Any PC Builders Out There?

Well...decided to dip my toes after over 20 years of not using a joystick

Ordered both a Thrustmaster T Flight Stick X as well as a VKB Sim Gladiator Premium stick

Why both you ask? Cause I haven't used a joystick since Mech Warrior back when the Microsoft Sidewinder came out

The Thrustmaster arrives today and the VBK whenever FedEx delivers

Had contemplated getting the X56 but after experiencing bad quality control from Logitech myself (and reading tons of bad reviews) I opted to go VKB Sim

Once the VKB arrives I'll most likely toss the TM in the extra keyboard/mice box or return it and get a dedicated throttle

 

Update, ordered the Virpil CM3

 

@Kwikvette @TrackAttack
Well, I sold what I needed to sell to fund the sim equipment! Ordered everything and set it all up over the weekend, along with the desk modification/aluminum extrusion setup. Everything works exactly as intended, and I can easily slide it down the track out of the way, since my desk is now a drift cockpit, a PC gaming station, and college work desk all in one lol. One thing I didn't anticipate was height of pedals, in relation to the height of the wheel/office chair as seat, so I built a small stand out of some scrap 4x4 and 3/4 plywood to raise the pedals 10". It honestly feels way better than I could have imagined, and the realism is way better than I could have hoped for. I can't wait to eventually build out a dedicated rig with haptics one day lol.

 

Awwwe fuck yeah!

I'm definitely going with aluminum extrusion for the frame once I build out a setup next year. That looks awesome.

What are you loving most about the direct drive setup?

Here's what I ordered, started with the VKB in case I wouldn't "enjoy" the experience but holy shit it's awesome. Huge step up from anything the big brand companies offer.





And the Virpil CM3 has a 3-5 week lead time so I thought I'd buy Thrustmaster's best throttle to hold me over while I waited.





And because these peripherals are just too big and awkward to use on a desk, I'm making small stands that'll sit on each side of me until I fully build it all out.

These are the legs -



The "foot" that'll sit between the slots on the legs. One will have the silhouette and the other will be blank.



The top is bent so I can drill and mount a hardwood platform on top for my peripheral.

Holes serve as a means of running a long 130mm bolt through with an aluminum rod that'll be between the legs to act like a spacer. All the hardware will give it an 'industrial' look with the gear.

 

Idk anything about flight or other sims, but whatever all that is looks really nice! hah. The stand design and outcome is super cool though. I'm sure it can be a little excessive and costly to build "1-off" setups like we have, but the enjoyment along the way, and the functionality of it all is completely unmatched! There's no possible way I could make a full sim rig with bucket seat, or even just a budget wheel/pedal stand work with my current setup. I'm also trying to really think ahead as well. I spent the most where I really felt the most value/longevity would be (wheel base and pedals), and everything I have can transfer to a future 80/20 rig whenever I get the space and make that move. As far as the DD wheelbase, the feedback is absolutely wild. I've never done real life drifting, but I've accidentally spun out a couple times in my earlier wilder days, and the DD feedback feels exactly like it.. The alpha mini has advertised 10nm of force (11nm on 3rd party bench tests), and it is more than enough to break some fingers/wrists if you do something dumb with it lol. The feedback is insane, its powerful, it fights back when you under/oversteer/spin/hit bumps/go off course/etc. Its everything I thought it would be, plus more honestly. And I'm still on very low settings just trying to learn! One thing I've learned so far, if you lose control and don't know exactly what to do to correct it, just take your hands off and try your best to slow down lol.

 

That sounds awesome.

I remember as a kid growing up, some arcades provided some direct feedback but it was easy to overpower and correct.

Figure 20 years later all that tech has only improved and become much more precise.

As for one off? I'd argue it's a lot cheaper; all the 12 gauge I'm using so far has been free and I have tons of square tube I can use as a sort of exterior frame before adding extruded aluminum. But like you, I'll need time to plan it out as it'll go in the extra room for a full sim setup.

 

Thats very true, it "can be" much cheaper - once you've already acquired the tools/materials over the years lol. My desk was way more expensive than a storebought, not because the lumber was high, but because I didn't have a router, saw, screws, etc. Now years later, every little thing I build (like the pedal platform) was "free" because I had every thing I needed already lol. The extrusion I used wasn't cheap, but luckily it can all be put towards the future sim rig, so I don't see it as a useless one-off buy.

 

Anyone have any experience with the fractal terra? I watched the gamers nexus review of it and liked it.

I have a mid tower at the moment, and want to build something smaller. I have a 5600g i would be using, so no gpu needed. I have ram and ssd as well, so i think just an itx board, case, and sff psu is all that would be needed? I dont have much experience with itx boards. If anyone knows of a decent priced one that works well on 5000 series cpus i appreciate it.

If too costly, ill just keep whats on my desk. Just looking to clear a little space. Plus an excuse to "build" a new system. Not that i need one.

 

New throttle arrived





Next to the Warthog

 

Dayum. That looks sweet. You playing DCS with that setup?

 

You would think

Nope, just Microsoft Flight Simulator

I do have DCS but I never actually played it; I may jump into it after getting all my physical buttons programmed the way I want them as logical controls.

The software is crazy powerful for this thing and really makes the Warthog feel like it should be sold for half the price it does.

 

I've got DCS as well. Got face tracking setup and a decent budget HOTAS, just can't bring myself to spend the time necessary to learn to play it. World of Warships is just too fun!

 

As in VR?

I haven't had a joystick in over 20 years, and never had a HOTAS so I figured why not?

Messing with the Virpil software yesterday for the first time has got me wanting to buy their Alpha joystick and WarBRD base

 

I seee . . . . this is really a gamers thread - that's cool.
I do build PCs . . . well actually I refurbish old (some very old) PCs and Laptops and install linux on them and give them new life.

I went through a stage where I kinda of sort of made them look like Windows but they really were linux and effectively the feel would not be familiar to a Windows user. I took a 12 year old MacBook and made it look like Windows 95 and even a Mac kind of look alike. But I didn't think this was a good approach because it just confused users and did not meet their expectations (it looked like Windows but it was not Windows). When I started making them clearly linux then I noticed they had a little learning curve but loved the snappy performance. But no - for sure none of the rigs I refurbish would be for gaming - just general user stuff.

Windows 10 imposter


Windows 95 imposter


Mac - "kind of"


Linux Mint

 

Not VR, I'm using a webcam to track head movements so that I can look around while in game. It works surprisingly well. Here is the reference I used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcXP7SNRchw

 

Would like to see a Win 3.1 setup.

 

Interesting, so you'd either have multiple displays or an ultrawide to really make use of the head turning?

My monitors are only a 27" G7 Odyssey and 27" Omen; old pic when the Odyssey came in



Don't have the real-estate at the moment for a big monitor

 

I mean with linux Cinnamon desktop since it's open source and you can edit the .css and .js files you can, if you are willing to spend the time and effort literally make the desk top look like anything you want. Same with the Pymouth splash screens - you can copy cat those as well. Even without editing those files you can customize the desktop way beyond what Windows and MAC will allow right out of the box. I just made a few easy quick hacks.
here's a Windows 7 ans Windows 11 - I'm not sure they are all that close - a real Windows user can easily spot they are fakes.


My best friend in HS started out driving BIG rig oil tankers and likes the dark mode (not my thing) so I did this linux desktop for him on an old laptop he wanted basically for travel to check emails and the web

 

Used to build a lot of gaming PC's in my younger days. But having no interest in games now I just built a home PC with AMD ryzen 3400G with intergrated graphics, 64GB of memory, 500Gb M2 drive and 1 TB WD black hard drive on a mini ITX MB. It water cooled and dead silent..



Looks very small and lonely inside a mid tower





Had to repair the keyboard on my daughters Dell XPS desktop. Unlike the IBM thinkpads we used at work where you could easily take the keyboard out by removing the top plate the Dell was insane. We had to work from the bottom, take out over 50 screws, and remove almost everything as we dug our way down to the keyboard

 

YEP do some of that as well - I am amazed what people will get rid of when just a minor repair, or just reformatting a hard drive will do. But typically I just replace the HDD with an SSD (just a small inexpensive SSD and use the old HDD as an external HDD for data) install a nice lite version of linux and you have a fast snappy rig for less than a $100 (prices have probably gone up some recently though). Macs and Dell have been the worst for me to work on - Lenovo and HP the easiest but probably because I have worked on those two the most.