Not dead - just distracted

[nick]

well chaps no modelling for a while because I got drawn into building this beastie:-

By cunning use of ebay I have managed to scrounge some serious last generation but still pretty good electronics to stuff into this box, it's a quad core 3GHz cpu, overclocked to 4GHz, SSD hard disk with 8GB of fast memory running a pair of 8800GTX cards in SLI mode for those of us that means anything to .

This is a Saitek fully functional auto panel. We like.

This has been a real rollercoaster to get working this well - it looks extremely smooth. If anyone is interested in this stuff, drop me a line

thanks for looking

Nick

[Dads203]

Rather a nice set up Nick, these must be the black boxes you were talking about

Regards

Dan

[Mike]

Neat - Is the iPad part of the setup, or just doing something unrelated?

I gave Stringbag a couple of LCD screens to set himself up with a 3 screen set up... old screens, but perhaps he should talk to you about it?

[Pielstick]

Very nice.

However, what on earth are you doing flying the default Microsoft CRJ????

Get some PMDG 737NGX or Flight Sim Labs Concorde action going!

Edited April 22, 2012 by Pielstick

[nick]

Neat - Is the iPad part of the setup, or just doing something unrelated?

I gave Stringbag a couple of LCD screens to set himself up with a 3 screen set up... old screens, but perhaps he should talk to you about it?

Hi Mike, yes the iPad is active it works really well actually, it provides the most commonly used controls as fixed buttons, it's a halfway house between the physical hardware panels I have started to dabble with. Here is the link: Skp-fsx

Nick

[nick]

Very nice.

However, what on earth are you doing flying the default Microsoft CRJ????

Get some PMDG 737NGX or Flight Sim Labs Concorde action going!

I know. I do do have the 737ng and the airbus, I'm still in 'shakedown' getting everything tuned and stable. I also have a very nice spit for later too

Nick

Edited April 22, 2012 by nick

[Mike]

Hi Mike, yes the iPad is active it works really well actually, it provides the most commonly used controls as fixed buttons, it's a halfway house between the physical hardware panels I have started to dabble with. Here is the link: Skp-fsx

Nick

That's cool.

[Séan Pádraig]

Cool setup.... but can it do this...

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_2041744...-his-own-garage

[stringbag]

Hi Nick.

If you want add-on scenery, aircraft and the like, give me a call.

Chris.

[Pielstick]

If you've gone that far you're clearly pretty serious about flight simulation...

In which case I would highly recommend you get yourself a TrackIR setup. It will revolutionise your flight sim experience.

[Murdo]

Lovely stuff Nick! Is that the X52 Pro Joystick?

Can I come over to play? I'll bring the beers!

I'd love to get my hands on some of these Saitek cockpit controls (for myself obviously ).

Here's one I made recently:

Looking for an Aircraft Carrier just off Stornoway:

One day (about 12 years ago) whilst playing MSFS I got bored with the take off / Landing thing and began to wonder what all the dials in the cockpit were for. Did the MS tutorials and... Wow!

I would spend hours "flying" across the open wastes of Canada or Russia in a Beechcraft Baron (sometimes in fog) with only a flight plan, virtual compass and the odd NDB and VOR. The feeling of achievement when the destination was (usually) reached was immense. Fascinating stuff! Absolutely fascinating!

Even got the HoverControl Certified Pilot. 1 hour and 45 minutes of gut wrenching tension to finely control a helicopter in the online exam. Could fly the FS9 default Heli in any conditions and get to where I wanted to go. Even Autorotations are achievable.

Then my split joystick and throttle died so I splashed out and bought the Saitex X45. Lots of good programmable features but a truly horrible stick. Very jerky on the main stick itself. I've never really liked it.

Two hobbies, modelling and Flight Sim.

Oh... And the family - when work allows.

[Oddball]

Get some PMDG 737NGX or Flight Sim Labs Concorde action going!

DC-3 is the way to go, big pair of blaring radials, big thrashing props, yar!!

That is one sweet rig mate. I've had the X45 for years, but it finally gave up the ghost last month so I'm slumming it with a thrustmaster t-flight until I save up for an X52. Not a bad stick in all fairness. How do you get on with the 8800's? I've got an 8800 ultra and it ran so hot I had to get an aftermarket cooler for it, bloody thing. Also, how do you get the instruments onto the second monitor, is there a setting ingame or do you just drag them over? Never thought of doing that.

Oh and I second the motion for trackir, it's frickin' awesome!!

Odd.

[nick]

How do you get on with the 8800's? I've got an 8800 ultra and it ran so hot I had to get an aftermarket cooler for it, bloody thing. Also, how do you get the instruments onto the second monitor, is there a setting ingame or do you just drag them over? Never thought of doing that.

Mornin.

The 8800s run fairly cool, it's the CPU that warms up.

I do indeed drag the instrument across to the second monitor. I have some bolt on code that is supposed to remember this, but it's flaky and I wouldn't recommend it. I would recommend trying this config though, it feels a lot more realistic to me, I'm also trying to get it working reliably so when I upgrade my home cinema projector I'm going to use the old one for a dedicated FS rig in the garage, at which point I my also go for a physical instrument panel setup as well, my experience with the Saitek stuff having given me a taste for it.

