Advice on a decent sim-racing setup

[durbster]

Yeah the motherboard issue was a good one to raise. I was looking at this system over the weekend:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/scan-ga ... ssd-win-10

That CPU and GPU at that price seemed suspiciously good but thanks to the advice here I can see they've cut corners on the motherboard.

I'm now considering a part-built barebones system like this:
https://www.novatech.co.uk/barebonebund ... 7016b.html

I'm not sure if my old SSD and HDD will be compatible with a new system so that's what I've got to learn about next, but even if I added a new SSD and HDD it still works out quite cheap and I think I could stretch to a 2070 super.

I'm starting to remember why I stopped building PCs though - I'm too tight to pull the trigger without committing to hours of research

[Sarsippius]

Well it pays to do the research as some things can bite you in the bum.

Your old SSD and HDD will work fine in the new system so you may only want new ones if you want the extra storage capacity. M.2 or NVME SSDs are good because you can screw them straight to the motherboard and not worry about cables and mounting in the case.

One thing to keep in mind is the CPU cooler, I'm not real sure about the Wraith Prism stock cooler for the 3700x but I recently got a 3600 for my work pc and Wraith Stealth stock cooler started to get on my nerves as I could constantly hear it spinning up and down. I'd suggest a decent, quiet tower cooler but just be mindful of the height as they can be tall, however any full size case should be ok. Don't worry about an AIO or anything like that.

The only other thing I'll say is Novatech seem to make their own cases, I have no idea if they are good or not but it pays to get a good case and I aim for something that will be quiet. The vent on the side of that Novatech case tells me it's not a quiet case but that may not matter to you. Anyway the wider point is that a good case will last a long time, I've upgraded the internals in my case a few times now over something like 6 years and I probably won't ever need to buy a new one. It's only small things like it doesn't have usb-c ports on the front which are more common now but I haven't actually wanted to plug anything with usb-c into it yet.

[durbster]

I know there's always something just about to be announced but it does seem a genuinely bad time to buy right now, so I've put it on pause for a bit while the prices are sky high. Bit annoying because it'd be perfect lockdown entertainment.

[durbster]

OK that didn't last long and I've ordered a barebones system. Just need to get the GPU, monitor and something to sit on.

Speaking of which, what do you all sit on? Obviously normal office chairs are useless but I think the only chairs I have without wheels are camping or kitchen chairs.

I think ultimately I will get a proper rig but I don't want to commit that hard just yet.

[StanDaam]

I just replaced my office chair wheels with a set of these:



https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/off ... k-jbglides

On carpet it works a treat with a G27 pedal set.
Watch the purists flame me!

[DarrenM]

When I was racing at a desk I replaced the wheels with lockable ones. They were a bit of a pain though because I would often bump a lever by mistake.

https://www.arteil.com.au/product/lever ... ors-set-5/

[Sarsippius]

I've seen guys make up a bit of a frame out of wood that they mount the pedals too, then extend that back and around so that the legs/wheels of their office chair rest against it and it holds the chair in place.

by the way I earlier said that the next generation of AMD chips won't be supported on b450 and x470 motherboards, however AMD have changed their mind and will allow BIOS updates for those boards.

[norbs]

I just replaced my office chair wheels with a set of these:



https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/off ... k-jbglides

On carpet it works a treat with a G27 pedal set.
Watch the purists flame me!

Who is this guy?

[StanDaam]

Here's the rest of my rig...

[norbs]

Here's the rest of my rig...

Drift set up? Sequential box and handbrake!

[Vilante]

You guys are flush with all the expensive gear.

[durbster]

I just replaced my office chair wheels with a set of these:



https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/off ... k-jbglides

On carpet it works a treat with a G27 pedal set.
Watch the purists flame me!

I thought about that (well, just taking the wheels off), but office chairs also spin so isn't that a problem?

[Sarsippius]

It can be, ideally you want your seat and pedals fixed and unable to move but preventing the chair from moving backwards is more important I'd say than the chair twisting a bit. I used to use an office chair with some stoppers behind the wheels and yeah one of the big improvements in moving to a proper rig was having that fixed seat position, you can be much more consistent, especially pushing the brake pedal.
If you're handy with a bit of wood work a lot of guys build rigs and it can be a relatively inexpensive option, get a decent seat from a wreckers and you're good to go. If you're at a desk you could build just the base frame for the pedals and seat to mount to.

