The 'Look What the Postman Brought Me' Thread - Technology Edition

[Hatredsheart]

It's the same fan as the one that came with the cooler, Noctua NF-F12, only £15 as it was second hand on ebay, on Amazon it's £21.
Yeah, the monitor's back from when I had a 2070 super, I'm happy with 1080p at 144hz atm but I'll prob go for a 27" 1440p eventually, prices permitting ofc.
I was really lucky with the 3070 Tuf OC at £570 back in October, the same retailer - OCUK - is selling the bugger at £929.99 now

[Rossell]

Thanks for your help with TVs earlier on chaps, I bought the Sony X89J 43 inch in the end. Would've tried the X90J but that only came in a 50 inch that was too big. Still, it replaces my old one and its my first 4k as well so I'm sure it'll be a good one, arrives Saturday.

[Drarok]

Yeah, the monitor's back from when I had a 2070 super, I'm happy with 1080p at 144hz atm but I'll prob go for a 27" 1440p eventually, prices permitting ofc.

Another vote for 1440p@144 here, make sure you get a G-Sync monitor though so you can have variable framerate without tearing – if that's the sort of thing that bothers you, anyway. I absolutely hate screen tearing, and having only a 1070 I can't maintain high frame rates all the time in more modern games.

[Wrathbone]

After a year of sporadically buying flight sim peripherals for Flight Simulator 2020 as and when they came in stock at various places, I've finally today completed my setup :

Spoiler

Total cost for everything over the year is just over £500, which honestly is a lot less than I thought it would be before counting up. Absolutely chuffed with it all - it makes flying an absolute joy and as close to the real thing as I'm ever likely to get. Here's each item (I only got the throttle and the multi panel from Amazon, but I'll list them all from there for convenience):

Alpha Honeycomb yoke
Logitech Saitek PRO Flight rudder pedals
Logitech Saitek PRO Fight throttle quadrant
Logitech Saitek multi panel
Logitech Saitek radio panel

Now I just need a PC that can handle displaying FS2020 across three 1440p monitors. Next year...

[Raid]

I've finally today completed my setup

As someone with well over a grand's worth of flight sim peripherals (who once foolishly thought that a Thrustmaster Warthog was the most HOTAS I'd ever need), I say pffft, no such thing as completed.

But in all seriousness that looks great for general aviation. I imagine there's something relaxing and satisfying about using a flight yoke rather than a stick.

I'm currently trying to work out if I can justify buying a separate helicopter collective controller for the upcoming DCS AH-64D Apache module. There really isn't another aircraft that could have been announced for the ultra-detailed military flight sim that I could have been more excited for, and if you've ever seen the insane controller that the gunner uses in that aircraft, you'll understand that you need a lot of controls at your fingertips. I'm already eyeing up a permanent sim rig for my simming though, and with my recent purchase of a new VR headset, I've probably already spent enough on sim stuff this year.

[Wrathbone]

I have no idea what anything on that gunner controller does but I want one.

The yoke came earlier this week, so I’ve not had much chance yet to get to grips with it, but it’s night and day difference to the X-52 stick I came from. I spent months resisting buying the cheap Saitek yoke which has been in stock for a while so I could hold out for the Alpha (which has been out of stock everywhere since August) and I’m so glad I did. As reviewers have commented, it feels like a £500 yoke rather than a £200 one - it’s butter smooth, and the precision it allows makes a tangible difference in flight, particularly with landings. Also the switch panel on it is great, as I like to do a proper start up from cold and dark.

Credit to FS2020 too for how it handles all these devices together seamlessly with minimal setup (literally all I’ve done is swapped a few buttons for personal preference). Details like the radio and multi panels only lighting up when you turn the battery and avionics on is really immersive, and it all just works. Few sim games have ever been that straightforward in my experience.

[Raid]

That's the exact opposite experience I had when I very briefly tried FS2020 with my setup. Absolutely nothing was bound to begin with, not even the throttle, bank or pitch axes, and it was an absolute pain to try and set it up, and I very quickly lost interest, although as I'm not really a fan of general aviation, it did have something of an uphill battle.

It's a fair point actually; FS2020 and Covid together absolutely ruined the flight sim peripheral market, with even lower end options being sold for inflated sums. I'm a bit surprised you managed to find all of that kit for the price you did. You could probably sell that X52 for the price you bought it at were you so inclined.

[Alan]

I simultaneously do not understand the draw of spending so much on this stuff and absolutely love that there are folk that can get so very into it that they do spend so much with badass setups.

Hell when I think about it I’ve spent way more than a grand on just fight sticks. Whatcha gonna do. \o/

[Raid]

There's been something of a perfect storm for me in the last five years. Firstly the software; DCS World gives you such fidelity that every switch and button and dial in a modern fighter's cockpit is modelled and performs the appropriate action in the avionics. Secondly there's VR, which surrounds you with this cockpit and gives a true feel of immersion. Thirdly, I have the spending power these days to support it all.

