Sim project for a long winter

**spotlope** · October 22nd, 2010, 08:45

The skies are turning dark and gray around here, and the temperature is plummeting. In other words, perfect weather for 'simming! I recently reclaimed a small room I built years ago in my basement, and dedicated it to building a simulator "pod", something that's been a dream of mine for years.

Thanks to Ted "txnetcop", I got the PC that'll power it put together a couple of days ago. Just last night, I posted a video of the build on Youtube and my blog. Just wanted to say a big thanks to Ted for the hardware assistance.

[YOUTUBE]5VK3YAI96Ew[/YOUTUBE]

If you've ever tried something like this, or ever wanted to, I'd love to hear what you think as things progress. I'll be documenting the progress on my blog under the "POD Project" tag here: http://iblueyonder.com/category/the-pod-project/ . Drop by and comment!

**Cag40Navy** · October 22nd, 2010, 09:01

Wow! Very nice! Looking forward to the finished product!

**dswo** · October 22nd, 2010, 09:43

Looking forward to your report, Bill, esp. on the SSDs.

**txnetcop** · October 22nd, 2010, 10:11

Thanks for the props Bill...you're gonna love that budget system in combination with FSX. This set up was tested extensively at TechCorp and performed perfectly. This is the first motherboard that all of the techs agreed was truly the most powerful and dependable budget board for i7 to date! By the way there is an i5 1156 version as well for those who don't care about Hyperthreading for games.
Ted

Just wanted to add we had our Sabretooth system running at 4.2GHz on air and the MSI hawk core at 900mhz and it still ran flawlessly and reasonably cool running FAR CRY2 at full settings. Apparently guru3d.com agrees with our findings on the MSI GTX460OC Hawk and the ASUS Sabretooth motherboard.

**dswo** · October 22nd, 2010, 10:23

I was wondering about the little monitor. Then I read the first blog post. You're going to fly with a projector!

**spotlope** · October 22nd, 2010, 10:40

Originally Posted by dswo

I was wondering about the little monitor. Then I read the first blog post. You're going to fly with a projector!

Yep, that's just my second monitor from upstairs that I temporarily filched to set up the FS rig. I'll probably get a monitor for the POD rig as well, to use for gauges, GPS, etc., but the projector will provide the main display.

**ryanbatc** · October 22nd, 2010, 11:03

Nice video... was it complex to install the heatsink onto the motherboard?

My system is so old that I don't use the brackets that attach to the other side.

Apparently all the new ones have the brackets (if it's a huge hsf).

**spotlope** · October 22nd, 2010, 11:23

Originally Posted by ryanbatc

Nice video... was it complex to install the heatsink onto the motherboard?

My system is so old that I don't use the brackets that attach to the other side.

Apparently all the new ones have the brackets (if it's a huge hsf).

It wasn't that tough, but there were multiple choices for type of bracket depending on which CPU was installed, and it took me a bit to sort out which ones to use and how to attach them. There are indeed mounting holes in the motherboard and a big plate that attaches the cooler to backside. It was also a bit of a challenge figuring out how to position and attach the cooler with only two hands.

**Lewis-A2A** · October 22nd, 2010, 11:26

Ok first things first, your voice is way too deep for the image ive built up of you over my years of simming, so stop spoiling my mental images!

Next up WOW, best of luck with the project, I really look forward to future updates. I love this sort of stuff. We recently had a chap on our forums who built an entire spitfire cockpit and posted updates from start to finish on our forums, it was always nice to log on and see the latest post of the project and then at the end just read through the thread and how it had gone from start to finish.