[StanDaam]

The spinning chair hasn't been a problem for me. With the pedals firmly on carpet and up against the wall, the forces on the chair seem to push it directly back and I haven't noticed it trying to spin around as a result.
I think this diagram sums it up quite nicely:

[durbster]

I got impatient so ordered the bits and am now posting from my shiny new machine. I see that PC hardware has become a bit more user friendly (little trays to slide the drives onto!).

Most impressive of all, I set up a bootable Windows 10 USB but thought I might as well try and just chuck the old SSD in the new machine and see what happens. What happened was, it just booted up and was fine. I had to do a bit of back and forth to get Windows to activate but that was it, so I'm very pleased with that.

Thanks for all the tips everyone, really helpful.

I've actually still got an old G27 but I've no idea if it still works.

I dug out what was actually a G25. Plugged it in and to my surprise - especially as it was sat on my lap - it burst into life and started auto-calibrating on my testicles.

I then realised I don't have any racing games installed. Project Cars 2 was on offer on Steam so got that downloaded and installed, and got ready to start racing again after all these years.

However, I left the pits and found that, although all the buttons and pedals worked, I had no steering at all. Then I noticed the distinct smell of electrical problems coming from the wheel. I tried a few drivers, checked the power supply but it had nothing left to give. It seems it had made its final calibration.

So now I've got a four day weekend and can't spend any of it racing unless I can get a wheel and pedals delivered

[pixelboy]

That is impressive.. A boot HDD from an old system boots on a totaly different motherboard?

Would never of worked with Win95!

[norbs]

That is impressive.. A boot HDD from an old system boots on a totaly different motherboard?

Would never of worked with Win95!

To be fair, that is a quarter of a century old OS Pix.

[w00dsy]

it burst into life and started auto-calibrating on my testicles.

Started on pole and ended up plumb last.

[durbster]

That is impressive.. A boot HDD from an old system boots on a totaly different motherboard?

Would never of worked with Win95!

Yep, I'm still quite stunned how well it coped.

There's not a single component shared between the PCs other than two hard drives - one SSD and one HDD, and it just booted up. It might have installed an update and I replaced the nvidia with AMD drivers but that was it.

The activation was odd. It said it couldn't find a digital licence which suggested I hadn't linked it to my Microsoft account (even though I thought I had). I put the SSD back in the old machine to sort that out and it said the licence was already linked. I put it back in the new machine and it was activated.

So basically that OS went from the old PC to new, back to the old and then the new again, and it booted first time, each time. Top marks to modern drivers and Windows 10.

[durbster]

it burst into life and started auto-calibrating on my testicles.

Started on pole and ended up plumb last.

[Sarsippius]

Personally I would suggest to do a fresh install of Windows, it doesn't hurt to do this occasionally anyway and on a new system you don't want any little niggles effecting performance in ways you may not notice. Now that Win10 has been activated on that machine you should be able to do a fresh install and it will automatically activate.

[durbster]

Yeah I probably will do that. My OS is basically the only thing on the SSD so it's fairly painless to do.

I managed to find a Thrustmaster TX in stock so that's on its way. I've also ordered the T3PA pedals as by all accounts the two pedals that come with the wheel aren't great.

Oh, I've also been able to try VR. We were having a socially distanced beer with the neighbours last week and it turns out they had a Playstation VR headset sat unused in a cupboard. I've borrowed it and had a go on Gran Turismo.

I know this is what every said but still, the immersion is incredible. The first moment was quite an experience.

But I also see the downsides people have mentioned. The resolution is low and the lack of physical sensation when the car gets out of shape really screws with your brain.

I had to stop after a couple of laps because I felt sick - Laguna Seca was a bad choice

[Sarsippius]

Just take it slowly, any time you start to feel sick stop, you will start to build up and be able to play longer and longer. I never looked that closely at the PSVR but current PC based headsets will be significantly better in pretty much every respect.

[durbster]

New wheel has arrived and is sat behind me ... but I'm working from home ... must resist ...

[durbster]

I managed to get some laps in last week and even did a bit of online racing on Project Cars 2, with a couple of lads from the GPL days.

The only big issue is my chair. I took the wheels off my office chair but the centre pole doesn't sit flush so I had to rig it up using some bits of cardboard and foam. It just about worked but is hardly a long-term solution!

The monitor I'm using is from work so isn't great but it'll do for now. Overall, bloody good fun and I'm glad to be back in the world.

Thanks again for all the help