5 Monitor Flight Simulator

winds0r · 3 Sep 2011 at 23:34

Hi all,

I'm helping out at the local Air Cadet Squadron and they are looking at building a Flight Simulator that will run MS Flight Simulator. They need some advice about what specification machine and/or monitor configuration is best.

They initially wanted to have 3 x 21" monitors as the main display, and 2 x 19" monitors to go underneath that would be used for the controls. Is this possible? If so - how easy/difficult would it be to implement?

In terms of specification, does anybody have any advice about what components are best to use and if possible, an ideal specification machine?

Any help much appreciated, I can provide further information if required.

Cheers.

winds0r · 4 Sep 2011 at 04:13

And you think that would be powerful enough? Do you believe setting up 5 monitors would be easy?

winds0r · 4 Sep 2011 at 18:32

Hi all,

Thank you very much for the discussion and pointing me in the right direction in terms of getting a decent spec machine. I'm going to talk it through with the other guys on Tuesday and may have some more questions then.

Interesting point about the SSD though - I didn't think of this.

winds0r · 4 Sep 2011 at 19:35

Reaper 392 said:
nope, it hasnt. the only reason we're speccing ATI cards is because of the 5 monitor requirement and lack of SLI/crossfire support of flight sims (although i'm not sure why nkata recommended what he did)

@ the OP, what kind of money were you planning on spending on the monitors. going by your size request the logical candidates would be the BenQ G925HDA 18.5" for the bottom two screens, and either the Dell Ultrasharp U2211H 21.5" or the OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" which is a good phillips monitor.

main reason im asking is it will change how you wire everything up

*edit*
dumb question, but can you get an ATI graphics card to do the graphics and a cheap Nvidia graphics card to do Physx? if you can it would take a nice load off the processor thats for sure

I think our overall budget was about £1400 top end. Do all of the above monitors rotate so they're on their side?

winds0r · 9 Sep 2011 at 19:12

Evening all,

Had a few words with the other members of the team helping me put this thing together and there are a few points I was hoping you may be able to help me with...

If we were to have only one graphics card (because FSX apparently doesn't like more than one), how would we go about connecting five monitors to one card? Is it a simple case of using a wire, or is there a more complex and more expensive method we'd need to use? I may have mentioned before, but the plan is to have 3 monitors on the top displaying the scenery, and two monitors at the bottom displaying cockpit controls.

In terms of the monitors, I think we have come round to the idea of rotating them 90 degrees, because we intend to mount them on a wall - will any monitor allow for this or do we need specific ones?

We are looking to put an order in for this in the next couple of days so I really appreciate all the help you've given me so far, I just have a few more questions.

Cheers guys, I'll buy you all a pint.

winds0r · 9 Sep 2011 at 19:37

ng93 said:
Wall mount - any monitor with a VESA mount.
Rotation - is done in Windows so accepted by all monitors.

Cheers mate, do you know much about hooking 5 monitors up to one graphics card?

winds0r · 9 Sep 2011 at 20:50

Orcvader said:
We're been discussing this like crazy, hence why there's so many pages .

Personally I would get this card: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-255-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

This card has 2 DVIs and 4 Displayports. You can then grab as many of these adapters to convert the Displayport to VGA. You will need three of them for your setup. Hence with the 2 DVIs and 3 DP->VGA, you will have a total of 5 outputs.

Cheers mate - with our budget we could get a card for double the price, any recommendations for a higher spec card?

winds0r · 9 Sep 2011 at 20:57

honosuseri said:
As above orcvader hasnt explained the basics.

I had suggested the Track IR module in a previous post. Has this been dismissed?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-272-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

That card is on offer to you cheap on preorder. It will allow you to run 3 screens without an adapter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G6yD9bw6Ko

That vid shows how the flex cards work although that is a different series. If you wanted to add another 2 screens you would need an active adapter.

A flex card with 3 DVI screens in landscape and the track ir would be the most realistic and simple setup. They could consider adding two additional identical monitors later and have 5 screens in portrait to further improve the setup.

Hope that covers most of your questions in one post

I'm sorry if I am asking what seem like very simple questions, but I just need to make sure we get the right kit.

With the above mentioned card, I could easily run 5 monitors off it, 2 DVI and 3 from the other ports - which could be easily converted with an adapter?

winds0r · 9 Sep 2011 at 21:36

Reaper 392 said:
i would seriously recommend getting the 2GB version if you plan on using 5 monitors:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-254-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

normally i wouldnt recommend it because the card has a triple slot cooler, but since the flight sim doesnt support crosssfire or SLI this shouldnt be a problem.

however, if you wanted a card that came with a double slot cooler so you could do crossfire in the future then something like this would be your best bet:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-272-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752
you would need 3 DVI cables, and two active mini displayport to VGA cables from this list:
http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx
from the part that says:
Adapts: Mini DisplayPort™ To: VGA Active

That's really helpful mate, thank you very much. I have the three slot graphics card but on a Nvidia GTX580 and it's bloody huge.

I'm starting to get the impression that 5 monitors on one card won't actually be as difficult as I originally thought?

winds0r · 12 Sep 2011 at 20:07

Vinni3 @H|H said:
As a FSX player, I would take Track IR over 5 monitors any day. The experience just becomes much better. (not to mention less complexity)

Thanks for the suggestion! As a FSX player, are you able to advise me how easy it is to configure it so that all dials and controls display on the lower two screens, and have only the scenery on the top screens?

We're just concerned that having these monitors may not actually be as good as it sounds...

Cheers