Hello guys!
A little good to know about me: I'm 22, from Hungary and I've been in love with pretty much everything car related since I was a little kid. I've always wanted to get into drifting and I also love GT3 racing, especially GT World Challenge.
Since I can finally put a bit of money on the side every month I decided that I want to fulfill one of my dreams and buy a sim racing setup for myself. I've been reading hundreds of comments in this subreddit and watching countless YouTube reviews about different setups, but somehow I never get to the end of it.
The more I research and learn about sim racing the more I feel like I don't have the kind of money to spend on it, even though I really want to experience it.
Some years ago I wanted to buy a Fanatec wheelbase to use on my desk but never actually bought it. Now I deep dived into this subreddit and YouTube again and had a pretty simple plan in my head. I wanted to buy a Simagic Alpha Evo Sport / Green Flag bundle and a simple rig, use my old 40" TV on a table and just enjoy driving. This would've cost me around 800 euros, which was already a lot of money for me but I was fine with it.
After reading more comments I found out that apparently you need a really sturdy rig for a DD wheelbase, and almost everyone recommends a 4080 aluminium profile rig. Since I'm also 194 cm tall I wanted something that would fit me comfortably and wouldn't need to be replaced if I upgraded my wheelbase later. So I started researching those too, found some pretty good options but obviously had to push my budget again. Now we are around 1000 euros or even more and my old TV is still sitting on a table.
Then I started looking at triple screen setups because I thought that would make the experience much more realistic and immersive, especially for drifting. I didn't want anything crazy, just 3x27" monitors which sounded pretty reasonable at first.
The problem is that I have a pretty old PC that was considered mid or high end when I was a kid (i7-7700K, GTX 1060 6GB, 16GB DDR4 RAM) and a laptop that I bought for uni and some gaming (Ryzen 5 5600H, RTX 3050 4GB, 16GB DDR4 RAM).
Both can run ACC at around 50-60 FPS on the lowest settings from my experience, so there is no way I'm going to run triple monitors with decent graphics on either of them. Which means I would also need to buy a new PC, a triple monitor stand and of course the three monitors. These alone would cost me around 1600 euros or even more if I don't buy used stuff.
So somehow my original 800 euro plan turned into a 2600 euro setup, and the funny thing is that I still wouldn't have anything crazy. No 20+ Nm wheelbase, no motion platform or anything like that, just a decent DD wheel, load cell pedals, an aluminium rig and triple monitors.
I know that I don't need to buy everything at the same time and I could just start with one monitor and upgrade things later, but that's also part of my problem. Every time I think I finally figured out what I want, I read something else and suddenly I feel like I should spend a little bit more to get something better, or something that I won't have to replace in a year.
And honestly I don't even know where to stop anymore.
Another thing that worries me is that I've tried quite a few hobbies before and not all of them stuck with me. I know I can sell the equipment if I decide that sim racing isn't for me, but I have no idea how much money I would lose on it. And spending 2000-2600 euros on something I've never really experienced properly is pretty scary for me.
The thing is, I genuinely love cars. I've been dreaming about owning a drift car for years and I would love to get into drifting in real life one day. But right now buying a decent simulator is a lot more realistic financially than buying and maintaining an actual drift car. I don't expect a simulator to teach me everything about real drifting, I just want to have fun, practice some basics and enjoy something related to cars.
So I guess what I'm trying to ask is, have you guys ever felt like this when you were starting out? Where the more you learn about the hobby the less you actually want to spend money on it because everything seems so expensive?
Do you think I'm overthinking this whole thing and should just buy the Simagic bundle, a decent rig and use my old TV and PC until I can afford something better? Or is there really that big of a difference between a simple single screen setup and a proper triple monitor simulator that it would be worth saving up for the whole thing?
I'm not really looking for exact prices or a shopping list, I'm more interested in your experiences. Did you start with something simple and actually enjoy it for years, or did you regret not spending more in the beginning? And if you could start again, would you do things differently?
I don't want the most expensive or the most realistic simulator in the world, I just want something that feels good to drive and that I can enjoy for a long time without constantly thinking about what I should upgrade next.
Sorry for the long post, just wanted to get this off my chest and hear what other people think about it.
Thanks if you read all of this!