So little brother wants to build a simulator rig?

He’s 21 lives at parents due to learning difficulties but he has a paid job and is working hard and enjoys gaming

Idea is he saves up his money and can go from there it will also teach him about saving and maybe building pcs etc

I think he wants to play allot of the racing sims rfactor assetto corsa etc

is are there any minimum requirement to consider?

Won’t be aiming for 4K just steady 1080 would be ideal

Is is best to buy a pre built pc or build your own?
I have built pcs in the past

Or buy a decent second hand pc (with decent processor but no gpu) and add graphics card to that?

End goal would to be have multiple monitors so it wraps around etc

In regards to steering wheel/pedals
Is there a steering wheel that seems to be the best bang for buck?(Logitech rings a bell)

Also is there a wheel that works cross platforms ie pc Xbox and PS4?

Well will probably make him a seat and ordeal steering wheel stand

Thanks in advance

LLL

Why multi monitor? Oculus Rift would be my aim, had a go at the sim in Glasgow and wouldn’t consider anything else, cheaper too once you factor in the screens. That was on Project Cars 2 on PC, they claimed the rigs were 16K worth but TBH I’m not really sure about that, maybe for the full motion feedback but you could live without that.

Oculus Rift would be my aim

Very much this. Only used PSVR on Gran turismo, Dirt rally and Driveclub, but VR is def the way to go.

Tomhoward,Squirrelking – Hadnt considered VR

but can see how and why it would be better and cheaper than multi moniter set up.

might be worth perusing, is there minimum GPU for VR?

Would a 1060 cut it?

I’m into Sim Racing/Playing and spent a lot of time looking at sim rigs and deciding if I was to go with PS4 or PC. I ended up designing my own rig and a friend built it. Here’s what I found:

PC Vs PS4
PS4 is a lot cheaper, this is the way I went due to budget. A decent GFX card will cost more than a PS4 Pro. GT Sport / Asseto Corsa / Dirt Rally VR / Project Cars are the games to have for PS4.

Sim Rig
You need space, the GT Omega Pro seemed best bang for buck vs build quality, they are about £400. I had a wheel stand and it was OK, the biggest problem was trying to stop the office chair spinning and the wheel tipping over due to the force feedback. Checkout GT Omega, they have some good stuff and reasonable prices.

Monitors
You might need a monitor stand, or mount it on the wall, I have a 40″ TV that is 3ft from my face. For 3 screens you will need to buy a proper stand, these are £100-£200. Or go VR and do away with fancy monitors, VR is the future of sim racing, but to play online in VR (15+ cars on track) you will need a fancy GFX card and CPU.

VR Vs 3 Monitors
There is no comparison, VR is a lot more immersive you will not want to go back to monitors after a few days using VR. PSVR is under £200, which is a lot cheaper than 3 monitors. For PC VR I thnk you will want a minimum of a GTX1080 if you want high FPS VR. I can notice if racing games/sims drop to 30fps from 60fps as my apex’s aren’t as tight. I am not sure if a 1060 would cut it, I’m trying not to look! 😉

Wheel & Pedals
Best bang for buck is the Logitech G29, you can get these for under £150. They do a PS4, a PC and an XBOX version. The PS4 version works with the PC and shift lights/etc work, it will not work with an XBOX, basically its PS4 or XBOX, they both work with a PC.

I have gone with a PS4 VR sim rig for the last year or so and it has been great. People are blown away by the whole VR/sim rig experience.
I will be upgrading my PC/GFX card this year, as I am still using the rig and it isn’t a fad. This is where it will get expensive, new CPU/GFX/VR Headset, probably looking at over £2k, but its a lot cheaper than track days!

Asseto Corsa / Project Cars are the games to have for not VR compatible on PS4.

FTFY. you can play with the FOV/screen size settings a bit to make them more immersive, but the PSVR hardware isn’t good enough to run them as the devs want. (I found this out after buying the PSVR..) would be amazing on a good spec PC though.

Cheers Tom! 😉 I knew there was a reason I haven’t used those in a while! Dirt VR and GT Sport for me. Waiting for Air Combat 7 to come out, VR flying!!

Be aware that motion sickness can be a problem if you start getting frame rate reductions, and a rift is the equivalent of running 2 4k displays in terms of grunt required.
I wouldn’t skimp.

1060 can do VR, I know this as I have one and an HTC vive that I use for flight sims and racing games, but it drops the quality/gets a bit teary sometimes as it’s pushing the card quite hard.

I’m going to upgrade to a 2060 in a few months as that’ll do me for gaming at 1080p and VR with a gen 1. Vive. The upgrade after that’ll be when my monitor/Vive dies and I go up to whatever is one level below the current “gold standard” for gaming monoitors.

