Going from Logitech G29, CSL Elite & Clubsport to the Fanatec CSL DD

okay so you've watched the pre-release reviews but you've stuck to your guns no pre-orders till it's in customers hands and the reviews are in well i've got mine now and i had enough time to chew on it i'll try to put into words what you're in for if you replace your logitech g series wheel fanatex csl elite or clubspot wheelbase with a csl dd as with some of my previous videos i'll sum it up first to save you the weight and then expand on it we're not here for the mid-roll ads are we all what i humbly ask is if you find this helpful and you had to buy one based on the points i cover use the affiliate link in the description so that fanatic knows i sent you and thank you very much to everyone who's done so in the past here's a summary of what you'll probably want to know all of which will be covered throughout if you're coming from a logitech wheel then you will be in for a treat as it's a massive step up and well worth it if you enjoy your sim racing then you will be delighted from the very first lap if you're coming from a csl elite or csw then results depend on the title for acc it's made a big difference for iracing it's an improvement but you won't be majorly missing out if you stick with your current kit yes it's very quiet in operation yep it runs cool despite having no active fans yes it's still desk friendly if you don't have a rig yet so i received my csl dvd in august this year quite a surprise because it's a little bit ahead of schedule but even so i think i got my pre-order in before they'd even spell checked the product page so i ended up amongst the first wave of public customers to receive them the model that i'm referring to throughout this overview is the boost kit bundle i'm not taking the cheaper non-boosted version into consideration before now i had never experienced a direct drive wheelbase of any kind never touched a dd1 or dd2 simicube none of them in this respect my journey is much the same as many of yours would be i used a logitech g29 for a long time stepped up to a fanatex csl elite which was a huge improvement and ran that for about 18 months up to now until replacing that with a brand new fanatex csl dd i will likely never buy or even sample a premium direct drive base so this has the job of impressing me to a level whereby i'd be happy with this forever more and don't feel like i'm missing out on anything with my old csl elite i was a very happy customer yeah but i knew that i would inevitably upgrade at some point the csld has stepped forth and so far leaves me feeling satisfied with almost everything about it and wanting nothing more at least for the foreseeable future i would say that for any home sim racer there's not much else you could need from a wheelbase i can't see myself being compelled to upgrade from this for years to come so to those of you with logitech wheels from the g25 g29 through to the most recent g923 it doesn't really matter which logitech wheel you're on they've remained virtually the same product throughout the years so if your wheel has the logitech logo then i'm talking to you the verdict is really straightforward for you guys upgrading to a csl dd means a fundamental rewrite of everything that you thought forced feedback wheels can do and although that sounds a little bit dramatic it really is that big of a difference between what you have and what you're going to be going up to this was my experience coming to fanatec from logitech last year with the csl elite and that ranks as one of the top things i've ever bought in terms of the effect it had on my enjoyment of something there's no doubt in my mind that the satisfaction of the customers that make the jump from logitech to fanatec is virtually a hundred percent the renewed joy of sim racing i felt after making the move to the csl elite last year is literally the reason this youtube channel exists now that's not even a joke but the biggest barrier that stands in front of logitech users is mainly the cost difference logitech wheels are already an expensive peripheral when you're quite new to sim racing so wrapping your head around how good something's going to be that's two three or four times the cost is really difficult because so often in this world things that cost twice as much rarely turn out to be twice as good this is one of those rare cases where it actually does it's not a yeah cool upgrade it's a oh good lord wow upgrade everything suddenly feels like it's got actual mass with actual tires contacting the actual ground and you'll start to enjoy every single minute of racing with the non-stop texture and interaction with the wheel that you'll feel now the vastly improved ability to detect and react to a developing spin naturally is a real thing being faster with a logitech wheel is a skill that you have to acquire through a lot of practice and brain calibration whereas with the csl dd you'll pick it up much more quickly due to the natural conversation between the sim and the muscles in your arms and shoulders karting is a simple activity to pick up because you can feel everything through the wheel and the same natural absorption can happen with sim racing if you have the right controls i remember having to concentrate quite hard to go to a full race distance with a logitech any laps in focus and i'd miss a subtle piece of force feedback or a visual cue and get into trouble whereas now it's much clearer where the limit starts and ends much like your logitech wheel the csl dvd is desk friendly with an optional desk clamp you can buy you won't get the best results with a desk setup in the same way that you won't get the best results if you put your chicago town pizza in the microwave rather than the oven but it's still made with it in mind and it gets you by perfectly well my mate dean uses his on