A little back story...avid gamer for most of my life and have had cheap wheel and pedal setups in the past. Now i am in my 40's and want to get back into sim racing, but all the technology has changed. I have built a 2x4 and 2x6 sim rig that is currently built around my sons Logitech G920 pieces. However, I think I want to use a little nicer kit than his. It feels a little clunky even though it performs way better than the junk I had before. I will be playing on Xbox Series X to begin with and eventually moving to PC...most likely. I would like to spend somewhere in the $500-$600 range. Definitely want a clutch and h-pattern shifter. Paddles are cool and have their place, but most of the cars I like to drive are older and would not have had them. I also still need to buy a monitor/monitors lol, but I will budget for that later. What would you guys and gals purchase if you were out to find the best bang for your buck with those things in mind?
I recently upgraded to a Moza set up. Highly recommend it but I think that even there lowest setup will be over your price point. However it is upgradable. So down the road you can get the better wheel or peddles or base. The down side is the money spent for the lesser stuff is kind of wasted unless you can sell it used.
I would also recommend paddles. You don't have to use them but with out them many times you will be forced to automatic mode if a car never came with a manual.
In your price range see if you can piece together a Moza system. I would also look at the new direct drive Logitech setup. I would stay away from Fanatec at least until we see how they emerge after the corsare buy out after being bankrupt.
The problem with your price range is you are at the bottom of the mid grade direct drive setups or the very top of the belt/gear setups. Rais your budget up to 900 or so and you open up a bunch of better options.
Rodan
UberDork
10/27/24 11:12 a.m.
I'll be honest that I haven't shopped for a while... I'm running a Fanatec Clubsport setup. Belt driven wheel, and I've upgraded to a newer shifter and load cell pedals. I started running on Xbox with Forza and have been on PC with Assetto Corsa for the last few years. I would expect that you could put something similar together in your budget buying used, but Dean is correct that you're a bit on the low side of budget for new stuff. When I bought mine, Fanatec was the only option, but now there are more choices. I think the quality of the older Fanatec stuff is good, and used could be a good value, but Dean is also right that we don't know where Fanatec will be in a year...
IMHO, a good wheel is the basis of a good sim setup, but load cell pedals are probably the second most important. It made an enormous difference in braking consistency for me. After that, triple monitors provided the biggest improvement in immersion for me. If you've got the video card for it, you can do triples pretty inexpensively these days.
I would also highly recommend moving to PC and Assetto Corsa if you're interested in online racing that isn't a E36 M3 show. We have a great group right here on GRM.... 
So you can get into a MOZA for around your $$$ I run an R12 but keep it turned down by %50 so this R5 should be fine and a huge step up from the gear and belt drive systems.
https://mozaracing.com/product/r5-bundle
You can then add a shifter for $150 and you are at the $600 number you mentioned.
You will have to figuar out a mount for it. so add $50 for that
You can also add a clutch peddle for another $50 so all in you are closer to $700 but you have a very good setup that you can upgrade in the future.
EDIT
If you went with the R3 Bundle things are nicely in your budget.
https://mozaracing.com/product/r3-racing-wheel-and-pedals
This looks to be a PC/Xbox comparable unit and I don't see that you can purchase the base separately.
In reply to dean1484 :
In reply to Rodan :
Great info !
Also contemplating an upgrade.
