Sim Racing Setup

What a complete setup needs

Every setup has the same six parts. A wheel base and rim turn your steering into force feedback. Pedals handle throttle and brake, with an optional clutch. A mount holds the wheel and pedals: a desk clamp, a wheel stand or a full cockpit. A seat sets your driving position. A screen or headset shows the road. A PC or console runs the game.

Most bundles cover the first two parts and include a table clamp. The Moza R3 bundle and the Fanatec Gran Turismo DD Pro (5 Nm) bundle both list one on their pages. Everything else is a separate purchase, which is why the example builds add a rig, a seat and a screen as the budget grows.

For a sense of what other people run, a 2025 questionnaire of 615 sim racers, analysed on GTPlanet by user Khaz, had 85.7% on PC as their main platform. Respondents chose themselves and some questions allowed several answers, so treat the shares in this guide as a rough picture, not a measurement.

Choose your platform first

Platform decides which hardware you can use. PC accepts almost everything. Consoles only accept licensed hardware. Fanatec's PlayStation page says its wheels and pedals only get PlayStation support when attached to one of its PlayStation-licensed bases. The Gran Turismo DD Pro page adds that its wheel does not enable PlayStation support on a base without the licence.

The Moza bases in the PC builds above list PC as their platform, and the R3 has a separate Xbox and PC version at $339. On 17 September 2026 Moza announced its first PlayStation 5 products: the R5S Pro, the R16S Ultra and a standalone R16S Ultra base, with native Gran Turismo 7 support. Moza had not published prices or a launch date in that announcement, and says the hardware works with PS5 subject to Sony's final product approval. If you play GT7 on PS5 and can wait, that may widen your options.

Owners report mixed results using PC hardware on a PS5 through adapters. In a 2023 thread, one owner said they could not use their PC wheel base and pedals on a PS5 and bought Fanatec for the console. Another ran a DriveHub adapter to share Fanatec gear across PS5, Xbox and PC. In December 2025, a poster who tried a Ras1lution 2 adapter with his brother's Moza R5 found almost no feedback in GT7, though he also blamed the game's own force feedback, and returned the adapter for a Logitech G923. A second owner of that combination got it working, but only after a long run of disconnections. If console is your main platform, buy a licensed base.

The order owners suggest for upgrades

The advice repeated most often in the owner threads read for this guide is to fix the mount if it flexes, buy a load cell brake before a stronger wheel base, and treat a bigger base as a later step.

In a January 2026 thread, a buyer asked whether a Fanatec direct drive base and load cell pedals would help with catching slides. One reply said any direct drive base is a big step up from a belt-drive wheel, but that better load cell brakes were the upgrade most likely to carry over to real driving. Another reply said load cell brakes help braking consistency and lap times, while a better wheel base mainly makes the sim feel better. In July 2026, a poster answering a PS5 owner with about $500 to spend said to start with a bundle and upgrade the pedals later. In April 2026, an R5 owner told a buyer asking about Moza SRP pedals to go straight to load cell pedals from Sim Jack or Simsonn. A 2012 thread gives the same pedals-first advice: three replies told a Logitech DFGT owner to keep the wheel and upgrade the pedals, and a fourth called the brake pedal the most important hardware for iRacing.

Owners do not all agree. In a 2016 thread, one poster saw no reason to buy a load cell after years of precise braking on G25 pedals, and another who had moved to a load cell called it a realism add-on and was not sure he was more precise than before. Most replies in that thread still preferred load cells. On direct drive itself, one owner who had both a T300 and an R5 said the move was not night and day (July 2024). Another, moving from a T300 to an R5 in April 2026, described the clarity and smoothness as impressive and said he beat a previous lap record by about two seconds.

Fanatec's own buyer guide, last updated 31 March 2026, lists the order as rig, pedals, direct drive, then wheel rims and extras. Fanatec sells all of those parts, so read it as a vendor view. It matches what most owners say.

A reasonable order, summarising the above: 1) a mount that does not move, 2) a load cell brake, 3) a direct drive base sized for the rims you want, 4) a screen or VR setup that suits your game, 5) a shifter, handbrake or haptics if your cars need them. A handbrake matters for rally and drift. A shifter matters for H-pattern cars.

Desk, stand or cockpit

The 2025 questionnaire summary on GTPlanet lists aluminium profile rigs as the most common mount at 33.8%, then desk mounts at 21.6%, wheel stands at 14.3% and tube-frame or pre-made rigs at 13.5%. Desk mounts were 35.5% in the 2022 results. The post notes that the categories changed between years.