his home desk with a club sport table clamp no less no cockpit or rig involved he seems to manage pretty well if your desk is rickety then you may still be in a bit of trouble but the fact that you can mount it on a desk is good news for those of you who are getting the wheel before the cockpit and that's what i did too initially before getting a cockpit a dedicated rig is a big space commitment so knowing that the csl dd is not off limits for desk people is good to know but don't be fooled you'll eventually want a cockpit if you're setting yourself down this route it'll be a matter of when not if because you know cockpit's a totally sweet man one quality of life improvement that you will experience going over to a csl dd is far less noise in the initial summary i mentioned that it's practically silent if you've got a logitech wheel you know that it makes a pretty loud noise when you're properly wheeling and dealing and if you live with other people that noise can be a problem sometimes even if they don't say it the csl dd eliminates noise from the equation with pretty much silent operation and no active cooling there's very little noise emanating from this thing the passive cooling element raised the question before as to how cool is it going to run and i'm happy to report but it's basically room temperature to touch all the way through even after a long session in acc which always used to get my csl elite turning the fans up all the way however they've done it it's accomplished the task completely i can't pick fault here there's really no quieter wheelbase out there but i know of i place a high degree of importance on not disturbing the peace of others and i always find it easier to enjoy things when it's not causing any offence to those around me and if you do too then the relative silence of the csldd is going to be a great relief from the whirring and winding of your logitech wheel something important to bear in mind if you're not too familiar with the way they work is that all fanatec equipment setups require three components the wheelbase the steering wheel and the pedals the csl dd is just the wheelbase if you're buying one to replace your logitech then you'll need a fanatex steering wheel and pedals too you won't be able to bring your logitech steering wheel pedals or shifter with you on your new fanatic bass if you want to know what i have it's for mclaren v2 wheel and club sport v3 pedals which are great when mounted to a cockpit like they're designed to do but if you're freestanding these pedals on the floor like i did initially then they require a little bit of diy to make them work well even so that is how i used them for a while and making them floor friendly isn't too hard a video on that is linked in the description with my clubspot v3s i have the optional damper kit and brake performance kit too i've done a video on whether you need these added extras which is also in the description there are cheaper pedals available from vanateck but the club sport pedals have always been their flagship pedals up to now to sum it up for logitech users yes it's an expensive leap to make but at least it is a true leap for once and one which virtually nobody has ever reversed at least not to my knowledge it's annoying when you upgrade an element of your equipment and a kind of left feeling like the difference is kind of unremarkable and you basically just paid for a better brand name on the side of it but that's not the case in this instance every logitech to fanatic convert has remarked in much the same way that sim racing suddenly becomes so much more interesting and exciting with the much stronger feedback experience he getting however with the csl dd sure to chip some older fanatic gear loose onto the secondhand market it's worth keeping an eye out for csl elites or club sport wheelbases too as they are still game changers for logitech just don't expect a bargain as they tend to hold their value really well any viewers that have made the move from logitech to vanitek share your experiences in the comments section to help anyone follow in your footsteps i know this helps folks to no end and thanks for taking the time to share your side so if you already have a cslle or csw then is it a big upgrade or even an upgrade at all it's a good question because the csl dd is priced almost identically to what the old belt drive wheels were and rated to similar talk values too making it hard to see on paper what the benefit is and trying to describe what direct drive actually feels like is like trying to pull excalibur from a stone many will try and fail both myself and a close pal now have the csl dd with boost kit but the difference between us is that before this i had the csl elite he had a clubspot wheelbase we both mainly play iracing and we both agree that the dd is a distinct improvement in numerous ways but it's not mind-blowing it's a better product that replaces the old lineup for the same price so in that respect it's definitely a step forward and if you're entering the fanatec club now then you're getting a better wheel than you would have done before its release but if you're an eye racer and they've already got a belt drive csl or csw then this new base doesn't unlock anything significant that would make it a must-have at least not for eye racing acc is another material and i'll get to that soon in iracing the force feedback you receive will now feel spotlessly clean unhindered and exactly as they intended to be delivered to you and the sheer smoothness of the mechanism in this makes it feel much more premium especially from the csl elite which used a toothed belt which you could subtly tell was that but the general experience and flavor of the feedback that you get from iracing is still the same underneath it all in other words the csl dd is basically the blu-ray version of the csl