Sim Racing Wheel Buyer's Guide - 2020 Edition

a couple years ago I created my sim racing wheel buyer's guide which appear to be quite popular through guys I wrote up a revision of the guide for 2018 but as of right now it's been over three years since I've done a full fledge buyer's guide well I guess now's as good a time as ever so this is the 2020 edition of the sim racing wheel buyer's guide but first a quick word from our sponsor for my 2020 wheel buyer's guide I'm planning on making at least three parts first off we're going to be covering the wheel side of things covering a wide variety of options available in the market after that I feel like it would be good to have a buyer sky covering the variety of different cockpits on the market and even wheel stands for the more compact solutions after that we can have a software buyer's guide talking about some of the different sim racing titles available but first things first we are going to be talking about the wheel side of things the great thing about sim racing is that it can be quite accessible you definitely don't need to go overboard and dump over $1000 to get a fun experience out of sim racing grenade to really make the most out of the Hobby I'd say you want to make a bit of an investment to try to keep from detracting from the experience one thing I want to talk about before we get into the different options available is what I see as the main things to look for in a sim racing wheel I'd say there are three main things to look for in a decent sim racing wheel first at least 900 degrees of rotation in this day and age were easily able to have our wheels matching the steering rotation of our virtual cars one to one higher degrees of rotation are also great for types of racing such as rally drifting and some touring cars secondly you want quick force feedback you want as little latency as possible between what you're seeing and what you're feeling so being able to have a faster wheel will get you closer to that one to one experience lastly the main criteria I judge wheels on is the smoothness of the driving feel real-world cars have a pretty smooth feel through the wheel while driving they aren't nachi they aren't rough they are just smooth so yeah I guess you could say you want a smooth feeling there now the last thing before we get into the actual buyer's guide I want to provide some information about the different kinds of force feedback available if you know the stuff already and just want to jump to the different wheels go to the time stamp on the screen for sivak has been around for a surprisingly long time dating back all the way to the Atari tx1 arcade game in 1983 however the first home force feedback wheel wouldn't be released for roughly 15 years after that in the form of the Microsoft Sidewinder force feedback wheel that was one of the first force feedback wheels he could actually use at home and then the wheels became far more popular with the driving force series of wheels from Logitech in the early 2000s there are three primary forms of force feedback that are used in sim racing wheels nowadays gear drive belt drive and direct drive for the first two forms of force feedback there is a metalman system in effect to translate and amplify the forces from the motor to the wheels shaft the main benefit of these systems is the fact that you can use a smaller motor but still produce a decent amount of force gear driven force feedback wheels are the oldest tech behind consumer grade force feedback wheels it will use gears to create a transmission system to amplify the forces from the motor to the wheel it's a decent solution for budget racing wheels but the two main drawbacks are noise and roughness gear driven wheels are easily the noisiest and Lee's precise thanks to the way the COG system works it's a decent option for basic level wheels but is easily outclassed by the newer technology that is available belt drive wheels are a relatively new tech with the first consumer grade belt driven wheels being sold around 2009 or so fnatic was the first company to release a consumer grade belt drive wheel but then the technology was widely popularized when the belt driven Thrustmaster t500 RS was selected as the official wheel of Gran Turismo 5 in 10 there has been somewhat of this belt-driven wheel arms race between fanatic and Thrustmaster to optimize the technology which has been pretty great to see the main benefits of a belt-driven wheel over the gear drive counterparts are smoothness and power we've been seeing belt drive wheels generating forces two to three times more powerful than the gear driven wheels while at the same time being smoother and quieter as well going up to a direct drive wheel there are basically no compromises in the force feedback a direct drive cuts the middleman out of the picture directly mounting a steering wheel onto a large motor and I mean large there's one direct drive wheel where the motor weighs over 14 