Hey everyone, Just joined this forum! I have always liked driving games since Colin McRae rally back on the Playstation One but I have never done "sim" racing at all - always used a joypad and Gran Turismo 4 is about as "realistic" as I have gone so far. So I am 1,000,000 miles behind you guys. Lately I came across Jimmy Broadbent on Youtube and watched a few of his awesome endurance races in iRacing and some of the other stuff he has done in Asseto Corsa and Dirt 2.0 and I'm thinking yeah this looks awesome! I want to get some of that! So first of all I wanted to say hello. I have read some of the posts on racing etiquette etc and this seems like a great community from what I can tell so far. Second - I am about to upgrade my PC and want to tack a starter sim racing rig onto this. Can anyone help with a little advice on gear and which game to start on? Thinking PC based around the following: i5 8400 or 9600K Either GTX 1660ti or RTX2060 16GB RAM Wheel wise I am struggling to decide. A toe in the water with a G29 and shifter then maybe upgrade to something like a fanatec csl elite later on, or should I take a bigger punt on a T300RS GT to begin with and probably get more time out of that before I want to upgrade? Probably won't have cash for a shifter initially if I got the thrustmaster. Game wise iRacing look awesome but also expensive and not sure how serious I am going to be on day 1 - what do you gents recommend? I don't really know what style I will be into, I kind of like the look of everything initially but think I will probably be keen on league racing eventually. Thanks in advance for any help/advice!
Hey man, can't help you the PC stuff...bigger is always better and whomever has the fastest net often does better than the guy with the best GPU. If you want to toe in the water with your gear, have a look on the second hand market. Often some good buys - there is an Oz facebook site for this somewhere?? Otherwise, you get what you pay for. Shifters are great but you can live without one for now, buy at the top end of your budget IMO. AC is about the cheapest PC sim option, esp when there's a sale on. Loads of content and affordable DLC. Unlike iceracing, one payment and you're done.
Hi mate welcome. There is a whole thread here about PC specs. http://raceonoz.com/forums/index.php?threads/pc-building-spec-check.153/ What you've spec'd there will surely smash it. Mine is a bit more modest and is running most sims at close to full graphics (including Dirt Rally 2) Personally I have never used thrustmaster. I got about 10y out of a logitech G25 before upgrading to fanatec recently. For the cost, logitech probably suits the 'toe in the water' approach better. Perhaps even consider a G29 or even G27 on the second hand market if you are looking to save $$. iRacing is a fair bit of commitment to get the value out of the extra dollars but it is good - it's more than just the sim as iRacing hosts all the season, tracks points, your best laps the whole 9 yards of career. 'worth it' comes down to personal opinion though. There is short subscription options in the order of $15 for 3 months (promo deal or regular offer I can't remember?) which is a good way to test it out for size. Learning curve is a bit steeper to work out all the ins and outs of getting involved with official races and negotiating the rating systems (safety and class licenses). AC is awesome. Very accessible. Flexible for instant gratification, just jump in and have a crack with a relatively shallow learning curve, quick turn around lobby's while also being good for longer racing and league series. The content range is excellent quality and so extensive when you factor in mods which for the majority are free content. Being one of the lowest cost investments to get into the 'latest generation' of sims I would definitely recommend you start here. I play Dirt, and now DR2 most days as it's a great 'anytime' bash against the clock and global leaderboards if you feel game. Being limited for time with young kids this has been my go to until I can recommit to structured league racing. There's often lads kicking around in the voice channels on Discord who will be more than willing to have a chat and help you out. Details at links below. AC and general ROOZ discord: http://raceonoz.com/forums/index.php?threads/pc-rooz-voip-discord.173/ iRacing discord: http://raceonoz.com/forums/index.php?threads/welcome-to-the-official-iracing-team-forum.2777/ Hope that helps.
Thanks gents for the time taken to reply, I really appreaciate the welcome and advice - will definitely take it on board. AC sounds like a great place to start, still not sure about wheel but sounds like either direction will be OK - will come down to how well I go with the missus (!) Thanks again!
Following on from Anon's reply, there is a buy swap sell facebook group for sim racing, the official name is, 'Sim Racing Australia buy swap sell'. Have a look and see if there is anything that interests you.
Thanks mate gonna check it out now. Was looking at the T-GT in this forums buy/swap/sell thread - very nice wheel but don't think I can stretch budget that far.
