Hardware & Technical Saitek X52 - worth buying?

[Northius]

I'm very tempted to buy a Saitek X52 flight system from the Frontier store. I've currently got a Thrustmaster T.16000M.

Is the addition of the left 'throttle' stick a worthwhile feature? I currently use the keyboard to regulate speed.

Basically, is it worth upgrading my T.16000M to an X52?

My only advice is.
Do your research... I find Youtube is invaluable in its reviews.. watch a few of them too
Try searching for Saiteck X52 problems.. see if there are any.
The rest is then up to you and your wallet, but at least you'll have an informed decision.

 

[ronin516]

I would stay away from the X55 Rhino though. It's such a pizza. Very cheaply made and consistent problems with almost everything on it because its made like a toy. Cheap switches and plastic and way to light. It's one of the only hotas systems out there that have almost as many bad reviews as medium reviews and only a few good ones. I really wanted to like it and went through 2 of them. If you go for it good luck. I hope you get lucky and get a good one. I would go a next level up for a better brand or get the X52 which is a good hotas for the price.

 

[darshie76]

Yes and No.

If you buy it just for this game, you don't play other simulators; then don't spend money for this and get a cheap Thrustmaster for 50 dollars (the one with the throttle that separate)

Avoid the pro, it simply has minimal changes; they say that the pro is sturdier, but depends from how you are...I never broke a joypad or joystick; when I play I remember that it is a piece of plastic so I am careful.
If you get carried and break stuff easily; then you may want to invest in a pro; but the price difference honestly does not really justify it for me.

If you play this and other simulator, that may benefit from a HOTAS, then get it. It is good quality; relatively cheap, has plenty of buttons and is stable enough to just put it on your desk and play. The bothering part is the 2 wires (1 usb and 1 to connect the cloche to the throttle), I wish they would make them wireless these days; but beside that; I use it fine and I do not have issues at all.

Keep in mind that the game is just fine even with a joypad with analog controls, and you spend barely 20 bucks. I did not buy a steering wheel just to play one game, few hours a week; but I have the X52 since I spend plenty of time in various simulators...then of course to each their own If you have plenty of money and space, and you don't care; then it won't be a big deal. Mostly the HOTAS is for the fun to have it; people can be effective with whatever control device they want to be proficient with

I find intuitive to play with it; the game is mapped well (altho would be great if we could have a slider configured for forward/backward propulsion, instead than a toggle/press button, also the trim wheels are unused, unless you want to remap your side and top/bottom thrusters, from the hat on the throttle, to the trim wheels; I tried and didn't like it).

 

[flint read]

I have the X52 non pro and it's a great piece of kit at a better price for my money.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Trim wheels work nicely for scanner range increase/decrease (although I wish it were an axis) and for heatsink eject / cargo dump.

I use the slider for supercruise and cargo scoop toggles. It could all be made a lot nicer if we easily had the controls to do so, but to cater to every controller out there would likely take a lot of dev time.

The X52 Pro does have it's flaws, and higher-end gear is recommended by people who spend lots of time with flightsticks for a reason - but I'm happy with what it does in Elite. I hadn't used a joystick for years before this - but it's really enjoyable!

 

[darshie76]

Good point; I didn't think about use it for the radar

We need more analog axis controls...trim wheels could be used for shield management on the fly, when you have a big ship with multiple shield areas. But really you can use them for anything you may like.

At the moment thou, they are used as buttons, so they trigger only when you touch them. more analog would be nice.

 

[Sunset]

I'm very tempted to buy a Saitek X52 flight system from the Frontier store. I've currently got a Thrustmaster T.16000M.

Is the addition of the left 'throttle' stick a worthwhile feature? I currently use the keyboard to regulate speed.

Basically, is it worth upgrading my T.16000M to an X52?

I don't want to be a devil but if you have a Thrustmaster before you know it was well maid. So have you look at the WARTHOG HOTAS it rely well maid .

 

[Floode]

I don't want to be a devil but if you have a Thrustmaster before you know it was well maid. So have you look at the WARTHOG HOTAS it rely well maid .

I would love one - it looks like a fantastic piece of kit, but completely out of my price range, I'm afraid.

