Girlfriend is out,Now starting SimRacing all over. Need LOTS of help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter KrisKahle
  • 22 comments
  • 3,002 views
K

KrisKahle

Messages
1
United States
Colchester
Ball and chain is gone. Phew! Now I have a spare room to get back into sim racing. I have to start from scratch. New computer, monitor.. Ect my main question I have is about wheels and pedals. I want kind of a high end wheel. I've looked at frex, but the pedals and wheels are $2,000 each. $4,000 is a little steep considering I'm buying everything new and at once. I have a G27 but I want better. What can I do with a $2,000 budget on both wheel and pedal set? I have been out of sim racing for a while because the woman thinks they are just "games" and hates the noise of an engine. You bet I'm getting a good set of speakers! I plan on building a racing cockpit. I haven't found any really good setups for sale, so I guess building one to my specs is the way to go. I see this is kind of a long post I'm writing so I'll just make statements on what I'm looking for.

Wheel&pedal. $1500-$2000
Shifter? Frex
Steering wheel- Rosa F1 wheel

Should I keep my g27 and just mod it?
I plan on having a triple screen setup, what are the best monitors for this?
Total I have about $5,000 I can spend on a sim setup from the ground up.
CPU - Intel core i7? or the new AMD 8 core?
GFX - Nvidia GTX or ATI (2 cards in SLI/crossfire)

I know I'm kind of off the path by asking about computer stuff but any advice is needed.


Kris Kahle
Ct, USA
 
Hi there...

If you want a top end wheel fanatec are bringing out a clubsports wheel... That with clubsports will cost a fair wack.. under 1000$ I imagine although I'm from England so am bot 100% sure on that.

The wheel is looking epic in terms if specs. It will have interchangable rims. However when it comes out it will have just 2 to choose from.
A formula rim and a BMW racing rim similar to a touring car...

Google it or look at mu site in my Sig
 
vaseline.png
kleenex.jpg
 
A modded g27 will be amazing. But your girlfriend sounds annoying. She wouldnt let you do what you want cause it was loud? But if you want a new wheel get a t500 with its awesome shifter.
 
Here is what I have and is more then enough power for me:

PC:
Intel Core i7 2600k
Cooler master Hyper Z600 cooler (No longer sold. So replace with a Scythe Mugen 2)
MSI Z68a-GD65 motherboard
Cooler master Real Power 650W
MSI GTX480 (no longer sold. Get a 580 or two 560 cards instead. If you have the budget two 580 cards)
Creative X-Fi Titanium Champion series soundcard
Logitech Z560 speakerset (if you can get a Z5500 if you can, the replacing Z906 isn't as good)
Cooler master HAF-X case

Recommendations:
OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD
2x Western Digital Caviar Black Edition 2TB (in raid 1 for storage)

Get the T500 RS + TH8 RS shifter if you can't wait till next year February for the ClubSport Wheel.
Or if you are okay with not so much rims and so on the CSR Elite will probably be available if you are lucky at the end of the year.
The dates are just a guess from me though. Seeing as Thomas said here and there on public fora.
 
CPU : I7 2700K (2600k is being replaced by this I think), AMD processors are slower currently
GPU : Both Nvidia/AMD cards are roughly equal, depends on how much you want to spend. I will suggest you wait for the new cards (could be a few months), certaintly wouldn't get a GTX580, it costs ridiculous money, it's outdated by the GTX590/HD6990 and is outperformed by 2x cheaper cards (HD6950/GTX560ti) for less money.
Wheel : Fanatec CSR Elite - If you can wait.

Personally I wouldnt bother with that high end wheel stuff, you're platform limited with them and considering the quality of the much cheaper Thrustmaster TS500 and Fanatec CSR Elite both with interchangable wheel rims (GT/F1), I wouldn't recommend anything other than one of those.
 
2600k will exist along side the 2700k. I heard this on a reliable IT news source. It is something Intel told them.
I would surely go for a nVidia card, simply because of Cuda and more importantly Physx. Even though they cost more, physx does make things look better in my opinion.
Also your knowledge of the GTX590 replacing the 580 is flawed. The GTX590 is two 580 cores on one card using SLI. Also these cores are underclocked to cope with the heat. You will need a high-end GTX590 with custom heatsink that isn't underclocked, which will cost a lot of money.
Personally I would still choose a single card over SLI because I don't want to be bugged by having crappy performance because of bad SLI profiles, them not working at all or just not being present.
 
Bigbazz
.

