Racing Simulator Build

[Big Head Tech]

I am building a racing simulator for a friend.  All he needs is the PC and the monitors, he's getting the rest himself.  Below is what I tossed together for him.  I'd love to go Ryzen but 1080p 144Hz needs more clock speed.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/92whHN

[LienusLateTips]

single 1080 ti probably cant push 144hz

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($306.89 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($32.49 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Motherboard: MSI - Z270 GAMING M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: *GeIL - EVO POTENZA 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($113.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($267.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC Black Edition Video Card  ($724.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($94.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($115.99 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: Acer - GN276HL bid 27.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  ($249.90 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: Acer - GN276HL bid 27.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  ($249.90 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: Acer - GN276HL bid 27.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  ($249.90 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2547.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-12 16:29 EDT-0400

[Big Head Tech]

5 minutes ago, JDE said:

single 1080 ti probably cant push 144hz

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($306.89 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($32.49 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Motherboard: MSI - Z270 GAMING M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: *GeIL - EVO POTENZA 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($113.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($267.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC Black Edition Video Card  ($724.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($94.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($115.99 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: Acer - GN276HL bid 27.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  ($249.90 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: Acer - GN276HL bid 27.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  ($249.90 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: Acer - GN276HL bid 27.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  ($249.90 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2547.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-12 16:29 EDT-0400

Should be able to push 80-100 since most of the racing sim games are as graphically demanding as newer games.

[JerrBear]

Have you asked him if he's considering an ultrawide display instead of 3 separate monitors?

 

Just did a quick search on newegg and found this (it has G-Sync so if you want something cheaper, go without G-Sync): https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16824011069

[LienusLateTips]

Just now, Snaeb said:

Should be able to push 80-100 since most of the racing sim games are as graphically demanding as newer games.

btw use this psu, it's two dollars more and 850W

[Big Head Tech]

1 minute ago, JerrBear said:

Have you asked him if he's considering an ultrawide display instead of 3 separate monitors?

 

Just did a quick search on newegg and found this (it has G-Sync so if you want something cheaper, go without G-Sync): https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16824011069

That''s more expensive and the racing sim has 3 monitor arms

 

1 minute ago, JDE said:

btw use this psu, it's two dollars more and 850W

G2 is probably the best quality unit on the market.  Plus I want to run at 50-80% power  for max efficiency

[Sanctorum]

1 minute ago, Snaeb said:

G2 is probably the best quality unit on the market.  

It's not. It's a stellar quality unit, that's for sure. However it is not the best. 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($306.89 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($46.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Asus - TUF Z270 MARK 2 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($120.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($126.01 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($267.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC Black Edition Video Card  ($724.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.90 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: QNIX - QX2710 Matte 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor  ($204.99 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Monitor: QNIX - QX2710 Matte 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor  ($204.99 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Monitor: QNIX - QX2710 Matte 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor  ($204.99 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Total: $2408.72

 

Significantly better cooler. SLI support. Nicer/better, higher resolution monitors. Overclock them to 96-120Hz if you must but high refresh isn't hugely important for a racing sim.

[Big Head Tech]

4 minutes ago, Sanctorum said:

It's not. It's a stellar quality unit, that's for sure. However it is not the best. 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($306.89 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($46.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Asus - TUF Z270 MARK 2 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($120.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($126.01 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($267.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC Black Edition Video Card  ($724.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.90 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: QNIX - QX2710 Matte 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor  ($204.99 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Monitor: QNIX - QX2710 Matte 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor  ($204.99 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Monitor: QNIX - QX2710 Matte 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor  ($204.99 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Total: $2408.72

 

Significantly better cooler. SLI support. Nicer/better, higher resolution monitors. Overclock them to 96-120Hz if you must but high refresh isn't hugely important for a racing sim.

I like everything except the monitors.  3x1440p is going to be hard to run on a single 1080ti.  I feel from my experience using racing sims, higher refresh rate feels much better because of how fast moving it is.

[LienusLateTips]

8 minutes ago, Snaeb said:

G2 is probably the best quality unit on the market.  Plus I want to run at 50-80% power  for max efficiency

no it isn't, G3 is.