kilograms or 30 pounds the result of this the strongest fastest and smoothest force feedback you can get or likely even one in my opinion the force feedback from a direct drive wheel is simply the best you can get at this point in time so that is basically my blurb about the different types of force feedback technologies that are currently available so now let's take a look at what wheels take advantage of this tech the first category I'm going to be addressing is the sub $100 bracket and in that category there isn't exactly much for the wheels in this price range all of that explanation I did about force feedback isn't worth squat if you're looking for a new wheel at the sub $100 price bracket you won't have any force feedback and you won't have the 900 degrees of rotation as well most of the wheels in this price bracket feature a bungee cord style system that basically built up resistance the more you steer towards that 240 to 270 degree mark which is generally the maximum degrees of rotation you will get from them now if I'm perfectly honest there's only one new wheel I would consider recommending at this price point and that's the thrust master t-80 it's a simple bungee cord wheel with 270 degrees of rotation there's no force feedback so basically think of the field this wheel as similar to the lower-quality racing games in an arcade or something like the one other benefit of this wheel is that includes a baseline to pedal set and is compatible with a Playstation 4 personally I would highly recommend that you look into investing a little more to try to pick up something that has force feedback and 900 degrees of rotation however if you're really itching out to bid to get your feet wet and you're willing to make some compromises the t-80 is a decent sub $100 wheel but be aware you definitely get what you pay for one other thing I would recommend in the sub $100 category is the Browse used market places you can sometimes be shocked at the deals you can find from Craigslist or Facebook marketplace from someone looking to offload their stuff or someone looking to upgrade as long as the wheel is in decent condition the yeast marketplace can serve as an option to get a decent wheel for a reasonable price also one thing I found on the use marketplace are wheeling cockpit combos which could also be had at a steep discount the next price racket is an interesting one the 150 to $300 price bracket one of the things that makes it interesting is that the wheels in this bracket will wildly fluctuate in price this is the area though that I would call the sweet spot for getting into some racing while still getting a full idea of what it is capable of this is where you will start seeing wheels with the aforementioned 900 degrees of rotation and force feedback systems however in this price racket it's basically exclusively geared force-feedback my personal recommendation in this category will be the Logitech G 29 or g9 20 lakh tech has been making gear based force-feedback wheel since the late 1990s and has developed a reputation for creating incredibly reliable wheels the latest generation Logitech G wheels are the follow-up to the Logitech g27 which is still an incredible simracing wheel with many racers using it to this day the G 29 and g9 20 features an 11 inch steering wheel wrapped in leather unlike the Logitech g27 the new wheels feature all of the buttons on the steering wheel rim as well as a rotary dial and shift lights on the Logitech G 29 but is strangely not on the g9 20 the Logitech G wheels are the first wheels on this list to feature a three pedal set as standard adding a clutch into the mix the pedal set is also incredibly versatile allowing for modifications and even the ability to be individually mounted if you are quite handy unfortunately this wheel no longer includes a shifter as it did with the g20 5 and G 27 now it's an accessory sold separately for $60 however I have actually seen sales where you can buy the wheel bundled with the shifter for $200 and that's a pretty great deal considering the original price tag for the wheel by itself was $400 now you'll just now never see the wheel for that $400 price tag with the wheel without the shifter generally floating around the 220 dollar mark for that price it is definitely a great entry-level wheel these are also the first Logitech G Series wheels to feature full console compatibility but it is admittedly with a catch you need to pick out which console you'd want the compatibility with as each model is compatible with either one or the other not both ultimately the Logitech G 29 is the more full-featured version available including that rotary dial and an array of LEDs to represent shift lights so if you're looking at a ps3 or ps4 wheel or just one for the PC I would recommend the G 29 over the G 920 you're looking for something different though then we're going back with a Thrustmaster recommendation the rest master's wheel to compete with logitech