Personally I wouldnt bother with that high end wheel stuff, you're platform limited with them and considering the quality of the much cheaper Thrustmaster TS500 and Fanatec CSR Elite both with interchangable wheel rims (GT/F1), I wouldn't recommend anything other than one of those.
Click to expand...

How can he be platform limited? If he's wanting to race sims he has no choice but PC anyway. From the amount he wants to spend, it doesn't sound like he's into console games.
 
LogiForce
2600k will exist along side the 2700k. I heard this on a reliable IT news source. It is something Intel told them.
I would surely go for a nVidia card, simply because of Cuda and more importantly Physx. Even though they cost more, physx does make things look better in my opinion.
Also your knowledge of the GTX590 replacing the 580 is flawed. The GTX590 is two 580 cores on one card using SLI. Also these cores are underclocked to cope with the heat. You will need a high-end GTX590 with custom heatsink that isn't underclocked, which will cost a lot of money.
Personally I would still choose a single card over SLI because I don't want to be bugged by having crappy performance because of bad SLI profiles, them not working at all or just not being present.
Click to expand...

To make use fo PhysX you really need a second dedicated card, you can even run an AMD card for graphics and an Nvidia for physX. Secondly, PhysX has a really small list of games and none of those are racing games.

My GTX580 logic isnt flawed, example I could buy 2x 2GB HD6950 for £380, thats cheaper than a GTX580, I could buy 2x GTX560ti for £400, which is still cheaper than most GTX580 cards. Both those setups are faster than the GTX580. Infact for about £440 you could run a HD6970 + a HD6950 which would be even faster again, and if you can get hold of a 1st board edition of the HD6950 you can bios flash it into a HD6970 and fiddle with some settings, now if you do that x2 you can have a setup that can match the GTX590/HD6990 for less than the price of a single GTX580.
 
Bigbazz
To make use fo PhysX you really need a second dedicated card, you can even run an AMD card for graphics and an Nvidia for physX. Secondly, PhysX has a really small list of games and none of those are racing games.

My GTX580 logic isnt flawed, example I could buy 2x 2GB HD6950 for £380, thats cheaper than a GTX580, I could buy 2x GTX560ti for £400, which is still cheaper than most GTX580 cards. Both those setups are faster than the GTX580. Infact for about £440 you could run a HD6970 + a HD6950 which would be even faster again, and if you can get hold of a 1st board edition of the HD6950 you can bios flash it into a HD6970 and fiddle with some settings, now if you do that x2 you can have a setup that can match the GTX590/HD6990 for less than the price of a single GTX580.
Click to expand...

I run physx fine in my single GTX480, so you don't need a second card.
That Physx isn't used for any racing games as of yet doesn't mean it won't be. Plus who are you to decide if the good man should only stick to racing games? He might like to play Mafia, COD or Battlefield, Batman, Total War: Shogun 2, Alice Madness returns. Who knows?
I know I get bored if I have to stick to a single genre at least.

I meant you are flawed when it comes to the GTX590 in terms of price. Not the other ones. Show me a good naturally normal clocked card that is cheaper then the cheapest 580 and you win.
Also it is nice that you like to flash bios firmwares into your cards but it's not a given that this good man will want to do this either.
Plus like I said before if you have a bad profile for the game there isn't enough speed profit to justify the costs of a second card. Plus if there is no SLI or Crossfire profile there will be only 1 card used.
One thing I'll give you for AMD is that they have a better triple screen solution. Which can indeed be a better choice if you want that.

Anyhow this will be a long argument since its Nvidia vs AMD just like Forza vs GT5. I see you are someone that lives AMD cards and that's all fine by me.

I'd suggest that the good OP will have to search for himself to what he thinks will be the best solution for him and his wallet. Besides there are tons of tech sites and fora with info on this matter.
 
LogiForce
I run physx fine in my single GTX480, so you don't need a second card.
That Physx isn't used for any racing games as of yet doesn't mean it won't be. Plus who are you to decide if the good man should only stick to racing games? He might like to play Mafia, COD or Battlefield, Batman, Total War: Shogun 2, Alice Madness returns. Who knows?
I know I get bored if I have to stick to a single genre at least.

I meant you are flawed when it comes to the GTX590 in terms of price. Not the other ones. Show me a good naturally normal clocked card that is cheaper then the cheapest 580 and you win.
Also it is nice that you like to flash bios firmwares into your cards but it's not a given that this good man will want to do this either.
Plus like I said before if you have a bad profile for the game there isn't enough speed profit to justify the costs of a second card. Plus if there is no SLI or Crossfire profile there will be only 1 card used.
One thing I'll give you for AMD is that they have a better triple screen solution. Which can indeed be a better choice if you want that.