 

RMx and RMi are just as good though

 

[DocSwag]

Get a cryorig h7 instead, and you may want to consider g sync monitors.

18 minutes ago, Snaeb said:

G2 is probably the best quality unit on the market.  Plus I want to run at 50-80% power  for max efficiency

Not true, best would be stuff like the G3 and prime units. RMx is similar tier to g2 imo

15 minutes ago, Sanctorum said:

Nicer/better, higher resolution monitors. Overclock them to 96-120Hz if you must but high refresh isn't hugely important for a racing sim.

In refresh rate they're worse. Monitor ocs are far from guaranteed and I doubt 60 hz will easily go that high

 

[Sanctorum]

1 hour ago, Snaeb said:

I like everything except the monitors.  3x1440p is going to be hard to run on a single 1080ti.  I feel from my experience using racing sims, higher refresh rate feels much better because of how fast moving it is.

The resolution is pretty much irrelevant since you can run them at 720p if you want. A 1080Ti is fine for those monitors. As for refresh rate, it's not worth buying a poor quality monitor just for 144Hz, especially since the QX2710 is a better quality monitor and can be easily overclocked to 96-120Hz.

1 hour ago, DocSwag said:

Not true, best would be stuff like the G3 and prime units. RMx is similar tier to g2 imo

Still wrong. The G3 and G2 share the same platform. The G3 just has some minor improvements. The "best" though is stuff like the AX1500i. 

1 hour ago, DocSwag said:

Monitor ocs are far from guaranteed and I doubt 60 hz will easily go that high

Any overclock is "far from guaranteed" but I've yet to see a single person not be able to overclock their QX2710 to at least 96Hz. So, yes, it will easily go that high.

[LienusLateTips]

1 minute ago, Sanctorum said:

The G3 and G2 share the same platform.

nope, different platforms

[DocSwag]

27 minutes ago, Sanctorum said:

Still wrong. The G3 and G2 share the same platform. The G3 just has some minor improvements. The "best" though is stuff like the AX1500i. 

Regardless, voltage regulation was improved quite a bit on the G3, looking at the jonnyguru reviews sees it going from around .6% down to .2%. Getting around .2% regulation and ripple around 10 mV, imo, puts it straight in top territory.

 

How is a G3 or prime unit inferior to an ax1500i? In fact, I might say voltage regulation is better on a G3 or prime. Though voltage ripple is similarily awesome on the ax as the others.

 

Prime is just as good as ax when it comes to efficiency, though G3 is worse. However, going purely on electrical performance... I don't see how you can put the ax1500i in a tier above the G3.

31 minutes ago, Sanctorum said:

Any overclock is "far from guaranteed" but I've yet to see a single person not be able to overclock their QX2710 to at least 96Hz. So, yes, it will easily go that high.

They OC that well? Source?

 

Not saying you're wrong but, gotta need confirmation  

[Sanctorum]

32 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Regardless, voltage regulation was improved quite a bit on the G3, looking at the jonnyguru reviews sees it going from around .6% down to .2%. Getting around .2% regulation and ripple around 10 mV, imo, puts it straight in top territory.

I know, I said the G3 was an improvement. It's still not the best of the best. I'd definitely say it's still top tier, but the AX1500i is undoubtedly better. It's stupid expensive and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but it is better. Also, FYI, the G2 is also still a top tier unit.

33 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

How is a G3 or prime unit inferior to an ax1500i? In fact, I might say voltage regulation is better on a G3 or prime. Though voltage ripple is similarily awesome on the ax as the others.

There are different variants of the Seasonic Prime. I'd say the Titanium Prime is about equal to an AX1500i, but not a Gold rated Seasonic Prime unit.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=378

That's how I can say the G3 units are "inferior" to an AX1500i.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=500

 

Although, the P2 and/or T2 units are probably just as good as an AX1500i tbh.

1 hour ago, JDE said:

nope, different platforms

G3=LeadEx II.

G2=LeadEx.

The LeadEx II is an improved LeadEx, so they do share the same platform. Regardless, they'er both stellar quality units but not best of the best.

36 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

They OC that well? Source?

