Flight Simulator 1 - Cost Breakdown
When I first decided to build a fully-enclosed simulator, I estimated that I would spend anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 on it. I was able to get some great Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and I cut corners wherever I could to save a buck. In the end, I spent a total of around $5,600 on this thing. Below, I break-down the costs to give you a better idea of where the money went and what it might cost you to build something like this if you choose to do so.
Flight Instruments: $1,426
I’ll start with the most expensive category and will work my way down from there. At around $1400, the flight instruments were the most expensive aspect of this simulator. They are mostly Logitech devices, the exception being a $40 Android tablet that I installed on the co-pilot side of the cockpit. More than half the cost of the flight instruments went to the six Logitech Flight Instrument Panels (FIPs). They are neat little things, but expensive AF!
Gaming PC: $1,339
A close second in terms of cost would be the custom built gaming PC. Prices have come down since I purchased the components and built the PC, but it was a great price at the time. For around $1300, I was able to get an i7 processor, Asus gaming motherboard, 32 GB DDR4 RAM, 256 GB NVMe drive for the OS, 1 TB NVMe drive for the software and data, an RTX 4070 GPU and a nice gaming case with 850W power supply, multiple fans and two USB 2.0 expansion cards. This price also includes accessories like keyboard and trackpad along with the operating system, Windows 11 Home.
Looking back, I should have spent more here. Either an i9 or 7800X3D along with an RTX 4090 would have been much better. An i7 with an RTX 4070 just doesn’t cut it for a three-display setup at higher resolutions and settings. Maybe I’ll post a “regrets“ article with all of the things that I would have done differently if I knew then what I know now. Could save others some time, money and aggravation.
Structure: $576
In this cost, I am including all of the wood and hardboard used to build the simulator. I am also including the items that went into building the doors like the arm rest/door pulls and latches. The seats are also bundled into this cost.
Software: $544
This is probably the only category that was more than what I was originally expecting. I had estimated that I would spend around $200 on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and a few add-ons. You can certainly have fun with just MSFS and no other add-on, but to really get the most out of your custom built cockpit, you’re going to want to purchase software such as Spad.Next and Air Manager. You’ll also want to get quality add-ons such as FSRealistic, Real Global Airport Textures, Chicago Landmarks…. I can go on forever. The truth is, once you get started with add-ons, it’s hard to stop. I also purchased X-Plane and a bunch of add-ons for it so there’s that.
Displays: $514
Kind of messed up on this one. I wasn’t aware that if you are going to use a three display setup with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, you really should use same size displays. I ended up purchasing a 65” 4K display as my front screen and 43” 4K displays as my side screens (embedded in the doors). Something doesn’t feel quite right as a result of the different size screens. Will fix this in future simulator builds (oh there will be more).
Hardware: $310
This is another category that kind of surprised me. I knew that the nuts, bolts, brackets and hinges would add up, but I didn’t think it would be over $300. Seat brackets, piano hinges, “L“ brackets and casters made up the bulk of this category.
You can find a more detailed break-down, including the last six remaining categories, in the PDF file below: