[Build log] 4 screens flight sim for 542$ CAD ?!?!

[givingtnt]

Hello ! and welcome to my build log for my lastest build.

 

 

Here's some pictures I found of the thing in full glory: 



From the chair, the instruments are in perfect line of sight. (Although the keyboard is a bit far back on the top shot.)

 

 

PICTURES in second post

story : 
 

'so basically im an air cadet, and we wanted a flight sim that we could add things to.
since we have a millitary computer we cannot open . (4690k and no gpu)so iv been tasked to build one for 750$ CAD! 
but not any kind of flight sim. one that has 5 SCREENS so yeah,
I watched back scrapyardwars.. and here we go !(fun fact. I ended up under budget !)'

original budget : 750$ CAD for a pc and 4 screens (surround : 3x 1240x1024px ) (extra monitor : 1x 1240x1024)
final price : 542$ CAD 

 

the pc :

• CPU : Intel Core 2 Quad  Q6600  (30$)
• Motherboard : EVGA 780i SLI (80$)
• RAM : 4x2 gb ddr2 (44$)
• GPU : 2x 660ti 2gb (Gigabyte and MSI)  (240$)
• Wireless Network Card : TP-Link something something wireless N (Free !)
• Case some Xblade gaming case with blue leds  (15$)
• Storage : 1tb seagate drive (don't remember the model by heart)  (Free !)
• PSU : DeepCool DA650W  (43$)
• Display(s) 2x17" 3x19" 3:4 displays (2 free + 60$)
• Cooling : stock intel cooler  (free !)
• Operating System : Windows 7 64 bit  (30$)
• PC Part Picker URL : coming soon  

 taxes included in price for a total of 542$

 

 

the original plan was to go for 5 screens, but sadly I coudn't fit in the budget, so we went with 4 and extra money for buying drones.... (5 of them)

[givingtnt]

Spoiler

 

 

 

[givingtnt]

some intreguing things : 

one stick of ram is broken,, returning it to the store soon.
the sata cable from the mobo to the hdd is out of an xbox 360
one of the fan is from a mac g3
everything exept the psu is used stuff

 

oh yeah, and the case is terrible

[givingtnt]

UPDATE 3/4 : 

The ram is fixed. 8gb fully working.

windows is bought and activated.
FSB is oced by 87mhz (lolz didn't spent doo much time overclocking yet)
2nd hdd has been added (160gb sata2) for a hdd mirror (in case anyone who don'T know what they are doing breaks something.....)
added a IDE dvd drive (didn't had any sata ones :P)
added my personal wireless card from tplink (donation)

 

 

ok. here's the thing. one of the monitor (aqcessory display) had to be dvi / hdmi too. but it was vga. so to make sure surround worked. I ripped off my own monitor from my setup (1080p 27") temporarly.. wich nuked the performance in games

anyway. here is the picture iv been hoping to take for the past 2 weeks :  

 

this is basically like running 3 1080p displays on 2 660ti's (  5760x1024px  )

wich lets not kid ourselves is actually pretty hard on the cards for a flight sim (9fps with my 1080p screen maxed)

[givingtnt]

build update 1/4 (found the thread back)
 

Quote

howdy yall ! today is the first day of this project, where I actually go and get parts for it. yay !

so this is a project for my air cadet squadron, where it has been gived to me to build a computer with the capabilities to run flight simulator x, on 5 screens. (all under 1080p res.. idk yet)
 

the challenge ? build it with under 500$ for the computer itself. and run 3 different resolution screens.

here is what I have : 

CPU:  q6600--------------------------------------------------------------------------------25$
COOLER:  stock cooler for 775 motherboard-------thanks !------------------FREE

MOTHERBOARD:  evga 780i nForce sli (775 socket)-------------------------80$

RAM:  8gb ddr2----------------------------------------------------------------------------44$

GPU1:  msi 660ti 2gb--------------GPU NOT RUNNING IN SLI----------------120$
GPU2:  gigabyte 660ti 2gb-------------------------------------------------------------120$
STORAGE:  random 80gb sata 2----------------------------------------------------20$ (cheaper but I don't remember)
PSU:  evga b 750W supernova------------------------------------------------------50-75$ (depends on when we buy)
CASE:  20$ random

SCREENS 1x 16:9 720p // 2x 19" 3:4 // 2x 17" 3:4

 

pictures to come !

 

 

Total price of build : 750$ +- (thats for the actual mount for the screens and all...)

 

benchmark the gpu !
so I only have the demo of firestrike.. so yeah
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/6644386   no oc
oc is coming

--EDIT : oc failed.. here is proof : 

 

here is the parts I have yet : 

 

[iHardware Shelden]

 I remember following this

[DarkRuskov]

Where did you buy your parts?