 

[rich911]

I had a thrustmaster which I lent to my nephew

So today after using the keyboard for two days, I have a X52 pro, so far so good, just getting my head around how to do the 3 profiles & what does what!!
It's well worth it, but I think the thrustmaster would have done 75% of what this does, but for less money...

But I think the extra 25% so far is worth it & when I figure out the profiles side will double the effectiveness above what the thrustmaster did for me on the frontier elite game... at the time I was very happy with it & am getting happy with the x52, having only opened the box 2 hours ago!!

 

[MADmanOne]

The profile feature is really great and one major reason why I love the x52 pro so much.

I use a 3-Mode Profile for Landing, Flight and Combat. Changing the modes also triggers actions like automatically deploy landing gear after switching from Flight to landing mode or retract it if I switch back from landing to flight. Similair on the "other side", switching to combat deploys hardpoints and target enemy with highest threat while switching back to flight retract hardpoints again. I also included suitable energy diversion for each mode in that functions.
Additionally its really helpful not be able to fire weapons accidently during landing or boost into station walls, because these functions are not bound in "landing mode"

It feels really great for me to have different control sets for each role.

 

[mattyboy1509]

Mine came throught the post today ! setit up 1 hour ago I had the logitech extreme pro which is great by the way and first impressions are the immersion is great but its harder than the logitech to use ??? However I'm getting used to it its sturdy great for use in the dark. Im using the default profile for it any idea if anyones done a diagram of which button does what figured most of them out but cant find boost for the life of me.
I will have to move my desk around though with the size of it I cant see the monitor !!!!!

 

[Timar]

I really like my X52 Pro, but cannot get it to work with my main computer (Intel Haswell I7-4770 on a Gigabyte Z87-D3HP). I've tried various USB ports (USB2 & 3), 2 different USB cards, disabling some options in the Bios like xHCI, still no joy

I have to play ED on an older AMD rig, and it works fine on there, using it on the newer Intel PC caused all sorts of problems, BSD, random lock ups, disabled internet connection etc... I think the drivers are rubbish, but some people obviously have it working fine.

Those that have; can someone recommend me a new up to date motherboard that:-
a) Works ok with the X52-pro
b) Supports I7 Haswell
c) Supports at least 32GB memory (preferably 64GB)
d) Supports 2 Nvidia cards in SLI?

Thanks

 

[Colonel Kenney]

Trim wheels work nicely for scanner range increase/decrease (although I wish it were an axis) and for heatsink eject / cargo dump.

I use the slider for supercruise and cargo scoop toggles. It could all be made a lot nicer if we easily had the controls to do so, but to cater to every controller out there would likely take a lot of dev time.

The X52 Pro does have it's flaws, and higher-end gear is recommended by people who spend lots of time with flightsticks for a reason - but I'm happy with what it does in Elite. I hadn't used a joystick for years before this - but it's really enjoyable!

How did you get the radar to work with the slider? Mine doesn't go all the way to the outside or inside when I use it. I've mapped it properly with the + for increase and - for decrease etc but it never seems to work. Maybe I should try one of the rotating trim axis.

 

[MADmanOne]

Those that have; can someone recommend me a new up to date motherboard that:-
a) Works ok with the X52-pro
b) Supports I7 Haswell
c) Supports at least 32GB memory (preferably 64GB)
d) Supports 2 Nvidia cards in SLI?

Never had any severe problems with my x52 pro...used it on a Asus P9X79 Deluxe and a Asus X99 Deluxe. But the X99 for example does not like my keyboard on that USB 2.0 port, which is also used for BIOS updates, it wont boot if connected there (ok, that board is very new). That behavior starts with the last BIOS update. On any other port everything is working fine. So I can imagine that some Device configurations are quite problematic.

There was also a new driver for the x52 a month ago if I remember correctly. If yours is older, maybe this could be worth a try updating it.
The last version for example causes a reproducable BSoD on my machines in Windows 7 and 8.1 on different hardware as soon as I tried to activate an already activated profile again. So to change something in the profile, the PC had to be rebooted first. Have not tested that behavior with the new driver, since my profile is complete and does not need changes any more. And first activation worked always fine

Edit: The bug I described above seems to be fixed with the newest driver. Everything is fine now