5 Monitor Flight Simulator

Vinni3 @H|H said:
This is a 5 year old game we are talking about here. :p

Remember those Ageia PhysX cards back in 2005-2006 timeframe? Those were expensive and barely any games supported it. FSX was probably going gold about then and adding PhysX involves more code, which means more testing and delays for FSX.
Click to expand...

as someone who only got a proper gaming PC 6 months ago i dont remember the cards, but i think ive read about them somewhere. i didnt realise FSX was so old tbh

ThomBassmonkey said:
Do 6970s support 5 monitors? Mine has 2 display ports, 2 DVIs and an HDMI.

If crossfire and sli isn't supported, it could be a decent solution. 2gb of memory wouldn't hurt either I expect if only one GPU would be working.
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unless im missing something, OcUK doesnt sell a flex version of the 6970, so unless you want to spend £40 on two active displayport adapters then this really isnt an option
 
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You guess? lol The vid is proof it works lol

Depends what the OP is after. Wether they wanted 5 screens in portrait as uber widescreen if you will. Or a cheaper alternative is 3 screens and the 4th set to the instrument panel
 
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.
Click to expand...

Have to agree with the above.
cpu is the FSX crux.
 
honosuseri said:
You guess? lol The vid is proof it works lol

Depends what the OP is after. Wether they wanted 5 screens in portrait as uber widescreen if you will. Or a cheaper alternative is 3 screens and the 4th set to the instrument panel
Click to expand...

the video shows it working with 5 identically sized screens, i honestly couldnt say if it would work properly with different sized screens

*edit*
wait.... he was after a setup like in the second post, not the first. if you can use two screens for the controls + dials then it will work just fine
 
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From my understanding the rig is being spec'd. I posted the video to get a clear idea of what the OP wanted and to show the spec of the rigs running it.

It would make sense to buy the same model monitor. I would have thought the 5 screens in portrait was more realistic but i thought i'd post the 4 screen setup too as an option. They could always add an additional monitor later if desired.

Those rigs are running the old i7 cpus. A sandybridge build would make sense now. We need to know what the crack is with the monitors i.e how many they want and how much they will cost so we can spec the core system with the rest of the budget ;)

*edit*

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/100?vs=288

That's the old i7 950 used in one of the demos vs an i5 2500k
 
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My understanding was to have one eyefinity display and have the controls in undocked windows that can be moved onto the smaller screens. This is the usual method.
I agree that one card would be better if it is possible to connect all the screens to it.
generally I believe that the hardware I suggested would work and be capable, it could be made a bit cheaper with one card and small savings on cheaper kit. £1500 including screens is tight but possible.

andy.
 
Reapers non xfire build is probably close to what I would have done.

That said I dont believe the rig needs an aftermarket heatsink. The retail CPU he spec'd comes with a stock one and has 3 years warranty over the OEMs 1 year and lack of heatsink.

The 6950 makes sense as it will handle 5 cards and having 2GB of RAM for not much more than a 6870 makes a lot of sense for the resolution we are talking. Not sure the extra sata HDD is needed either but is a nice addition. Knocking off the heatsink and HDD must be nearly £100 saved.

I'm not looking to knock anyones spec. Just point out ways of keeping costs down without impacting performance too much. I'd like to see them save enough cash to buy the DCS: A10C warthog simulator. Kids join the aircadets to be in the royal airforce and fly war planes not a cessna or a 747 =P
 
*updated to take into account graphics card's supplied HDMI to DVI cable*

ok, i think i have got the tower, monitors, the cable spaghetti to connect everything up and some seperate speakers because none of the monitors onboard speakers could be used. if you have some speakers that you can use then the final price is £1377.46, if not it is £1410.44

here is what you'd end up buying if you got everything from overclockers:

YOUR BASKET
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 Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** LOWEST UK PRICE ** £99.98
3 x OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £89.99 (£269.97)
2 x BenQ G925HDA 18.5" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £69.59 (£139.18)
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 Creative A320 2.1 Speakers (51MF0405AA003) £32.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
2 x OcUK Value Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter (HDMINIDP-DVI) £8.99 (£17.98)
2 x OcUK Value DVI-D Dual Link M - M Monitor Cable (Black) - 2 Meter £5.99 (£11.98)
2 x OcUK Value 2m DVI to VGA Cable (DV-104) £5.99 (£11.98)
Total : £1,404.47 (includes shipping : £27.55).



