Hi everyone. I am retired and planning to buy a new computer for mainly flight sim. This system was recommended by a sales rep at the computer store where I bought my previous system, now four years old.Here are the specs.Gigabyte GA-8GE667 Pro; 18845 GE Chipset, P$ Motherboard, 33DDR, 533Mhz FSB, AGp 4 slot, usb 2.0 Intel Pentim 4.2 cpu with 533 FSB512 MB 333MHZ FSB 184 pim DDR RamGeForce 4 T146000, A250 Ultra 128 MB w/DVI/TV out, 300 memory clock650MHZ , Memory bandwith 10.4GB/sec. ( Has anyone had experience with this video card as I believe it is very new. )80 GB 7200 rpm Hard drive40x12x40 CD rewriterGreative Labs Inspire 5300, 5.1 Doby speakers,Creative labs Soundblaster live with doby sound digital. surround sound.300 watt power supply, 17" Tower case.Window xp home edition. (Do I need the professional edition)Is the graphics card a good one ?I appreciate any suggestion re improving this system.Should I go Athlon? Thanks for your help.Alan

The graphics are good. It's not the best card currently but the second best.A couple suggestionsInstead of a Sound Blaster Live! look into an Audigy card, they sound MUCH better and doon't tax your CPU as much.Get Win XP Pro if you want more networking features & Back-up options.If you'll be adding more drive to your system a 300 Watt power suply may not be enoughAMD CPU's are cheaperGigaByte baorsd are OK I prefer Asus or MSIHow much is this bad-boy costing ya?

I agree with above poster about the 300w power supply, minimum should be 350w.Graphics card is probably a GeForce4 Ti4600 vice what you have listed.The problem I have with Novice users and WinXP Pro is Pro requires you to do extra things not available in Home. It can get confusing to Novice users and they generally don't use the extras provided in Pro anyway.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into the sound card and power supply. Cost around $2100 canadian.Alan

If you have the extra cash, go for the radeon 9700 Pro. It is hands down the winner. All reported problems were the result of people putting thcard in an existing system and having legacy drive headaches. With new systems there have been no complaints as far as I am aware. I have this card and love it. It mnay situations 2x the performence of the 4600.Ditto on power supply.