I have been a PC gamer for many years, and have dabled in ultra widescreen gaming before, but using one big screen with a projector in my home theatre. Now I have a man cave with my (self-built) simpit, featuring a 61" LED 3D DLP TV, 3x27" LED monitors, 7.1 sound, CPU with i5 2500K and one NVIDIA GTX 670. I also have NVIDIA 3D vision, and I use Free Track for head motion tracking.
My space is now referred to as The Modular Man-Cave.
The watching movies setup. The simpit is off camera on the left side of the room.
The triple screen "desk" I made out of pre-made shelf board. It's the closest I could find that matched the simpit. It's on casters so I can just roll it anywhere I want. When I don't want to use my simpit I can just roll it in front of my couch for FPS's and other games!
Using the simpit with my 61" LED 3D DLP TV, like I did before.
Using the simpit with the triple screen desk in front of the TV to make use of the 7.1 sound.
Using the simpit with the desk on the side of the room while the TV can be used to watch a movie.
I haven't had much time to play yet, but I'm loving it so far. NVIDIA surround using one single GTX 670 video card has been working excellent for all racing and flight sim games so far as well as FPS's!
I've put off getting 3 screens before because i didn't want to go the SLI route and I have my own reasons for not going with ATI Eyefinity. (3D being one of them). NVIDIA finally got it right!
With this Modular Man-Cave I get the best of all setups within a low budget!
I have an updated extensive video tour of the setup at my new house!
The Modular Man-Cave! Driving & Flight Simpit, 3x 27" screens, 61" LED DLP TV, G25, Saitek X52 Pro
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Below is an older post showing the build process of the simpit:
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Well..... OK, so the title is a little dramatic! After using my previous simpit for about a year... I figured it was time to rebuild! I didn't want to get rid of the old post because,... well, that simpit no longer exists...and someone may have wanted to see it...
The old girl... we had good times together...
Oh, well... out with the old and in with the new! The total build time was about 1 week of free time. I still wanted to be able to do car and flight sims like before. Tools available this time were just an old Table Saw, a Skill saw, and a Jigsaw... all borrowed from friends. I decided to build this time out of Black Melamine for the simple reason that there is NO SANDING, PRIMING, or PAINTING!!! I used two 4'x8' sheets...
Here goes the progress:
Taking apart the old pit for parts and space...
Construction begins... the wife cringes!
The bottom frame with the old plastic couch legs for fairly easy movement...
All the big main pieces were cut at Home Depot (you get 5 free cuts), so I just got each of my two 4'x8' sheets on different trips...
Disassembly of the G25 pedals for inverted mounting...that part was a pain to get the right angle and height!
The mess begins...
The Shifter/Flightstick assembly...
The mess worsens...
But then.... the day arrives....
Its done!!!... well mostly.
The Flight Throttle now beside the chair and much more comfy...
The shifter with my TERRIBLE cutting of the hole for the G25 (covered with electrical tape) :mad:
When I want to change from a Car Pit to a Flight cockpit... I first loosen the two "T" nuts on both sides of the shifter console...
Then I lift up the top lid...
Then the shifter rotates down...
...and around 180 degrees to reveal the Flightstick (old Logitech Force 3D Pro)
Then I just tighten the "T" nuts again, and lower the lid and I'm good to go for Flight! The only thing holding that Flightstick down when its upside-down is dollar-store velcro!
The end of the pit where all the wires come out... eventually this will hopefully be mostly hidden...
and the shifter console has a storage place that holds something amazing....
My super-duper custom made Head-tracking hat made for Free-Track (track-ir type software for free) using Kinex... :)
and my even more amazing Wii remote stand (made from cardboard) to hold my Wii remote used for Free-Track.
When all is done for the day.... I slide my pit to the side of my Man Cave...
Future plans... maybe a button/switch panel by the Throttle to turn on/off the Flightick/wheel/Throttle/keyboard, so I can hide the USB Hub...
and maybe even some casters to make moving easier!!!
Here are some pics of the small updates I made to my Car / Flight Simpit...
Here is my new switch panel that allows me to turn on/off everything that's hooked up to the USB hub. Some games need to have only the wheel plugged in... or the Throttle may cause a prolem for another game,etc... Also has a key lock to lock out everything... and now I have a spare USB connector (hidden under near the wheel clamps) for I-POD,etc...
Now the usb hub and wires are all contained inside so the only visible wire is the keyboard and power bar.
The Wii-remote stand is all black now...
And I built a new Free-Track cap that is wireless and more comfortable...
And here it is powered by 2 AAA rechargable batteries and a power switch.
Nothing else... maybe I'll make a youtube video showing it in action...
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