Hey All,I'm looking at upgrading my PIII computer to better handle FS9. Will do it piece by piece.For now I will use my existing:Maxtor 60 gig 7200 drive.RW/DVD driveATI 7500 64MB (next upgrade will be something with 128MB)Right now I plan on upgrading my MoBo, Processor, RAM and OS.Processor will be Athlon64 3000+ Boxed, Venice core- seems to be the best value- significant $ jump to faster CPUs (at least $75 Can to a 3200+)RAM 1 gig Probably 400DDR (maybe 333) Any recommendations?OS either XP home or pro haven't decided.MoBoMotherboards is where I'm really stuck and could use some help. Which chipset? which features? which MoBo?Right now I'm considering either:1) Asus A8V-E Deluxe VIA K8T890 PCI-Express w/Audio, FireWire, Gigabit LAN, WiFi, SATA-RAID, Dual DDR400 (Socket 939)or2) DFI LanParty UT nForce4 Ultra-D, Dual Gigabit LAN, SATA-RAID, Firewire, DDR400 (Socket 939)I'm really looking for a motherboard I can upgrade the processor in at least once before it's obsolete.These boards seem to be a good value at $175.00 Can (about $140 US). DFI is $0.95 higher. I've actually seen the ASUS board for up to $15.00 US cheaper if I were to order from the US. Of course it takes longer to get it then. As I understand it DFI boards are for tweakers while ASUS boards provide much more limited tweaking but are easier to set up.Are there any other boards in about this price range or cheaper that I should look at? Is SLI worth another $12 US (ASUS board)?Appreciate any help!Thanks an Take Care! -Ed-

"Processor will be Athlon64 3000+ Boxed, Venice core- seems to be the best value- significant $ jump to faster CPUs (at least $75 Can to a 3200+)"That'll work just fine."RAM 1 gig Probably 400DDR (maybe 333) Any recommendations?"The hot ticket today is memory that uses Samsung TCCD or TCC5 modules. They overclock very well (TCCD possibly a bit better than TCC5) and do so at low voltages (which means less heat). Get PC3200 (200Mhz) not PC2700 (333)."OS either XP home or pro haven't decided."Home version will work unless you have need to set-up an extensive network."ATI 7500 64MB (next upgrade will be something with 128MB)"With regards to the two motherboards you mentioned (and performance) your present video card presents a couple of problems. 1)If it's an AGP card it won't work in either board you suggested... they are both PCIe based boards. If it's a PCI card (not AGP) then you'll have no choice but to install it in one of the board's standard PCI slots... thereby cutting it's bandwidth capabilities (and it ain't got alot) in half. 2)Even if you could install it into an AGP/939 based board it would really hold back the rest of your system.If you can't afford a high perf video card at this time, and your 7500 is AGP then you should consider a motherboard like the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum. It is a 939 board with an AGP slot. It performs very well. But upgrade the video card as soon as possible.SLI does nothing for MSFS, and we don't know if it will benefit the next version. Unless you play other games that can utilize SLI it would be a waste of (alot) of money.Hope this helps,Greg

Hey All,Thank You for the reply Greg. Yeah your right about the video card. The one I have is PCI not AGP so I can use it. I realize that it is a bottleneck but it is a bottleneck I can pretty easily resolve once I decide on a video card (probably an ATI PCIe card as they tend to be my video card of choice). As I indicated motherboards are what I'm confused about. There is a huge number of brands and features. I guess the issue is how do you pick a motherboard that you will be able to upgrade at least once (better cpu) before it's obsolete? As this is intended as a general use family computer with some emphasis on gaming. I am leaning toward the nforce4 chipset without SLI in a 939 socket board. SLI may or may not ever catch on so I think I'll avoid it for now as you suggest. I will take a look at the MSI stuff. A question for you - was the DFI board hard to set up? The overclocking potential is interesting.Thanks! Take Care! -Ed-