new PC for SimRacing

[Peter Klawitter]

hi all, want to build a good reliable and with enough power to run a single 4k TV screen 50inches for a friend who is getting into SimRacing but wants to use his 4k screen. games are pCARS, Assetto Corsa, R3E, iRacing and rF2

what would you guys suggest with single GPU and a normal budget, not water cooled either. ($1200-1600USD)

thank you all!

 

[GuitarTech]

Here are the hardware specs from my new SimRacing computer that I built in April of this year. With this hardware you can run any Car Sim with everything on high or ultra, with real weather, at night; and as many cars as you like, and you'll still have well over 80fps at all times. I'm running a 34" 21:9 LG monitor with 2560x1080 60Hz, and the picture looks like glass No stuttering, no tearing
The Gigabyte mainboard and the Kingston RAM are made for overclocking, so, immediatly after I'd installed Win 10 onto the new system, I o/c'ed it, using the pre-sets in the BIOS, from 3.5GHz to 4.4GHz. The sims fly, and it doesn't even run any hotter than the standard clock!
Make sure you don't skimp on the CPU cooling fan, or the PSU. There are cheaper alternatives to the parts I used, but if you're going to be overclocking, and driving in the sim for hours on hot days, top hardware with reserve margins is a good investment. I know someone who was too cheap to buy a good PSU: The cheapo china crap PSU failed after 6 months, and took his €400 GTX 970 down with it when it failed.....in the end he payed €350 more......
A similar system to mine should fall within your budget, have fun with the new rig

Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 5 mobo
6600K i5 Skylake @ 4.4GHz CPU
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S
MSI GTX 970 GPU ( standard clock )
Kingston HyperX 16gb 2 x 8gb DDR4-2666 RAM
Creative Soundblaster Z Soundcard
Corsair RM650X 650W PSU
2 x Samsung 850 evo SSD's
Noctua cooling fans

 

[Peter Klawitter]

thank you for help @GuitarTech , much appreciate the detailed reply and all your explanations! thank you!

 

[Skazz]

For 4K, the most important purchase would be a GTX1070 or 1080. They represent a big leap ahead of the 970 in performance.

To be honest, though, even a GTX1080 will have trouble hitting ultra graphical settings at 4K... it's a lot more pixels to throw around than a 21:9 screen. 1080p=2 million pixels, 2560x1080=2.7 Mpixels, 3440x1440 (also 21:9)=5 Mpixels, 3x1080p triples=6 Mpixels, 4K (3840x2160)=8.2 Mpixels.

That puts things nicely into perspective. Sure, you can run lower resolutions on a 4K screen but that won't look as good.

 

[GuitarTech]

Oops! I missed the bit about using 4K. That puts a different slant on things...My bad :-(

 

[Peter Klawitter]

appreciate it all the feedback and replies, just want to make sure i get something worked out, that can be expanded also later. (like a big case etc.)

 

[Alex Townsend]

A 1070/80 would be required for 4k. But also wouldn't an i7 help for having many more vehicles on screen since it has hyperthreading?
I know that the CPU gets a bashing on Assetto Corsa with all those extra cars and physics flying around. Not so much online but definitely in SP

 

[Peter Klawitter]

thank you @Alex Townsend , i still am looking around and educating myself before i finalize building the 2-3x PC's for friends, started with 1 sim rig, now 2-3x rigs and they all have 4k TV's want to start on and use for their simracing.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Wish I had friends like that!
Building sim rigs is so much fun

 

[Skazz]

In basic terms, a modern PC for 4K simracing would probably need:
- Good stable motherboard (that usually means not getting the cheap models, and preferably a full ATX board with 4 DIMM slots and M.2 slot positioning for good heat clearance)
- i7 6700 or 6700k (since more AI needs more CPU)
- Decent after-market CPU cooler (Cooler Master offer excellent price-performance)
- 16 GB RAM, preferably as 2 DIMMs so you can add another 16 at some point in the future when 16GB is getting too small
- 500GB-1TB SSD (spinning rust is so 2010), probably SATA for price, but M.2 NVMe is more awesome
- A simple case with good cooling (12-14cm fans) and enough 2.5" mounting slots. I love my Fractal R5 as an example, Corsair is another good choice these days.
- 550W PSU for single GPU, 700-800W PSU for multi-GPU. Good make like Seasonic.
- GTX1080 preferably for 4K