is the TM X and T 150 these wheels from Thrustmaster offer a gear and belt pulley system that makes things slightly smoother and quieter than a fully geared system like the Logitech G wheels the TMX features an 11 inch steering wheel with 900 degrees of rotation but the t-150 actually takes the wheel and bumps it up to 1080 degrees of rotation the TM X and T 150 generally retailed for a little less than the comparable logitech wheels but the main drawback is that the base model of these come with the same two pedal set that is included with a t-80 they're functional but simply do not compare to what logitech offers however there are pro models of the wheels available that replaces that pedal set with the thrust master teeth reap EAS which is the far better solution even with the three pedals set the TM X and T 150 still sometimes find themselves undercutting the Logitech wheels you miss out on the more versatile pedal set the advanced functionality and a leather steering wheel but this could be seen as a better value in some cases the 300 to 500 point is the point where we abandon the gear driven force-feedback wheels and move up to the belt drive systems this is also where we will start seeing more variety and options available also a big draw from this price racket is we are going to start seeing modular wheels that feature interchangeable rims so that can add more variety to your experience for the price point we are going to be seeing a few wills from Thrustmaster as well as fnatic entering the mix Thrustmaster again has two models of wheel pair together the TX which is Xbox one compatible and a t-- 300 RS which is compatible with the PlayStation 3 and ps4 this is thrust masters based modeled belt-drive wheel and it works fairly well again the xbox compatible wheel caps out at 900 degrees rotation while the playstation model can go up to 1080 both the TX and T 300 in their base configuration featured the same relatively crappy two pedal set that's been included in the lower end models but also again there are higher tier variants that include the higher t3 PA pedal set and a higher end rim the t 300 RS and TX are definitely a solid step above their gear driven counterparts featuring stronger smoother and quicker forced feedback you can notice a tangible upgrade in the belt drive system and it's a remarkable improvement however a solid combo featuring the three pedal set can be roughly twice the price of thrust masters lower-tier offerings is out worth the price well if you're looking for a better feeling and stronger wheel then I would easily recommend it one other thing worth mentioning though is that you can buy just the wheel base for round 20 to $250 if you wanted to buy each piece ala carte however I still believe the full package is to be honest a better value again as mentioned earlier fnatic enters the ring at this bracket with their CSL elite series of wheels the CSL elite is a belt-driven system but is also very modular they offer a variety of options to fit what you're looking for there are two versions of the CSL elite but I personally would recommend that you take a look at the CSL Elite ps4 model which retails for 399 dollars for just the base or 499 dollars with a wheel rim the reason this is the only wheel currently on the market that is not only PlayStation 4 compatible but is also compatible with the Xbox one if you get an Xbox one compatible rim now I don't know if that compatibility will carry over to next-gen hardware for sure but if it does transfer over this would be a great option to future-proof fanatic CSL Elite offers a variety of features such as shift lights on the base as well as a quick adjustment system that can be used to make wheel and force feedback adjustments on the fly with the base c SL elite rim there is an LED display on the top of the rim and it's nice to have the 11 inch rim isn't the best in terms of build quality compared to other fanatic rims but it does have a nice premium feel with a mix of leather and suede wrapped around it personally my recommendation for this price bracket would be the fanatic CSL elite if you're looking for the high-end performance and added functionality from a technical and feature standpoint fnatic has Thrustmaster easily beat however it does come at a cost the 499 price for the CSL elite with a rim does not include a pedal set and for the CSL Elite pedals you're looking at either $100 or $200 depending on with your wanting a two pedal or three pedal set that would bring us to around 600 to 700 dollars which is still a good price but it can be quite steep considering the t 300 RS or TX would give you a comparable all lighter experience for half the price with that being said let's jump on to the next category and that's the $500 to 1,000 is a very interesting bracket as it's starting to get into the higher-end prosumer market with some direct drive wheels entering this category a couple years ago when I created the 2018 