Anyhow this will be a long argument since its Nvidia vs AMD just like Forza vs GT5. I see you are someone that lives AMD cards and that's all fine by me.

I'd suggest that the good OP will have to search for himself to what he thinks will be the best solution for him and his wallet. Besides there are tons of tech sites and fora with info on this matter.
Click to expand...

Every single modern game has SLI/Crossfire, those that don't are too old for it to matter. There isnt a card universally faster than the GTX580 in that price range, because there are no other cards in that price range currently being sold, but as I have said, for cheaper you can run 2 cards in crossfire/SLI and get better performance. With that said, in some tests/games the HD6970 outperformed the GTX580 in some situations (can't remember if it was a 1.5g or 3g GTX580). Ultimately the GTX580 is not good enough performance wise to justify its price around the other options.

Bios wiping your cards? It is an option and a popular one so why not mention it? Am I only to suggest things that you agree with? With 2 first edition (bios switch) HD6950 cards upgraded to HD6970 cards you can get the performance of a £600 (GTX590/HD6990) graphics card for £400.

To really make good use of physX you do need a dedicated card to do the work, if your single card is doing the physX then it has less power to do the graphics so you will have to take a performance hit. Also, Battlefield (BC2/3) does not use physx. Yes he may want to play other games than racing, but since this thread is specifically about a "Sim Racing" rig I don't see how that is relevant.

I don't "Live" AMD cards, Infact i've always been more of an Nvidia person. Geforce 2mx, Geforce 2Ti, Geforce 3Ti200, Geforce 6600GT, Geforce 6800GT, Geforce 7900GT. Those are previous cards, then due to reliability I moved to a Radeon HD3870 and then a HD6970, but I was very close to buying a GTX570, the extra memory of the Radeon + the performance results in F1 2010 (being higher), along with the better price made me buy the Radeon. On the other hand I could say that you're someone who "lives" Nvidia, and pushing a monopoly of your favourite card using hazy facts is not much helping someone who ultimately has to decide for themselves.

I'm pretty sure I've recommended both Nvidia and AMD cards above and each have their advantages, performance wise they are actually all very similar and you should go by price or specific game performance (that you intend to play). Toms hardware agrees with me

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-graphics-card-gaming-performance,review-32301.html

Recommending AMD cards over the Nvidia all the way up to the GTX570 (first nvidia card recommended), before recommending SLI/Crossfire setups.


To the above, platform limited : Unless you haven't noticed this is a Gran Turismo forum, is it not safe to assume that someone would join a Gran Turismo forum because they are interested in the series? So I'd say that the concern of being platform limited is more than a legit one, even if he doesnt intend to play it.
 
Last edited:
KrisKahle
Wheel&pedal. $1500-$2000
Shifter? Frex
Steering wheel- Rosa F1 wheel

Should I keep my g27 and just mod it?
I plan on having a triple screen setup, what are the best monitors for this?
Total I have about $5,000 I can spend on a sim setup from the ground up.
CPU - Intel core i7? or the new AMD 8 core?
GFX - Nvidia GTX or ATI (2 cards in SLI/crossfire)

Kris Kahle
Ct, USA
Click to expand...

$5000 isnt going to get you a high end rig as much as you think.
Yes it will get you a good one but still have limits.

Depends where your interest is. For instance is simulation and realisim important or entertainment and complete package?


Ideas:
Build a steady raceframe/cockpit
A proper branded raceseat.
CSRE pedals with inversion.
CSRE Wheel or the CSW
Upcoming Fanatec shifter or T500RS shifter
Triple projection setup (Ensure 120HZ and Nvidia 3D Ready / resolution isnt everything)
Good quality audio 5.1 AV setup (Not some Logitech package)
Minimium 3x Tactile Transducers
Minmium 1x Subwoofer
Quality PC (err med spec - high spec)

A combination of stable, comfortable cockpit with highend performance in controls. Backed up with a high quality immersive audio,visual and tactile experience.

Rome wasnt built in a day.
My advice, decide wisely on what you have as priorities or preferences.
Spend the extra on those and in time the rest can be updated.
 
Last edited:
Happy to hear you got rid of that ball and chain.

I was going to tell you something else,but then realized you haven't been married yet.Trust me it would have been funny :cheers:
 

Latest Posts

Back