PC Sim Racing Newb. What Do I need to get started?

[BODHI85]

It has been about half a year since I discovered videogame racing on my PS3 and Xbox (GT5, FM4, and FH, respectively). From that, I bought my first wheel, a CSR Elite with clubsport pedals and set up a modest rig in my living room.

Now, I feel I would like to start PC sim racing. I've read many times on this board and others, that PC gaming is miles ahead of console gaming.

So my question is, what do I need to get started? I am not much of a computer guy. I have never gamed on a PC before, and I do not know anything about hardware and the required specs for gaming.

I am starting from the ground up here. I don't have a PC at home. So I'm looking to purchase a decent one. It does not have to be top of the line, but something with respectable specs that will have some technological longevity. I'm not looking for a cheap computer which would only require it to upgraded over a year or so.

Next, what pc simracing games should I get? I am leaning towards realism here though I do enjoy arcade racers. Also, are these sims one time purchases or does it require subscriptions. This is an area I am also pretty ignorant about.

Is there anything else I am missing that I need to know?

 

[sesselpupser]

Build a PC, it's much cheaper than buying prebuilt and not difficult in the slightest. I'd suggest an Intel i5 3570K processor, a Z77 motherboard, a Nvidia GTX 660, 8GB 1600MHz RAM (I've got G.Skill Ripjaws myself) and a 650W PSU, that's a rough estimate but it depends on your specific budget. If you could give a ballpark figure then I'm sure some guys will give you a shopping list to suit.

As for software, I seriously recommend starting off with Race 07. It's very cheap on Steam (which is something you'll want to sign up on, probably, if you'll be doing PC gaming) and is easy to get up and running, there are mods for it should you wish to dabble in that and DLC packs on Steam which require absolutely no effort beyond buying and installing. rFactor is a good one to move on to because of the huge number of mods but they can require troubleshooting and can be a pain if you're new to it all. rFactor is pretty much essential though so I recommend picking it up at some point, just maybe not as your first sim.

Richard Burns Rally and WRC 3 are great rally sims, the former is more challenging than the latter but the latter is new and shiny and deserves better recognition than it's getting from most places.

For arcadey stuff, you probably already know about Dirt, Grid and Shift, they have the Arcade side pretty much covered. Shift is probably better than Shift 2 but there are mods for Shift 2 to improve the bizarre handling. There's also Test Drive Unlimited 2, Driver: San Francisco and Burnout Paradise (and NFS: Most Wanted next month) which probably drive better with a pad.

Other things:
GP Legends
GTR 2
NetKar Pro
Live For Speed
SimRaceWay
Project CARS
iRacing.

Those last three have caveats attached.

SimRaceWay is a free to play sim based on rFactor. There was a fair bit of controversy when it came out because they were using modders' models and charging real money for them, but that seems to have gone away now. However, the cars range from cents to tens of dollars, the most expensive being in the $30-40 range for one single car, but you can earn in-game credits (5 per lap) to buy anything, it'll just take you a lifetime to save $40 worth of them, that's all. It's worth checking out as it's free, though, and is built as a community sim so it's really easy to race online. The quality of the racing is very hit or miss, though.

Project CARS is a work in progress, you have to pay to access the alpha. 10 Euros gets you a new build every month, 25 or over means you can download a build every week, and however much you pay you get a discount on the full game (there's no release date yet). It's supposedly going to bridge the gap between the serious arcade and super serious sims, i.e. it'll take elements of Forza and GT and mix them with iRacing and rFactor to make a sim with a career mode and other neat flourishes. It's probably the best-looking sim we have access to right now, go check out the thread here for evidence.

iRacing is the subscription one, and I wouldn't recommend it as your entry point into sim racing because it's seriously expensive. You're expected to race professionally, too, so if you're new you'll need to crash into a lot of people to learn exactly how to avoid that sort of thing... iRacing isn't the place to do that. Also you may find you don't love sim racing as much as you were expecting to, so being tied into the subscription would be a waste of money in the long run. I recommend you play other stuff, see just how into sim racing you are and then decide. It's probably the second most expensive sim if you want access to all the content, the most expensive being SimRaceWay. It seems like everyone who plays iRacing loves it to death, the most common complaint you'll see of it is that it's too expensive and those comments are generally made by those who haven't paid for it. Personally it's a mixture of being unable to afford it and being quite scared that it'll consume my life.


Hope that helps! For more on building a PC, check out the computers and technology forum. The guys there love helping to build PCs.