edition of this guide there were no direct drive wheels in this category but now we're seeing the prices dropping below $1,000 for these and it's really quite remarkable to start off though we're going to be talking about the high end belt driven wheels currently available first off Thrustmaster has not one not two but three models in this price bracket two of these wheels are in the TS series the TSP sea and the TSX W racer these are a step above what we saw from the t 300 RS and T X featuring a 40 watt brushless force-feedback motor the TSP C racer is the only wheeled from Thrustmaster that is only compatible with the PC and is a model that is sold with an open-wheel styled rim and without a pedal set albeit for a reduced price there is a TSP C racer model that was recently released with a Ferrari for a ate challenge rim for six hundred and forty-nine dollars but it still does not include a pedal set the TSX W racer includes a spark Opie 310 replica rim is compatible with the PSC and Xbox one and also includes a t3 pa pedal set for a retail price of six hundred and forty nine dollars personally I would recommend the TSX W over the TSP C as it features a more versatile rim a pedal set and Xbox one compatibility to boot no those were just two models and there isn't a TS wheel for the PlayStation why is that trespasser decided to save its most advanced wheel for the officially licensed Gran Turismo sport wheel the thrust master TGT is easily the most advanced wheel Thrustmaster has made to date including some very welcome features the TGT features a relatively smaller steering wheel first such a high-end unit clocking in at only 11 inches however it is just packed full of functionality in that small form-factor thrust master was able to pack in four rotary encoders all of the playstation buttons you would need and even two analog joysticks on it I would have loved to see the rim bumped up to a slightly larger size but it's nice to see all of these features also one great feature of this wheel base is the tactile transducer mounted to the back of the wheel base this transducer allows for an extra dimension of depth to the feeling of the sim which is quite nice there is one big downside though it is only compatible with one title Gran Turismo sport on the ps4 if this transducer was compatible with multiple titles that would have been incredible but since its only limited to one game it comes out feeling as a bit of a gimmick even without the transducer though the TGT is still thrust Messrs best wheel to date it has the strongest most precise sports feedback and it is quite quick the thing is the original suggested retail price for this wheel was $800 that was simply way too much nowadays you can get this set for a little under $600 or even cheaper on sale which puts it at roughly the same price bracket as the TS series wheels for that price this is definitely a solid option so that wraps up the offerings from Thrustmaster in the SEM racing world and now we'll go to the final belt driven will and this guide the fnatic clubsport wheel version 2.5 fanatics clips what wheel is easily my recommended choice for anyone wanting a top-of-the-line wheel but is not ready to go direct drive just yet the clubsport wheel version 2.5 is the quickest smoothest and most powerful belt driven will I have used it offers a wide variety of features and modularity with fanatics deep eco system it includes the same quick settings as I mentioned that the CSL elite has but offers some added from analogy as well there's only one thing I wish the clubsport wheel had and that was ps4 compatibility that's the only thing that this killing misses out on however I will mention that the price can add up a bit this wheel base retails for 549 dollars and that's without a rim that is without a paddle sale I'd say that once you factor in a pedal set and a rim you are going to be looking at about 800 to a thousand dollars which can be pretty steep that is at the top of our price bracket so yeah just keep that in mind in all other senses this is basically my favorite non direct drive wheel now that we've done the belt drive wheels out of the way it's time for the big guns that direct drive wheels again I just want to reiterate how awesome it is to see these wheels breaking under the sub $1,000 barrier a couple years ago you cannot get a direct drive wheel for under $1000 now you actually have choices now bear in mind that direct drive wheels do require more effort and finagling to work you would definitely need to buy a separate pedal set and even a special wheel rim solution to work with it these are not nearly as turnkey as any of the other wheels we listed so far so keep that in mind one of the recent options that has recently emerged on the market is the somatic m10 this is a direct drive wheel from China with a 10 Newton meter servo stepper motor this is being marketed as an entry level of direct drive wheel and it's admittedly price attractively