer Intel.

Otherwise everything Ryzza has mentioned should be considered - particularly making sure all specs between components match (your build list might - I haven't had a chance to go through it to compare them all).

You also need to make sure you are only buying what you really need. A Mobo with Z97 chipset is great for overclocking but do you NEED it? Will you be OC and if so by just a little or going all out? Could a cheaper mobo (H97) do and the money be used elsewhere where it will matter to your gaming experience (GPU and cooling)?

I'd also be looking at a slightly beefier PSU as well. 650W is OK for your single-card 760 build but if you are thinking of running dual GPU's down the track I think you'll want more power than 650W.

Best piece of advice I can give is that once you have your build list sorted, JUST DO IT. Don't wait thinking there's something better just about to be released which will drop the price of something by $10.....there is ALWAYS something being released that is an upgrade and you could continue to wait forever. At some point you just have to pull the pin and go with what you have chosen.

I have a 120GB in my 'normal office home theatre web browsing typing this message' PC along with a 2TB, and in my dedicated 'too noisy' gaming PC I have a 240GB SSD with multiple 2TB HDDS (a growing collection from older PCs)... both SSDs are nearly full.

Also got an SSD in my old phat PS3, cut GT5 loading times nearly by half (never did a comparison with GT6, but when the online host changes track I'm pretty much first in).

All the new nVidia cards can make use of ShadowPlay which is nVidia's inbuilt video recording.

The advantage of shadowplay is that it doesn't really sap any extra performance when recording, as it uses some dedicated hardware in the graphics card to process. Compare that to say FRAPS where you'll lose quite a few FPS when you hit record, depending on settings.

I also have an elgato HD capture card which I use for console and also interchangeably with ShadowPlay on PC.

MHz is the FSB speed.
RAM probably will operate at 1600MHz stock (most do) but up to a maximum 2400MHz when overclocked (if also supported by the CPU and mobo).

A couple of questions you should probably ask yourself before putting your list together is:
- how many screens do you intend to run and at what resolution?

A single screen at 1920x1080 won't need anywhere near as much GPU power as a triple screen setup running 5760x1080.

The next question is what frame rate will your PC build achieve running your required screen setup?
A 760 OC might run triple screen but at a much lower frame rate compared to something like the GTX 970.

With the GPU doing most of the work when running games I'd (personally) be more inclined to spend a few extra dollars on the GPU and perhaps think about the GTX 970 and save some $'s by grabbing the non-K version of the i5 CPU (not sure you'd really need to overclock an i5 to run AC/Proj Cars etc) and any games 5+ years from now will likely see even the most up-specced current PC build as "minimum requirements" - so I wouldn't worry too much about future proofing (it's a myth).

Saving some money on your listed CPU and mobo could go towards a better GPU.

Food for thought anyway.

Project CARS actually uses the CPU more than other games with all the physics calculations. If you were to say run with 64 AI you'd definitely benefit from having a good CPU.

If you really want to O/C you're CPU, then you need to look at water cooling. Most late model CPU's don't need to be O/C as they have a boost clock, which makes them plenty fast. But if you want to take a look into it check out these guys http://www.overclockers.com.au/ Lots of good info about it and it's Ozi site too .
Cheers

Job done