Computer Suggestions For Instrumentation

[NeoMorph]

One thing that I just thought of mentioning to you guys... If you run something like Project Magenta or FsXPand to run your system or are planning on doing so in the future, YOU DO NOT NEED A NORMAL SIZED COMPUTER!

ie, I have seen cockpit computers with four or five midi towers. That has to be kicking out a lot of noise, heat, and using excess amounts of power. Normal power supplies are rated around 500/600w and the exhaust fan is enough to compete with your heating system. The Revo on the other hand is around 12/15w. Not much difference eh?

The Revo 3610 is quiet, runs cool, and will probably save you money (I know it did for me as my home automation system went from using normal PC's to using Revos).

"But are they going to be fast enough?" I hear you ask. Well, I just ran the Project Magenta Regional Jet demo and got a score of 433. It says anything over 150 is good and this is on a 1680x1050 display.



The Revo 360 also run dual monitors attached  (an analogue VGA and an HDMI) as they use.

One thing they do have problems with though is FSX. Even at low resolutions they would struggle with views out the window. But for instrumentation systems they are fine. They also come with a tiny wireless keyboard which would be great for cockpit use.

I'm not anything to do with Acer... I just love my little Revo computers. Tiny case, big heart.

[Sean]

I have a couple of Acer Veriton net-tops that I was hoping to use for the Captain and FO instruments, but their PM benchmark is less than the recommended 150 and in reality they run the GC software pretty slowly. They are silent and produce next to no heat though, so will end up doing something in the sim, perhaps squawkbox or topcat or something.

[NeoMorph]

That's why I specified the 3610.

The 3610 uses the ION chipset... I bet your Veriton models don't have the "Full ICD Acceleration" notice... ION uses an NVIDIA GPU which is why I get such a good score for a small box.