Our Sim Rig Setup: What We’re Racing With Today

There’s a lot of advice out there about what you need for sim racing.

Direct drive wheelbase. Load cell pedals. Triple screens. Motion platform. A GPU that sounds like it could power a small suburb. And while all of that gear is awesome, the reality is that most sim racers build their setup piece by piece - usually around budget, space, availability, and whatever upgrade makes the most sense at the time.

That’s exactly where we are with the current Delta Driven rig.

This isn’t the final form. There are already a few upgrades on the radar, especially on the PC side, and we’ll be doing proper individual reviews of our gear over time. But this is the setup we’re racing with today, almost exclusively in iRacing.

The PC: Dell Precision 3630 Tower

At the heart of the setup is a Dell Precision 3630 Tower with 16GB of RAM, an Intel Core i7-8700K, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB.

The PC was picked up cheaply, and the main focus at the time was getting a system with a decent CPU rather than chasing the latest graphics card. That decision makes a lot of sense for iRacing, as the sim still leans heavily on single-core performance. The i7-8700K's six cores and twelve threads give the system plenty of flexibility, but it's the chip's strong clock speeds that really matter. 

When a race grid fills up and the physics calculations start piling on, iRacing tends to be limited by the performance of its busiest thread rather than the total number of cores available. For a budget workstation-based build, the 8700K continues to punch well above its weight and provides a surprisingly strong platform for competitive sim racing.

The GTX 1060 6GB is definitely the part of the setup most likely to be upgraded first. It does the job for now, especially with a single ultrawide display, but it’s not exactly future-proof. As the sim racing rabbit hole gets deeper - higher settings, more demanding titles, maybe triples one day - the GPU is the obvious next step for an upgrade.

For now though, it gets us on track, and that’s what matters.

The Monitor: 34-Inch Ultrawide

The display is a 34-inch ultrawide, which has been a great middle ground between a standard single monitor and a full triple-screen setup.

It gives a wider field of view than a regular 16:9 screen without needing the extra GPU horsepower, space, cables, mounting hardware, and general stuffing around that comes with triples.

Would triples be better for immersion and awareness? Absolutely. But the ultrawide does a pretty good job of keeping things simple while still feeling properly race-focused.

We're currently weighing up triple (32" or 27") vs a single 49" ultrawide as a future upgrade.

Pedals: Fanatec CSL Elite V2

The pedals are Fanatec CSL Elite V2s with the load cell brake kit and they’re one of the more important parts of the whole rig.

It’s easy to obsess over wheelbases and force feedback, but consistent braking is where so much lap time lives. Having a proper pedal set makes a huge difference to confidence, repeatability, and feeling like you can actually lean on the car under brakes rather than just guessing.

These will definitely get their own review later, because pedals are one of those upgrades that can change the whole feel of a sim rig.

Wheelbase: Fanatec CSL DD with 8Nm Boost Kit

Force feedback is handled by a Fanatec CSL DD running the 8Nm boost kit.

This has been a great fit for the rig. It’s compact, direct drive, strong enough to give meaningful feedback, and doesn’t feel like overkill for the current setup. The 8Nm version gives enough detail and punch to feel what the car is doing without needing to bolt the whole thing to a concrete slab.

It’s also one of those upgrades that makes the sim feel more serious immediately. Kerbs, slides, weight transfer, understeer, oversteer — everything feels more connected compared with entry-level belt or gear-driven wheels.

Wheels: Fanatec P1 V2 and CSL GT3

For wheels, we’re currently using two Fanatec rims:

• Fanatec P1 V2 round wheel - the one that came included with the wheelbase bundle
• Fanatec CSL GT3 wheel

The P1 V2 is the general-purpose option. It’s simple, round, and works well for anything where a traditional wheel shape makes sense.

The Fanatec P1 V2 wheel came included in the wheelbase bundle we purchased

The CSL GT3 wheel is the one that feels more at home in the type of racing we’re doing most often. Since most of the driving is happening in iRacing, and a lot of that is GT-style racing, having a GT wheel just fits the vibe better.

Our Fanatec CSL GT3 wheel

Neither of these are ultra-premium wheels, but that's part of the appeal. Together they cover almost everything we do in iRacing, from GT racing through to road cars, without spending a fortune on additional rims.

Rig / Frame: Trak Racer TR40S

The frame is a Trak Racer TR40S, which was chosen because it was one of the cheapest aluminium profile rigs we could get into — and honestly, we love it.

Aluminium profile rigs are one of those things that feel a bit excessive until you actually use one. The adjustability, rigidity, and upgrade potential make a huge difference. Once the wheelbase and pedals are mounted properly, everything feels more solid and consistent.

The TR40S gives us the foundation we need without going completely overboard. It’s sturdy, expandable, and should be able to handle future upgrades without needing to start from scratch.

Seat: NRG Bucket Seat

The seat is an NRG bucket seat, and it’s been awesome value overall.

It looks the part, holds you in place, and makes the whole setup feel much more like a proper cockpit. For the money, it’s hard to complain.

That said, the one downside is lumbar support. It’s not terrible, but longer sessions do make it obvious that comfort is just as important as stiffness and style. We recently added a cheap lumbar support cushion to ease the load on the lower back during longer stints behind the wheel.

MAX7219 - 8 Digit 7 Segment Digital Display

We also run a MAX7219 8 digit 7 segment display, connected to the PC via an Arduino and configured/controlled using Simhub.

So, What’s Next?

This setup is very much a work in progress, but that’s part of the fun.

The current rig is already good enough to take iRacing seriously, chase better lap times, and work toward bigger goals — including the journey to 2000 iRating. But there’s still plenty to improve, test, tweak, and review.

The biggest upcoming upgrade will likely be the graphics card, followed by more detailed testing and reviews of each major piece of gear. We’ll cover what’s been worth the money, what we’d buy again, and what we’d change if starting from scratch.

For now though, this is the Delta Driven rig.

As the Delta Driven journey continues we'll be reviewing each component individually, documenting future upgrades, and sharing what's actually worth spending money on. Some purchases have been outstanding value. Others have highlighted where budget gear reaches its limits. Either way, we'll be sharing the lessons learned along the way.