Asetek Initium Racing Bundle Review

Introduction

Thinking back to 2015 when I started to seriously get into sim racing, I would not have thought that the industry would move forward as it eventually would. Back then direct drive wheel bases were expensive, rare, and poorly supported in most mainstream games. A handful of specialized companies with revenue that was dwarfed by Thrustmaster and Fanatec still proved profitable enough to help spread the gospel of direct drive wheel bases. Covid in 2020 also provided extra impetus to the sim market as mainstream people became exposed to iRacing due to Nascar holding virtual races on Fox. Suddenly sim gear was in short supply due to demand and we saw some newcomers enter the market with surprisingly good parts.

Asetek is one of those companies. Originally founded in 1997 as a cooling company, they had some massive breakthroughs in product design and essentially created the modern All-In-One Liquid Cooling market. They also came out with the first actively refrigerated product that would take CPUs down to -20 C. They also have held the patents on AIO water cooling for the past few decades which has been very profitable for the company. Asetek also sells their coolers to other manufacturers to brand as their own.

The company obviously was in a very solid position monetarily. Apparently the CEO is an avid race fan and racer and wanted to expand into the rapidly moving market that is sim sports. Andre Erikson considered the expertise of his company in design, mechanical engineering, and software (he calls it “mechatronics”) and thought he could expand that into the racing hardware market. This new Asetek SimSports division was announced in March 2021 and they released a new set of high end pedals.

Having established themselves in the premium portion of the market for the past few years, Asetek is introducing their Initium line of budget level parts. These leverage design and materials to produce a more cost effective series of parts that still carries many of the unique features that Asetek brings to market. The entire wheel, base, and pedal set comes in around the $600 US mark.

The Initium Bundle

The packaging for the entire bundle is well designed and thought out. It comes in three separate boxes, each is very obvious in what they contain. The units are all well protected and the user is supplied with the minimum extras to get it up and running.

Unlike some of the competition, Asetek does not include the correct sized mounting screws and nuts. Users need to read over the directions to get the correct types and sizes of fastening hardware to mount the setup on a cockpit or a wheel base. Asetek does include a desk clamp that can be attached to the wheel base so the entire bundle can be attached to a desk with the pedals resting on the floor. Asetek does provide the mounting screws and washers for the desk mount.

The Wheel

The first aspect of this bundle I want to cover is the wheel/rim. This is probably the most cost optimized portion of the bundle. It is made of a stiff, injection molded plastic that gives the appearance of forged carbon. It is not in fact forged carbon, but it is highly reinforced plastic. The rim itself is also plastic, but rubber coated with texture and perforations.

Metal alloys and leather are not used due to the cost constraints of keeping the bundle affordable. It is a slightly heavier wheel than comparable units from the competition, but not significantly so. It comes in around 3.4 pounds, so it is relatively hefty. Mass of course needs to be taken into effect due to the force needed to move it. The lighter the wheel, the more efficiently and accurately the forces are transmitted to the user’s hands. The rim itself is exceptionally stiff with no appreciable bend or flexing.

The grip is quite comfortable even after long use and potentially sweaty hands. It does not flake off or cause discolorations to hands with heavy use. The hub features 12 buttons, a d-pad, and two rotary encoders. The wheel comes with stickers so users can label frequently used buttons like wipers, DRS, lights, etc. These stickers come in both transparent with black letters, or black with transparent letters. The buttons themselves have a positive tactile feel and are solid.

The only issue I had is that the D-pad was a little stiff and unresponsive when hitting the left arrow portion. After some work, that functionality did break in some and was easier to depress with activation. Four buttons plus the Start/Stop button are backlit by addressable RGB lights. The top portion of the hub also features nine programmable RGB lights that can be modified in the control panel to adjust how RPMs are displayed.

For a “budget” bundle, the rim itself is 300 mm wide. This is larger for instance than the Moza R5 default rim which is around 280 mm. This is around 20 mm smaller than the Thrustmaster 32R Leather, but that unit costs $350 just for the rim. It strikes a nice balance of feeling like a real rim rather than playing with something that feels somewhat like a toy.

The two paddle shifters are in fact magnetic units that utilize the Hall Effect for activation. They are made of plastic again for budget reasons, and the magnet portion of the paddles do not physically touch the base. This makes for relatively quiet shifting as compared to other units which may make a very sharp noise or clank when activated. Relying on Hall Effect sensors also improves longevity as there are no physical switches that are being depressed.

The center Start/Stop button can be depressed if the user needs to have all torque removed. It acts as an emergency stop button which may or may not be a little overkill for a 5.5 Nm unit. Holding the button down as well will power down the base when pressed continuously for five seconds.

