Quick Obutto Review

[Toonces]

I ordered the Obutto R3volution gaming cockpit through their US distributor Mainperformancepc.  Order was placed on Sunday and the package arrived on Tuesday.  FedEx was kind enough to call the morning of delivery to ensure I'd be home to sign for it, which is required.  The R3volution goes for a cool 700 clams, with another 50 or so thrown in for the optional flight controller add-ons.  I did not get the optional acrylic desk top which I will get to in a bit.  Shipping was insanely expensive and if you can order this on the mainland before you move overseas, I highly recommend it!



Three very large boxes, one of which was about 100lbs arrived as scheduled.  The boxes were fairly crushed, although still sealed.  There are some very sharp staples used to secure the boxes.  The first thing I did was try to pull one of the stapled sides open during which I almost cut my index finger off.  I decided to man up and forego stitches but I did almost make my wife barf by opening and closing the wound in front of her, making it talk and stuff.



Everything comes bubble wrapped.  The chair came in the big box, the heavy box contained all of the metal framing pieces.  A final box contained all of the assembly hardware and some cat and dog items.






Several people had commented online about how everything is sort of thrown in the box haphazardly.  I agree, but with the bubble wrap nothing was damaged and frankly, given the weight of all that metal I don't see how else you can do it.

Besides the largest frame pieces (4-6) which are pretty self-explanatory, everything else comes in a numbered box.  The assembly instructions are on a couple of pages.  The first thing you're going to want to do is take the instructions, walk to your trashcan, throw them in it, grab a beer from the fridge on your way back into your office, and then boot up youtube.  Seriously.  The instructions are just plain wrong beginning with step A of step 1 and they don't get much better.  But, there are plenty of youtube videos and, additionally, Chris from Obutto hosts a complete set of instructions on his Obutto website.  The youtube videos are excellent and once you get going and start to "get it" it actually isn't all that hard to assemble the thing.  There are about a billion screws, nuts, and bolts included in a bag, all covered in a grease preservative, and the entire thing just looks intimidating when you lay it out but, trust me, it's not hard.  Some of the pieces don't quite fit and you may have to push and bang a bit to get it right, but everything does go togther.

I had plenty of extra screws, nuts and bolts.  Everything you need is included although there is one part where you need two wrenches to tighten down a bolt.  The desk only comes with one wrench so you'll need to scrounge one up from your own tools.  The flight controller package came with another wrench so I was styling, but if you don't get that, or you don't have a basic set of tools in your house you will need to go get this one wrench.  Chris tells you what size it is in the video.

Basic assembly, for me, was about 4.5 hours (sober).  Several times in the video (and paper instructions upon which, perhaps, your beer is sitting) you are told not to tighten down the bolts.  This is solid advice.  At some point you will get the whole thing basically assmebled and you'll climb into that seat for the first time.  Awesome!  Except now you realize that this thing is one big adjustable erector set and you will almost certainly need to take some things apart and move them around to find the fit that suits your particular style best.  If everything is only hand-tight it will make this part of the process far less painful.  I spent about two hours adusting and re-adjusting until I found what was comfortable for me.  For example, I put my keyboard tray on the right side, and the throttle setup in front of the cup holder; opposite what Chris does in the video.



There is a holder included with the basic desk and there are a couple more included with the optional flight controller box.  There are no instructions included with the flight controller box so I wasn't quite sure what was supposed to go where.  Because everything is so customizable it's probably just as well.  There is the ability to set up your flight stick with a center stick mount, but I can't find a way to make that comfortable with my own flying/sitting style so for now I'v gone with the side stick and throttle type mount like the F-16.  I'm still going to need to experiment with this some more.  The desk comes with some double sided stickies for you to mount your stick and throttle to the mount holders.  I very strongly encourage you to do this last.  I didn't have any velcro do I used the stickys and they are rock solid; no wiggle in the controller-mount connection at all.  I am finding some wiggle between the mount and desk on my throttle but nothing too bad and I haven't tried to tighten it down again yet.



The monitor stand is separate from the desk frame.  At first I didn't like this, but having had to move this beast around a bit I see the logic in it and I think it is the way to go.  There is a ton of flexibility with how you mount the monitor (height, angle, etc.) so again you'll have no problem figuring out what works for you.

One thing you don't see in the brochure is how horrible this whole thing looks when you set it up on a hard wood floor with wires dangling all over.  It is quite the eyesore.  So the following day I spent another good 6 hours or so tweaking things until I found something I can live with.  At one point Chris mentions in the video about using a carpet underneath the cockpit and I very strongly agree with this.  I cut my existing carpet to fit how my desk is situated in the room, ran most of the wires underneath it, and then spent a lot of time tying up and otherwise minimizing the amount of clutter around the computer.  It makes a big difference.  Here's what my final set up looks like:



One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that, the way I have mine set up, there is no way to mount the stick on the side and then be able to move the keyboard tray over your lap.  So, when I'm flying I mount the stick and when I'm typing tech reviews on the internet I unmount the stick and lay it on the ground next to the desk.  There is an adjustable tightening knob that allows for easy mount/dismount of the stick so, although this was a bit annoying at first, I find that it isn't a big deal anymore.  I don't see how else I could set this up so the stick and keyboard could be mounted 100% of the time.

Regarding the acryllic desk tops:  From the pictures it wasn't clear that these weren't included.  In all fairness, they are listed as an accessory for the R3volution so I shouldn't have been surprised.  I'm not sure what I was thinking; either the top was included or that the keyboard tray was a tabletop.  Either way, although I'm making do without the top I intend to order it soon.  This is just something for potential buyers to be aware of...

On a final note, I had a minor issue with a part of my desk.  I sent an email to mainperformancepc and Obutto and had two responses within 12 hours and after a second email exchange with Chris he immediately requested my mailing address so he could FedEx a replacement part out.  I found both companies to have shown exceptional customer service and I feel good knowing that my business is appreciated.

So, that's it.  It took me a bit to get used to the Obutto after coming off of a lifetime with typical computer desks, but I feel that I've adjusted nicely to my new toy.  The chair is comfortable and the desk is functional although I don't think it's appropriate for a 100% business desk.  But for gaming it is pretty awesome, both flight simming, and FPS and strategy gaming.  Overall, I can definitely recommend this for the serious hobbyist.

See ya,
Toonces

[Bison]

Holy crap that looks awesome!

[TheCommandTent]

Holy crap that looks awesome!

What he said!

[LongBlade]

Looks very cool, but I'm a bit disappointed you didn't make a Flash video of your cut finger narrating your review. That would have been epic.

[Toonces]

Next time, for sure LB!   8)

[Arctic Blast]

You lucky bastard.

And hey, when people ask where you got the scar, you can tell them you were assembling a cockpit seat.  :D