I've been using an ancient DELL P2 450 Mhz that I upgraded last year to a P3 850Mhz with an ELSA Gladiac GeForce2GTS card and an Mx 64 MB PCI card for a second monitor. FS2002 runs beautifully with fabulous colors and textures on a 21" TRINITRON and 17" ViewSonic. Frames are capped at 18. I can run PSS 744 and 777 pretty well, but there are spot plane texture loading issues which are far more severe with much of the POSKY series.My question is this: what type of system should I upgrade to? I am so confused with the Intel vs. Athlon stuff and I don't know if I should get a system with a Titanium 64MB card or a 128MB card. Will I see a huge difference between any of these more modern PC systems compared with my trusty old P3? Is it worth spending two grand now or should I wait another year till we have the 3.5Ghz stuff? (and will that run FS2002 or its successor, FS2004 much better?)Appreciate any posts, thanks!JS

Good questions JS. For a reasonable amount of cash, you can upgrade to a Northwood P4 2.2GHz (533 FSB/512 L2 cache) with DDR or Rambus memory. This will require a new motherboard, which should set you back about $150. You should be able to use your old case, and honestly, I would hang onto your existing video cards, at least until the new nVidia 5 series is out. FS2K2 really is CPU hugry, so you will see a big difference with a faster CPU. Beyond that, the longer you wait, the faster the systems will get. But I would hazard a guess that FS2004 will place even more demands on system resources, then the viscious cycle begins all over ;). If you want more specific recommendations, I'll be happy to supply them (I can do AMD as well, but they've lost the lead to Intel).

David:Appreciate your thoughtful reply. You credit me with too much PC engineering skill. I don't think I could ever change a motherboard and still get my PC to work! Anyway, point taken. I think I may wait a bit; just saw that 2.8 Ghz due out very soon and prolly by New Year, what, 3 Ghz or more? And then MS will bring out FS2004 and say that it does run on a P3 900Mhz (but you really could use a P4 3.5Ghz with 1024 RAM to run it well !)Same old, same old.....we'll be leap-frogging forever, won't we?Thanks again!JS

Hey, David:Would it be worthwhile to perhaps upgrade just the primary video card to a GeForce 4 Titanium 128 MB? Could I upgrade it on my P3 successfully or would there be a compatibility or BIOS issue?JS

Personally, I don't think a video card upgrade is worth it. I think you'll be disappointed with what you get in return. But that's my opinion. As for changing motherboards, I'll admit it can be intimidating at first, but if you know how to use a screwdriver, then you have everything you need for the job (and an anti-static wrist band) ;).

JS,For what its worth, I always try to stay a few 'generations' behind of leading edge. Some may call it bleading edge, but I get far better value. I simply cannot justify spending hundreds, or even thousands on the latest hardware simply to be left behind a few months later.I have just (in the last month) built an XP1800+ system, which although is no slouch, is not leading edge. I still run it with my old Geforce2 GTS 32mb AGP, but I am now toying with a Geforce 4 Ti4200 with 128mb or memory. I think the extra video memory will be far more benificial for flight sims that the extra features of the 'best' Geforce 4 cards.If you wait for a 'better' system, you'll always be waiting...Chris Ehttp://website.lineone.net/~flightsimukAvoid AGP texturing = Better Performance ;)

I agree. A video card will most improve your display and texture quality. Not your frames or performance. It's pretty easy to change out a motherboard actually. Just remember, as mentioned above, to wear an anti-static wristband or to ground yourself to discharge static electricity you may have built up in order to prevent damage to critical componets. A site to check out is http://www.pcmech.com. They have an excellent tutorial on building your own computer that is handy for upgrades too. The tutorial explains how to do everything and in what order to do it in. Just follow the steps on each page and you'll have a working computer in no time! As for Intel vs. AMD, my pick is still AMD simply because of the price-to-performance ratio which is better with top of the line AMDs than it is with top of the line Intels. The top of the line AMD Athlon XP 2200+ clocking at 1.8 Ghz will set you back $200 or so and performs on par with or better than the Intel Pentium 4 Northwood clocking at 2.2 Ghz while the competing Intel costs about twice as much. As far as graphics card, nVidia is by far the way to go. The NV30 is going to make short work of the ATI Radeon 9700 when it comes out. Tim Kotula

Thanks for the kind words Tim. I thought I would point out, however, that the 2.2 Northwood and the XP2200 are now the same price. Don't you just love a free market economy ;).Edit - And then AMD slashes their price: XP2200=$150; P4/2.26=$230. My how fast things change.

