Important Components for a Sim Racing CPU Gaming Setup
Sim Racing has seen a recent uptick in interest from the general public as well as those working in the field of computing. Combining arcade racing dynamics with the finer points of vehicle damage and tire wear, you’ll be on the wild ride of your life — if you have all appropriate PC parts to make it possible, that is.
At Xidax, we’re happy to assist clients with a huge range of custom gaming computers, workstations, laptops and more. Many of our custom gaming PC builds are targeted directly at specific forms of gaming, such as Sim Racing or a variety of others.
To get the most out of your Sim Racing experience, build an optimal PC with the following components and themes.
Equipment and Accessories
The most important equipment you will need for Sim Racing is a racing wheel and a gaming cockpit. A racing wheel enables your hands to feel the weight of the car, allowing it to “feel” more realistic as you drive. With the right accessories, such as shift paddles and throttle, you can actually feel like you’re driving. A gaming cockpit gives you an immersive environment in which to play your game, with a setup that includes seats that mimic those in cars. Chances are, if you’re looking at the best of custom-built gaming PCs and laptops for Sim Racing, you’re probably going all out.
A good-quality headset with a mic also helps with immersion and concentration, while custom PC drivers enable simulation accuracy and a smooth experience.
It’s also a good idea to consider a “driving rig” (much like the pros use) for realism. Combining an adjustable seat and steering wheel with a pedal board underneath allows you to feel as though you’re actually driving — you can even buy swing arms, so that your pedals are on either side of the wheel.
Powerful, Quality Graphics
To get the most out of your Sim Racing experience, make sure you have powerful graphics and a quality gaming monitor. For example, if you’re building an optimal PC for Sim Racing, we highly recommend NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970-powered graphics.
The recommended resolution is 1920 x 1080 (1080p) while maintaining a frame rate of 120Hz to produce smooth, high quality graphics. If you want more detailed graphics at 1920 x 1080 (1080p), we recommend using 2x Nvidia GeForce GTX 970s.
Monitor quality can also have an impact on your gameplay with graphics, with features like refresh rate (steps back and forth between FPS frames per second) and response times (time it takes for pixels to change from one color to another) among the most important. But the most effective way to improve graphics quality is through your computer’s graphics card. So if you’re looking at building an optimal PC for Sim Racing, especially with a racing wheel, make sure you have the right card and accessories in place!
Proper Cooling and Ventilation
Another of the absolute essentials for an optimized PC for Sim Racing is proper cooling and ventilation. A quality CPU cooler will keep your processor cool, while a quality case fan will make sure your entire gaming rig has ample airflow. If you’re looking to build an optimal PC for Sim Racing, Xidax would recommend Deepcool fittings and Antec fans.
An important thing to remember about cooling: It’s not just limited to what goes on inside your computer case! Your power supply needs adequate air circulating around it as well. Xidax recommends fans for this purpose, as they’re highly efficient and reliable.
It’s also important to take care with the cables on the back of your computer, to ensure that they don’t block any vents.
Finally, some pedals might need a separate power supply rather than drawing from your PC itself, such as high-quality motors in the pedal board that require a 12V power supply. The same goes for your steering wheel!
Solid State Drive
Solid state drives (SDDs) are computer devices that store data using flash memory. Unlike traditional hard drives, SDDs do not use magnetic disks to store information, and thus have no moving parts. Typically, an SDD is a small stick about the size of a person’s thumb, which plugs into one of the USB ports on a computer. One reason these are more popular in recent years is their speed: They typically can read and write files at about 100,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second).
This type of storage device has a significant impact on the performance of your computer, which is what makes it so useful for many Sim Racing setups. It doesn’t have any mechanical parts that can break or fail, and it’s great for gaming because it can read at 100,000 IOPS and write at rates faster than regular HDDs. It’s also smaller, more durable, and doesn’t weigh much. The access time for an SDD is 0.1 ms, while it’s 100-200 ms for a traditional HDD. This means that the data on your computer can be accessed much quicker with an SDD than with a regular HDD.
Xidax recommends that you consider an important factor when choosing a solid state drive: The class of the SSD. Classes are labeled A-E, with A being the best and E being the worst. This is rated based on performance, so do some research if you’re looking to build an optimal PC for Sim Racing!
For more on building an ideal computing setup for Sim Racing, or to learn about any of our gaming computers, workstations or other setups, speak to the staff at Xidax today.