What do you upgrade or replace next?

What do you upgrade_.jpg

Where would you spend your money?

  • Upgrade the monitor and PC

  • Purchase a direct drive wheelbase and rim

  • Upgrade the PC and purchase a VR headset

  • Purchase a new cockpit and monitor

  • Upgrade the PC and purchase a new rim/s

  • Other


Results are only viewable after voting.
When it comes to upgrading your sim racing equipment there are so many options, it can be daunting to decide where you should spend your money. Of course there are many people out there that don’t have to worry about where they spend their money.

For the rest of us, we want to make sure we get the best bang for our buck.

It doesn't matter who you speak to, they will most likely have a differing idea. Some sim racing friends might say that you need a direct drive wheel base, others may say a good set of pedals are more important than an upgraded wheelbase.

It can get even more nuanced than this, you might be advised to upgrade your PC but stick with Intel as they perform better on a single core, or you must buy a RTX GPU so you can utilize NVENC in OBS.

There are many ways to upgrade and everyone appears to have a differing opinion, so wouldn't it be great to take a middle of the range sim racing setup and see where the RD community would upgrade or replace.

Let us imagine for a moment that you own the following sim racing hardware and you are fortunate to have come into some money - £1500, $1960 etc.

And with permission from your nearest and dearest you are able to spend this amount upgrading your current setup.
  • 27” monitor, capable of 120 Hz but only displays a max resolution of 1920 x 1080.
  • ART Simulator Cockpit (XL RS variant), which is a steel frame and pre-drilled for Logitech, Thrustmaster, and Fanatec.
  • Your PC is 4 years old, with the following specifications (very generic specs FYI) - i7 8th gen, 16GB RAM, GTX 1080 GPU - middle of the road motherboard, 650w PSU
  • Thrustmaster TS-PC Racer Ferrari 488 Challenge Edition - no extra wheels
  • Thrustmaster T-LCM Pedals
About author
Damian Reed
PC geek, gamer, content creator, and passionate sim racer.
I live life a 1/4 mile at a time, it takes me ages to get anywhere!

Comments

GPU and monitor. But no point upgrading to a screen with more pixels with my current gtx970. And no point in new graphics card. Upgrading to something like a 1080 is just one step up and imho it is not worth upgrading to a used card that is years old already. Then 20xx series cards offer minimal improvements over 10xx cars and 30xx cost more livers, retinas and skin crafts I have left.

Basically I've decided to use what I have as long as it works or the prices come down. As long as things don't break I might be rocking a gtx970 ten years from now... Which is all fine tbh. I can play every sim on the market. Even acc runs fine. Just need to sacrifice some eye candy. Used that computer money for a csl dd so shouldn't need to upgrade that thing, hopefully ever.
 
When the RTX 40 Series will come out later this year i will get one of those GPUs to replace the current 30Series in my PC. Thats basically all. Everything else should be fine for at least another two years. Components, Wheel, Monitor/TV.
 
Hopefully the money I've been saving for a new sim rig monitor to replace my old broken 26" LCD will not be needed for energy bill hikes!!!
 
Just a new wheel base this year... CSL DD... and maybe a 8020 rig, but priority #1 is the wheel base.
(Still on a NLR GT Ultimate, which i bought very cheap from a nice person... so i am fine basically)
 
My apartment. Finally, I'll have dedicated space for a cockpit. But that's not the no.1 priority atm, obviously.
 
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2+ years I want to make a dedicated rig, was waiting for the RTX 3000...
1.5 year I've an unboxed SimLab P1-X and an unboxed PC case

And still using a RaceRoom cockpit with a DD1 (with some pieces of wood to make the base higher) on my desk on my old PC...

At this point I wait for the RTX 4080 and probably will buy it no matter the price, we live only once...
 
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No need for upgrade anything for me, all is in working order, not perfect but highly enjoyable.
If and when, not likely at the pace of "evolution" lately, a really new SIM comes up and requires new hardware to enjoy it, then I may think about it.
My components are all more than capable to run and appreciate present software technology.
 
