Advice on starter sim racing PC

[Blib]

I'd like some advice on my potential sim racing PC purchase.

After years of xbox sim racing I'd like to dip my toe into the world of PC sim racing. Specifically, VR racing.

I have a Quest 2 that I can begin with. But, the almost infinite choice of gaming PCs has nearly defeated me as I've not bought a gaming PC since the old Doom 386/486 days. I'm completely out of the loop, without a clue.

This machine is recommended as a good all rounder:

Alienware
Aurora R12 Gaming PC - GeForce RTX 3070, Intel Core I7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD & 1TB HDD

Will this be able to run assetto corsa, iracing, Motorsport 7, F1 2022 at an acceptable resolution and frame rate when mated to the Quest 2?

Thank you.

[WelshPetrolhead]

That will be more than capable. I run an old AMD RX590 card on my rig (3900X CPU) and can run most driving stuff on High settings. I don't think driving games tend to be quite as demanding as other genres.

[xeny]

Presuming that is the right spec, I'd be tempted to replicate it from one of the bespoke PC builders.

The gaming PCs from Dell/HP/Lenovo tend to be harder to upgrade in the long term than less proprietary systems - see videos like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ulhFi5N2hc to see the potential issues.

[Blib]

Thank you both.

@ xeny. I'd rather not gone down the bespoke route, due to lack of knowledge, hence the off the shelf option.

Will this thing power the Oculus 2 well enough.

[xeny]

Blib said:

Thank you both.

@ xeny. I'd rather not gone down the bespoke route, due to lack of knowledge, hence the off the shelf option.

GPU, CPU, SSD and RAM pretty much define a PC's performance.

Have a look at eliot's post in https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... which points to https://www.ukgamingcomputers.co.uk/ for example. I'm not proposing you order a pile of parts and a screwdriver.

[Captain_Morgan]

xeny said:

Presuming that is the right spec, I'd be tempted to replicate it from one of the bespoke PC builders.

The gaming PCs from Dell/HP/Lenovo tend to be harder to upgrade in the long term than less proprietary systems - see videos like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ulhFi5N2hc to see the potential issues.

This very much, often the big three will use proprietary motherboards and more importantly psu’s that are only just fit for purpose and have minimal head room making future upgrades impossible

As said it’s not a case of specing and building g yourself but using the cpu, gpu, memory and ssd as your start spec with a specialist builder to do the hard work for you

[Blib]

This all makes a lot of sense. Thank you. However, I'm really not confident with this.

So, moving along....what would you suggest I ask these companies to spec? Do I use the spec on the computer in my original post?

Thank you..

ETA.

I've emailed the company linked above and will post their suggestions.

Edited by Blib on Sunday 30th January 11:13

[FourWheelDrift]

Look at these for pre-builts.

PC Specialist
Alphasync
Box.co.uk
Scan
AWT

Example, better GPU (3070 Ti) and CPU (i7-12700k) than the Alienware if it's the £1999 Currys one you have looked at with the i7-11700KF and RTX 3070, and this is also less - https://www.awd-it.co.uk/awd-lian-li-o11-air-mini-...

That was basically the first I looked at on there based on price and CPU/GPU there will be others on all the site above.



Ps. Alienware are garbage. It's a small repurposed chassis of unidentifiable but extreme age with plastic cladding over it.

PPS. That one I posted does have one annoyance, it's a unlocked KF CPU which means it needs a Z690 board to overclock it, which you can't do on the B660 that they supply. So changing it to the Z690 option adds £79, still less than the Alienware.

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Sunday 30th January 18:31

[xeny]

Blib said:

Do I use the spec on the computer in my original post?

I don't tend to game, so I'm poorly placed to judge CPU/GPU requirements for specific games, but I'd tend towards a 1TB QLC SSD rather than a 1 TB HDD.

[Blib]

Thanks. Hopefully, I'll get a reply from the company I emailed tomorrow.

[TheBinarySheep]

I've got a 3070, works fine for all SIMS in VR (Quest 2), except ACC. I don't bother with ACC in VR, just use a monitor instead.

Edited by TheBinarySheep on Sunday 30th January 17:46

[Blib]

TheBinarySheep said:

I've got a 3070, works fine for all SIMS in VR (Quest 2), except ACC. I don't bother with ACC in VR, just use a monitor instead.

Is ACC Assetto Corsa? That's what I want to try first.

[TheGroover]

Blib said:

TheBinarySheep said:

I've got a 3070, works fine for all SIMS in VR (Quest 2), except ACC. I don't bother with ACC in VR, just use a monitor instead.

Is ACC Assetto Corsa? That's what I want to try first.

