Will Chris take us to the cleaners?

We'll soon know

I definately won't get it first as i no longer have it on order!

R u waitin Chris?

My 360 order was text to my mobile as dispatched - as of this morning, no PC version update yetski

Pc version processing

Got it, it's absolutely fantastic too. DRS and KERS are amazingly fun to use and the car finally has some inertia!

Awesome, can't wait!

^^Mine says that too now Andy for the PC versionski. The money has been taken and it has a Royal Mail tracking reference too. I guess I'll get a text in the morning to say it has also been dispatched.

If the 360 game was dispatched about dinner, then it should land tomorrow here. We shall see.

I will be buying but im not pre ordering, im going to wait a few weeks then buy it cheap. Not being tight or owt, im just broke

I suppose we can let Linz off. Just.

I must accept part of the blame tbh, not coz Linz is broke, but if the series had kicked off in the last 6 months then it would have been easier to justify the purchase and addition to a collect - as we'd have been using he game.

The worst value I've had from a computer game, apart from DiRT - and I rated the game highly too. Wait until you see what the next-gen consoles will output to your screen, it's awesome.

Aye, I think I'm going to cave in and get a new gaming PC in the next 2-3 months. My little old 9800GT can play F1 2011 but it's a bit laggy. I can only imagine what it would look like at 1920x1080 with all the bells and whistles on.

Think I'm going to go down the core i5 route and found a nice little shuttle (plan on going to some LAN parties too) and hope to get it all sorted for around £750.

What beasty rig have you got mate? Considering you spent over a grand on it? Must be a biblical beast.

You won't regret it John, I know I spent a small fortune as the build inc Windows cost £1,700.

The build centres around the following

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz @ 4.60GHz Sandybridge CPU
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION
RAM: Kingston HyperX Genesis 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel
RAM: Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel
Cooler: Cooler Master Hiper 212 Plus
OS: Single OS system, I've switched to DX11 now via Win7 Home Prem 64Bit
HD1:OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 SSD (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) For OS/Games
HD2:Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX)
PSU:Corsair Enthusiast TX 850W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
GFX:MSI GeForce GTX 580 OC Twin FrozR II 1536MB GDDR5
Optical:Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail
CASE:Zalman GS1200 (purchase a fan extension lead)

You turn everything up and it just laughs! Of course it should for the price of 8 360 Slim's!


I'd love to see the stuff you guys love to play running on it, Gears, RDR, etc - it's what my mate uses his for as well as driving.

Nice one buddy. I wouldn't have even contemplated getting a new gaming PC but the only thing that has kept me playing on the xbox was Call of Duty and I am so sick of that game I haven't switched my 360 on for about a week now. In that time I have been playing F1 2010 on PS3 and some iRacing on PC. Got a cheap sub for £8 for 3 months and it's really good.

Just seeing F1 2011 running in 1080p even though at low detail looks more crisp than the PS3 or 360 can ever achieve.

My rig is going to be the following I think:

Shuttle SH67H3
Radeon 6950 2GB
Core i5 2500k (I've heard that hyperthreading is useless unless your encoding things)
G. Skill 8GB Ram

And maybes a SSD, are they any good? I take it your bootup time to Windows is around 10-12 seconds tops?

Also, with being out of the pc loop what is the difference between ATI and Nvidia these days?

Cheers matey

Firstly, go for it - but spend the next 3 months researching - it's vital, as you know. Anyone who frowns (and I can see why) that HD gaming isn't the next big thing coming to console-land needs a check up!


To those:You take a photo of a car, from DiRT3. Then take another identical pic. Pic A is 720(old HD), pic B is 1080 HD. The scale is identical, so if the car in pic A takes up a 3rd of the screen by area, so does the car in pic B. BUT the 1080 car has 50% more pixels in the image! Its detail has increased 50%! Those small sponsor decals on the 720 image are small/blurred. It's the only way they can be squeezed into the frame. You can almost see what it reads. It isn't clear or sharp compared to 1080. It's like it has an invisible film over it. Something any eyes could see side-by-side!

The 1080 pics has little bulbs in the back light clusters you didn't see. You can read every sponsor logo, it's pin sharp! Fastening pins, screws - there and correct. Even the scenery looks photo realistic. It's like someone just put some "clearest view" eye-drops in each eye! FACT:At times, when the camera angle has been done correctly, games moving at 60fps at 1080 look the same as real life. End of.