I’ve recently dipped my toe with a budget setup. I already had the PS4 PRO and Dirt Rally/GT Sport.

Bought a Logitech G29 bundle (with gear stick) and a Playseat Challenge. The Challenge looks like a racy deck chair, but works suprisingly well!

I love it and it has totally transformed racing games for me. Next purchase will be PSVR and eventually going to sell my decent spec gaming laptop and get a PC again for the sim racing.

Some people will say that the Gear stick isn’t required and to a degree, that’s true. I use the paddles and stick together (depending on what car I’m in) to keep an authentic feel 🙂

I was going to go mad and buy a Fanatec wheel combo, but I’m impressed with the Logitech for the price. If I get more into it, I’ll upgrade over time. There’s loads of info on setups and hardware out there.

Believe me, you wont be using the stick with VR, as you reach for the one you can see in the car, not the one in real life!

Very much looking forward to VR Ace Combat too, I think games where the player is sat still in a moving thing (car/plane etc) is the best use of it.

My son is 3 monitors, G29 wheel/paddles/shifter, but didn’t go VR due to other stuff he does on the PC – video/photo editing. And extra cost ! – It wans’t a cheap set up – pushing £1,500

He has had his PC about 3 years, i7 4790k (4.4ghz) and a GTX 970 & 16GB Ram, SSD, 3xHD’s. Runs Ultra settings in full HD across 3 monitors.

Must say it looks good. Project Cars, Forza, Dirt Rally etc

VR is breathtaking in flight sims, especially stuff like IL2, where you can take a hit to the wing that damages it, look out of the window and see the crack propagate along the wing then the wing fold up as the g-loading causes it to tear off (after that you just close your eyes as the 3D cartwheel into the ground is vomit-inducing)

This is a great start people thankyou!

looks like the vr thing could be something for him to consider for sure

Oculus Rift or Vive (non pro version) have similar hardware requirements to triple monitors. Lower pixel count but higher minimum frame rate to be playable. Triple monitors can be cheaper but depends on the size/quality.

I’d suggest not committing to either straight away, VR is better for immersion but can cause motion sickness and still lacks clarity – e.g. it can be harder see cars up ahead or use trackside objects as braking markers.

A racing chair & cockpit is nice but a significant extra expense if he already has a desk. Also less practical if it’s going to be used for things other than racing, and can always be bought later. I use a stand from next level racing with my wheel and pedals bolted on, it’s very sturdy and folds up to go in the corner. GT Omega do a similar one.

As a starting point I think it would be best to budget for a decent PC, 1 good size monitor and a Logitech or Thrust master wheel. Other upgrades can be done later.

The PC wouldn’t need to be absolutely cutting edge but he will want decent performance for VR. A lot of good racing sims aren’t very demanding, project cars being an exception. A GTX 1060 is a sensible minimum but the new RTX 2060 looks like it will be decent value and would provide more than enough power. For the processor an i5 or i7 with a K on the end of the model number is always a good choice (can be overclocked), or AMD Ryzen for budget but I’m not sure what the current preferred model is.

had a go at the sim in Glasgow

oh, never knew about that! cool.

I do a bit of sim racing. Play Assetto corsa ,Raceroom, and PC2 .Defiantly you want a PC as the mods imo are what make the sims.

Id stick with monitors for now and wait for the next generation VR headsets. I bought a Rift when they first came out, Theyre good but the view distance and clarity is not there in this current generation. I ended up selling and going back to screens.

If you’re looking for a decent rig id go with a Trak racer RS6 with their monitor stand and get a thrustmaster t300 wheel.

oh, never knew about that! cool.

Went there for our christmas night out, good fun!

I do a bit of sim racing on a pc 300+ hrs in dirt and pc2 on pc, started off playing on a gaming laptop through the tv, using a playseat challenge and Logitech g29.
Playseat challenge is really good in my opinion, had mine 3 years now, tried a playseat evolution for a while, felt like is was sitting on a paving slab, the wheel adjustment is great either as you can’t change the angle of the wheel like you can with the challenge, also the pedal mount flexes quite a lot.
Logitech wheels and pedals are ok but they sometimes do not last very long, I went through 2 sets of pedals due the positioning pot failing, my throttle one failed first, basically the car was ticking over at 5000 revs all the time, cured it by creating big deadzone for first part of the pedal travel, the brake pot went next, cured that one by taking it apart and swapping the clutch and brake pedal. I have friends through steam who I race with that are on 3rd or 4th warranty replacement pedals, biggest issue I have with the Logitech pedals is the way they feel, not much resistance when pressing the brake making it really easy to just lock the brakes up.
I now use a home built pc with a 1080ti in it, usually getting about 160fps, I have a set of Heusinkveld pedals and fanatec v2.5 wheel base, currently building a seat and wheel mount out of aluminium extrusion recovered from a skip.
VR is good but if playing for long time much prefer playing on a monitor mostly, only use a single 27” at the moment, on the lookout for 2 more at the moment.
My gaming laptop has a 980gtxm in it and still manages 90fps in dirt rally and dirt 4 I only upgraded due the fact the laptop gets a bit hot when playing for 4-5hrs.

