Thrustmaster just announced the Thrustmaster TX Servo Base Racing Wheel. Looks very interesting and i must say that the suggested retail price of $259.99 is not that bad either. http://www.thrustmaster.com/en_US/П...t-gen-force-feedback-racing-ecosystem-xbox-on
With all the add-ons inbound a seperate base was the most logical step for TM, smart move. They also anounced a new 30cm wheel: 599XX EVO 30 Wheel Add-On Hopefully the buttons and mostly the d-pad is more durably then the current wheels. My GTE wheel's d-pad stopped working only after a few days. Took it apart and it has a design flaw, I could fix it though but shouldn't happen. Also the right flipper stopped making the hard clicking sound. Since the base looks the same I don't think TM changed anything besides the alcantara rim, it looks cool though.
On first glance I thought that was the GTE rim. I have that one too. The d-pad isn't great but it's worked fine for me so far. My right gear change paddle has never clicked, but to be honest, I prefer that. Good to see you can now buy a TX base on its own. If I had that option it would have saved me buying the initial, not so great, rim and pedals.
In my opinion TM is making some good development in their product strategy recently. A few years back when I bought my T500RS I wasn't 100% sure if it will be the right decision. In the past I made both, good and bad experiences with TM products. Some of them had really bad design flaws. Like once I had a joystick in which a few very tiny cables were moving back and forth everytime you moved the stick. It was only a very small movement, but after a few weeks of usage these cables always broke off. I soldered them back on countless times until I had enough of it. When I first used my T500RS I was really excited about the improvement in FFB it gave me compared to my old G25. But when the cooling fan kicked in for the first time, I only thought: "wow - are you serious about this?". It was really annoyingly loud. I could have used headphones but I prefer to drive without, especially in summer when it is hot. And additionally the fan was spinning a long time after I used the wheel because it seemed to have a hard time to cool the system down. A few weeks back I ordered a replacement for my broken mounting clamp and because the fan had become even louder with time, I also ordered a replacement for it too. I was happy to see that the fan was a completely diferent design than the old one and was hoping for a real improvement. I got a manual on how to change the fan and even had to pinch off some plastic parts of the old fan mounting to build it in. The new fan is not only a lot more silent but also more effective. The time it needs to cool down the system and thus to shut off after usage has been reduced significantly. I wonder if the other T-wheels from TM like the TX or the T300 still have this fan or if they come without one. The reason why I wonder is that I never thought the T500RS really needs this fan. I always had the feeling that the wheel never gets particularly hot. The fear that my estimation is wrong and that I damage my wheel by removing the fan kept me from doing so. The new 30 cm wheel looks really nice. If I knew they were working on such a wheel I never had bought the GTE rim in the first place. I loved the original wheel for its size but I really wanted to use the paddle shifters for the GT cars. But because they are mounted on the wheelbase they were more or less useless for me. I just couldn't get used to them. This new wheel combines the best parts of both while additionally having a nice Alcantara covering. And the new seperatly available TX wheelbase makes me confident that I don't need to buy a complete wheelset in case my T500RS might break apart sometime. So to take up my initial statement I like it that TM is going into the direction of modularity in their products. They position themselves somewhere between Logitech and Fanatec with still a reasonable pricetag.
May I ask for some deeper information from some of you tech pros, please? Is there anything new or upgraded with this Thrustmaster TX Servo or is it just the "old" thing without pedals and wheel? When I first read about this new base and it's "servo"-stuff, brushless motor and super smooth lossless ffb I was pretty excited. I always thought the T500 RS is the best base from thrustmaster, because hey, big Buehler inside. Is the TX Servo better or more advanced than the T500 RS?
- TX Servo is a regular TX wheelbase without the rim and the pedals, nothing more, nothing less. They are also planning to release a T300 "Servo" soon to cover all platforms (TX is pc and xbox, T300 is pc and PS4) - A bit hard to compare T500 and T300/TX. T500 is the strongest for sure, but the movement is smoother and the FFB feels way better on T300/TX for me. I have had all 3 wheels, finally i kept T300 GTE (TX wheel looks like a toy unfortunately, its doing the job perfectly, just doesnt look nice). With the GTE wheel in the package and the smooth movement, nice FFB feel it is a very good value for its price.
The TX base is great. The rim that came with it originally is only ok though. The whole thing feels so much better with a better rim. I can't comment on the T300 / T500 as I haven't used them but hear the TX and T300 are very similar if not functionality identical
Depends what you call "annoying", i think there was no change regarding the type of the fan, but running time and rpm significally reduced especially after stop using the wheel. Nowdays im using my T300 with a 320mm wheel, which gives much more stress on the base compared to the original 280mm stock wheel, and after a half hour race the fan stops within a minute. Before it was running for ages... regarding loudness ... You can hear the fan for sure if you are not using headphones, but with headset on i hear only the roaring engine
Also keep in mind that the T500 PC/PS3 and T300 PC/PS3/PS4 bases is 1080 degree steering, the PC/XBox TX bases is 900 degree. I have no clue why.