 

[BODHI85]

Thanks for all the info. I will definitely be going through all the items you talked about.

In terms of cost, I was hoping to spend around a thousand. Not sure if this is realistic or not. I am willing to put more money into if required. I'd prefer to spend a little more than buying subpar parts resulting in mediocre results.

This thread is more for inquiry and information of what I am getting myself into. I'm not in any rush.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I'd skip rFactor 1 personally and go for rFactor 2, only in beta stages but its very very good and hugely enjoyable, likewise with project cars.

Specwise, 4 core cpu, £200-£250 graphics card, decent wireless card, 8gb ram is achievable in good budget nowadays.

Nearly 2 years ago I spent £400 on a quad core machine with a nVidia 550ti 1gb graphics card and 4gb ram. On a budget of £1000/$1000 you should be fine, maybe look at the new 6 series nVidias, 660, or 670 for the £200-£250 mark, and look at the phenom AMD CPU's.

My 2cents, some may agree some may not.

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

$1,000 US dollars?

Go with an AMD GPU, they are cheaper, and now faster thanks to the latest driver. They are also giving away 3 free games with 79xx series cards.

If you're going to be at 1920x1080 resolution, then a single overclocked 7850 or 7870 will ensure you have a playable frame rate (or above 60 in most cases) at or near max settings in every racing sim.

z68 (gen3) or z77 board paired with an Ivy Bridge processor.

8+ GB RAM.

500W PSU, unless you plan on crossfiring/sli in the future (instead of replacing an old graphics card you can buy an identical to get near double performance increase); if that is something you would be interested in then a 600-750W PSU would be more upgrade friendly. Do not spend less than $50 on a PSU, unless it is just on crazy discounts.

Storage devices, case, peripherals all at your preference.

 

[taz]

Pretty good advice so far, but I'd go with more memory if you don't want to upgrade for a while. Trust me it will be worth it, most race sims won't need much to run at max settings but if you're gonna play other PC games like FPS's it's gonna come in handy.

 

[sesselpupser]

Pretty good advice so far, but I'd go with more memory if you don't want to upgrade for a while. Trust me it will be worth it, most race sims won't need much to run at max settings but if you're gonna play other PC games like FPS's it's gonna come in handy.

More than 8GB for gaming?

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

No. You don't need more than 8 GB for gaming.

 

[Sharky.]

(instead of replacing an old graphics card you can buy an identical to get near double performance increase)

Not if you go AMD. Been down that route, never again.

Any of the current high-perf cards from either camp - 7850, 7870, 7950, 7970, 660(Ti), 670, 680 - will be more than sufficient as a single card for a couple of years, and by the time they start lacking in power vs what the latest games demand a new range of cards twice as good as those will have been released

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=751&page=3

http://m.tomshardware.com/reviews/crossfire-sli-3-way-scaling,2865-10.html

And the winner is...

And those are all before 12.11.

 

[Signal52]

I'll just say that with $1000 you can get a very decent to quite good gaming setup, and that I would agree that while rFactor is a classic and a great game, you might want to just go ahead and purchase rFactor 2.

The main thing about PC gaming is that there can at times be less of a community to race with, otherwise the ability to mod games is a huge incentive. Tweaking visuals and AI can totally change a game.

 

[Dahlsim]

It's supposedly going to bridge the gap between the serious arcade and super serious sims, i.e. it'll take elements of Forza and GT and mix them with iRacing and rFactor to make a sim with a career mode and other neat flourishes. It's probably the best-looking sim we have access to right now, go check out the thread here for evidence.

Hi neema_t, how can you say that about PCARS ? Right now, even in pre alpha state, i find that driving the Caterham Classic in this game is probably the closest experience to real driving. Sure they have developed the Shift series, but in the team there are more than 20 people from Simbin so they have all the talent needed to create a true sim.

Agree about everything else you said, hard choice between AMD and Nvidia though 👍

 

[sesselpupser]

Hi neema_t, how can you say that about PCARS ? Right now, even in pre alpha state, i find that driving the Caterham Classic in this game is probably the closest experience to real driving. Sure they have developed the Shift series, but in the team there are more than 20 people from Simbin so they have all the talent needed to create a true sim.

Agree about everything else you said, hard choice between AMD and Nvidia though 👍

I didn't say that, SMS said that. I meant it's a proper rFactor-like sim with a GT/Forza-like career, I thought I actually wrote that but maybe I edited it out.

