PC Sim Racing

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by Tommy R

Hmm....looking at my current video card I'm guessing I should be able to move it from the light blue slot to the green slot without any issue? Does proximity of the card make a difference regarding performance? If I can do this, it would cover up my PCI slot, but free up my PCIE slot (in yellow).

I've heard the difference in slots is negligible but they do have different bandwidths, the one with the least is the bottom I believe.

You could also slot the PCI sound card into any of the other PCIe slots. Even though the card wont occupy the entire width of the PCIe slot they still work.

https://www.tenforums.com/pc-custom-...-x16-slot.html

One thing worth noting is doing this may lead to your bios switching the top PCIe slot from a 16x to a 8x. I dont know if its a simple matter of changing that back or if thats even possible but the comments in the thread I linked were that it shouldn't effect performance much unless its a top tier GPU.

[Tommy R]

Thanks! I did check and my GPU is so large it obscures the other PCIE slot that's 2 slots over!

[Tommy R]

So last night I moved the GPU over to the other PCIE slot in hopes of making room for the sound card. I had to work on my SATA cable routing because they were preventing the GPU from fully seating. Even so, the GPU couldn't get down low enough into the slot on the MB and I was getting connection issues. And not to mention there was literally no room between one of the GPU's fans and the power supply.



In the above process I had to mess around with my SATA cable routing to get everything to boot back up properly because I must've crossed SATA cable connections or something. I eventually got it all sorted so it boots off the correct drive again.

So now the GPU had to go back where it was, which meant no room for the sound card. I hooked everything back up and now I've got no sound coming from the MB at all. This is the input my shakers were using so now they're inoperable. Tried the MB sound output with my speakers and nothing there, either. Not sure if moving the SATA cables around I affected the MB's onboard sound, but it seems be either broken or somehow turned off right now.

I spent a lot of time researching new PCs last night, but that's gotta wait due to some unexpected house expenses (hooray, new AC!). So the plan now? If I can't figure out how to get the MB's sound working again, I'll buy a new MB and a new case. The difference this time is instead of a Micro ATX board and Mini Tower Case, I'll get a larger ATX board and Mid Tower Case. This will give me more PCIE slots and I'll have ample room for everything. Working in the cramped confines of my current case has been frustrating.

The issue now is that looking at pcpartspicker.com, it appears there's very few options for MBs for my old processor. The best one I can find that has good reviews and is still available is an Asus board that will cost nearly $160!

Here's a screen shot of my partspicker and a link to it. Note with the current GPU, it appears my power supply may be a limiting factor, too! I highlighted the GPU since it's new since I first built the system and I also highlighted the case and MB I'm looking to get. I'll have to look around more to see if I can locate a cheaper MB, though.
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/TommyR/saved/#view=YWLDcf

[hpiguy]

I'm telling you now, ditch AMD for gaming. Both CPU and GPU, Intel and Nvidia eat their lunch on gaming performance, especially for high res stuff like triples or VR.

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by hpiguy

I'm telling you now, ditch AMD for gaming. Both CPU and GPU, Intel and Nvidia eat their lunch on gaming performance, especially for high res stuff like triples or VR.

I've already got that GPU that's highlighted above. Got it from Cory a couple months ago. I'll go non-AMD on the next system, but for now I'm just looking for an ATX sized MB that'll work for this processor and a Mid Tower case. The new system will have to be on the backburner for now.

[HumboldtEF]

You could try checking your bios settings to see if the audio got turned off somehow.

Do you plug your audio into the rear IO or front? if its the front you may have unplugged the front panel wires when you were working on moving the GPU.

Is there room to put the Sound Card in the 3rd slot (circled in green)?

[Tommy R]

Well then... That escalated quickly!!

I'd toyed with the idea of biting the bullet on an entirely brand new, pretty high end PC build, but then found out this week that I need to replace my house's AC. So I decided on holding off on building a high end PC for now. But I want to get a new MB and want proper sound options for my current system. So I'd decided to replace my MB for my aging CPU and while doing that I'd get a larger case (mini tower). I'd also opt for a larger ATX board this time to have more room, but also to have more slots for a sound card. Okay, so now I've got a gameplan! I'll just get my PC going for a relative minimum of cash outlay.

