Got the itch, now i need a computer..

[NjLowrider]

Ok I play gt5 everyday basically, I have triple screens and rig with g27. Love it!

I dont have any computer skills as far as building one or programming one, but I believe I'm a handy guy!

My question basically is, how much money would this computer cost to run Iracing well and support my triple screens and a surround sound?

Is this something I could assemble and get running or are we talking super computer with hundreds of programs to install and configure and special sound and graphic cards..

I haven't done any pc gaming since original sim city! I'm not computer illiterate but it sounds daunting.

I do have a 3-4 year old family hp desktop collecting dust that I could work with? Is that even an option or do I need a fresh start with a good gaming comp?

If I can get a Cts-V I want in! My safety rating will be thru the roof! No scratches!!

Thanks guys!

 

[magic_town]

I'm sure you could build it yourself, it seems to be the opinion of a lot of people. I've been told my pc could easily run triples (don't actually have them) and it cost around $800.
I'm sure some of the experts will post with advice, I'm no expert but theres a lot of helpful guys here! Good luck you won't regret it!

 

[HouseChampion]

NjLowrider u got this! Building and setting up computers easy stuff!
I'm sure more people will chime in but if you have half decent knowledge of computers / access to the Internet then you'll be fine. Check out some YouTube vids on putting a computer together.

I know the ATI cards run eyefinity with little hassle, not sure where Nvidia is at atm in regards to that though (the newer cards can do it by themselves?)

By surround sound do you mean with speakers or will headphones do? Again, both are easy
A Xonar DG is cheap and does fine with surround for example.

 

[bevo]

The first thing anyone will need to help you is a budget. You could get triple screens going for around $600 or so. You could run them really well for probably around $800. You may be able to use a few things from the old computer like the hard drive, and DVD, that might save you $100 or so.

Triples are very easy to get going. Both Nvidia and AMD can do it with one card. It's also pretty easy to build a computer anymore. If you're not afraid to do it, then you can do it.

If you are going to build a PC just for iRacing you should know that iRacing is very competitive. Unless you are one of the best sim racers in the world, wins will come far and few between. I'm probably middle of the line and have won i think 7 or 8 races out of around 130. When you do get those wins though it feels great. Some people just can't seem to take the level of difficulty that comes with iRacing. It's not so much how hard the cars are to drive, but the competition.

With that said though, I love it. I can't get myself to play any other game after going triple screens and really getting into it. Every other game just seems silly after playing iRacing.

 

[NjLowrider]

I've been searching and I think I might start gearing up for it. I'll maybe ask a few friends who have some experience.

The tower I have is an hp. Has the Internet card and two other open white slots for cards, then an offset brown slot for another card? Also looks like 2 slots for ram cards but it is using a single Infineon 64mx64 sdram card. I'm thinking its more like 6-7 years old.. Think I need to go new?

I'll be running a simple 4.1 surround..

I'm fine just running my own race as clean as possible.

Great racing can happen at any position!

Thanks guys!

 

[Hydro]

I've been searching and I think I might start gearing up for it. I'll maybe ask a few friends who have some experience.

The tower I have is an hp. Has the Internet card and two other open white slots for cards, then an offset brown slot for another card? Also looks like 2 slots for ram cards but it is using a single Infineon 64mx64 sdram card. I'm thinking its more like 6-7 years old.. Think I need to go new?

I'll be running a simple 4.1 surround..

I'm fine just running my own race as clean as possible.

Great racing can happen at any position!

Thanks guys!

Can you post the make and model of the motherboard along with the CPU info?

 

[Infinital-NG]

I've been searching and I think I might start gearing up for it. I'll maybe ask a few friends who have some experience.

The tower I have is an hp. Has the Internet card and two other open white slots for cards, then an offset brown slot for another card? Also looks like 2 slots for ram cards but it is using a single Infineon 64mx64 sdram card. I'm thinking its more like 6-7 years old.. Think I need to go new?

I'll be running a simple 4.1 surround..

I'm fine just running my own race as clean as possible.

Great racing can happen at any position!

Thanks guys!

The brown slot is more than likely an APG graphics card slot, which is the older tech for graphics cards. You'll need something with a PCI Express x16 slot for a newer graphics cards.

Just going from that you'd need a new motherboard, so new processor, new ram, probably your using an IDE drive and you'd want to go to a SATA hard drive.

 

[NjLowrider]

Yea I figured this was on the older side.


I've also seen some gaming computers used on eBay with 25+ bids for anywhere between 250-450.. I figure with the amount of bids these are getting, they must be semi-legit. I just don't know what I'm looking for really. Quad core seems to be a good start. Will any quad core have the specs I need to build off of?

 

[Infinital-NG]

Typical with most PC gaming where you'll see the most benefit is from the graphics card.

http://www.iracing.com/membership/system-requirements/

I haven't played iracing in over a year, but I would think:

Decent 3.2ghz or so Intel Quad Core (I5 would probably be good)
probably 8GB ram, just because you'll most likely be running Windows 7 and more ram is always better.
A decent speed sataIII hard drive

On graphics card I couldn't help you much. I build business machines and very rarely do I need to purchase a performance graphics card. I'm sure someone here or over in "Computer & Technology" forum could help out.

Generally you want to figure out your budget for the system. Then it's easier to find the best bang for your buck.