iracing help

[fred23]

My son wants to do some iracing.....I know I have seen some guys on here in the past that do it......just trying to find out what steering wheel/pedal consoles work best and get any feedback on peoples experience on the site.

He has an XBOX 1 if that matters. We also have a MAC computer.

Thanks

[Lurkin]

I played the predecessor extensively but I haven't "iraced" per se, but I have friends that do. I'm 99.9% certain that neither the mac nor the xbox stuff is going to work at all, you're going to need/want a top of the line windows based desktop pc gamer machine and a decent monitor. I'd suggest signing up for the message board over there and look for a thread for newb's, and take it all in but let your wallet speak for you too. I know they say the "wheel to have" these days is like $400 , but I'm sure the $100 one will be just as good for a long long time.

I personally have had much success with Tiger Direct for all my PC/Gaming needs, they're an American company and have great service and good gaming systems at a good price.

PS Get a decent set of 3D headphones for him because A: Just like in real life he'll be able to hear where they're at, inside or outside whathaveyou and B: Do you really wanna hear a race going on at all hours from his room?

[Phil Jacques]

A decent newer pc with an aftermarket 1gb or higher video card and 6 to 8 gb of memory will easily suffice. And just try to find a used G25 or G27 logitech wheel on craigslist for 75 bux or so. They last forever I still have mine from 2006. If you have any iRacing question never hesitate to pm me. Ill hook you up. Been heavy into sim racing since before I could even drive a real car. It's not 100% but it's a good tool for learning in many ways.

[jacko241]

I second what Phil said. That will certainly work to get started. The more powerful processor, video card, and RAM memory you have, the better the sim will run, smoother graphics, more detail and so forth. I think you will prefer a system with Windows 7, as it seems to best suited to iRacing. I have a an Intel i7 4 core processor, 2gb AMD Radeon graphics card, and 16mb RAM memory. I also have 3 screens with if your son really gets into it, is a must have as it makes you feel like you are actually sitting in the car! Good luck and let me know if I can help!

[RowdyBloomquist]

These guys are right, you have to have a PC. If you'd like, i can send you a build list of the one I built myself. I never hooked it to 3 monitors, but it is capable. I play on a 50" plasma and it runs graphics on full bore without skipping a beat. It didn't take long, and I had never messed with computers before that much. Cost about $700 with everything. Also, if you need help with settings or anything else, let me know. I used to be on all the time, got up over 4000 iRating then just ran out of time to get on. Best sim racing out there hands down.

Eric Purcell

[Phil Jacques]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...7774&CatId=114

Something like this will work perfect. Building a computer is great but can add up really fast. These are decent less expensive pre-built gaming computers. This is fairly close to the one I have.

[jbonez21]

If you really want to get the full experience then you'll definitely want a good gaming PC. I built my own with top of the line specs 2 years ago for around $700. This included an i5 processor, 8gb ram, and ATI 7950 video card. These specs are more than enough for iracing and could probably be built even cheaper today.

Also agree with what was stated above, buy a G25 or G27 for ~$100 on Craigslist. You definitely don't want a lesser wheel than that because it won't work very well and the game just won't be enjoyable.

Another big must have for iracing is a comfortable setup. Most of the races are 20 minutes to 2 hours depending on class and type of race, so a regular office chair plus computer desk probably won't cut it. You may want to look into a wheel stand and racing seat.

The last obstacle is time, the races are generally scheduled for certain times and can last a long time, so you need a good amount of time to invest for practice, qualifying, and racing.

Hope that helps