ACC is assetto corsa competizione, a different thing to Assetto Corsa. ACC is GT3/GT4 racing only whereas Assetto Corsa has a full range.

[TheBinarySheep]

Blib said:

Is ACC Assetto Corsa? That's what I want to try first.

As the previous poster says, they're made by the same people but are different games. I'd argue that if you're into GT3/4, then ACC is the best game for that at the minute.

For context, I've got an AMD 5600 CPU, 32GB DDR RAM and a 3070 graphics card. The system can play ALL sims at either high or very high settings on a 34" widescreen monitor at 1440p. VR however takes more GPU power, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, most games are absolutely fine depending on the settings you've got your Quest 2 set at, apart from ACC which does struggle and the even if you get it working at a reasonable refresh rate, the visuals are blurry.

iRacing, AM2, Assetto Corsa, are all great in VR. While the graphics are not as sharp as when using a monitor, the immersion is far better IMO.

[Blib]

Thanks everyone for your help so far. I've received two quotes from a couple of the companies suggested. I would really appreciate any guidance on which one would fit my criteria best.

It would need to power a triple screen set up if I dont get on with VR.

SYSTEM 1.

11th Generation "Rocket Lake" Intel core i7 11700K 8 core 16 thread CPU
Nvidia GeForce® RTX 3070 8GB.
16GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM, 480GB Kingston A400 SSD
1TB of Seagate Barracuda Storage.
Asus TUF Z490-Plus Motherboard.

£1,780


SYSTEM 2.

Intel® Core™ i5 10-Core Processor i5-12600KF (3.7GHz) 20MB Cache
ASUS® PRIME B660-PLUS D4 (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

£1,780.00

Thanks once again.

[xeny]

I'd ideally have the CPU from the 2nd one and the GPU from the first, although from the sounds of what TheBinarySheep is saying, that still won't have the grunt to run ACC on the Quest ?

[Blib]

Ah.

I think I'll leave ACC VR compatibility for when I win the lottery. There's enough games out there I can have a go at.

If push came to shove, which one would you go for?

[Terry Tibbs]

For context my system is -
Ryzen 5, 3060, 32gb ram. I had to up the ram from 16gb in order to play dcs (flight sim) smoothly.
I play Assetto Corsa in vr using a Quest 2 and I get 90fps with everything set to high. If you install mods like Sol and Pure it looks stunning. For help with those I can point you in the right direction, it’s easy and well worth it.

AC is fantastic in vr, I haven’t had much luck with Assetto Corsa Competizione though - I can run it but not at graphics settings I’m happy with. It seems poorly optimised for vr I think.

[xeny]

Blib said:

If push came to shove, which one would you go for?

I'd got for the second one. CPU is less of a room heater and more capable, more RAM, faster storage (is "1TB of Seagate Barracuda Storage." and HDD or an SSD??), but I tend to do a lot of data processing and virtualisation, not gaming.

Question I can't answer is if the 3060 TI is enough GPU. OTOH, it is much easier to swap out a GPU than a motherboard/CPU.

[Blib]

Thanks xeny..

Here's a third suggestion. It's more expensive, though within my budget.

System 3.

Case: Corsair 4000D Series Mid-Tower Black Gaming Case (OEM - no fans included)
CPU (Processor): AMD Ryzen 7 5700G - 8-Core 3.80GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo - 16MB L3 Cache Processor w/ Radeon Graphics
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Masterliquid Lite 240 Liquid Cooling System w/ 240mm Radiator, Extreme OC Compatible (Cooler Master CPU Water Cooling, Extreme OC Compatible)
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO: ATX w/ RGB, USB 3.1, SATA3, 2x M.2
Memory (RAM): 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4/3200mhz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance LPX w/Heat Spreader)
Graphics Card (GPU): MSI GeForce® RTX 3070 Ti 8GB - Ray Tracing Technology, DX12®, VR Ready, HDMI, DP - 4 MIN. Monitor Support (Single Card)
(Power Supply): Corsair RM850 850W 80+ Gold Modular Gaming Power
M.2 SSD Drive: 1TB (1x1TB) ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD - 3500MB/s Read & 3000MB/s Write (Single Drive)
(HDD & SSHD): 2TB Seagate BarraCuda SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 7200RPM Hard Drive
ExInternal USB Hub: Built-in USB
Wired Networking: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT -- As standard on all PCs
Sound Cards: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD AUDIO

£2,000.

To my untrained eye, it looks more powerful. But, I've no idea about AMD v Intel comparisons.

Anyone? Thanks.

Edited by Blib on Tuesday 1st February 12:11