at $700 for the base however if I'm going to be honest with you guys I'm not sure if I would actually recommend this to you guys yes it's a direct drive wheel for a low price but it seems to be pretty rough around the edges and I believe there are better units by more established brands for a comparable price now to be fair I have not driven as somatic m10 myself so that's something worth mentioning but based on the opinions and experiences of some of my friends if you're wanting to go direct drive spin more you get what you pay for one of the first direct drive wheels I would say I would actually recommend for the price is the SEM experience a cue force v2 this was a wheeled that was in my over $1000 price bracket in my last revision of this guide and it's a welcome change to see it now in the sub $1000 category the IQ force V 2 features a 13 Newton meter servo stepper hybrid motor somewhere to the somatic M 10 so it's not as smooth as higher-tier direct drive wheels that utilize a brushless servo motor however this is still a great direct drive wheel and actually comes in a few different flavors the pro model comes with a 330 millimeter steering wheel with 12 buttons and paddle shifters for 999 dollars if you want to use your own room with the wheel then you can pick up the AK you force your way which allows you to mount a steering wheel or button box that has a 50 millimeter or 70 millimeter pattern on it this model retails for six hundred ninety nine dollars if you just want the bare minimum components the DIY option retails for five hundred and ninety nine dollars now this is definitely a bit above to some magic in terms of price but I'd feel a lot more comfortable going with sim experience which is a fairly well trusted brand and then we have yet more direct drive wheels to break under $1000 simplicity has two models series of wheels that are being sold under $1000 simplicity has their compact series of wheels which are lower powered units meant to be for an entry level solution now I have previously tested out their 7 Newton meter direct earth wheel which I guess is now discontinued and it was ok but it had quite a few concerning traits including the fact that it got uncomfortably hot because of that I'm not sure if I would recommend the 8 Newton meter model but I may say you could consider its bigger brother however I would be definitely more active in recommending the simplicity sim wheels these are director of wheels that use some more common midge 130 series motors which were definitely popular in use for opensim wheels however the main difference for those verses in OpenSim wheel is that simplicity decided to move over to their in-home design software that is honestly one of my main qualms with it though when I last tested their software the force feedback was good but just not at the level of fidelity I had come to expect from semi cube sim commander or SEM steering now granted that was an early software and on to test it again at a later date but it was just okay so out of those three director of wheels on the market under $1,000 my personal recommendation would go towards the Accu ports it's simply the most established wheel with multiple years behind it to refine the hardware in software it's also the most complete solution with an option to include a wheel rim and button box all for 999 dollars now it's worth mentioning that I didn't include the field VR in this list well that's simply because it hasn't been released we keep on seeing delays and postponement so it's something that I'm not going to talk about in this guide until it's actually released for the last category we're going from the 1000 price point to well the top we've seen some interesting models in the past couple years that create a decent amount of variety in this bracket and it's interesting to see first off we have the top tier models from fnatic the podium series Wheel fanatics first direct drive wheels are an interesting Beast especially due to the fact that they're the only direct drive wheels on the market that are compatible with consoles the fnatic DV one is a wheel rated up to 20 Newton meters of torque and the D d2 is rated for up to 25 Newton meters the podium series is also an all-in-one solution where you don't have to have a separate control box that is separate from the wheel base it's also compatible with all fnatic wheel rims and accessories giving you a wide pool of products in a and middlee deep ecosystem I've had very limited time to test out the fanatic db2 but in terms of the force feedback I was pretty impressed it's not the best direct drive force feedback I've experienced but it's definitely up there hopefully in the near future I'll be able to do a more in depth review but until then I can say from my experience it's at least a decent direct drive wheel starting out $1,200 for the DD 1 there are plenty of benefits to the wheel that can make it one worth considering another recent contender