Evidently, ATX sized MBs for my CPU are few and far between. I'd be looking at $160 for a MB! That's quite a bit more than I'd hoped, but then the thought arises... I know, that's dangerous territory for me! I see much cheaper ATX MB options out there for new processors and they're easily half the price of the MB I'm considering. Well, Steve (sgtsteve here on RCC) and I were talking on the phone last night discussing my situation and we started running some numbers....

Two options seemed the most likely:
1) Spend $160 for a MB for my 5 year old CPU. It's the cheapest option, but knowing I don't want to keep this system very long it'll be somewhat wasted money.
2) Spend about $240 and I could get an ATX MB AND a new processor.

Honestly, option 2 appealed to me. Sure, I'm paying $80 more, but at least I'm getting a new, faster CPU out of the deal. In either case, I'd need a new Mini Tower case so I didn't factor that into the cost. Okay, option #2 it is. Cool. Time to place an order.

Oh, my current RAM won't work with the new MB? RAM is cheap, though. Oh, and with Cory's hand-me-down GPU my 500W power supply is barely adequate. Well, at that point I knew what was happening. I'm back to building a new PC. Here's the difference as we see it (after lots of research and discussion). The PC would be a nice upgrade from my current setup, but it also gives me plenty of room to grow with the addition of a newer GPU in a year or so. It's not the high end build I'd been considering, but I think it's a reasonable compromise between wasting money on a pricey MB for an old processor versus a high end build. It should serve me for several years, we believe....especially since I mainly just do iRacing and not first person shooters and such.

A bonus here is that if I put my old GPU into the old system I'll have room for a sound card. This means I'd be able to sell this entirely functional entry level iRacing/gaming system and can recoup maybe $200 or so. Reducing that from the cost of all of the new components and I'm out a total of approx. $380 or so. After sleeping on it, I decided to pull the trigger on all of it. So without further adieu, here's the new PC buid. Keep in mind I'll be re-using my 1TB SSD drive and GPU. Thanks a ton to Steve for wasting nearly 3 hours with me on the phone last night!!

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/TommyR/saved/#view=j3hqpg

[Sneetches]

Looks good, I also wouldn't dump money into legacy hardware for PCs since there's really never any benefits.

[HumboldtEF]

One last idea for fitting your sound card and GPU, a PCI riser/extension that relocates one of the 2. This would work great if your case is made for a vertical GPU installation but I'm guessing its probably not so mounting may be an issue.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=pci+riser

[STANG KILLA SS]

lol Tommy

[Tommy R]

Got a Windows 10 question.... Last summer I added a 2nd SSD drive to my PC. I used the Samsung software and replicated my old SSD onto my new SSD. Then I made the new SSD my primary boot drive. I will soon be removing the new SSD to install into my new PC and leave my old SSD in the PC so I can sell it. Will this leave my old SSD without an operating system? I don't believe I deleted Windows from it when I installed the new SSD.

Basically, I'm trying to determine if I'll need to acquire a new copy of Windows 10 for either the old or the new system. Anyone know?

[STANG KILLA SS]

hey guys i tried out a new league last night. iWRL this is the official iracing league of the WRL that i rented the bmw & vette seat in, in real life.



facebook- https://www.facebook.com/groups/2354406244877229/
iRacing league- https://members.iracing.com/membersi...do?league=2555
website- iWRL – Virtual MotorSports Racing
Rules and Regs- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...tImJko7E8iJmn8



since WRL is endurance races, they are 1 hour races with limited fuel so you have to pit.



they run multiclass just like in real life
Classes (real WRL names)
GTO-911 Cup
GP1-Audi TCR
GP2-Mustang
GP3-Miata Cup



they also have broadcasters live, and also give trophies



last night was the season opener at Sebring. 55 racers!!!
here is the rest of the schedule, they try to follow the real WRL schedule when its possible in iRacing.



here is the recording of the live broadcast
i got taken out in the first hairpin on lap 1 and quit, but it was still cool hearing your name!



PS the 911 Cup car was a f ucking nightmare!

[Tommy R]

I want in!

[STANG KILLA SS]

links above!
i knew you would like the format.

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by STANG KILLA SS

links above!
i knew you would like the format.

Yep. Don't particularly like any of the cars, but I understand why they run they run them.