My PC is out of date by more than 10 years, therefore I have just been racing on ps5. I already own a DD1 podium, CSL elite pedals with load cell, handbrake and shifter and a few rims. I would have to spend in excess of 4k AUD for a PC and monitors. Now I'm in forced retirement there is no way I would be able to get back into PC racing, I would need a substantial winfall to be able to do it.
 
I voted other, as you can upgrade multiple items on that budget.

I can't say whether to upgrade your PC or not as "i7 8th gen" isn't very specific and could be either a 8086K or 8700K which, while older, are still very capable CPUs...or it could be one of the slower, locked variants with less cores...big difference in performance. I have an OC'd delidded 8700K, RTX 2080 and 16GB RAM and it can run Triple 1080p monitors with typically 90 - 144FPS in all sims with decent visual settings (I use G-Sync compatible monitors so I don't have to lock to a framerate). Based on that, my 2 suggestions:

VR headset: Remaining funds
DIY 80/20 Rig: $700, maybe less
Fanatec CSP v3: $360
CSL DD (5Nm): $350

OR

VR headset OR Triple Monitor Stand + 2 More monitors identical or closely matched to the current one: Remaining funds.
Heusinkveld Sprints/VRS Pedals or similar: $700
CSL DD (8Nm): $480

Even though I said "remaining funds" for the VR/monitor setup, I put those first as I view those as most essential of all to improve driving, both for safety on track and for immersion, with a dedicated, no flex cockpit being 2nd if you're using heavy pedals and/or DD wheels. The pedal and wheel upgrades are also essential, but IMO all that detail still comes to a loss if you can't see the guy next to you...I've seen so many races ruined on the race start because people just swing into another person alongside them, because they couldn't see them. Look left/right buttons aren't the same as being able to see a car in your peripheral vision while focusing forward.
 
Absolutely effen nothing. I am done chasing sim hardware. I bought a P1-X cockpit for Christmas. I still suck. Every upgrade, the suckage remained a constant. No more upgrades unless the driver upgrades the fricken ability to drive. :mad:
 
Premium
an unboxed PC case
Likewise, grabbed an Antec DP502 case because airflow + optical drive bay
while waiting for next gen GPU VR support to sort out,
perhaps with massive cache in e.g. 5800X3D usefully improving sim performance.

While that addresses WHERE WOULD YOU SPEND YOUR MONEY?
it is not actually What do you upgrade or replace next?,
namely replacing STM32 Arduino modules for SimHub by ESP32-S2/3 modules,
which have better Arduino sketch support for composite USB devices via TinyUSB.
ESP32 webserver support trivializes user interface hacking via HTML5.
 
Likewise, grabbed an Antec DP502 case because airflow + optical drive bay
In my case I grabbed a Define R6 because it was already at end of life an the Define 7 is a lot more expensive (and I prefer the R6). It wasn't a bad call, the Define 7 is still very expensive and the R6 can't be found at the price I paid it.
 
I'm thinking about to invest into a full tank of gasoline. Just waiting for a price just under 2,20€ per Liter.
 
decent PC
decent Monitor (+ 2x smaller, same res, lower refresh, for a bit janky Triple setup)
decent DD
decent rims
decent wheel stand (no room for rig)
decent VR
decent pedals
decent shifters
decent handbrake
old GPU

So guess what I'll pick, once at some point, double the performance becomes just painful in stead of unobtainium :)
 
Next update will definitely be PC related....specifically, GPU.
I will try for Intel's top ARC card if it is priced according to performance.
I'm currently using my backup card...a GTX1060-6GB.
Time to get back to more 'eye-candy'.
 
The proposed hypothetical budget is right in the ballpark of what I owe to the Tax Man this year, so there you go... :cautious:

I recently upgraded my RAM from 16 gigs of Ripjaws V 3200 CL14 to 32 gigs of Trident Z 4000 CL15 RGB, so that will be it for this year I guess.
 

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Damian Reed
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