Planning First Cockpit...Assessing Hardware, help?

[Riddlin]

Hello, just found these forums and been reading a bit. Thought this a good place to ask my first building question.

I have my main PC: Asus Sabertooth Mobo with an i5 3750k and 8gigs of ram. I have a 256gb SSD(2x128s RAID 0) and a Radeon 7950 vid card. I am currently using 3x 20.1 dell monitors in eyefinity mode for a 5124x1200(bezel comp) desktop. I am running Win7 64bit Pro on this one.

I have two other older pcs and don't know if they would be of any use to me in my building plans. Both will be using XP Pro 32bit. One is a Pentium D 940 Presler 3.2GHz, 2gb ram, 150gb HDD with a Radeon 6850 vid card and the other is a Pentium D 805 Smithfield 2.66GHz, 2gb ram, 80gb HDD with a crappy old 7900GT nVidia vid card.

I am thinking about getting another 7950 to crossfire. I will be 'collecting' three new 24" widescreen monitors for my main eyefinity screens meaning I will have 3-4 20.1 dells as alternates and potential instrument screens for the cockpit.

Lastly, I have an old projector, BenQ W100, 854x480 native res, but I have used it on my HTPC and 360 in 1080i and it looks pretty good!

So, my main question I guess is how to best utilize the hardware I have.

I am wanting to use wideview, active sky and xpax(or something like that) and would probably like to use FSXpand eventually...any thoughts?

I don't have a problem building another pc, just not another main gaming rig, if I have to spend another $400-$600 on pc hardware to make this work, I can make that happen I guess. Just can't fork out another $1500 right now and stay married!

Just let me know if anyone has any thoughts!
Thanks in advance,
Ridd

[Steve5006]

I think to be able to answer your question in full detail we would need to know a little bit more about your simulator plans. What type of aircraft are you looking to model? What sort of immersion do you want?

For the most part secondary computers for sim setups don't need a lot of horsepower; but again this depends on what you need.

[Riddlin]

Hey thanks for responding!

I am looking to use FSX almost exclusively. I am hearing good things about X-Plane 10 but I think I will wait and see with it for a while longer. I am building an enclosed simpit that will model a Cessna 172(only a little bigger in size) and will offer the ability to fly virtually all the GA types as well as the occasional heavy. I eventually want to do a full 737 but thats for the future.

I will have 5 24" monitors, 3three front view and 1 each for the side windows. I also will have 2 20" monitors for instruments.

I have heard that adding a second video card to my main PC (not crossfired/sli) might be the way to go.

I want to run REX and some good real world terrain packs, and WidevieW for at least the side monitors. I think FSExpand will be my only option for the instrument monitors.

Does that help with the details?

Also, I am considering upgrading to an i7 3770k(i think it was) and getting a GTX 690 by years end IF a pair of Radeon 7950's won't cut it.

Thanks again for your help,
Ridd