Your desk setups, part 3: Ray’s literally at the wheel when gaming

Ray loves racing games – that’s impossible to miss when you look at his desk. His favourite ones are Le Mans Ultimate and Assetto Corsa Competizione. Let’s take a closer look at his office, his home-built PC and a special gadget that’s hidden under his seat.

D(r)iving into the world of motor racing

Ray watches almost every Formula 1 race on TV and has even seen a few of them in real life. Having a race setup at home is a no-brainer for him. But it hasn’t always looked like this. It all started with a PlayStation and a smaller steering wheel. After a while though, he got fed up with setting it up every time he wanted to do a race and putting it away again afterwards. So he decided to get permanent setup that allows him to play whenever he wanted.

Another advantage of the permanent setup is that Ray can quickly switch between racing, other games and his regular desk. The seat can be adjusted to anyone’s height, allowing his friends to enjoy a comfortable racing experience, too. Ray’s lined up three 27-inch monitors next to each other to ensure he has everything in sight.

Ray’s installed a cool gadget under his seat – a haptic transducer. It converts electrical signals into perceptible kinetic energy. Ray can use software to customise the haptic feedback for every action – for example, when he shifts up a gear or drives over a kerb.

Wood and plants to balance out the tech

The design of Ray’s office is divided into two parts. There’s a racing area with lots of electronic equipment and a quieter, more natural area with dark wood panelling. The desk in lighter-coloured wood adds to the more natural look.

Ray says he has good technical skills but no green fingers. However, that didn’t stop him from getting real plants to go alongside the artificial ones on the wall. His home-made terrariums are particularly easy to look after. All he needs to do is water them every few weeks. Looks like he’s been doing a good job with that.

Clever cable management

With all this equipment, Ray wanted as few cables as possible to be visible. A wireless mouse and keyboard are a good start – and make it easier to move them from the regular desk to the racing corner.

To hide away all other cables, Ray’s come up with a special cable guide that runs along the floor behind the wood panels.

All eyes on the DIY display cabinet

The visual highlight of his setup is Ray’s glass display cabinet that he built himself. It currently houses an Iron Man figure. The highlight, however, is that Ray’s installed a Samsung Frame on the cabinet’s back wall. He displays pictures and videos on it. Check out the video to see what that looks like.

Here’s a list of all components:

PC:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• GPU: Asus ProArt GeForce RTX 4080 Super OC
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X670E AORUS XTREME
• Ram: 2×16GB G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO RGB
• 2TB M.2 SSD Samsung 990 Pro
• Power supply: Corsair HX1000i
• CPU cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360
• Cases: PHANTEKS NV7 II and Vertikal GPU Bracket
• Coolers: 7×Phanteks D30 Reversed 120mm, 5×Phanteks D30 Regular 120mm

• Monitors: 3×27" Samsung Odyssey G7, 1×27" LG 27GN800P-B

Peripherals:

• Keyboards: Keychron K8 Pro, Elgato Stream Deck +
• Mouse: Logitech G Pro Superlight 2
• Headset: Corsair HS 80 Max Wireless
• Speakers: Logitech G G560
• Lighting: Govee Lights
• Simrig: Simlab P1X Pro with Sparco Grid Q race seat
• Wheel base: Simagic Alpha 15Nm
• Race wheel: Simagic GT Neo
• Pedals: Simagic P1000 with haptic reactor

• Haptic transducer: Buttkicker Gamer Pro
• Drawer units: Ikea Alex
• Gaming chair: Ikea Styrspel