>I had planned to buy a new top of the line system for about>$4000 and the three monitors for about $1000 more which will>have two top of the line video cards. My present stsytem is a>two year old ABS computer with a P4 2.6 processor and it came>with two top of the line (then) video cards. Don't remember>the brand of vedio cards and I'm backing up that computer>right now so I can't look right now.>What do you think of this plan?> Since this is fairly good computer that I have right now, buy>the three new LCD monitors that I want for my new 3 monitor>set-up and hook them up to my newest compuer and see if I>really like flying with the three monitors. This way, even>though the viewing of the new LCD monitors with my 2 year old>computer might be less than desirable, at least I could get an>idea what it would be like. I want to see: THREE 2d views of>the cotpit and THREE 2d views of the outside(spot view) when I>fly. If it is too much trouble switching between the inside>and the outside views, then I'll sell the three LCD monitors>for 1/2 price and forget the whole 3 monitor thing.>>Everyone to their own taste, but I see a LOT OF YOU HAVE A LOT>OF GAUGES PASTED ALL AROUND THE DIFFERANT 3 MONITORS. I only>want the three views of each (inside/outside): LEFT side/>Center/ RIGHT side, only the three PURE views with NO extra>gauges or INSTRUMENTS showing, even in BLANK spaces. I know>that the TH2GO STRECHES the one view across three monitors...>I don't want that either. What do you think of this "try>before I buy" method? Thanks jerrycwo4Hello Jerry:Sounds like you really are ready to bite the bullet. Of course a "top of the line system" needs to be defined. Have you considered building it yourself? Possibly a new set of video cards may be right around the corner (as well as CPU's), so you may want to investigate that before you jump.With almost everybody else favoring 3d virtual I am a little bit surprised to hear a post favoring 2d displays. Unless I am mistaken, what you desire is quite possible, but I personally would not do without all of the secondary panels you don't particularly care for. Eye candy and scenery are not quite as important to me as functionallity and performance of the bird (although I don't count them out). I imagine someone with a setup similar to what you describe will chime in.Good luck:RTH

"With almost everybody else favoring 3d virtual I am a little bit surprised to hear a post favoring 2d displays"------The best reason for 2D triple mons is the Field of View that can be achieved:Views LFwd,Fwd,RFwd for a total of 135

>With almost everybody else favoring 3d virtual I am a little>bit surprised to hear a post favoring 2d displays. Not so fast. There are still plenty of us using 2D. VCs don't do it for me.EwingKATLAlcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be a store, not a government agency.MSI K8N Neo2 PlatinumAMD Opteron 185 2.6 Ghz Dual Core2GB Kingston HyperX (2X1GB) Dual Channel DDR 2-3-2-6 @ 1TXFX nVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB DDR3 AGPSound Blaster Audigy LSSilverStone Decathlon 750W +12v@60A +5v@30AFS9 on WinXPPro (SP1)

I delete the VC from every plane I fly and then gain 20-30% FPS. Easy trade off for me. With 3 monitors to span, I actually move my head to look across the landscape, rather than let a HAT or a little dot my forehead do the looking for me. To each his own.Flourtnoy

>I delete the VC from every plane I fly and then gain 20-30%>FPS. Easy trade off for me. >With 3 monitors to span, I actually move my head to look>across the landscape, rather than let a HAT or a little dot my>forehead do the looking for me. To each his own.>>FlourtnoyI'm with Kimchoc - I delete all VC's from my planes. 3 panel flying is the OOOONnnnnly way to fly -- I'm actually going with 4 now, with the 4th being on my second computer, running my Electronic Flight Board, FSEarth, Radar Contact, Active Sky, etc., all the while reading email, web surfing, etc.

Chuck- with that 4th monitor- why not also add View Right in addition to reading Email- and get a true 180

>Chuck- with that 4th monitor- why not also add View Right in>addition to reading Email- and get a true 180

Chuck- there's also a Panel Config line to reposition Virtual elements that may appear in secondary views. Such as engine nacelles, window frames etc. These can be shifted laterally, up/down or twisted/rotated to better conform to the positioning, angle or tilt of the secondary monitors.(Kimchoc doesn't believe in virtual elements- he deletes 'em all!):)Alex Reid

Thanks for all of the good info. Instead of buying the whole rig now (new computer wtih 2 video cards) and 3 LCD monitors, I'm just going to buy the three monitors and see if I like them. If not, I'll have lost only $500-$600 instead of $5,000. jerrycwo4PS and this is REAL important.... after a lot of research, I understand that to fly with 2d panels that the LCD monitors that I have to buy are 4:3 ratio standard and NOT, repeat NOT, WIDESCREEN? (16:10 ratio)

That's right . . . NOT widescreen. You CAN bun widescreens but you'll have to modify all your panel.cfg files for each aircraft, and to me it just isn't worth the hassle.

Chuck/Jerry- If you're flying 2D, a regular 5:4 mon makes sense for main monitor. However for secondary mons, wide screen should work fine since everything- view & popups will be sized to fit the available territory- ie more desktop for a wider view perspective (but same Field of View) & space to place more popups!Jim Cooper suggested awhile back that a wide mon for 2D main monitor will work nicely by simply dragging the side of the 2D panel inward to restore normal proportions- avoiding ovalization of gauges. This would leave a piece of unused desktop (below the wider view) into which you could place a popup such as throttle or CDU. The main view itself is OK and would automatically stretch full width.Jerry- if you have a decent CRT you like, you could try 2 LCDs with the CRT as main mon. Sure, the bezel separation is a bit greater but it can be offset precisely in Panel Config to keep everything synched.The downside of this strategy is that it would be nice to have 3 identical mons- no colour balancing needed and a simpler learning curve with the mons.Let us know how you make out.Alex Reid

Um,, no wide screen monitors?? These are 3 17" widescreen default reso 1440x900The only thing I alter in cfg is the alignment. Did I miss the point?tre, do you already have the 4th monitor hooked up?http://eecherrors.homestead.com/monitor3.jpg

Hello Ewing:I did not mean to imply in any way that for me 2d panels are out, and 3d VC's are in. If you have seen any of my past posts that were relative, you would have seen that I very seldom venture into VC's and when I have, for this old CFI of times past, they really were not my thing.I simply meant that it seems to me that the VC's appear to be favored by the majority of the posts I read now days, and more power to anyone who has that opinion. In fact, 2d preferences seem to appear so seldom now that it surprised me a bit.Functionality, visibility and performance of the panel is my preference, not eye candy and I have not found that in VC's by far in large relative to my personal taste. In times past, the real world panels in front of me were not too pretty anyway. Maybe I just identify with the wrong thing (Old dog and new tricks).Happy flying:RTH

Um, yes you did. :-) If you use 2D panels with a widescreen FS9 will stretch it out.

Chuck- But then simply grab the side of the 2D panel with the mouse and drag it back to normal proportions. This leaves a nice bit of unused desktop for a popup such as CDU or Throttle. So there's no reason I'm aware of to NOT use a widescreen with any 2D panel/popups. Might even be an improvement.Alex Reid