Midwestboi

I fully agree. I had originally purchased the TM HOTAS-X in preparation for this A-10C sim- but then after drooling over the Warthog HOTAS for weeks- I finally gave in and purchased it. In Wings of Prey, I noticed a HUGE difference. Everything with the Warthog is smooth and, dare I say, realistic... while the HOTAS-X felt sloppy in comparison. The Warthog feels like you are holding the real thing- not some little plastic 'toy' that is trying to be a real flight stick. Yes it is expensive- but as I've said in other comments- this thing can be programmed for any current or future flight sim with 3rd party software if the sim itself doesn't support it. So no fears that it is, "only for the A-10" because it's not.

I was lucky to get a set of Cougar MFD's on E-bay... just be sure to ask the seller about what they have in-stock before actually ordering. He had seven available when I wrote, and even though I paid $94 total- at least I was able to get a set. Every place is sold out with no ETA- and if they claim to have them available- they are probably lying. ASK them first before ordering- several people have gotten screwed over by sites claiming to have them available when they don't. :-( With that being said... in regards to HELIOS. Since I am in the process of building my setup before actually using any of these programs- including this A-10 sim... I am basing my understanding on what I've heard from other people. It seems that if you use DCS to export the MFD data to the secondary monitor and use the Cougar's as on-screen bezels- you would have difficulty with adding additional 'hidden' panels with HELIOS. In other words, you wouldn't be able to swap screens to new panels without being hindered by the Cougar bezels. If possible, you'd have to configure every hidden panel to accommodate the DCS's exported MFD display. However, if you use HELIOS to export the MFD's on the touchscreen- then you could swap hidden panels without a problem. This is my understanding at least... correct me if I'm wrong. I plan to get a touchscreen and use HELIOS to display the MFD's while I program my Cougar MFD's through Xpadder to perform various other A-10 keyboard actions. That is the nice thing about the Cougar's- versatility; you can print new backgrounds with labels and use 3rd party software to program them for any game or sim.

I received my Cougar's yesterday from the seller on E-bay and they work perfectly (and are the ver.2, thankfully). I wonder why nobody has any stock on these- it's as if TM stopped manufacturing them or something. I mean, not even a "we got 20 in but they're gone"- just NOTHING... anywhere and no ETA's on any sites. Even though I paid almost double what most places charge, I guess I should consider myself lucky that I was able to get a set. reschke... it is unfortunate you personally discovered what I had posted earlier about with audio-discounters; I always check out the reviews on places before I order from them for this exact reason. The only reason I ordered from the seller on E-bay was because he was quick to get back to me about how many he actually had in-stock, so I was confident he would come through, and he did.

I have an older OCZ 30Gig SSD SATAII drive that is just sitting around not being used. I originally tried using it on a WinXP install- but had to offload all the cache and pagefiles to a regular HDD because of the s-l-o-w writes of the SSD; it then became a pain to use with backup software and other software installations which don't allow choice of drive path install. Eventually I just removed it altogether. However, it does have fast read rates- so I figured maybe now would be a time to break it out and use it again. So would this 30G SSD be beneficial to use for the A-10C install drive- while the main Win7 64-bit is on a regular HDD?

I ended up ordering the Radeon HD 5870 today... I couldn't pass up the deal. After the discounts and rebate, it'll only end up costing $199- which is cheaper than the 5850's are selling for. Next week I plan to order the extra RAM and Win7 Home Upgrade, so hopefully all of this will give me excellent fps with the A-10 sim. :thumbup:

Thanks for the info... gives me a lot to think about. I do like having the versatility of the laptop- should I ever NEED it for mobile use- I have it. It has worked well as a desktop replacement- just not as much fun without a normal keyboard. Considering there are very few applications that take advantage of quad-cores, I was thinking that my dual-core OC'd to 3.3Ghz was pretty fast. It only has 2MB L2 cache- which some have said is the problem. But I have no problems running racing sims and Wings of Prey at max res with the HD 3850- although I'm not sure what my fps is, but I don't have any issues with it. Someone advised that upgrading to Win7 would be the biggest improvement I could make- and would be able to make use of 4G ram (or 6G if I went with the 4G upgrade for $85). Thankfully Gigabyte has 64-bit drivers available for my motherboard. I don't plan to run more than two monitors on the sim- I just don't have the space. As it is now, my bedroom is almost full thanks to the PVC cockpit I built. :pilotfly: So if I go with your suggestion power5, then I would just keep my laptop and would only need to run the two monitors off the 5870. I know a lot of people have said on here that the A-10C is more 'CPU' intensive- but I can't imagine the final 'optimized' release will require more than 3.3Ghz- especially with a monster graphics card with 1G DDR5 onboard. EDIT: I forgot to mention- I had considered selling the Cougar MFD's when they arrive, but after reading more about them, I think they can be very useful with other sims and games- since they are programmable (via Xpadder). Plus, what is nice is I can swap out the backgrounds for whatever sim or game I'm using. I won't mount them on the monitor as I had originally expected tho- since I plan to get the touchscreen and export the MFD's via HELIOS instead of through DCS using the Cougars. I also found this handy online background creator for the Cougars- letting you upload your own backgrounds and add button text. http://cougarmfd.thrustmaster.com/