The Initium rim may not be created with premium materials, but it more than does the job. It is a comfortable rim for long sessions, and it provides excellent stiffness so all inputs and effects do not suffer from flexing or distortion. The rim features the Asetek quick release system, but it is made of high strength plastic again rather than metal. The unit snaps into place quite convincingly, and it also seems very strong and sturdy.

The base can go up to 8 Nm of force with the aftermarket power supply, but internal testing has shown that the plastic being used for the quick release (the higher end units use a powder coated metal) can more than handle the loads. I would not necessarily want to use this wheel for the top end 25 Nm base, but if you are willing to spend the money on that top end base it is more likely that you will use the corresponding high end rim/hub.

The Pedal Set

Initially I was not overly impressed with the pedal set that Asetek provided. I was a little turned off by the plastic construction rather than the steel or aluminum units we see from other competing brands. The more I worked with this set, the more impressed I became. The design and implementation of these pedals is again aimed at providing a lower cost solution that still retained much of the flexibility of the higher end pedal sets.

The base and pedals are almost entirely made of a high strength, automotive grade plastic with glassfibre reinforcement. The design is heavily reinforced throughout, so that even though it is all made of plastic it has very minimal flex and warp. Asetek has specced the set to handle upwards of 140 KG of force. Turning over the base we can see the criss-crossing pattern of plastic ridges that provide more strength and support while in use. The upright pedals themselves are again made entirely of that rigid, tough plastic and even under heavy use I could not tell any real difference between these and fully metal units.

The accelerator has a reasonable amount of resistance to it and relative travel is less than other competing options. It takes a while to get used to that little amount of travel. The brake pedal features a two stage spring/elastomer that provides a lot of tactile feedback on how hard a user is pressing down. It is far superior to the base brake unit from Moza, which features no progressive feel at all. Asetek provides an extra spring to swap out that will make it even stiffer.

The base has room to add a clutch very easily. One of the unique features of this product is that the user can choose a floor mount option for the pedals (the pedals are around a 60 degree angle from the base/floor) or a cockpit mount (the pedals are a full 90 degrees relative to the floor). This allows users a pretty flexible solution to addressing their favorite driving style (formula or GT). It is very easy to turn over the base, unscrew the plate, and rotate that plate 180 degrees for the new configuration. The base also features rubber grips so that in theory the user can just place them on the ground without attachment to a rig or wheel base.

If the user eventually wants to upgrade their experience, they do not need to purchase an entire new set of pedals and base. Accessories such as the accelerator and clutch enhancement (a better spring system with adjustable preload) are easy to implement and somewhat cost effective. The big upgrades are the Load Cell Brake and the Hydraulic Brake upgrades. These both work with the current base and will provide a big improvement in feel. Elastomer kits are also available to improve the feel on the Load Cell upgrade.

I was originally not impressed with the pedal set, but my opinion soon changed once I actually worked with them. They are extremely well thought out in terms of functionality, strength, and upgradability. It is easy to scoff at them for being plastic, but I again recently had some experiences with competing “budget” bundle products and these were in fact far superior from that baseline standard. This may actually be the overlooked strength of the entire bundle.

The Wheel Base

While the pedals are the surprise of the bundle, the true star is the base. This 5.5 Nm direct drive unit packs all of the features of its bigger brothers, but in a very compact size at a very compelling price. The unit can be upgraded to 8 Nm of force by purchasing the aftermarket power supply Asetek offers.

Construction of the unit is impressive. The main body of the Initium base is solid, machined aluminum. It is thick and it is heavy. The end cap and front plate are both plastic coverings. The spindle is metal, but the quick release portion is the reinforced plastic that handles the force of the base without issue. The mounting mechanism on the bottom is actually quite clever. There are two parallel grooves fitted with integrated T-nuts. The nuts are nut fixed, so they can be more adequately and flexibly fitted to a wheel stand or cockpit. It only features the bottom mount functionality, not the side or front mounts.

The paint job is a slightly reflective black with the Asetek Racing name and logo on the side. The front features a reflective black patch with the Initium name in a light, reflective silver. It is aesthetically pleasing and again surprisingly compact. The paint is baked onto the metal so there is no flaking or signs of wear. It looks like it can take a beating with very little evidence of said beating. The unit itself is surprisingly heavy at a solid 13 pounds or so. This is not a shock considering the large motor that the unit houses.

The rear of the unit features all USB-C connections. There is one connection to the PC and then five more to attach assorted peripherals. The power plug is a robust 5 pin unit that is very similar to a PCI-E power connector. The power supply is a 96 watt unit and it provides the motor with enough power to hit 5.5 Nm of torque. It can be upgraded to 8 Nm by purchasing the 180 watt power supply from Asetek for around $110.

I had originally thought that most manufacturers would share a similar 5.5 Nm drive, but that is not the case. For example the Moza R5 has a much shorter base and a motor that features a large amount of cogging. The Asetek base is about a third longer and has a much smoother rotation with minimal cogging.

