My Sim Rig Build

If there's anything that's unclear, don't hesitate to ask. I'd be happy to explain either in writing or with video. Also, don't forget page one of this thread, some of the pictures help explain how I built this. There's plenty of adjustability, so keep that in mind when building yours. Make sure you mock up and get your seating position right, you can cut the pedal and wheel boards to different sizes to suit you, also the angle of the pedal board should be considered. Mine is pretty close to where the pedals should be.

Awesome rig Tux! Looks like some pretty ingenious engineering. Thanks for sharing, hopefully I can come up with something similar using your design in the near future.

I just ordered two more monitors and a triple monitor stand! I'm gonna be so broke!



Hey that Jegs seat, does it work well for you? I was looking at some jegs seats. Would you recommend that one?

Yes. The seat works very well. Keep in mind, it's not super high quality, but it functions perfectly as an adjustable car seat. For the price, I would recommend it. You may be able to find a fixed racing seat for slightly cheaper, but it wouldn't be as comfortable or adjustable.

Check this out:

http://www.vesaro.com/

Then, look at this!

http://www.cxcsimulations.com/

Yeah, I've seen those top-shelf sim setups.  They are, no doubt, top of the line and amazing.  Price is where you lose me.  I could go SCCA racing for less than some of those setups.

oh snap.  I forgot to show ya'll.        I call it   The Arctic Thunder rig.  because my case is all white.  
loaded with 32oz mountain dew. cop shades. g27. triple monitors. and one very uncomfertable office chair (eventuually to replaced by a bucket seat)


edit:  That's also my great grand mother's desk.

Nice setup Josh!

Heck yeah buddy!!!  Looks great.  A little Watkins Glen action in the Shtang!

I'm just going to go ahead and assume you are running MONITORS and not TVs. Best Buy has 24" TVs on sale for black Friday for $80 a piece, but TVs just don't have the color monitors do. My wife just got a 24" TV for her computer because she wanted a larger monitor, and the color is off. Which is fine for what she does, mostly typing and stuff. I want a triple monitor setup, but to have 3 identical monitors I'd have to cough up a cool $500 for 2 more of what I have. Of course when my 24" blew up a couple months ago I had to go and spend money on one, an AOC 27" from Best Buy. Oy. 

TVs would work fine to this application Rem. There isn't much difference in the LCD or LED panel used in TV vs a computer monitor. The biggest differences will be the resolution (limited to 1920x1080 for a TV), and the drivers that refresh the screen. (TVs are usually faster, actually.) That being said, just about any half-decent graphics card can be set to work with a TV, especially via an HDMI cable connection.

One big issue you may see with TVs, especially cheap ones, is that the frame is larger/thicker. This could be an issue if you plan on using them to make a cockpit.

Maybe it was just my older video cards (DVI output only) but I had tried a TV last year and the color was off and I couldn't get it close to where I needed it to be so I ended up returning the "unopened" TV and DVI to HDMI cable. The 1920 x 1080 is what I run right now anyways, so that wouldn't bother me any. I could see it throwing me off having different sized side monitors than my main monitor, so that could be an additional problem. Maybe if I get 2 more 24" TVs and snag my wife's TV and gave her my monitor. And then got a better pair of video cards. Or 1 video card that's still better than my 2.

Rem I just saw a 7870 on sale for like $120.  That would be more then enough to run 3 monitors/TV's.  I run the less powerful 6850 and don't have a problem with it's 1 gb of ram or less powerful GPU.

I just have to pick my battles wisely, my wife definitely won't go for a new video card AND a couple TVs. Do you guys have any experience getting a TV to have monitor-like coloring? If so that'll help my case getting 2 TVs and using possibly hers and giving her my 27" monitor. I can work a triple system here if I do some creative desk work, I just would have to show my wife a proof of concept type thing 

Wish I could help, but I never tried a TV with my setup.

What do you mean "monitor like coloring?"

The LCD/LED panels are the same - they can produce the same colors. Were you trying to run 256 colors or something? I'm pretty sure just about everything supports 32-bit color.

I have my TV (a 46", 1080p, 120Hz model) set up on my PC for iRacing and it works just fine with a 1920x1080 resolution (for iRacing - I use a 1280 x 720 resolution for my desktop to make it easier to read stuff from across the room) and 32-bit color.

For whatever reason I couldn't get actual color on my TV. Like, everything was way pale, and with adjustments it was either neon, or black lol. Maybe I will experiment with my wife's computer. If I can get good color there, I may be able to do this thing.

Remaggib wrote:For whatever reason I couldn't get actual color on my TV. Like, everything was way pale, and with adjustments it was either neon, or black lol. Maybe I will experiment with my wife's computer. If I can get good color there, I may be able to do this thing.

Make sure it's not a setting on your TV, also.

Well, after some tinkering and discussion with a Best Buy employee for guidance, I got color on her monitor / TV thing. It's not PERFECT, but it's a ton better. I will have to see if it's her computer or not now, because it's pretty old and the video card (pretty high end at the time it was bought) only supports like 13something x 768 so that could be an issue. Also the fact that the driver for that video card is probably as old as the video card doesn't help. But she said I can have her 24" TV and it sounds like I can get a pair on Friday. Hoping I can get this going!         

Awesome! If you need more help, you have my number. I'm not only an engineer, I did some time at Best Buy (in TVs and Appliances), so - yeah, free technical support.

What the hell bro, you have HIS number?  I thought I was the only one.

TuxTshirt wrote:What the hell bro, you have HIS number?  I thought I was the only one.

Yeah, sorry, have the Tux, the Sim, and the Avanti in my phone. Still no Squiddy or Stalker though