New to the world of Sim Racing

[reaper7534]

Originally had a Logitech G923 then upgraded to a Fanatec DD Pro Gran Turismo edition. Life happened and it got shelved for at least a year . When I decided to set it back up again the new desk I had would not accommodate a clamp so I went down the rabbit hole and have a rig coming in. Here is what I have or currently on order

Fanatec DD Pro with Gran Turismo wheel 5nm ( will upgrade to 8nm )
McLaren GT3 wheel
WRS Rally wheel
CSL Elite Pedals with load cell
Fanatec shifter
Fanatec handbrake
RC Racing Cockpit Sport with NRG seat
Two Dayton bass shakers and soundcard

I already have a washer coming in for handbrake since I read it was common for for that plastic one to brake. I also have a friend 3D printing me some new elastomers for the load cell since the stock one is ungodly stiff.

I have 3 Asus 27" 165 hz G Sync monitors but will not use those at first. I'm going to try the Quest 2 to see if I like it. The whole rig will be run by a 5800x with a RTX 3080.

The biggest mistake I made and hope it doesn't bite me is buy all Fanatec. I didn't do the research and see how bad their customer service is. Hopefully I'll never need it.

Any other odds and ends I need to think about?

Here's my rig so far. Looks like the thousand other ones people have but I get a certain satisfaction going from a table clamp. Seat won't be here until Wednesday, a NRP 310 I believe. Also had to scavenge some new bolts to mount the shifter since the ones Fanatec includes were so short I don't feel comfortable it staying in place during racing. RC Racing Cockpits included the wrong L brackets for mounting the pedal plates and are overnighting me the correct parts. Their customer service has been stellar so far.

 

[Clover11]

Congratulations, should be a good setup. While not a need, I like fans to add some cooling. Might be nice to have something for. cable management too, though again not needed.

 

[reaper7534]

Congratulations, should be a good setup. While not a need, I like fans to add some cooling. Might be nice to have something for. cable management too, though again not needed.

I'm in a room with an AC that blows directly on me but might still need the fans since VR gaming gets warm and I already have some aluminum. Channel clips I bought off Etsy Really need to buy a 3d printer.

 

[RasmusP]

To calm you down a bit about fanatec: yes, there's plenty of bad experiences but there are also a LOT of customers. With a logitech or Thrustmaster, people just throw their "toys" away when they become faulty but with fanatec, people are usually more passionate and expect more of the products.

Their plastic QR is a "joke", but I fixed mine with some standard 100g/A4 page printing paper stripes in the slot.

I'm from Germany though, so the support channel is probably better.

Other than that I owned:
Csw 2.5 since 2017
Csl elite v1 pedals
Csw V3 pedals since 2020
Csl P1 wheel
Csw Porsche 918 wheel
Formula black wheel
McLaren V1 wheel
McLaren V2 wheel since 2021

I needed 2x new pots for the csl elite throttle/clutch, got them without issues within a few days.
I also needed repairs for the shifter "dome buttons" on the McLaren V1. They sent me a freshly "repaired and fixed" V1 within 3 days without discussion.
I some play in the right shifter of the Porsche wheel after a year, made a video, sent it in, got it back after 7 days with a fresh shifter.
It had basically the same amount of play, but it was clearly a new part.
They attached a message about the play being normal due to the construction, but they replaced it anyway.

The csw 2.5 wheelbase never had any issue at all, the V3 pedals and the McLaren V2 neither.
And the McLaren V1 had no issues after the initial repair to fix their production issues.

The first bad experiences with Moza are popping up too now. But they are in China, so there's a risk they simply ignore you completely.
But really good products in general, apparently!

For everything else you either pay a lot more or you don't get the wide compatibility.

So I'd say you shouldn't spend too much thought about having all Fanatec. Just enjoy driving and don't mistreat that shifter too violently

 

[Durge Driven]

Heavy duty floor mat.

Best audio budget allows including comfortable headphones.

Stickers from Fanatec and ETSY ( they back in stock grab while available)

Semi-gloss sim Racing Decals V6 - Etsy Australia

This Decals & Skins item by VisualControl has 638 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from United States. Listed on 03 Jan, 2024

www.etsy.com

Derek Speare dash

 

[stigs2cousin]

Also congratulations, you're a real Simracer now (kidding of course)

My advice would be to drive what you have now and see how it plays out.

If you "need" new toys will become obvious soon

Though I love my tactile setup I'd advise you to keep complexity down in the beginning especially as you Plan to start in VR. Tat will take a lot of tinkering to get it right.

When your satisfied there it's time to add another Level of immersion with tactile.

Have fun Carsten

(Oh, and when you're about to kick it all out the window because an Update broke everything again, try the triples. Way easier to get to run right and not so sweaty