"Anyway, try yours and see what you get." Since I don't own the A-10C sim yet, I cannot compare. However, I more than likely will order the 5870- I just hope Newegg is quick to refund the canceled monitor order. I'm debating the whole upgrade dilemma. Thankfully the 5870 and Win7 can move with me to an upgraded system- but the extra RAM would not. I just worry that upgrading to a super graphics card- would then shift the pressure over to the oc'd E5200 to catch up. I priced out an upgrade to an i7 system yesterday and it was roughly $1000 (including the graphics card and Win7). That price is tough to justify for a system I only plan to use for gaming and simming- which I don't do that much- but hope A-10C would change that. I just spent $700 a couple of months ago to get this laptop- which I have used to replace my desktop (which became the gaming system). However, I'm not exactly thrilled with it as my main system. It is an i5 with Win7 and runs great, does all my video/photo editing without a problem... but I find myself making so many typos it's irritating. LoL! Plus, since I've owned it, I think I've actually only taken it off my desk twice. So now I'm debating selling the laptop- then upgrading the desktop with the funds from the sale. What I would need tho, is to be able to run THREE monitors off the 5870. Two DVI and one HDMI. I'd hook my tv (main gaming display) up to the HDMI, then DVI to the monitor on my desk and DVI to the secondary gaming monitor (touchscreen). This way I wouldn't have to move the monitor on my desk back and forth for the secondary gaming monitor. Is there anything special I'd need to do this- or can I just plug all three in and go? During gaming- I'd switch off the desk monitor as I obviously wouldn't be needing it at that time. ;-) So that is my dilemma. The Radeon HD 5870 for sure, but debating the rest.

I just checked it out- it DOES sound like a sweet deal, so I am seriously considering it (I have until Wednesday for the deal). I also read the reviews about the 'grey screen of death' problems with the 5800 series- yet some people have the problem and some don't. I wonder if it is a motherboard compatibility problem- I read in one forum where a certain motherboard manufacture was having nothing but problems with 5800 graphics card. Well... I had heard that you get lower performance when you fill all four memory slots- versus only running two banks- or is that nothing to worry about? Saving $35 would be nice. So you think my current architecture (CPU/Motherboard) are fine as is?

Ok... so I figure... if I am going to have to upgrade- then I might as well go all out. So I just canceled the order for the new 20" monitor- so I can eventually go for the 21.5" touchscreen. Here is my question- will upgrading to a Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 give me good results with the A-10- or will I also need to consider further upgrades? Win7 is another possible upgrade- which would also give me better functionality with the touchscreen. But as for my CPU and memory?? The dual core 2.5 is oc'd to 3.3 Ghz- and upgrading to 4G of RAM would be fairly cheap too. So all in all- $250 for the video card, $110 for Win7 upg, and $85 for memory-> $445. Would this be good enough to run the A-10C at respectable rates along with HELIOS output to the touchscreen?

Not sure why you say that, I've run other sim games at highest settings and never had any problems... and I've read people with lessor graphics running dual monitors without any problems as well. So I guess we'll see.

I don't have crossfire or SLI, so I'll just be running two displays from my main card. I've heard of more people having serious FPS when using crossfire or SLI versus running two displays from a single card. As for the touchscreen- since I'm not planning to upgrade my gaming system (my primary computer is a laptop with Win7)... I can't justify spending $100 just to upgrade the OS on the gaming computer, then spend another $250 for a touchscreen, then $70 for Helios, etc etc. So I think I'll settle for buying the 20" non-touch monitor and velcro my Cougar's to them. ;-)

I'm curious as to exactly how many people are having this problem. Hearing about a few here- considering the quantity that has been sold- doesn't mean it is a widespread problem; then again, the same thing happened with the Xbox 360. This was one reason I bought mine through Walmart tho- they have a 90-day return policy on electronics.

DCS exports the MFD images to the secondary monitor- so there is a display for the frames- after you stick the frames to the monitor. I already ordered the Cougar MFD's... they should be here this coming week. Of course if I can find a decent touchscreen I could always resell the Cougars. I take it HELIOS will work with only the single-touch function within WinXP? P.S. Where did you get your refurb? I can't even find refurbished touchscreens on E-bay.

