Hardware Steelseries SRW-S1 Steering Wheel review

Could the SRW-S1 be the ideal steering wheel for the space-challenged racing game fan?

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/peripherals/2012/04/25/srw-s1review/1

 

Shame, it looks like a nice bit of kit.

 

read the line

"a steering wheel that uses accelerometers"

and died a little inside...

Thought maybe you could swap it onto another one of their wheels for more buttons and a better grip, but this? disappoint

 

@Madness_3d the accelerometers are accurate, but because there's no fixed base it's impossible. There are holes in the back to bolt it on to bases, so you might well be able to swap it in, but that's a lot of bother for not much gain.

 

i lol'ed reading the conclusion lol!

 

I bought this a few months ago. It lasted precisely 2 days and on the 3rd morning when I switched PC on, the line of rev lights on the wheel were all lit up (normally they only light in compatible game). Upon booting into windows the wheel was not detected any more. Unplugged, plugged in again, same. Tried on a second PC, same. The wheel had died after 2 days and what amounted to 2 hours total use. I got it RMA'd back to overclockers and then looked for an alternative... Was considering the Logitech G27 but was concerned about the cheap plastic pedals and this non-removable deadzone people were complaining about on the forums.

Then I discovered Fanatec (never heard of them before). Was so impressed and when I saw they had Porsche GT3 with clubsport pedals at £309 I went nuts and purchased!

The Fanatec is now bolted to my desk and the pedals are solid metal and don't slide around on the floor.

I agree with Bit-tech... Simraceway is awful. Graphics are about the worst you will find (the simbin sims such as Race07 and GTR look way better).

While the simraceway wheel was working, it was most playable with F1 2011 but otherwise not natural to use and not much fun without force feedback.

It was my first and last Steelseries product. Took me 3 days to register fault on the steelseries website because that too wasn't working properly.

 

Had my G25 wheel for years, love it, thinking about upgrading to the G27, but will probably wait till this one dies. I wouldnt consider any wheel without seperate H shifter and seperate steel pedals.

 

I would like a wheel that was not as bulky but as good as my g25 (would like more buttons as well) and could be easily removed off my desk when I don't need it

 

For me I wanted to avoid having to remove wheel from desk every time I wanted to use the keyboard. The solution turned out to be a monitor/keyboard arm that holds the monitor and keyboard above the desk. The wheel is fixed in position and the keyboard floats above it. Works great.

 

They could have done so much more with this...I.E They could of allowed it to be fitted to a G25/27. So then you would still get the force feedback, and use of the G25/27 pedals.
That would make a nice upgrade to my G25 when playing games like F1 2011.

 

Looks like I'll keep using my MS Sidewinder (non force feedback variant) for a while to come!

 

how did it get 30%?

 

really ?....trololololol

 

DUDE. That's a huge step forward for steelseries, you're lucky if you product comes out of the box in one piece.

They are appauling!

 

At first i thought it was an add on wheel for existing proper steering wheels which would be great, the only other affordable one i can think of is the ferrari wheel for the t500rs (dont know if it'll fit other wheels).

Then i realise its and 'air' controller and gave up reading tbh

 

Should get 100% not to buy it.

 

As in basically it said all the way through the review that it was completely not worth buying. Why bother giving it 30%?

 

...because it works and provides an alternative option for people who don't want the bulky fixed option. So lap times can't match a G27, but not everyone is in the market for online laptimes. For casual gaming I'd say it might be worth considering... but for casual gaming the price, and the design, is probably overkill.

 

Uh.. I don't think that would work...

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but that sounds pretty rediculous.

 

Seems odd they include so many features on a wheel that has no way to do force feedback. If the made a simpler and priced it around £30-40 i could see it appealing to the casual market.

Shame to looks like it could make a good wheel if it was fixed and offered force feedback.