Hardware & Technical Saitek or Thrustmasters

Amadeus

A
I've both those thrustmasters.

Elite made me get a Hotas and T-Flight was a good cheap one.
Having a Hotas made made me want more so I splashed out on a warthog.

Metal construction apart from the throttle.
Propper old school switches that just feel good.
Hall sensors that wont wear out.

Love it.
 

Rhaedas

Rhaedas
Get what you can afford. Nothing wrong with the Thrustmaster-X, lots of well known and very good pilots use it now with ED. Biggest limitation is that it doesn't have as many buttons as the Saitek, but there are plenty of ways around that.
 

Shadehawk

Shadehawk
Just got my X52 Pro and loving it so far. Easy to set up and a dream to use! Only snag being the need to have the control panel open in the background, sometimes. :)
 
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macneisd

M
Standard ol' X52 (not pro). Been really pleased with it so far - though I didn't like the default ED X52 bindings.

Have to say it transformed the game for me. I'm usually a keyboard and mouse gamer but I just couldn't get to grips with that in ED. As soon as I plugged in the X52 I was away, docked first time even before tweaking the bindings.

Good luck - all look decent choices.
 

flexy123

F
If you want the "best" but don't want to spend a fortune on a Warthog:

1) Thrustmaster T.16000M
(Because it is the only budget joystick with HALL sensors like the Warthog)

2) Separate Ch Pro Throttle


It can WELL be that X52 and the cheap Thrustmaster HOTAS X are "fine" but I can't say anything about those. I like my Thrustmaster 16000m (although its base buttons are more or less useless, I don't use them) and I LOVE the Ch Pro Throttle. I got both of them used, stick for a ridiculous €15 and Throttle for €40..... cannot complain for that price :)
 
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[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
My thoughts so far on my X55 ownership

I have one and its a very good flight stick. I really liked the X52 however this takes everything up a notch, and has way more buttons, which is handy for elite.

there are a number of questionmarks over their QC however with a greater than average number having niggles.

There are also a handful of issues with them which are fixable our end, but still less than ideal for a stick pushing £150.

(I for instance was getting ghost key presses when using the throttle - which was infuriating on elite when I suddenly emergency ejected my entire cargo on coming into land.

not only did i lose all my cargo, I got fined for littering to just top it off.

When it works though it is fantastic. its a nicely chunky piece of kit and really helps sell that feeling of you are flying a proper vehicle.

hopefully my ghost keypresses are fixed now (disable usb legacy support in bios and use USB3.0 port) apparently this fixes it, however i need to keep testing for a while to be sure. I have submitted a ticket too to saitek.

Whilst it does not sound like I am really endorsing the stick, so long as it now works properly after sorting the usb I have no regrets buying. it has a twistable shaft so you can yaw without having to buy pedals, which is a big advantage over the thrustmaster warthog imo.... though the feeling of quality of the warthog is at another level.
 

Tiamat

Tiamat
Rhaedas said:
Nothing wrong with the Thrustmaster-X, lots of well known and very good pilots use it now with ED.
Click to expand...

It is the one I am leaning towards as there are so few flight sims and space games these days I'm struggling to justify the expense even though I would really prefer one of the others.

flexy123 said:
If you want the "best" but don't want to spend a fortune on a Warthog:

1) Thrustmaster T.16000M
(Because it is the only budget joystick with HALL sensors like the Warthog)

2) Separate Ch Pro Throttle
Click to expand...

I would like more buttons than that really though the HALL sensors are worth knowing about. The useless base buttons are the main reason I want to retire my old stick.

Tommyttk said:
I just ordered a Saitek X-55 from Scan for £140
Click to expand...

That's a nice price! Thanks for sharing :)

Mad Mike said:
My thoughts so far on my X55 ownership

I have one and its a very good flight stick. I really liked the X52 however this takes everything up a notch, and has way more buttons, which is handy for elite.

there are a number of questionmarks over their QC however with a greater than average number having niggles.

There are also a handful of issues with them which are fixable our end, but still less than ideal for a stick pushing £150.

(I for instance was getting ghost key presses when using the throttle - which was infuriating on elite when I suddenly emergency ejected my entire cargo on coming into land.

not only did i lose all my cargo, I got fined for littering to just top it off.

When it works though it is fantastic. its a nicely chunky piece of kit and really helps sell that feeling of you are flying a proper vehicle.

hopefully my ghost keypresses are fixed now (disable usb legacy support in bios and use USB3.0 port) apparently this fixes it, however i need to keep testing for a while to be sure. I have submitted a ticket too to saitek.

Whilst it does not sound like I am really endorsing the stick, so long as it now works properly after sorting the usb I have no regrets buying. it has a twistable shaft so you can yaw without having to buy pedals, which is a big advantage over the thrustmaster warthog imo.... though the feeling of quality of the warthog is at another level.
Click to expand...

This is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to know. I don't have USB 3.0 so there is a potential risk there and I didn't realise the Warthog doesn't have a twistable shaft so the Warthog is out altogether.

It looks like I am down to the x52 or the T-Flight unless I want to risk potential issues with an x55. I think I will do some research into what possible issues I could run into with the x55 before I make a decision though.

Thanks for the responses guys!
 

Tommyttk

T
Tiamat said:
It looks like I am down to the x52 or the T-Flight unless I want to risk potential issues with an x55. I think I will do some research into what possible issues I could run into with the x55 before I make a decision though.
Click to expand...

After reading Mad Mike's thoughts on the X-55 it seems what issues you have depend on your system. I had the X52pro with a very modern (z97 chipset) motherboard. The X52 had a lot of issues functioning with my system and had to disable all USB3 functionality and it was still not quite right. It seems the X55 may have the opposite problem and ONLY get on well with modern usb3 compatible motherboards. All I can say is that if you have a modern socket 1150 motherboard I think its pretty likely the X52 will give you some trouble.
 

Tiamat

Tiamat
Tommyttk said:
All I can say is that if you have a modern socket 1150 motherboard I think its pretty likely the X52 will give you some trouble.
Click to expand...

I do have an 1150 board but it is pretty much first gen and doesn't support USB 3.0 at all. This was why I was so glad Mike's post went into such detail as I don't have the option of using USB3 ports if I had gone for the x55. I have read a lot about the x52 and USB3 issues and that made me think I was probably safe.
 

[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
On the same system i have my X55 on, I had an X52 for a week. in my USB 2.0 ports I had no issues for all the time I used it.

I cant promise it will work on your machine however,

neither can I state the X55 will defo give you issues on your USB2, nor am I certain it is now fixed for me, its early days yet

they are my experiences and it seems hit or miss whether everyone will get them..

FWIW this is on sandy I5 on an asus P8P67 deluxe iirc (version 2- the one which had the fixed SATA) I have a LOT of USB devices all hooked up taking power, which may or may not be making things worse

(X55 stick
X55 throttle
wired Xbox pad
oculus rift DK2
Rift DK2 camera
keyboard
mouse)
 
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