Hi folks,I'm beginning to order new hardware for my new pc and I've decided on the following pieces of hardware:XFX GeForce 7950 GT Xtreme 512MB PCIe w/Dual DVI graphics card.AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 San Diego 2.8GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor.CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory.DFI NF4 Ultra Infinity Audio/GB-LAN/IEEE-1394/PCI-E/SATA3G/DDR/ATX 64 939 motherboard.2 WD Caviar SE16 250GB SATA 300MB/s 16MB cache 7200RPM hard drives.How do think this will run FS9 and/or FSX?Thanks in advance.

Personally, I would go for a Core 2 Duo system, which you can build for less money than the system you've described above. The E6600 processor sells for under $315 and benchmarks significantly faster than the FX-57. With a modest overclock, it even outpaces the FX-62 for less than half the price. (And the E6600 is a decent overclocker.) Another excellent hard drive to consider is the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 3.0 Gb/s SATA. The 320GB version is under $95. (There's a also a 250GB version for around $80.) You can find some good "Buyer's Guide" recommendations for complete systems at anandtech.com and sharkyextreme.com. Anandtech recommends the following motherboard as a good match for the E6600 CPU: MSI 975X Platinum V.2 "PowerUp" MS-7246-020 - Intel 975X 775. Be sure to get the Version 2 model. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I'll take a look.

Yeah, stay away from those 16MB WD drives - high seek times - no good... ;-) Kind regards Jaap