 

[Dahlsim]

Ok, i thought you were talking about the driving/physics

 

[taz]

No. You don't need more than 8 GB for gaming.

I know you don't the OP said that he's looking for longevity that why I recommended more. He might not need it now, but if he's not gonna upgrade for another two years he might. But then again that might depend in the speed of memory he gets.

 

[Samus]

Getting back to the game side of things if you're just starting out in sims I'd definitely recommend starting with the Simbin games. Unfortunately trying to buy everything they do in one simple package is a pain in the rear.

I'd definitely suggest getting GT Legends, GTR2 and some form of the Race 07 package first, it'll be a nice gentle introuduction to sim racing before you get onto some of the more hardcore games like iRacing.

 

[BODHI85]

My budget is pretty flexible. I don't mind investing more money into it; even double or triple my initial amount of $1000, as long as it's spread over time.

Building a computer from scratch, is something I would love to do. In this case, I would like to build something using high end hardware.

On the other hand, I was thinking of buying a pre-built computer with a an i7 processor for around $1000 to 1500. I already have a pretty good BenQ 3d monitor. This way, I would already have something to use and I could always swap in better parts if I wanted to.

If I were to do the latter, what brand should I go with? In the past, I've bought Dell, which seemed pretty good. I also have a friend telling me that Alienware is good especially for gaming.

 

[Bigbazz]

Project CARS recently released the early version of their new tyre model, I have to admit the cars have taken a big step forward in feel, handling and the precision of the FFB, I tested the Lotus 78 most and I think it feels fantastic.

Rfactor 2 is hit and miss still, some very talented modders out there but the stuff of top quality is still very limited. Personally I would advise a new player to try other things and wait until Rfactor 2 is properly released, Rfactor 1 certaintly has some great content but in my eyes I think it takes too much fiddling, setup and tweaking to get even close to what many games are bringing out of the box. SimRaceway and Game Stock Car have taken Rfactor and done all that fiddling and tweaking for the user and play beautifully out of the box with top quality content, so rather than going down the Rfactor route (personally) i would point someone in the direction of those 2 games.

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

I know you don't the OP said that he's looking for longevity that why I recommended more. He might not need it now, but if he's not gonna upgrade for another two years he might. But then again that might depend in the speed of memory he gets.

Speed means very little between same rate memory.

8 GB DDR3 is plenty for gaming for several years; especially with DDR4 coming to market in the next year or two.

Look at the benchmarks before making suggestions.

 

[Signal52]

RAM is also one of the cheapest upgrades for a PC.

 

[m8h3r]

RAM is also one of the cheapest upgrades for a PC.

But there's no point having 100 GB of ram in a 10 year old computer.

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

This is why build suggestion threads are a bad idea.

 

[sems4arsenal]

hey Guys I've been willing to get a laptop for college and was wondering if I can play the basic sims (Rfactor ,RBR,etc )with a laptop an example to something i've been looking at is the Dell Inspiron 5520 so will it be enough to run these games and can i connect it to my HD TV?

 

[oqvist]

No. You don't need more than 8 GB for gaming.

You don´t need more then 4 GB for gaming. And you hardly ever need more then 2 gig but then you are starting to stretch it. 4 GB is more then enough just don´t buy 4x1 GB so you lock yourself up from adding more later on if there comes a game that utilize more ram or MS or whatever release a new system hog of an OS or whatever.

People always say RAM is one of the cheapest upgrade but then most of the time you pay money for absolutely nothing. Music, video editing etc require a lot of RAM but gaming and regular computer use as for watching videos, word processors, internet and gaming you really get no benefit at all from going nuts on the RAM side due to the "cheap factor".

I would instead pay money for faster ram modules since that does make a change as in better flow noticable faster respons time to your actions though you won´t see much in term of maximum fps. But well this is if you are hardcore otherwise the average cheap memory will probably satisfy.

Building your own is generally heaper but particularly in later years you start to see prebuilt computers that is pretty damn competitive to the price of building your own. I seen examples where I couldn´t built a computer with the same parts for that price. The benefit of building your own is that you have a bigger chance of fixing a potential problem yourself would it arrise. Unless you get from a local store it´s much more convenient to do that then ship it away. If a harddrive fails which happens you will not be totally alienated what to do and also you will not suffer any locked bioses or anything that make upgrading hard.

I am not to familiar with the Dells and HPs and such but the old ones I seen was really not designed to be maintained or upgraded.