There is a lot of debate about how sensitive the encoders in these units are. I think much of that discussion is a bit overblown. The Initium features a 14 bit encoder which translates into 16,384 points per rotation. This breaks down to a positive activation of the sensor every 0.022 degrees. So for every one degree of rotation the encoder records 45 distinct data points. Anything over 16 bit (65,536 values) seems overkill to me, but I am willing to hear arguments why I should change my mind.

At this time the base is only PC compatible. I am unaware if there are plans for either Xbox or PS5 compatibility. Xbox might be easier as the compatibility chip for other manufacturers is located in the rim/hub. PS5 compatibility typically utilizes a chip in the base.

Software

Asetek has only been around for a few years, but they have addressed the software portion in a way that puts some old-timers like Thrustmaster to shame. While Thrustmaster has finally updated their control panel and software, it still has a long way to go before matching what some of the competition is up to.

The control panel looks quite nice with an easy to figure out layout that separates the base, wheel, pedals, peripherals, settings, and RGB control. All of the major settings are included in the correct tabs, which allows users to customize their experience. The app needs to be active during gameplay for best results. Setups can be saved individually and labeled so that they can be activated on a per game basis.

While the control panel is a step up from some other manufacturers, it is not nearly as advanced as what we see from Moza and others. Moza for example has custom profiles for every game that is easy to set up and save. These profiles not only include overall force, but also adds individual filters to adjust for different FFB frequencies. Think there is too much buzzing at the high end of effects, users can tone down the 100 Hz band all the while increasing the lower end effects to accentuate curbs or ruts. Asetek does not have this granularity so far, but they continue to provide constant updates and feature improvements. I would expect that they will eventually match the competition, but as we all know… software is hard.

One very welcome addition is that many titles do not have native support for the Asetek hardware. Going into settings Asetek’s application will sniff out what racing games are installed on the computer. For titles that do not support Asetek natively, users can click on the “driver install” option that will add Asetek compatibility to a wide variety of games. About the only title I was not able to get to work was DiRT 5. Not exactly a huge loss.

Asetek has done a pretty nice job so far on the software side, and they are improving it constantly. I would expect over the next year a whole host of new features will be introduced that will get them closer to the competition at the high end.

Driving Impressions

Every sim manufacturer is a little different when it comes to experience and feel. Setup on the Initium bundle was very easy. The packaging is very good and the components are all well protected. Instructions are clear and well presented. They make very clear what hardware is required to install the base and pedals to a cockpit or wheel stand. As mentioned before, Asetek does not include the mounting hardware required (unlike some of the other competition).

Once I acquired the correct screws, nuts, and washers I was able to mount the base very easily on a pretty standard no-name wheel stand that was designed for Thrustmaster, Logitech, and Fanatec bases and pedals.

The flexibility in the mounting of the base due to the t-nuts and rail setup allowed me to adjust enough to fit the base plate. It was extremely secure once attached. The pedals were a different matter. The bolt pattern of the pedals did not match anything on the pedal plate on the wheel stand. I ended up only attaching 2 bolts towards the center of the pedal base. I thought this would be an issue and I would experience some unfortunate flex in use. It turns out my fears were unfounded as the base was extremely stable even in this configuration. Users who upgrade to the hydraulic brake or load cell should certainly look to either drilling their own holes to provide more connections, or get another supported wheel stand that will likely be above $200. The optimal solution would be to get a full cockpit if a user were to go in the direction of a much stiffer brake implementation.

The USB-C connection is a welcome change from the older USB-A as well as proprietary connections at the wheel base. USB-C allows not only for a compact attachment to the PC, but also up to 5 Asetek peripherals can be attached directly to the base. It also allows the use of 3rd party standard cables to work if something disastrous happens to the ones included.

Setting up the software is extremely easy. Download RaceHub from the Asetek SimSports site and run it. Once installed plug in the wheel base to the PC. RaceHub identifies the components and applies any available firmware updates automatically. The base doesn’t need to be put into any kind of maintenance mode, so updates like this are extremely easy. RaceHub is easy to navigate and allows a lot of customization such as forces, braking and acceleration rates, dampening, RGB behavior, and usage profiles.

There is no “one size fits all” setting for games, and each manufacturer interprets the force feedback data differently. There is a lot of trial and error in getting individual applications set up for the best personal experience. There are guides and posts that provide good information that are directly accessible on the Asetek site (https://www.asetek.com/simsports/guides/). This is a good start for any user wanting to quickly find the best settings for a wide variety of games. Asetek does not cover every racing title out there, but they do hit most of the popular ones. The Assetto Corsa series in particular seem to be very popular with Asetek as there are multiple guides.