[givingtnt]

6 minutes ago, DarkRuskov said:

Where did you buy your parts?

the psu was Canada Computers.

the gpus and motherboard were off kijiji.com
the cpu is a local pc repair shop 

 

the rest, (case, ram, screens, cables...) were from a place called Encan Depot in montreal. its a shop where they buy lots of pc parts and stuff from companies that are closing. so lots of the same parts... lots of the sa......

they have pallets of cases. stored away.

the storage devices were donations
the wireless card was from me.

thats about it !

 

 

 

 

tomorrow im making plans to mount the whole thing on a foldable desk for storage and easy acess. so I will have an update in liek a week or so

[DarkRuskov]

Is the repair shop in Montreal too? Because I live in Montreal and I'm thinking about building a PC and I was considering the used market but I don't know it that well...

[givingtnt]

Just now, DarkRuskov said:

Is the repair shop in Montreal too? Because I live in Montreal and I'm thinking about building a PC and I was considering the used market but I don't know it that well...

no its in laval. close to the north shore of the city too.
 

if you go to Encan Depot, you will see, its a long street with like 6-7 of these computer shops. they have tons of parts. gpus, ram, mobo's.. 
good and bad stuff.  you can surely find anything you need there. I almost bought a quadro there. 
these shops are on the same street, its near the airport.  totally worth looking around for a day.

[DarkRuskov]

1 minute ago, givingtnt said:

no its in laval. close to the north shore of the city too.
 

if you go to Encan Depot, you will see, its a long street with like 6-7 of these computer shops. they have tons of parts. gpus, ram, mobo's.. 
good and bad stuff.  you can surely find anything you need there. I almost bought a quadro there. 
these shops are on the same street, its near the airport.  totally worth looking around for a day.

thank's that's seems like a cool spot !

[jman116]

On 1/23/2016 at 8:11 PM, givingtnt said:

 

Hidden Content

what drones?

[givingtnt]

2 hours ago, jman116 said:

what drones?

what is the post you quotes ? idk what your talking about

[jman116]

4 hours ago, givingtnt said:

what is the post you quotes ? idk what your talking about

the original plan was to go for 5 screens, but sadly I coudn't fit in the budget, so we went with 4 and extra money for buying drones.... (5 of them)

[givingtnt]

56 minutes ago, jman116 said:

the original plan was to go for 5 screens, but sadly I coudn't fit in the budget, so we went with 4 and extra money for buying drones.... (5 of them)

yeah they wanted to buy small drones (random cheap ones. nothing much of interest.)

[Angy]

Hi 

 

im in the Australian Air Force Cadets, and i am currently planning an Ammo Box PC for a personal flight sim 

link is here:

i know the price for all the stuff is double what you wanted to spend, but it has a good military feel. its small and potable so I can take it to Cadet nights. 

 

[givingtnt]

7 minutes ago, Angy said:

Hi 

 

im in the Australian Air Force Cadets, and i am currently planning an Ammo Box PC for a personal flight sim 

link is here:

i know the price for all the stuff is double what you wanted to spend, but it has a good military feel. its small and potable so I can take it to Cadet nights. 

 

nice !
our air cadets are much less millitary (we actually claim to be 0% millitary, though if you're in the movement long enough, you know its not just $$ and offices )

but thats very nice !

[Angy]

yes aha,

we did use some old PC's but they were just shitty, so i decided to just build my own and occasionally take it with me.

[givingtnt]

Just now, Angy said:

yes aha,

we did use some old PC's but they were just shitty, so i decided to just build my own and occasionally take it with me.

nice

[givingtnt]

Revisiting this thread I realised, I never posted a final photo !

So here it is, in all it's glory (Actually not, this photo is missing the instrument panel monitor (just behind the yoke in theory).. idk where it went this is an old photo and it does work..)

 

 

Oh right, this was before we cut the hole for it  

 

I'll find another photo one day...

[Zando_]

14 minutes ago, givingtnt said:

Revisiting this thread I realised, I never posted a final photo !

So here it is, in all it's glory (Actually not, this photo is missing the instrument panel monitor (just behind the yoke in theory).. idk where it went this is an old photo and it does work..)

 

-snip-

 

Oh right, this was before we cut the hole for it  

 

I'll find another photo one day...

Daaaaaaaaaaaamn the aspect ratio on those monitors tho. Real square hours. 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Daaaaaaaaaaaamn the aspect ratio on those monitors tho. Real square hours. 

Ole Spongebob I'm Ready! I'm Ready! lookin' monitors.