Sim racing advice

[paulbishop146]

I'm a new member. I've done 3 events, (Palmer, the Glen and NHMS) and 2 time trials. I appreciate the high quality instruction, the welcoming. nature of the club, the way the club operates in general and the time trial procedure in particular.

I want to get a Sim Racing setup to help me get through the long off season and to help satisfy my need for speed. I would like to get.a good quality system. I hope that those of you with experience with Sim racing will recommend some options to consider. Thank you for your help.
Paul
99 Miata
T40

[jvangelder]

Iracing! I use a g27 wheel and pedal setup on a refurbished cheapy PC. Last year there was a comscc league that ran most of the off season.

[savage217]

Iracing! I use a g27 wheel and pedal setup on a refurbished cheapy PC. Last year there was a comscc league that ran most of the off season.

How much is said "cheapy PC"? I have a wheel and pedal setup but need a PC to run it and have been trying to figure out a good option there.

[FredK]

In terms of "cheap", you can run iRacing on a pretty basic system if you plan on only using one screen. Many people do it. I get schooled by people in Spain probably running a Core2 Duo and a single 22" monitor.

You should be able to put together a budget, fairly high performance computer with an nVidia GTX 1050 Ti or 1060 for around $600 with an operating system. A decent 24" monitor is probably around $125 - 150, more like $200 if you opt for a 144 Hz monitor.

If you want to dabble with a VR headset, you will want to add around $200 to get a GTX 1070 video card.

[jvangelder]

my cheap pc is a refurb from either newegg or tiger direct and was 2-300 as i recall, I just added a $50 amazon video card and some ram.

[joncowen]

I am also in the market for a computer for iracing. Post up any deals you know of.

[savage217]

In terms of "cheap", you can run iRacing on a pretty basic system if you plan on only using one screen. Many people do it. I get schooled by people in Spain probably running a Core2 Duo and a single 22" monitor.

You should be able to put together a budget, fairly high performance computer with an nVidia GTX 1050 Ti or 1060 for around $600 with an operating system. A decent 24" monitor is probably around $125 - 150, more like $200 if you opt for a 144 Hz monitor.

If you want to dabble with a VR headset, you will want to add around $200 to get a GTX 1070 video card.

Fred,

Did you build your setup? I used to build computers with my dad when I was a kid but have no idea what's the good stuff these days.

[FredK]

I didn't build my computer, my brother did. I would have done it myself but he wanted to test a bunch of different stuff out at the same time.

It's not too difficult, especially if you're building a fairly normal gaming system. The basics of putting a computer are the same, but the components, interfaces, capacities, and speeds have changed quite a bit. I think about the only gotcha is sometimes if you choose a small case, the arrangement of components on the motherboard might be exactly in the wrong orientation to be useful because it's so cramped inside.

iRacing is really not taxing on the processor, as it only uses 2 cores. It isn't even that particularly taxing on the graphics card (GPU).

If I were on a budget I'd probably look at building an i3-8100, 8GB RAM, 500W power supply, nVidia GTX 1050Ti or better. If you hit a bunch of rebate sales you might be able to piece something together for around $500.

In terms of wheel / pedal / shifter combos, to answer the original poster, there are only a few major manufacturers. There's a lot of video reviews on YouTube that will probably give you way more info that I could ever offer, because I've only briefly used my friends Logitech G27 (probably like $120 used) and a Fanatec Clubsport (probably $1200 for wheel, pedals, and shifter).

Generally, the more you pay, the higher torque the wheel base is able to deliver. You can certainly get used to a G27 to turn in a very serviceable lap, but the amount of information at your fingertips has a much lower amount of actual force. I got used to my friend's G27 fairly quickly, but it didn't feel as fun or immersive as my own setup, which is a small Mige OpenSimWheel.

Your general choices (from low price to high price) that you should take a look at on Youtube for video reviews on would probably be
Logitech G29 (around $280)
Thrustmaster T300
Thrustmaster TS-PC ($450)
Thrustmaster TS-XW ($650)
Fanatec CSL Elite ($700)
Fanatec Clubsport ($1200 or so, depends on the wheel you get, you can defintely mix and match)
Accuforce v2 ($1300, no pedals)

There's some hobbyist wheel bases like OpenSimWheel, but these aren't nearly as plug and play. There are a lot of pretty cool hobbyist mods you can make as well, such as DIY paddle shifters, Android tablet dashes. People do a great job documenting these things on Youtube.

[962porsche]

the race team i work for we have the CXC racer model simulator it's total heaven

at home we have a 3 flat screen setup with a base i made out of tubing and a old racing seat . i took the vibration motor out of a old gaming wheel and installed it under the seat . it works pretty good with the wheel and the seat both having vibration .
we have a logitec g29 wheel it was about 300 bucks with a refurbished PC for about 200 .
when we talked to the guy at the place that does the PC's we told him what we needed it for and he set it up for us for gaming only needs . i have no idea just what he did but it works great and over the last two years has been working just fine .
for the 3 flat screens we need something else but i'm not to sure what it was if i remember it was another 100 bucks or so .
all and all we have about 800 or 900 dollars into it and its pretty good .

[TXBDan]

I'll sell my old gaming PC once i get all my crap off it and formatted.

Intel i7-920
12gigs RAM
GTX1060
Some spiffy ASUS gaming motherboard
Big case with lots of fans/cooling
120gig SSD
1TB HD

It runs iRacing on triple 1080Ps fine. I keep the max frame rate at the default 84 and it never dips below. Not sure what its worth, open to offers.

[nyc951]

Dan - can you pm me your price for the whole shebang? I'm interested in doing some sim racing this winter.

Genera question - how does iRacing compare to Forza, Project Cars etc? I haven't played video games in 25+ years so I'm a complete newbie.

Thanks

[SmokinS4]

What steering wheel and pedals are recommended?

[blindsidefive0]

Logitech G920 Dual-motor Feedback Driving Force Racing Wheel with Responsive Pedals for Xbox One