Flight Sim X machine ideas

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A friend of mine is looking for a machine capable of flight sim x, but here is the tough one, He is looking at a projector for the main screen and wanting 4 - 5 additional monitors. In a perfect world he wants the machine to be a single tower not multiple pcs. He knows this is going to be an expencive machine but its something he has wanted for years.

I will do a project log when we come round to building it ;)

I do know a fair bit about high end systems and overclocking as its something I've done for years but Flight sim x with all the extra monitors has got me thinking what would be best as we don't want to get it wrong, For example will 2 x 570's have enough display ports for 6 monitors ( 3 on each card that can all work at the same time? ).

I was thinking

A high end Core i7
6 gig of ram ( possibly 12gb )
2 x GTX570's ( just seen http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-254-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752 or maybe that )
500gb drive ( he doesnt want ssd )
850w psu ( possibly 1000w )
Case with some decent airflow possibly a 800d
Air cooling ( he doesnt trust watercooling )


He is getting the projector himself and the extra monitors, pedals, flight sticks and the like as he knows what he wants.

I am aware that flight sim x is a bit of a swine to get running flawlessly at times but would a machine like this support the 5-6 monitors he wants?
 
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any reason he doesnt like the idea of an ssd, would have thought if it loads stuff on the fly it would be ideal ?

whats his idea with the layout of screens and projector (ie whats he plan to use the screens for/to show).

no reason it shouldn't work seen similar layouts before, have you checked fsx forums ?
 
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Im sat next to him now and he doesnt like the idea of it, I know they are quick and of course quiet but he would prefer mechanical. I think he is afraid of some of the reviews he's seen where the SSD drives are failing. So I'm just keeping to his wishes.
 
something like this then.

YOUR BASKET
2 x Gainward GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £259.99 (£519.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £124.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 850W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-850TXV2UK) £99.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 400R Midi Tower Case - Black £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £45.98
1 x Thermalright MUX-120 Black CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1155/LGA1366) £29.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,223.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



expensive stuff. Can add side fans with that case for aiding the 570 with airflow.

Are there any benefit with a 2600K in FSX? And is it worth the extra £70?
 
How are 2 570's going to have enough power to drive a projector and 6 additional displays? I think you would struggle with quad sli!!
 
It will be 6 in total but the projector will be the only big screen the rest will be 15" if that just to show all the dials / instruments.
 
theres a major problem with your idea: FSX does not support crossfire/SLI, so you need a monster single card to power screens. unfortunatly if you want to power more than 2 screens at a decent res you will need an ATI card (which isnt as good with FSX)

i am not sure if FSX supports hyperthreading, so i have included the i7 2600k, but if it doesnt support it then get the i5 2500k and save yourself a bunch of money

i know your friend doesnt want an SSD, but i would say the game where you want an SSD most would be FSX because it loads all the textures soooooo much faster

if you want 6 screens in total (including the projector) i would recommend this:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £224.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £149.99
1 x Silverstone Raven 3 RV03B-W Full Tower Windowed Case - Black/Gold £104.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 920 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM2+/AM2+/AM3+) £79.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £47.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £45.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,157.38 (includes shipping : £13.75).

you will also need 4 active displayport to whatever your monitors use adapters. OcUK seem to have stopped selling them for some reason. check this list to see which ones are guaranteed to work: http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx

i can bring the price down if you want, but it would mean reducing the number of easy upgrade paths (ie: crossfire when FSX starts to support it, PCIe gen3 graphics cards, ivybridge, etc)

i would have recommended the 6970 version of this card, but OcUK doesnt stock it. if you get the 6970 from elsewhere you will want this PSU (to cope with the option of crossfire for other games.

if you have no intention of going crossfire any time soon, then use the 550W version of the antec PSU
 
You can have two cards, they won't be running in SLI because GPU 1 will do projector + 2 screens and card 2 do screens 3-5?

Rendering each screen is then down to the individual GPU as far as I'm aware.


Oh and not having an SSD is stupid.

SSD is a requirement for this, FS-X loads ridiculously quickly with one.
 
iostream said:
Surely with that many monitors you'll be needing as much VRAM as possible? eg something like the following:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-150-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

And if what Reaper says is true about Crossfire/SLI, then you'll need to look at an AMD card for multiple monitors..
Click to expand...

yep, Nvidia cards can only output to two screens, so to do 6 you would need to get 3. i have literaly no idea what going with multiple cards not in crossfire/SLI is like though, because this might let you have one massive Nvidia card driving the actual game on the projector and one instrument panel, and then two little ones driving instrument panels

if you do use that idea then i have literally no idea what cards would be best for the instrument displays
 
FSX does not support hyperthreading so a 2500K is better.

It is unlikely that FSX will support crossfire in the future. However, MS Flight (FSX's replacement is due at some point) and if the intention is to move to that when it's out (which may/may not support xfire/SLI) you may wish to keep the option to have xfire/sli open.

Nvidia cards are better in FSX but with a shader 3 mod available ATi cards do recieve a significant boost (i tried this with my 5850 and it prooved good)

You also need to think about software. Baseline FSX is ok but addons bring it to life. REX 2.0 is a must then aircaft from Captain Sim, PMDG to name a few.

Direct your friend over to the PC Games section of the forum and find the fsx thread and go though it all! Soya is a wealth of FSX knowledge as well as many other guys in there! ( http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18172358 )
 
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We had a similar thread to this a while back.

I would have thought an i5K build on a Z series mobo similar to what reaper had suggested would make the most sense. I would use a flex edition ati card, these let you run 3 screens by DVI without the need for active adapters.

Get your friend to google track ir. This coupled with the 3 screens should create a more immersive effect and should work out cheaper too i'd hope. Of course he could add more monitors later if he so chooses.
 
The scary thing is he actually wants to build a realistic fight deck in our office ( upstairs thankfully ) He even wants to put in a co-pilots seat and what not... Yeah he is MAD! So what he wants is a projector over the top of it, Fake window and screens inside with everything on them so its ultra realistic. Personally I think he's one sandwich short of a picnic...

But yeah I think the ATi card would be better if you want to put all your eggs in one basket and of course crossfire in the future if the new game suports it. I was unaware of HT being not supported by FSX though but I suspect the new game will support it so it would be worth using a 2600k for future proofing I suppose, Also leaving the oppertunity to get to 16gb of ram.
 
Well you have to keep in mind that the projector needs to be some distance away to "throw" a large display.

I tried to give a more economical approach. I still think reapers spec is pretty close to what you want. Although I think he is a lil confuddled over the adapters. You only need one display to have the active adapter.

The card he spec'd had 4 display ports so it makes sense for your friend to buy monitors which utilise the DP ports. This cuts out the adapters and headaches ;) Obviously they are more expensive, hence me suggesting the flex edition card so you could use cheaper DVI monitors. Like i said this will happily run 3 screens and you will just need to add an active DP adapter should you want to run more.

Did you actually checkout the trackir? The cockpit in FSX is very detailed. Each switch can be toggled and of course the switches and displays are where they should be in the cockpit. The track ir allows you to "free look" around the cockpit. By moving your head closer to the screen it will infact zoom in on the instrument panel so you can see more clearly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll377_3c-3k

A setup like the one in the link coupled with track ir would give the best virtual cockpit in my opinion any way. I'll add a link below showing 3 screens and trackir too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imkh_bxutf4

(ok it's not running fsx but you get the idea)
 
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