Newb Build: Is a Great Gaming PC Necessarily a Great Racing Sim PC?

[Petty Andretti]

I've never built a pc before and have just ordered these components:

Case:
COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119122)

MoBo:
ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP LGA 775 Intel P965 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131028)

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115011)

Power Supply:
SILVERSTONE OP1000 ATX12V / EPS12V 1000W Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817256010)

RAM:
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) SDRAM DDR2 800 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034)

Video Card:
EVGA 768-P2-N835-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130079)

Sound Card:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102005)

HDs (2)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148138)

Oticals:
SAMSUNG 18X DVD+R (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151141)

LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106057)

XP Media Center.

All the benchtests I've seen for hardware involve games like F.E.A.R., Call of Duty and Quake 4. But I don't care about performance in those games because I don't play them.

If a pc can get great frames with those games, is it always a given that racing sims on the same rig would be a piece of cake?

I play mostly racing sims like GTR2, GTL, soon to be rFactor, and older games like F1 Challenge and GPL. I occasionally play some strategy games like Civ IV and AOE III. And some text based sims like Football Manager, which only require CPU power.

At first I considered SLI but decided against it. Too much potential for headaches and in the long run the cost of upgrading would be far more expensive. Plus Intel chipsets are rock solid.

I'm not concerned with losing framerate while shooting monsters. I'm concerened with getting bleeding edge frames while starting at the back of the grid against 50+ AI cars with all the eye candy maxed out at Spa.

How do you think this rig will do?

[rasfigjohn]

I think ASS magazine now has a monthly article about specific benchmarks or tech for PC racing http://autosimsport.teamssm.net/index.php
anyway I would loooove to have a pc like yours...

[Sidewinder16]

All the benchtests I've seen for hardware involve games like F.E.A.R., Call of Duty and Quake 4. But I don't care about performance in those games because I don't play them.

If a pc can get great frames with those games, is it always a given that racing sims on the same rig would be a piece of cake?

How do you think this rig will do?

It wont be a given but it will be highly likely that it will run well as simulations like GTR and GT legends are designed to run on the same hardware. And that machine you have is a bit better speced than mine which runs gtr2 fine.

[roddypoddy]

Nice system there mate,our pc,s are pretty much alike,you have a better gpu,and i have this case http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?ProductCode=2512-5013
you won,t be dissapointed performance wise,have fun.

[jayblue]

Looks like a very solid you've got there it will walk GTR2 on full detail settings :up: Get ready for some 60 car races at Spa...

[JMSpeed]

Can you wait a month? ...new gpus and cpus will come out, as well as price reductions on the current models possibly. Intel plans to cut prices, but I don't know if that effects the quad-cores.

That is what I am doing anyway. The build will be similar to yours, minus the quad-core and SLI.

[David Wright]

I suspect its overkill for current racing sims. The quad core processor won't be used - current racing sims are essentially single threaded. I strongly suspect even the next gen at best will only be able to use dual core. Why ask AFTER you've ordered the components? If its not too late get a dual core processor.

You don't mention the display. I'd spend money on a good display rather than top of the range processors and GPUs.

You are right about lack of benchmarks, (this is basically because racing sims are not big sellers) but came across this yesterday

http://www.tech-hounds.com/article25/ArticlesPage12.html

Not much help for you but useful for those of us choosing between mid-range ATI and nVidia cards.