Problem with that is that I need to settle on one aircraft forever more and can't run to a 737 yet!

BTW I also have the Saitek physical radio stack now which is ace if you play with airliners and like tuning radios

Nick

[Rick Brown]

Nice set up Nick.

Just something for you have a go at, if you still have FS9 re-install and you'll be amazed at well it flys on your rebuilt rig!

I've just done that and after putting the usual textures/scenery etc on I forget it isn't FSX!

Pity the FSX code doesn't support dual video cards.

The 8800 GTX range is quite old now but was a good card and runs FSX quite well, I have the 9800GT (same as just with Xphysics).

It just shows how CPU bound FSX is. Hmmm, need i7...............

Also, nearly worth having an iPad for FSX tools!

Rick

[Oddball]

when I upgrade my home cinema projector I'm going to use the old one for a dedicated FS rig in the garage

BTW I also have the Saitek physical radio stack now which is ace if you play with airliners and like tuning radios

I'm trying with all my might not to turn green right now. I really wish I had the cash to throw at a proper sim rig. I suppose it's the only downside to having such a wide range of interests. Ah well, something to add to the to-do list I suppose.

I've also just noticed that you have an overclocked CPU. This is something I'd like to try as mine is only a 2.4Ghz twin core. The rest is covered, good fast ram, the 8800 works reliably even for the newer games coming out, good motherboard, and good quality cooling throughout. I've read loads of writeups on the process, I just wondered how you went about it, and more importantly if it gave you any trouble?

Odd.

[nick]

I've also just noticed that you have an overclocked CPU. This is something I'd like to try as mine is only a 2.4Ghz twin core. The rest is covered, good fast ram, the 8800 works reliably even for the newer games coming out, good motherboard, and good quality cooling throughout. I've read loads of writeups on the process, I just wondered how you went about it, and more importantly if it gave you any trouble?

What I tried to do was hit the sweet spot between cost and horsepower. So by taking a bit of chance and buying a second hand last generation quad CPU off evilbay I pushed my existing mobo, memory, an gpus to their max. Sounds like you're in this same boat. I would check out the biggest CPU your mobo/memory can handle (you probably will need quicker memory BTW) big old CPUs are still surprisingly expensive, but remember some of these chips were well over a grand when they came out.

My logic is by using an old ballsy processor, which is as tough as hell (hence expensive) I can push it up to near i7 country for a fraction of the cost of a completely new setup.

So what I'm getting to is that I had a dual 2.4 CPU myself, it's more fragile than my quad ( cos it's a lot cheaper) although you can OC it a bit, it's probably not worth it, it gets flaky and you don't get a lot out of it.

If you want to try it, it's different for every mobo, some are more setup for over clocking than others, but be careful, small increments, keep your eye on temp, there's many tools out there at show temp, voltage etc at a very granular level in windows, use them, and run for an extended period before turning it up the next bit.

Remember flight sim IS ALL ABOUT CPU the graphics card is neither here nor there, it's all maths, so you need to spend your money on horsepower not graphics, it's not like a video game in this respect. I didn't realise just how true that was until I started playing around properly. For example, it actually runs better when you turn SLI off, it doesn't need it graphically and the processor overhead of running it costs more than you get out of it.

In summary, treat yourself to a bigger motor rather than over clocking!

DISCLAIMER if it goes bang - don't blame me

Nick

Edited November 26, 2012 by nick

[Rick Brown]

What I tried to do was hit the sweet spot between cost and horsepower. So by taking a bit of chance and buying a second hand last generation quad CPU off evilbay I pushed my existing mobo, memory, an gpus to their max. Sounds like you're in this same boat. I would check out the biggest CPU your mobo/memory can handle (you probably will need quicker memory BTW) big old CPUs are still surprisingly expensive, but remember some of these chips were well over a grand when they came out.

My logic is by using an old ballsy processor, which is as tough as hell (hence expensive) I can push it up to near i7 country for a fraction of the cost of a completely new setup.

So what I'm getting to is that I had a dual 2.4 CPU myself, it's more fragile than my quad ( cos it's a lot cheaper) although you can OC it a bit, it's probably not worth it, it gets flaky and you don't get a lot out of it.

If you want to try it, it's different for every mobo, some are more setup for over clocking than others, but be careful, small increments, keep your eye on temp, there's many tools out there at show temp, voltage etc at a very granular level in windows, use them, and run for an extended period before turning it up the next bit.

Remember flight sim IS ALL ABOUT CPU the graphics card is neither here nor there, it's all maths, so you need to spend your money on horsepower not graphics, it's not like a video game in this respect. I didn't realise just how true that was until I started playing around properly. For example, it actually runs better when you turn SLI off, it doesn't need it graphically and the processor overhead of running it costs more than you get out of it.

In summary, treat yourself to a bigger motor rather than over clocking!

DISCLAIMER if it goes bang - don't blame me

Nick

Well put and exactly as I've found over the years of PC's and O/Cing (ever tried to overclock an Acorn Electron?!). Its all about hitting the "Sweet Spot" when all of the hardware works well together.

Keep an eye out for some of the Intel Q series of cpu's on non Intel motherboards, they were quite good. Watch out for Intel motherboards though, they generally don't allow any overclocking, but are very reliable.

Have fun

Rick.