Hello and allow me to introduce myself. My name is Pedro. I have a compaq computer that came with AMD Ahlon 1.1ghz processor 128mb of ram and a Nvidia TNT2 PRO Graphics card. Its not even enough for flight simulator lags too much, and with addon scenery which absolutely a must because i hate default fs scenery i cant even push back from the gate there is so much lag. Well ive decided that i absolutely need to upgrade my system but SDram and new graphics card might not just do the deal. I believe my system is At form Factor which i believe all the AMD Athlon XP processors are form ATX, so now i would also need a new motherboard that is form ATX, but my mid tower is form AT plus my motherboard wouldnt be able to take any speed over 1.4ghz. Also my tower is only packed with about i believe 130watts of power (pittiful). Well i would like to know from you guys a different bunch of questions, and please just help me out and answer to your ability. Well 1 off i would like to know until what speed does AMD Athlon XP processors go up to right now? and are any new ones coming out? Also what motherboard is really good of course DDR ram is good right now, but i think i also heard somthing about RDram being outstanding and the newest thing out? Also does anybody have any information on the new Nvidia cards? I believe they are coming out in about 3 months. Im lookin for the best products. What i most want in fs is great fps, fast speed, great awesome graphics and will never lag, even if i have tons of addon sceneries, which i know with the technology now the best of the best is possible. Also please include information on mid-towers with a power supply of like 400watts or more. Also id rather install everything i have into the new case its more fun, and also you save money from having a local computer shop do it for you. So if you have any links to in depth installation of computer parts into cases please post those links. Another reason is that a few bars of Sdram, and the new nvidia graphics card will not be enough because the card will most likely be so fast the 1.1ghz wont be able to keep up with it. Thank you and please answer from the best of your ability, you guys are great! Pedro :-wave

Hi Pedro,So many questions, and all of them very good. I think I can handle most of them for you, either directly or through links to previous posts. First, if you can wait a few months, your wait will be well worthwhile. To understand why, read . Now if you cannot wait, you have a couple of options.Your first route is AMD, and the fastest CPU currently available is the XP2200+. This is the first CPU of the thoroughbred series, so is built on the 0.13 micron diecast, while the palomino series was built on the 0.18 micron diecast. This should allow AMD to increase the clock speed of the processor, and introduce a 512 KB L2 cache, which is currently code named Barton. If you want to learn more, read [link:www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/02q2/020610/thoroughbred-03.html|this] from Tom's Hardware. If this is the route you want to go, then you have a plethora of mainboards to select from. Selecting DDR memory is the way to go, and if you want the fastest, then DDR333 (also known as PC2700) is just for you. There are a number of mainboards available that use the necessary chipsets. I use an ASUS A7V333, but there other choices. See these recommendations from Elrond [link:ftp.avsim.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=6773&forum=DCForumID8&archive=]here.Your other option is Pentium. The fastest P4 currently has a clock speed of 2.53 GHz, with an L2 cache of 512 KB. Paired up with Rambus RAM (the RDRAM you referred to), this is the fastest platform currently on the market. But you will pay the price for this speed. You can also use the P4 with DDR memory, but this will be slower, and you may be better off in this case going with the AMD.AS for videocards, PaulL01 is very savvy in this area, and I suspect that he would recommend that you wait for the newest cards to come out. But if your in a hurry, then I think going with a GF4 Ti4200 is a great choice. But if you want to shell out the bucks, then the Ti4600 is the best you can currently buy.As for cases, you are correct in that you will need a case that supports the ATX form factor. There are many choices, but I would focus on a case that is equipped with a decent power supply. 300W should be a minimum, anda 400W PS is better. Both Enermax and Antec make good cases/PS. But there are many more choices.Building your own system is the way to go. Assembly is not that hard, particularly if your comfortable navigating your BIOS. I'm sure there are plenty of tutorials out there, but I don't know any offhand.Hopefully this will get you started, and I hope you find this helpful. Good luck, and enjoy your new computer :-wave

Thank you David, this was very helpfull, thank you for taking the time to write all that you wrote, and to explain everything, I appreciate that. Yes i had actually wrote PaulL01 a private message, would like to see if he gets back to me. I can wait a couple more months, and quoting you from other posts David "I'm just doing my homework" right now. I also have to save up a little while more. Thank you for all your help, and if you find anything else you might want to add feel free David. Thanx :) Pedro ;-)