Its my turn to spend some cash on a new rig, hopefully 100% tuned for Flightsimming ;)Not sure if I made a bummer incl the Barracuda 7200rpm instead of the 10000rpm, tough kinda out of me money league at the mo ...----Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, nForce4 SLI, Socket -939,S-ATA,Dual-GbLAN,Firewire,PCI-Ex16AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4 GHz Socket 939, 512KB cacheCorsair TWINX2048-3200 DDR-DIMM 2048MB 3200 DIMMsSeagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB S-ATA 8MB cache 7200RPM NCQGainward GeForce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express,"Ultra/2400PCX",2xDVI,Retail----These are the most important pieces to talk about, its kinda late to ask for tips since its kinda already on order, but anyway :)FS2004 should be OK..?

Should work fine, but I wouldent waste any money on SLI Technoligy. Not many games/apps support it (Only 15 so far)..1 PCI-E 6800GT or U will work awseome. you'll love it :>

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v725/Racalac/siggy.gif[bold]Specs: (New Rig!)AMD 64 4000+Gigabyte GA-K8N SNXP9391.5 GB Samsung DDR400ATI X800Pro->XT2x WD 74 RaptorsWindows XP Pro SP2

>>FS2004 should be OK..?Ok, but with SLI you actually get a slight degredation in performance in FS2004. I forgot which site published those benchmarks.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2

I'd go with ati cuz they work better with DX games, but thats just me...Also i wouldent waste your money on high speed drives, as they dont do much for you for performance (Atleast I dont notice a diff between my 2 raptors vs 2 WD 160gb 7200 rpm drives, only thing thats quicker is if your moving files)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v725/Racalac/siggy.gif[bold]Specs: (New Rig!)AMD 64 4000+Gigabyte GA-K8N SNXP9391.5 GB Samsung DDR400ATI X800Pro->XT2x WD 74 RaptorsWindows XP Pro SP2

Thomas,we should be able to make some interesting comparisons you and me since I recently ordered a quite similar system but with an ATI video card.I ordered:Mobo:Asus A8N-SLI, nVidia nForce4 SLI, A64/FX ATXProcessor:AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4G/1.0GHz s939Hard drive:Seagate Barracuda SerialATA 7200.8 250.0GBRAM: Mushkin Dual Pack, 512+512MB Black Special V2 PC3200 400MHz DDR-RAMVideocard: Club-3D/ATI Radeon X850XT 256M tv PCI-EMy current setup is a PIV 3,06, 1 GB PC2700 RAM, Samsung Spinpoint P80 and a Hercules Radeon 9800 Pro. It works nicely in racing games and 3d-shooters but once I throw in some Ultimate Traffic and try any World Airports 2 airport in MSFS2k4 it becomes soooo slow.

This new rig is tha rock! ;)Seldom do the FPS drop below 20 whatsoever scenario (Simflyers of course)..I use FS2004 + ActiveSky + FS Sky World and its a joy to finally be able to fly smooth 99% of the time!

Hi,I heard that AMD Athlon 3500's are better than the 3800 ????Can anyone confirm this ?Regards,Ralf..>This new rig is tha rock! ;)>>Seldom do the FPS drop below 20 whatsoever scenario (Simflyers>of course)..>>I use FS2004 + ActiveSky + FS Sky World and its a joy to>finally be able to fly smooth 99% of the time!

My rig = almost never below 40, *never* below 20, and tested Simflyers, they can kill the sim to below 20 with clouds and heavy weather.

Hi Ralf, I don't think many folks have been able to compare those CPUs you mention one on one. However and as far as I could judge, there seems to be a common understanding that FS will do a little bit better with an AMD64 CPU right now. One advantage of AMD's 64-er definiteley is that they run cooler and use less energy. P4s have advantages on the video editing side etc. I'ld say, just make sure you get a decent mainboard chipset for whatever CPU you get. Good luck and kind regards Jaap

Thanks Jaap,Actually I got myself an AMD 3500+ (64Bit) and a Sapphire X850XT Radeon card with 1 Gig Corsair 3200XL memory + 2 x Western Digital 200 GIG SATA HDD's running on a Gigabyte SLI (K8 Triton) motherboard.I have the system almost up and running and can't wait to finish backing up this system and running flightsim on the new one.;-)Ralf

I am also setting up my new FS machine, here it goes...Asus A8V-E Deluxe (939)AMD 64 3800+Kingston 1GB (DDR400 512 x2)Lian Li caseEnermax 485w PSXFX GeForce 6800 Ultra 256 mb AGPPlextor PX-716A DVD writerWestern Digital 250GB SATA RAID 7200RPM 8mb$1,579.12 from mwave.com Comments?

Hi Ralf, that looks great! I wish you heaps of fun with your new FlyTendo. Good luck and kind regards Jaap

Hi, perhaps go for a nForce mainboard and not the A8V? The reason I say this is the relatively poor VT8237 Southbridge. Another idea is to maybe go for a 6800GT instead of an Ultra (which runs pretty warm). IMHO, do not try to specify the RAM yourself if you aren't certain and haven't carefully verified compatibility, perhaps leave this to the supplier of the hardware. Maybe they even advise something less expensive? Perhaps the savings are enough to pay for an AMD64-4000? Good luck and kind regards Jaap

A great drive for the money is the Maxtor 300GB 16MB cache

I wanted to stay away from the SLI. If the next version of Flight Simulator supports SLI, then I can justify the additional cost of the motherboard and video card. I did think about the swap from 6800 Ultra to GT, but the cost difference does not add up to the AMD 4000+ upgrade. I did have the full listing from ASUS in regards to the memory, I got that spec from them. Thank you for your imput!