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.

Hagar · 4 Sep 2011 at 00:22

A suggested spec with x-fire 6950 and three dell 22" and 2 Ilyama 17" (glass fronted) screens. Dell uses displayport, other screens use DVI-I

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?

CreMafia · 4 Sep 2011 at 08:58

You would probably need three GTX580s

scrlk · 4 Sep 2011 at 10:28

FSX is extremely CPU dependent and will not make use of SLI/CF. It is also extremely slow at loading, so a SSD should be considered. If you need help with specs, you might want to ask it here:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18172358

EDIT: As for the monitor setup, I'd recommend 3x 24" in portrait mode. You will have to move the panels over manually though if you were to add more at the bottom.

Hagar · 4 Sep 2011 at 11:53

Vinni3 @H|H said:
FSX is extremely CPU dependent and will not make use of SLI/CF. It is also extremely slow at loading, so a SSD should be considered. If you need help with specs, you might want to ask it here:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18172358

EDIT: As for the monitor setup, I'd recommend 3x 24" in portrait mode. You will have to move the panels over manually though if you were to add more at the bottom.

CPU dependant hence i5 2500K

Reason for the cross fire was to get the number of ports, not for speed necessarily though that would help.

In game for long flights, an SSD is probably overkill.

You would probably need three GTX580s

Cost??? £1000+ with less memory

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

Powerful enough yes. Setting up is dependant on the software but hardware set up should be straightforward.

scrlk · 4 Sep 2011 at 12:02

nkata said:
CPU dependant hence i5 2500K

Reason for the cross fire was to get the number of ports, not for speed necessarily though that would help.

In game for long flights, an SSD is probably overkill.

Cost??? £1000+ with less memory

Powerful enough yes. Setting up is dependant on the software but hardware set up should be straightforward.

When you are flying, the scenery loads from the disk as well (causing blur until the higher res textures load). The new U2212HM is coming out soon, no idea if it's better than the current gen though. Some will also say that FSX prefers Nvidia cards, but this needs to be researched more.

Reaper 392 · 4 Sep 2011 at 12:15

*edit*
toxic doesnt do what i thought it did, spec removed

scrlk · 4 Sep 2011 at 12:19

FSX doesn't make use of hyperthreading so the 2600K is useless. The new Microsoft Flight will hopefully support 64-bit OSes properly and make full use of graphics power.

Reaper 392 · 4 Sep 2011 at 12:30

Vinni3 @H|H said:
FSX doesn't make use of hyperthreading so the 2600K is useless. The new Microsoft Flight will hopefully support 64-bit OSes properly and make full use of graphics power.

so flight sims might be taking advantage of crossfire/SLI very soon?

if so, change the motherboard in my build to the asrock Z68 Extreme 4 Gen 3 which i have just noticed has had a nice £15 knocked off the price

Orcvader · 4 Sep 2011 at 12:44

This card will allow you to use 5 monitors on it, it's a FLEX card with 3 DVI ports (a HDMI to DVI adapter is included). You can then just find soem mini Displayport to VGA and then you'll have 5 monitor conenctions (3 DVI and 2 VGA): http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-272-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Reaper 392 · 4 Sep 2011 at 12:45

Orcvader said:
This card will allow you to use 5 monitors on it, it's a FLEX card with 3 DVI ports (a HDMI to DVI adapter is included). You can then just find soem mini Displayport to VGA and then you'll have 5 monitor conenctions (3 DVI and 2 VGA): http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-272-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

the toxic i specced can do that and be flashed into a 6970

Orcvader · 4 Sep 2011 at 12:50

Reaper 392 said:
the toxic i specced can do that and be flashed into a 6970

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1041&pid=1243&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

Doesn't mention anything about FLEX technology :confused:

Although, it will be able to support 4 monitors, then depending on which Z68 board you use, that can support a further two monitors.

Reaper 392 · 4 Sep 2011 at 12:57

Orcvader said:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1041&pid=1243&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

Doesn't mention anything about FLEX technology Although, it will be able to support 4 monitors, then depending on which Z68 board you use, that can support a further two monitors.

hmm, i was damned sure it did do the 5 monitor thing, very happy to be proved wrong though

stulid · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:00

Reaper 392 said:
hmm, i was damned sure it did do the 5 monitor thing, very happy to be proved wrong though

Your wrong.

The toxic can only power three monitors, again one needs a display port or use an adapter.

Reaper 392 · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:01

well that sucks. spec removed

Orcvader · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:05

Reaper 392 said:
well that sucks. spec removed

Could keep the same spec, just replace the TOXIC card with the FLEX card

?

Reaper 392 · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:15

Orcvader said:
Could keep the same spec, just replace the TOXIC card with the FLEX card ?

but that would be far too simple :rolleyes:

no crossfire option
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 FLEX 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with upto 5 Monitor Support & with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex Games £219.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £173.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £139.99
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.46
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £45.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £902.35 (includes shipping : £12.50).

crossfire ready
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 FLEX 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with upto 5 Monitor Support & with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex Games £219.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £173.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £154.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £139.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £71.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £45.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £976.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).
i know flight sims dont support crossfire yet, but they might do soon, so i made a second spec which is totally ready for crossfire if that would interest you

it will also support PCIe gen3 if you upgrade to ivybridge (which, seeing that flight sims are very CPU dependant, looks like a very good upgrade path)

stulid · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:16

In that first spec you can use this better Gigabyte board - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI

Reaper 392 · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:18

only reason i didnt recommend it was because you said a while ago that all the gigabyte boards are bad (but i did see your review on the UD4 something or other and put that on my list of 'to recommend if the price is right')