About to start my iRacing career- Advise

[OwensRacing]

Hello guys. Names Jeff, been racing GT5 on a wheel since Jan 2011. Im ready to make the iRacing move. I've got my PC assembled and just need to finish wiring and installing software then it will be complete and ready to accept iRacing.

Figured it he helpful to list my setup:

iRacing PC Build:

Mother Board - ASUS P8Z77
CPU - Intel i5 3.4 Quad Core
RAM - 2x 8GB
Hard Drives - 120GB SSD and 500GB SATA
GPU - Radeon 7970
OS - Windows 8
Power Supply - 850watts
Case Fans - 200mm / 3x 120mm / 2x 80mm
Case - Cool Master HAF XB
Drive - LG -CD/DVD

Racing Rig:
T500 RS w/ TH8
Triple 24" ASUS
2x Buttkicker Gamer 2
4x Dayton Pucks
Tritton Pro's
Denon Receiver powering 5.1 and feeding LFE to BKGM2's
Onkyo Slave for driving pucks.



So now my question is knowing my equipment is there anything I'm missing. Any suggestions for the first timer.

I have done research and got a good feel for what's going on. However I figured this would be a good introduction and maybe some personal experiences could be shared to help ensure this goes smoothly.


I've been thinking about button boxes and making mount for either my old iPhone 4 or iPad gen1 or iPad mini for telemetry and or button boxes.


Oh and here are some pictures of rig- I've got finish the mounting pucks and other BKGM2 as well make a mount for the mini Bose speakers for surround. Not sure ill use it with Trittons. However I was given some small ones figured why not.

I'm a metal fabricator by trade so I build all my own rigs, mounts, stands, and etc. recently got our CNC Plasma table going, so this will allow me to make some pretty cool stuff to add on. Exp- swivel keyboard/mouse tray and mounts for speakers. Anyway enough chatter here some pics.

Thank you for taking the time to read and offer any help. Comments and advice welcome.

Previous Rig for G27:

 

[VINCE__]

I was wondering when you would see the light. Welcome to the dark side! You have everything you'll need and then some. Enjoy it my friend, the PS3 will now be a thing of the past. For racing that is.

 

[Jav]

So good to see you coming to iRacing Jeff!
I'm very much looking forward to being on track with you again, for those who've never raced with Jeff, he is one of the cleanest and competitive racers I have ever met I have no doubt that all of his racecraft will pay off big time on iRacing! I'll be getting a chance to do some racing again next week, so I hope we can get something going with all the guys!

 

[left888]

I remember you from GT5, although it's been a while, welcome to iRacing.

First thing to determine is, do you like road racing or ovals? Of course you can do both if you want. For myself I'm a road racer and only road racing for me. Some guys prefer ovals and the NASCAR route. Either way, the best thing to do is look under the codes for a 3 month deal, I'm not even sure what they offer but usually they are loaded for one or the other. That is tracks and cars.

Try one of the deals and see how you like it. There is a good percentage that find iRacing to difficult and they quit, now I have seen you around and your contributions to sim racing and I think you will exceed at iRacing.

To start off you will be in the rookie division, it's more or less a crash fest. I would recommend you spend 3 or 4 days of hot lapping. Get in the Mazda MX-5 and drive at a comfortable pace where you have control of the car. Don't go at a pace where you go off the track or spin out. Once you feel comfortable enough with your racecraft then join a practice.

If you feel good about driving with other cars then join a race, then the sky's the limit. There are a lot of great guys in our iRacing club here at GTPlanet that will help you along.

So first off, decide were you want to start, Road or Oval. After you move up in one discipline you can start in the other should you choose to do so. Good luck.


BTW, your gear looks fine, you might be interested in SimVibe, you can check that out in the iRacing.com forum under hardware. Yes button boxes, tachs and so one are great but ... I would concentrate on racing for now, all the hardware and gear will fall in.

P.S. I just might have a free 3 month card for you, let me look and see if I still have it, it's for new drivers only though.

 

[OwensRacing]

Left888 good thinking on oval or road. While I do love oval. It gets boring to me. I can't go in circles practicing with getting bored. Road racing has so many more challenges and that is going to be my focus.


Can a person use a three month code with cars and tracks and when that runs out use like a six month code with free cars and tracks?