 

Not saying you're wrong but, gotta need confirmation  

110Hz stable

http://www.overclock.net/t/1493929/qnix-and-x-star-monitors-new-timings-and-overclocking-guide-club

OP of the post got 120Hz.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/771446-Grabbed-a-Qnix-QX2710-some-overclocking-information-inside

104Hz stable.

 

I've recommended the QX2710 to many people and the people I've recommended it to who have overclocked have been able to hit at least 96Hz. I'd have a QX2710 myself if they were easily available in the UK.

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1384767/official-the-qnix-x-star-1440p-monitor-club

3 people on the first page alone hit 120Hz with their QX2710.

[DocSwag]

4 minutes ago, Sanctorum said:

I know, I said the G3 was an improvement. It's still not the best of the best. I'd definitely say it's still top tier, but the AX1500i is undoubtedly better. It's stupid expensive and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but it is better. Also, FYI, the G2 is also still a top tier unit.

How is the AX better? Besides efficiency and wattage.

 

Yes G2 is still top tier but it's not as top tier.

10 minutes ago, Sanctorum said:

There are different variants of the Seasonic Prime. I'd say the Titanium Prime is about equal to an AX1500i, but not a Gold rated Seasonic Prime unit.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=378

That's how I can say the G3 units are "inferior" to an AX1500i.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=500

 

Although, the P2 and/or T2 units are probably just as good as an AX1500i tbh.

I'm assuming you're basing it off the scoring, which means you're basing it off of cable capacitors and jonnyguru not deeming the price good enough. That does not make it inferior to the ax PSUs performance wise.

14 minutes ago, Sanctorum said:

G3=LeadEx II.

G2=LeadEx.

The LeadEx II is an improved LeadEx, so they do share the same platform. Regardless, they'er both stellar quality units but not best of the best.

And, how are they, performance wise, not the best of the best? (Besides server units of course)

15 minutes ago, Sanctorum said:

Monitor stuff

Fair enough, fair point.

[Sanctorum]

4 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

How is the AX better? Besides efficiency and wattage.

Eh? This question makes no sense lmfao. "How is it better, apart from where it's better?". If the AX1500i is more efficient than the G3, then the G3 is by definition not the best of the best, even if the AX1500i isn't the best of the best either. In fact, I'm not even going to argue the AX1500i is the best of the best, because I don't really believe that, but the G3 isn't either.

5 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Yes G2 is still top tier but it's not as top tier.

The G3 is such a slight improvement over the G2 IMO. If you could get a G2 for even $10 less than a G3 of the same wattage, the G2 unit would be more worth it IMO. Both are stellar quality. I'm on my second G2 lol.

6 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

And, how are they, performance wise, not the best of the best? (Besides server units of course)

because they're not. Again, I'm not denying the fact that they're incredibly good units, especially for their price. However, that does not make them the best of the best. 

[DocSwag]

1 hour ago, Sanctorum said:

Eh? This question makes no sense lmfao. "How is it better, apart from where it's better?". If the AX1500i is more efficient than the G3, then the G3 is by definition not the best of the best, even if the AX1500i isn't the best of the best either. In fact, I'm not even going to argue the AX1500i is the best of the best, because I don't really believe that, but the G3 isn't either.

I'm basing my "what the best psu is" based upon electrical performance. For which I believe the G3 is better.

 

Yeah I know it is better in other factors but that's not what I usually think of when I get asked what the best psu is. It's like when you get asked what the best CPU is, your head doesn't go to power draw, efficiency, etc. It goes to the best performance.

1 hour ago, Sanctorum said:

The G3 is such a slight improvement over the G2 IMO. If you could get a G2 for even $10 less than a G3 of the same wattage, the G2 unit would be more worth it IMO. Both are stellar quality. I'm on my second G2 lol.

I don't think the better regulation is a slight improvement. Yes it's not a huge one but it's not small either.

 

I agree, g2 is still great. If it was $10 less, I would also pick g2. But G3 is undeniably better.

1 hour ago, Sanctorum said:

because they're not. Again, I'm not denying the fact that they're incredibly good units, especially for their price. However, that does not make them the best of the best. 

If they aren't the best performance wise, then what is?!?