PC PC building & spec check

ati 6970 insted of the gtx570
have a look at scorptec.com they build good systems u can even build ur own to suit.

If it's a matter of one or the other, then save a little money on the PC and use it for a serious set of pedals with a load cell brake. I'm sure the G25 pedals are alright but iRacing is all about having a good heel toe downshift.

I'm looking at the fanatec clubsport pedals or something diy. Right now ive got a heavy duty elastic wrapped around my brake pedal.

I'm all for Ati over nvidia gfx cards. Check out tomshardware.com for benchmark comparisons.

Also it's very unlikely you need a 750w powersupply. Most pc's are fine with a good quality 400w powersupply, you can get a 500w ps for some extra headroom. I think tomshardware has some system benchmarks that show power consumption. Unless you have multiple hard drives and graphics cards then your ps wattage is all epeen.

Finally hdd's are cheap and their rpm speed doesn't have much of and impact on performance. Bang for buck I'd go for a larger (1tb+) but lower rpm (7k) hdd, which should be cheaper.

You could probably get away with only 4gb ram too, you can alway add more in the future. I have 4gb and never get past 3gb usage when running the most demanding games.

At the top end of pc performance you pay twice as much for half the performance gain. So often it's cheaper to buy mid spec now and upgrade more often as required.

u need at least 550w psu for most new graphics cards.
i wish i could get 8 gig to work on my computer i can only get 4 working.
i went and brought 4 more gig when i did an upgrade and i cant even use it.
i have a 6970 and have had no problems with any game.i only like them for there bang for buck.

Yeah i would probably get a more powerful psu if i were you. The HD6970 can draw up to around 370w under load on its own. Just something to think about. Also make sure to look into the brand of the HD6970 that you're getting, the reference cards are usually better for temperatures, up to 10 degrees cooler under load in some instances. They are a very hot running card. I have a Gigabyte card, which is an AMD reference design, and before i got my watercooling installed (i know..mega geek), i saw temps up over 90 degrees celsius on stock clock speeds and voltages, and thats with a very well cooled case.

Just so you know though, i'm a plumber not a pc technician lol. Building gaming rigs is something i do in my spare time. From years of doing it all i can say is do a good amount of research into what you're buying before you buy it.

Yeah i'd say thats the overclocked one, good choice.

i got the gigabyte 6970 its 2bg not over clocked. the mhz clock speed (or what ever it is) is what u look at when there overclocked. example the stock speed would be 800mhz and the overclocked would be 900mhz

My card is actually the Sapphire HD6970 i just realised. Stock speed is 880mhz, same as all stock 6970s. I got mine pumping along at 1020mhz. I've had it higher for benchmarking but 1020mhz seems to be the hardest i can push it for games to keep it stable. Naturally i have the voltage tweeked up as well as the memory. The watercooling keeps it nice and cool too. Havn't seen it over 40 degrees celcius even after a few hours of intense gaming. My cpu is an old i7 950, stock speed is 3.06ghz, but naturally i have that overclocked as well, to 4.2ghz.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pow ... 849-8.html

Shows the beefiest system in the test peeked at 487w (whole system), the 6970 used a little less.

I think they just advertised it on insidesimracing this week $12 for 3 months. And a referral is $10 in the pocket of a fellow racer.

I just pick up the hand me down pc and not sure i can get it up to standard. Its 2006 and Numan ???? never heard of it. I pulled it a part to see whats inside (i got no paperwork or recovery discs with it) and it says Intel on the fan with all the fins that sits over the little square thing with all the gold dots. Is that the CPU? And can you upgrade it or do you need a better motherboard.
The 400w power supply is shot so whould have to upgrade that any way and only a 200 GB hard drive and cant see a good graphics car anywhere. Its has a card thingy DDR2-667 1GB pq1 is that something to do with ram?
I never been inside a computer box before but it looks like every thing is interchangeable and just plugs in, but I'm not sure what it needs and ware to put it and even if this mother is to old to do anything with.
Soory for the nube questions Id like to try and mock up something out of the bits I got, means I get into Iracing sooner. But if not I just wait and get a new rig.

Yeah I got the $12 for 3 months deal only 2 days ago.

Bonus that comp sounds a little dated, it should have a pci-e slot for the graphics card. See this as a reference:


If there is nothing in that slot, then it is probably using the video card built into the motherboard. So to play any reasonable games you would need a new video card, say ~$200 mark.

Also you would need 4gb (total) of DDR2 RAM. The CPU could be a little dated (it should be located under the biggest fan/heatsink in the box), don't try removing the heatsink/fan unless you want to risk breaking stuff.

Summary:
New Power Supply : ~$105 (Antec 550w)
New Ram: $85 (Kingston 4gb DDR2-667)
New Video Card: $175 (Gigabyte 6850OC)

You might be able to get away with using the old 200gb hdd if you dont plan on using the computer for anything else. Otherwise you can get 1tb+ hdds for $60

Total: $365, depending on the CPU you may need to upgrade that a well, which may require a new motherboard... at which point you are basically building an entirely new comp.

ps: prices from http://www.cpl.net.au/pdf/page1.pdf

Thanks outta, i got the old girl going but it has big problems and it is to far out off date to really make something decent out of, pretty much a full upgrade mother and all. So basically i can salvage a tin box out of it is all.
For Iracing i think you need some good gear to make it look good, your screen shots look great to me Mad. You must have a good set up and is in on a pc monitor? Chev your lap top a good one and are the graphics translating to the TV ok? I heard a computer screen can look a lot better than using a TV but that is the way I'm going. I got a 52" plasma Ill be hooking the pc up to it. I can get a dual core AMD? I think he said, 2 GB Gt 520 GE Force graphics card 2 ter HD for around $600, which i can get into right away if its worth it. To go with i7 and upgraded mother board its getting expensive. I do want to be running in the better half of the graphics field so probably worth saving for that.

I'm thinking I'll be waiting for the dollars to go with what your getting Koaster, saves me doing the research on something I know nothing about, let me know how it goes. What screen you going to use?



This the final choice, and the i5 2500k enough, don't need the i7?

i5 2500k
Asus P8Z68-V Z68 LGA1155 motherboard (as before)
8Gb DDR3 1600MHz G.skill 2x4Gb (RAM is cheap, can never have too much!)
60Gb OCZ Vertext II SSD
1Tb WD Caviar Black (as before but not listed)
ATI AMD HD6970 2Gb (actually cheaper than the GTX570)
600W Enermax MAXN 80+

(plus DVD writer, tower, and MS Windows 7 64bit Home Premium in both as before)

OK what you getting? be good to just post that here too if supersonic doesn't mind. I getting keen to get this happening now with all the chat about it and iracing 2 allmost here.