I'm ok buying it yearly and grabbing tracks and cars. I've allotted 500 bucks to dedicate towards iRacing software.

Sim vibe is on my list. Not sure ill go that route right away. My rig is so structurally sturdy I can't see it working correctly. I've got an idea for next tax season. Doing new rig with Fanatec's new wheel and pedals. Build rig in four quadrants. Bolted together with poly or rubber spacers. This way each corner can and will vibe correctly. Go with four BK Mini LFE or Mini Concert or similar on all four corners. Move One BK gamer to my seat mount. One to pedals mount. Maybe move pucks to shifter. Depends on how well they work. Have all these isolated from another with poly most likely. Be very detailed and immersive. That will all depend on how in depth I get with iRacing. For now I'm able to use everything on PS3/GT5.

The two BKG2's will run off LFE. From Denon's out put to a cross over then to Onkyo. Which then will feed the four pucks. These will be I'm diamond plate floor pan. It is rubber washer isolated now. Two on left. Two on right and hooked obviously to left and right. Hopefully this will give some separation. If not I will hook BKG2's to the left and right out out instead of LFE. I've got a 8" Sony sub that might be enough to shake on the LFE side. Was just trying to avoid using that when on head set.

So much going through my head. This hobby is honestly as much fun as my real car. Sans G forces and well it cost tons less. Truly thinking of selling my Evo and focusing heavy on SIM.

We shall see what the future holds. I do have a goal to run 10.99 or better in a car driven to the track and driven home before selling Evo though. Once that life goal is completed. I can part ways. Maybe buy a older clean fox body and tinker. Much much cheaper. miss v8 hot rods too.

 

[left888]

You can only use 1 special offer and only a brand new account. What a lot of us do is upgrade on Black Friday, it's half price. So it only costs $49 per year and you can top off your account any time. I almost have every track except 3, I have every car. Even though I don't oval race I can still hot lap and practice.

BTW, purchase cars and tracks in groups of 3's, 3 gets 10% off, 6 gets you 15% off.

If you get big transducers SimVibe will rattle your rig. With SimVibe you are using telemetry, without you are only using audio which really has no rhyme or reason to it.

 

[Carlos]

You can only use 1 special offer and only a brand new account. What a lot of us do is upgrade on Black Friday, it's half price. So it only costs $49 per year and you can top off your account any time. I almost have every track except 3, I have every car. Even though I don't oval race I can still hot lap and practice.

BTW, purchase cars and tracks in groups of 3's, 3 gets 10% off, 6 gets you 15% off.

If you get big transducers SimVibe will rattle your rig. With SimVibe you are using telemetry, without you are only using audio which really has no rhyme or reason to it.

Buy more and you'll get 20%, buy all you get 25%.

I started with the Caddilac 3 month thingy, then I got a full year membership on Black Friday. I do now have all cars except 2 NASRCARs and almost all circuits except 3 ovals.

But I'm sure you'll like it. It went the same for me, from console to pc. Absolutely loved it from the start and never looked back. Seriously, the first day I started iRacing is the last day I played with my rig on the console. I don't even like racing games anymore. iRacing is everything now

I'm in a club that holds a league race 2 times a week, we share setups and practice together. Just a good and open community, just watch out for wankers that can't drive and will always look at you for it.

Drive clean and the rest will come when you're up to it. 👍

 

[Imari]

Welcome to iRacing! I remember racing against you in PURE, many moons ago.

Sounds like you're more than set to go, you'll have a great time.

 

[VINCE__]

Hey Jeff, once you get settled in to things shoot me a invite. Robert Vincent.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Welcome to iracing. Don't let yourself get out off by your initial rookie experiences, everyone had it tough back then. As your orating goes up (behind the scenes in rookie) you will get put into splits with faster and better racers.

As others have said, it's a good idea to have a rough idea what you want to race, but that doesn't mean you have to limit yourself. I'm running the Mazda cup, late models, class c street stocks and iracing NASCAR championship.

Enjoy and check out the gtp league as well.

 

[Patrocles]

I was wondering when you would see the light. Welcome to the dark side! You have everything you'll need and then some. Enjoy it my friend, the PS3 will now be a thing of the past. For racing that is.