 

[Signal52]

But there's no point having 100 GB of ram in a 10 year old computer.

True, but other than the fact that DDR4 will be out soon, RAM is easily transferrable as well.

I also think you read a little too far into my comment. I was just stating that RAM is something that's a cheap upgrade, meaning that he could make that decision easily further on down the road with no real worries. I wasn't suggesting that he buy a bunch of RAM right off the bat just because it's cheap.

 

[taz]

Speed means very little between same rate memory.

8 GB DDR3 is plenty for gaming for several years; especially with DDR4 coming to market in the next year or two.

Look at the benchmarks before making suggestions.

I made that suggestion based on an experience I had after adding 4GB to a system that already had 8. We saw better gaming performance, and I'll admit that the video card used wasn't the latest thing on the market, it was bought two years earlier. That's something that benchmarks won't tell you, but I was just trying to help not start an argument.

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

You don´t need more then 4 GB for gaming. And you hardly ever need more then 2 gig but then you are starting to stretch it.

Windows 7, background processes, and browsing in Chrome uses 2 GB of system RAM on my system.

This is a Windows 7 environment with about 6 months after the last fresh install/secure erase. So yes, you certainly do need more than 2 GB.

BF3 uses 1.5+ GB of RAM; Skyrim uses over 2 GB.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/22/dice-to-require-64-bit-os-for-some-2013-games/

This means more RAM will be used, above the 32 bit cut off.

If he plans to play any of these games on his system and multi-task at the same time, between rounds, to search, email, google, whatever, he can't do it on 4 GB. If he wants to load entire games onto RAMDisk (for free) to have literally close to a zero load times... He cant do it on 4 GB. Is $10 worth the ability to do all this?

4 GB is anything but future proof.

I made that suggestion based on an experience I had after adding 4GB to a system that already had 8. We saw better gaming performance, and I'll admit that the video card used wasn't the latest thing on the market, it was bought two years earlier. That's something that benchmarks won't tell you, but I was just trying to help not start an argument.

Yes, it is.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,2778-8.html

Multi-tasking is the only reason you would see an increase in performance going from 8 - 16 GB. Which means you were close to 6-7 GB worth of running programs WHILE gaming...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/6

This shows speed doesn't really matter when gaming between identical data rate modules. DDR3 vs DDR4 is another matter.

There are much better benches out there, ones that were aimed at killing these misconceptions, but I am unable to find them.

hey Guys I've been willing to get a laptop for college and was wondering if I can play the basic sims (Rfactor ,RBR,etc )with a laptop an example to something i've been looking at is the Dell Inspiron 5520 so will it be enough to run these games and can i connect it to my HD TV?

You have Intel integrated graphics, which means no to somewhat; depends on the game. Solitaire yes, pCARS unlikely.

Do you have a 3000 or 4000? You will have to check your model; go to control panel > device manager > display adapter.

If you have the HD4000 here is a benchmark:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000-Benchmarked.73567.0.html

Comparing the two:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5771/the-intel-ivy-bridge-core-i7-3770k-review

http://compare-processors.com/rank/...+3000=on&Intel+HD+Graphics+4000=on&cp=Compare

They list average refresh rate, keep in mind refresh rates are not locked and will see a lower rate lower than what they give.
If you have video out (hdmi) on your laptop then yes you can hook it up; you can either duplicate or extend the desktop onto the tv.

 

[djinline]

As for software, I seriously recommend starting off with Race 07. It's very cheap on Steam (which is something you'll want to sign up on, probably, if you'll be doing PC gaming) and is easy to get up and running, there are mods for it should you wish to dabble in that and DLC packs on Steam which require absolutely no effort beyond buying and installing.

I would recommend RACE Injection instead of just buying the RACE 07, it has most of the expansion packs bundled with it and it's cheaper.

And yes, get at least 8GB of RAM so you won't have to worry about running out of memory.

 

[sesselpupser]

I would recommend RACE Injection instead of just buying the RACE 07, it has most of the expansion packs bundled with it and it's cheaper.

And yes, get at least 8GB of RAM so you won't have to worry about running out of memory.

I was hesitant to suggest Injection because there's a big difference in price and he might not enjoy it. However, I've just remembered there's also a demo so Injection would indeed be the better choice seeing as he can try before buying. Good call!

 

[taz]

Zoology, you do realize that I agreed with you right? My last system only had 4GB of ram and pretty much ran everything at max up until the point when I upgraded.