Driving Cab Suggestions

[Afterburner]

I completed my first mame cab last year.

It's a nice two deck CP for two players.  Dual trackballs and dual rotary 8-way sticks.  Also have a flight stick I've yet to mount.

For Xmas my wife gave me a nice Logitech wheel, shifter and pedal setup complete with leather seat and mount for all the stuff.

Now I'm wanting to build an enclosed driving cab for racing games (both mame and PC-based) with a fairly large display.

I was thinking it would be ideal for a flight sim cab as well.  I can mount a flight stick as a side-stick controller with throttle on the other side.

Anyone else built one like this, and if so, I'd love to see some pictures to get some ideas.

[divemaster127]

I went thru the same thing on a driving cab.  I finally decided after much research I went with a driving tube frame, from playseats.com, with a logitech G25.  Quad core setup with 8800GT video, Z5500 speakers & a 32" lcd.  I know I have said this before but I just replaced the speakers & i will post pictures this weekend after I finish the wiring this week, I have been playing "dirt" that is a awesome racing game.
dm

[RichSorr]

I've been thinking about starting up my own racing cab as well.  I was fortunate enough to get the two 27" monitors, marquee box, seats(with built in speakers), and complete driving controls from my stores Sega Super GT that they trashed. I'm thinking of doing a modified GT style cabinet. I have the original super gt plans somewhere. I'll post them if I can find them.

[divemaster127]

At first I was going to do mame on a racing cab but with the controls you are so limited to the games, 360 wheel, 270, etc.  I decided to go with a moderm racing with the pc, also with the setup I have you can race over the internet also.  The G25 supports pc & the PS3(maybe someday I can afford one of these)
dm

[mameupdate]

Sounds like an ideal setup dm. So what enclosure did you use to put your playseat in? Did you build it?

[divemaster127]

I did not use a enclosure, its the racing frame sorrounded by speakers 2 in back & 6 up front.   I hooked the ones in the back to the frame, the front speakers I mounted on the wall using raceway.  Plus I wall mounted the lcd at racing level.  I will post some pics pretty quick
thanks
dm

[Afterburner]

Divemaster:  Yours sounds like *exactly* what I've got in mind to build.  Right down to the display and the CPU.

Although I'd rather go with an enclosure than the Playseats tube frame.  Just a personal preference.

Any pictures you have would be great!

[divemaster127]

Yah, i wanted the enclosure but I already have $1,400.00 invested so i decided to stop maybe I can add on later, i will get some pics
dm

[Afterburner]

I'm wrestling with that myself right now.

I've got the wheel and the seat.  No display and no CPU powerful enough for some of the PC-based driving sims.

So I figure I'd end up dropping about $500-$800 on a CPU build, plus another $500 on the display.  So I'd be right up there with you.

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you spend on the display and CPU?  What display are you using?

[divemaster127]

I get my TV's free from the military its part of my bonus package...I did a lot of research before I picked out my 32" lcd its a olevia 32 inch, bottom fired speakers contract of 3000:1, & 4 ms.  On any lcd tv you want to use for gaming display make sure the contract is at least 1000:1 & the ms is 5 or under.  This is also a tunerless model but for gaming or hooking to cable/sat who cares.  You can get for $399.00 to $499.00 & the picture is awesome for racing.  I got a parents a 37" same tv for $499.00 they use it for their main tv great picture.  On the computer q6600 dual core, 4 gig ram(newegg.com $56.00 for 2 gig), & 8800GT video(right now the best card on the market for the price & faster than the 8800GTS
dm