Ohhh, back to John's rig. SSD is FAST! For the budget you've set spend the £90-£130 difference on a GFX upgrade. I know zero about shuttles;you need cast-iron proof they extract heat 100% from fast games system. As a builder, the size restriction is a non-starter for a games rig to me - I appreciate for LAN stuff they're ideal. Nvidia VS Ati:You can't lose, I just went for the best average performer for budget. Days worth of research, benchmarks, DX11 stuff. Nvidia kicked ass at my budget. As you know, I ran F1 on the iMac before deciding to sell her. Even with the i7 and best GFX option at that time it was nice, but simply missing.

If you deffo can't go over your budget (and in 3 months gfx cards will have come down = spend the same price and get quicker) then consider gaming at 1680x1050? The detail still looks freaking awesome, and you'll prob gain 10fps. A nightmare is spending a very tidy some of cash (£750) and not be entirely happy with it. I'd even put 4GB ram in the PC ur building, to the £25 on gfx. When you boot and are chasing laps, the ram is doing little. CPU/GFX are going to be king John as you know Sir. Keep us informedski!!

Well in the end I just pipped Andy, both XB and PC versions arriving at the same time. Which only goes to prove that when they say it has been sent, it may not arrive a day earlier than the game they text me the day after to say it was also sent. But all is good.

For those who are waiting to be able to purchase 2011, I'll plonk some first-run laps up shortly.

You will need to run with the wheel this time out bud, there is no conceivable way of you doing consistent lap times using KERS and DRS on qualy runs using a controller. Unless you have a third hand.

Thanks for the advice in regards to the PC mate, very much appreciated. The shuttles cope admirably with heat these days and have been doing a little research on GPU's and for the considerable future a 6950 will last me for a long long time. I'm not into playing games at silly resolution as my monitor can only do 1920x1080 so that is fine for me.

Saying that I have specced up a normal size tower and it comes to a little more than the shuttle(!) but it would have better airflow but would lack the portability. The only reason I put the 8GB in the spec sheet is because it's so cheap at the moment and would be rude not to.

12GB of RAM mate? Beast mode engaged.

Sorry for derailing this thread, we should move it to a proper section if you like?

Anyway my PS3 version turned up and the game looks about ten times worse than PC but you soon get over that fighting with other cars, yourself and DRS. Great game, can't wait to get stuck into it properly later today.

lol John, if we had 100 members and some were thinking of building a PC or buying etc I may just about consider creating a post for it and plonking our comments there. Mind you, to keep us posted that wunt be a bad ideaski ya-nahhh. Will do it later!



You have to change the buttons, a Heathy tip coming along for pad users - btw I'm right-handed.

Those who'll only ever use a pad here for this game, try this.

Status = North(Yellow-Y)
GearUp= Easy(Red-B)
D R S = South(Green-A)
GrDown =West(Boue-X)

Reasons? Well I have gears on manual, as always. Even in Forza I use the same config for gears - infact in all games. In DiRT green is handbrake for sliding, Forza is green for clutch - that way 2 buttons can be pressed easy with yer thumb as I use the clutch feature in F3. Sooo, u want DRS while gassing it and changing up, hence A is right next to upchange, which imho makes it a doddle.

I put KERS on left shoulder as it's not always available, and you'll also be gassing/turning and changing up when selecting it, again a doddle for me I can just get my head around turning with the left stick whilst my brake finger holds KERS on. Plus when you brake, you won't be using KERS at the same timeski.

Not only do I find this easiest, but I can also activate either and showboat by say sticking DRS on mid-bend and causing a powerslide whilst turning to keep it on the road. Great fun, but fekkers your tyres.

But seeing as I don't pay for F1 tyres then...

I use the exact same pad setup as Wain but are you aware that once you push the DRS button it stays open until you hit the brakes?



Just a thought, as i get the impression from your post that you hold A down whilst you change up through the box!

lol, I can confirm that it's a one button operation folks, bit like cruise control - ballistic until ya brake. TBH I love have sumat extra to think about when your driving, adds a lot to the game such a simple thing.


You can see it working in the replays as well, cool.

^ +^^ you can de-activate by pressing the DRS button a second time.

Yeah, it's handy on that uphill section to the fast chicane at the back part of the Nurb

Anyone been through Eau-Rouge flat with DRS open? Managed it a few times now. Loving this game though!

I tried it twice following the bends of the track at top speed, wouldn't work for me Sir

You need the progressive input of a wheel to do it I think. It's funny watching gameplay from players using the game pad cos it's as though they are driving square!