Yes, my 42" TV is my main display- so I want a new, larger, secondary display. How can you operate the entire cockpit from one touch screen? Can you flip screens to different panels like the iPhone? Edit: After doing more research on that touchscreen HP monitor, I discovered that with WinXP, it will only function as a single-point touch, not two-point as with Win7. :-(

Thanks for the reply. I don't use multiplayer features... I only plan on using the microphone for VAC commands. I mainly wanted to see if a headset was necessary- or whether it was optional.

Explain? You need a headset for that? It doesn't work through normal speakers and microphone?

I'm just curious as to why some people use headsets- I've never used them for gaming/sims before? I have a full 5.1 surround system- so I can't imagine putting on a headset and missing out on the sound... unless people are trying to avoid rocking their houses. Do headsets add anything additional to the sim- that gets lost without them?

That definitely looks nice... but... I can get a new 20" monitor for $100 (plus free shipping)- which means I have money left for the TrackIR. ;-)

This is good information to know. Since I haven't yet purchased either A-10C, TrackIR or installed HELIOS- I've been soaking in as much information as I can find- which these forums are good for. There is a lot of "this is what I've done" but not enough, "this is why I did it this way"- which is why I ask so many questions. To get the best experience possible from the start- I want to get the right setup and know the reasons WHY I need it. ;-) After reading the last two replies, now I'm thinking I need to replace my secondary 17" standard monitor with a 20"+ widescreen- since I know the Cougar MFD's are going to take up 11" of the horizontal space. I know touchscreens are nice- but not in my budget atm.

Out of most of the posted pictures I've seen, a lot of people are replicating the same gauges/panels that are displayed in the DCS front view... is there a reason for the redundancy (not including the MFD's because I understand the replication with touchscreens or Cougars)? If DCS allowed a 'gauge free' front view- I could see the point- but I'm not sure if that is going to be part of the final release or not. If not- what other gauges or panels would people find useful for the secondary HELIOS display that aren't a replication?

I just printed out the Beta 4 manual in black & white on my laser printer. I selected "fit to printable area" in Adobe Acrobat so it was on a full 8.5" x 11" sheet- printed on both sides- then 3-ring punched it and put in a 2.5" binder. I also printed the GUI manual in black & white but did the quick-start manual in color- then put those in a 1.5" 3-ring binder. The color is nice- but way too much $$ on an inkjet (I also did the binder covers in color as well). Even for black & white, with my laser printer set to 600 dpi it printed the images very well- and there was no noticeable distortion from increasing the size to fit the page.

Personally, I could never fly with the joystick on the right hand side like that... if it is not in the center, it feels odd to me. Which is why when I put together my PVC cockpit from the plans I bought on E-bay, I had to alter it to add a center joystick. I now use the right-hand platform for the mouse. ;-)

I found the answer to my question about the beta key expiring here http://www.scsimulations.com/forums/showthread.php?731-My-order-for-Beta-6-has-been-canceled. In short, they are going to e-mail everyone who has ordered the beta, a new key which will extend the beta license for an additional two weeks. Then they will begin taking pre-orders for the final version due out the end of January. Pre-ordering will get you a license to continue the beta version until the final is release. Hopefully I paraphrased all that correctly.

Bite the bullet and order one from him! LoL!

Did anyone else have a "creme your jeans" moment when they first opened the Warthog HOTAS box?? :joystick: All I can say is... WOW!! First off, hearing it weighs 20 lbs doesn't mean much until you actually LIFT IT! Then when you finally get it unwrapped and feel the quality and solidity of this system- I've never seen another joystick system that compares... then again, for $500... :thumbup: One of the first things I noticed was that the buttons are not as "hard to press" as some people have been saying. I am pushing the buttons and thinking- ugh- this is difficult?? Hmmmm. I mean, I'm a small guy with small hands- but I definitely don't have any problems handling this; actually, I like the fact that it doesn't feel like a "toy". Both components were recognized by WinXP and displayed in the Windows Game Controller. Then I installed the new firmware without a problem, went back to the Game Controller section and neither of the Warthog's controllers were listed anymore. I rebooted, and found only the stick listed (mild panic attack at this moment)- so I unplugged the throttle and replugged- and then it displayed. I then created new device profiles for both in my Xpadder game controller software, and didn't have any problems there with buttons being recognized. The one thing I did notice- when in the Game Controller section- was that when you enter properties for the throttle- it shows all three axis as 'fully pressed'- when you move a throttle or the slider switch- it jumps to off. Weird. I also noticed that if you have the throttles pulled all the way back to "off"- it is actually depressing the 29 and 30 buttons. Only when you have the throttles in the idle position- are they actually 'off'. Yes, the LED's are 'bright' but they do look cool- although since I don't need a night-light in my room, I'll be going with the 'unplugging before shutdown' idea. Anyway, just thought I'd share my "unboxing" experience. Now I just need to get time to build the mount for my center stick mechanism.