[Inspector86]

Well shame on me, I never realized this thread was here. I recently built a new PC based on an MSI X470 mb, Ryzen 7 3800X CPU, 32mb of 3200 DDR4 RAM, 1tb M.2 drive C: with a pair of 2tb SSD SATA drives in a RAID 0 as D: and Nvidia RTX 2060 Super 8gb Founders edition GPU. I built this PC specifically for iRacing. I know there are a number of racing series out there, but I need to spend some time learning how to drive fast before I start competing online. Subscribing to this thread

[STANG KILLA SS]

like

if you have any questions ask away.

[Tommy R]

Got a few updates to share since my last post...

I added some sound deadening material to my butt shaker mounting plates and the "tinny" sound is pretty much all gone now. I still think this is one of the best upgrades I've done for sim racing. This has been one of the biggest immersion upgrades I've done.

I picked up two of these to hang wheels on the wall. They're 3D printed and I got them from ebay. They're okay, but don't let the quick release fully seat so the springs aren't fully relaxed with the wheel in place. I think that'll be okay, though.


I ordered a few things from Fanatec: a Formula Carbon wheel, some button caps w/ sticker set, and a damper. The wheel looks amazing and is verrrrrry light. It's so light, in fact, that I have to let go of the wheel in the event of a bad wreck because I feel like it could break my wrists if I'm not careful!! It effectively increased the strength of my Club Sport wheel base. The button caps/stickers are super cool and are going to be really helpful since I use multiple wheels now so it'll help me keep track of each wheel's programming. Also, I use my BMW wheel for American Truck Sim so I can swap out caps as needed, depending on the sim I'm running. The damper (in transit) will go on my throttle pedal, but I may experiment with it on my brake pedal, as well.

An issue I had with the wheel was the paddle shifters. They didn't move! After a bunch of troubleshooting and some disassembly I determined that the paint/powdercoat must not have been dried when they were assembled. I overcame it with some force, but it left some weird residue on the shifters and for the money I expect better quality than that. I'm working with Fanatec on how to address this now and will let y'all know.

Here's the wheels hanging next to my rig:


Here's close-ups of the buttons/stickers. The buttons come in a variety of colors so you can color code certain options. Stickers are in white and in black. Some stickers are round and designed to fit within the buttons, but some are rectangular and I suppose they're designed to be applied to the wheel itself. I just trimmed them so they fit in the buttons. It may seem silly and it's expensive for what it is, but I really like them.




I also ordered some magnetic shifters from OSR (Open Sim Racing). Supposed to make shifting more precise and reliable. They should be here this week. I opted for the carbon fiber ones for the Formula wheel and plastic for the BMW wheel.


I also have a button box on order. After tons of research I opted for a Derek Spears Designs solution that bolts to my Fanatec Club Sport base. It uses a mounting plate of Lexan or polycarbonate so it may not be super rigid, but I'm okay with that. Reviews have been good and you have plenty of button options. I opted for the one on the right in the picture below. If needed, I'll also likely pick up the panel on the left, as well.


Lastly, I was looking very heavily into ponying up for super nice pedals recently. I was considering the likes of Heusinkveld, HPP, Racewerk, etc. But after talking with Randy more about it, I decided to experiment more with my Fanatec V3 pedal settings. I have the brake performance kit, but after installing some medium stiffness elastomers, I've not really messed with it. Well, I put firmer elastomers in the other day and then altered my Fanatec brake force (brf) settings. I now have pedals that feel so much better in every regard. I'm still getting used to them, but so far my braking has gotten much more consistent and I'm able to brake much later than previously. Not to mention when I overshoot a corner, I'm able to slow the car much safer and have a much better chance of not going off track than before. Since making these changes I don't think I've spun on corner entry in a race and that's saying a lot for me.

OH! And the most important upgrade a sim racer can do is shown below! And yes, I've still got a ton of cable management to do.


Lastly, I picked up some cover strip for my 8020 rig. Dust and such will gather in the top of the profile so I wanted to cover it for a cleaner look (literally). I only did the top surfaces as it would take way too long to do the whole rig and probably cost quite a bit, too.




Okay, I think that's it. I'll post up more once I have more info. to share. Cheers!

[STANG KILLA SS]

nice touches. really finishes the rig. button box is killer, anxious for the report on how stiff they are. ie the mount.

[hpiguy]

Very nice Tommy!