Hi,I would appreciate suggestions and feedback from any fellow simmer on the new system that I am considering. 1. CPU- Athlon64 FX512. Motherboard- ASUS K8V Deluxe3. AGP- Hercules Prophet 9800 Pro- 256 MB RAM4. RAM - 1GB PC3200 DDR Kingston 5. Cabinet with 350watts SMPS and Triple Fans.6. SATA Raid Maxtor Deluxe HDD 7200 rpm -200GB7. Combo Drive DVD-ROM/CD-Writer8. DVD Writer- DVD-R/+R/-RW/+RW9. FDD10. Sound Card-Creative Audigy 2 11. MFD-Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax12. 5.1 Altec Lansing Speakers13. Monitor-22" Complete Flat LG or Philips OR Plasma - 32''14. Modem-External 33/56kbps15. UPS - APC AVRPro-500Do you think this combination gives a better future-proofing than having the first three items replaced by :-1.CPU- Intel P4 3.2Ghz with HT.2. Motherboard- ASUS P4C800Deluxe3. AGP-ASUS V9950Ultra-256 MB RAM1.Has any simmer by now actually used the new Athlon64 chip and found the difference inspite of still running 32-bit apps?2. Should I consider the Bug-Eye display being advertised rather than the monitor options stated above? Any first hand experiences?The sims I would like to run in their order of priority are :-1. FS2K42. FS2K2 Pro3. CFS 34. Lock On5. Falcon 46. FS2K Pro7. Jane's WW28. Jane's USAF9. B-1710.Pre-Flight11.OrbiterThanks for the patient reading and I look forward to hearing from folks,Aarmin:-wave

That is one amazing system! Unfortunately, I am no computer expert, but that is a quicker system than mine, and mine is v.fast, so I would think its a great system! May I ask about your buget?Thanks

Hi Aarmin,>Do you think this combination gives a better future-proofing than having the first three items replaced by :-1.CPU- Intel P4 3.2Ghz with HT.2. Motherboard- ASUS P4C800Deluxe3. AGP-ASUS V9950Ultra-256 MB RAMhttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2betateam.jpg

I think your system is great. However I own both cards by Ati and Nvidia and I would have to personally go with the Ultra. The Radeon 9800 Pro is very twitchy in FS and the performance isn't as strong as the 5900Ultra. My 9800Pro running the Cat 3.9's on a 3.06 P4 seems a lot slower than my Ultra on the P4 3.44....too slow for a 400mhz disadvantage. I know what the reviewers are saying, however if you take a look at all the high end computer manafacturers (Alienware, Voodoo, Falcon) they all put Ultra's in their top end rigs. I am also fortunate to see the performance and quality of both simutaneously (hence I guess I am my own reviewer) and neither has a 'true' advantage over the other, except for speed. I was once worried about the DX 9 performance in games like HL2 with the Ultra, but that changed once I played the alpha demo. It's all personal preference. For me being able to see the performance and quality differences of both cards running in the same sim (FS9 for example), I'd say nothing currently out today can match the brute power and equal image quality of the Ultra.The Radeons might be able to go to 16x Anio (Ultra only does 8x), however I'd like to see someone run everything maxed on that card and still get playable framerates in FS9. With the Ultra, everything in FS9 is maxed for me (even weather and clouds, mipmap set at 8), and the lowest FPS my sim ever goes is 12fps...which is extreme weather and traffic conditions. That's running the sim in 32bit mode at 1280x960 res. Until PCI Express cards come out next year (which will make today's cards seem slow), I'd say the Ultra is still the one to beat. And that isnt coming from someone who prefers Nvidia over Ati. I like both equally and continue to buy products made from both companies.Just my 2MikeP4 2.4C @3.44 285FSBAsus P4C800 Deluxe1gb Corsair XMS PC3500 Asus V9950 FX5900 Ultra 256mb 500/950SB Audigy2 Platinum ExWatercooled baby!!!Pics: http://community.webshots.com/user/chksix2002

Thank you Mark, Gosta and Mike for your input. As of now, if I go with the plasma display option, the damages are coming in the region of $6000. That is why I am also interested in seeing the possibility of using the Bug-Eye display, if I can get some feedback from a first hand user.Regards,Aarmin:-wave