The 5.5 Nm of force seems somewhat underrepresented as compared to other solutions. I am unsure if Asetek is more conservative with how they apply their settings, or if they feel that having an overpowering amount of force is not realistic. Setting the power as high as it goes and adjust in-game settings I did not get the same sense of strength as I have with the Moza R5 base. I would very much like to try the 8 Nm power brick upgrade with this solution, as I think that is closer to the sweet spot of the sim market in terms of FFB strength.

This is not to say that the experience is bad. On the contrary, the base is very detailed in feedback and responsive to user inputs. Even though it “only” has a 15 bit encoder, I did not have any issues of inputs being dulled or inaccurate. I found no real difference in that aspect from the Initium to the Thrustmaster T818 which has a 16 bit encoder.

The one title that really showcases the Initium bundle is Assetto Corsa (the original). This must be a favorite sim for the people working at Asetek, because the support and feel of the base vs. any other title I played was nearly night and day. While the FFB on the other titles was good, going to AC made it great. The base really came alive and if they can provide this level of detail and support for more titles as time goes on, it can only be a good thing. Rumbles, curbs, traction, collisions, and every aspect that AC simulates comes through very clearly and with a good amount of force. Hopefully Asetek provides the software support to let upcoming titles like Assetto Corsa: Rally and Project Motor Racing really shine with the Initium bundle.

The rim was probably my least favorite part of the bundle, but it also was not a hindrance towards racing pleasure. Once in a title and racing around, I did not tend to notice the materials and heaviness of the rim. The paddle shifters were muted as compared to other offerings, and it was not nearly as tactile. They worked perfectly fine though, and if silence while racing is something to be desired versus the constant clicking of up and downshifts, then these are perfect for that user.

It took a little getting used to the pedal travel. I was familiar with Thrustmaster TP3A-Pro and Raceline III units which feature a decent amount of travel. Going to the Asetek units which only feature about 2 inches of travel really forced me to pay attention to foot position and force being applied. Once I familiarized myself to the new setup, I found the pedals to be very good in rally and grip racing. For being a budget offering, the spring and elastomer brake really became a strong point in the setup. Asetek provides an extra spring to further adjust the feeling as needed.

Conclusion

When we were contacted by Asetek to review the new Initium bundle I was quite excited to see not only a lower price Asetek unit, but also get to experience what the fuss was all about. Asetek has cemented themselves as an above average sim racing experience with very high quality offerings. Asetek provided the bundle as a permanent loan. This review was not sponsored nor does Asetek have any editorial control over the contents.

The price makes this bundle a little less accessible for some, but it is a very solid offering. Moza’s very popular R5 Bundle is $439, which is a significant savings as compared to the Initium. The extra money for the Asetek bundle does go to what can be argued to be a better pedal set as well as a better overall direct drive base. The only place that Moza has an advantage is with a slightly nicer wheel that is smaller. Moza also has modding options for the bundled rim that Asetek cannot match. The entire bundle also costs less than just the base alone of the Thrustmaster T818, Fanatec DD Pro, or any of the Simucube offerings.

Once purchased, the Initium bundle becomes a launch platform for expanding capabilities and performance within the Asetek ecosystem. Better wheels, brake mods and upgrades, the 8 Nm power supply upgrade, and other accessories will help flesh out the individual racing experience.

The overall quality of the product is excellent. I had no manufacturing or performance issues in the several months that I have been using and reviewing the Initium bundle. The software is very straightforward and powerful. The support in the vast majority of titles is present and easily configured within the RaceHub application. I was even able to get the now ancient DiRT 2 to run with the Initium base. The materials on the base are outstanding, though the all plastic and rubber rim is the weakest part of the bundle. The pedals being all plastic also was not a negative as they were super stiff and very responsive.

Though the price of the Asetek Initium bundle is higher than competing options like the Moza R5 Bundle, it matches that of the Thrustmaster T598 bundle. Over that particular bundle the Initium has the advantages of a much more flexible pedal set, the ability to take the base to 8 Nm, and a far less bulky base. Overall it is very competitive with the other offerings in that price range.

I have enjoyed my time immensely with the Initium Bundle. It is great to get a better understanding of the sim market by trying out these different products rather than staying with one brand. I think it is an overall outstanding product with a competitive price point that allows new users and budget users to have access to the wider Asetek accessory ecosystem.

Overall Asetek makes a quality bundle that should appeal to anyone looking to get a bit more serious into sim racing. $600 is still a chunk of change, but the bundle provides everything the user needs to get up and running. The setup will be able to grow with the buyer as time moves on. There are plenty of upgrade paths across rims and pedals. The sim market at large also features other options like shifters and handbrakes that are not fixed to one ecosystem. I would recommend this to anyone looking to improve their experience and upgrade to a direct drive base.