in the direct drive world is the semi cube 2 semi cube was originally an open-ended system for the opensim wheel movement the idea was that you would buy an industrial servo motor get the electronics box to connect the motor to your PC and basically run it as a high-end steering wheel semi cube quickly became the widely adopted platform for most OpenSim wheel users but then granite devices decided they would design and make their own in-home design wheel and they didn't do just that they made three wheels the semi cube two-sport offers up to 17 Newton meters of torque the pro pumps it up to 25 Newton meters and the ultimate cranks it all the way up to 32 Newton meters the semi cube - also offers compatibility with the semi cube wireless protocol which allows you to connect a compatible wheel or button box to the wheel base through a 2.4 gigahertz system the semi cube force feedback has had years of being refined and it definitely shows it works well with most modern some recent titles and can even scale back well to some retro ones as well it's not perfect but it's pretty darn good the last direct drive wheel I'll showcase in this buyer's guide is the granddaddy of them all and that's the Sims steering tube by Leoben are the sim searing - is one of the most established direct drive wheels and is still highly regarded by many simracing professionals the SEM steering tube just like the semi QQ is available in three different configurations each with bearing strength the SEM staring to though is very expensive starting at roughly $2,800 and that's without a quick release or a wheel rim I've had about maybe 15 to 20 hours behind the wheel of a sim steering to unit and I will say it is definitely one of the best wheels I have ever driven with however I would say it is not enough to justify spending nearly twice the price of its nearest comparable products so despite the Simpson tube being top of the line I just don't feel like I can actually recommend it compared to the other wheels it's competing with so as a refresher I wanted to go through my picks for the top choices for the sim racing wheels throughout the different price points for to sub $100 bracket again there's only one real choice for a new wheel the thrust master t I would say that you're better off saving a little more money and going for a slightly better wheel in my opinion and the 150 to $300 bracket I'm going to go with the Logitech G 29 now to be clear I would not buy a Logitech G 29 if it was at its $400 suggested retail price however for the 250 or so that it tends to hover around it's a great entry to mid-level wheel with a few extra features as well if you can get on sale for $199 like it's been at before it is an incredible deal the 300 to $500 bracket is quite competitive but I'm gonna go with the fanatic CSL elite ps4 this wheel is the only one on the market that features compatibility for both Xbox and Playstation granted do you have the right components however it is worth mentioning that you need to get a separate pedal set and that will bump things above the $500 price point if you want a full turnkey solution for under 500 I'd say the thrust master t---three hundred RS or TX GT with the t-3 PA option would be a great choice for the 500 to 1000 dollar belt drive category my recommendation is for the fanatic clubsport wheel version 2.5 it easily my favorite non-direct drive wheel in the market both in terms of functionality and in features for the 500 to 1000 dollar direct drive section I'm gonna go with the same experience a q4 it's v2 it is simply the best complete option for a direct drive wheel under $1,000 it has the most refined software compared to the other offerings and if you go with the active boards Pro you get a wheel and button box for under $1,000 for the top bracket I'm gonna go with the Semak YouTube Pro while the fanatic podium series is the more versatile platform in terms of raw performance to price I just feel like the semi cube to you is the best value however if you're looking for console compatibility or a wide eco system then the fanatic podium will is definitely not a bad option alrighty that just about wraps up my sim racing wheel buyer's guide for 2020 I am hoping this guide was of help to you and if it was let me know in the comments for December Singh paddock i'm william marsh and thanks for watching

Channel: Sim Racing Paddock

Views: 1,969,919

Rating: 4.8812652 out of 5

Keywords: sim racing, sim racing buyer's guide, fanatec, thrustmaster, logitech, direct drive wheels, SimXperience, best racing wheel, racing wheel buyer's guide, sim racing wheel buyer's guide, Simucube, Simucube 2, buyers guide, csl elite, tx racing wheel, Thrustmaster T-GT, Fanatec Podium, racing video games, sim racing wheel, racing video game wheel, gran turismo wheel, forza wheel, assetto corsa wheel, iRacing wheel

Id: fMiT_Jsk4rU

Length: 31min 45sec (1905 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 20 2020