and csw you won't be seeing any new major plot points but the extra quality is very welcome since using it i do find that my steering inputs are that little bit more frantic now because there's no mechanical resistance or natural damping anymore it's a lovely crisp one-to-one conversation between me and the sim so when i say more frantic that's not meant as a detraction i mean it in the sense that i'm correcting things that i seemingly wasn't aware needed correcting before and i think it's helping a tiny bit with consistency and confidence i can imagine that this will help me avoid that one spin out of 10 that extra temp here or there and depending on who you ask that's either small beans or worth its weight in gold if you mainly play assetto corsa comprezioni however to me the game seemed to come alive with the csl dd i made the mistake of trying acc first when i initially gave this wheel a test spin and i found it to be a totally new experience every single thing was so much crisper all the little track elements like kerbs and rumble strips were transmitted so clearly and sharply but i was truly immersed in a gt car for a time given acc get some stick for dull force feedback at times i think the csl dd is gonna actually change this perception when it's in more people's hands as there seems to be a lot more that the game can convey to you through direct drive wheelbases than it can through belt wheels and i understand why electricity is a heck of a lot faster than a rubber drive belt but boy what a difference you can feel every single ripple in the track features subtle rumbles through the wheel when the abs engages even the descending chatter and chirp of the tires when you spin and slide to a halt it's just a really filled out sensation and one that's a lot more immersive than it ever was through my csl elite for acc this wheel takes a big step towards really believing that you're driving something and i came away from the initial session thinking wow if acc is that much better what's it gonna do in iracing where i spend most of my time well the answer as you heard was not quite as dramatic but you know really really good stuff in acc but here's the big one though there's one question that i'm certain is on everyone's mind and i have the answer yes you can crack open a cold one on the csl dd attention this is a joke the bottle is empty the cap is loose there's no risk to me or my csl dd do not do this at home do not do this at home idiots the csld has one kind of unintended consequence which might cause issues for some cockpits particularly those with limited ranges of pitch meaning how many degrees you can tilt the wheel the csldd has got a zero degree mounting plane whereas previous low to mid tier wheels have had a built-in pitch angle of maybe 10 degrees or so and lots of cockpits are designed with this general accommodation in mind my previous cockpit before this brand new gt omega prime you've seen throughout this video was the gt omega art the arc has got a limited range of pitch on the wheel deck and i had to adjust mine as far up as it could go and i could still have benefited from a few degrees more there's no doubt an easy fix someone will come up with for the cockpits but have this limitation but it's something to consider if you don't have a really wide range of pitch adjustment on your cockpit be prepared in case it doesn't quite allow you to point the csl dd up as far as you'd like in closing the csl dd does improve noticeably upon the csl elite and csw previously from fanatic they themselves were a huge step up for logitech races making the csl dd a bigger jump still if that applies to you if you're an eye racer you'll appreciate the extra agility but it's not a whole new experience just improved if you're an acc racer then you definitely will appreciate the csl dd fully it seems to utilize it really well and really impressed me how much more immersive and textured everything is feeding perfectly into the fanatec conspiracy theories surrounding acc i'm sure you've heard them i can kind of see the point because acc really is best enjoyed with a direct drive it seems overall though this wheelbase generally does feel next gen in terms of design and price point and i can see why fanatec are quite proud of the package as a whole back when news of it first broke i saw it as a direct replacement for the csl elite and csw line and it has definitely filled those boots perfectly bringing many welcome benefits along with it i think fanatic knew full well that bringing a pint-sized direct drive wheel at this cost was equivalent to going over and kicking the competition sand castles they're so smug about it as well it's hilarious it'll be cool to see what comes out in response to it hell this might even force logitech to do something new and wouldn't that be something i do love your logitech but there are kids that have been born and raised but are now playing on a wheel design that's older than they are the csl dd is a solid successor to the well-loved csll and csw and is a very attractive landing pad for incoming logitech users and a less seismic but still welcome step up for existing fanatic people and that's all i've got to say for now remember to check the descriptions for notable links referenced in the video please subscribe if you found this helpful in any way and feel free to comment with questions or your own experience of the csl dd if you've got yours most people watching this are keen to hear your views as fellow customers and thanks for taking the time to do so cheers

Channel: Danny Lee

Views: 270,251

Keywords: iracing, assetto corsa competition, acc, iracin, irace, assetto corsa, fanatech, fanatek, csldd, csl dd, fanatec csl dd, fanatec dd, fanatec direct drive

Id: OWQdn2Qj7fc

Length: 17min 21sec (1041 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021