This!

get ready for clean, online pickup racing! I left GT5 thanks to all the wreckers. I had more clean races in the first 3 months of iRAcing compared to 3 years of GT5. ARe you going to run oval, road, both?


and you have an awesome rig and cockpit, man! 👍


fwiw
DSD seems to be popular with the iracing crowd for button boxes.
http://www.derekspearedesigns.com/

 

[xStretch-]

Great setup

My advice is get out of the rookie Mazda split asap lol

 

[runfast1]

hey your name sure sounds like I raced with you in some rooms on gt5
your pc build looks awesome man. hurry iracing is waiting and so are we!
welcome to iracing hope to see you on track. peace,

 

[awr117]

Hey Owens, We've ran a few races together in DA's Pure league that he was running a few years back. I made the jump to iRacing at the beginning of January. Best move i've made for Sim racing. I highly doubt you will be disappointed. It really opened my eyes to see what i've been missing from a proper sim.

 

[RIP_Welsh_Don]

Hey Jeff,

Great to see you move over. You're probably aware that I switched over to iRacing in the middle of December and the PS3/GT5 hasn't been back on since. The Rookie stages can be tough and irritating especially when you lose Safety Rating points because 'other' drivers crash into you and you're just the innocent bystander. Be prepared for that and don't take it to heart, move out of Rookie and have a blast. Starting races from the pit lane early on is also a good idea sometimes, just to stay clear of lap 1 wrecks, in order to preserve your Safety Rating (which is what will get you to class D).

Members forum is great and the pick-up racing is much better than with GT5. There is a bunch of stuff to entertain you at Class D and C, so no need to feel you should progress to Class A as soon as possible, unless of course you want to drive the F1 car. I am having fun in the SRF and Skippy this season but the pace of some of the guys out there is simply awesome. Because I chose these two series to run in predominantly for the 12 week period, I bought tracks to go with them in bundles of 6 to gain the 20% discount, so always good to see what you might need for a specific series.

Very much looking forward to racing with you again, so hook me up with a friend request once you're settled in.

Nige.

 

[OwensRacing]

Thank you much for the advice and insight guys. Very valuable information.


Got the PC finished tonight sans installing software. Oh and a SATA cable for the storage drive. Grab that tomorrow and get one of my monitors From my desktop and get all software installed. Also have one of those USB wifi deals so I can get iRacing downloaded and ready before moving it to the rig. Still have to build a swivel tray for keyboard and mouse. A shelf to move my modem and wifi on. Hoping to have this all ready and done by the weekend. Building shelf and swivel tray tomorrow. Not to mention needing mount shelves for my rear speakers on the theatre and move surrounds. Run those wires. Run wifi to Denon. However once all this and that is done. Then tactile upgrade time. Complete that then finish real car. Finally all my irons will be out of the fire. Shooo I'm ready to be project free.

Here are some powered up pics of the PC.

Amazed by this case. Love it. It fits perfectly on top of my equipment stand I did for the triple PS3's. almost like I made it for it. I was kinda blown away when measured the stand top and realized this for perfect. More pics to come.

As well plenty of questions I'm sure.

 

[RSwagoneer]

Important part of surviving the rookies is that you drive incident free through the whole race. That's the only way to increase your safety rating. Above 3 and you will be promoted to the next class on rookie day promotion, above 4 and you will be instantly promoted.
From d class on the racing get's better and is very competitive.
If you feel for it , you can add me at iracing (bryan de bruyn).
Class B road now, but racing in the D class, class D oval.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Important part of surviving the rookies is that you drive incident free through the whole race. That's the only way to increase your safety rating. Above 3 and you will be promoted to the next class on rookie day promotion, above 4 and you will be instantly promoted.
From d class on the racing get's better and is very competitive.
If you feel for it , you can add me at iracing (bryan de bruyn).
Class B road now, but racing in the D class, class D oval.

Though not necessarily the case. The quality of racing changes with you irating more than your class. D class isn't sure fire better and clean racing. You can get split wih better drivers with better irating in rookie and have better races there.

 

[luckylefty2gunz]

Welcome to iracing jeff. It has been so long since I have been on GT5 or here on the planet and it's good to see good guys still at it

 

[awr117]

Haven't heard anything lately. How are you liking iRacing? The new build and new tire model seem to be a huge step in the right direction. Would like to hear your thoughts on the sim.