hello everybodyi am looking into buying a new system, mainly for flightsimming.what do you think about it, and what is good, what is bad about thisMainboard Abit AN8-SLI nForce4-SLI CPU Athlon64 @4800+ SanDiego 1MB Cache 1024MB DUAL-Channel DDR400MHz (can be changed to 2048MB)graphic card would be either one or two Geforce nVidia 7800 GT 512MB GDDR3 Retail PCI-E please help me finding out if this makes a good flightsim system.thanks a lotMarc

In all thats a nice system, and should run fs just fine. Just one thing if you do decide to get 2GB ram, be sure to get 2X1GB, and NOT 4x512MB. that way you'll avoid running at the slower 2T timings. Oh yeah add to that a nice RAID0 setup and your be "flying" ;)

Any advantages to RAID if you don't need the capacity? I mean, one 150MB drive would probably do it... right?---Will

Even if you dont need the capacity. The advantage with RAID is access speed. RAID in most applications is faster than one single drive.

Get a good power supply at least 500Watt and a good brand one too like Antec

Excellent setup there! I have one addition to the good advise the others have given you:FS2004 cannot handle SLI, so getting 2 videocards is wasted money. This means you won't need that SLI motherboard either. Instead, spend that money on an even better videocard like a 7800GTX or 7900GTX.Cheers!

i recently upgraded my system with:ASUS A8N-SLI SE motherboard, AMD Athlon 3800 X2, 1 Gig RAM DDR400 and an ASUS 7900GT graphics card .. frames never get below 10 with heavy AI traffic and scenery, mostly frames are around 25-30 (locked at 30) with no visible stutters .. very happy about it

Nice setup! Like I said in another topic here, the X2 is a good chip and combined with a 7900GT videocard it's great.Personally I'm not going with a dual core chip yet: AMD is too expensive, Intel Core Duo and 8xx/9xx series just plain suck unless you overclock them. Besides, there's no software out there yet that can take full advantage of dual core chips.Here's the setup that I'm going to get in the next two weeks:AMD 64 3700+ San Diego with Arctic Freezer 64 Pro coolerAsus A8N-E nForce4 ultraKingston hyperX dual channel CL2 1Gig memClub3D GeForce 7600GT 256MBI'm upgrading from an Intel P4 2,8 with 512MB mem and 64MB ATI Radeon videocard so it's a HUGE step up. I'm not going all out with either processor or videocard: I'm saving my money for a supersystem by the time Vista and FS-X are stable, and dual core chips like Intel Conroe have proven themselves.Anyway, I hope the topic starter has enough info now to make a decision. Good luck!