It's all pure childhood wish fulfilment for me; I've wanted something like this since Jane's US Navy Fighters and F-22 ADF, maybe even as far back as Jungle Strike on the Megadrive.

[Wrathbone]

For me, it's partly because I've always liked the idea of being a pilot but don't enjoy flying. I wouldn't go as far as saying it was a fear of flying so much as a dislike of the experience to the point where I'd never enjoy being an actual pilot. This is the next best thing, and it's good enough now that you can learn genuine real world theory and application from flight sims. I love that I could hypothetically jump into a variety of civilian aircraft now, from Cessnas to Airbuses, and have a pretty good chance of actually being able to fly them. Not safely or to any acceptable level of procedure yet, but I could comfortably get from runway A to runway B in a Cessna 172 or an Airbus A320 (with the MCDU pre-programmed with the flight plan in the A320 - I still haven't got my head fully round programming that from scratch yet).

It's also partly because the hardware is ace. Look at it, it's all so nice! Similar to Raid, I'm now in a financial position where I can splash a bit of cash on stuff like this. I'm having a blast with it all and don't regret spending a single penny.

[Raid]

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I just enjoy using these sorts of peripherals. Ever since my Sidewinder Precision Pro in the 90s I've had a taste for owning quality peripherals, and I don't think I ever grew out of enjoying pressing buttons. And I just have so many buttons to play with. I remember as a small child my parents had to lift me up to the cash machine to press the buttons when they wanted some money out.

I wouldn't have the patience to learn the proper discipline for real life flying. I honestly think I could take off, nail a tank with the GAU-8 Avenger in the A-10C Warthog, maybe even land again afterwards, but damned if I can learn the ATC speak required to use an actual airport safely.

[Hatredsheart]

For me, it's partly because I've always liked the idea of being a pilot but don't enjoy flying. I wouldn't go as far as saying it was a fear of flying so much as a dislike of the experience to the point where I'd never enjoy being an actual pilot. This is the next best thing, and it's good enough now that you can learn genuine real world theory and application from flight sims. I love that I could hypothetically jump into a variety of civilian aircraft now, from Cessnas to Airbuses, and have a pretty good chance of actually being able to fly them. Not safely or to any acceptable level of procedure yet, but I could comfortably get from runway A to runway B in a Cessna 172 or an Airbus A320 (with the MCDU pre-programmed with the flight plan in the A320 - I still haven't got my head fully round programming that from scratch yet).

It's also partly because the hardware is ace. Look at it, it's all so nice! Similar to Raid, I'm now in a financial position where I can splash a bit of cash on stuff like this. I'm having a blast with it all and don't regret spending a single penny.

Not piloting as such but I've flown (and even landed successfully) a glider in my younger days. Open no-canopy job, bloody loved it.

[Wrathbone]

I imagine the views (especially with the lack of distracting engine noise in a glider) were magnificent. I still think I'd be clinging to the seat the entire way.

[Maturin]

That's an impressive looking setup WB!

I flew about 10 hours in total in a chipmunk (the plane) when I was a teenager in the air cadets. But for some reason I never transferred that interest to gaming.

[Raid]

So when I moved house, I decided to allow myself one extravagance. That extravagance was a new living room audio setup, as for the last year and a half I've been using the (actually surprisingly decent but lacking any and all bass) built in speakers with my TV. Most people when they upgrade from built in speakers will go for a nice soundbar. Did I do this? Did I fuck.



So, here we have a set of Elac Debut speakers (comprising of two tower sets, a centre channel and two upward-firing Atmos speakers), a subwoofer that's hiding just out of frame (because it didn't come with a cable that I'm still waiting on arriving), powered by a Denon X1600H receiver, which was the most available receiver I could find (seriously, these things are as rare as GPUs and I can't work out why). I'm actually thinking the sub was unnecessary, because the main left and right towers have plenty of oomph to them anyway, so much so that I had to move them away from the walls a bit.

I think I'd forgotten how good audio can sound. I tend to think of my Creative T20s as good speakers, and I'm really fond of my Sony 1000XM3 headphones, but they just don't compare. I'm getting goosebumps from songs I've heard a hundred times before. Sadly Spotify doesn't support Atmos, so the centre and upwards-firing channels aren't doing anything when listening to music, but Disney Plus supports it, and the Bad Batch episode I just watched was quite exciting. Most speech comes through the centre channel, with echo effects being bounced upwards.

And yes, I did factor in the neighbours when I bought these. I do live in a semi-detached, but thankfully it's one where the hallways are in the centre of the two houses, so I can just shut the doors to prevent most of the bleed through. I'm still afraid to turn them up any higher than 50% though.