Wheels with belt driven feedback are smoother than the cog driven. The Logitech wheels I have for ps3/4 are a bit rattley. The thrustmaster t300 rs gt is belt driven. You may be able to get a demo to compare.

I’ve played LFS simulator for years on a monitor & Logitech G25, it works very well. I think the latest Logitech model is G29; if I was buying now I’d get that. I’ve briefly tried LFS & some other driving game in VR but it was pretty unpleasant that I gave up after a lap or so; the view distance in driving sims is very important for spotting apexes and the edges of the track in the distance, but the VR resolution (not sure what kit it was) much lower than a monitor so I found it very difficult & unpleasant. I’m surprised how they manage to sell VR currently with such low resolution. Yes it is fun for a few minutes but that’s it. I wouldn’t spend money on VR.

I don’t know if buying a PC whole or building is best or cheaper, but I just do it because I’m a bit of geek & enjoy it as a research & build project or something. 🙂

I’m surprised how they manage to sell VR currently with such low resolution. Yes it is fun for a few minutes but that’s it. I wouldn’t spend money on VR.

1080×1200 per eye or 1440×1600 for a Vive Pro running at 90Hz, hardly a potato.

I think it was a Vive non-Pro, and to my eyes it was very spud-like. 🙂

So went a paid a visit to the bother, i think its dawned a little bit how much it all is but still keen to crack on.

so looking at pcs specs.

how do people rate the ryzen CPUS?

Built two pcs around ryzens at different price points:

both both also include 1060 gpus the other area i have varied to keeep them at certain price points.

Whats general consensus on:

Thrustmast vs logitech pedeal wheel combos?

logitech G29 or Thrustmater 300 thing?much for much?from what i read FFB is better on the trust but pedals are better on other?

as for views, hes sensible realize 3 screens equals pennys!and also think vr is a bit much at the moment, so he has decided to go single, larger monitor.

any recomendations?

thanks again

Some interesting stuff on this thread.

I’ve been wanting to try a wheel/pedal setup for a while so might give it a go on my current system.

OP – I built my system last year and found some great bargains from Amazon Warehouse and OCUK Clearance stuff (customer returns, ex demo stock etc). You might be able to save a few quid with a couple of open box components.

Compare them here: http://www.logicalincrements.com/

If I were you I’d forget the R3, it’s at the poor end of the scale, look at the R5 or an i3 8350K (which can be overclocked), here’s a build I made earlier around an i3 and RX580 Sapphire are the ones to go for, never heard of PowerColor. The 8GB Sapphire is £20 cheaper than the Asus 1060 6Gb or if you spend a bit more again you could have an RX590, would be a no brainer for me if I was building right now as I’ve never had a Sapphire that wasn’t solid and didn’t last forever.

For the SSD spend a bit more on a Samsung Evo and use the money saved by ditching the wifi and using a proper hard wire connection. Those fancy cards mean sod all if you’re going to connect to a home hub but a gigabit cable connection is still a gigabit cable connection.

If he has learning difficuties does that mean he has accessibility issues? Could mean a free upgrade from an existing retail or academic copy of Windows. Just saying.

*Realised meant to spec the 1060 on the more expesive one too.

Creg – Yeah i will keep an eye out things do pop up.

SK-ill compare them, yes wasnt sure how the lower ryzens compared but heard ok things about the R5
again yes heard also good things about the samsung SSD’s too, as for HDD probably spec a western black (i have always used western D) was just more to get a price on paper something to work fro mad number for him to work too.basically said about a k for decent is spec pc to play stuff at ok quality.

Wifi card – i would agree wire is better, but this will heavily depend of where he uses it in the house. when i lived there i had the router in my room and hardwired my pc and ps3, hes now in my old room but unsure if the router is still in there, if it is great.

As for education copy of windows – didnt think of that could be a good way to save

cheers

LLL

No worries. FWIW those Hitachis aren’t supposed to be bad, think it was Cougar who said that. I have a Samsung 850 and a WD black, former has been faultless and the latter got RMA’d, wouldn’t put me off though as they sorted it out.