i am only making one assumption that i cannot guarantee, and that is assuming that the BenQ monitors 'analogue' connection is a VGA connection, or that it has some sort of VGA connection as they come with VGA cables. the graphics card comes with a HDMI to DVI adapter, so that will be used for one of the monitors
Sapphire 6950 FLEX description said:
The first two monitors are connected to the two DVI ports and the third to an HDMI to DVI cable (supplied) with no extra hardware required.
Click to expand...

sadly OcUK dont do DVI-VGA adapters, or mini displayport to VGA adapters (these are ~£17 elsewhere), as that would make things about a million times easier. however, i think i have got the cheapest method that will work, however this wont get sound coming out of any of the 5 monitors, hence the speakers

if someone could put me out of my misery and suggest a simpler cabling arrangement i'd be very interested because all i can come up with looks ridiculous. also if someone could make sure i havent made any mistakes that would be great

Code: 
+------+ +------+  +--------+    +--------+ +--------+
|BenQ 1| |BenQ 2|  | OcUK 1 |    | OcUK 2 | | OcUK 3 |
|  VGA | |  VGA |  | DVI    |    |  DVI   | | DVI    |
+------+ +------+  +--------+    +--------+ +--------+
    ^        ^        ^              ^         ^
    |        |        |              |         |
    DVI to VGA      HDMI to DVI      |         |
    cable x2              cable      |         |
     ^      ^              ^         |     +---+
     |      |              |         |     |
 mini displayport          |        DVI to DVI
 to DVI adapter x2         |         cable x2
     |      |              |         ^      ^ 
     |      |              |         |      |
  +---------------------------------------------+
  | mini displayport x2  HDMI      DVI-D  DVI-I |
  |                                             |
  |               Sapphire 6950 flex            |
  +---------------------------------------------+
my brain hurts :(

*edit*
changed around the adaptors a bit. looks slightly more sensible now and means the monitors for the instruments are the only ones that have masses of adapters
 
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Reaper 392, you can't connect DVI-D to VGA.

It's a digital output only.

And I assume monitor OcUK 1 should be a HDMI to DVI adapter and then a DVI cable.
 
Surveyor said:
Reaper 392, you can't connect DVI-D to VGA.

It's a digital output only.
Click to expand...
thanks, thats one of the things i was worrying about. my new solution gets around that

Surveyor said:
And I assume monitor OcUK 1 should be a HDMI to DVI adapter and then a DVI cable
Click to expand...
nope, the the HDMI to DVI adapter has a male DVI and a female HDMI, and the HDMI cable is a male-male cable (unless ive put the wrong stuff in the basket which is quite possible)
 
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You run the adapters from the gfxs card. Some monitors will struggle to fit the adapter because of the housing around the LCD.

It's a headache i know =P I think the best bet is to aim for a 4 screen setup with monitors that support the display adapter as well as DVI and VGA.
 
Reaper 392 said:
yes, but OcUK dont stock them :(
would have been great if they did because the BenQ's come with VGA cables already
Click to expand...

It doesn't say what type of DVI they convert DP to.

If it's DVI-I then they're useless for conversion to VGA.

Also I've not read the whole thread so has the active/passive adapter issue been discussed?
 
honosuseri said:
You run the adapters from the gfxs card. Some monitors will struggle to fit the adapter because of the housing around the LCD.

It's a headache i know =P I think the best bet is to aim for a 4 screen setup with monitors that support the display adapter as well as DVI and VGA.
Click to expand...

i take it you mean a cover to go over the cables at the back.

if this is the case then i'd spend an extra couple of quid and get a simple HDMI to DVI cable to replace adapter + cable. (the other reason i went for adapter + cable is because the cable only options said DVI to HDMI, and i wasnt going to suggest what could possibly be a 1 way cable this late at night)
 
Surveyor said:
It doesn't say what type of DVI they convert DP to.

If it's DVI-I then they're useless for conversion to VGA.

Also I've not read the whole thread so has the active/passive adapter issue been discussed?
Click to expand...

very good point, but i think you mean DVI-D would be useless, because DVI-I can do both analogue and digital

as for active/passive adaptors i've recommended a FLEX card. this will do 5 monitors without an active adapter right?
 
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