Flex complaints cluster around light or foldable rigs and stiffer pedals. A December 2023 poster said a Playseat Challenge needed braces to stop the wheel deck flexing and a metal pedal plate to use a load cell. A July 2020 poster who left a Playseat Evolution for an aluminium extrusion rig said its pedal plate flexed under heavy braking. In April 2026 an R5 owner using a Next Level Racing GT Lite found the rear of the pedals lifting, the frame vibrating under strong force feedback and the pedal plate inadequate, and said the cockpit had become the weak point of his setup.

Other owners report no flex. Two owners in 2025 said the Playseat Trophy holds a Logitech G Pro direct drive base and pedals with no flex. A 2020 owner of a Next Level Racing F-GT said its pedal plate was fine with Fanatec V3 pedals set to a hard brake. The pattern is that cheap and foldable rigs are where complaints come from, and the answer depends on the rig and the force you use.

On rig type, one poster who had owned a steel tube rig (March 2026) said tube rigs handle almost all direct drive bases and load cell pedals but are heavy, take space and offer less adjustment than aluminium profile rigs, and that a profile rig will probably be your last rig. Another (January 2025) told a first-time buyer to get the sturdiest rig affordable so a later base or pedal upgrade does not force a second purchase. A buyer who agreed that extrusion rigs are stiffer and more adjustable still chose on looks because the rig sits in his living room (April 2026).

A June 2026 reply noted that any pedals with force feedback or haptics need stable mounting, so a desk user would have to build a mount or buy a stand or rig.

Screens, VR and field of view

Field of view (FOV) is the angle your screen covers from your eyes. For a flat screen, horizontal FOV is 2 × arctan(screen width ÷ (2 × distance from your eyes to the screen)). A wider screen or a closer seat gives a bigger angle. The FOV calculator on this site, at /gear/sim-racing-fov-calculator/, works it out for your screen size and seat position.

In the 2025 questionnaire summary, 35.8% used a single monitor, 31.7% VR, 26.2% an ultrawide and 14.1% triples. Respondents could pick more than one, so the shares overlap.

Owner views on screens are mostly from 2018 to 2020, before current ultrawide and VR hardware. One poster who tried both sizes (2019) found 32 inch triples impressive in menus but overwhelming at race pace and preferred 27 inch. Another (2018) said three 27 inch screens take about 5 feet of width and over 50 pounds, and that about 80% of where your eyes go is still the centre screen. A poster who moved from triples to a 49 inch ultrawide (2019) said it equals two 27 inch screens, is easier to set up and asks less of the GPU. Another (2018) who considered a 49 inch ultrawide said it gave too little peripheral view at the correct FOV. VR users (2018) said a headset feels like sitting in the car, but you cannot see your wheel or shifter, and one poster noted some people get motion sick.

Sony's page for GT7 lists PlayStation VR2 support as optional. On PC, check that your game supports your headset before buying one.

Keep the screen off the rig. A 2022 poster said a monitor or TV should be structurally independent from the cockpit unless you want it shaking with the force feedback.

Which games run on which platform

Gran Turismo 7 is on PS5 and PS4 (gran-turismo.com). EA's F1 25 page lists the EA app for Windows, the Xbox Store and the PlayStation Store. Assetto Corsa Competizione is sold for PC and consoles, according to assettocorsa.gg. iRacing runs only on Windows PCs and says it has no current plan for a console version. Le Mans Ultimate is listed for Windows on Steam.

If you want iRacing or Le Mans Ultimate, you need a PC, and that decides which wheel bases you can buy. If you only play GT7, a PlayStation-licensed base is the safe route. Check each game's own page for wheel support before you buy a base.

Mistakes owners report

Buying a rig that cannot take your pedals. A 2020 poster upgrading from a Playseat Challenge said he expected it to suffer under load cell pedals at higher pressures. See the desk, stand or cockpit section above for the other reports.

Choosing a rig with a bar between your legs. One poster (2020) said not to buy any rig with a centre bar between your legs. Another who left a Playseat Evolution said the bar got in the way of left-foot braking on a three-pedal set.

Buying too little torque for the rim you want. One R5 owner regretted not buying the 9 Nm R9 because larger rims need more torque (April 2026). Two posters (2024, 2025) said the 3.9 Nm R3 was not enough power or would leave a buyer wanting more.

Expecting the sim to train real-car reflexes. In the January 2026 thread, three replies told a buyer hoping to learn slide recovery for track days that sim force feedback does not match a real car. Buy the setup for the sim.

Buying a PC-only wheel for a PS5 without checking. See the platform section above.