That price slash is thanks to the new XP2600+. So far this is what I've heard:Base Clock Speed: 2.12 GhzIt's been overclocked to 2.78 Ghz with great stabilityIt's also been maxed at 2.85 Ghz, but it only remained stable for 5-10 minutes. Thats the thing with Athlons. They've always run hotter. P4's are a better choice for overclocking since it's much more difficult to overheat and fry a P4 Northwood. It sounds like that with proper cooling however, the new XP2600+ could change all that. Last note: Intel annouces it plans to release a 3.0 Ghz chip by Christmas. It'll probably be quite expensive at first however. Tim Kotula

>Hey, David: >>Would it be worthwhile to perhaps upgrade just the primary >video card to a GeForce 4 Titanium 128 MB? Could I upgrade >it on my P3 successfully or would there be a compatibility >or BIOS issue? >>JS A couple of thoughts: I also have a P3 Dell system that has served me well but is in need of an upgrade. The motherboard on my system is unique to Dell - I can't just buy an ASUS or other name brand and bolt it in. I suspect your system will have the same problem. As to video cards, you may be limited by the power supply - mine is only 150 watts. I managed to get a VisionTek GF2 TI to work ok, but the more powerful cards will probably require more watts than my system can handle. Again, Dell uses a power supply made to its specifications - you may be able to adapt a replacement, but it may require some case modifications.My conclusion is that it is not worth the money and effort to upgrade the Dell. I have found a couple of local PC shops that will build a system to my specifications for a very reasonable price and garantee it for at least 1 year.Dale

Dear Dale Tanker:Thanks for your post. I shan't be upgrading the DELL further. I have done all I dare do to touch and tweak it. Motherboards for others to touch !I shall prolly wait till spring 2003 and then buy a DELL P4 3.0 Ghz in prep for FS2004.Thanks to you and to all others here for their posts. This was an interesting thread.Cheers!JS

JS Ihave a P3 800 with 512megs of PC133 ram. was running a Voodoo5 64meg card and just upgraded that to a GF4 Ti4200 64meg card. now it didn't do anything for the frame rates but what a difference in the graphics like a whole new sim!!Especially being able to see these new reflective textures ther coming out with.http://www.enter.net/photoalbum/data/reddog/822627.jpgSceenshots and Pics athttp://comunity.webshots.com/user/reddog18951USMC Retired

Reddog, hi:Thanks for your pretty pic. Well, actually, I caved shortly after posting and DELL just e-mailed that they are just shipping me a monster 2.53Ghz P4 with Ti-4600 card etc. !!Frankly, my ELSA DDR card 32MB has been sensational and I'll be mighty impressed if the Ti-card renders colors and textures better. Well, we'll see....JS

A couple of people here have noted they are using/going to buy Dell systems. You should be aware that recent Dell systems have a very serious incompatibility with 'standard' hardware that will cause problems when upgrading. Namely, the motherboard and power supply use a non-standard power connection such that only Dell PSUs may be used with Dell motherboards and vice versa. The connector itself is exactly the same, but the wires are connected in different places. If you attempt to connect a Dell PSU with a non-Dell motherboard you will probably fry both.The annoying thing about this is that there is absolutely no good reason for Dell to configure their PCs in this way, other than to lock their customers into only upgrading with Dell hardware. Of course if you buy a new non-Dell motherboard, you could also get a new standard ATX power supply to go with it and everything will be fine.If you're looking to buy a new system, I urge you not to buy Dell until they stop using non-standard components. My 2c.